When Cesspool Overflows, Part 2

Today on Fellowship in the Word, Pastor Bill Gebhardt challenges you to become a fully functioning follower of Jesus Christ. You see, there's no record that Lot ever prayed for his culture at all. He didn't pray about it. He just got involved in it.

He became part of it. That's what we should be doing. We should be people who live differently and pray sincerely and have passion and compassion. Remember, when this all started, God told Abraham, I withhold judgment if you find ten righteous people. That's a principle. Thank you for joining us today on this edition of Fellowship in the Word with Pastor Bill Gebhardt.

Let's join Pastor Bill Gebhardt now as once again he shows us how God's word meets our world. I think the only thing that could be described historically, like what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah, would be Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They were there and then they weren't. Just that kind of thing. There's something else. Abraham doesn't know if Lot was spared at all. He doesn't know anything. God just told him he would not judge the city if there were ten.

And apparently there weren't ten. Kind of an interesting thing on his part. You might be asking the question, and we're going to hold your place here, are you sure Lot was a believer? Yes. It's amazing how despicable believers can act. But yes.

Well, how do I know? By scriptures. I want you to hold your place here and go with me to 2 Peter chapter 2 near the end of the New Testament. And in this whole section beginning in verse 4, Peter's talking about the eventual judgment of God when there's total rebellion against him. And we'll pick it up in verse 6. And he says, if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to the destruction by reducing them to ashes, having made them an example to those who would live ungodly lives thereafter.

This judgment is an example judgment. He says, and if he rescued, and there's how he describes him, righteous Lot, oppressed by essential conduct of unprincipled men. Why is Lot righteous?

The same reason you are. He's a believer. And God declares you righteous. It's your standing before God, not your behavior that's in mind here. He says, for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds.

And then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly. He was taxed. You know what I think, though? I'll bet he was a lot more bothered by their actions when he first got there.

And the longer he stayed, the less bothered he was. I mean, after all, this is a great, a great material opportunity. I can be somebody. I can expand my wealth.

This is a great place to live. I think that's what Lot's situation was. Now, back to Genesis 19. And we go to the final act. The first act, God warns us that he will destroy our world because of its grievous sin. The second act, the influence of our world can be alluring to us, but it's contemptible to God. The third act, God will preserve us from the destruction of our world. And this is, to me, the most tragic of it all. The fourth act.

The fourth act is this. It's easier for us to be taken out of our world than it is to take our world out of us. And this is so sad a situation.

Notice what happens. Lot went up from Zoar, and he stayed in the mountains, and his two daughters with him. What? For he was afraid to stay at Zoar, and he stayed in a cave, he and his two daughters. What was he afraid of? Now he's afraid. Remember, he hesitated when the angels were talking. What's he afraid of?

Two possibilities. One is he sees the judgment, and he's thinking, what if God judges Zoar like that? I don't want to be there.

But you know what I think it is? How many people survived Sodom and Gomorrah? Just three. Lot and his daughters. Where did they show up?

Zoar. Now, do you think if you lived in Zoar, you'd be happy to see them? Do you think the people back there would be happy and say, oh, these are the three people that survived. They lived in that city and it's gone.

Now they've come to move to our city. You see, I don't think they made it easy for him at all. I think he was very much afraid of what would happen to him at Zoar. So he ends up, by the way, it sort of reminds me of my life often. You ever notice something that you often make a deal when you're praying with God and God's ideas? I want you to go be in a mountain and a cave and you say, no, no, Lord, here's my prayer request.

I want to be in a small town, a city, whatever it is. Do you ever notice where you end up? Mountain and a cave. Like a lot of times, God will let you have your request, but somehow you end up in the same place he had an idea about you anyway. That's what happens to him. And now we see what happens. The unthinkable. Then the firstborn said to the younger, our father is old and there is not a man on earth to come into us after the man of the earth.

Come, let us make our father drink wine and let us lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. Wow. What an idea.

You know what this is? It's one more horrible plan in Genesis. Think of these. Think of the plans that came about in Genesis. Think of the Tower of Babel. There's their plan.

God said, disperse. They go, no, we've got a plan. We're going to build a tower so high we'll walk into heaven.

You'll say, hey, it's great to see you. That didn't work out at all. Think of Sarah's plan with Hagar. Look, we're going to have Abraham. You're going to have this son and this son is going to be the key to everything.

So how about you take my handmaiden from Egypt, Hagar, and Ishmael is born. How'd that plan work out? Now, these girls come up with a plan.

There's no one there for us. He's going to make us live up in this cave forever. And if we're going to propagate our family, then he's the only male available.

What a horrible plan. Verse 33, so they made their father drink wine. Would a man stand up here, please? The daughters made their father drink wine.

You know, there's nothing worse than a passive male that do almost anything. And so here he is. The daughters are going to make him drink wine. And he does.

