A Savior Born from and for Wickedness: God's Grace Abounds

sermon transcript

Introduction: Difficult and Unpleasant Texts

I have been a Christian almost 22 years, and I have never heard a sermon on Genesis 19:30-38. Some of you have been in this church for five or six decades and you probably never heard a sermon on this text either. I studied the index of Spurgeon sermons over 3000 sermons, and not one on this text. I have a 12-volume set of 20 centuries of great preaching and they skip this one. You might wonder, then, why we are preaching a difficult and unpleasant text. I have asked myself that question over the last three or four weeks. It would be easier to package this one together with Sodom and Gomorrah as an addendum, and move on to Chapter 20. But my general methodology is verse by verse exposition, so if I were to skip it, I would probably have more complaints and questions than if I preach through it.

It is not just for love of ease that I am doing this. This is my ordinary approach and I want to preach every text of scripture as opportunity comes. We might be tempted to avoid this text because it is an unsavory and unattractive topic. What happened in the cave between Lot and his daughters is not something we want to talk much about. Perhaps you, parents, in going through Genesis with your children, may have skipped this part. We do not like this repulsive display of human nature, especially the mirror held up to show us who we are — it might be an ugly portrait — so it hits a bit too close to home.

Why must we not avoid this? First and foremost, because of the nature of Scripture itself and what God has said about it in 2 Timothy 3:16: “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness” This passage is a useful Scripture for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness. Do not ask why the pastor of First Baptist see fit to preach on it, but ask why God included it. That question hits closer to the mark. Our purpose with Sunday mornings sermons is expository preaching.

Albert Mohler of Southern Seminary defines it this way: “Expository preaching begins in the preacher’s determination to present and explain the text of the Bible to his congregation.” That might seem simple, but that is what I am here to do, to present and explain Scripture to you. “... [Most modern preaching, commonly called topical preaching] begins with a human problem or question and then work backward to the biblical text.” I go exactly the other way, and so do other expositors. We start with the text and go out.

Os Guinness, in his provocative book Dining with the Devil, talked about how audience-driven is much modern preaching. “The preacher, instead of looking out upon his world, looks out upon public opinion, trying to find out what the public would like to hear. Then he tries his best to duplicate that, and brings his finished product into a marketplace in which others are trying to do the same. The public, turning to our church culture to find out about the world, discovers there is nothing but its own reflection.”

Exposition, hearing whatever the Bible has to say, is totally turned around by this approach. We are coming to God, saying, “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening,” and then we listen quietly and humbly. We stand at the feet of God and say with our demeanor that we will hear whatever He has to say to us. By doing so, we submit our minds and our wills to Scripture — we let Scripture lead wherever it wants to, or in truth, wherever the God of Scripture leads. We submit to Him. If we pick and choose the Scriptures we like and skip things that are unpleasant, then we really are ruling over the Bible, not letting the Bible rule over us. I think Bible study is a misnomer — we are not studying the Bible; the Bible is studying us. One purpose of that is to be transformed, to be under the Scripture to learn how we need to grow and change.

Another purpose is my role, my calling, as a preacher of the Word, What is my task? The Apostle Paul, speaking of his own ministry, said in 1 Corinthians 4:1-2 (ESV), “This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God. Moreover, it is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy.” I am a steward of something entrusted to me, so I am required to be trustworthy with it. A messenger has no right or authority to change the message entrusted; he is not trustworthy if he does that.

A major objective of corporate worship is the hearing of the Word unfolded just as it is written, It is a form of worship. The Word of God must be central and the preaching clear. Unfolding every text of Scripture, trying to understand what it says, is a high form of worship. We are honoring God by this.

Again, Dr. Mohler, regarding modern worship, said: “Persons move from congregation to congregation looking for the worship experience that will meet perceived spiritual needs. Worship is turned into just another consumer commodity. This focus on self comes from the sinfulness of the human heart. Christians leave church services asking each other, ‘Did you get anything out of that?’ Churches produce surveys to measure expectations for worship: Would you like more music? What kind? Drama? Is our preacher sufficiently creative? Expository preaching demands a very different set of questions. Will I obey the Word of God? How must my thinking be realigned by Scripture? How must I change my behavior to be fully obedient to the Word? These questions reveal submission to the authority of God and reverence for the Bible as his word.” That is true, and that is what I seek to do as a preacher; that is my goal for our church services.

