Lot – Lessons for these Last Days

Transcript

I would probably just want to go in to widest topic of lot and the call of Abraham and the more I thought about it, I think it's important that we remind ourselves there is this passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 10 verse 11 which tells us that the things that, now all these things that happen unto them for examples and they are written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come and the point of it is that when we read things within the Bible when we read they are not meant to be just stories for merely to teach a moral or to teach our children but we have to see ourselves in the pages in those stories and think of how they apply to our lives. In the story of lot in particular I find it a very interesting one and I hope that by the end of our talk tonight you probably would agree because

it's a story that it's supposed to give us hope it's supposed to remind us of God's work in not only their lives in the past not only of his mercies in their times in in times past but we're supposed to see how these things apply to us today. There was a story that I read of recently and I went online and I looked it up to see well is this one of just those feel-good stories that someone kind of just concocted and they use it but it's really not true but I looked it up and it actually was true it was about an experiment that was done maybe you've heard of it in the past it was about putting a set of wraps in a pool and having them swimming and just at a point of exhaustion after about 15 minutes they took them out dried them and then because they were just about to pass out and then they put them right back in after a short while and surprisingly they didn't swim for another 15 minutes they swam for 60 hours which is a ridiculously long time compared to being exhausted after 15 minutes and it was a story that was used to show and this is a story back in the 50s and we'll not worry about the ethics or anything about this experiment except it was allowed in the 50s and the point of the story was that when there is hope when we see how the deliverance that was given after that 15 minutes those these animals were able to go on for a ridiculously long much longer time than before because there was hope because they felt at any point they could be delivered again and no doubt if we see that apply to our lives we realize that God has given us hope as well he's shown us examples such as brother Abraham or brother Lot and seen his deliverance there and he's told us to look at these and to be encouraged in our lives because these things were written to encourage us so when we read of the patriarchs we have to receive encouragement we often would look at the story of Abraham and just think of well this was just a man that was living there and God just seemingly plucked him out of nowhere and chose to work with him after somehow Abraham started to listen to God's call however the more I looked at this in preparation for this talk that was first given last year I realized that there was much more to this family tree and it should not be taken in isolation from the other families during that time and what do I mean by this I think we ought to see that God's hand was interacting with his people throughout the ages and it didn't just start suddenly with Abraham and when we look at it this way we might see a broader picture about Abraham and his family through these wider lenses now let's consider Genesis chapter 4 verse 26 where it says and to sit and to set to him was born a son and he called his name Enos then men began to call upon the Lord or as the NLT puts it at that time people first began to worship the Lord by name so those worshiping here before were introduced to Abraham as the sons of God and we read of this phrase the sons of God in Genesis chapter 6 and verse 2 we read of it in other places such as Job 1 and 6 which tells us that those children of God those who served them they were called the sons of God they were called by the name of God it was in effect the early form of the Ecclesia and Romans 8 verse 14 tells us for as many as are led by the Spirit of God they are the sons of God so unfortunately these believers began over time to mingle with those humans that did not follow God and they referred to as the daughters of men such as those descended from Cain it was here that the Ecclesia mingled with those whose beliefs were not aligned with God's and wickedness became rampant a departure from true worship towards an apostate religion ensued and this word apostasy as we look at this evening it comes up over and over it's an act of refusing to continue to follow obey or recognize a religious faith now terror was not called in Acts chapter as we learn in Acts chapter 7 verse 4 it says Tira went to Haran and after Haran died near to Babylon we learned that Abraham was the one who was called Tira incidentally means to tarry or to delay and we wonder did Abraham himself actually live during a time where he would have interacted with others within the wider family of God where he would have gained faith by maybe meeting someone such as Noah did their times overlap we can look at this and we can consider it when we look at the now I'd like us to consider the timelines in terms of Noah we know that God chose Noah out of the people of his time I'll just flip over to this timeline and it shows the timeline from Adam to the flood and we see that even as time went on remember they were living for quite a long time so someone like Noah would have been a young man not long after someone like Seth Seth would have died quite likely shortly before Noah's birth the timelines of everyone was going on for a much longer time than we would probably imagine we

