Genesis in Biblical Perspective
The Gospel of Christ from Genesis –
The Divine Rescue of the Lingering Lot

Genesis 19:1-19

By Dr. Harry Reeder III

This is a very timely text. I'm going to start by reading through the first three verses and then we'll work our way through the rest of the text as we go through the study. Genesis 19:1-3 says

[1] The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth [2] and said, "My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way." They said, "No; we will spend the night in the town square." [3] But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.

The grass withers, the flower fades, the Word of God abides forever and by His grace and mercy may His Word be preached for you.

There are numerous texts, Old Testament and New Testament that gather up this text, so that we do not miss the lessons from it. Before we work our way through this challenging passage of Scripture, but dare I say very timely passage of Scripture, think of this narrative that God has recorded for us. Our Lord, the Holy Spirit, has recorded this historical event for a very real purpose. Now it's hard not to see that purpose. In fact, it's hard to miss it because there are passages, like Isaiah and Jeremiah that refer to this. Peter refers to it. Luke refers to it. Paul refers to it and there are very clear lessons to learn here.

I'd like for you to think of this narrative like a cloth that has been put together with four threads. Let me give you the four threads to fix in your mind, as we work our way through this text. The first thread is this text informs us of the principle that God's wrath will surely be visited upon impenitent sinners. Very clearly, the New Testament says this was done and one of the reasons was to picture, for us, the sure judgment of Hell upon impenitent sinners. It's not only the principle of God's wrath, ultimately, upon impenitent sinners, but it also included the fact that God's judgment, from time to time, visits cultures of depravity that have risen up in rebellion against Him. Not only is this the principle of His wrath and judgment that ultimately stands before all impenitent sinners, but from time to time, He visits cultures of depravity with judgment.

The second thread is the persistent, unfailing, passionate, unflinching grace of God, which rescues His people. It is the persistent, unflinching, passionate, unfailing grace of God that will rescue the perishing, those who have and will put their trust in Him.

A third thread is that believers, while redeemed, while preserved, while kept by the grace of God, may, from time to time, make bad decisions in life that give them conflicted lives, compromised lives, and even bring destructive consequences to others around them through their lives.

A fourth thread is God has woven for us a picture when a people rise up in rebellion and depravity against Him. What does a culture of depravity look like? The portrait is put before us in this text. It is challenging, to say the least, to me, as I look it and then think of my own point in time in history and my own culture. Those are the four threads we will see here.

Let's look at the text for this study. It's an interesting passage. They arrive on the evening. That morning they had table fellowship. They had a marvelous time with Abraham, the Lord, a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ, and two angels appearing as men. They had risen up that morning to come on the mission of the investigation and judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah and the remaining cities of the plain. As they went up to leave, Abraham stood in front of them, when he found out what they were going to do, to intercede with them, to stop them from going. Then he went through the exploration of saying, is there a way that God can be righteous and still be merciful to those who are sinners against Him? After his intercession, Abraham went back to his home and then the Lord and the two angels then descended into the Valley of Siddim. As they descended into the lush, marvelous Valley of Siddim, they were going there to the five cities of the plain, particularly to visit Sodom and Gomorrah, the two leading cities. They are now on their way.

Clearly the Lord has sent ahead the two angels and so they have arrived in Sodom. Sodom is very much like most of the cities of the Middle East. There is a city gate there. When you walk into the gate, there is an immediate opening, like a plaza. There is a city square where the elders would usually be seated, and therefore the judges of the city. There they encounter Lot. They have rapidly moved on from the morning. They have arrived that evening. There, they see Lot. Lot is not only there in the gate of the city, sitting among the elders of the city, clearly having a position of influence, but even more than that, he now has a house in that city. He obviously has learned his lessons well. We would call it Christian hospitality. He is insistent. "Let me show you hospitality. Come into my home." The angels say, "No. We will sleep tonight in the town square."

At that point, his insistent hospitality takes on a greater fervor and pitch. He even gets more fervent about it. In fact, notice in Genesis 19:3, it says, "He pressed them strongly." It's a Hebrew-ism that actually means he manhandled them. In other words, he probably reached out with his hand and grabbed their arm. We would call that today that he twisted their arm. He twists their arm to come stay with him. He may have even literally done that as he reached out to them. You see, Lot knows the danger if they are unprotected in the town square that night. So he now presses them strongly to come into his home, not only for hospitality, but something he knows that they need, and that is the safety of his house. They do follow him and just like Abraham did for them up at the Oaks of Mamre, he puts a feast before them. He feeds them. He washes their feet, and he takes care of them. So he extends this hospitality.

He's not through yet with his duty of hospitality because we move now from the arrival of the angels to the assault of the Sodomites. Genesis 19:4-5 says [4] But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. [5] And they called to Lot, "Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them." In the context, that's a word in the New Testament and Old Testament and both tell you exactly what they're talking about. This is not "know" in the sense of intellectual approbation of them, but to know them intimately. This is the word for sexual intimacy. So you can see what their purpose is by the way Lot will try to forestall their purposes. So they have

surrounded the house. They call out to Lot, "Where are the men, that we may know them?" Let's continue. Genesis 19:6-9 says

[6] Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, [7] and said, "I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. [8] Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof." [9] But they said, "Stand back!" And they said, "This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them." Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down.

Here is this assault. What has happened? The Sodomites, both young and old is obviously pervading the entire culture. That's why the phrase young and old is there. They have come and they see men that are with him, and so clearly they are intent upon what the name of this city will bear from then on, and that is the sin of homosexuality. More than that, it has descended to the point of a rape of these men and a gang rape of these men. That is what is being proposed, as they surround the house and begin to press into the entrance.

Now Lot steps out. He steps out and puts himself at the point of danger, even to the point of shutting the door behind him. He shuts the door behind them. He stands to this mob that is intent on this gang rape of homosexuality. As he stands against them at that particular point, as they are pressing against it, we see courageous Lot. Then all of a sudden, the courage of Lot is eclipsed by this craven proposal to satisfy their lust of sexual promiscuity and perversion, he says, "I have two daughters who are not yet married. I will give them to you. Only do not harm these men under my roof." That only inflames them. They then begin to say, "You who came to sojourn, you now sit as not only a judge in our city, you see yourself as the judge among us and you would judge what we want? You would speak to our culture of what we want to do and how we want to occupy our time tonight, in the midst of these men? Who are you to do that? Now what we will do to them, we will do to you even worse." So the sexual promiscuity and perversion is now doubled with a militancy and a violence that's being declared. It says they pressed against Lot. Clearly some struggle is now starting.

Let's look at a third section in this text, and that is the angelic rescue that takes place. Genesis 19:10-22 says

[10] But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. [11] And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door. [12] Then the men said to Lot, "Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. [13] For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the LORD, and the LORD has sent us to destroy it." [14] So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, "Up! Get out of this place, for the LORD is about to destroy the city." But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. [15] As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city." [16] But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. [17] And as they brought them out, one said, "Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away." [18] And Lot said to them, "Oh, no, my lords. [19] Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. [20] Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!" [21] He said to him, "Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. [22] Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there." Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

So here, Lot is pulled into the house. The angels reach out, and they rescue Lot. The ones he was protecting now become his rescuers. They reach out, and they pull him in. Now they unfold for Lot their twofold mission. One is to destroy the city. The other in remembrance of the intercessory prayer with Abraham, is to secure their safety. You see the family in the covenant here again, as it's not just to Lot the Righteous, as he's called in the Scripture, but it is also extended to his family. "Get your sons-in-laws. Get your daughters. Get your children. Get all that belong to you, and get out of this place now." So Lot goes back out into the crowd, and he speaks to his sons-in-law, who were clearly among them. His sons-in-law look at him with bewilderment, thinking, "Judgment? Wrong? Evil? Sin?" They think he's just joking. Now instead of Lot, his sons-in-law, his wife, and daughters, now it's just down to four – Lot, his wife, and his two daughters.

They are told three things. Flee the city. Don't stop, and don't look back. They go out from the city and then Lot, who has lingered, now lingers again. It's interesting. He is on the verge of a judgment that's about to fall. He has been rescued. Here's a mob that would devour him, and God's judgment is about to fall but still he lingers. Even as he leaves the city, he stops and negotiates. Instead of going to the place of safety, trusting in the strength that the Lord would provide to get there, he says, "Look. You've been gracious to me." He acknowledges, "I'm a trophy of grace. Now I ask you to extend that grace, in light of my inabilities and my weakness, that this will not overtake me, and let me go to this little city. It's just a little city." Zoar means "little." "It's just a little city. Let me go there." He extends the grace to him and says, "I'll give you that favor too." Lot heads there, and they tell him, "Don't look back. Flee and get there because the Lord is going to destroy Sodom but he will not destroy Sodom until you are in the place of safety."

The story is not ended. There's another little piece of it because the four are now going to be reduced to three. Genesis 19:23-29 says

[23] The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. [24] Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. [25] And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. [26] But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. [27] And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. [28] And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. [29] So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

Now Lot's wife goes beyond Lot's lingering. Lot's wife stops and looks back. The judgment that fell upon Sodom with everything that grew and to all the inhabitants now also falls upon her and she receives the same judgment. Abraham sees what has happened, as he looks at the smoke rising. The Lord has now brought judgment and in concert with Abraham's intercession has rescued Lot and, now, just his two daughters. The sons-in-law are gone. The wife is gone. Now the two daughters are left.

The lessons here are enormous. The Scriptures speak to them very powerfully and very clearly. I want to give you a couple of takeaways here. The first one is the sin of Sodom. The Scriptures make it clear, not only in the narrative, that the sin of Sodom is homosexuality, that God sees that not as an alternative lifestyle, but an act of rebellion against the law of the Creator. In fact, He will gather this data up and homosexuality will be put in Leviticus 19, along with bestiality and incest, as capital crimes that are not to be named among his people. He shows His very clear judgment and declaration of the pernicious evil of such practice and its destructiveness. He makes it abundantly clear in Leviticus 19. Isaiah and Jeremiah also comment that not only is there the sin of homosexuality, but Sodom and Gomorrah had become lavishly acculturated with everything that they needed.

Now it is perhaps with this text in mind that the sin of Sodom and the culture of depravity are described for us by the Apostle Paul. In Romans 1, the Apostle Paul gives you the profile, gives you the theological paradigm that is placed over the historical narrative of Genesis 19. Romans 1:18-32 says

[18] For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. [19] For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. [20] For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. [21] For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. [22] Claiming to be wise, they became fools, [23] and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. [24] Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, [25] because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. [26] For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; [27] and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. [28] And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. [29] They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, [30] slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, [31] foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. [32] Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

When I was a child, my sister and I used to have the duty of washing the dishes after the evening meal and we would take turns. One would clean off the table and sweep the floor and mop it, and the other would wash the dishes. I never wanted to wash the dishes when we had had a big meal because of what would be in the pots and the pans.

Perhaps you've seen the dishwater, where the grease has now fallen off, and the crust has now fallen off. Then you pull the drain, and you watch it spiral down into the sewer. That's the picture He has just given you – the death spiral of a culture. First of all, you see the idolatry of the creation instead of the worship of the Creator and God gives them over.

What's the first evidence? It is sexual immorality and promiscuity. They then exchange idolatry for secular atheism, in which man becomes the measure of all things. Then God gives them up again – a second giving up. This time it is not to sexual immorality and promiscuity but this time to sexual perversion – men with men and women with women. Then as the culture continues in its death spiral, the third evidence is the social approval of all manner of evil, calling evil good and good evil. That is the last step of a culture of depravity. It's all right there. There's the theological description of the historical Sodom and Gomorrah and I would be absolutely remiss if I did not warn you that we are only centimeters away from such a culture today.

The world in sin never stops its death spiral, unless the leaven of grace and truth is introduced with influence, with persuasion, with passion, and with compassion. Lot had no such influence and the depravity of that culture continued, until finally God would have it be in His creation no more. So today you visit the site, and there's nothing growing. It's a wilderness. There's a lake. It's called the Dead Sea. The relics of these towns can be found at the southern end of that sea but they're gone, as the judgment of God fell upon the impenitent sinner and the cultures of depravity.

I want you to see the portrait a little clearer. What does the culture of depravity look like? I have five things to give to you. Number one, the culture of depravity is seen in a descent into militant sexual promiscuity, perversion and violence. When a culture goes into its death spiral, it descends into militant sexual promiscuity and perversion accompanied with violence.

Secondly, when a culture goes into the death spiral, it has a vitriolic disdain of God's judgment. "You judge us? We'll have no judgment. And if you attempt to speak of the judgment of sin..." Notice Lot has not moved against them. In fact, he even called them brothers but when he called into question their commitments and their activities of militant sexual perversion, immediately there is a disdain of any judgment at all.

Thirdly, there is no sense of right or wrong. In fact, good is called evil. Evil is called good. Night is day, and day is night. There is no sense of right and wrong at all, no willingness to censor evil in the midst of the people.

Number four, there is a social permeation and penetration of approval of evil. There is a social permeation of the evil and a social acceptance. What was once unthinkable became thinkable, acceptable, doable, and then universal throughout the culture – great and small, young and old.

Finally, there will be the rejection of the rule of law and the institution of mob rule. There will be the rejection of the rule of law and the substitution of mob rule in its place. Those very points of the portrait, from Romans 1, are so astoundingly close in our own culture.

So who is to speak to it? It is Lot. Can Lot speak to it? Yes. The Bible is clear. Lot is a believer. Now with all the data that's there, I would have had a hard time deducing it but once the Bible tells me, I go back and take a look. Three times in the Bible he is called Lot the Righteous. Let's look at one of these passages in II Peter 2. Here is Lot the Righteous. God's judgment is declared by Peter against all sin and he starts giving illustrations. He arrives at Genesis 19:6. He uses this as an illustration of the judgment of Hell that is yet to come. II Peter 2:6-10 says

[6] if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; [7] and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked [8] (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); [9] then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, [10] and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Here, Peter addresses the same portrait that we have. He shows that in this event, you see the impenitent sinner coming under judgment surely, and even with difficulty, the righteous being rescued in the midst. And the Lord knows how to rescue the righteous Lot.

By the way, Lot acknowledges this. He acknowledges, "I have found favor. I am a trophy of grace." Wherever grace is, there are always some marks. You see them with Lot. We're told that his soul internally was vexed by the depravity that was all around him and he had not totally succumbed to it himself. He still saw that there was a category called evil, and he had stepped up to intercede on behalf of these two men. He still had the virtue of what we would call Christian hospitality, to the point that he courageously put them in the house, shut the door, and put himself out in a point of danger. So he had not totally succumbed.

So here was Lot the Righteous but let me hurry ahead because he's not only Lot the Righteous. He is Lot the lingerer. Here is the example of the conflicted believer who has made the bad decisions in life. Let's look back at Genesis 19, and you can see the confliction of Lot the lingerer. When did we start with Lot back in Genesis? Lot looked to Sodom. Then Lot pitched his tent near Sodom. Now when we get here to Genesis 19, where is Lot? Forget the tent. He's got a house in Sodom, and he has a position in Sodom. The sojourner, although unaccepted by the people, has become part and parcel of the city of Sodom. Lot's residence in Sodom, Lot's selection to be an elder of the city and a judge, is not evil. Abraham had a concern for this city. Abraham, even 15 years earlier, rose up and put his life at stake to rescue these people.

The problem is not that Lot is in Sodom. The problem is that Sodom has gotten into Lot. You can see Sodom has gotten into Lot. You can see his soul is vexed. "I will protect these two men." Yet, you see he no longer thinks clearly. He no longer senses clearly because he can even jump to the sacrifice of his daughters. Now here's the good thing – he's going to protect the men. Here is the evil thing – he thinks evil is the answer to good. "If I become like the Sodomites, I can perhaps appease them and in their sexual perversity, I will appease them with my daughters." But he does not know that the death spiral of perversity never stops. It continues and continues and continues and that only inflames them. Lot then lingers. Lot won't become a sojourner again. "How about the little city? It's just a little one..." and he takes the grace that's been extended, and uses it as a request for license to remain in such a city. It's just a small place of sin. So Lot is conflicted and compromised.

Then there is Lot's wife. Lot's wife cannot be dismissed either. In fact, the Scripture refuses to dismiss her. The Scripture uses her to tell us something. Let's look at Luke 17. Here Jesus is telling us about the end of time, the final judgment and all that is to take place. He reaches back to the historical event of Genesis 19. Luke 17:28-32 says

[28] Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, [29] but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all—[30] so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. [31] On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. [32] Remember Lot's wife.

Here, Lot's wife becomes the example of what John will say. There are those among us who go out from us, showing that they were never really one of us. We hear the very words of our Savior: "No man putting his hand to the plough and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of God." Now we find out that Lot's wife, along with his son-in- laws and, in our next study, his daughters, have all come into the bounds of God's gracious favor, but have said 'no' to His covenant mercies and they have longed for the culture of depravity. Stop and look back. Therefore, it shows that she rightly receives the same judgments as those at Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain but the thing that breaks our heart is that Lot's sons-in-law think he's joking when he talks about judgment. His wife takes his lingering, and she goes back. His daughters will take his craven proposal of them to satisfy perversity and come up with their own incestuous perversity, thereby producing the two nations that will be the biggest enemies of God's people. Lot is the conflicted man, and the compromised man. The decisions have now not only conflicted and compromised his influence in the city of Sodom, because Sodom is in him, but they have conflicted his own family. They are lost. Lot is saved but his family is lost.

I have two final thoughts. One is that there is no doubt that Lot and Sodom has much to say to you and to me, as believers in our culture. Our culture is just centimeters away from the culture of depravity which include social approval, the redefining of God's creation law of the family, the normative acceptance of those things that God says are perverse and odious in His sight. What is our response? Let me tell you what it can't be. There are two things that God's people tend to do. One is the isolation of self- righteousness. The other is the accommodation of the culture, thinking we will influence it. We must say no to isolation and no to accommodation. You must speak the language of a culture, but you must not live the value of the culture. We must have the Kingdom in our hearts. It can't be the values of Sodom in our hearts. It must be the Kingdom of God and Christ in our hearts. There cannot be any room for self-righteousness. For if not for the grace of God, we would be the proprietors and the propagators of depravity. We have been rescued and redeemed.

Now, God transform us and my heart is breaking because I see the Church today losing its influence, becoming a point of jesting, even as Lot was seeing. I see it today. Somehow, we are thinking that the more we connect to the values of the culture, the more the culture will listen to us. It is not our likeness to worldliness but our love of people in the world and our likeness to Godliness that will attract them to Christ. It cannot be the embracing of the world. It must be the embracing of Christ. It is the distinction that grace makes, as it transforms us. Connect to the culture – yes, but do not be conformed to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

You see, Lot's not thinking clearly. Sodom is in his heart because Sodom is in his mind. He even comes up with Sodom solutions to evil. We must be able to think with a Christian mind, feel with a heart, live with a soul, no divided heart, no empty heart and no double-mindedness, but that cannot be translated into self-righteousness, arrogance and anger. I Corinthians 6:9-11 says

[9] Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, [10] nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. [11] And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

I am listed here. I'm not listed under some of the sins there in I Corinthians 6, but I'm there in I Corinthians 6. So I cannot have arrogance and self-righteousness to those who are still in I Corinthians 6. I must ask God to help me think, feel, and do in such a way that we will be His instruments to rescue the perishing. We must be like Abraham, with a concern for those in the city of depravity, with a connection to those, that we'll even be willing to risk our lives to rescue them. We will intercede for them but we must not be like Lot, and become them to win them. Lot got over assimilated, and now Sodom lived in him.

So I would just merely end with the seven words that are repeated in Genesis 19. It's translated with different words. Sometimes "escape," sometimes "up," and sometimes "flee" but in Genesis 19, it says this seven times – "Flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee, flee." Flee the wrath to come. I sat in services like this for 21 years, as Lot's wife. I had been under the sound, and I had seen the blessings of God but I was always looking back. Did you hear what the passage says? God's grace is sufficient. Such were some of you. Flee and come to Christ. Don't look back. Are there some Lots reading this? We've let the world get our mind and heart, and so we're in Christ, but we're letting the world into our heart and our soul, and we're lingering beside the things that will destroy us. Come and love the Lord with all your mind, your heart, and your soul.

Be transformed by the renewing of your mind. His grace is sufficient. Are you reading this today and you have made Sodom yours? Did you see the message in I Corinthians 6? God's grace is sufficient for you. He can transform you, redeem you and forgive you whether you are thieves, idolaters, homosexuals, effeminates, gluttons or drunkards. He says, "Blasphemers! Such were some of you." There is victory in Christ. Hallelujah! What a Savior! He will forgive you, renew you, redeem you, and transform you. You can have not the death spiral in this life, but the life of being caught up into glory in Jesus Christ. Flee. Flee. Come to Him. Let's pray.

Prayer:

Father, thank You for the moments that we could be together in Your Word. Thank You, Father, for Your grace and mercy that's abundant and free. Lord, we're not talking about fleeing to morality. We're not talking about fleeing to another city. We're not talking about fleeing to self-righteousness. We're saying, "Flee to Christ." If the Lord blessed Abraham's intercession, how much more the intercession of Christ is ours. The Lord remembers the prayers of His Son, our Savior, who ever lives to intercede for us. Christ alone. Lord, if there are some reading this like Lot's wife, some like Lot – believers, but lingering, some like the Sodomites, caught in the death spiral of sin – God, give eyes to see and ears to hear. To those of us who know You, may we say "no" to self- righteousness and arrogance, "yes" to humility and graciousness, and "yes" to standing firm in Christ and for Christ, to take captive every thought unto the obedience of Christ. Thank You for grace that's sufficient to rescue, to redeem, to keep, to transform, and to bring to glory through Christ our Lord, Christ alone. Amen.