That is what we will do together in Genesis 19:30-38. The central message of the Bible is that there is a holy God who is a mighty Creator and a King, filled with love and power, who also is just and righteous. We are created in His image, but we are sinful and rebellious against him, so we stand under His judgment. Therefore we need a Savior, Christ, to come into the world, born of a virgin, born under the law to die on the cross in our place, to take our penalty. We must repent and trust in him for the salvation of our souls. That is the central message of the Bible. We will see many of those themes coming out of the cave this morning.

Lot’s Sad Descent Completed

The End of Lot’s Self-Preservation Strategy

Jeremiah 17:9 says, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” God knows the human heart, and He has exposed it for us to see in the text of Scripture. We will learn that this morning as we study the completion of Lot’s sad descent.

We see Lot as a warning, someone we do not want to imitate. He is a positive example to us in the way he was grieved and broken over the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah, but mostly, his poor choices serve to warn us. Lot desired to save his own life. The angel commanded him to leave, so he fled. Genesis 19:17-22 says, “As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, ‘Flee for your lives! Don't look back, and don't stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!’” [But Lot did not think he could make it. He was afraid or fearful or weak.] “But Lot said to them, ‘No, my lords, please! Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it — it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared.’ He said to him, ‘Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.’ (That is why the town was called Zoar.)”

Lot fled to Zoar, which God spared because of one righteous man. But he realized the futility of what he tried to do. When we craft a place of safety through our own wisdom, our own imagination, apart from the Word of God, it ends up crumbling, falling apart. Lot comes to the same conclusion. Genesis 19:30 says, “Lot and his two daughters left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave.” Why was he afraid to stay in Zoar? He must have seen the same pattern of behavior he had seen in Sodom and Gomorrah, and he is likely afraid of God’s wrath again. Perhaps he was afraid of the residents of Zoar — maybe they were angry or hostile toward him as an outsider. Whatever the case, he felt fear, so he obeyed the word of God through the angel in the end, but only through faithless unbelief, through fear, through cowardice. He and his daughters ascended to the mountains, but as he ascended, he was on the brink of descending morally.

Ascending Physically, Descending Morally

This was the beginning of his descent, though he physically ascended to the cave. He was accompanied by his greatest enemy — his own sinfulness — as well as his two daughters with their own corruption of wine and other things. In the cave, we see the end of Lot’s slide into immorality. Jack Evans, who works with prison ministry, gave me a great quote: “Sin always takes you farther than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay, and charges you more than you want to pay.” That is true. Ron Hutchcraft put it this way: “First sin fascinates you – then it assassinates you.” That is the case with Lot. It began with him standing on the ridge, looking down over that lush ground of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding area. To avoid quarreling over whether they could inhabit the same region, Abraham graciously allowed Lot to choose his home, and Abraham went to a different area.

Lot chose what looked to be the easiest most comfortable location for himself. It was a lush green plain, like the garden of God. Initially, he pitched his tent toward Sodom, on the outskirts. But soon enough he moved into Sodom itself (Genesis 14) and became swept up in the events of the king Kedorlaomer. He and his family were carried off as captives. Abraham rode with 318 others to chase and attack at night to rescue Lot.

It would have been the perfect time to decide not to go back to Sodom. It should have been a warning that it was time to move out of the city. He had ample time to see what it was like there. According to 2nd Peter 2, he was tormented in his righteous soul over the lawless deeds that he saw and heard, which must have been occurring already at that point. The tie had been severed, providing a good opportunity for him to go with his uncle Abram, but he did not.

Instead he moved back into Sodom. He set up there again and became immersed in Sodom’s society. He sat by the gate, perhaps in some official capacity, but tormented daily by wickedness. In a way, that is to his credit, but in another way, it is to his discredit. Why did he stay? He should have led his family out of there but allowed them instead to become completely immersed in Sodom’s way of life. They became corrupted to their core. The night that the angels came and stayed with him, he offered his two virgin daughters to a lust-crazed mob to save the men who had come into his house. The slide continued. We will see him reaping the results of that in today’s account.

