Genesis 077 – Grace in Judgment

Genesis 077 – Grace through Judgment

By Dr. Andy Woods – 05/1/2022

Genesis 19:12-22

 

Let’s take our Bibles this morning and open up to Genesis chapter 19 and verse 12 (Gen 19:12). The title of our message this morning is “Grace through Judgment”. Grace through judgment. God’s grace is so manifold that even when He judges, you can see His grace. We are moving through the book of Genesis and we’re in the section of the life of Abraham dealing with the Sodom and Gomorrah story. Having seen the angels’ arrival in Sodom last week, verses 1 through 11 (Gen 19:1-11) and now this morning we move into verses 12 through 22 (Gen 19:12-22), where we see Lot’s rescue.

Destruction Genesis 19:1-38

1. 1. 1. Angels in Sodom (Gen 19:1-11)
      2. Lot’s rescue (Gen 19:12-22)
      3. Destruction (Gen 19:23-29)
      4. Lot’s incest (Gen 19:30-38)

This is actually Lot’s third rescue, this guy needed a lot of help. He was rescued in Genesis, 14, he was rescued last week in our story there by the angels from the mob and now he’s about to be rescued a third time from the wrath of God before it hits this wicked city called Sodom and Gomorrah. Here is the outline that we’re going to seek to work through today as we look at these verses.

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

The first thing we see is an angelic prediction and there’s an exhortation here and the reason for the exhortation, as the angels are exhorting Lot. Notice if you will Genesis, 19, notice if you will verse 12 (Gen 19:12), it says: Then the two men… That would be two angels, you’ll see that back in verse 1… The two men said to Lot, Whom else have you here? A son-in-law, and your sons, and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place… We’ve talked about before that within Lot’s household, including Lot, there were ten individuals and that’s why when Lot was interceding over the wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah in the prior chapter, when the number got down to ten, Lord would you spare the city if you can find ten righteous there? That’s why Lot stopped at ten. Ten in his household when you total the numbers.

So the angel says, Lot get your household of ten, including yourself and get out of the city and the reason for that is given in verse 13 (Gen 19:13), it’s actually a predictive prophecy: For we… That’s the angels that are about to destroy this place, for we are about to destroy this place, because their outcry has become so great before the LORD that the LORD has sent us to destroy it… The interesting thing about your Bible is it contains many, many short term predictions. One of them that we’ve seen that hasn’t happened yet is the birth of Isaac. That is going to come into existence in Genesis, 21, although that’s been predicted and here’s another one, the cities of the plain, including Sodom and Gomorrah. Five cities are about to be wiped out cataclysmically because of God’s judgment. This is one of the reasons I recommend books like this: “Every Prophecy of the Bible” by Dr. John Walvoord. He goes to every prediction of the Bible short term and long term and he demonstrates in the book that God means what He says and says what He means. Everything He predicts happens and that gives us further trust in the prophecies from our time period yet to come. 4:22

You’ll notice that it’s the angels that are going to do the destroying here.

Very similar to the book of Revelation, where God brings forth or will bring forth upon the earth the seal judgments, the trumpet judgments, and the golden bowls of wrath judgment. It’s the angels that pour out those judgments in Revelation, 16. It’s the angels that blow those trumpets in Revelation, 8 and 9 and so God, many times when He makes command for destruction, He’ll delegate the task to the angels and hear these two angels are given the God ordained task of destroying these cities on the plain, five cities total. Why the destruction? Because it says there in verse 13 “their outcry has become great before the Lord”. As we live in a society that’s trying to normalize perversity, it’s important to understand that God has standards and when His standards are routinely violated over and over again, yes, there’s a window of grace but eventually God doesn’t tolerate the destruction of His sexual blueprint and judgment comes to a nation, it comes to a world. The things that the inhabitants of Sodom were doing here, as we saw last week, there’s no way to describe them except “wicked” and the outcry of all of this came before the Lord even Lot himself back in Genesis, 19, verse 7 (Gen 19:7) told that crowd outside of his house, you’re acting wickedly. Back in Genesis, 13, verse 13 (Gen 13:13) it says: Now the men of Sodom were wicked exceedingly sinners… Genesis 18:20 says: The Lord said the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great and their sin is exceedingly grave… People can normalize whatever they want to normalize and mainstream what I really want to mainstream, but the truth of the matter is as far as God is concerned, right is right and wrong is wrong; and you say, well, gee pastor you sure have a narrow way of thinking. The truth of the matter is the Bible is narrow. Jesus Himself said that: Broad is the road that leads to destruction and many there are that go that way and narrow is the road that leads to life, few are they which find it. One of the things I so appreciate about the Bible is it’s black and white. Of course there’s problem passages that are sometimes debated but the overall message of the Bible is completely clear to anybody that will take the time to read it. There’s good and evil. There’s God and Satan. There’s angels and demons. There’s wheat and tares. There’s sheep and goats and how refreshing it is to come into God’s word and to see a standard in a world in which we live in which the standards are being erased. If you have any doubt that homosexuality is a perversion. I would challenge you to look up the verses there on the screen, the Bible and homosexuality, read the writings of the apostle Paul where he promotes heterosexuality and condemns homosexuality.

