An Angelic Warning

Introduction

When we behold the wonders of creation, the falls of bloom, the ring of fall, the space of star, and us perpetuation we cannot tell that God control it all.

No fine by mortal calculation could bring my truth revealed with his work in every trace of nature’s operation.

Some days are filled with joy and expectation. Some days are dark with as we are beside. And eyes of joy for us of tribulation.

Yes, I believe. Yes, I become the I see unseen I saved.

Good morning to everyone. Welcome our visitors. Thank you for coming. This book we hold in our hands, the Bible. How reliable is this message? Can we trust what it is telling us? Does God really mean what he says? Of course, the answer to that question for those of us who have studied it from cover to cover is absolutely yes, but there is a story in the Old Testament that definitely affirms God means what he says. And it’s the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah was exceedingly great, according to God in Genesis 18 and verse 20. Their sin is exceedingly grave, he says in chapter 19, as the story concludes in verse 27. Now Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley. And he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land ascended like the smoke of a furnace. You might recall that Abraham interceded on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. Peradventure there be 50 righteous souls. Would you spare the city? Abraham has been visited by three men, three angels. Two of them have gone on, it seems, to visit Lot in the city of Sodom. And perhaps through the last angel, this communication takes place. If there are 50 righteous souls, will you spare the city? I’ll spare it for 50. They’re not 50. Will you spare it for 45? Yes, I will spare it for 45. 40, yes. And then Abraham starts going by tens instead of fives.

If there are 30, if there are 20, if there are ten righteous souls. I don’t know why. The discussion, the dialogue concludes at 10, but it does. Not 10 righteous souls in the city of Sodom. Judgment cannot be avoided. The two angels that come and visit Lot in the city are content to stay the night in the open square, and Lot says, You must not do that. And it soon becomes apparent why? Because the men of the city come and they want to have relations with the two visitors, showing the despicable nature of what is going on in Sodom, much like Gibeah of Benjamin, as we studied in the book of Judges. Horrible behavior. And they were pressing, and Lot offered his two daughters, which shows his weakened spiritual and moral condition of having lived in the city of Sodom and having pitched his tents toward Sodom when he and Abraham parted because of the strife between their herdsmen.

He eventually found himself in the city of Sodom. And so the angels pull Lot back inside the door and shut the door and strike the men with blindness, so that they cannot find the door, and so Lot and his family are safe for now. And in Genesis chapter 19 and verse 12, the men say to Lot, Whom else have you here? A son in law and your sons and your daughters, and whomever you have in this city, bring them out of 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. And Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law. They were at this point merely betrothed to his daughters, but soon to be fully married.

But they were under contract in that they were sons-in-law at this time, who were to marry his daughters, and said, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city. But notice this.

And as we studied this morning in our auditorium class in the book of Zephaniah, God’s judgment upon sin is no laughing matter. It is no joke. And yet to the sons-in-law, those young men betrothed to his two daughters, he appeared to be jesting. You’ve got to be kidding me. Surely not. Sodom of all the cities in the world, God’s going to destroy us. Are you kidding?

So many people today respond similarly to Lot’s sons-in-law. Surely not. As was mentioned in our Bible class, the subject, could God, a loving God, really send someone to hell to experience eternal torment? And yet, those who have res who have spurned God’s love and rejected his grace, that’s the only possible result. Jesus said more on this subject than any other spokesman of the New Testament. Gehen a hell, fire reserved for the devil and his angels, and all those who are the goats who will not be righteous. Surely not, people say. Surely not. And you mean to tell me that even some who claim to be religious and serve Jesus, that they’re going to be lost? You mean there are people who are worshiping today, who are singing hymns of praise to God, that some of them are going to be lost.

Not everyone who says unto me, Lord, will enter into the kingdom of heaven. But he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven, Matthew chapter 7 and verse 21. And they will say to me in that day, but we knew you. You walked our streets, drank in our presence. I mean, we know you. And he says, I never knew you. You who practice lawlessness. Every plant not planted by my heavenly father shall be rooted up, Jesus says in Matthew 15 and verse 13. He said, Leave them alone. The blind follow the blind and both fall into the ditch. Matthew 15, 13 and 14. These will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and the glory of his power.