Lot’s Gradual Descent Completed

Lot was reluctant to leave Sodom. The angel had to drag him out to save his life. Then he begged for a break from the harshness of fleeing for his life, ending up in Zoar. But he left there and went to live up in the cave. We can be warned from this to be aware of what is happening around us, and as a result, to be aware of what is happening in our own heart. We live in a place like Sodom. That has been my point the last few weeks.

We cannot say it has no effect on us to live there, that it does not change us at all, any more than somebody can stand out in the sun and say it has no effect on their skin. Of course it does. We you need to take all the precautions we can. Hebrews 3:13 says, “…so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.” Sin does not say, “Hi, I’m sin, I’m going to assassinate your soul.” It comes deceptively, promising pleasure and comfort and good things. But in the end it owns you. That is what we see with Lot as he descended.

Bad Dad

Lot may well be one of the worst fathers in the Bible. He is a terrible example of a father. I am speaking to you who are fathers: you have a specific responsibility. You need to provide for and protect your families physically. 1 Timothy 5 says that a man who does not provide for his family physically, materially, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever.

How much more valuable are your children’s souls than their bodies! Not only are we to provide physically for our children, we are also to evangelize and disciple them. We are to prepare them to one day meet their Maker, to stand before God to give an account for their lives. Therefore, a father’s lips should speak the Word of God; he should be a priest for his family, leading them in righteousness, providing an example of godliness, and protecting his children. In Lot’s case, the father-daughter relationship is highlighted. From a sexual standpoint, a father is to protect his daughters and their purity.

Deuteronomy 22 says that if a young woman is found to have been promiscuous while in her father’s house, she must bear the guilt and the penalty for her sin. This is for a sin committed right at the father’s doorstep — there is a clear link between the daughter and the father. This is a biblical way of thinking, though unpopular in the world today. But it is there, and therefore a father has a responsibility to protect the sexual purity of his daughters, her chastity.

Lot did that for a while — they had never slept with a man. He had protected them until that night when the angels came and he suggested a terrible thing. “Here are my two daughters who have never slept with a man. Have them to do whatever you want.” How could that possibly have worked? Was there not a way to be both hospitable and protect the daughters? This morally confused father polluted his daughters’ view of themselves that night. The effect is reaped in the cave. 

The Daughters

Some commentators say that the older daughter believed that the whole human race had been wiped out as in the days of Noah. Genesis 19:31: “And 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 all the earth.’” The Hebrew word for “earth”, erets, can either mean region or land or could mean the whole earth. Thus it is difficult to know exactly what she is thinking when she says this. Does she believe that there is nobody left on earth, that they are the only ones, that this was a clever way to keep the human race alive?

I do not think she thought that, because they had already been in Zoar, which had a community of people. It was small, but there were people there. God was protecting Lot and his family by protecting Zoar. It is hard to see how they could have thought there was no human being left on the face of the earth. Whatever the case, they violated their consciences and sinned in this way, which they should not have done.

The older daughter led the younger into sin. It was her idea. She took the initiative and set the bad example. She said, “Follow my example, this is what I did. Now, you do it too.” In that way, she violated the responsibility she had to her younger sister to set an example for godliness. The whole thing is a very sad exposition of the human heart.

The Devastating Effects of Alcohol

Finally, we see the devastating effects of alcohol. Scripture partially exonerates Lot, saying he did not know at all what was happening. It is written twice, so clearly it is in there for a reason, Lot had no inkling of what was happening. But it is also obvious that he had a weakness for drink.

The daughter knew how to get her father to do something to which he would otherwise never agree. His moral standard was there, but he had a weaker standard in another way, like a fortress with obvious strength in the front but a weakness around the back. The older daughter knew this. She was aware of the weakness and she went after it. She advised the younger sister that they should get their father drunk. I do not know any daughter who can force her father to get drunk — it was a choice he made. He drank, and because alcohol content was supposedly so low back then, one had to know what he was doing. One could not get drunk by accident, but only on purpose. So Lot was drunk, and then his daughter lay with him.

