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

The verse that I want to focus on there in 2 Peter was in verse 7 where the Bible read, And delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked, for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. And the title of my sermon tonight is The Legacy of Lot. The Legacy of Lot. Now 2 Peter chapter 2 is just a classic chapter on false prophets, on false teachers, on some of the most wicked people to ever walk on the face of the earth. And in the midst of this chapter, we see one saved person, we see Lot, just in the midst of this chapter. And I mean that's not really the legacy that you want. I mean if you're going to get a mention in the Bible, you probably don't want to be in the middle of 2 Peter chapter number 2. I mean that's not the kind of legacy you want, that's not the kind of name that you want to leave for yourself. That's not how you want people to remember you. We see Lot, he's really not a good example in any way. He's like the perfect bad example. I mean there's almost nothing that you could ever look at Lot in his life and say this was a good thing he did or here's a really good thing that he accomplished or here's the great things that he did. Obviously I believe he's saved because if we look here in verse 7 it says and delivered just Lot. And I don't think that means meaning only him because obviously his daughters were also delivered, right? I think it's referring to the fact that he was a saved man because when you look in verse 8 it says for that righteous man dwelling among them. The only way for him to be righteous is if he's been saved, if he's believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and God's giving him righteousness by faith like his uncle Abraham. Abraham was a righteous man by faith, not by the deeds of the law. But let's go to Genesis chapter 11 if you would. I looked up the word legacy in the dictionary, it says legacy is a gift by will especially of money or other personal property. Or another definition is something transmitted by or received from an ancestor or predecessor or from the past. So when you think about legacy it's usually something that's going on beyond your life. Whenever you pass on it's something that's being carried on into the future. Maybe by your descendants, maybe by other people. People can look to your legacy. What did you leave behind? Obviously you can't take anything with you and go to heaven. The Bible says in Proverbs 13, 22, a good man leaveth an inheritance to his children's children and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just. You're going to leave things behind on this world. Now the Bible makes a strong admonition that the rich, they're laying up treasures on this earth that are just going to be consumed by somebody else. I mean they're not going to be able to enjoy those in eternity past. But the righteous man, a good man, he leaves an inheritance to his children's children. And I think that applies in a lot of different ways. It could be with physical possessions, but more importantly it could be with spiritual things. Like a good heritage as far as having been taking them to church your whole life, raising him in the nurture and admonition of the Lord. Giving him that inheritance that hey, they've always been in church, they've always known the Bible. We see with Timothy he's given accolades that his grandmother and his mother continually taught in the Bible. He was able to know the scriptures at a young age, they were able to make him wise in the salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. Alright look at Genesis chapter 11 verse 27, we're going to kind of get a timeline of Lot's life. It says in verse 27, now these are the generations of Terah, Terah begat Abram, Namor, and Haran, and Haran begat Lot. Now Terah was Abram's father, or Abraham as we know him later in the Bible. But Abram had two brothers and one of his brothers had a son named Lot. So we see this as his nephew, this is Abram's nephew Lot. Go to Genesis chapter 12 verse 1, it says, Now the Lord had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house into a land that I will shew thee. And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great, and thou shalt be a blessing. And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse them that curseth thee, and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken unto him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran. Now Abram's given this, you know, commission by God to leave his father's house, to leave the land that he grew up in, and we see Lot goes with him. Lot wants to cleave unto his uncle, he wants to cleave unto Abram and go with him. Go to verse 8. It says that he removed from Thinsun to a mountain on the east of Bethel, and pitched his tent having Bethel on the west and Haai on the east, and there he builded an altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord. Now this is where, you know, you would say Abraham got saved because he called upon the name of the Lord. And it doesn't, there's no direct verse that says Lot got saved, like there's not a verse that says that Lot called upon the name of the Lord or had faith in the Lord, and we see exactly when he got saved. But just making common sense of the fact that he's not going to get saved later in Sodom and Gomorrah, he's not going to get saved at that point, and he's already saved according to 2 Peter because he was delivered from that time when he was just or when he was righteous. So it must have been before then. I think it's, you know, a good idea to believe that he probably, when Abraham's getting saved, when Abraham's calling on the name of the Lord, when Abraham's getting saved, that might have been when he instructed Lot as how to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, how to call upon the name of the Lord, how to have faith in the Lord and to be saved. The Bible says, go to Genesis 13, I'll read for you from Galatians 3. It says, for as many as are the works of the law are under the curse, for it is written, cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them, but that no man is justified by the law on the side of God, it is evident, for the just shall live by faith and the law is not of faith, but the man that doeth them shall live in them. So he says a just man does what? He lives by faith. And isn't that what's saying to Abraham, isn't that what saves us all, isn't that he gets saved just by faith? So if that's, if Lot is called just in 2 Peter by the Holy Ghost, I'm guessing this man must live by faith. He must have called upon the name of the Lord, I can't, you know, we can't pinpoint exactly what time that was in the Bible, but I'm assuming it's probably either at the same time Abraham did or shortly afterward, when you kind of read through the timeline. But we know that he's saved before he goes to Sodom. It wasn't that he got saved later in Sodom or something else. It was before that he must have called on the name of the Lord by faith. Look at Genesis chapter 13 verse 1, and Abraham went up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had and Lot with him into the south. And Abraham was very rich in cattle and silver and gold, and he went on his journeys from the south even unto Bethel, unto the place where his tent had been at the beginning between Bethel and Ai, unto the place of the altar which he had made there at the first. And there Abraham called on the name of the Lord. So again, let's look at verse 5, it says, and Lot also which went with Abraham had flocks and herds and tents. Go to verse 7, 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 dwelled then in the land. And Abraham said unto Lot, Let there be no strife, I pray thee, between me and thee and between my herdmen and thy herdmen, for we be brethren. 