Genesis 079 – From Riches to Rags

Genesis 079 – From Riches to Rags

By Dr Andy Woods – 05/22/2022

Genesis 19:30-38

 

Well, good morning everybody. Let’s take our Bibles this morning, if we could, and open them to the book of Genesis chapter 19, and verse 30 (Gen 19:30). The title of our message this morning is “From Riches to Rags.” From riches to rags. We, as you heard the verses being read earlier, are at the very end of the Sodom and Gomorrah account and the whole story sort of ends in a sad note with, as you heard earlier, Lot’s incest and so here’s an outline that we’re going to follow this morning as we try to navigate our way through a section of scripture that most people probably wish wasn’t there.

Lot’s Incest Genesis 19:30-38

1. Lot’s departure (Gen 19:30)
2. Daughters’ plan (Gen 19:31-32)
3. 1st born’s execution (Gen 19:33)
4. 2nd born’s execution (Gen 19:34-35)
5. Result (Gen 19:36)
6. Moabites born (Gen 19:37)
7. Ammonites born (Gen 19:38)

We have verse 30, Lot’s departure and notice if you will Genesis, 19, verse 30 (Gen 19:30), it says: Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar; and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters… So you know the story from the way we’ve taught it in our prior session that Lot fled or asked God to flee to a little city, whose name eventually was changed to Zoar which actually means little and Lot actually pleaded as he knew that the judgment of God was coming on Sodom and Gomorrah, there were five cities actually marked for destruction. Lot pleaded with God to flee to this little city named Zoar so that he could be safe there.

He did not feel safe in the mountains and the Lord by grace answered his prayer request, it’s a sign of God’s grace in the midst of judgment. God spared this city of Zoar and Lot fled there for his life. It says there in verse 30 (Gen 19:30): … and he stayed in the mountains… Now, where are these mountains? The mountains we believe are actually in what we would call modern day Jordan.

The mountains, it says, a mountain chain, and we believe that’s where those mountains were because Moab and Ammon that’s where they dwell historically. Moab and Ammon are going to come out of this incestuous relationship that Lot had with his two daughters. It’s sort of interesting that originally he didn’t want to go to the mountains. He wanted to flee to Zoar, but now he’s not content anymore in Zoar after the judgment falls and he goes to the place where God told him to go originally to these mountains, which would be east of the Jordan River in what we call modern day Jordan. You’ll notice that as Lot makes his way from Zoar to these mountains, it says, his two daughters were with him. Now his married daughters or those engaged to be married were swept away in the judgment, the only survivors in Lot’s family of this terrible destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah were Lot himself and his two virgin daughters. As we have taught, there were probably about ten or so individuals in Lot’s family. Only three of the ten were survivors and so this is sort of a picture of what sin does. People say well, if Lot is a believer and Lot survived the destruction, what does it matter about going back into sin? Well, you can see here that he paid very dearly for his choices. Right down to seven of his ten family members were swept away in judgment. In fact, you remember in the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, Lot tried to get through to them and tell them to leave this wicked city cause the judgment of God was at hand and, I believe it’s verse 14 indicates that they thought he was jesting. So we have really no pulpit to preach from because his lifestyle didn’t match his position and Lot paid dearly for moving back into sin. There are many consequences he experienced, not the least of which his seven out of ten family members are dead. Lot alone is a survivor along with his two virgin daughters and it sort of reminds us of the global flood that we read about earlier in the book of Genesis, where the New Testament, particularly the apostle Peter in 1st Peter, 3, 20 (1 Pet 3:20) and 2nd Peter, 2, verse 5 (2 Pet 2:5) says of that worldwide flood only eight people survived it. 5:55

So why did Lot flee? Well, he was afraid to stay in Zoar. It says: Lot went up from Zoar, and stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him; for he was afraid to stay in Zoar… Why was he afraid? Well, there’s a lot of reasons. He may have reasoned to himself that God had originally marked Zoar for destruction and who knows, the Lord may make good on His promise one day and destroy Zoar so I’ve got to get out of here and flee to the mountains. The land, as a result of the destruction that happened in Sodom and Gomorrah, became sort of what we might call destitute. It wasn’t good anymore for agriculture, it wasn’t good anymore for crops, it wasn’t good anymore for farming. Going back to verse 25 (Gen 19:25), it talks there towards the end of the verse about how what grew on the ground was affected by God’s judgment. So that may be another reason why he wanted to leave Zoar, but the fact of the matter is he wasn’t comfortable in Zoar anymore, although God had given him grace there and he fled, most probably, east of the Jordan River to this set of the mountains. The only people with him were his two virgin daughters and it says here, it’s very interesting, at the end of verse 30, he stayed in a cave. He and his two daughters. It’s sort of interesting that every time you look at the Bible it says something that contradicts the theory of evolution. You know what evolution is?