The Apostle Paul

1. Pro-Heterosexuality
   1. 1 Cor. 7:2-5
   2. Eph. 5:22-33
   3. 1 Tim. 3:2, 12
2. Anti-Homosexuality
   1. 1 Cor. 6:9-11
   2. Rom. 1:26-27
   3. 1 Tim. 1:9-10

Does God loves the homosexual? Of course He does, loves all of us and all of us are sinners, but God never condones the behavior, never and the behavior here had gotten so out of hand that now God Himself has become triggered. You know, we talked today about people, you know, they get triggered over something when you make a statement. Oh! that triggered so and so. Ask yourself the question, what triggers God? It’s rampant, unrepentant sin and eventually man can go so far in his rebellion against God that he even exhausts the patience of God Himself and judgment comes and that’s what’s about to happen to five cities and so the angels warned Lot, it’s time for you, ten total, to get out, because it’s judgment day. 9:09

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

So you find there in verse 14 that Lot makes an announcement to his family. Look at verse 14 (Gen 19:14), it says: Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, and said, Up, get out of this place, for the LORD will destroy the city. But he… That’s Lot… appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting… I think, if you’re a Bible trivia person, I think that’s the only time the word jesting that I know of is used in the whole Bible. There’s Lot again, goofing around. When the truth of the matter is he was absolutely serious. The thing to understand about Lot and we explained a little bit about this last week is he was saved. The reason we know that is he’s called the righteous man three times in the New Testament, there’s the verses (2 Peter 2:7-9) and a godly man but his lifestyle did not match his position. His practice did not match his position. He had achieved through God’s grace, the first tense of salvation, justification, which takes place when the sinner puts their trust in the Savior, in Lot’s case, the Savior yet future and then God moves us into the middle tense of our salvation and he says, okay now in your walk of progressive sanctification the middle tense of your salvation, let your practice under God’s resources that are now within you, catch up to your identity; and Lot had failed terribly in this regard and yet he was saved. He was saved because he, like all saved people, are kept in the double grip of grace. John, 10, verses 27 through 29 (John 10:27-29) it’s grace that gets us in the door, it’s grace that keeps us in the door, we are in the Son’s hand and we are also in the Father’s hand and nothing can take us out. So we teach very boldly here, once saved always saved. Eternal security and there are many churches that will not clearly teach this and the reason they will not teach this is they are afraid that if that doctrine gets out of the barn, then people will take advantage of it. They’ll live a godless life saying, well, I’ve got my fire insurance paid up, I’m going to heaven, it doesn’t matter how I live. Lot, I think, was in that category and what people will say is you people that teach eternal security and the grace of God, you don’t care about holy living, sin doesn’t matter to you. I got so tired of hearing that, that I made a list of losses that you experience as a Christian when you move back into sin. You don’t lose your salvation but you lose a lot of temporal benefits. In fact, I got so going on this that I made a parallel list there, couldn’t stop making a list. I made two lists.

I mean, just look at the life of David, look at the losses he experienced, although when he died, after committing adultery and murder, he went to heaven and one of the things on my list is a loss of testimony. See, if you’re not living as a Christian, you’re still a Christian, you’re still going to heaven but your credibility disappears. Lot had no credibility with his own family, because he got spiritual, he wanted to talk about spiritual things, I think he was very sincere, he believed that God’s destruction was coming, he announced it to his relatives and they thought it was just kidding around. How do you take a guy seriously whose lifestyle doesn’t match his profession? So Lot lost his credibility and there are many things you will lose as a Christian by wandering back into sin, although you’re kept by the grace of God and your arrival in heaven is secure. I would say this was a pretty serious consequence because Lot lost his two married daughters and their husbands, because they did not heed Lot’s warning, because they couldn’t take Lot seriously and they were swept away into judgment. Loss of four family members, because of habitual sin in Lot’s life. This is why I’ve grown very tired of the accusation that once saved, always saved doctrine promotes loose living. You guys don’t care about sin, you don’t care about holy living just because I’m not threatening you with hell every single week, doesn’t mean we won’t experience tremendous losses in life, things that God wanted to do in and through us but couldn’t, because of habitual sin. 15:00

