Genesis (Part 22)
Bible Study Time 11-9-08
(From James Roberts 1-19-97)
Bible Study Time 11-9-08
(From James Roberts 1-19-97)
Last week in our Journey Through the Scripture, we considered Lot, the nephew of Abraham. We saw something of the disastrous choices that Lot made. He began to pitch his tent toward Sodom, and we last saw Lot sitting in the gates of Sodom. It would appear that Lot had risen to a place of prominence in Sodom as he had some kind of leadership position there. He undoubtedly had some strong connections with the men of Sodom because his daughters had married men from that city.
So when the angel of the Lord came and told Lot about the destruction that was going to come upon Sodom, Lot was very reluctant to leave. However, Lot did go to his sons-in-law to warn them about the coming judgment. He was no doubt hoping to get them to leave Sodom, but they laughed at him and mocked him. They had seen Lot’s behavior, and they thought that Lot seemed just like one of them. They had no reason to believe that God would give Lot any kind of a special explanation regarding any judgment that was about to come.
As we apply this to our own experience, we see that many times believers who live an inconsistent life are not taken seriously by unbelievers, even when they try to tell those unbelievers about the Lord Jesus Christ and about God’s great love for them.
Now there is another aspect of Lot’s life that many people fail to understand. This is found in II Peter, Chapter 2, and I’d like for you to look at this passage with me this morning if you have the opportunity to do so. In this passage we find God speaking of the coming judgment. There is going to be future judgment that is going to come upon the earth. It will be a judgment like the judgment of the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, God destroyed the earth with a flood, but in the coming judgment, God is going to destroy the heavens and the earth with great fire.
However, in the book of II Peter we find a third judgment mentioned, and that’s the judgment that took place in the days of Lot. According to II Peter, God delivered two men out from under His hand of judgment. Notice in verse 4 of II Peter, Chapter 2:
2 Peter 2:4-5 NKJV
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
Before God brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly, He had this man, Noah, preaching righteousness to the people. For 120 years, Noah preached to the people about the coming judgment. Then finally, when the judgment was about to come, God put Noah in the ark and rescued him out of that judgment.
Now, you might say, well, I understand why God would rescue Noah. After all, Noah was a man who was faithful to preach the word. We don’t find Noah taking part in all of the ungodliness of the world. Noah was a just man, he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he was active in the Lord’s work as he proclaimed righteousness to a wicked world, so therefore, we sort of understand why God would want to deliver Noah. But notice verse 5:
2 Peter 2:6 NKJV
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, (God) condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
Here we find another judgment that came after the flood on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God just turned those cities into ashes with a fiery judgment as an example to those who are ungodly. Now notice in verse 7:
2 Peter 2:7-9 NKJV
7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) —
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
So here we find a very interesting description of Lot. Keep in mind that this is in the New Testament which was written centuries after the events recorded in the book of Genesis. This was God’s viewpoint of Lot. And what did God see? God saw Lot as a righteous person.
As we would look at it, we might not think that Lot was a righteous person. Lot’s sons-in-law probably did not think of Lot as a righteous person because they saw only Lot’s outward conduct. They saw Lot being tormented day by day by the filthy conversation of the ungodly people there in Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet Lot, himself, was entangled in all of the affairs of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Lot was a wealthy man, but he was a tormented man because he could find no rest while he was there in Sodom. He was tormented by the filthiness that was all around him. But I want you to notice that God saw Lot as a righteous man. Even though we would not look at him as such, even though Lot’s sons-in-law would not have looked at him as such, God saw Lot as a righteous man.
Now, how is it that a person is made right with God? How is it that a person can become just in the sight of God? Actually that question was asked by a man named Job centuries ago. Job asked:
How can a man be just with God? I’m not God so that I can reach up and lay hold on God. God is not a man so that He can reach down and lay hold on me so that we can come together in a court of law. There is no day’s man betwixt us; there is no mediator between us.
But since the days of Job, there is one who came into this world, who was both God and man. He was Emmanuel, God With Us. The Lord Jesus Christ was not a hybrid. He was not half God and half man. He was totally God, and He was totally man. He was fully divine and fully human.
When Christ died on the cross, He died for all of humanity, paying in full the penalty for all of our sins so that we might become righteous in the sight of God. He gave His life so that all of man’s sins could be dealt with and be taken out of the way, so that men could be found in the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried and then He rose again, and He is sitting today at God’s right hand. He is fully God and fully man, and He is the mediator between God and man. And now, man can be just before God, not because of his own righteousness but because of faith.
I believe that there has never been a person who has been made right in the sight of God except by faith. Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham received a revelation from God. God revealed Himself to Abraham as the God of glory, and God gave Abraham a command to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a place that God would show him. Abraham believed God, and God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness. God counted Abraham as righteous, not because of Abraham’s goodness, but because Abraham had faith in what God had said.