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, I will go to the left. 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 Zor. Then Lot chose them all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram 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 I kind of read that so we get the idea, we're getting Lot's time left. So he's there with Abram, then he leaves his father's house, he travels with Abram, then we see they become rich over time. And they have all this cattle, they have all these herds, but the land's, you know, not big enough for them to dwell together. So Abram says, look, you need to leave, you know, from where I'm at, but I'm going to let you pick wherever you want to go. I mean, Lot, you get to pick anywhere that you possibly want to go, and I'll just go to the next place. So he's given them, you know, the pick of the litter, and we see the first sin of Lot. So I have nine points tonight, we see the first thing of the legacy of Lot is that he desired sin. When he gets to pick anywhere that he can possibly go, when he gets to decide where he wants to, you know, live, where he wants to pitch his tent, we see what? In verse 12, he pitched his tent towards Sodom, and it says, but the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly. You know, in this life, God gives you free will. God lets you eat up beneath the tree of the garden, except the one in the midst, right, of the knowledge of the tree and good of evil. I mean, in this life, you have all kinds of things that you can possibly do. Are you going to desire that which is sinful, though? Are you going to go and pitch your tent towards Sodom? Are you going to say, hey, I want to, I want to see what all the sinners are doing. I want to see what the world's doing. I want to keep my eyes on them. We see that he's desiring the well-watered land. Hey, this is where, you know, it looks really lush over here where all these sinners are. I'm going to look towards that way. The Bible says in James chapter 1 verse 15, but every man is tempted when he is drawn away of his own lust and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin, and sin when it is finished bringeth forth death. We shouldn't let Lot off the hook there. I mean, he's desiring to go towards this place. Why? Because he's lusting after it. Because he's desiring the sin. He's desiring this land, even though it's filled with wicked sinners and they're doing all kinds of abominations. Let's keep going in our story. Go to Genesis chapter 14, look at verse 8. And there went out the king of Sodom, the king of Gomorrah, and the king of Abba, and the king of Zeboam, and the king of Bela, the same as Zor. And they joined battle with them in the veil of Sidom, with Shaddolah, the king of Elam, and with Tidal, king of nations, and Amrathil, king of Shinar, and Ariot, king of Eleazar. Four kings with fives, and the veil of Sidom was full of slime bits, and the king of Sodom and Gomorrah fled, and fell there, and they that remained fled to the mountain. And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their vittles, and went their way. And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom and his goods, and departed. So when you're reading this story, you're like, who cares about all these other kings and what's going on in Sodom? But then it tags on in verse 12, and they took Lot. So now all of a sudden Lot's not just looking towards Sodom, he's living in Sodom. And that's always what sin's going to do. When you desire the sin, oh, I'm just looking afar off. I'm just going to pay attention to what they're, I'm not going to sin. I'm not going to partake in their, you know, evil and wicked deeds. But then when you get your eye on it, when you start thinking about it, when you start having the imaginations, guess what's going to happen? Before you know it, you're going to be out there. I mean, it's like when I was younger, and my mom took me to Galveston one time. I had never experienced this, I was really young, I was like five years old. But I went and I stood, you know, in the ocean. I was standing in the ocean water, and I was only like 10 feet in or something, you know, not very far. And I mean, in just a matter of minutes, all of a sudden I look back, and now I'm like 40 feet away from the shore. And I was like, what happened? It's because the tide will keep coming in and it'll draw you out. That's how sin is. You say, well, I'm just going to look from afar. And then all of a sudden you just start inching closer and closer and closer. Before you know, sin's taking you captive. And now you're in over your head. Now a lot's being captured by these other kings. Now he's in big trouble. So we see the second sin of him is he's surrounded by bad company. If you're surrounded by bad company, bad things will happen to you. The Bible says, be not deceived, evil communications corrupt good manners. We shouldn't even look at the wicked sinners. We shouldn't even desire sin. We shouldn't even desire to be with those kind of people. And then if you surround yourself with them, guess what? Trouble will come. We see with law, trouble came. He was taken captive by these people. Now he has no idea what's going to happen. Taken slave by all these kings, all kinds of wicked and evil things can happen to him. Let's look at verse 16 though. And he brought back all the goods and also brought again his brother-in-law and his goods and the women also and the people. So he was delivered by Abram in the story. He was somehow delivered by Abram. God gave him the victory and gave him back the people. Look at verse 21, and the king of Sodom said unto Abram, give me the persons and 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 the thread even to a shoe-latchet. And that will I not take anything that is thine, lest thou shouldst say I have made Abram rich. So you say, well what's happening here? We see when law, even though he designed, he kind of just looked towards Sodom. Then all of a sudden he's living in Sodom. Now troubles come and even when it seems like there's some type of deliverance, what happens? The king of Sodom says, I want the people and that's how Satan is. That's how sin is. It wants to keep you in bondage. It wants to keep you, you know, captured. You go to these non-denominational ecumenical churches and they say, you know, you just got to even pray and be delivered from your sin. You got to repent of your sins and you know what happens? People will feel guilty for a moment and they'll walk out of the church and they'll clean their act up for a week or two weeks and then what happens? It comes right back on and they're still in that bondage of sin because they're just lying to these people. They're lying to them about how to get the sin out of their life. You say, how are they lying to them? Because the only way you're going to stop the iniquity and the sin in your life is to flee out of the city. Flee out of the city of Sodom. Flee out of your sin. Don't surround yourself with it. The alcoholic can't go sit in the bar and continue to not be an alcoholic. He's going to be an alcoholic. The person that, you know, surrounds himself with all kinds of wicked images, surrounds