From the goo to you by way of the zoo, there we go. Over millions of years and evolution basically says man in his primitive state was a cave dweller and then as man sort of evolved and became more sophisticated, then he became a city dweller. Isn’t it interesting that your Bible is saying the exact opposite? Humanity started off in a city. Genesis chapter 4, verse 17 (Gen 4:17) talks about how Cain was building a city, man started off at a very sophisticated level and then eventually became a cave dweller. So biblically we’re going from a city to a cave dweller. Your text books on the theory of evolution taught in the school system will say, no, man started off as a cave dweller and became a city dweller. So at some point you start to see these contradictions and you have to figure out what am I more impressed by? God’s word or a theory that says from the goo to you by way of the zoo over billions of years. As for me and my house, we’re going to stick with the Bible, Amen? So he dwelled in this cave. Now, dwelling in a cave is a huge downgrade for Lot, because Lot was very wealthy. Genesis chapter 13, and verse 2 (Gen 13:2) says: Now Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver and in gold… So Abraham was a wealthy man as early as Genesis, 13 and then Genesis chapter 13, verses 5 and 6 (Gen 13:5-6) says: Now Lot, who went with Abram, also had flocks and herds and tents… Lot at one time was very wealthy. In fact, his own wealth rivaled that of Abraham, that’s why the two of them had to separate, Genesis, 13, because the land itself was not large enough to sustain both of their prosperous flocks. So Lot before he moved into sin was a man of wealth and you look at his life after he moved into sin and he’s dwelling as a poverty stricken person. Seven of ten family members dead because of the judgment and he’s dwelling in a cave. If this is not an illustration of the downward spiral of sin, I don’t know what is. That’s why I’ve entitled this message “From Riches to Rags”. Sin has a price tag. Satan will never tell you what that price tag is on the front end. But, oh my goodness, when you move into sin and you begin to experience the consequences of sin, you start to see that living one’s life the devil’s way just doesn’t pay the dividends that we’re promised on the front end. Romans chapter 6, and verse 23 (Rom 6:23) says: For the wages of sin is… What? Death. Notice sin has a wage, has a cost. The book of Galatians chapter 6, and verse 8 (Gal 6:8) says: For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption… Proverbs, 13, and verse 15 (Prov 13:15) says: But the way of the treacherous is hard… The way of the sinner is hard. How different it is in the world system when sin is marketed and it’s marketed to us constantly. It’s always marketed to us as the way of liberation. It’s a way to sort of remove the shackles, live your life on your own terms, ignore God’s truth, ignore God’s word, come and join the rest of us, don’t you know that everyone is doing it sort of mindset and as you walk with the Lord through this wicked world system and you see that promotion, you start to think to yourself, well, maybe I missed out on something. Maybe the fact that I didn’t in my youth participate in the sexual revolution, maybe I missed out on something. But talk to the people who participated in the sexual revolution, those that have borne the consequences of their own choices. Look at the long term effects on their lives, physically, spiritually, emotionally, psychologically and you’ll see a very different picture emerge. I can guarantee you that when Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom, which he did in Genesis, 13, and verse 12 (Gen 13:12) and then he actually began to sojourn or live in Sodom, Genesis, 14, verse 12 (Gen 14:12) and then he began to live in the city gates of Sodom, Genesis, 19, verse 1 (Gen 19:1) in Lot’s mind, he probably had no idea that he was going to lose his wealth, lose most of his family and spend his latter years dwelling in a cave, completely beneath his prior station in life and yet that’s what happened to him. Proverbs, 6, and verse 26 (Prov 6:26) it says: For on account of a harlot one is reduced to a loaf of bread… The seduction of the harlot, the seduction of the prostitute. The invitation to participate in sexual activity outside the bonds of holy matrimony. The sexual revolution what a siren’s song that is for so many and in the end what does it reduce you to? It reduces you to a mere crust of bread, a mere loaf of bread and you say to yourself, I wish someone had told me that on the front end before I started making some poor decisions. Well, God is telling you that on the front end. That’s why the book of Proverbs talks about lady wisdom and she is personified as crying out for people to follow her path, enter her house and not follow the path of the prostitute. Oh! Come on Andy, you are being a little melodramatic here, nobody in here is going to be involved in contacting a prostitute. Probably that’s something Lot thought about himself, all he did was look and pitched his tent toward Sodom. You know, the opportunities to look today, look at sin, let sin fester in the mind, the opportunities are unparalleled today. Probably at no other time in human history that I can think of, are there so many ways to participate in sin. I mean, we live in the electronic world where you just double click and there you are. You don’t have to look far for it, you don’t have to look hard for it. It’s right there at your fingertips and as we become clickbait and watch things we shouldn’t be watching, the story of Lot should be calling out to us concerning the price tag of sin, the downward descent of sin, the riches to rags that we can be reduced to by not living life under God’s protective custody and care. 16:30

The book of Deuteronomy, I think it’s chapter 10, I want to say around verse 13, right in there verse 12 and verse 13 (Deut 10:12-13) it talks about how the laws of God are there for our own good. They’re there for our protection. They function a lot like red lights and stop lights and stop signs on any public road. I don’t like stopping at red lights anymore anybody else does. They’re an encumbrance on my freedom. But we all know the end of the story if I just choose to ignore those red lights and proceed according to what’s right in my own mind; that’s how the word of God functions in our lives. It’s there for our guidance, it’s there for our benefit, it’s there for our protection. Lot apparently lost sight of that. So here he is with his two daughters, east of the Jordan River, dwelling in a cave and his daughters now hatch a plan. The plan is described in verses 31 and 32, we’ve got a problem mentioned in verse 31 and then the proposed solution to the problem verse 32.