Those who do not know God and who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, verses 7 through 9. And yet people are saying, surely not. You mean it matters that I have unscripturally put away a mate, that God cares about that? And that I marry someone else? Doesn’t he want me to be happy? You mean there are marriages that God doesn’t approve? That the very basis of those unions God considers adultery and treachery. What therefore God is joined together, as I said yesterday. Let no man separate. A man and woman are bound together as long as the other lives. And if one is joined to another man, if she is joined to another man, she shall be called an adulteress.

Romans 7, 2 and 3. That’s the principle. One man, one woman for life. You mean there is such a thing as unapproved marriages before God? Absolutely. You mean God expects me to be different from the world? To refrain from intoxicating beverages that so many consume and think are the stuff of life? You mean I can’t walk where sin’s allurement is? That I can’t be immodest like so many others are these days? You mean I can’t just watch everything else that everybody else watches? Every hit movie and hit show? Because of the objectionable content within it? You mean God holds me to a standard of holiness? Surely not. Without holiness, no one will see the Lord. Hebrews chapter 12 and verse 14. Oh, yes, surely. God’s judgment upon sin is no joke.

But what is amazing in this story is God’s amazing mercy toward the righteous. If you go on reading in Genesis chapter 19, after Lot makes that appeal to his sons in law, and the next morning dawns, the angels urge Lot up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. And yet it says in verse 16, Lot lingered. Lot hesitated. The scriptures call Lot a righteous man who was vexed by the ungodly deeds of those around him. He was tormented by it. According to 2 Peter chapter 2, verses 7 through 9. And we see that when he says, My brothers, don’t act wickedly. When he tells them that what they are wanting is wrong.

Don’t act wickedly. He is vexed by the unrighteousness around him. But even though the angels have come and said, look, God has sent us here to destroy this place, look, it’s time for you to get out. You grab your wife and you grab your girls and you get out of here. It says Lot lingered. That is a powerful message. Our surroundings can have a much greater effect upon us than we realize. Should we not see ourselves in Lot’s last minute struggle to leave the city of Sodom? His last minute struggle to forsake the world. What astounding mercy. The angels urge, they grab the hands of Lot, nearly dragging him out of the city. And then a threefold angelic announcement follows. And that’s what I want to talk to you about this morning in Genesis 19 and verse 17.

1. Escape for Your Life

The angelic warning that is given in that verse. And it came about when they had brought them outside that one said, Escape for your life. Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains, lest you be swept away. The threefold angelic warning. The first response in the message was escape for your life. The angelic message is you’ve got to get out of here now. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah possessed no sense of urgency. So often, in regard to the message of God, many experience no sense of urgency. We can become complacent and think this is another service. We had another one like it the week before, and not have any sense of urgency, that history is going somewhere, that we’re rapidly being hurled through time and headed toward an inevitable interview with God, that we have no idea the day that it’s going to happen.

Today was the day of judgment on the city of Sodom. And even Lot, who was in the know was hesitating. Sense of urgency. Lost. We are moving ever closer to our final day. Our salvation is nearer to us than when we believed. And each one of us will give account of ourselves to God. Romans 13, 11 and 14, 12. I posted on Facebook on Friday. My little girl is getting married tomorrow. Am I ready for this? Got more responses to that than anything I think I’ve ever posted. People all over the place. I believe one of the responses was Jerry Wold, your cousin. And Julia’s cousin from Louisville. But all of the people who have known us in the past in places that we’ve been, like Beaumont and Louisville, it’s like, wait, Shelley’s getting married.

Is she old enough? You know, what in the world has happened? We move so quickly through time. And maintaining a sense of urgency is so important and yet so challenging for us. There’s going to be another day, right? And another day after that, and we’re going to live to a ripe old age and retire in a wonderful retirement community where everybody serves us like kings. That’s what goes on in retirement communities these days. In 1 Thessalonians 5 and verse 2, we are reminded of this lack of urgency and sobriety. He says, the day of the Lord is going to come like a thief in the night. And while they are saying peace and safety, that’s what the sons-in-law of Lot were saying. Peace and safety. What are you talking about?