himself with all of the sin and iniquity that he has. He's just going to continue to fall into that sin over and over and over. We aren't strong enough in our willpower and in our, you know, our might to just overcome sin. If we just surround ourselves in the city of Sodom, if we're surrounded with a bad company, sin will overtake your life. If you want to get the sin out of your life, you have to forsake all appearance of evil. That's a verse that all the modern versions corrupt. They say like, you know, beware of evil or, or get away from evil. It's like, no abstain from all appearance of evil, even though Lot was just far away and he was just looking at Sodom. That was where the iniquity started. That's where his sin began. That's where the lust began. And when they bring it forth, they bring it forth death is what the Bible says. So if you struggle in some area, and you know, you know it better than I do, but if you struggle with alcohol, if you struggle with drugs, if you struggle with anything in your life, lying, stealing, all these type of things, you have to completely abstain from that. You have to completely get away from that. I remember somebody told me that they were living in fornication and then they heard hard preaching against fornication and fornication is when you go to bed together with someone you're not married. And they said, well, we heard the hard preaching, so we decided that we wouldn't commit fornication anymore, but we were still going to live together. I mean, and the person tells me, they like, they say, well, we didn't commit fornication until we got married for a year later. I was like, I don't believe that for one second. I mean, you can't sit in the city of Sodom and surround yourself with that kind of temptation and not give in. Maybe there's this rare one exception person, but I don't believe it. If you surround yourself with your sin, if you surround yourself with your inequity, you will fall. You can't just dance around with, you can't just take hot bosoms under your, you know, under your, you can't take cock holes under your bosom and not get burned, is what the Bible says, right? I mean, if you're going to mess around with sin, you're going to fall. The way to abstain from sin, the way to get it out of your life is just to abstain from it completely. That's why the Bible says flee fornication. It doesn't say, well, just try really hard or, you know, don't look at each other that way. I remember my wife read me some article, it was this just stupid article about a married couple that believed that they shouldn't have relations, which is wicked because the Bible does not teach that at all. So this guy said anytime they had the desire, he would try to eat a raw potato to get rid of the desire. Look, that's not how you're going to get rid of your sin. You can't get rid of it with, you know, all the gimmicks and all the things of this world. I don't care what you do to that guy, that alcoholic, if you take him into the bar just day in, day out, he's going to be an alcoholic again. You can't, if you want to get rid of your sin, you have to flee from it. But that's not what they teach in these churches. They say, oh, come down the aisle and pray and scream and yell and feel real sorry and then all of a sudden you won't sin anymore. That's just a lie. If you want to not sin, you have to get it out of your life completely. You have to have nothing to do with it. You have to not surround yourself with it. You have to get into the light. You see, what happened with, with, with, with Locke? Sin wanted to keep him in bondage. He wanted to keep him in Sodom and it did. Let's look at Genesis 18. The Bible says, I'll read for you one of the verses, says, if thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? And if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door and unto thee shall be his desire and thou shalt rule over him. We can rule over sin. But guess what? You're not going to rule over him in his territory, in his backyard. You need to get away from sin. You need to get around God's people and get into this Bible, you know, and not go towards the darkness. Flee fornication. Flee from all wickedness. Abstain from all appearance of evil. That's how you can have, you know, victory over sin in your life. Obviously, it's only through the Lord Jesus Christ, but I'm saying practically speaking, if you really want to get the sin out of your life, you just have to abstain from it completely. In Genesis 18 verse 20, it says, and the Lord said, because of the cry of Sodom, Gomorrah is great. And because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry, which has come unto me, and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thins and went towards Sodom, but Abram stood yet before the Lord. And Abram drew near and said, wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? And Abram's like, you're going to destroy this entire city? You know, what about all the righteous people living there? And we have the famous story where Abram, you know, is kind of trying to negotiate with the Lord, trying to say, hey, how about 50 guys? How about 45 or 40 or 30 or 20? I mean, he whittles them all the way down to 10. Look at verse 32. And he said, O Lord, not, O let not the Lord be angry. I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure 10 shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for 10's sake. And the Lord went his way. And as soon as he had left communion with Abraham, and Abraham returned unto his place. So we see Sodom was a very wicked place. I mean, there wasn't even 10 righteous people in this entire city. Look at Genesis chapter 19 verse 1. And there came two angels to Sodom and 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 toward the ground. And he said, Behold, now my Lord's turned in, I pray you, into your servant's house in Tyre 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 unto him, and he entered into the house, and he made them feast, and did beg and let it bread, and they did eat. But before they laid down the men of the city, even the men of Sodom can pass the house round to both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto 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 Lot went out of the door unto them, and 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 men. Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as it is good in your eyes. Only unto these men do nothing, for therefore came they unto the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This fellow came into sojourn, and he will needs be a judge. Now will we deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. Now what a horrible story in the Bible. There's some stories in the Bible that are super rough. We see so many things in this chapter, I'm not going to be able to cover it all. But it says all the people from every quarter, all the people came around the house to do what? To force these two angels. They wanted to do wickedly with these two angels and with Lot. You know the only thing you could possibly say that Lot did good in his life was the fact that he tried to bring the angels into his house initially, right? Maybe you could say that was a good thing. But then even whenever he's surrounded with these people, it's hard for me to say that it was really good. Because he says, you know, he just immediately offers his daughters unto these men. I mean, what kind of man wants to just offer his daughters up unto all these people to just be destroyed? And he didn't have to do that. I mean, he could have just said, No, like, I'm not going to give you the men. I wouldn't necessarily just say, Hey, you can have my daughters instead. I mean, that's a horrible thing for a parent to do, right? But we see that in this portion, one of the sins of Lot is that he was way too tolerant in his life. You say, how do you say he was tolerant? Well, look at this verse nine. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came into sojourn and he will need be a judge. So it's interesting that the Minnesota, they say, Whoa, what are you doing, buddy? You trying to judge us now all of a sudden? So he hadn't been judging. I mean, they wouldn't be saying this if he was constantly judging them. They'd have been like, Oh, this guy's always judging us. This guy always gives us an evil report. This guy's always testifying of our wickedness. They're kind of shocked all of a sudden that Lot's now going to finally open his mouth. He's going to finally try and protect somebody. They're like, What are you doing judging us, buddy? And if you study the timeline, I mean, he's been in Sodom for years. I mean, he's not been there for a couple of days. This is in a few weeks. He's been there for years. And now all of a sudden he's going to judge. Think about all the people that have had horrible, wicked things that have happened to him that he saw. That's why he's telling these guys, Look, you better come into my house. I know what's going to happen. Please come into my house. But how many people just continually were forced and brutally, savagely taken advantage of and all kinds of wicked things. I mean, they said the entire city surrounded his house. We know in his Bible said that the Lord went to see the cry, to hear the cry. If it had been as bad as it really was, we see that law was way too tolerant of the sin of that place. He should have gotten out there a long time ago. He should have realized what's going on. The Bible says in Psalms 101, I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes. I hate the work of them that turn aside. It shall not cleave to me, a froward heart shall depart from me. I will not know a wicked person. I don't think it's right. This is my opinion. I don't think it's right for you to just find the most wicked city in America, find the most wicked neighborhood in America and you just live there and raise your family there and just surround yourself with all kinds of wickedness and evil. The Bible doesn't tell us to ever do anything like that as far as a clear command. Oh, just find the most wicked, reprobate people and just live amongst them and never say anything and just, you know, they're your neighbors. I mean, that is not a good way to raise your family. Obviously, if you live in a big city, I mean, and you're surrounded by unsaved people, okay. I mean, the Bible says that we're not supposed to be taken out of the world away from all the fornicators and everybody, but I don't believe that you should just find the most wicked place on this earth and just surround yourself with these people. The Bible says, 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 the seat shall not dwell within my house. He that telleth lies shall not tarry in my sight. I will early destroy all the wicked of the land, that I may cut off all the wicked doers from the city of the Lord. So we see the legacy of God is what? He's surrounding himself with the worst filth. I mean, he's just taking complete captive by sin. He's so tolerant of this sin because he's not even willing to judge in many cases before. And we can just, by the story and the inference and what the Lord's already told us, tell there was a lot of wicked stuff that's gone down in the city that he did not judge, that he was not willing to take a stand for the righteous. The Bible says, To him that knoweth to do good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin. I mean, you just see all these wicked awful things happening over and over. And you know, that's what Christians are like today. They say, Oh, you got to love your neighbor as yourself. So they just let all this wicked stuff happen every day in our country. And they never say anything. They never stand against it. There's not this one giant voice of all the Christians and Americans just roaring against the men, roaring against the filth of this world, roaring against abortion, roaring against all the horrible wickedness and the sodomy. I mean, we're not roaring against that kind of stuff in this country. You can hardly find a Christian that'll even say it's a sin, let alone that they'll stand against it. We see Lot was way too tolerant. He was tolerant of wickedness and sin. Let's keep going in Genesis chapter 19, look at verse 10. But the men put forth their hand and pulled Lot into the house of them and shut them to the door. And they smoke the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great so that they wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides, son-in-law, and 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 wax and 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, Ah, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. Now there's a lot of things in this chapter that you can even draw from just this one verse. But it's interesting, he goes to speak to his sons-in-law. So if he has a son-in-law, that means they're married to what? His daughter. So think about this, Lot married his two daughters to two sodomites. Talk about a good parent. I mean, can you imagine letting your daughter marry a sodomite? And we see that the sodomite, just like Romans 1 tells us what, they've left the natural use of the woman. Because where are the women? They're in his house. They're not with their husbands. Then he has to go out and find these men. And these men, you know, as he tries to get them saved, what do they do? He seems one that mocks. Isn't that always the truth? You go out soul-winning and you try and run into one of these reprobates and you try and give them the gospel and they're like, they just laugh it off, they think it's a joke, they don't want to hear it. You know, I remember when I talked with some of my family and I said I didn't believe sodomites could be saved and they were just, they were in a huff, they were all kinds of mad. They're like, you go out soul-winning and you don't give them the gospel? And I said, look, I give every single person the gospel that wants to hear it. Period. And once they want to hear the gospel, I'll give them the gospel. But you know, it's never happened. I've never had a sodomite want to hear the gospel and get saved. Never. And I've run into them plenty of times. I mean, even at two or three percent, I mean, if you talk to a thousand people, that's twenty or thirty. And you know, in a big city, it's probably a lot higher percentage than that. It could be, you know, five, ten percent. I mean, you run, I run into plenty of people that tell me, hey, you know, I'm a homo or I'm, you know, I'm a faggot or whatever they want to say. And I say, do you want to hear the gospel? Not at all. Get away. You don't want me in your church. That's what they're telling me. And I'm like, you're right. See you later. I don't want to. You're not welcome. But you know, I, I, I'm not withholding the gospel from anybody. I've never had somebody say, will you please give me the gospel? And I didn't give it to them. But you know what? It just confirms Romans one over and over when you go out and you run into them and you