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

So after this announcement we have an angelic exhortation, you see it there in verse 15 (Gen 19:15), it says: When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city… Notice it says, when the morning dawned, that fits very nicely with verse 1 (Gen 19:1) where this whole scene with a mob surrounding his house took place at evening, verse 4 (Gen 19:4) said it took place before they went to bed and now it’s morning and God through this angel again says, get out of here because this city is about to be destroyed along with four other cities. Why did God work so hard to get Lot out? The answer’s in Genesis, 18, verse 23 (Gen 18:23), where Abraham came near and said to God, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? In other words, it’s contrary to God to do this to judge His own, as wayward as they are or can be, alongside the unsaved and you’ll notice that this is the second time the angel had to tell Lot it’s time to leave, get out. Why did the angel have to tell him twice? Because he didn’t want to leave. I mean, he was very comfortable living where he was living. Why is that? Well, the next verse tells you, verse 16 (Gen 19:16). For now we have not just an angelic exhortation we have angelic enforcement.

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

I’m going to yank you out of here whether you want to go or not. But Lot was uninterested initially, because it says at the beginning of verse 16 (Gen 19:16): But he… That’s Lot… Hesitated… Lot had become infatuated with the world system in Sodom and Gomorrah, he didn’t want to leave and this is how the world system works. 1st John, 2, verses 15 through 17 (1 John 2:15-17) says: Do not love the world nor the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world. The world is passing away, and also its lusts; but the one who does the will of God lives forever… We are warned over and over again in the Bible about worldliness, becoming intoxicated with the philosophy and the value system of the world, not understanding that the whole thing is marked for destruction just as this wicked city of Sodom and Gomorrah was marked for destruction and we forget that, and many times we march even as believers in our backslidden state according to the drumbeat of the world. There was a man in Paul’s ministry that did this, his name was Demas and you can read about him in 2 Timothy, 4, verse 10 (2 Tim 4:10) were Paul of Demas says: Demas having loved this present world has deserted me… And everybody says, well, obviously Demas wasn’t saved. Yes, he was and the reason he was saved is Demas was in Paul’s ministry team and there’s absolutely no way the apostle Paul would put someone in his ministry team whose salvation was in doubt. Lot, as I’ve shown you from 2nd Peter 2:7-9 was saved. But he was about to experience many losses and part of his losses related to his hesitancy to leave, because after all, he liked the value system of Sodom and Gomorrah. This is why we’re warned in the New Testament about worldliness. It says: Do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, Romans 12:2, Colossians chapter 2, and verse 8 (Col 2:8), says: See to it that there is no one who takes you captive through philosophy and empty deception in accordance with human tradition, in accordance with the elementary principles of the world, rather than in accordance with Christ… None of these mandates to the Christian make any sense unless the Christian has an ability, very sadly, to become carnal and worldly. 2nd Peter, 3, verse 10 (2 Pet 3:10) tells us that this world is about to be destroyed by fire. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat and the earth and its works will be burned up… And then that verse goes on into verse 11 (2 Pet 3:11) and it says: In light of these things, what sort of people ought you to be in holiness and godliness?… In other words, don’t hold too tightly onto the things of this world that are marked for destruction and that’s a hard lesson for us because we’re comfortable here many times. We like it here and God is reminding us, be careful about worldliness. Be careful because this world is not your home. It’s just terrain that you’re passing through. 21:08

George Gunn of Shasta Bible college on John, 14, verses 1 through 3 (John 14:1-3), which is the first treatment of the rapture in the whole Bible, the rapture of the church, writes:

Ante-Nicene Fathers: “Heavenly and Eschatological” Interpretation of John 14:1-4

“Interestingly, references to John 14:1-3 virtually disappear when perusing the writings of the Nicene and Post-Nicene fathers…” Now, those would be the church fathers after the first couple of centuries of the church. Gunn says: “This is a bit surprising, given the abundance of material in these later writers when compared with the Ante-Nicenes…” Earliest church fathers… “I would assume…” Watch this now… “that with the rise of Augustinian amillennialism…” That’s kingdom now theology. The idea that the church is the kingdom now… “and its optimistic interpretation regarding the present arrival of the Kingdom of God, the kind of hope held out in John 14:1-3 ceased to hold relevance.”