Wine destroys judgment; alcohol makes the unthinkable doable. The one who gets drunk wakes up the next morning and says, “What have I done? What happened here?” Proverbs 23:29-35 says, “Who has woe? Who has sorrow? Who has strife? Who has complaints? Who has needless bruises? Who has bloodshot eyes? Those who linger over wine, who go to sample bowls of mixed wine. Do not gaze at wine when it is red, when it sparkles in the cup, when it goes down smoothly! In the end it bites like a snake and poisons like a viper. Your eyes will see strange sights and your mind imagine confusing things. You will be like one sleeping on the high seas, lying on top of the rigging. ‘They hit me,’ you will say, ‘but I'm not hurt! They beat me, but I don't feel it! When will I wake up so I can find another drink?’”

Alcohol breaks down reserve. Again with the walled city image, it is like opening the drawbridge and saying, “Come on in.” The person does not know what the effects will be. There is similarity between this story and that of Noah after the flood. Noah planted a vineyard and then he got drunk and lay exposed in the tent. His children sinned against him in that weakness, just like in this case. There are lasting issues for generations as a result. Watch out for alcohol. Ephesians 5:18 says, “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit.”

Devastating Effects of the Sin in the Cave

A World of Evil from the Cave

Greek mythology has an interesting story on how the world came to be infected with all of its ills. Jupiter, the king of the gods, was very angry at man for stealing the secret of fire. He decided to send a box to a woman named Pandora, inside of which he put all manner of ills — sicknesses, diseases, sins, wickedness. It was tied with a beautiful bow and given to Pandora, with the implication that she should not open the box. She was left alone with the box and heard whispering inside. As she untied the rope and let it slide to the ground, she heard more whisperings, “Open up, open up. Let us out.” Her curiosity was piqued. She opened it just to look, and out they came, brown moths with stingers, which stung her before flying out the door and window to infect the human race with rebellion and sin and wickedness and disease and grief and sorrow.

That story in truth came from Adam and Eve and from the effects of original sin. But it is amazing all the things that can flow out of a small event, all the evil and wickedness that can just run out of the cave.

The Moabites and Ammonites

Both Lot’s daughters became pregnant. The older daughter had a son whom she named Moab, which means “from father.” The younger had a son whose she named Ben-ammi, which means “son of my people.” These were the forefathers of the Moabites and of the Ammonites, who come up again and again in Scripture. They were two of the most troublesome races against the people of God, constantly opposing the children of Abraham. Abraham is off in another place when Lot is in the cave with his daughters. Little does he realize that his descendants will be greatly troubled by what happened in that cave. Oh, the depths of the wickedness of the human heart and the lasting effects of sin.

Much devastation came from the Moabites and the Ammonites. First, they constantly opposed them and engaged in warfare. They hated the descendants of Abraham, the Israelites. When God was bringing the Israelites out of Egypt into the Promised Land, these two peoples opposed their passage through. Balak, the king of the Moabites, hired the the strange prophet Balaam, to put a curse on the Israelites to prevent them from eating their food and drinking their water. He said, “This horde is going to lick up everything around us, as an ox licked up the grass of the field.” [Numbers 22:4] Balaam could not curse them. No matter what he did, God turned it around into a blessing. Balaam opened his mouth to prophesy and to say a curse, but it was only ever blessing.

The opposition and hatred of the Moabites and the Ammonites against the people of God were obvious. Their animosity erupted into open warfare once Israel was established in the Promised Land. David had to quell the Ammonites and Moabites frequently. They often organized themselves into raiding parties and come over into the Promised Land to make life miserable for the Israelites. Again and again, they had to fight the Moabites and the Ammonites.

Their second front against the Israelites was corruption by immorality. Balaam suggested that they should send some Moabite party girls down to entice and lure the Israelite men into sexual immorality, feasting, and idolatry. The Israelites were constantly tempted toward idolatry. There were earthly benefits in a way — the sensual feasts and immorality that were a part of worshiping these false gods were pleasing to the flesh. So the Moabites came lured Israel into worshipping the Baal of Peor. Numbers 25:1-3 says, “While Israel was staying in Shittim, the men began to indulge in sexual immorality with Moabite women, who invited them to the sacrifices to their gods. The people ate and bowed down before these gods. So Israel joined in worshiping the Baal of Peor. And the LORD’s anger burned against them.”