know that God called Noah out of the people in his time and in I'll just flip over to what he said of Noah God said of Noah that the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence this was a time where um um

this was a time where the earth was becoming increasingly wicked and the people the sons of God had turned away from him such that Noah and and we're not even told that his family were righteous but we're told that Noah was a just man he was perfect in his generations and he walked with God I'm reading from Genesis chapter 6 at verse 9 and then in verse 13 it says and God said to Noah the end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence through them and behold I will destroy them from from the earth however

we when we when we in the timelines that we were looking at earlier we see that someone like Noah would have still even by his um the time when he was born there was still somewhat of that influence around of some of the older ones like Seth even though his death would not have been that long before him he would have still had some of that a godly ancestor and the influence around him um by the time of his birth but it sadly would have been under decline the sons of God and their influence would have been dwindling some by death others by crossing over to godlessness the influence of elders like Seth would have grown less and less and sadly by Genesis chapter 7 verse 1 we're told that God said to Noah come into the ark thou and all thine house because the the end was upon them there would have been an empty feeling as day after day less and less of the sons of God would have appeared before him I'm using words drawn from from Job evidently where those who were meeting together those who would have been worshiping God those who would have known him would have decreased and so God said

the time has come for destruction he said come in thou and all thy house into the ark for I've seen thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation the NLT adds thee alone he was the only one we're told that was righteous so there would have been this empty feeling where day after day fewer and fewer people would have had anything to do with God you can liken it or we can liken it to just arriving one Sunday and for the memorial meeting and only Noah and his family were there we're not told of the righteousness of his sons or their wives but God saved them he sanctified them for Noah's sake Noah being the righteous one and this is a time that we could probably relate to in our times where we see so many loved ones depart from following after the ways of God this is a precursor to our thoughts surrounding Lot because in the period following the flood there was growth amongst those who would be called by the name of God because it was a fresh start and those that rejected him now sadly we see the reemergence and the continued growth of sin as we're told that humans set about making for themselves another God they wanted to build a tower of Babel and God confronted their language as we were told in chapter 11 at verse 4 and they said go to let us build a city and a tower whose top may reach onto heaven and let us make us a name lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth it was following this remarkable event at Babel that we come to Abraham or Abraham as he was then called we are introduced to the family of Abraham but we often fail to realize that he would have been born around the time of the death of Noah as we see on this timeline remember that we are told that Noah was a just man and he was perfect in his generations and walked with God so I don't find it too far-fetched that Abraham may have been influenced as part of that family of God by or he was one that was drawn out of that dying ember the dying embers of truth that would have been around the time of Noah as one who was the leaders one of the patriarchs at that time within the ekklesia many others may have succumbed have drifted away from the truth but and and we would have seen in Abraham's household even that many around him would have fallen away but God rescued Abraham he would have rescued him just at a time when it seems like all hope was lost this would have been somewhat interesting it is interesting I find because there are 10 generations between Abraham and Noah where there was such great corruption that we're told that every imagination of their heart was only wicked and then from Noah to Abraham was also 10 generations which may suggest that God was bringing a form of deliverance from the corruption of sin through Abraham we ask ourselves why 10 generations well deuteronomy chapter 23 verse two to three tells us this it says um it gives us an example where it says we are told of no morbite or ammonite being allowed into the assembly even up to the 10th generation for those who might be familiar with that deuteronomy 23 verse two to three so why 10 generations is 10 generations something that is indicative of the length of time after which certain sins are pardoned and a new beginning can commence we see elements that suggest some form of worship of the true God existed outside of Abraham's family and I would like for us to look at some of these elements in God's word that suggests that as much as God was working with Abraham there were embers of the truth or knowledge of him that existed outside of Abraham's family at the time let's look at three pieces of evidence that we can probably think about that supports this fact the first I'd like us to look at is in Genesis chapter 14 at verse 18 Genesis chapter 14 and verse 18 there's this rather peculiar case after Abraham returned from the slaughter of these kings that he went out he and his servants it says and Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine and he was the priest of the most high God now we ask ourselves where did Melchizedek come from and who was he a priest too he wasn't he just be a priest all by himself with no one that he's ministering to now my research points to him being a king priest in Salem and it is disputed if this is

