10/3/2006
By
Trevor Davis
Lot was a man of God—he was righteous. In a certain point and time in history the scripture declares that God Almighty determined to bring utter destruction upon specific cities because of their grotesque evil lifestyle, pride, idleness and unthankful appreciation for their bounty. It is written in the book of Genesis that this relative of the father of faith Abraham was delivered by God’s angels just prior to the sudden rain of fire and brimstone that eradicated all living in Sodom and Gomorrah. This is an important story for us today because Jesus Himself referred to Lot as an example of the times of His return and the end of the age.
It is important for people to realize that God does
judge. After time passes and God’s
pleas to the masses to turn from their wicked ways are unheeded the Living God
stands up and makes His fury known.
Scripture records how God at various times dealt with wickedness through
drastic measures such as the flood of the earth in Noah’s days, the destruction
of Sodom and Gomorrah in Lot’s days, the judgment of Israel and Judah
throughout biblical history and so on.
It is vital to understand that God does make a distinction
between those who love Him from those who don’t. God makes a difference between those who serve Him and those who
serve their own selves in wickedness. To
reject the enduring plea of God to repent always ends in absolute certain
woe. Every time. God calls to the masses. He sends His servants to voice His
call. He gives dreams and visions that
speak to the inner heart of humanity.
He deals, He pleads, He calls—yet, too often His voice is rejected and
denied.
This is why I speak of this message about Lot. Because, the time has come in our day
similar to the day of Lot when God Almighty has determined to put an end to His
enemies and fulfill the desire of His heart that brings vengeance on those who
have shamed and despised Him. Look
out. The LORD God Almighty is dressed
in battle array seeking for prey those who hate Him. Woe. These are dark and
dismal days as the LORD goes forth making war and shaking all things that can
be shaken. Can you hear the voice of
the LORD? Can you sense His agreement
with these words? What will you
do? This is the hour to call upon the
LORD and humble your soul before His glorious throne. For the LORD Himself does arise to battle. Who will not fear Him when His judgments are
made manifest?
This is a sober message.
The line has been crossed when repentance will not be accepted for
masses of people as a whole. God is
judging nations. This is the hour for
the individual—individuals, by themselves, must call upon the LORD in order to
be saved and escape coming judgment. In
the past, God had given His grace over whole nations and peoples blessing them
with much.
God had given grace and goodness with the hope that He
would be acknowledged in repentance. (Romans 2:4)
But now is the time of judgment as we approach the soon
coming of Jesus Christ.
In the days that the LORD judged the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah, an individual man named Lot found grace with God. A similar kind of grace that Noah enjoyed
being spared as God destroyed perpetually from the face of the earth all living
that were outside the ark. So, as I
speak today of Lot, may you as an individual realize your need and precarious
position as you live in lands that are marked for catastrophic destruction from
God. Will God give you the grace to be
hidden in His presence? Will God give
you the grace to repent? Shall you find
favor with Him to be led out of harms’ way?
You need to go to Him and find out.
Make sure you are right with ‘Him that speaks from Heaven’ and dwells in
the light that is unapproachable. This
message should make you shake.
Why? A true awareness of the
Living God should make you tremble.
As it is written, “The LORD reigneth; let
the people tremble: he sitteth between the Cherubims; let the earth be
moved. The LORD is great in Zion; and
he is high above all the people.” (Psalms
91:1-2)
As we stand in this current era, we stand at the pivotal
point in history that God the Almighty is making bare His Holy arm to reveal
His might in judgment. I write this way
to tell you the truth and not to appease you with charm or false sentiment of
words to no avail. I am telling you the
truth that judgment of God is already underway. It is here. It has
arrived. Have you not noticed the
record-breaking earthquakes, tsunamis, tornadoes, hurricanes, heat, cold, and
solar flares? Just to name a few of the
manifested judgments in the earth…What about the callous religious systems of
Christianity that are in apostasy? They
have all the trappings and props but deny the basic truths of the fear of the
LORD. The erring religious people look
good from the outside but are dead and defiled within just as Jesus has
described a fallen religious world in His day.
Do you notice the eroding of God-given liberties and laws that were the
foundation of the United States of America?
Can you properly discern the prideful leaders with secret agendas ruling
as tyrants in the name of safety? Many
political leaders that are entrusted to govern rule by private advantages for
secret gain. And, also far too often are
driven by woeful lusts like homosexual pedophilia, prostitution and
pornography.
It is time to acknowledge the facts. The grace for space to repent for whole
nations and peoples is past. God is
judging. He is staging systematic
snares of judgment. These judgments
will be fierce and astounding with great and far reaching effects that ripple
throughout the world. The world will
stop and at times and hold their hands over their mouths in bewilderment at the
catastrophic measures that come suddenly. The sad part is though God shows His feelings of hot displeasure
through such displays of choler the majority will harden their hearts and
stiffen their necks against God. What a
foolish thing to do. Will a man strive
against His Maker and succeed?
Lot
lived in Sodom. His wife, daughters and
sons-in-law lived, worked and played in this wicked city in the same manner
that some of us live in wicked cities.
They had neighbors and the children played with each other. Lot and his family waved in greetings with
their neighbors in the morning just as commonly as we do in our
neighborhoods. God sent angels to
destroy both Sodom and Gomorrah but first they were to take Lot and his family
out of the city. Genesis 19 recounts
the story how the men of the city came to the door to ask Lot if they could
“know” the men (the angels). How
perverted. The depravity of the city
was such that the men desired to defile the holy angels of the heavenly God in
such a gross debauchery form of fornication.