say, hey, you want to hear the gospel? And they swear at you and they curse and they gnash their teeth and they hate you. Or they just think it's funny. I've had a guy, you know, sit there and he was just laughing. Everything that I said, it was just like I was telling him just the most hilarious joke. And then later he goes, yeah, I'm a sodomite. And I was like, shocker, shocker that this guy just thinks everything of going to heaven and hell is just laughing. Yeah, I'm going to heaven. No, he's going to burn in hell for all of eternity. And we see, hey, you can go out and try and get all the sodomites saved that you want. But guess what? You're never going to get them. That's the only soul when you see Lot do. He tries to get the reprobate saved. What a worthless strategy. But what a horrible parent to let your daughters get married under the sodomites. I mean, can you imagine being in this wicked city and you're letting your daughters get married under these men? The Bible says in Genesis 2 verse 24, therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh. The wife is supposed to leave the father and be joined unto her husband. Guess what? I'm not going to let my daughter marry some sodomite. She's not going to walk out of my house marrying some sodomite with my wishes or, you know, she's definitely not going to come back and stay at my house. I mean, she wants to go out and do that kind of a wicked thing. The Bible says in Proverbs 22, 6, train up a child in the way he should go and when he is old, he will not depart from it. If God was teaching them that God's commandments is teaching them God's word and they were saved, they wouldn't even want to marry that kind of a filthy person. They wouldn't have wanted to get married to these type of people. You know, in the Old Testament, it was a lot more of the father's, you know, responsibility and even role to give his daughter in marriage. You see, a lot of times you had to go to the father, you had to give him money, you had to pay some kind of a dowry for him to even let you have his daughter in marriage. And you know, we've gotten away from that so much that daughters, you know, they just go off to college, they just go live with some friends, some apartment, and then they just get married to some yahoos, whoever they want. That's not God's program. And if you want to go down like a lot as being one of the worst parents ever, then just let your daughters marry whoever they want. Don't even have any say, don't teach them the Bible, don't teach them what kind of man they should look for, just let them marry just the most wicked people. And you know, sometimes you'll let them marry somebody you didn't realize they were that wicked at first, but then they turn out to be like that. You know, I've had people in my family that they thought they were saved and they thought whatever and they got married and then later they find out they're a pedophile. Later they find out that they're doing incestual pedophilia. What a horrible thing to have your daughter married to a reprobate. What a wicked thing. You can't even just ask the guy if he's saved, because guess what, reprobates aren't saved. They're not going to give you the gospel. Why don't you just at least make sure your son-in-law is saved or your daughter-in-law is saved. Wouldn't that be a good question? Hey, I want to marry your daughter. Hey, if you were to die today, you're 100% sure you're going to have it. I mean, why not ask that question? Why not make sure this guy is not just the most wicked, evil, reprobate type of person? And obviously somebody could lie. So I mean, but I believe, look, if you're following God's commandments, if you're seeking the Lord with all your heart, he's going to lead you in the path that you should go. If you're teaching your daughters the type of men that they should be looking for, they're not just going to stumble upon reprobates, okay? We see, this is such an important thing that we should take notice. The parents have a great responsibility for their children who they're going to marry, I believe. Bible teaches that we should train them up in all kinds of ways, even what kind of spouse they should look for. Look at verse 15, and when the morning arose, then the angels hastened lot saying, arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto them. And they brought him forth and sent him without the city, and it came to pass, 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 unto them, O not so, my Lord, behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou showed unto me in saving my life. And I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die. Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. O let me escape thither, is it not a little one? And my soul shall live. And he said unto them, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken." And then we see that the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Look at verse 26, but his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. Lot wasn't even, he wasn't even just a bad parent, he apparently had a bad marriage. Even his wife, you know, she's just forsaking the Lord, she's forsaking the commandments of God, and she's just turning back to sin. She's just turning back to Sodom and Gomorrah, and she becomes a pillar of salt. The Bible says, be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellows should have righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? Now I don't think you could dogmatically say either way that Lot's wife was saved or unsaved. I personally believe that she wasn't saved from the scripture and what it's teaching us. And we see that his daughters are certainly wicked people. Where do they get that from? From both parents, probably. We need to make sure that our wife and our spouse or our husband were equally yoked together. We see Lot and his wife as not equally yoked together. She turns back. She wants to go and live in sin. And Lot's going to be saved, Lot's going to be justified, or he's going to be taken out of the city at least, right? Because he's just by his faith, not by his works or his deeds. The Bible says in Deuteronomy 7 though, in verse 3 I'll read for you, neither shalt thou make marriages with them, thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son, for they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods, so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy thee suddenly. We need to make sure that we're not marrying an unbeliever. Your life will be horrible if you marry an unbeliever and you try to serve God with all your heart. Obviously some of the luthwarm Christians, those that just want to, you know, not even follow any of the commandments, sometimes they can kind of get by because they're just so worldly, they're so carnal, but you're still going to have all kinds of other problems. You're going to have the problems of sin, you're going to have the problems that all the bondage and iniquity that sin's going to be on your life, but if you decide, hey, I'm not going to sin personally, you're still going to suffer a lot of affliction because your spouse is unsafe. You're going to suffer a lot of, you know, heartache, because your heart's wanting to serve the Lord, you're wanting to do the right thing, and your spouse isn't. It's going to cause one of the most, the worst grievances. There's been times in my marriage where either my wife, you know, wanted to do the righteous thing and I didn't, or vice versa, and for both of us, it was very