eventually Jerusalem some have disputed it some have different viewpoints but we read a reference to Melchizedek in Psalms 110 which

is all about Jesus the coming king priest who will reign from Jerusalem and who will meet the faithful ones coming with bread and wine when they have conquered sin now some Jewish literature even suggests that Melchizedek is an other name for Shem who would have been a little less than 500 years old and a leader of Noah's family and hence he was a priestly role as an elder but we don't see this in the Bible itself so we can take that as a fact but it's something to think about now how would this be possible since we read in Hebrews chapter 7 verse 3 of Melchizedek having not father mother beginning of days end of life etc how was he therefore a priest i think an argument can be made that this reference in Hebrews chapter 7 the first three is in relation to Melchizedek not having lineage in relation to an established priesthood and as such no one made him a priest because of let's say his father being a priest or his mother or or even the death of another priest he was not after any established lineage of priesthood and therefore the scriptures tell us that he's without father or mother it doesn't mean he literally didn't have a father or mother but in relation to his priesthood there he did become a priest because of his lineage it is simply by god's command just as christ himself became a priest independently of any other priesthood so i digress but the point is that they were people of god at this time that were independently working to serve god outside of family so we have to realize that the the truth as we know the truth at that time was beyond abraham's family let's look at another piece of evidence i'd like us to consider and that is thinking of when thinking of abraham's family as possibly being derived from an apostate branch of true worship we think of the fact that when abraham was sending his servant to find a wife for isaac this is in genesis 24 he sent him to another branch of his family to marry rebecca who was his brother's granddaughter now in genesis chapter 24 at verse three to four it says and i will make thee swear by the lord the god of heaven and the god of the earth that thou shalt not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the canaanites among whom i dwell but thou shalt go unto my country and to my kindred and take a wife unto my son isaac now we would understand that abraham would not have wanted into marriage with canaanites because god had promised to remove them and give abraham their land however

abraham specified to the servant that the wife or his son should be from his family and similarly we know when jacob was running away from isaac isaac also instructed him to get a wife from this very same household we ask ourselves why why if

abraham and isaac were so concerned about apostasy and and that into marriage among the canaanites why would they each seek to get for their child not from they specify not from among the canaanites but they went to their relatives were these relatives part of an apostate ecclesia maybe that was there the knowledge of god somewhere in their lineage before well if we look at genesis chapter 24 at verse 31 when laban meets the servant of abraham he says come in thou blest of the lord l-o-r-d capital l-o-r-d wherefore standest thou without for i have prepared the house and room for the camels now isn't it puzzling that that laban would use the name yawa in his first greeting to the servant it cannot be argued that abraham had somehow revealed the true god to them by being a near contact he was far away in fact abraham was the one the servant was even telling them that abraham had had a son in his old age it does suggest there wasn't that close contact but yet this other family this these relatives of abraham knew of the lord and used his name very commonly it seems by inviting them in coming thou blessed of the lord so

we laban and family were definitely familiar with the lord and they spoke of him with familiarity in genesis chapter 24 at verse 50 to 51 it says then laban and bethuel answered and said the thing proceeded from the lord we cannot speak on to the good or bad or the bad or good behold rebecca's before they take her and go and let her be thy master's son as the lord had spoken and similarly when laban pursued after jacob after jacob escaped from serving him in genesis chapter 31 and verse 29 laban said it is in the power of my hand to do you hurt but the god of your father spoke on to me yesterday night say take thou heed that thou speak not to jacob either good or bad this is yet another verse where we see that the knowledge of god in fact i'd even say the fear of god was in laban's household where did it come from if they were not somehow familiar with god from beforehand