Notice if you will verse 31 (Gen 19:31), it says: Then the firstborn said to the younger… So of Lot’s two virgin daughters, the older is sort of the instigator here. Verse 31: Then the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of the earth… So the problem is there’s no marriageable men left to marry and if there’s no marriageable men left to marry, then our father’s name is basically going to be blotted out, I should say, from the face of the earth. Arnold Fruchtenbaum of verse 31 says:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 330

“In verse 31b, she expressed the problem: Our father is old, meaning his time is running out for him to be able to produce sons. Furthermore: There is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all the earth. Sometimes this phrase has been misinterpreted to mean that they thought that everybody in the world was destroyed and there were no men left, but that is simply not true. They did, after all, spend some time in Zoar, and so they knew there were males available.”

“Therefore, they were not saying that there were no men left alive anywhere in the world to whom they could be joined in marriage. Rather, the issue was that no men would be willing to marry them, since their survival of such destruction implied that they were somewhat bad luck…” I mean, stay away from those two, because it was Lot and his involvement in Sodom that brought about destruction, they would have said there in Zoar, this city that had been spared… “Twice now, Sodom suffered a calamity…” Now, that’s once in Genesis, 14 and again in Genesis 19 “and both times, Lot and his family were involved.” So that  may mean why these two daughters of Lot express concern about being married… “Furthermore, the married parts of the family were also killed.”

Now Lot did have married daughters or those engaged to be married, they had all been swept away in judgment. So if present tense continues and we remain unmarried then, who will carry on our father’s name? So they hatch a plot. The problem is articulated in verse 1 and they come up with a solution. What is their solution? Verse 32 (Gen 19:32): Come, let us make our father drink wine, and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father… Interesting in Hebrew there, there’s a word play going on. Arnold Fruchtenbaum says:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 330-31

“Therefore, in verse 32, the older daughter came up with a solution: Let us make our father drink wine. The Hebrew word means, ‘Let us make our father drunk.’ She does not merely want him to drink wine, but she wants him to become drunk. Then: We will lie with him. There is a play upon the words in the Hebrew text again. To make drunk… And you can see the word underlined there… and to lie with him… You can see that word underlined, Both look almost identical… Let us make him drunk and then we will lie with him… And if you’re reading this in Hebrew those two words would jump out at you as being parallel words. There is a play upon the words in the Hebrew text again. To make drunk is nashke; to lie with him is nishkavah. “Let us make him nashke and then we will nishkavah.”

Drunkenness leading to sexual immorality, the two words sound almost exactly the same. This may be the reason why the book of Ephesians chapter 5, and verse 18 (Eph 5:18), says: Do not get drunk with wine for that is dissipation but be filled with the Holy Spirit…22:01

It’s interesting the kinds of things that we will do when we are inebriated, when we’re not possessing our rational faculties. Think of all the sins that have been unleashed in the United States of America, because people were in a state of drunkenness. Inebriated, not thinking correctly and consequently they participated in sin. Of all of the things where you can look at it and say absolutely nothing good comes out of it, it’s drinking to the point of drunkenness. I can’t think of anything good that would possibly come out of that scenario. It’s an issue that’s sort of personal to me, one of the members of my extended family was an alcoholic. He would begin his drinking, I don’t know, ten o’clock, eleven o’clock in the morning and by the time the afternoon hours rolled around, two o’clock, three o’clock, he was a completely different person. He was saying things to me, he was saying things to his wife that he would have never said in his right mind and so you’ll notice here that drunkenness is leading to this incestuous immoral plan. In fact, it’s hard for this plan to be even executed unless you bring into the equation drunkenness. This is not our first go round with drunkenness in the book of Genesis. Noah was drunk in Genesis, 9 and that’s where his nakedness was uncovered, you recall, and how that interesting thing happens where Ham and his descendants were placed under a curse because of that whole scenario. You can go back into our archives and catch our verse by verse teaching on that in Genesis, 9. So drunkenness led to that whole strange set of events, a curse on Canaan and here drunkenness is leading to something else. It’s leading to incest which is going to lead to the birth of two people groups, the Moabites and the Ammonites that became perennial enemies of Israel. I just can’t think of anything good when a person gets drunk, that would come out of it and I think the Bible itself testifies to this, but the plot of these daughters relates to a purpose. They want to preserve “our father’s lineage.” We want to preserve our father’s name, because if we don’t get married and don’t have children then that lineage will disappear so the thought process is incest is okay and drunkenness is okay and sexual immorality is okay as long as we are trying to achieve a greater good and here you see the beginning of situational ethics. Ethics are determined by the situation. As long as you’re pursuing a higher good, as long as you think something good is going to come out of it, then casting aside the moral law of God is not a problem. I think it was Machiavelli who articulated that the means justify the end. This is how most of our society thinks, no longer hemmed in by biblical truth, we see some kind of goal that we want to accomplish and if I have to cast aside the moral teachings of the Bible to achieve that higher good, then it’s okay, situational ethics and yet, the Bible in the book of Proverbs chapter 14 and verse 12 (Prov 14:12) says: There is a way which seems right to a man but the end thereof is death… It looks right. It looks logical. It looks like it’s going to accomplish a higher purpose, but when you move outside of the protective care and custody of God and invent your own sexuality and live your life the way you want to live it, if it feels good do it sort of mindset, what will it get you in the end? What will it accomplish in the end? It will bring death. So this is a situation where the worldly thinking of the day had obviously influenced Lot’s daughters to come up with this. It’s interesting you can take Lot’s daughters out of Sodom but you can’t take Sodom out of Lot’s daughters. You traffic for a long time in the world system and you may leave that place of influence where the world system was influencing you and you have a situation where you’re removed from the influence of the world system but the world system that it taught you is still living inside of you and still influencing the way you think. Lot, when he pitched his tent toward Sodom, I can guarantee you he wasn’t thinking about this. He wasn’t thinking of the impact on his family, his two surviving daughters, who after being removed from Sodom, had Sodom and Gomorrah still living inside of them and they came up with this worldly answer to their problem involving situational ethics. You sort of have to put yourself in the shoes of the original audience that would read these words. Those that would read these words would be the Joshua generation, who would be told to go into the land of Canaan and completely eradicate the Canaanites.