difficult times in our life. Some of the most difficult times is in your marriage when you're unequally yoked together. Imagine just you and another person, you got this rope tied around your neck and you're both trying to run in separate directions. That's going to hurt, that's going to be uncomfortable, that's not going to feel good. You know what eventually happens? The weaker person gives in and just follows the other one, whether that be the wife or the husband. We see the stronger person is going to end up dragging the other one in whatever direction they want to go. So that's why it's so important that if you are going to get married, that you try your best to be equally yoked together so that you can both go in the same direction, so that you can be together. Look at verse 27, and Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked toward 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. And when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt, and Lot went up out of Zor. And he dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him, for he feared to dwell in Zor. And he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters. So now we see another sin of the wise, the fact that he has fear, and it's not of the Lord. It's not of his commandments. It's not of anything that, we don't know why he left Zor necessarily, but he has this fear. The Bible says, for God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Guess what? Going and holding up in a cave like Osama bin Laden is not what God wants for you. That's not God, that's not God, you know, what he wants you to live your life. It says in Psalms 15-4, in whose eyes a vile person is condemned, but he that honoreth them that feareth the Lord, he that sweareth to his own hurt and changeth not. God's going to honor those that fear the Lord. Not when you fear man, not when you fear your circumstances, not when you fear anything other than the Lord. The Bible says, ye that fear the Lord, trust in the Lord, he is their help and their shield. So I believe that this is a picture of Lot having misplaced fear. He has his fear in something else. We don't know exactly what it is, but he was afraid to dwell in the city. But when he asked God if he could go to that city, what did God say? He said, yes, you can go to the city. I don't believe God would tell him to go to a city that he doesn't want him to live in. So it's not that he's leaving the city because of a commandment of God or because God wants him to leave that city. No, God said it was okay for him to dwell in that city, right? And then he decides to leave for some other reason, for some other fear. And we see we shouldn't let our lives be ruled by fear, by the fear of man, by the fear of anything else. We should only fear the Lord and when we have that fear, it's going to drive us to really strange places. It's going to drive us to make strange decisions, like living in a cave by yourself with your two daughters. Not a good decision, not something I recommend for anybody. The Bible says, I wrote unto you an epistle not to company with fornicators, yet not all together with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous or extortioners with idolaters, for then you must needs go out of the world. But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if a man is called a brother, be a fornicator, a covetous or idolater, a railer, a drunkard or extortioner, with such in one known not to eat. The Bible tells us, look, you shouldn't be making, you know, buddies with all these wicked people. They shouldn't be your best friends. But you can't just escape into some cave. You can't escape in just the wilderness. You can't just escape somewhere else and never just be isolated from all other people. God doesn't want us to all move and have a commune and just isolate ourselves from all the world. No, he wants us to preach the gospel. And we see a lot, he's just going to go and hide himself. Like the guy with the talent, he hid his talent with a napkin in the earth. That's not what God wants. God didn't create you on this earth to just go hide in a cave for your whole life. Think about that. I mean, think the God of this universe, he created you to just go hide in a cave for your life. Now, there might be a time in your life where there might be time to rest, to isolate yourself, to withdraw, to be, you know, out for whatever reason. We see that with the prophets of God a lot of times, they had to flee. We even see the apostles at times had to flee onto another city. But it was for a short time. It wasn't their life. Let's look at verse thirty-one, says, and the firstborn said unto the younger, so this is why I believe, you know, his daughters were married to those reprobate sons-in-law because it says he has two daughters, it says the younger and the older, right? I mean, I'm guessing they had to be the two daughters that were married that he said, right? But it says, our father is old and there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drink wine that night and the firstborn went in and lay with their father and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose. Now we see another problem. Not only does he go to this cave by himself with his daughters, he brings alcohol, he brings booze, he brings, you know, the drink, the poison of dragons is what the Bible describes it. And alcohol is always going to cause problems in your life. It's always going to cause strife, even in the family, and it can make you do some of the most wicked things that you couldn't even imagine doing. This is not something I believe Locke could do sober. Think about that. There are sins that you would never commit sober that you will commit if you drink alcohol. If you get under the influence of drugs and alcohol, you'll commit some of those heinous and wicked sins possible. It's possible for that to happen. Look at verse 32, come let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we preserve seed of our father. Look at the last verse of 33, and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose. Alcohol can affect you so much that you don't even know what's going on. You don't even realize what's happening. He commits incest and in a way pedophilia with his own family by drinking alcohol. Is that what you want? Is that the legacy you want? Hey, here's the guy who knocked up his daughter. Is that the kind of name you want in the town? Well, go ahead and drink some booze, drink some butt dumber, drink your alcohol, drink your Jack Daniels so you can knock up your daughter. What a horrible, wicked thing. But we see that's the legacy that Locke gets. That's what he gets for bringing the alcohol into his home, bringing it in with him with his kids. You know, I've heard this really stupid idea from parents saying, you know, I really struggle with alcohol because my parents always, you know, were really against it and they never taught me anything about it. So I figured I'm going to help my kids and I'm going to have, I'm always going to drink around them and I'm going to see how, I'm going to show them how somebody can drink, you know, with control and I'll give them a little bit when they're older and I'll teach them how to, you know, keep it under control. What a horrible, stupid idea. That's how you end up like Locke with some kind of a wicked, horrible situation where your kids go and they commit fornication, they go in line, they get knocked up, maybe not by you or by some other stranger, or they go out and they kill