George Gunn, “John 14:1-3: The Father’s House: Are We There Yet?,” 30, n. 24

As church history progressed and as the church sort of married the systems of this world and the systems of this world married the church and the church started to believe that it was actually in the kingdom and bringing in the kingdom, why would you care about a rescue operation by Jesus in the rapture to take you out of the world? I mean, this world is our home, you would think. We are growing and expanding the kingdom now, and so, like Lot, we’re just sort of hesitant to leave, because it can be very, very comfortable here. That by the way, at the Bema Seat judgment is why one of the rewards given will be a crown of righteousness.

Described in 2nd Timothy chapter 4, verse 8 (2 Tim 4:8) simply for the Christian that longs for the appearing of Jesus. Why would that type of Christian receive a crown? Because that’s an non-worldly Christian. That’s a Christian that didn’t become infatuated and too comfortable in this world, but was always looking for the return of Jesus to rescue them out of the world. Quite frankly, a lot of Christians aren’t looking for that. They’re looking for career, respect, credibility, finances, standing. None of those things, I guess, in and of themselves are wrong, but if you’re not careful with those things you start to lose focus on where your ultimate home is. It’s like talking to very young people that haven’t been married and they don’t want to talk about the return of Christ. Well, why not? Well, I want to grow up, I want to get married and then within six months of marriage, they want to talk about the return of Christ, I guess. It’s not the bed of roses that they expected. But it is interesting how suffering of any sort, sort of wakes us up to the fact that this world is not our home. Just talking to some brothers and they were talking about the airports and the mandates being lifted and different things on the airlines. You know, in a certain way, all of that stuff that happened in 2020 with the clamp down on freedoms and the mandates and government coercion, in a certain way that has been one of the best things that has ever happened to American Christianity. In fact, our own ministry here grew in every category you can think of, online, attendance, finances, it grew substantially during that time period. Why is that? Because when everything is going too well, you just stop thinking about spiritual things, you stop thinking about eternal things. But a little bit of suffering and this was somewhat minor, I would think, compared to what other Christians in other parts of the world are now experiencing, a little bit of suffering just sort of has a way of reminding us that, you know what? This world is not what it’s cracked up to be. It’s on its way out and the moment God regenerated you, He gave you a new citizenship. Paul, does he not say in the book of Philippians, our citizenship is where? It’s in heaven. Easy to lose sight of that. Lot as a saved person lost sight of that. 26:27

Verse 16 (Gen 19:16): But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the LORD was upon him; and they brought him out, and put him outside the city… The word that jumps right off the page at me when I read this is compassion. I wouldn’t expect to find that in this chapter that’s detailing destruction that’s about to come to five cities of the plain, but there it is and I would challenge you to do this, whenever you read in the Bible about destruction look for the compassion of God. That’ll be there too and sometimes it’s easy to develop a distorted view of God. We just focus on grace but never judgment or we just focus on judgment but never grace and in every judgment passage I can think of in the Bible both are coming together simultaneously. Do you realize that the greatest spiritual awakening that will ever hit planet earth will be in the tribulation period itself? Where an innumerable multitude will be saved. Yeah, but pastor, the book of Revelation, that’s about judgment and destruction.

Yes it is, but that’s not all it’s about. It’s about the handy work and the grace and the compassion of God and boy! Lot having been rescued now a third time, even in his wayward state, certainly illustrates the compassion of God. I mean, look at the verbs, it says, they brought him out, they put him out of the city, they seized his hand and the hand of his wife and now that Lot is out of the city, he gets some new instructions from the angels.

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

Look at verse 17 (Gen 19:17): When they had brought them outside… It’s interesting that he doesn’t get new spiritual sight until he is separated from his former life. It’s interesting that when we separate ourselves from worldliness, the things of God start to get clearer. 2nd Corinthians chapter 6, and verse 17 (2 Cor 6:17), it says: Come out from their midst and be separate… We had here at the church camp Sunday a few weeks ago. All the different Christian camps that were here, I’m a big fan of Christian camps, because there’s something about getting away from normal life, sort of getting outside of your routine, getting out where you can actually see the stars at night, hearing the word of God taught, worship songs. It’s just the clarity that God can give a person, because they’re separated. Separated from the mundane, separated from the worldly and so it is interesting that once Lot achieves by God’s grace a certain location, he gets further instructions and so, what were those instructions? He’s told to do four things; it’s all there in verse 17: When they had brought them outside, one said, Escape for your life! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away… Four fold instruction here.

Number one, escape, because cataclysm is coming and once the cataclysm comes, you’re not going to have an opportunity to get out. That by the way, is the same reason the book of Revelation is set up the way that it is.