And it says, and the firstborn went in and lay with her father and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. How come? He's drunk. He's drunk. Tell me what good comes from drunkenness. I mean, please. The virtue of alcohol was beyond me. I just don't get it.

Look what happens in this case. And it said it came about on the morrow that the firstborn said to the younger, behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also.

And then you go in and lie with him that we may preserve our family through our father. And they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger also arose and lay with him. And he did not know where she laid down and when she arose. Thus, both the daughters of Lot were with child by their father. Wow. God's an author of conception.

He's moving on this. This is what you want. This is your choice. Think of what it's like to be Lot. You become a father and a grandfather at the same moment. With the same child. See, when we talk about the abominations of Sodom and Gomorrah. What about the abominations of the believer in the cave? We don't talk much about that.

You see what's happened here. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. That's great.

I mean, that sounds right. Hey, Moab. That's my little boy Moab. Moab in Hebrew means from father. She named her son from father. Every time she called his name, she said from father. He is Moab. And then it says, as for the younger, she also bore a son and called his name Benami. He is the father of the sons of Ammon to this day. Benami means son of my kinsman, son of my relative.

How would you like that for two names? By the way, what do you think the consequences of this are? Unbelievable. This is the beginning of two great peoples, Moabites and Ammonites. And just read about them. They become a thorn in Israel's side, a true enemy of Israel for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. You see, it's just like Ishmael. They made a choice. It was a horrible choice. Never consulted God about it at all.

Had no spiritual perspective at all. And then you reap what you sow. It's easier for us to be taken out of our world than it is sometimes to get the world taken out of us. You see, there are lessons there concerning believers. Are you a person of real conviction?

But there's something else here. How did this happen in Sodom and Gomorrah? How does it happen? How does a culture become that bad that it gets judged by God?

How does that work? You know, we really never see the exact process until the New Testament. And the Apostle Paul explains it. I invite you to turn with me to Romans chapter 1. And here the Apostle Paul explains it. Verse 18. Paul writes this. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men.

Here's the first condition. Who suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Because that which is known about God is evident within them. For God made it evident to them. And he says, and for since the creation of the world his invisible attributes, his eternal powers, divine nature, have been clearly seen being understood through what has been made. So they are without excuse.

He says, these people in that world are without excuse. God has given testimony to himself. One, outwardly through creation.

Two, inwardly through conscience. He said, but they suppress that truth. And in their world often they say God didn't create anything. It was the moon god. You see, it was the wind.

It was something else. In our culture we're so much more sophisticated. We just say nothing created anything.

It all just happened on its own. You see, suppress the truth. We call it education. He says, for even though they knew God, they did not honor him as God, nor give thanks. But they became futile in their speculations and their foolish heart was darkened. They started thinking wrong about God. And now it's affecting their heart, their soul, their will. And he says, professing to be wise, they become fools. This happens over and over again, culture after culture, including ours. And they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man.

And of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. He said, that's the way to do it. You exchange your loyalty from God to idols. And in their world it was all kinds of idols. But Paul even alludes to ours. Our idol isn't an idol. We're not going to worship a four-legged creature. We're going to worship us. That's who we are. We worship ourselves. We worship man. So that's what happens in the thinking.

Now watch. Therefore, because of that, God gave them over, it said, in the lust of their hearts, to impurity. First they started thinking wrongly.

Then they started acting wrongly. So that their bodies would be dishonored among them. He says, for they exchanged the truth of God for a lie. They worshiped and served the creature rather than the creator, who is blessed forever. Paul says, amen. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions.

Notice the decline. He says, for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural. And in the same way also, their men abandoned their natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another. Men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons, he says, the due penalty of the heir.

And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over a depraved mind. To do those things which are not proper. Being filled with all unrighteousness.

Now the final step. He says, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice. They are gossip, slanders, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving and unmerciful. And although they know the ordinance of God, what's right and wrong, that those who practice such things are worthy of death. He says, they not only do the same, but they also give hearty approval to those who practice them. That's our culture.

That's America. By the way, biblical point of view is one point of view. Dr. Carl Zimmerman is a Harvard sociologist, not a Christian, not a Jew, not an axe to grind theologically. And he decided to look at all the empires through the centuries and to see if there's a common thread as an empire begins to decline. And so he wrote a book called Family and Civilization, and he really believed that the family units became the key element for the decline of cultures. And so he came up with five characteristics that all of these declining cultures, Roman, Greek, et cetera, all of them have in common.

And here's what he wrote. Number one, marriage lost its sacredness. Divorce became commonplace and an alternative forms of marriage were accepted.