themselves or they kill somebody else or they do all kinds of manner of wickedness, they get into thievery, they do all kinds of other stuff. Alcohol will affect you and, you know, if you look at the drug driving like statistics or the reports that they put out, not by Christians, not by Baptists, just by the secular world, they say how much alcohol is safe to drive, like how much alcohol can I consume and then it's safe for me to drive. When you look at the chart, they say from 0% alcohol to a thimbleful, it's not safe. That's when it starts being not safe. When you consumed a thimbleful of beer and beer is not even a strong, you know, alcoholic content beverage and you say, how is that possible? Because the first thing that goes when you drink is your judgment, is your mind, is the decisions you make. The decision that you make, hey, I only want to have one drink, that thought comes across your mind. When you start drinking a little bit, that thought goes away. It's kind of like this, it would be like if you're tired. You can't make all the same kind of decisions, you're not as sharp when you're tired. If you're just really tired, you're kind of, you know, you can't really do everything the way you want. Alcohol starts immediately by affecting you and you may not even realize it. I mean, if it's affecting your judgment, how then can you use your judgment to perceive that you're becoming drunk or that you're losing your soberness? And you know what happens is there's a downward spiral. You can send, if you just look at it from far off and then all of a sudden the tide rolls in and now you're 40 feet away from the shore and now you have no ability to make any good judgments and you can get to a point, if you have enough alcohol that you won't even know what you're doing, where you're at, you won't even remember it. What a horrible thing. That's the legacy of law. Is that the kind of legacy you want to leave? The Bible says, look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its color in the cup, when it moveth itself aright, at the last it biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder. Thine eyes shall behold strange women and thine heart shall utter perverse things. Yea, thou shalt be as he that lieth down in the midst of the sea or as he that lieth upon the top of a mass. They have stricken me, shalt thou say, and I was not sick. They have beaten me and I felt it not. When shall I wake, I will seek it yet again. We see the Bible emphasizing the same thing. You can be beaten and you don't even feel it. That's not something I want to go through. You know, pain's a good thing. You know, when there's fire, it's warning me that if I touch it, I'll get burned. When I have pain in my legs or I have pain from anything, it's warning me, hey, you better stop whatever you're doing to avoid this. It's dangerous. It's harming you. Can you imagine like someone's driving a nail into your skin, it would be hurting. Hey, I want to stop that. Hey, I want to stop someone beating me. Hey, I want to stop touching the fire. But you know what alcohol does, it'll duel all of your senses to a point where you can literally be beat and you won't even feel it. That's not good. Pain is a good thing. It'll keep you safe. Look at verse 34, and it came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay yesterday with my father. Let us make him drink wine this night also and go thou in and lie with them. That we may preserve seed of our father and they made their father drink wine that night also. And the second arose and lay with them and perceived not when she laid down nor when she arose. Thus were the daughters of law with child by their father and the firstborn bear a son and called his name Moab. The same as the father of the Moabites into this day and the younger, she also bear a son and called his name Banami, the same as the father of the children of Ammon unto this day. So it's an interesting story because now throughout the Bible, you're going to read a lot about the Moabites and the Ammonites and guess what? They're not good tribes. They're not good people. They're not good nations. They're not good. You know, they don't have a good heritage. They don't have a good legacy. Why? Because their father did not give them a good legacy. What was God's legacy to be bound by sin, to be in the bondage of sin, to constantly, you know, not follow God's commandments, to live, you know, a wicked, horrible life. And he may have been saved, but his, his family, there's a lot of unsaved people in his family. There's a lot of wickedness going on in his family. He knocks up his own children. And then he's mentioned in second Peter chapter two, I mean, not a chapter of the Bible you want to be in. I mean, it's talking about the most wicked people, says for that righteous man dwelling among them and seeing and hearing Bex's righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. I mean, he was Bex day and every day. Every day he saw the wickedness. Every day he saw the evil. Every day he saw being Bex. We ought to not be like Lot, we got to thank God that he gives this kind of admonition so we can say, hey, that's not the kind of legacy that I want to leave. I mean, have you ever thought, what kind of legacy do I want to leave in this life? What do I want, you know, my children to look back upon and think of me? Did I leave them inheritance of godliness, of being a soul winner? I mean, what a good inheritance to pass down to your children. Hey, my grandfather was a soul winner and my dad was a soul winner and now I'm a soul winner. You know, maybe you are going to start out and be the first, you know, of your generation after a while of living godly, of following God's commandments, of being that soul winner. But that's a good thing to still pass on. There's a lot of good things we can pass on to our children. I want to go, go to 1 Kings chapter 11, 1 Kings chapter 11. We have a lot of places in the Bible where we mention the children of Lot or talk about the Moabites, the Ammonites. I'll read through from Deuteronomy chapter 2, it says, the Lord said unto me, distress not the Moabites, neither contend with them in battle, for I will not give thee of their land for possession, because I have given are unto the children of Lot for a possession. It says in Deuteronomy 2 19, I will not give thee the land of the children of Ammon any possession, because I have given it unto the children of Lot for a possession. When it talks about in Psalms, I'm just going to take time, I'm not going to read it, but it talks about some of the most wicked people and it talks about all these people joining together against the Lord, against Israel, it says, for they have consulted together with one consent their confederate against thee, the tabernacles of Edom, and the Israelites of Moab, and the Hagarenes, Gebel, and Ammon, and Ammon, and the Philistines, and the inhabitants of Tyre. Asser also has joined with them, they have hope in the children of Lot, Selah. We see all these wicked nations, they joined together and they're in coordination with the children of Lot. You see the children of Lot are very wicked. We're going to see one of the most wicked things that ever happens on this earth comes from this line, comes from these people. Look at 1 Kings chapter 11 verse 6, and Solomon did evil on the side of the Lord, and went not fully after the Lord, as did David his father. Then did Solomon build in high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab, and the hill