It will use words in the book of Revelation like shortly or quickly, near or at hand, about to or on the point of. In other words, when the events of the book of Revelation start to happen, they’re going to happen with such velocity that you’re not going to have time to get right with God. So if you’re going to get right with God, you’d better do it now on the front end. Before these judgments hit. 31:22

So he is told number one, to escape; number two, he is told to not look back, of course his wife will not heed that advice later on in the chapter. That’s why we say his wife was assaulted, so to speak, and you can blame that joke on my wife, I got it from her. But it’s kind of interesting he’s told not to look and the Bible over and over again warns us about what we’re looking at, what we’re allowing into the arena of the mind. Jesus said in the Sermon on the Mount, Matthew, 6, 22 and 23 (Matt 3:22-23): The eye is the lamp of the body. So then if your eye is clear, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness?… Is there darkness in your soul? Is there darkness in your life? Well, what are you looking at? What are you studying? What are you allowing into the arena of the mind by way of meditation? It starts with the mind. So don’t even look back, he’s told and there in verse 17 (Gen 19:17) he’s also told to get out of the valley. Why the valley? Because the valley is the location of those five cities.

Here’s a better picture of it, perhaps there’s a little bit of debate on what side of the Dead Sea Sodom and Gomorrah is on. This would be a traditional view here, but it’s not just Sodom and Gomorrah that’s going to be destroyed, it’s Zoar, Admah and Zeboiim and you’ll find those cities of the plain, five of them total, mentioned in Genesis, 14, verse 2 (Gen 14:2) and Genesis chapter 14, and verse 8 (Gen 14:8). You’d better get out of this whole valley, because these five cities are about to be destroyed because of their wickedness. Their wickedness has finally raised to the level where God Himself is triggered and He’s going to do something about it. His grace is about to be eclipsed by His justice and His justice is about to come. The fourth thing he’s told to do is flee to the mountain or the mountains. Arnold Fruchtenbaum writes:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 325

“They are to escape to the mountain, which will serve as the area of safety. The definite article “the” used with mountain probably refers to the mountains of the Trans-Jordan where the descendants settled.”

So it would be basically east of the Jordan River in modern day Jordan and that probably is the mountain that he is referring to. This command to flee to the mountains, you know, that’s going to be issued again in the tribulation to the Jews that watch their temple desecrated. They’re given specific instructions by the Lord at the midpoint of the tribulation once their temple is desecrated, Jesus says (Matt 24:15-16, 20), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. But pray that your flight will not be on the winter, or on the Sabbath. These are not instructions for the church, these are instructions for Israel in the tribulation that see their temple desecrated midway through the tribulation and so Lot being told to flee to the mountain is sort of a prefigurement, if you will, a type, if you will, of a future command that the Lord will give to the nation of Israel. 35:33

So we have the location, we have the instructions and then we have the reason for the instructions. The reason for the instructions is right at the end of verse 17 (Gen 19:17): … or you will be swept away… We have a tendency to look at God as some kind of cosmic Killjoy. I mean, every time God is saying don’t do something or stay away from something, He’s trying to ruin our lives and make us unhappy. Nothing could be further from the truth. The commands of God are given for our benefit. Deuteronomy, 10, and verse 13 (Deut 10:13), it says: To keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes, which I am giving you today for your own good… But I don’t like stopping at those stop lights and stop signs. I just find them personally encumbering and I want liberation. Well, how’s that story going to end? Those rules are there for our benefit. You know, we’re living in a culture that basically says, God has nothing to say about gender. If you want to be a male, you can be a female, if you want to be a female, you can be a male, it just depends on your mental thought process at the end of the day. You can have any sort of sexual relationship you want with anyone and if it feels good, do it and who in the world is God to ruin your fun? Well, quite clearly when you look at the fallout of the sexual revolution in every category: STD’s, unwanted pregnancies, poverty, psychological and emotional damage, the number of suicides post sexual revolution has not decreased, it’s increased dramatically. You start to see that God knew what He was talking about when He said, be careful here, stay away from that. Yes, you can do that, but you can’t do that. If Lot hadn’t done exactly what God said, he would have been swept away with everyone else. But God loves us too much to see us experience the consequences of sin, most of which we’re not even aware of. Then God says, live your life the way I would have you live it so that your days upon the earth may be long and prosperous and fruitful. But that can’t happen as long as you’re inventing your own reality. 38:24

We move away from the angelic instruction to Lot now makes a request and here comes the power of intercessory prayer.