Two, feminist movements undermined complementary and cooperating roles as women lost interest in mothering and pursued personal power in the marketplace. Three, parenting became increasingly difficult, public disrespect for parents and authority increased and delinquency and promiscuity among teens became commonplace. Four, adultery was celebrated, not punished. People who broke their marriage vows were even admired. Five, there was an increased tolerance for incestuous and homosexual sex, he says, which is an increase in sex related crimes. And by the way, Dr. Zimmerman wrote that in 1940s.

Astounding. Our cesspool was overflowing. Ruth Graham, who's pretty outspoken, Billy's wife, said this, if God doesn't punish America, you'll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.

There may be some truth to that. As a warning to you and me as believers in Jesus Christ, that's what this is about. We're going to be spared from the final judgment of the world. That's what the scriptures are clear on that. But the question is, are we making an impact in this culture as Christ asked us to assault and lighter?

We like what? Do we have a faith of conviction or do we have a faith of convenience? I want to give you a little test, just four questions. See where you stand.

Number one. Are you living by the same goals as the world around you? Are you living by the same goals, what you think are the goals of your life, what you want to accomplish in your life, you live by the same goals as the people around you do. Or say it this way, as the pagans around you do. Tom Sign, who is an apologist and does a lot of work even with Barna and others, poster says this, the only difference I can find between Christians and their pagan neighbors is that we hang around church buildings a little more than they do. That's a statement.

He's probably right. Secondly, are you expedient when it comes to your ethics and morals? In other words, do you simply play fast and loose with it based on the situation that you find yourself in?

That is certainly what Lot did. Thirdly, do the lost or the unsaved people respect you for your spirituality? Or do you keep it a secret? See, are you respected for your spirituality, for your stance, for your convictions? And fourthly, for parents, are you taking full responsibility for instilling values in your children?

And I mean full responsibility. Chuck Swindoll said this, barring a miracle, the church cannot resurrect what the home puts to death. Wow. You see, where do the values come from? Now, notice this has seemed like a little bit of a downer sermon. I understand that.

That's why I was so reluctant to deal with the text. But I have one final thought, and it's not negative at all. The apostle Paul said, wherever sin is increased, grace increases all the more. And even though the Moabites started out as a group of people through an incestuous relationship between a girl and her father, and the Moabites became a perpetual enemy of Israel, there was one Moabite who was just a young girl. Her name was Ruth, the Moabitess. And God so honored Ruth that when you read Matthew 1 and look at the lineage and genealogy of Jesus Christ, guess who's there?

Ruth, the Moabitess. You see, that's the grace of God. You see, no one is beyond the grace of God. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah were not beyond the grace of God. The people of every culture aren't beyond, and the people of our culture are not beyond the grace of God at all.

The issue is always the same. Are we the people who live out the reality of Jesus Christ in our lives in the way we live our lives? Are we really salt and light in our character? And when we have the opportunity, do we give an account for the hope that's in us? You see, there's two things we should be praying about when we think of this at Genesis 19.

One is this. Am I more like Lot? Or am I more like, for instance, the Apostle Paul?

Who am I more like in the way I live? But secondly, we should be praying for the culture. You see, there's no record that Lot ever prayed for his culture at all. He didn't pray about it. He just got involved in it.

He became part of it. That's what we should be doing. We should be people who live differently and pray sincerely and have passion and compassion. Remember, when this all started, God told Abraham, I withhold judgment if you find 10 righteous people.

That's a principle, and it's a principle we should be dedicated to. Let's pray. Father, my prayer this morning is simply this, that each person here reads Genesis 19 on their own in the days ahead, and they pray through this. Instead of constantly shaking our finger and condemning the way the lost lived there, we need to identify with Lot, one who knew you, one whom you had blessed, and one who allowed himself to be so absorbed into a culture that he could make no spiritual difference, a man who could not lead nine others to you to save the judgment. Father, I pray that we have the conviction to be different than Lot.

In Christ's name, amen. At that website, you will find not only today's broadcast, but also many of our previous audio programs as well. At Fellowship in the Word, we are thankful for those who financially support our ministry and make this broadcast possible. We ask all of our listeners to prayerfully consider how you might help this radio ministry continue its broadcast on this radio station by supporting us monthly or with just a one-time gift.

Support for our ministry can be sent to Fellowship in the Word, 4600 Clearview Parkway, Metairie, Louisiana, 7006. If you would be interested in hearing today's message in its original format, that is as a sermon that Pastor Bill delivered during a Sunday morning service at Fellowship Bible Church, then you should visit our website, fbcnola.org. At our website, you will find hundreds of Pastor Bill's sermons. You can browse through our sermon archives to find the sermon series you are looking for, or you can search by title. Once you find the message you are looking for, you can listen online, or if you prefer, you can download the sermon and listen at your own convenience. And remember, you can do all of this absolutely free of charge. Once again, our website is fbcnola.org. For Pastor Bill Gebhardt, I'm Jason Gebhardt, thanking you for listening to Fellowship in the Word. .