laban didn't say well who are thou lord he knew the lord he knew god and he responded immediately to god's commands despite there being false gods among them or graven images despite the trickery that plagued his household there was also that element of a knowledge of god i'd like us to go over to a third bit of evidence that seems to suggest there was further knowledge of god within this household outside of the family of abraham and

that point has to do with genesis chapter 12 at verse 1 and i'll read that for you it says now the lord said unto abraham get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house unto a land that i will show thee have we ever wondered why did god specifically ask abraham to do all three of these things he was very specific these weren't wasted words he said out of the country of ur get thee out of the

kindred and from my father's house maybe the country of ur was a place where they worshiped false gods we know that and we look at that a bit later he said from get away from his kindred which the word has to do with your distant relatives and then it says from your father's house which are your closest family because

why why should he leave them all why didn't god say well i'm going to work with you abraham and bring them all along and let's let's save them all and come with you to this great land that i'm going to take you to i would suggest that god asked him to leave them behind lest that ember of faith that god was working within abraham he extinguished lest the faith of abraham and his household be corrupted and even abraham and his family not be saved i would suggest that this is the case because it leads us to wonder about abraham's relatives there's no mention of trying to convert anyone to this seemingly newfound if it was newfound i don't think it was or even taking him along with them in fact when god wanted him to leave and he took along his father with him god even appeared to him a second time after the death of his father and said leave here also and move on god wanted him abraham to his kindred he wanted to work with this man who as far as

having godly relatives and a godly family was concerned he was as good as dead not only from a physical standpoint but as possibly the last remaining one that would obey god and respond to his promptings he was nearly as good as dead this phrase as good as dead it comes from hebrews chapter 11 and verse 12 and for those who might be looking it up it says therefore from there even of one and him as good as dead so many as the stars of the sky and multitude and as the stand which is by the seashore innumerable

when we read this passage we often would think i think if you were like me oh abraham was as good as dead it means he was nearly a hundred years old he didn't have any children and his seed was about to be wiped out and he couldn't have children and therefore he was as good as dead but as i looked at this i thought maybe there's another reason why the scriptures call abraham as good as dead and has nothing to do with him and children because if we remember there was no question that abraham could have children as soon as sarah said go ahead have hagar she didn't say it with any doubt she knew abraham could have children and so abraham had a child he had ishmael and then god blessed him with isaac the promisee and after sarah's death abraham went on to have marika chura and have many more children so there question of whether abraham was as good as dead from a physical standpoint but could he have been good as dead from a spiritual standpoint as someone who was hanging on by a thread spiritually given where his family was that if it were not for the mercy of god calling him out of earth at the time when he did and abraham responding that his family would have been consumed in apostasy and he himself would have been dead dead not in a physical way just yet but spiritually he would have been taken away with sin this is something we can think about when we when we look at this verse let's now moving on from here look at a bit closer at abraham's ancestors who they were well i'm showing on our site a few of abraham's ancestors going back before him we would be familiar with them and we have their names we are not told a lot about many of them but when we look at the meanings of their names it does give a bit of an insight as to where some of their their minds were or their parents' minds were when they when they received those names um you know someone like sham we know why you know he would have gotten such a name there was a um there was a reason for that he as a as a um in terms of it the meaning of it someone like maybe division we know we were told they are divided was divided during that time but as we come down the line towards abraham we looked at tira meaning to tari or ele um we look at um meaning snorer snorter enraged and haran meaning mountaineer milka meaning queen sara princess lot covering um there it seems yes there are elements of um some positive thought but compared to the other names that we will that we come about later it not seem to have the same godly intent the same focus as um abraham tried to inculcate after him we might consider um joshua chapter 24 verse 2 where joshua when recounting israel's history by reminding them that tira abraham and nahor served other gods in earth this is in joshua chapter 24 verse 2 to 3 it says and joshua said unto all the people thus said the lord god of israel your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time even tira the father of abraham and the father of nahor and they served other gods and i took your father abraham from the other side of the flood and led him throughout all the land of canaan and multiplied his seed and gave him isaac so they this further supports the fact that abraham was not coming from a family where the the the faith was strong the truth the truth was strong there it would have been false worship around and god was taking him out of it even the name tira makes me wonder if the call to leave ur and all it offered may have even been revealed to him but he had delayed or failed to act it on it in the manner that his son abraham did in faith but we can only speculate tira choosing to leave or would have been difficult it would have required faith when we think of our of the caldis it was an ancient city

