“ A LOT LIKE LOT ”
Gen 13:1- 13
This message is for everybody-sinner and saint, saved for 10
minutes or 10 years.
To the lost person who chooses the temporary pleasure of sin for
a season over the permanent peace of salvation forever, to the
believer with a wandering eye, àThere are lot's of ways
we are Like LOT!
What is YOUR Lot in Life ?
Luke 17:28-30 & 2 Peter 2:4-9
a Lot served the same way a lot of people do in our day. He served
as a bad example!
1. "Just Lot" - His Salvation “justified”
A BACKSLIDDEN BELIEVER
If it wasn’t for 2 Peter every preacher would preach Lot
into Hell! (proves my point from last week!)
- nothing to do with whether you ARE or ARE NOT saved….not
a matter of RELATIONSHIP but FELLOWSHIP
(*Many never went forward! *) No ROD of GOD no PROOFS
of PURCHASE!
EVERY believer backslides! No one here is above backsliding! If you think you are-then you are!
“If you have ever been closer to God than you are now,….. you are backslidden!”
Jeremiah 2:19
“Backsliding is just an OT doctrine.” —baloney!! “all scripture…is profitable”
The definition determines the doctrine! The word TESTAMENT is not in the Old TESTAMENT
2. "Righteous soul " - His Standing
“righteous” in the sense that he did not participate
in the homosexuality of S & Gomorrah and was a moral man.
He was RESCUED before the RETRIBUTION—(Rapture!)
3. "Vexed" - His Situation
The Reason for Lot’s Backsliding
I.THE PROBLEM WITH WANT ………….Vs. 10
….. A LOT of people have this problem!!!
…. look at a life someone is throwing away and ask, “What’s his problem?” 9 x outta 10 -- it's want!
* We all want what’s bad for us. No child chooses Cabbage over Candy, or Broccoli over Bubblegum!
It was a little bit of Eden and a little bit of Egypt.
"even as the garden of the Lord" - that was his religious
reason.
It was "like the land of Egypt" - that was his real
reason.
The GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER it seems, ……..on the other side.
Greener grass means one of three things:
1 ) It could be greener. Yet, that means there will only be more
to mow.
2 ) It could be astro-turf– artificial to the core. ALL
THAT GLITTERS….Or,
3 ) it could be greener because it is growing over the septic
tank!
àSee them in Hollywood and looks like they are having
a time
Next week you see them in re- hab….Marriage busted up…committed
suicide ….It’s a lie!
A. He chose the path of LUSTFUL REASONING
There are 2 questions that every person has to answer.
One has to do with heaven or hell, and the other has to do with
heaven or earth.
Lot answered the 1st question when he left Ur of the Chaldees
to go with Abraham.
He answered the 2nd when he left Abraham for the well-watered
plains of Jordan.
Notice it INVOLVED SIGHT…”eyes” Lot picked a plot! INVITED SIN
Proverbs 14:14 “The backslider in heart shall be filled with his own ways:”
1 Timothy 6:6-8
* Every person lives in one of 2 tents- the tent of DISCONTENT
or CONTENT.
We live in a WORLD of WANT!!! We have a LOT already!….not a matter of NEED but GREED!
As a rule, man’s a fool When it’s hot, he wants it
cool.
And when it’s cool, he wants it hot, Always wanting what
is no!
a LIKE A DOG TRYING TO CATCH ITS OWN TAIL, it’s always a little out of reach, end up going in circles….
* A wealthy man heard his housekeeper say to a friend, "If
only I had 50 dollars, I'd be so content."
Anxious to make her happy, he handed her a fifty-dollar
bill. She thanked him and hurried to the cook, and he heard her
say, "Oh! Why didn't I say 100 dollars?"
….. we are all a LOT like LOT!!!
* There are two polite people having dinner together. On the
table there is a dish with one big piece of fish and one small
piece of fish. They politely say to each other: "You may
choose first."
"No, you may choose first." And this goes on for a
while.
Then the first person says: "OK, I'll take first."
And he takes the BIG piece of fish.
The second person: "Why did you take the big piece? That's
not polite!"
The first person says: "Which piece would *you* have taken?"
The second person replies: "Why, I would have taken the
SMALL piece, of course."
The first person says: "Well, that's what you have now!"
….. we are all a LOT like LOT!!!
* Farmer Jones had heard that the SECRET to best milk comes
from contented cows.
Therefore, he'd visit them every morning and tell them jokes.
The cows laughed and laughed, and they gave excellent milk. However,
the news got around and no one else was much amused. Thus, his
cows became the laughing stock of the community.
* Look at LOTTO-people stand in long lines for legalized lust
which leaves ‘em losers!
They have a problem with want
B. He chose the path of LEAST RESISTANCE -
It has been said that rivers and men become crooked by following
the line of least resistance!
Lot could’ve said “Uncle Abraham has been good to me and hes older- those mountains will be harder on him- I’ll give him the easy land and I’ll take the harder” Been better off!
Vs 11, says, "Then Lot chose him." He did what
he wanted to do.