And then comes sudden destruction. Like birth pangs upon the woman with child. Any of you know about that? Going into labor, some of you are about to experience it for the first time. And it’s going to happen suddenly. And they shall not escape. Escape for your life. Look, residing in sin is peril. And yet people often don’t perceive it or realize it. It’s like those scary movies that you see. Where there’s some monster out in the lake, you know, and they’re in the boat, and they’re just rowing away, fishing, oblivious. And you see things from the perspective of the monster or the shark. Donna, dunna. Here he comes. And you’re at the camera, is the monster or the shark. And that poor, unsuspecting sap is about to be eaten.

I don’t know why we like that.

But that’s what he’s talking about. That’s the kind of thing, a lack of sobriety, a lack of awareness of what’s coming. Your life is at stake here. Listen, he says, escape for your life. And it’s not just your physical life, it’s something even more valuable. It is your spiritual life. And do we realize what God’s offer is to us? Do we realize that in sin we are imprisoned? And that he offers to us wonderful freedom and emancipation and a quality life. Godliness is profitable for all things, having promise of the life that now is and the life that is to come, and the stimulating worship that we can experience together as we find ourselves in fellowship with God and his people. We have escaped, folks. We have escaped for our very lives.

2. Do Not Look Behind You

And how blessed we are as his people. And once we have escaped, the second part of this angelic message is do not look behind you. Once you get out of here, do not look back. Be resolute in your determination to leave.

We had melons and leeks and cucumbers and onions. We had bread. It was awesome back there. What? Y’all were making bricks. God heard your groaning. Exodus chapter 2. And yet now they’ve overglorified the whole thing. We had it so much better back there when we weren’t eating manna every day and traveling all this distance. What? How quickly they had forgotten. Do you see any similarities? Aren’t we often tempted to do the same? Do not be conformed to the former lusts, which were yours and your ignorance. Don’t long for that stuff anymore. You weren’t smart back there. When you were living life without the Lord and without holiness, as we’ve already talked about, that wasn’t a better way of life. And yet sometimes as we’ve gone along the journey of holiness, we’ve decided I’m missing out.

I want some of that back there. And Peter says, you’re not being very smart when you do that. Do not be conformed to the former lusts which were yours in your ignorance. That wasn’t smart back there. That wasn’t wisdom. And you want to go back, oh, we had it so much better in Egypt. And so we want to go back to the immorality that once gripped us, or the lack of self-control in profanity with our tongues, or cursing. Let’s be like the world. Where’s the world headed? That’s the message of Sodom and Gomorrah. Why do you want to go back to that? Give it up and never look back. And that’s what Moses’ choice was all about. He refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter.

He decided I am identifying myself with God’s people. Now it wasn’t really God’s time yet to use Moses as the leader. But he said, you know what? I’m going to take my stand with the Israelites and not the Egyptians. There was a cost to that. And there was never going back. He chose rather to endure ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin. And he made the break. And he never looked back. And that’s what we’re called upon to do as well. We can’t put our hands to the plow and look back. We can’t be like sows wallowing in the mire, our dogs returning to their own vomit. That’s how this is described, going back. Well, you know where this goes, don’t you?

The story of Lot. What happened? Lot’s wife did not heed the message. And as they were departing and heading up, she looked back. And she became a pillar of salt. What a way to go. To be a statue of remembrance for some time. I don’t think she’s still there. But for a long period of time, a pillar of salt was a reminder of a life of someone who looked back. Jesus referenced the event in a passage about judgment in Luke chapter 17 and verse 32, when he simply said, You probably know this one. This is like Jesus wept in the New Testament. Remember Lot’s wife. Jesus recalls the history. Did this story actually happen? Jesus says, I mean, if we’re going to reject the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, we’re going to reject Jesus.