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

We’ve got a protest, verse 18 (Gen 19:18): But Lot said to them… That’s the angels… Oh no, my lords!… So he knew that these cities were going to be wiped out and he didn’t like it, as you could imagine and he gives the reasons in verse 19 (Gen 19:19), basically there’s two reasons why he says what he says: Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life… You’ll notice that Lot appeals to the lovingkindness of God. You know, we mentioned, what was it? verse 16 (Gen 19:16), compassion, now you move to verse 19 (Gen 19:19) loving kindness. I’ll be completely honest with you, as I was making my way through this passage, preparing for today, I didn’t expect to see these words in this passage. I expected to see all wrath, all judgment. Easy to develop a distorted view of God. You have to see both His holiness and His grace. Lot makes an appeal to that. He wants to be saved, you see the word there, verse 19 (Gen 19:19): Now behold your servant has found lovingkindness and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have shown by saving my life… Well, pastor, if he was already saved, why does he say he’s happy he’s saved again? When God does this for him. Well, the word “saved” is pretty broad in the Bible. Most of the time when we use the word “saved” as evangelical Christians, we’re talking about trusting in Christ and not going to hell. That’s being saved in a certain most important sense, but there’s other salvations in the Bible. Hebrews, 11, verse 7 (Heb 11:7) says Noah was saved by preparing an ark. It says: By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household… Do you mean Noah was saved by works? Noah was saved by building an ark? No, in this context he was saved from water. Philippians, 1, verse 19 (Phil 1:19) Paul uses that word “save” he says: For I know that this will turn out for my deliverance… Greek word for save… through your prayers and the provision of the Spirit of Jesus Christ… There he’s talking about being saved from his Roman confinement. You know, the great thing about the Lord is yes, when you trust in Christ for salvation your soul is saved. But as you walk with the Lord, what you’ll start seeing is I need to be saved from a lot of other stuff too, Lord. I need to be saved from the flood. I need to be saved from prison. Hopefully that’s not your circumstances. I’ve got a lot of problems in my life. I need to be protected from these other temporal things as well and what you’ll discover is the God that brought you to saving faith in Christ, is in the saving business. I mean, He’ll keep saving you, as you walk through the particulars in the valleys of life. Lot also appeals to his inability. It’s at the end of verse 19 (Gen 19:19): Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your lovingkindness, which you have shown me by saving my life; but I cannot escape to the mountains, for the disaster will overtake me and I will die… Lord, if you make me go all the way to Jordan into that mountain chain or that mountain, I’m going to lose my life there. Here’s what’s interesting is if you drop down to verse 30 (Gen 19:30), you know what you’ll discover? Lot made it to those mountains anyway. That’s where he commits tragically incest with his two daughters. More on that in subsequent studies. But Lot is basically saying, I will die unprotected in the mountains you want me to go to and so he came to God with his weakness and when you come to God in prayer, come to Him with your weaknesses, God wants that. Romans, 8, and verse 26 (Rom 8:26) says: In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness… Anybody feeling weak? Isn’t it wonderful that the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses? Hebrews, 4, verse 16 (Heb 4:16), says: Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace… Aren’t you glad that when we’re praying it’s a throne of grace?… So that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need… There’s nothing wrong with coming to God saying, I’ve got needs. I’ve got weaknesses and God is in the habit of bestowing grace, because grace is only needed in someone’s life that needs it. A life preserver only makes sense if you figure out you’re drowning and the problem is most of us half the time don’t realize we’re drowning. I mean, we’re drowning spiritually without Jesus and then as we walk through this life with Jesus in Christianity, you’re in circumstances that are a little different, but you’re still drowning. Temporal problems and so the God that brought your soul to saving faith, will help you in those temporal problems. This is what Lot, even as in his carnal state is experiencing here. 45:01

So Lot very boldly, verse 20 (Gen 19:20), makes a request and he says: Now behold, this town is near enough to flee to, and it is small. Please, let me escape there (is it not small?) that my life may be saved… You notice he mentions small or little two times there in verse 20 and what’s he saying? Lord, if I go to the mountains in Jordan, I don’t know what’s going to happen to me, so let me go to one of the tiny cities of the five that you have marked for destruction and let me find refuge in that city. In other words, he’s praying not only for his successful trip to that little city, he’s also praying that one of the five cities will be spared. Arnold Fruchtenbaum says:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 326

Then came the request in verse 20: Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one. Oh let me escape thither (is it not a little one?). Lot emphasized a little one twice. In other words, this town was so little compared to the other four that perhaps God could leave this one alone and let Lot flee to that one so that [Lot’s] soul shall live.”