Often EASY is also EVIL- it’s easier to give in to peer
pressure than to say “NO!” and resist temptation!
Life is full of Choices…. Choose our CHARACTER “Good
name is rather to be chosen”
CONDUCT, CROWD “Moses chose rather”
Lot was more interested in grass than God. Lot was more
interested in Gain than godliness!
The Route of Lot’s Backsliding
II. THE PLACE OF WICKEDNESS ….Vs. 13 ! Sin city
Notice Lots progression of digression- gradual “toward”
– “gate” - “in” - he moved up by being
low down
... Backsliding is a slow leak,,,,, not a blowout!
There is gravity to godlessness-
* A man was asked, "Why didn't you get an honorable discharge?"
Because of furlong," he answered. "What do you mean?"
wondered his friend. "I went too 'fur,'" he explained,
"and I stayed too long."
Some things don’t seem sinful at first but when you
drift closer it pulls you in.
Lot didn’t notice,! He was interested only in profits and
position and pleasure..not in spiritual things.
Lot was weak in his devotions/worldly in his desires/wrong in his decisionS…
Lot Looked Toward The Plains Of Sodom…. Lot Longed For
The Pleasure’s Of Sodom…
.. Lot Left For The People Of Sodom… Lot Landed In The Pit
Of Sodom
A. A PLACE OF CARNALITY
They oughta have surgeon Generals warning on some places.
Neon lit Nightclubs- dark take home somebody you didn’t
get a good look at
LOT made his home in the headquarters of Homosexuality!
San Francisco of the ancient world!
a good place to raise cattle, a horrible place to raise children!
Gay RIGHTS are WRONG! We used to say they were “FUNNY”
–not funny any more!
Activists have become terrorists!
Same thing happened in Gen 19 where they demand depravity
Our perverted president has already appointed a number to his
cabinet!
When the homosexuals are moved from the closet--to the cabinet…we’ve
got major problems!
* One of the most widely read books of all time is The Decline
and Fall of the Roman Empire written by Edward Gibbon in 1788.
In it he gives five basic reasons why that great civilization
fell:
1. The undermining of the dignity and sanctity of the home, which
is the basis for human society.
2. Higher and higher taxes.
3. The mad craze for pleasure; sports becoming every year more
exciting, more brutal, more immoral.
4. The building of great armaments when the real enemy was within—the
decay of individual responsibility.
5. The decay of religion; faith fading into mere form.
HISTORY is REPEATING ITSELF!!!! “days of Lot”
“Born that way” – If born that way it is definitely
a defect! It is a mental illness---
Rom 1: 28 "And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate
mind"
B. A PLACE OF COMPANIONSHIP
Lot socialized with the unsaved. He even went so far as
to call them "brethren"—19:7
The Bible tells us in Gen. 19:1 – “…Lot sat
in the gate of Sodom:”
He was a community leader, a city alderman, or maybe even a judge.
2 Cor. 6:14,17 – “Be ye not unequally yoked together
with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with
unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness?”
”Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate,
saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive
you,”
Believers should stand apart from the culture and stand up for Christ!
You are asking for a LOT of trouble!
The Results of Lot’s Backsliding
III. THE PRICE FOR WORLDLINESS
* True story from the dim-witted criminals department: A man walked into a convenience store, put a $20 bill on the counter and asked for change. When the clerk opened the drawer, the man pulled a gun and asked for all the cash in the register. The man took the cash from the clerk and ran, leaving his $20 bill on the counter. How much did he get from the drawer? 15 bucks. He lost more than he got in return.
* Bob Jones Sr. “There are those who have enough of God to be miserable with the world and enough of the world to be miserable with God”
“then Lot chose…” and he lived forever w/ the consequences of that worldly-minded decision!
There is always a payday someday. “be sure your sin”
A. LOST HIS testimony 19:12-14
His family laughed at him!!
-His words had no weight because of his ways!
His lips had no influence because of his life!
B. LOST HIS PropertY 19:25 …… all went up in smoke! Jude 1:5-7
God destroyed their depravity!!
C. LOST HIS Family 19:26 She halted so, she was salted Daughters sinned 32-38
Look what Lost lost! ---- Cattle, Companion, Character, Children
Lot lost his….. fortune, family, & his future.
Abraham tried “Jewing” ‘em down!
Had LOT been a soul winner he could have saved their lives!
10 souls!
a---he lost everything but his salvation!
I Cor. 3:15 “If any man's work shall be burned, he shall
suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.”
All Satan’s apples have worms!!!
Sin will take you further than you want to go…Sin will
give you much more than you want to know…
Sin will leave you longer than you want to stay…Sin will
cost you far more than you want to pay…
Lots life is a landmark on the highway of time to warn of the
folly of trying to live for both worlds.
INVITATION:
Joshua said in Joshua 24:15, “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Where is your tent pitched ?
(Jer 3:22) Return, ye backsliding children, and I will heal your
backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee; for thou art the LORD
our God. ……
….. it’s never too late to get back to going forward!