that was before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon. And likewise did he for all his strange wives, which burnt incense and sacrifice unto their gods. You say, well what was the abomination of Moab? Well if you study the Bible, for the sake of time I'm not going to read it. The abomination of Moab, or Chemosh, or Molech, is that they burned their children in the fire. They took newborn babies and young children and they burned them in the fire. Is that the legacy you want? Hey, I'm the father of abortion. I'm the grandfather of abortion, of taking children and burning them in the fire. We see that's the abomination of Moab. What happens when you just live wickedly? When you just follow all this sin, your sin will go on to your children and their children and they can commit even worse sins. The Bible talks about God visiting the iniquities of the children under the third and fourth generation of them that hate him. Now if you're saved, I mean you can come out of anything. God will forgive you of all your sins. But those that hate the Lord, that's why I see some nations where they just hate God, they just continue to be in this bondage of iniquity and wickedness and sin and all kinds of filth keeps coming on them because they keep hating the Lord and hating the Lord and each generation gets worse and worse and worse. They need to get back to the Lord's commandments. They need God. Why? Because the iniquity of those children is getting worse and worse. Is that the kind of legacy you want? The legacy? Hey all my grandchildren, I don't have any more grandchildren after this generation because they killed them all. They killed them all in the fire. One of the most wicked things on the planet is abortion. Go to 1 Corinthians 3, we'll finish there. We even have in Luke chapter 17, it says, Remember Lot's wife. That's not a good mention. Remember Lot's wife. As an admonition unto us that we shouldn't look back towards sin. No man that, you know, take his hand to the plow and look back is fit for the kingdom of God. We're not supposed to be looking back towards our sin, desiring the sin. We see Lot's, what was Lot's legacy? He desired sin. He desired bad company. He let the sin rule over his life. He was tolerant of the wickedness. He was a bad parent. He had a bad marriage. He let fear rule his life. He even brought alcohol into his life. We see he didn't leave up good heritage or a legacy for his children, did he? Bible says, Holding faith and a good conscience, which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck. There's some people that are saved that then just decide to just make it all shipwreck by going back to the sin. Going back to the world, living a horrible, licentious, wicked life. What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? God forbid! How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer therein? You know, people accuse easy believism, they say, oh, I mean, you can just live however you want now? Yeah, if you want to be Lot. If you want that kind of legacy, look at 1 Corinthians 3 verse 11, For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now many men build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble. Every man's works shall be made manifest, for the day shall declare it because it shall be revealed by fire, and the fire shall try every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abides which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss, but he himself shall be saved yet so as by fire. Here's a good example of someone, Lot, Lot, what did all of his works do? They're burned up in the fire, and it says that he suffered loss. Yes, you, I believe, you can die and go to heaven and still suffer loss. The Bible says that God will wipe away your tears. My question is, where did the tears come from? Where did the tears come from? I think it's from the loss that you had in your life, the loved ones who didn't preach the gospel, the family members and the friends that didn't preach the gospel, all the people that you see dying and going to hell that you didn't give the gospel to, all of your wicked sin and all the life that you just spent in vanity and vain that you didn't serve the Lord, that you didn't do anything for him, you're just suffering loss. I mean, you're not going to be, I don't think he's wiping away tears of joy. I mean, it's, it's tears of loss and we see Lot probably had, I bet he has some tears. Maybe if it's in the future, I mean, talking about the jealousy of Christ in the future, maybe it's then that he's going to have those tears, but it's clear that if you live your life for wickedness, you're going to suffer loss. Sin has consequences, even if you're saved. We don't want to lay that kind of legacy, that kind of heritage. The Bible says a good man leave with an inheritance to his children's children. You know, it's never too late. The Bible says, I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body to the living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is a reasonable service. You know, Paul was, he lived a horrible, wicked life. He killed Christians, but then he turned it around. Joshua, he didn't take the promised land until age 80, 80. I mean, most of us in this room probably don't even think we're going to accomplish anything after the age of 80. I mean, but then that's when he accomplished his greatest works. Jonah and the whale, I mean, that guy turned it around, didn't he? I don't think in the whale's belly, he thought he was going to do anything good for the Lord after that. You know, he was just suffering. I just don't want to be burning from all this, you know, saliva or whatever's in the whale's belly. Abraham and Isaac, you know, they're in their prime at 80, 100. When does Abraham give birth unto Isaac at 100 years old? And he's not even, you know, introduced until age 75. The woman at the well, she has five adultries, but then guess what? She still gets saved. She still tells a whole bunch of people how to get saved. Look, you can always turn it around. Don't decide, well, I've already lived a wicked life. Lot should have just gotten out of Sodom. He should have, oh, now he's in Zor, now he's going to live for the Lord. But he just kept smiling down and down and down and down and then what happens? His children suffer and his children's children suffer. He didn't leave a good inheritance to his children. What kind of legacy are you going to leave? You know, when you leave this earth, you're not just affecting yourself, you're affecting others. Paul said it was needful for him to stay. Why? For those people. He's like, I'd rather depart and be with the Lord, but it's needful for me to stay for you. You know what? You affect other people. You can affect other people for good. We should be conscious of what our lives are doing, the legacy that we're leaving. Let's close in prayer. Thank you, Father, so God, for this admonition. Thank you so much for this example, that we can be warned and that we can take the seriousness and the soberness of our lives and that we can and we affect the people around us and that we can do great works for you. I pray that we always have that heart and desire to leave a good legacy, a good heritage, a good inheritance under our children, our children's children, even if they're not physical children but our spiritual children, like Paul did with his son Timothy in the faith. I pray that you would just bless everyone in this room. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.