Corruption by sexual immorality and idolatry went together. It reached as high as the wisest man who ever lived, King Solomon, who had a taste for foreign women. He married women from all over, including Moabite and Ammonite women. These were the very ones who brought worship of Baal and of the Moabite god, Chemosh, and of the detestable god of the Ammonites, Molech. He was especially bad because he was worshiped by sacrificing children in the fire.

Solomon built a shrine to the god Molech. 1 Kings 11:1-7 says, “King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter — Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. ... As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to the LORD his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. So Solomon did evil in the eyes of the LORD; he did not follow the LORD completely, as David his father had done. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites.” Eventually, Solomon’s descendant Manasseh even sacrificed one of his own children, who could have sat on the throne, to the god Molech. This is the sin that the prophet Jeremiah said God would never forgive. He deported Israel out of Jerusalem as a result.

All this wickedness came in through the Moabites and the Ammonites. Much evil has flowed out of this cave with Lot and his daughters — nothing but trouble. Therefore, Moab and Ammon were rejected by God to the tenth generation. Deuteronomy 23:3 says, “No Ammonite or Moabite or any of his descendants may enter the assembly of the LORD, even down to the tenth generation.”

The two major points of this sermon are: First, great pain and grief and agony comes from sin, so watch out. An armed bandit wants to come into your life. Second, nonetheless, God can take the most sinful and shameful thing and use it for His glory. He is good at that. 

Christ: A Savior Born FROM and FOR Wickedness

Christ Born FROM Wickedness

Watch what God does as a result of what came out of that cave. We have already seen the damage and the curse, but Jesus Christ was a Savior born from wickedness and for wickedness. He is God’s answer to Lot and his daughters in the cave, and all the wickedness of my own heart and yours as well.

Perhaps you have a sin you are ashamed of, as Lot must have felt about what happened with his daughters. But look what God did with it, how He transformed it. He used something as simple as a genealogy. Not many would say that the first half of 1 Chronicles, which contains lists of genealogies, is their absolute favorite Scripture, that they enjoy those long lists of names of people they have never heard of. But genealogies have much good truth in them. Like a river, the physical birth of Jesus was fed by many ancestral tributaries.

The Amazon River is the most awesome river on earth. It was first discovered by a man named Amerigo Vespucci, a European explorer for whom our country is named. In 1499, 200 miles off the coast of Brazil, he was surrounded by fresh drinkable water in the middle of the ocean. He followed the fresh water back to its source along the Brazilian coast, and found the mouth of the Amazon River. 4.2 to 7 million cubic feet of fresh water pour into the Atlantic Ocean every hour as a result of this river, the most by far of any river. How does it have so much water? Approximately 40% of the land mass in South America contributes to the Amazon River. There are 17 tributary rivers over a thousand miles long that pour into the Amazon. More than 12 nations contribute water to the Amazon River.

Jesus’ genealogy traces back to many tributaries, myriad connections contributing to his physical birth. Ruth, the godly Moabitess was a descendant of what happened between Lot and his eldest daughter. Unlike her ancestor, she loved the Lord. When she had the opportunity to marry a man from Judah named Mahlon, she did so. He died, so her mother-in-law Naomi planned to return to Bethlehem because she heard there was food there. She told Ruth to go back to her gods Molech and Chemosh and Ashtoreth and Baal. Her sister-in-law, Orpah, had already departed. But Ruth said something that changed the course of history. Ruth 1:16: “But Ruth replied, ‘Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God.’”

She cleaved together with Naomi, but even more so with the God of the Israelites, Yahweh. She became a convert. She was a godly, submissive, loving woman to her mother-in-law first. She worked hard to provide for both of them, gleaning in Boaz’s field. Boaz took notice of the way she lived her life and was interested in her. She initiated the possibility of being remarried, which he accepted. They were married, becoming one of the best examples of a godly couple ever to be found. Husbands, you would do well to imitate Boaz in his generosity, his strength and his leadership to Ruth in her godly humility, submission to God and to authority.