And in a chapter on judgment, I would not expect God to answer a prayer request like this. I mean, a Lot in his carnal state, I would not expect God to answer a prayer request like this. You know, if I was writing the Bible, I would say something like, you know, tough tacos or whatever. You know, you made your own bed now you’re going to lie in it. You know, that kind of mindset and you know, no, you’d better get to the mountains because if you go to this little city, you’re going to be swept away, but that’s not what happens. Lot in the midst of judgment, in the midst of carnality, gets an answer to his prayer request. In the midst of carnality, in the midst of personal failure, even with his own family, gets his prayer answered. That’s why I’ve been titled the sermon “Grace in the midst of judgment”. I came to this passage thinking judgment, judgment, judgment, but I came away saying, no, this is a passage also about God’s grace. Even in judgment itself God demonstrates His grace by answering Lot’s prayer request. Verse 21 (Gen 19:21) the request is granted.

Lot’s Rescue – Genesis 19:12-22

1. Angelic prediction (Gen 19:12-13)
2. Lot’s announcement (Gen 19:14)
3. Angelic exhortation (Gen 19:15)
4. Angelic enforcement (Gen 19:16)
5. Angelic instructions (Gen 19:17)
6. Lot’s request (Gen 19:18-20)
7. Angelic response (Gen 19:21-22)

He says in verse 21: He said to him, Behold, I grant you this request also, not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken… Number one, you don’t have to go to the mountains, you can go to the little city. Number two, I’m going to spare the city. We have totally underestimated the power of prayer. James chapter 5, and verse 16 (James 5:16) says: the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much… But pastor, he wasn’t righteous. He wasn’t righteous practically, but he was righteous positionally and God heard through this angel the request and He granted it. 49:10

The death of the grace of God. That’s why in the prior chapter, when Abraham was interceding for the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, God starting with fifty, going all the way down to ten said I’ll spare everything if I can find ten righteous in the city. The grace of God, the power of prayer. What did Jesus say in Luke, 18, verse 1 (Luke 18:1): Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart… Boy, we need to hear that. We ought to pray and not lose heart. It would be so easy for Lot in these circumstances just to become discouraged over his own life, his own circumstances, largely what he had brought on himself, the destruction of four members of his family. But he goes to prayer and receives something that the book of Hebrews, as we cited earlier, describes as grace in a time of need and if this guy is qualified for that and he’s no role model of the spiritual life, why do we deceive ourselves into thinking, oh! God doesn’t want to hear from me. I messed things up royally this week, this month, this year. God doesn’t want to hear from me. That’s a satanic deception. That’s Satan trying to keep you away from God. God does want to hear. He does want us to pray and with this angelic response comes some new instructions. You see that in Genesis, 19, verse 22 (Gen 19:22) our last verse for today: Hurry, escape there… There is where? This little city that God’s going to spare, that originally was marked for destruction, one of the five that’s going to receive grace… Hurry, escape there, the angel says, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the town was called Zoar… Is that not an interesting verse? The angel doesn’t say, I will not do anything to the remaining four cities until you arrive there. He says, I can’t, my hands are tied until God’s people are out of harm’s way. Pastor, why do you teach the pre-trib rapture the way you do? Why do you keep saying that the church that’s saved in spite of its level of maturity, in spite of its level of holy living or lack thereof, is not destined for the wrath of God? Many reasons, but this is one of them. I call this symbolic parallels.

Symbolic Parallels

• Luke 17:26-30
• Enoch taken before the flood (Gen 5:24)
• Noah protected before the flood (Gen 7:6-7)
• Lot taken before judgment upon Sodom (2 Pet 2:7; Gen 19:22)

Did not Jesus say in Matthew 24:37: For the coming of the son of man will be just like the days of Noah… Did he not say in Luke, 17, verse 28 and verse 30 (Luke 17:28,30): For the coming of the Son of Man will be just like it was in the days of Lot. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed… If you want to understand the end, you have to understand two paradigms, two historical accounts: The days of Noah and the days of Lot. What do both have in common? In both cases, before judgment hit, God’s people were taken out of harm’s way. Enoch was taken to heaven in a rapture before the flood came. Genesis, 5, verse 24 (Gen 5:24) and the floodwaters never hit planet earth until Noah and his family, eight in all, and all were safe in the ark, Genesis, 7, verses 6 and 7 (Gen 7:6-7) and now we’re seeing the exact same thing here. Even Lot in his wicked and carnal and backslidden state, he himself, because he was positionally a child of God had to be taken out of harm’s way before judgment hit. That’s why the angel says, I cannot do anything until you have been removed from here. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be. As it was in the days of a Lot, so shall it be. Do you want to understand the end? You have to look very carefully at those two judgments and both of them have a common denominator: God’s people removed before wrath hit. God’s people removed before judgment hit. Is not God the same yesterday, today and forever? How in the world could He leave His blood bought church on the earth? When the horrors of the tribulation period hit planet earth? It would violate this paradigm of symbolic parallels. 55:05

