October 20, 2019
Morning Service

We will begin the message this morning with a passage of scripture probably all are familiar with from the book of Genesis. I will paraphrase a bit of the scripture to set the part of the scripture relevant to this message. Abram and his brother’s son Lot were traveling together with their families, herds, herdsmen, and tents.  They came upon a land that could not support them because their possessions were so great they could no longer dwell together. Abrams’s herdsmen and Lot’s herdsmen were in conflict with one another and strife developed because of the land’s inability to support the large group and their needs. So Abram said to Lot, let there be no strife between us and our herdsmen because we are brethren. Abram said the whole land is before us, so if you go right, I will go left and if you go left, I will go right and they departed from each other. Lot chose for himself the plain of Jordan and journeyed east and Abram chose the land of Canaan. Lot pitched his tent as far as the city of Sodom and the bible tells us the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were full of wicked and sinful men. The Lord spoke to Abram about the cities and their wickedness…..

Genesis 18:20  And the LORD said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 

This scripture is using words similar to the words God spoke to Cain after he took his brother’s life. God said your brother’s blood is crying out to me from the ground In Genesis 4:10. The victims of Sodom and Gomorrah’s sins were crying out to the Lord’s ears and he was about to execute justice. Abraham (which he is now called by God after the covenant He made with Abram when God told him he would be the father of many nations) pleaded with the Lord not to execute the righteous along with the wicked. He asked God to spare His judgment on the cities if fifty righteous can be found there and God agreed. Abraham continued to plead with God until the number of the righteous was down to ten to spare the judgment on the city and God said He would if ten could be found. The incredible sad truth about this statement is not even ten righteous could be found in the cities to spare the judgment. Then God sent two angels to Sodom to warn Lot of the coming judgment on the cities and for him to inform loved ones of the impending doom to come so they can leave beforehand. As Lot went to his sons-in-laws to warn them and his daughters to leave, the sons-in-law thought that Lot seemed to be joking and did not heed the warning. As the next day dawned, the angels told Lot to hurry, rise and take his wife and two daughters to flee from the city lest they be consumed in the punishment of the city. The angels took Lot, his wife, and his two daughters by the hand and set them outside the city. Lot asked if he could flee to the next nearby city which was Zoar and God was merciful to them and allowed it to be so. The angels then told them to escape for their lives and do not look back! Then the Lord rained fire and brimstone on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens.

Genesis 19:25  So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 

Genesis 19:26  But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. 

Now this scripture is very relevant when talking about the judgment of the Lord because of the words from Jesus in the book of Luke. Jesus was talking to the disciples about the coming of His kingdom and what things will be like in that day.

Luke 17:26  And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 

Luke 17:27  They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 

Luke 17:28  Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; 

Luke 17:29  but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. 

Luke 17:30  Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 

Luke 17:31  "In that day, he who is on the housetop, and his goods are in the house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. 

Luke 17:32  Remember Lot's wife. 

Luke 17:33  Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. 

Luke 17:34  I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed: the one will be taken and the other will be left. 

Luke 17:35  Two women will be grinding together: the one will be taken and the other left. 

Luke 17:36  Two men will be in the field: the one will be taken and the other left." 

In verse 32 of chapter 17, Jesus says, “Remember Lot’s wife” and this is because of what happened to her as a direct result of not obeying concerning the exiting from Sodom. God did not want them looking back because it exhibits a longing for something God had already executed a judgment of punishment for due to the sinful natures of Sodom and Gomorrah being grave. Lot and his family were commanded to not look back and to make a clean break from this awful sinful place and to look back was essentially not breaking away from that place cleanly. When Lot’s wife looked back and immediately turned into a pillar of salt, she became part of the judgment already in place for Sodom and Gomorrah and the judgment was final. The great Day of Judgment is coming one day and those judgments will be final. The only way to escape the judgment of being cast into a devil’s hell, the lake of fire is to claim the blood of Jesus that was shed at Calvary in our place. Jesus became sin for us and He knew no sin, Jesus did not go to the cross for Himself, He went to the cross for you and for me.

2 Corinthians 5:21  For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 

We are sinners and doomed to the lake of fire without the precious blood of Jesus to be our clothing of righteousness. When we choose Jesus, we make the most important decision of our entire being to become children of The King! God loves us so much that he spared not even His Son to save us from the eternal judgment of the lake of fire and total separation from God the Father forever. God is loving and merciful, but He is also a God of Wrath that is reserved for all who do not come to the Lord Jesus in repentance of their sins and claim the blood of Jesus as our Savior and Redeemer! When we repent of our sins and ask the Lord Jesus to forgive us of our sins and clothe us in His righteousness, we will no longer suffer the judgment and separation from God. We will be redeemed and a child of God The King!

Jesus is coming again and the bible says this more than 300 times in the New Testament and to not believe He is coming again is to simply believe He is not The Truth, The Life, and The Way! God tugs gently at our heart strings to come to Him and all we have to do is to give our lives to Him to use us as He sees fit and He will grant eternal life. God will give us a portion of the Holy Spirit to help us along the way in our walk with the Lord to overcome the world and the sinful natures of the world. If we fail in our walk, it is not the end of our faith and our walk, God’s Word tell us to confess the sin and ask for forgiveness and it will be granted to begin anew.

Acts 2:38  Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:39  For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call." 

God’s patience is forever in one way, but it runs out in another.  If you keep rejecting Christ’s call or keep putting it off, turning it down, or ignoring until another time, eventually the time to repent will draw to a close and the opportunity to live eternally with our Lord in Heaven will pass from us. There are a great number of reasons why this can happen and we miss the chance. Our health can fail us to a point of not being able to reason, diseases can steal our ability to account for our choices with a working mind, we can be in an accident that changes the makeup of our faculties and our mental aptitude. We may have our lives cut short by a physical termination, such as a heart attack, a stroke, a freak accident, or anything that takes our life unexpectedly. The invitation to our Lord and Savior is now and now only, we have absolutely no promise of any time beyond what is current and in the present.

2 Corinthians 6:2  For He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you.” Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation. 

 

Revelation 20:11  Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. 

Revelation 20:12  And I saw the dead, small and great, standing before God, and books were opened. And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. And the dead were judged according to their works, by the things which were written in the books. 

Revelation 20:13  The sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades delivered up the dead who were in them. And they were judged, each one according to his works. 

Revelation 20:14  Then Death and Hades were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 

Revelation 20:15  And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. 

 

I want to urge anyone who hears these words today to accept the Lord Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior. Do not let the opportunity pass by because you cannot be sure the chance for your salvation will come again. You can be sure of your salvation today by repenting of your sins and claiming the blood of Jesus poured out for you and me on Calvary! Jesus is coming back again and when he does, the ones not covered by the blood of Christ will be judged and the wrath of God will be upon them.

The Lamb of God paid it all, accept the free gift!