Undoubtedly, Abraham had shared this good news with his family, namely his father and probably his nephew, Lot. Undoubtedly, Lot had believed the good news that Abraham had shared with him about the God of glory, and Lot had believed what God had told Abraham. And so, God saw the faith of Lot and accounted that faith to Lot for righteousness.
Now it’s very interesting to see that God tells us in His word in many ways that a person cannot be justified before God by their own good works. In Acts, Chapter 13, the Apostle Paul went to Antioch of Presidia in the province of Galatia, and he first of all went to the synagogue of the Jews who had been under the Law of Moses. As he spoke to them about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he told these Jews that by this man, Jesus Christ, believers are justified from all things of which they could never be justified by the Law of Moses.
Paul later wrote to the Christians of Galatia and told them that those who are trying to be justified by keeping the Law have to continue in all things that were required by the Law. Those who want to be justified by law keeping have to walk in the Law; there is no room for any deviation from that which is required by the Law.
Later on, James explained that if a man breaks the Law in one point, he is guilty of breaking the whole Law, and he stands condemned before God. When a man goes before God to plead his case on the basis of law keeping, God will not look to see if that man has kept the Law 51% or 75% of the time. God will look to see if that man has kept the Law 100% of the time, and that man will be required to keep not only the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law as well, 100% of the time.
Only one person has ever kept that Law in this manner and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says that those who try to be justified before God by law keeping are under the curse of the Law because they are sinners and the Law itself condemns them. They have to stand before God as guilty.
But when a person comes before God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, I believe what you have told me about the Lord Jesus, that He loved me and died for me, that he bore in full the penalty for my sins and that I can now trust Him to give me eternal life as a free gift. God counts that faith for righteousness just as He counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness, and in that same way, God also counted Lot’s faith as righteousness.
Today, I want to ask you this question as we close the broadcast. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
The Bible tells us that we cannot be justified by our own good works because if we could do enough good works to save ourselves, God would owe us a place in heaven. But those who go to heaven will not be there as a result of any debt that God owes them. All those who go to heaven will be those who have received eternal life as a free gift from God. It is not a matter of how much you have done that is good or bad, but it’s a matter of whether you have trusted Christ as your personal Savior.
Lot had become a just person because he had faith in Christ. He did not lose his position of acceptance before God as a just man just because he wondered off to live in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Next week, we are going to look at the consequences of Lot’s failure to make the right choices, but the thing that I want you to see today is that Lot was saved, like you must be saved and like I must be saved, and that’s by faith in what God has said. We are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we will be back with you again next week when we will continue our Journey Through the Scripture. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
So when the angel of the Lord came and told Lot about the destruction that was going to come upon Sodom, Lot was very reluctant to leave. However, Lot did go to his sons-in-law to warn them about the coming judgment. He was no doubt hoping to get them to leave Sodom, but they laughed at him and mocked him. They had seen Lot’s behavior, and they thought that Lot seemed just like one of them. They had no reason to believe that God would give Lot any kind of a special explanation regarding any judgment that was about to come.
As we apply this to our own experience, we see that many times believers who live an inconsistent life are not taken seriously by unbelievers, even when they try to tell those unbelievers about the Lord Jesus Christ and about God’s great love for them.
Now there is another aspect of Lot’s life that many people fail to understand. This is found in II Peter, Chapter 2, and I’d like for you to look at this passage with me this morning if you have the opportunity to do so. In this passage we find God speaking of the coming judgment. There is going to be future judgment that is going to come upon the earth. It will be a judgment like the judgment of the days of Noah. In the days of Noah, God destroyed the earth with a flood, but in the coming judgment, God is going to destroy the heavens and the earth with great fire.
However, in the book of II Peter we find a third judgment mentioned, and that’s the judgment that took place in the days of Lot. According to II Peter, God delivered two men out from under His hand of judgment. Notice in verse 4 of II Peter, Chapter 2:
2 Peter 2:4-5 NKJV
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;
5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
Before God brought the flood upon the world of the ungodly, He had this man, Noah, preaching righteousness to the people. For 120 years, Noah preached to the people about the coming judgment. Then finally, when the judgment was about to come, God put Noah in the ark and rescued him out of that judgment.
Now, you might say, well, I understand why God would rescue Noah. After all, Noah was a man who was faithful to preach the word. We don’t find Noah taking part in all of the ungodliness of the world. Noah was a just man, he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord, he was active in the Lord’s work as he proclaimed righteousness to a wicked world, so therefore, we sort of understand why God would want to deliver Noah. But notice verse 5:
2 Peter 2:6 NKJV
6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, (God) condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly;
Here we find another judgment that came after the flood on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. God just turned those cities into ashes with a fiery judgment as an example to those who are ungodly. Now notice in verse 7:
2 Peter 2:7-9 NKJV
7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds) —
9 then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
So here we find a very interesting description of Lot. Keep in mind that this is in the New Testament which was written centuries after the events recorded in the book of Genesis. This was God’s viewpoint of Lot. And what did God see? God saw Lot as a righteous person.