Wipe every one of them out. Wipe out the children also, wipe out the women, leave no survivors. Why would God say something like that? Because of chapters like this that talk about the influence of sin. If you let some of those Canaanites live, eventually, they’re going to influence you more than you’re going to influence them. The tale will begin to wag the dog and did that not happen in the life of Israel because Israel didn’t do exactly what God said? They obeyed God, I don’t know, 75 percent in the book of Joshua. In the book of Judges they got about a C plus, I guess, on the test. They killed off most of the Canaanites but not all of them, some of them they let live and exactly what God says would happen, happened. Canaanite thinking eventually seduced the nation of Israel to such a point where God, eight hundred years later, had to remove His nation from the promised land into the Babylonian deportation so they would be purged from worldliness and how different Israel would be had they done exactly what God said on the front end. Had Lot done exactly what God said on the front end and not sojourned in Sodom, his whole life would be different, right down to the value system of his own daughters.

And in the church age, obviously, we don’t go around slaying Canaanites, literally. If you want to do something like that you might need some counseling, I could talk to you afterwards. But there are Canaanites in all of our lives. Sinful habits, patterns, God says under my resources get rid of this, get rid of this, get rid of this, get rid of this, get rid of this and we say, yeah Lord, I’ll get around to that and we postpone what God’s told us to do. You don’t need a big lecture on sins in our personal lives. The moment I begin talking about this, the Holy Spirit already is surfacing things in your mind that the Lord wants you to deal with under His power as one of his children, as a Christian, and the greatest advice we could ever get and receive is: Deal with it today. Deal with it now, don’t excuse it, because the day in the history will come given the potency of sin that the tail will eventually wag the dog, just like the Canaanites influenced the nation of Israel, just like Sodom and Gomorrah influenced Lot and his daughters and they were taken out of Sodom, but you can’t take Sodom out of them and they came up with this plan via situational ethics. 31:51

Lot’s Incest Genesis 19:30-38

1. Lot’s departure (Gen 19:30)
2. Daughters’ plan (Gen 19:31-32)
3. 1st born’s execution (Gen 19:33)
4. 2nd born’s execution (Gen 19:34-35)
5. Result (Gen 19:36)
6. Moabites born (Gen 19:37)
7. Ammonites born (Gen 19:38)

Verse 33 is the firstborn, the instigator of this, executing the plan. Notice what verse 33 (Gen 19:33) says: So they made their father drink wine that night, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose… Now, there’s a lot of commentators that will try to take Lot off the hook. They’ll say it wasn’t Lot’s fault, I mean, after all, he didn’t even know what was going on. I’ll explain in a little bit why they do that. They’re trying to protect something. They’re trying to protect a doctrine called the perseverance of the saints. Meaning that if you are a true Christian, you would never do something like this and they know the verse in 2nd Peter, 2, 7 and 8 (2 Pet 2:7-8) which tells us that Lot was positionally righteous and they have a theology which basically says, a Christian or a believer would never be involved in this and so they kind of make it sound as if his daughters forced him into this and he didn’t even know what was going on. I disagree. The reason I disagree is because why was he drinking with his daughters to begin with? I mean, what kind of parenting is that? By the way, this is the same guy, Genesis, 19, verse 8 (Gen 19:8) that offered his two daughters sexually to a crowd. Now, that’s not exactly a guy walking out the principles of spiritual life and let me let you in on a secret that you’ll never hear from our many of our reformed churches that are very, very Calvinistic, because they’re trying to protect this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints, here’s the truth of the matter: An out of fellowship Christian can outsin an unbeliever any day of the week. You say, Wow, are you getting this from the Bible? In fact, I am. It’s in 1st Corinthians chapter 5, and verse 1 (1 Cor 5:1) where Paul says: It’s actually reported that there is immorality among you and immorality of such a kind that does not even exist amongst the pagans, that someone has his father’s wife… Again, the issue of incest. The pagans don’t even do this, Paul says and it’s very clear in the context that Paul is addressing believers. Whether we want to accept it or not or whether you want to believe it or not, the moment you trust Christ you are dual natured. You have a new nature that wants to please God, but in case you haven’t noticed, your old nature didn’t just wither away and die. It has the same yearnings and the same desires that it had when you were unsaved. It’s just now there’s a conflict and God, don’t get me wrong, has given us the resources in Christ, Romans, 6, Romans, 8, etc… to say no to the sin nature but just because those resources are there, does not mean that the sin nature somehow disappeared. It will be there until glorification. It’s just now you have the ability to tell it no, but it’s there. That’s why there’s all these warnings in the Bible of not going back to it. Nothing good is going to come out of going back to it. As we clearly see through the example of Lot. 35:52