Ruth and Boaz had a son named Obed; Obed had a son named Jesse; and Jesse had a son named David. This tributary into the physical birth and descent of Jesus Christ comes through a Moabite woman. It had to be through a woman, because no Moabite man is welcomed in the Lord’s assembly.

I knew all that. But I learned something new about Solomon’s history. Solomon had 700 wives of royal descent and 300 concubines — 1000 women to keep happy. He needed all that wisdom just to know who each was. And what was the nature of each relationship? “What was the last thing we talked about?” I do not know how in the world he kept track of it all. But we can well imagine that with a thousand royal wives and concubines, he had numerous sons — the Bible does not tell us how many — to choose from to be his successor. Among them all, he chose Rehoboam. And I learned that Rehoboam’s mother was an Ammonite.

This is a striking thing. We have a Moabite contribution and an Ammonite contribution into the physical descent of Jesus Christ. Do you think that is an accident? Does God not delight in turning something wicked and foul and shameful into something glorious and majestic? Jesus is truly a Savior born from wickedness. As a matter of fact, if our own hearts were not wicked like that of Lot and his daughters and all of the people on earth, then Jesus would never have needed to come. He would not have needed to be born physically. But he is a Savior born from wickedness because our wickedness made God send him into the world. 

Christ Born FOR Wickedness

Jesus was also a savior born for wickedness. He died as a result of wickedness. He ministered and died surrounded by wickedness. All of his miracles were a reversal of the curse of sin. When he healed a man born blind or somebody with leprosy, or when he fed the hungry, he was reversing the curse. He took wickedness on and defeating it. In the end, wickedness and Christ had a battle, and wickedness killed Jesus.

Think about it at the human level. What motivated the Jewish leaders to have Jesus put to death? Was it not jealousy? Was it not fear? Was it not wickedness that motivated them? What motivated Pilate to declare three times that Jesus was innocent and yet scourge him and hand him over to be executed? Was it not wickedness? Was it not cowardice and a desire to hold on to his position as governor. What was it that motivated the Roman soldiers to kill an innocent man at the human level, blindly carrying out orders? Wickedness. But what really killed Jesus? Was it not that God took our wickedness from us by faith and put it on Jesus and then struck him with His wrath? Was it not wickedness that put Jesus to death? Jesus, on the third day, was raised from the dead, triumphing over wickedness and sin, and giving us a Gospel of peace and righteousness and hope, even in the face of the grave, that death and wickedness and sin can never stop. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not and never will overcome it.

Isaiah 53:4-6 says, “Surely he took up our infirmities and carried our sorrows, yet we considered him stricken by God, smitten by him, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”

Where Sin Abounds, Grace Abounds All the More

Jesus is a Savior born from wickedness and for wickedness. Therefore, Romans 5:20 says, “But where sin abounded, grace abounded all the more…” That is the triumph of grace, the triumph of the Gospel. That is my great joy and hope every day in light of my own sin and wickedness, and I want it to be yours.

Applications

First, learn from Lot’s dreadful descent. Take a warning from him. Sin hurts, devastates, kills people. Lot’s wife and his sons-in-law died. He lost all of his possessions. Sin destroys. It hurts a lot.

So watch out and see what is going on in your heart. Are you watching things on television, looking at things on the internet, reading books, having attitudes toward money or power or position, that you know are not in line with Scripture? Repent while there is time. Get out of Sodom while there is still time. I do not mean you should leave this country, because you will find sin whatever country you go to. It really has to do with a spiritual escape. Make a commitment to have a battle against sin and not yield.

Second, be aware of the dangers of alcohol. This would not have happened if Lot had not been drunk.

Third, see the trouble that can come like Pandora’s box from one incident. Be very careful how you live; be careful the things you allow yourself to do. It was a river of trouble for Israel that came out of that cave.

Fourth, fathers take responsibility for your daughters — love them, cherish them, protect them, disciple them. And for parents of children, this is a subset of that larger discussion. We are responsible for the spiritual well-being of our children. Disciple and evangelize them.

The central lesson is that grace wins over the thing you are most ashamed of in your life. If you repent and bring it to the cross, God is able to do something incredible with it. The greatest wickedness and sin that has ever occurred is the death of Jesus on the cross and God is using it for my salvation and for yours. Trust in Him and follow Him.