3. Do Not Stay Anywhere in the Valley

Because Jesus said, remember Lot’s wife. It’s a real story, folks. I’m going to be talking about Jesus fiction or fact. Friday night in the woodlands in their youth lecture weekend. So, young people, that’s just an announcement for that. It’s fact. It happened. Remember Lot’s wife. Don’t look back. Extra credit if anybody knows the name of Lot’s wife. I know her name. Her name is Dot. Dot rhymes with Lot. You’ve heard that? Well, it’s not, that’s not really her name. The fact is, we don’t know. We do not know what her name was. Isn’t that interesting? There may be a very good reason why her name is never revealed. Because she is one that we are not supposed to imitate. Do not look behind you. And the third part of their warning, do not stay anywhere in the valley.

You’ve got to stay away from everything associated with this place. And the application that we’re to make is that we are to steer clear and to distance ourselves from evil. Stay as far away from that as you can. Realize that there are influences and pressures that bring us in the presence of temptation that make us very vulnerable. The message here is get out of the valley. Too many folks want to live in the valley. Hang out with friends who don’t fear God and who practice evil right in their presence. Going to parties where drinks are consumed. Well, I’m not going to drink. You don’t think that influences you at all or affects your influence with others, or weakens you. Do not stay anywhere in the valley.

Examine everything carefully. Hold fast to that which is good. Abstain from every form of evil. 1 Thessalonians chapter 5, verses 22 and 23. Stop sinning. And be sober-minded as you ought. Paul tells the Corinthians after he says, bad company corrupts good morals. Stop sinning and be sober-minded as you ought. Be sober-minded, be watchful, be vigilant. Oh, yeah, because you have an adversary, the devil, who prowls about like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. 1 Peter chapter 5 and verse 8. We are a people of God’s own possession. What does that mean about the way I’m supposed to live? We were once not a people, but now we’re the people of God. We had once not obtained mercy, but like Lot, we have obtained mercy. I urge you, therefore, as aliens and strangers.

Boy, Lot became an alien and stranger in a hurry, didn’t he? As aliens and strangers to abstain from fleshly lusts which wage war against the soul. Don’t stay anywhere in the valley. Escape for your life, escape to the mountains. That’s bush beer, right? You heard that commercial. Escape for the mountains, head for the mountains, bush beer. That’s not the mountains the angels are talking about. Because that’s in the valley, actually. That’s where we’re not supposed to stay. There’s no mountaintop in alcohol consumption. Only a lack of sobriety. And all the miseries that attend it. Higher things now allure our sight. Better things. Things that accompany salvation, the Hebrew writer said in Hebrews chapter 6 and verse 9. And as the Hebrew writer would go on to say, and talking to people who are struggling with this very thing of looking back, he says, You have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, to heavenly Jerusalem.

Conclusion

And to God the judge of all, and to the spirits of righteous men made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a better covenant. Sin is not to be toyed with or trifled with, and don’t think that a little dabbling in sin is going to be okay or inconsequential. Heed the angel’s message or be swept away. Because in regard to God’s judgment, it’s not a matter of if, but when. And the story of the angelic message and the story of Sodom and Gomorrah suggest that God does indeed mean what he says. And that’s why we can say at the end of every lesson without any hesitation and with absolute confidence, he who believes and is baptized shall be saved. Repent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of your sins.

I guarantee you, folks, if you’ll submit yourself humbly to the will of God and do what I’ve just said, you will rise to walk in newness of life. You’re going to come out of the valley and head toward higher ground. And to the mountains of salvation and life.

While there’s time and opportunity. Let’s stand and sing together.

Will you come? Will you come to the mountain tree? Will you come? Tis for you and me. Thirsty soul thirsty soul hear the welcome call tis a mountain for all There’s a living stream with a Christophly from the throne of life now it flows while the waters roll at the weary so hear the call for freely call Will you come? Will you come to the mountain free? Will you come? Will you come? Tis for you Thirsty soul Thirsty soul hear the welcome call Tis a bountain for all There’s a rock that’s better than the soul is left and may not water shed for you and me and distream I see Let us say some joyfully there Will you come? Will you come to the fountain free?

Will you come? Tis for you and me Thirsty soul, thirsty soul, near the welcome, come, ’tis a fountain hold and moral.