So the firstborn executes this plan and then in verses 34 and 35 the second born sister executes the plan and you don’t think that an older sibling can influence the younger sibling? For good or for bad? Quite clearly that can happen, in this case it is bad, verses 34 and 35 (Gen 19:34). So what happens here on the following day?: The firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father; let us make him drink wine tonight also; then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve our family through our father… We’re doing this for the right reasons. I mean, our motives are pure. The means justify the ends, situational ethics, verse 35 (Gen 19:35): So they made their father drink wine that night… Also, I don’t think this is an involuntary intoxication. I don’t think they’re forcing it down his throat, he’s obviously in a compromised position to even be open to this type of thing, what is: So they made their father drink wine that night also, and the younger arose and lay with him; and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose…  So they repeated exactly what they did with the older sister, this time the younger sister the next night. The book of Hebrews chapter 3 and verse 13 (Heb 3:13) says this: But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin… That expression “the deceitfulness of sin” Why is sin so deceitful? It’s deceitful because when we involve ourselves in sin, the negative crop doesn’t show up immediately. It’s going to take a while making choices like this for the negative crop to come in. But the Bible is very clear that God is not mocked. What a man sows, he reaps. You sow to the spirit, you reap the things of the spirit. You sow to the sin nature, you reap corruption and we get ourselves involved in sin and we say, you know what? Nothing bad happened to me last night. I mean, I went out and went club hopping and got drunk with my friends and did some other things and I’m fine. I’m still the same person. See what’s happened? The sin has deceived you, because you think, no bad consequence immediately, I’ll just go ahead do it again and because the consequence doesn’t show up right then and there we think it’s okay to cast aside God’s moral law one more time. So a second seed goes into the ground and then the third seed and then a fourth seed and then five years pass and you say to yourself, boy was I deceived? Look at what the Bible says you’ve sown to the wind, now you’re reaping the whirlwind. Look at the total mess I made of my life. I wish I’d known on the front end the things I know now on the back end. Well, you got deceived by sin. We got deceived into thinking that if we sin nothing bad happened immediately, so therefore it’s okay to involve ourselves in sin again. Sin is one of the most deceptive things in this regard and nothing bad happened to these daughters so they just did the whole thing again the next night and then there is a result.

Lot’s Incest Genesis 19:30-38

1. Lot’s departure (Gen 19:30)
2. Daughters’ plan (Gen 19:31-32)
3. 1st born’s execution (Gen 19:33)
4. 2nd born’s execution (Gen 19:34-35)
5. Result (Gen 19:36)
6. Moabites born (Gen 19:37)
7. Ammonites born (Gen 19:38)

Verse 36 (Gen 19:36): Thus both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father… And I can only say, praise the Lord that He didn’t have us in this passage on mother’s day, what I’ve done with that? I mean, that was like a near miss, you understand. But you’ll notice here that because of this pregnancy they were with child, with child it says and I want folks to understand something, that the Bible makes no difference between the born and the unborn. Roe versus Wade is now in play again, as you know from the news, because of a leaked memo, oh my goodness, five Supreme Court justices God forbid are going to overturn Roe versus Wade, which only when you understand civics, will kick the decision back to the state governments. Some states like New York and California, I would guess, will continue to have abortion on demand. Other states like hopefully our state here of Texas will pass some restrictions but oh my goodness! I might have to drive across state lines to have an abortion, what an inconvenience! So because of that situation the whole abortion debate has kicked in again and there’s a debate about when does life begin. Folks, if you believe the Bible there’s nothing to debate here. There is no distinction between born and unborn according to the Bible. Now, everybody says, we’ll follow the science. That’s what we’ve heard for the last two years, right? Follow the science. I mean, do we not know how to look at a sonogram? It’s obvious that what’s going on in the womb of the mother is a life. The Ammon and Moab aren’t even born yet. They’re not going to be born until verses what? 37 and 38, but prior to their birth, these two daughters of Lot are said to be with child. If you are a Bible believer, then your mind on this whole Roe versus Wade situation has already been decided for you by God. You’re already pro-life and if you’re not pro-life, then you just decide I’m not going to go with that part of the Bible, because the Bible makes no distinction between born and unborn. Genesis 25:23, which will get to hopefully before the rapture says: The Lord said to her, two nations are in your womb… By the way, there’s a doctor in the Bible, a medical doctor, you know who he is? His name is Luke, Colossians, 4, verse 14 (Col 4:14) calls Luke the beloved physician. Luke would know something about this. When Luke writes the gospel of Luke and he talks about John the Baptist leaping for joy in his mother’s womb, he uses the word brephos for baby, which is the exact same word to describe Christ in the manger in Luke 2:12. Compare Luke 1:41 and Luke 2:12 in the Greek text, as Dr. Luke is writing to us under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and he uses the exact same Greek word to describe born and unborn. In fact, Dr. Luke also recorded these words of Christ, speaking of AD 70: For the days will come upon you when your enemies will throw up a barricade against you, and surround you and hem you in on every side, and they will level you to the ground and your children within you… Your children within you, Luke’s words recording Christ’s words. There is no distinction between born and unborn. I hate talking about this subject partly because whenever I talk about it, I know that there’s someone within the sound of my voice, who has had an abortion or has been involved in an abortion or has paid for an abortion and when that subject comes up, we always have to remember the grace of God. Some of God’s choicest servants that He used greatly, have blood on their hands. Moses would be one. David will be another. Paul would be another. There is no sin beyond the grace of God. God will forgive any sin. But that doesn’t change the fact this is a sin. Every abortion stops a heart from beating. Stops brain waves from functioning and so these two daughters of Lot, prior to the birth of Moab and Ammon are very clearly called here with child, which is common biblical designation for the unborn, because biblically there is no difference between the born and the unborn. Because of this result we now have the birth of the Moabites. 46:14