that flourished until about 300 bc it had a lot going for it um they had their false gods yes um the moon god nana and the moon was worshiped in that city as the power that controlled the heavens and the life cycle on earth to the to the caldians the phases of the moon represented the natural cycle of birth growth decay and death and they also used it to set their to set the

them worshiping the gods of of the moon and stars and so on would have been pretty common they offered prayers and offerings to the moon to invoke its blessings and so with joshua chapter 24 verse 2 in mind likely someone like tira and his family would have been influenced living in city where we're told that they they worshiped other other gods um

jude tells us the following it says in jude chapter 1 verse 20 to 23 says but you beloved building yourselves up in your most holy faith praying in the holy spirit keep yourselves in love of god looking forward to the mercy of our lord jesus christ eternal life and have mercy on some who are doubting save others snatching them out of the firing and then some have mercy with fear hating even the garment polluted by the flesh now this verse applies in more than one way because not only did god use abraham to save lot from the false worship in earth and once more when lot and his family were taken captive along with the people of sodom but he also saved lot when entreating the angels who were on their way to destroy sodom i would like us however to see another way in which abraham was used by god to pull lot from the destruction that was around him not only the physical saving the physical ways we just mentioned saving his life but there was a spiritual fire that lot may well likely have been consumed in if he had remained in her or of the caldis yes we've mentioned some of the a bit about her their false worship it was a place where they had about it

the literal name of it means flames it was a thriving city it had about point one of the world's population which at the time which in today's terms would have put it at a city of about eight million about the size of new york city so ur fell to the elamites around 1940 bc

and so abraham being removed by god beforehand was an incredible opportunity for him not to be caught up in the city's misfortunes where quite often the rich would lose their lives and their possessions the city is taken are no longer exist today and its demise is thought to be due to drought and a changing climate now we compare this fact of our being on the decline and how it eventually was destroyed by what god actually called abraham out too he called him from a place that was going to be destroyed and he actually called him to a land that he said that god would bless that would flow with milk and honey a place that would actually um abraham would thrive in a place where he would be safe god would keep him safe so being able to widen the lens of time we can and should be encouraged by what god accomplished in the life of abraham but it required him to turn away from what he could see and to turn to something that he couldn't see we can similarly be called to help others around us who need deliverance we're told in the first Timothy four says till i come give attendance to reading to exaltation to doctrine neglect not the gift that is in thee which was given thee by prophecy with the laying on of the hands of the presbyter meditate upon these things give thyself holy to them that thy profiting may to all take heed unto thyself and onto the doctrine continuing them for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee so not only do we like abraham have the opportunity of learning the truth and saving our being saved ourselves by it but by meditating upon it sharing it with those around us we can help to save those around us just as abraham helped to pull lot along with him and they um they were both saved ultimately we started out in this talk when we were looking at um um we we started out looking at first screen change chapter 10 at verse 11 and the fact of how these things that were written then they apply to us today and i'd like us to see with the city of ur that so many of these things that we read up and we see in the lives of abraham and lot they apply to us today passages such as hebrews chapter 13 and verse 14 which tell us that we have no continuing city we might think of how this applies to us today um do we feel the need to get involved in fighting for what we want to save today we might get involved in the politics of the day and in trying to salvage whatever remains of the hour of our time or do we see that this god has called us for a new city to to be a part of something much greater not that we are not concerned about what is going on but we realize that the solution is not going to be on terms it has to be in god's terms that is one thing that definitely leaps out from the story of the way in which god called abraham out and ur could not save him or was going to be destroyed but by abraham leaving in faith and taking lot with him they actually went for something that was greater there's another point we can look at when we think of apostasy because as i mentioned earlier it has to do with not turning back or apostasy is a factor that an act of refusing to continue in which in the path in which we started out refusing to follow obey or recognize a religious faith in jeremiah chapter 8 we read of the people refusing to turn back to god if they're set on going a different path and they would not turn back and um similarly we're told in first timothy chapter 4 about the last days in which we live that there would be that similar apostasy a departure from the faith there would be that seducing spirit doctrines of devils speaking lies and having their consciences seared with a hot iron that sounds like that some of the challenges we would face today where we find it difficult to lay hold on the life that god has called us to and all of the world seems so appealing to us it is our we have to see it as the call that is trying to pull us back um towards it and not continuing in the truth to which we've been called so i'd like us to think therefore and and you know the point of study is not to learn facts but to think of how this applies to us today how does leaving or apply to us today there are many passages that we're reminded of because these were written for our learning and our admonition there is uh second thessalonians chapter 2 verse 1 to 4 which says now i request you brethren with regard to the coming of our lord jesus christ and our gathering together to him let you not be quickly shaken from your composure be disturbed either by a spirit or a message or a letter as if from us to the effect that the day of the lord has come that no one in any way deceive you for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first and the man of lawlessness is revealed the son of destruction who poses and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship so that he takes his seat in the temple of god displaying himself as being god now no one would expect today that someone will actually deceive us by saying they're actually god but taking god's place in our life is something that we each can struggle with where where be it our our hobbies um be it our thoughts taking us towards you know what we can save ourselves or um