Lot, being so vexed by the tenacious threat of the sexual pirates
offered his two virgin daughters instead, oddly enough, in order to fend off
the sex predators.
The
scripture tells us that the two angels that had been sent by God to destroy the
city were inside the house while the wicked lustful men panted threats outside
the house with Lot. The men of the city
were insisting on raping the angels and were going to break down the door just
prior to the angels blinding all the men outside with blindness and pulling Lot
inside the house-- closing the door behind him. The angels repeated strong demands for Lot to quickly get out of
the city for the angels were there to bring destruction. Lot was urged to get his wife, sons and
daughters and leave the city.
When
Lot went and told his sons-in-law that God was going to destroy the city they
though he was joking and didn’t take him seriously. The next day the angels urged Lot again to gather his wife and daughters
and flee the city in order not to be ‘cut off with the iniquity of the
city’. Lot “lingered” and was hesitant
so the angels grabbed the hands of Lot, his wife, and daughters and ‘brought
them out and set them outside the city’. Now that Lot was outside the city that was about to be destroyed
the angels still commanded Lot to ‘flee for your life, don’t
look back and don’t remain in the plain. Go to the mountains! Lest you be consumed!’ (Note
and consider)
Lot
then reasoned with the angels where he would go. Lot was afraid of dieing in the mountains and asked if he could
go to a small city nearby. (Note and
consider) The angel conceded to Lot’s
request and that city he desired to go was named Zoar and was spared the
destruction of the angels.
The
angels commanded Lot again to ‘hurry and escape there, for I cannot do
any thing until you arrive there.’
The scripture declares that as Lot entered the city of Zoar, the sun was
dawning and the LORD “rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and
fire from the LORD of heaven; and He overthrew those cities, and all the plain,
and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the
ground. But his wife looked back from
behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.”
This
is drastic action. But it was warranted
and proper. God is righteous. He is always right. What He has done in the past He will do
again in the future. He is the same and
He does not change. This is why the
wise fear the LORD. This is the beginning
of wisdom. Fear the LORD. Consider the drastic results of Lot’s wife’s
disobedience regarding not looking back to the city they were departing. She became a pillar of salt. Jesus even said, “Remember Lot’s wife.”
This
is important to ponder. As God judges,
and if you are allowed to flee, let not your heart of emotions look back to
that which God is judging. Even though
you may have good memories and experiences, God is saying we are not to look
back to that which He now judges.
Remember Lot’s wife! Understand
that God’s judgments are holy and true.
They are due. They are here.
As
the fire and brimstone fell from the sky pummeling and igniting ablaze the
cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, the plains and the other cities nearby the scripture
says that Abraham, Lot’s uncle, looked from a ‘distance at Sodom and
Gomorrah and saw the smoke of the country smoking as a furnace…’
It
is recorded that Lot later feared to live in Zoar and departed to the mountains
to live in a cave.
Please,
this message is written for you to ponder many things. Your relationship and standing with
God. To sense the soon impending
reality of God’s fierce judgments. To
prompt you to humble your soul and bow toward the LORD in respectful
admiration. Let Him cleanse you from
that which He detests. Consider Jesus
the sacrifice for your sins and allow God to cleanse you as you confess your
sins before His throne. Quickly, make
haste, run to the LORD and get right with Him.
Ponder the story of Lot for it speaks of the end-times that Jesus has
revealed would come. The future of this
age is written out in the scripture.
Read for yourself the itemized list of the signs of the coming of Jesus
Christ. (Matthew 10; Matthew 24; Mark
13; Luke 17; Luke 21)
Understand this:
The first time Jesus came was to save sinners.
The second time He comes is to judge sinners.
The
judgment has begun. Will you yield to
the LORD’s Spirit as He draws you into His presence? Will you accept the showering cleansing blood of Jesus Christ? Or, will you deny the Lord that bought you
and choose rather the showering of vehement fire upon your head?
I
write this message about Lot today for you.
Do you see that God spared righteous Lot from the fiery destruction but
yet Lot was without wife, home, job and lands? There is a cost in serving the LORD and receiving entrance into
the Kingdom of God. For it is
written—“With much tribulation does one enter the Kingdom of God.” But the rewards are awesome and
eternal. Forever true as it is written
in scripture.
_______________________________________________________
Thoughts of Lot:
Remember
and consider these points:
§
Lot was resistant to leave. (Genesis 19)
He
was slow to go.
*(The LORD is
showing me that some of His people think that God will do the same for them and
are not moving. The LORD is telling us that we are not to tempt the
LORD. Thinking presumptuously that God will send
angels to do this or that was the same temptation satan used with Jesus...The
angels told Lot...you have to get out or you will be destroyed.
The same thing is taught in
Revelation about ‘coming out of Babylon’ lest you partake of her
plagues...
Jeremiah 50:28 says those
fleeing Babylon are voicing God's vengeance! (And verse 2)
Jeremiah
51 says come out and don't ‘get cut off
by her iniquity’. It also shows that those fleeing desired
Babylon's healing.
We need to look at this
because Jesus has told us specifically that as it was with Lot...normal life
etc, so shall it be in the days of the son of man. (Luke 17:26-37)
Trevor Davis