As we would look at it, we might not think that Lot was a righteous person. Lot’s sons-in-law probably did not think of Lot as a righteous person because they saw only Lot’s outward conduct. They saw Lot being tormented day by day by the filthy conversation of the ungodly people there in Sodom and Gomorrah, and yet Lot, himself, was entangled in all of the affairs of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Lot was a wealthy man, but he was a tormented man because he could find no rest while he was there in Sodom. He was tormented by the filthiness that was all around him. But I want you to notice that God saw Lot as a righteous man. Even though we would not look at him as such, even though Lot’s sons-in-law would not have looked at him as such, God saw Lot as a righteous man.
Now, how is it that a person is made right with God? How is it that a person can become just in the sight of God? Actually that question was asked by a man named Job centuries ago. Job asked:
How can a man be just with God? I’m not God so that I can reach up and lay hold on God. God is not a man so that He can reach down and lay hold on me so that we can come together in a court of law. There is no day’s man betwixt us; there is no mediator between us.
But since the days of Job, there is one who came into this world, who was both God and man. He was Emmanuel, God With Us. The Lord Jesus Christ was not a hybrid. He was not half God and half man. He was totally God, and He was totally man. He was fully divine and fully human.
When Christ died on the cross, He died for all of humanity, paying in full the penalty for all of our sins so that we might become righteous in the sight of God. He gave His life so that all of man’s sins could be dealt with and be taken out of the way, so that men could be found in the righteous one, the Lord Jesus Christ.
So the Lord Jesus Christ died, was buried and then He rose again, and He is sitting today at God’s right hand. He is fully God and fully man, and He is the mediator between God and man. And now, man can be just before God, not because of his own righteousness but because of faith.
I believe that there has never been a person who has been made right in the sight of God except by faith. Abraham was justified by faith. Abraham received a revelation from God. God revealed Himself to Abraham as the God of glory, and God gave Abraham a command to leave Ur of the Chaldeans and go to a place that God would show him. Abraham believed God, and God counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness. God counted Abraham as righteous, not because of Abraham’s goodness, but because Abraham had faith in what God had said.
Undoubtedly, Abraham had shared this good news with his family, namely his father and probably his nephew, Lot. Undoubtedly, Lot had believed the good news that Abraham had shared with him about the God of glory, and Lot had believed what God had told Abraham. And so, God saw the faith of Lot and accounted that faith to Lot for righteousness.
Now it’s very interesting to see that God tells us in His word in many ways that a person cannot be justified before God by their own good works. In Acts, Chapter 13, the Apostle Paul went to Antioch of Presidia in the province of Galatia, and he first of all went to the synagogue of the Jews who had been under the Law of Moses. As he spoke to them about the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, he told these Jews that by this man, Jesus Christ, believers are justified from all things of which they could never be justified by the Law of Moses.
Paul later wrote to the Christians of Galatia and told them that those who are trying to be justified by keeping the Law have to continue in all things that were required by the Law. Those who want to be justified by law keeping have to walk in the Law; there is no room for any deviation from that which is required by the Law.
Later on, James explained that if a man breaks the Law in one point, he is guilty of breaking the whole Law, and he stands condemned before God. When a man goes before God to plead his case on the basis of law keeping, God will not look to see if that man has kept the Law 51% or 75% of the time. God will look to see if that man has kept the Law 100% of the time, and that man will be required to keep not only the letter of the Law but the spirit of the Law as well, 100% of the time.
Only one person has ever kept that Law in this manner and that is the Lord Jesus Christ, and the Bible says that those who try to be justified before God by law keeping are under the curse of the Law because they are sinners and the Law itself condemns them. They have to stand before God as guilty.
But when a person comes before God in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ, pleading the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, saying, Lord, I believe what you have told me about the Lord Jesus, that He loved me and died for me, that he bore in full the penalty for my sins and that I can now trust Him to give me eternal life as a free gift. God counts that faith for righteousness just as He counted Abraham’s faith for righteousness, and in that same way, God also counted Lot’s faith as righteousness.
Today, I want to ask you this question as we close the broadcast. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior?
The Bible tells us that we cannot be justified by our own good works because if we could do enough good works to save ourselves, God would owe us a place in heaven. But those who go to heaven will not be there as a result of any debt that God owes them. All those who go to heaven will be those who have received eternal life as a free gift from God. It is not a matter of how much you have done that is good or bad, but it’s a matter of whether you have trusted Christ as your personal Savior.
Lot had become a just person because he had faith in Christ. He did not lose his position of acceptance before God as a just man just because he wondered off to live in Sodom and Gomorrah.
Next week, we are going to look at the consequences of Lot’s failure to make the right choices, but the thing that I want you to see today is that Lot was saved, like you must be saved and like I must be saved, and that’s by faith in what God has said. We are saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, I see our time is gone. The Lord willing, we will be back with you again next week when we will continue our Journey Through the Scripture. Until that time, we bid you goodbye.
Church links:
No comments:
Post a Comment