other ways in which we can actually set where we refuse to submit to god and there's something above him we can also find ourselves being sucked back into life in our rather than recognizing the

the blessing the blessing has been extended to us to actually leave it leave it behind um

we can think of the filthy garments that was cast off when we made our bow to christ at her baptism do we want to turn back and pick it up and try to compromise with it so that like abraham's extent family we know the lord but we also know our false gods that we take along with us that we still keep our hope in there is another way in which that can apply to us because um unlike times where you know in times past our brethren were in fear of their lives they had to lay firm hold on it and they felt that there was no other choice but through god today there are many competing um causes many options are beckoning to us that we say well you can you can be a christian but you can also um you know

take part in you know be it the politics of the world or you can become as great as you want in whatever field of endeavor and and just kind of put god off to the side a bit and it's a challenge that we have to fight against we have to recognize that god has called us to leave that filthy garment behind because like our was destroyed he is coming to destroy that as well it will be taken away so in conclusion we've seen how god abraham responded to god's call and god brought him out of her as a branch that would be planted in canaan and he would grow to be a new family would grow to be the people of god so we looked at the eventual destruction of her it was something that was destroyed even a name or means flames and the many indicators we looked at along the way that indicated that true worship would have been there before among abraham's extended family but they would have slowly been pulled away by that that allure of the world around them and yet there were some elements that that remained along the line in people like laban's household so i'd like us to consider abraham's mission in saving lot from a godless city that was set for destruction it was something that we're told he did he he gave his all and he more over and over pulled lot along with him and in doing so he was able to establish lot

and pull him away from a life of destruction yes there were things along the way that lot did not respond as well as we would have hoped but we know that ultimately they are passages that tells us of lot's descendants the moabites and the ammonites being part of those that god actually watch out for in the end there is a role for them also and

but it requires us brothers and today while we still have time to look for those who may be like lot around us that requires help that requires nurturing that sometimes require us to

despite their best efforts to go the other way to actually try and pull them along so that they're not consumed in the fire that is coming upon this it requires a commitment from us as believers it requires work and effort and it requires prayer that we ask god for those around us who may be struggling not to cut them off as would have been you know abraham could have just said you know lot i've tried and um you know maybe you went towards sodom maybe you whatever area you fell into i'll just move on with my family but he didn't and so in doing so he really made a difference in lot's life he wasn't negligent he wasn't um you know careless about his about his relative so

we need to also think about this there may be young people in our ephesias in our cycs and we make a difference in their lives um i'll end on this note and i'll turn it back over to you pretty much