Notice if you will verse 37 (Gen 19:37), it says: The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab… Now, do you know what Moab means in Hebrew? It means from father. So the name itself implies how this person Moab came into existence through the sin of incest and there’s going to be a lot of negative things in the Bible said about the Moabites and the Ammonites but let me just counter something as fast as I can do it. If your conception came about because of something nefarious like incest or God forbid rape, that doesn’t make you any less loved by God. You’re still a person. God loves you. Christ died for you and I think sometimes in denouncing these sins, we give people that may have been brought into this world through rape or incest, we give them the impression that somehow the love of God is not for them, they’re somehow a terrible person because of something that someone else did. That’s not balanced biblical thinking either. God loves the whole human race. But the Moabites and Ammonites, let me tell you something folks, there’s not a lot of good said about them in the Bible. Why is that? Because they sort of, as the saying goes, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. They sort of imitated the practices of Lot, their father, and those civilizations were known for sexual immorality. The same kind of situation we saw back in Genesis, 9, with the Ham and the Canaanites, God putting the Canaanites under curse. God was not saying, I don’t love the Canaanites, what He’s saying is the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree and they imitated it because that’s what they grew up with. The same sort of lose sexual standard of their parents and it affected an entire civilization, the Canaanite civilization. The same kind of thing affects Moab and it affects the Ammonites. But if you look at the second half of verse 37 (Gen 19:37), it says: The firstborn bore a son, and called his name Moab; he is the father of the Moabites to this day… You have to put yourself in the position of the original audience, the Joshua generation, that would be receiving these words. The Joshua generation is going to sort of move around the transJordan, eventually into the promised land and the first group they’re going to encounter as they do that is a group called Moab and they would need some kind of explanation of where these Moabites came from.

Why are they so wicked? Why are they such God haters? Why are they causing us so much trouble as we’re trying to enter the promised land?

Well, receiving the book of Genesis would help answer that question. It’s not saying God didn’t love the Moabites and the Ammonites, what it’s saying is they became sexually corrupt cultures because the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. They imitated the practices of Lot himself. It’s interesting how the beginning of a nation can affect the rest of the nation. If you look back at America’s heritage, you look at the godliness of George Washington, you look at the Scriptures that he routinely cited and quoted, you look at his love for the Bible, not a perfect person obviously, cause there are no perfect people, but that’s how our country started. It started with a love for God and it’s no wonder that God has blessed our society because of it, but the opposite can happen. You can have a society that sort of begins without a knowledge of God. With even someone like Lot and his daughter’s casting aside God’s moral laws and the Moabites, perennial enemies of Israel, are the result of that and from there you see, not only are the Moabites born but you see that the Ammonites are born. 51:21

Verse 38 (Gen 19:38): As for the younger, she also bore a son, and called his name Ben-ammi… What does Ben-ammi mean? It means son of my near kinsman, is what it means in Hebrew. So Ben-ammi, just like Moab, both of their names indicate their incestuous origin. The names of these two implied a close and inappropriate relationship with their father Lot and you look at the end of verse 38 (Gen 19:38) and it says: he… That’s Ben-ammi… is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day… Put yourself again in the shoes of the original audience, that generation making their way through the transJordan into the land of Israel and how they were harassed by Moab, which would basically be central Jordan and Ammon, which would be northern Jordan. Why are these people groups always harassing us? Why are they, you know, an encumbrance to our entrance into the promised land? Well, you read the book of Genesis and you say, aha! I understand, that’s where those people groups came from. The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. It’s interesting that when you look at Deuteronomy chapter 2 and verse 9 (Deut 2:9) it talks about Moab, one of the sons of Lot. Deuteronomy, 2, verse 19 (Deut 2:19), Ammon, one of the sons of Lot. Psalm, 83, verses 6 through 8 (Psa 83:6-8), it mentions Moab and Ammon, the children of Lot. So they have this plan, they hatched this plan, they probably saw no major consequences to what they were doing based on their situational ethics, but I guarantee you this much, neither these daughters nor Lot himself ever conceived of the negative fruit that would come out of this. They gave birth through this to two civilizations and you go right through the Bible and see this, that were perennial enemies of the nation of Israel. Boy! Didn’t this same kind of thing happen in Genesis, 17?. Didn’t Abraham and Sarah say, Hey Abram! Why don’t you go in and impregnate Hagar, so we can get the show on the road here and we can get God’s promises fulfilled. I noticed that Abram doesn’t argue with her too much there. Hey, great idea! Goes and impregnates Hagar, from that comes Ishmael, from that comes the Ishmaelites and this is where the Ishmaelites settled, they largely became Islamic countries.