You see there at the very end of verse 22 (Gen 19:22) this little city that Lot fled to, it says: Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar… Now, that wasn’t its original name. When you go back and you look at those five cities of the plain, the city we’re talking about in Genesis, 14, verse 2 and verse 8 (Gen 14:2,8) was called Bela. The cities were: (1) Sodom, (2) Gomorrah, (3) Admah, (4)Zeboiim and then (5) this little city called Bela, that Lot wanted to flee to and he effectively prayed that God would spare and when this happened, God changed the name of Bela to Zoar. Names in the Bible are one of the most fascinating things you could study, because when God changes a person’s name, it’s a revelation of their destiny. Simon was no longer called Simon but Petros meaning stone, speaking of the stability that Peter would become and he wasn’t that at all when God gave him that new name, I can guarantee you that. God says to Abraham, I’m changing your name from Abram to Abraham, the father of many nations. On and on we could go about these different names and this little city that received the grace of God was called Zoar. Why is that? Arnold Fruchtenbaum says:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 326

“Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. It was at this point that the town’s name became Zoar. In the Hebrew text, there is a play upon words. The Hebrew word for little used here is the word meitzar, and Zoar in Hebrew is tzoar. The original name of the city was Bela (14:2, 8). Thus, Zoar became the only city of the five cities of the Plain to survive the overthrow, and only because of Lot’s intercession for Zoar.”

It was named Zoar because in Hebrew, that name sounds very similar to the Hebrew word small. Lot when he interceded for that city says, is it not small? Verse 20 (Gen 19:20), twice and so when God renamed it from Bela to Zoar, he named it after Lot’s prayer request. I mean, isn’t that an amazing thing that when you pray, God can spare your life, He can rearrange your life, He can spare a whole city and He can give a city a whole new destiny named after your prayer request. I mean, this is stunning to see the grace of God here, which is a very logical transition into the gospel. Lot had he not been saved, was destined to be swept away. Had it not been for angelic intervention, was destined to be swept away in judgment and I’m here to tell you that this world is about to experience judgment. That’s the testimony of scripture from Genesis to Revelation. I am not making any of this up, it comes right from this book and God is willing to take people that are careening into judgment and to give them a chance to be spared from His wrath, because Jesus two thousand years ago stepped out of eternity into time and absorbed the wrath of God in our place. That’s what we commemorated at the Lord’s table. Why did Jesus do this? Because He loved us too much to see us fall into the hands of a fiery and terrifying God. He stepped into the line of fire and absorbed the wrath of God in our place. It’s called the penal vicarious substitutionary death of Jesus. Christ’s final words on the cross were: It is finished, meaning there’s nothing else for us to do to experience this grace other than to receive it as a gift. The world of religion will tell you that Jesus did 90 %, you’d better kick in the remaining 10 %. God bought lunch, you’d better leave the tip. That’s not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says it’s done, it’s complete, it is finished, now receive it as a gift or you can’t receive it and the only way to receive a gift from God is by faith which means to trust, to rely upon, to depend upon. The moment a person hears the message and in their hearts their trust rests by itself in Jesus Christ, just like that they are saved. But pastor, you’re not preaching the way they preach on TV. You’re not calling for people to walk forward, you’re not just passing out cards, you’re not talking about emotions. No, I’m not talking about any of that because on this issue, the Bible doesn’t talk about any of that stuff. It just gives you one condition either you believe or you don’t. Either you receive it or you don’t and so our exhortation here at Sugar Land Bible Church, our exhortation to anybody listening online, our exhortation to anyone that might be listening to this archive after the fact, is to receive the free gift of God by faith alone. You don’t have to join a church to do it, you don’t have to walk an aisle to do it, you don’t have to put up a hand for it. You don’t have to fill out a card for it, you don’t have to give money for it, you just trust in it and that’s the gospel, which spares us from the future wrath of God. 1:02

If it’s something you need more explanation on, I’m available after the service. Shall we pray? Father, we’re grateful for this ancient story, historical account really of Lot’s rescue. Help us to understand that we need to be rescued too, we need to be rescued from the slave market of sin and we also, even as Christians, need to be rescued from all kinds of problems that we have. I just invite you in the lives of anybody listening to do a great rescue operation today. Bring many, many souls to saving faith in your son and as we walk with you this week, we invite you to continue to rescue your people as you did Lot from the transitory and difficult problems of living in the devil’s world. We’ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen