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Genesis 19:6—20:18
00:26:01
Sodom and Gomorrah are on the verge of destruction. At the prompting of angels, Lot grabs his family and runs. When his wife looks back to gaze upon all she is losing, she instantly turns into a pillar of salt. What happens next? Join as Dr. McGee...
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How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is made for your faith in his excellent way.
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The story of Lot in Genesis is better than any Hollywood blockbuster. A man flees a city on the brink of catastrophic destruction, grabbing his family and running for their lives. His wife looks back to gaze upon everything she's leaving behind in a city stained by sin and instantly becomes a pillar of salt. He then escapes with his two daughters, who later deceive him into unthinkable acts to get what they believe has been unjustly taken from them. So what happens next? I'm Steve Schwetz and in this study on through the Bible, our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, walks us through the shocking and sobering experiences of Lot and Abraham, stories that serve as warnings for believers everywhere. Now, are you on the edge of your seat? Well, if so, take a deep breath and relax because God's got this before we get started, though, let me share a few letters from our fellow listeners. First one comes from a listener in Washington, D.C. thanks for the relentless effort of the entire staff to get the Word of God out to all nations of the world. I rejoice in hearing letters read from all over the world of what God's doing and how he's changing hearts and lives through the teaching of His Word, especially in remote areas where the Bible is rare or not easily available or or people cannot read or write. The stories are priceless and very encouraging. I listen daily on my way to work and on Sundays after church service. I learn so much from God's Word and benefit from the continual transformation of my life. I receive the prayer requests and pray for the program often. I also give toward the continual spread of His Word as God grants me grace. Thanks for the Bible bus passes that I prayerfully hand out. Thanks again for all that you do, especially those who travel often to different countries to see the effect and expansion of this great work. God's protection and grace continually be with you. Isn't that an encouraging letter? Thank you so much for your prayers as well as the financial support and for helping us fling that seed. And here's a quick note. This is from Craig who writes, I've been listening since 1990. You were instrumental in my coming to Faith in Jesus as Savior. Thank you for all you've done and continue to do. Love and praying for you always. Well Craig, it is great to hear from you and as always, I'm going to be saving you a seat as we roll along through God's Word. Now, what's your story? Remember, it's Letter month. And we really do want to hear what God's doing in your life as we study his Word together. So just you can find us if you want on social media. That's a way you can look for through the Bible with J. Vernon McGee on Facebook, Instagram and X. And you can always email us@BibleBus tb.org or write to us at Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1. You can also drop us a note in our app or call and leave a message at 1-865Bible. Okay, it's time to get started, so let's pray. Heavenly Father, thank you for strengthening our faith as we study your word, Lord, we ask that you would provide for those who live in challenging places, grow our faith in you as our Savior and provider. And we ask this in the name of our great Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen. Well, we're off to Genesis 19 on through the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee.
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Now, friends, today we return back to the 19th chapter of the book of Genesis. We are going to pick up at verse six. Now, this is the chapter in which we see what we have called an example of blasted Christian life. This is an evidence of what today could happen to many believers. And it does happen to many believers. This man Lot had gone down into the city of Sodom. He did not realize it was the kind of a city that it was, I'm sure of that. But he got down there and found out that perversion was the order of the day. And he brought up his children, his sons and his daughters in that atmosphere. Now, when he looked down there, and you will recall, we saw that he pitched his tent toward Sodom. And he looked down there. He saw the lovely streets and boulevards and parks and public buildings and the folk on the outside, but he did not see what they really were. Now, the sin of this city is so great that God is going to judge it. God is going to destroy the city. Now, let's draw a pretty sharp line here. There is today a gray area where there is a new attitude towards sin today. And it's not really as black as we once thought it was. And the church today is compromised till it's even pitiful. Right now, the press is reporting in Southern California that we have a church made up of those that are homosexuals. And the pastor of the church, lo and behold, is also one. They all admit it. Now, may I say to you the lesson of Sodom and Gomorrah is a lesson for this generation. Now, God's not accepting this kind of a church. The idea seems to be today that you can become a child of God and you can continue on in sin. God says, that's impossible. You cannot do that. And this city of Sodom is an example of that, that you cannot continue in sin. This idea today that you can be a Christian and go on in sin is a tremendous mistake. And especially make light of it, as I judge it's being made in this particular case. Now, that's what they were doing in Sodom and Gomorrah. Now, God destroyed these cities. Now, don't say we have a primitive view of God here. And we have a better one today. Because even after all, Jesus received sinners. He sure did. But when he got through with them, he had changed them. The harlot that came to him was no longer in that business. When she came to God, she changed. That's the thing that happened to other sinners. A publican came to him, and he left the seat of custom. He gave up that which was crooked, and he came to the Lord. Now, I began reading at verse six. And probably I should do it without comment. And Lot went out at the door unto them and shut the door after him. Now the men of Sodom were outside the door asking at these guests that he had that they be turned out to them. Verse 7. And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. That's the way Lot looked at it. And he'd been down there a long time. And it wasn't new morality to him, just old sin. Verse 8. Behold, now I have two daughters which have not known man. Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you. And do ye to them as good is in your eyes only unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. When a man entertained a guest in that day, he was responsible for it. And the thing was that he was willing to make this kind of a sacrifice to protect them. And they said, this is what that crowd outside. Stand back, they said again, this one fella came into sojourn. He'll needs be a judge. You see, Lot was advancing in the political area. There now will we deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, pulled Lot into the house to them and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness. Both small and Great. So that they wearied themselves to find the door. And if they hadn't, of course, Lot and these men would have been destroyed. Because that was the thought of these men. And the men said unto Lot, hast thou here any besides son in law. And thy sons, thy daughters. And whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place. For we will destroy this place. Because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord. And the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out. He spake unto his sons in law. Which married his daughters. And said, up. Get you out of this place. For the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons in law. Now this man Lot here is in a very bad situation. He'd spent years now down in the city of Sodom. He learned to tolerate this sort of thing, although he calls it wickedness. And he saw his sons and daughters grow up. And they apparently married among the people of that day. And when the time came and Lot got this word from the Lord to leave the city. He went to his sons in law. And he said, let's get out of here. God will destroy this city. They laughed at him. They ridiculed him. I suppose they knew that the week before. He had invested a little money in real estate there. And they said, we know you. You are wrapped up in the city of Sodom. This is your home. You have apparently applauded these things and approved of them. You see, this man, out of the will of God in this place is no witness for God. He didn't win anybody in this city. And when you go down to their level friends. You don't win them today either. And that's being demonstrated, I think, in this hour. Now, this man Lot. Frankly, I would have agreed with Abraham that he wasn't saved. But you remember Peter in second Peter 2, 6, 8, says, this righteous man vexed his righteous soul. I tell you, he never enjoyed it down there. Now he's going to leave the city. Can't get anyone to leave with him except his wife and two single daughters. When the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here. Lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the man laid hold upon his hand. From the hand of his wife, from the hand of his two daughters. The Lord being merciful unto him. You see, here's a man that was God's man in spite of everything. And if I only had the book of Genesis, I'm not sure I would believe that Lot was saved. I agree with Abraham. But since Peter calls him a righteous man, and this man had become that way because he had followed Abraham, he believed God, and he had offered the sacrifices. And the Lord being merciful unto him, God had extended mercy to him. And he believes God, and he gets out of the city. Now, it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad that he said, escape for thy life. Look not behind thee. Neither stay thou and all the plain. Escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed. And even Lot didn't want to leave. Lot said unto them, oh, not so, my lord. Behold, now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. Thou hast magnified thy mercy which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life. And I cannot escape to the mountain lest some evil take me and I die. He'd get out of the city, but he couldn't make it to the mountain. And now he says, behold, now this city is near to flee unto in a little place called Zoar. And that's where he went, you see, he came out of Sodom. But this man didn't come clean even out of that. And of course, he got in a great deal of trouble at that particular time. Now, God destroyed the city of Sodom. And we're told two things here. One concerning his wife and the other concerning his daughters. The one concerning his wife is that he looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. Now, that, I think, has been greatly misunderstood. Why in the world did Miss Lot turn and look back? Well, I think the reason is twofold. She turned and looked back. First of all because she did not want to leave Sodom. She loved Sodom. She loved Lot, too. But it was a lot of Sodom that she loved, and she didn't want to leave. I think she was a member of the country club, the Sewing Club and the Shakespeare Club and back. There wasn't a club in town that she wasn't a member of. She just loved these little get togethers in the afternoon. And I'm not sure but what they met and studied religion. They had a nice little religious club. Oh, she was right in the thick of it all, friends. She didn't want to leave. Her heart was in Sodom. Her body walked out, but she surely left her heart there. Now, that is a tremendous lesson for us today. We hear a great deal, and I hear a great many Christians who talk about they want to see the Lord come and they are not living like it on Sunday morning. Why it's difficult to get them to leave their lovely home. And Sunday night, they're not going to leave their lovely home because they love tv, too. They've got a color tv. And they're going to look at the programs on Sunday night because they have some good ones and they want to see them. They're not going to church now. When the Lord comes, friends, you're going to leave the tv. You're going to leave that lovely home. You're going to leave everything down here. I just have one question to ask you. Will it break your heart to leave all of this down here? I asked myself that question many times. I'm not anxious to leave. I'll be honest with you. I'd love to stay. I have my loved ones. I want to be with them. And I have friends, and I want to be with them. And I have this program, and I want to be at that. And I'll be very frank with you. I hope the Lord will just let me stay here. But I also want to be able to say when he does call, I don't want to have a thing down here that will break my heart to leave. Not a thing. I love my home, too. But I'll be honest with you, I'd just soon go off and leave it. May I say to you, Ms. Lott turned and looked back. That's one of the explanations. And then the other is just simply this. Why did she look back? She didn't believe God. God says you leave the city and don't look back. And Lot didn't look back. He believed God, but Ms. Lot didn't. She did not believe God. She wasn't a believer. And so she didn't really make it out of the city. She's turned to a pillar of salt. And I'm not going into the story of the two daughters. That's as sordid as it can be. Frankly, Lot didn't do well in moving down to the city of Sodom. He lost everything except his own soul. And you know, that's a picture today of a great many people that won't judge the sins in their lives and they're saved, but just so as by fire. And you find that the Lord has said in a very definite way to some of these folk that have put all their eggs in a basket like this, God says that if you won't judge your sin down here, he will judge it. And apparently that was the case in Lot's story. Now, I want to leave this chapter. But I want to leave it by looking at Abraham. What did Abraham think of all of this? Well, let me read verses 27 and 28 of Genesis 19. Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Now, when Abraham looked down there, I think his heart was sad. I'm not sure whether he knew Lot had escaped or not. He probably learned about it later on. But when he looked down there, he probably was sad because of Lot's sake. But Abraham hadn't invested a dime down there. And when judgment came, it didn't disturb him one whit. Because he wasn't in love with the things of Sodom and the things of the world. You remember what we are told today. Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. I have a message that I give periodically, and the title of it is Sightseeing in Sodom. And I attempt to look at Sodom through the eyes of Lot himself. And he sure had a wrong view of it. And Mrs. Lot, she fell in love with it. And then the view of Abraham. You can cite seeing Sodom with Abraham. He lost nothing down there. Or you can go through Sodom with the Lord and see it as he sees it. And it's too bad that the church is not looking at the sin of sodomy. I don't think it's any greater today than it's been in the past. But there is today a tremendous percentage of our population that are homosexuals, engage in perversion. And today we speak of it in a more candid manner than we ever did. In fact, what I'm saying right now, 10 years ago, I might not have said on the radio, but this is something today that's right in our midst. Now what's to be the attitude of the Christian toward it? Well, even Lot in his day, he said, you're doing wickedly. And God judged it. Isn't that enough for the child of God to know you can't compromise with this type of thing. This is a sin. And to indulge in it and then to say, well, this is a sickness. The same thing said about the alcoholic. Sure, he's sick, of course he's sick. But what made him take that first drink and continue to drink until he became sick? Sin did it, friends. Sin is the problem. And this is a sin. It's so labeled in the first Chapter of Romans God says he gave them up. So Genesis 19 is a pretty important chapter for this present generation that we are living in today. And we need to recognize that. Now I come to the 20th chapter of the book of Genesis. And the 20th chapter actually seems like the fifth leg on a cow. It just seems to be that necessary. And what we have here is something that you feel like you'd like to leave out. And you wonder again, why is this chapter put in here? Well, it's put in for a very important reason, friends. Abraham and Sarah are going to have to deal with this sin before they can have ising, before they can have the blessing. And may I say to you, until you and I are willing to deal with the sin in our life, there is no blessing for us. Now I'm going to just hit the high points of chapter 20. I'm reading verse one. Now. Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerard. And Abraham said of Sarah, his wife, she's my sister. And Abimelech, king of Gera, sent and took Sarah. Now what you have here is something that is quite interesting. You think Sarah was beautiful? Well, she's almost 90 years old and she's beautiful. Friends, not many can qualify in this particular department. That's one thing that I note here. And then Abraham is actually getting pretty far south in the land. He's gone beyond Kadesh Barnea, where the children of Israel came up. And wouldn't he manner the land. Now he's gone down to Gera, which I don't think he should have done. But be that as it may, he lies about Sarah again. Now I want you to hear his confession, because that's the thing that makes this chapter important and reveals the fact that Abraham and Sarah cannot have Isaac until they deal with this sin. And that is in their lives. And it goes way back. I'm reading verse 11 of chapter 20 and this is a remarkable passage of scripture, friends, will you hear it? And Abraham said, and he's talking now to Abimelech, who is greatly disturbed that he would do a thing like this lie about his wife. And Abraham said, because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place and they will slay me for my wife's sake. Now you see again, he's not trusting God. He felt like he's moving down into a godless place. And he founds out that Abimelech apparently has a high sense of what is right and wrong. And he puts a tremendous value upon character and that sort of thing. And apparently a man who knew God. Now will you notice poor Abraham doesn't look good by the side of the Abimelech. Here. Now I'm reading on in verse 12. And yet, indeed she is my sister. She is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother. And she became my wife. Now, you see, he lets it all out. Now he says, to tell the truth, it is half a lie. She is my half sister and she is my wife. Now, verse 13. And it came to pass when God caused me to wander from my father's house, that I said unto her, this is thy kindness which thou shalt show unto me at every place whither we shall come. Say of me, he's my brother. Now, when they started out, you see, Abraham didn't have complete trust and confidence in God. And he and Sarah made a pact that anywhere they went, and it looked like Abraham might be killed because of his wife, that Sarah would say, he's my brother, and that would keep Abraham, so Abraham and Sarah thought, from being killed. Now they made that little agreement and they used it down in Egypt, and here they have used it again. Now, that sin must be dealt with by before God is going to hear and answer his prayer in sending a son. Isaac will not be born till this will be dealt with. And again, let me repeat how many Christians today that won't judge sin in their lives and there's no blessing in their lives. I frankly believe that in many of our fundamental churches today, if we could get the believers there, those that are in places of leadership, if they would confess their sins now, not publicly, but if they would deal with the sins that are in their lives, I believe we could have revival. And I don't believe there'll be any blessing until, friends, this is dealt with. Now will you listen to Paul over here in First Corinthians 11. And this is a pretty important passage. Paul says, but let a man examine himself, so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body for this cause. Many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. For if we would judge ourselves, we would not be judged. But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord. That we should not be condemned with the world. And blessing, friends, is being withheld today from the church and from the lives of many believers because we won't deal with the sin in our lives. That's a tremendous lesson, a great spiritual lesson Here in the 20th chapter of the book of Genesis. Now next time we're going to see this long looked for event the birth of Isaac. Until next time. May God richly bless you my beloved.
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that's a great teaser for our next study so hop aboard as the Bible bus makes our regular stop at your corner. Until then, if we can help you find a resource to deepen your own study of God's word, you can also download our app or visit ttb.org or just call us at 1-865Bible if we can help you out. I'm Steve Schwetz and as always I'll meet you back here as together we make our way through the Bible.
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Jesus made it home all to be my home. Sin had left the Crimson Save us.
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We're grateful for the faithful and generous support of through the Bible's partners whom God uses to take the whole word to the whole world.