TOPIC:‌"When Life Betrays You"

                 by Rev. Dr. Reg Dunlap

 

TEXT:‌Genesis 19:1-26

 

"So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, 'Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!' But his sons-in-law thought he was joking" (Genesis 19:14, NIV).

 

‌Dr Clarence McCartney, famous preacher of the past, described Lot this way: "The man who loved the world so much that he lost it." He went on to write: "There are a few characters in the Bible who impress you as not altogether given over to the dominion of evil not loyal to the right. To this class belongs Lot, who had enough righteousness in him to abhor the iniquities and infamies of Sodom, and yet loved the world so much that he took up residence in Sodom."

 

‌How tragically true! Here was a man whose love for God was amusingly little, but whose love for the world was amazingly large. Lot's problem started when Abraham took him down into Egypt as recorded for us in chapter 12 of Genesis. Lot got out of Egypt, but Egypt never got out of Lot. It twisted his whole thinking. And that's the problem with many people today. When we permit the things of the world to keep us from the Word of God, the worship of God, and the work of God, then it becomes sinful.

 

‌In the chapter before us, we discover Lot living in the wicked city of Sodom. Night had fallen upon the city and Lot was sitting at the city gate. This was a place of authority. A place of honor. A place of distinction. Lot no doubt had made advancement since his arrival in the city. Perhaps he was on the City Council. He felt at home among the Sodomites. Then one evening two angels, messengers of God, visited the city to warn Lot that God's judgment was about to fall upon this wicked city. These servants of God tell Lot that in order for him and his family to be safe they must flee to the hills in order to be spared.

 

‌Now if ever a man moved with haste it was Lot. He runs into the city to tell his family and future sons-in-law about what the angels had said to him. He declared, "We've got to get out of this place. It's a doomed city." But they won't listen to Lot. They refused to take him seriously because over the years they saw no connection between the way he talked and the way he lived. Lot's behavior contradicted his beliefs.

 

‌From the text we read these tragic words: "But his sons-in-law thought he was joking." In other words, they thought Lot was playing with them. The Living Bible renders these words: "But the young men looked at him as though he had lost his senses." Dr. Griffith Thomas in his commentary writes these words about Lot: "His testimony had no power. He had lived too long as one of them without any real difference." Thomas continues: "When the testimony of the life . . .