Look at the harassment the nation of Israel is facing from that unholy union in modern times. The same kind of thing is happening here with Ammon and Moab. 54:53

Hebrews chapter 11 and verse 25 (Heb 11:25) says or talks about the passing pleasures of sin. I will not lie to you folks, sin is fun. If it wasn’t fun, we wouldn’t do it. But here’s the other side of the story. There are consequences with sin. With sin, you open doors to things you never thought possible. Long term consequences that have a tendency to stick around long after the fading pleasures of sin have passed away. Well, we had a great celebration last night for Andrew Sellers, graduate of high school, graduate of our youth group, heading off, I think, to Texas Tech and you should have heard the exhortation given by our youth pastor to that young man. His sermon wasn’t as long as mine, but he publicly said the exact same thing to him. He talked about, your whole life is in front of you and essentially you can do right by it or mess it up by choices that you’ll start making once you get out from the protective custody of mom and dad and boy! How we need youth pastors like that today, Amen?. I had a youth pastor like that that warned me, I was able to steer clear of a lot of things that probably would’ve swept me into sin had I not had that godly upbringing. The long term consequences of sin. A message that Israel needed to hear, a message that today’s youth desperately need to hear. So, the long term consequences stick around through Moab and Ammon long after the pleasure disappeared, long after this two night rendezvous of situational ethics disappeared, here come the long term consequences and this is how Lot exits the biblical story. I don’t think we hear of Lot anymore in the book of Genesis after this point. This is how he ends. Let me just make a few comments by way of wrapping it up here related to Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah.

The first comment relates to the perseverance of the saints. The idea that if you’re saved, and Lot was as you can see on the screen, and once saved always saved, John 10:27-29, you’re always going to live right.

In fact, in the Calvinistic system the P in that system stands for the perseverance of the saints, if you’re not living for the Lord then you never belong to the Lord. You’re not one of the elect and this is where people get into fruit inspecting or so and so must not be a Christian, did you see what they said? Or just see what they did? Perseverance of the saints most of Christendom today walks under the banner of the perseverance of the saints, I wish I had time to read all these quotes from John Murray, Charles Hodge, John Piper, A. W. Pink, articulating over and over again this doctrine of the perseverance of the saints and I’m here to tell you that as a Christian, you should live right under God’s power, but it’s not guaranteed. There is an unfortunate possibility of being a saved person on your way to heaven but going back to the sin nature. That’s not a good place to be but it’s a possibility. 59:14

In prior sermons, I’ve talked to you through this list of all the people that we know went to heaven that didn’t finish well.

Examples of Old Testament Non-Persevering Saints

1. Noah (Gen. 9:20-23; Heb. 11:7)
2. Lot (Gen. 13; 19; 2 Pet. 2:7-8)
3. Moses (Num. 20:11-12; Deut. 32:5; Matt. 17:1-3; Heb. 11:23-29; Rev. 11:6)
4. Exodus’ generation (Num. 13‒14; Heb. 11:29)
5. Samson (Judges 13‒16; Heb. 11:32)
6. Saul (1 Sam. 28; 31)
7. Solomon (1 Kgs. 11:4, 9-10)

Old Testament example after example after example indicates this and there are many New Testament examples as well.

Examples of New Testament Non-Persevering Saints

1. Untrustworthy believers (John 2:23-25)
2. Non-confessing believers (John 12:42)
3. Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:1-11)
4. Simon the Sorcerer (Acts 8:13)
5. Immature believers at Corinth (1 Cor. 3:1-3)
6. Unrewarded believers at Corinth (1 Cor. 3:15)
7. Disciplined believers at Corinth (1 Cor. 11:27-32)
8. Demas (2 Tim. 4:10; Col. 4:14)
9. Immature believers in Hebrews (Heb. 5:11-14)
10. Seven churches in Asia Minor (Rev. 3:19)

We’re reminded of 2nd Timothy, 2, verse 13 (2 Tim 2:13) which says: If we are faithless, he remains… what?… faithful, for He cannot deny Himself… We do not teach at Sugar Land Bible Church the perseverance of the saints, we encourage the perseverance of the saints but we don’t teach it as an automatic reality. Here’s what we do teach, the preservation of the saints. That if you are a child of God, God protects you in terms of your position and ultimate arrival in heaven. 1 Peter 1:4-5 says: to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you, who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time… Are you encouraged by that? Even when you fall away from the Lord, which could happen, you’re protected in terms of your position. God preserves you, but there is absolutely no guarantee that you will leave this life going out on a banner of spiritual victory. Many people didn’t. They suffer consequences because of it, but it’s a possibility.

Second observation I’ll give you about Lot is he, as I said before, basically disappears from the biblical story at this point and although Lot is long gone, is it not interesting that the negative consequences of his choices continue right up to the present day. Boy, I don’t want to be that kind of person you know, if the Lord tarries and I die, I don’t want my life to have had such a negative impact that the negative consequences continue on even though I’m long dead. I want the opposite to be true. I want the positive fruit and seed that I planted and bore to continue on and on long after I’m dead and whether one or the other depends on our choices today as Christians, doesn’t it? Let me give you a third very fast observation here and it has to do with Sodom is going to be in the Messianic Kingdom, did you know that? Ezekiel, 16 and verse 53 (Ezek 16:53) of the kingdom, God says: Nevertheless, I will restore their captivity, the captivity of Sodom and her daughters… Ezekiel, 16, verse 55 (Ezek 16:55): Your sisters, Sodom with her daughters and Samaria with her daughters, will return to their former state… In other words, before they became depraved and you with your daughters will also return to their former state. All of the negativity that we learn about concerning Sodom and Gomorrah it really is quite an awakening to learn that Sodom and Gomorrah is going to be prominent, restored to her former state in the millennial kingdom. You talk about the grace of God? That’s who God is. He is gracious at the end of the day. Everything we read about the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and then learned that it’s going to be restored to her former state and it is going to be prominent in the millennial kingdom? How could we walk away from this with any other perspective other than that God is a God of grace at the end of the day? A God of righteousness? Yes. A God of justice? Yes. A God of judgment? Yes. All true. But also a God of grace and let me close here with this very last point, since we’re leaving the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. 1:03

There is a sin that can be committed which is worse than what was being committed in Sodom and Gomorrah. Capernaum in the days of Christ was committing this sin. That’s why Jesus in Matthew 11:23-24 says: And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You will descend to Hades; for if the miracles had occurred in Sodom which occurred in you, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless I say to you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment, than for you… In other words, as bad as Sodom and Gomorrah was Jesus in His time was saying Capernaum is worse. You mean there’s a worse city than Sodom? Yes there is, it was Capernaum, why? Because Capernaum saw something Sodom and Gomorrah never saw. They saw the incarnate Christ performing miracles, teaching and they turned Him down and Jesus says, because they saw something Sodom and Gomorrah didn’t see, on the day of judgment it’s going to be harsher for Capernaum than Sodom and Gomorrah. That’s pure Bible folks. Arnold Fruchtenbaum says:

Dr. Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum – The Book of Genesis, 332

“The first reference to Sodom and Gomorrah in the New Testament is Matthew 11:23–24, where Jesus declared that it would be more tolerable for Sodom in the day of judgment than for Capernaum. Although homosexuality is a very grievous sin, an even more grievous sin is having been confronted with spiritual truth, especially concerning the Messiahship of Jesus, and rejecting it. Since so many miracles of Jesus were performed in Capernaum and the people living there rejected Him anyway, it will be more tolerable for Sodom in the Day of Judgment than for Capernaum.”

There’s something that’s even worse than the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. May I apply this a little bit more close to home? If someone is sitting here listening to biblical truth that’s being expounded by the word of God either in the building, either online, either via archiving after the fact and hears this and says to Jesus Christ no. That sin in the eyes of God is worse than what was happening in Sodom and Gomorrah, because Sodom and Gomorrah did not have a completed gospel. They did not have the revelation of the incarnate Son of God and as bad as they were, they didn’t have all of the picture that we have today and so if you say no to Jesus Christ with everything that we have, God says, God help you on the day of judgment. It’s going to be worse for you than it’s going to be for the Sodom and Gomorrah as wicked as it was. 1:07

See, folks, I would love to be a happy preacher 24/7, I really would. Talking about something like this is just outside of my nature. But there is another side to the good news that we are seldom exposed to in modern day evangelicalism and it’s a lot deeper than invite Jesus into your heart, we’re told, and Jesus is going to fix your problems. Jesus is going to give you your best life now. There’s a lot more to it than that. There’s a reason we call saved people saved. What are they saved from exactly? You ask yourself that question? Hey! I got saved, what are you saved from? You’re saved from a fiery indignation, that’s what you are saved from. You’re saved from having committed a sin, which is worse than even the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah had committed. Now that’s a segue way into the gospel, that’s uncomfortable, but it’s pure Bible. We don’t have enough time in life or at this church for me to sit up here or stand up here and give you my own personal opinions about things, you don’t need another opinion. What you need is God’s opinion. It’s not what I say that’s important. It’s what God says. I only have value to you as a shepherd to the extent that I’m faithful to the message of this book. The moment that happens my value to use ceases. With all that being said, today is the day of salvation. Do not gamble with your future. Do not gamble with your eternity. Do not think that, well, you know, if I don’t trust Christ today, I can always do it tomorrow. You’re tampering with something that you probably don’t even fully understand, playing with fire. Our exhortation to everyone is to trust in Christ now. Take God at His offer at face value now. As the Spirit of God convicts people of sin, righteousness and judgment, transfer your trust away from yourself, away from your works and transfer it exclusively into the person of Christ. For probably the most significant reason that you’re saved from this destruction that I’m talking about here. If the gospel is something that you need more explanation on, I’m available after the service to talk. But now having left Lot’s incest, wow, I’m glad that chapter is over, we move into Genesis, 20, the story of Abimelech so in preparation for next week, we would encourage you to read Genesis, 20.

Shall we pray? Father, we’re grateful for your truth, grateful for your word, grateful for even the parts of your word that are a little bit more difficult to swallow and yet you’ve given these things to us for our instruction and our edification. Help us to walk these things out this week. We will be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus’ name and God’s people said, Amen.