Walking w/God & Holding hands w/the Devil
Scripture Reading: Genesis 13:10-13
Introduction:
You know the old story of how to boil a frog. You don’t put him in a pot of boiling water. You drop him in the boiling water and he’ll jump out before he’s injured. So you put him in a pot of cold water, and he’s perfectly comfortable. Then you put him on the stove, and little by little the water gets warm. It’s very pleasant at first. Then it gets to Jacuzzi level, and he begins to be a little alarmed. Finally, when it’s boiling, it’s too late. Some “Christians” are like that, aren’t they? They try to live as close to the world as possible. First they get into the world and it’s oh so pleasant at first. And then it gets a little warmer and it’s pleasanter yet. And one day we realize the danger: “This is going to kill me, and I haven’t the strength to get out!”
This morning you may have noticed as you passed in front of the church, on the church sign I have the message “You can’t walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.” Now, that may seem a little obvious and maybe even a little humorous, but I want to tell you this morning that that is exactly what a lot of people are trying to do today. There are millions of people in this world that would claim to be Christians but if you were to examine their lives you would find that they are no different than those who don’t claim to be Christians. There are those who claim to be Christians who lie, cheat, steal, etc. just like everyone else. Well, I want you to know this morning that you can’t walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.
This morning I would like to talk to you about Lot. Lot is one who exemplifies for us someone who fell into the trap of the Devil and tried to walk with God and hold hands with the Devil. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (money).” Jesus spoke those words nearly 2,000 years ago, but there are still people today who are trying to do just that. A.M. Hills said, “They seem to doubt the supreme importance of spiritual things, and to be inclined to the opinion that it pays better to be a “half-hearted Christian,” getting the cream of this world, and heaven besides. In truth, these people are after both worlds. They make sure of this, and they hope not to miss the felicity of the next.”
Lot is evidently one of these types of people. A.M. Hill again said, “His whole life seems to have been tinged with earthly colorings, and to have been struck through with the spirit of the world. He preferred to live on the borderland of true Christian experience, rather than in the land itself, and to be quite a little more at home with the filthy Sodomites than with the praying household of his Uncle Abram. Alas! He was dominated by the spirit of the world!” You might say he tried to walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.
This morning I want to talk to you about how Lot ended up in the midst of the wicked and perverse city of Sodom. How did a man with so much going for him with a godly uncle like Abraham, how did he end up in such terrible condition as what we just read about in Genesis 19? Well, Lot ended up in Sodom because he…
I. Lot Looked toward Sodom.
“And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord”
What happened was that Abraham and Lot came to this new country that God wanted them to live in, and not long after they arrived, two of Abraham’s and Lot’s herdsmen got into a fight about the water and pasture privilege for their flocks. It is here that the underlying principles of these two men, Abraham and Lot, come to surface. It is here that we see their true character. Abraham, to whom the whole land had been promised, showed a deep determination to honor God even in the presence of the heathen people with whom they were now living. Whatever loss he might suffer, he would not fight with his nephew Lot before them. So, he unselfishly gave up his claim to the land and generously offered to Lot the first choice of the whole land.
So, Lot had to make a choice and what a momentous choice it would be. He should have been impelled by gratitude and reverence and respect for his uncle and refuse the first choice, but instead he in one self-seeking impulse made a decision absolutely fatal to the rest of his life. He should have went to God and prayer and asked which place he should choice, but there is not the slightest evidence that Lot had a thought of God or his religion when he made the momentous choice that insured his ruin.
The first mistake that Lot made was that he got his eyes off of what God wanted for him, and he began to look at the wealth of the world. You see, he saw this well watered plain of the Jordan. The Scripture says that it was like the “garden of the Lord.” In other words, when Abraham gave Lot the choice of where he wanted to live, Lot saw this place that looked like the very Garden of Eden! It was a beautiful place with lots of green luscious grass and water for all of his herds. He looked at the nearby cities Sodom and Gomorrah and decided that he would like to have this area. So, in one fatal decision he chose the well watered plains of the Jordan. He chose the world. He allowed worldly consideration alone to move him, good water, fine pastures, close to a city market, good business opportunities, and a splendid chance to make money!! Sure, there was a lot of sin in the neighborhood, but he must not let little scruples like that interfere with business, after all, business and religion shouldn’t mix! Lot looked towards Sodom.
So it is that thousands of Christians are going down today in the same way. They are being swallowed up in a maelstrom of worldliness. They leave their souls out of account and do not consult God when making decisions. I told you before that I feel like our every decision should be made by first asking “Is that what God wants me to do?” When we start a new job, when we move to a new place, whatever the decision is, we need to first make it by asking ourselves this question. Lot did not make his decision on what God wanted; he made his decision based upon his own desire.
The first mistake that Lot made was he looked toward Sodom, and not towards God. Notice next…
II. Lot Longed for Sodom.
“Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.” (v.12)
The Scripture first tells us that Lot looked towards Sodom, but now we find Lot pitching his tent towards Sodom. Perhaps he thought, ‘Well, we will be in the vicinity of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we won’t participate in its sin. It won’t really hurt anything to live out here, but we’ll just set up house keeping close to Sodom.’ And so he did. First his excuse had been that he like how “well-watered” things were in the area. So, he decided that he would live in the area near Sodom. He would not take part in Sodom’s sin. He could live close to it, but he would be able to withstand the temptation. This may have been Lot’s original intention, but it didn’t last too long. Soon the attraction of Sodom became so great that he pitched his tents in the direction of Sodom. Rather than stay as far away as possible, he lived as close as possible and turned his eyes towards that evil city. I told you that he ‘longed for’ Sodom. In other words, he began to desire what Sodom offered, so he pitched his tent in that direction.
How many times have you heard people justify their compromise by doing as Lot did? ‘There’s nothing really wrong with such and such…’ And so, they begin to live as close to the world as possible. James 4:4 says, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”
You say that you would never give into the temptation of sin and of the world. You say that you would never deny Christ and lie, cheat, steal and murder. Well, if you live close enough to the world you’ll be surprised what will happen. Lot probably said that he would never live in Sodom. He would never give place to such wickedness. How many people who were Christians at one time, said that they would never and couldn’t stand some sins, but they begin living to close to the edge and before long they were over that same ledge that they said they would never cross? It has been said that rivers and men become crooked by following the line of least resistance. John Eastwood said, “People do not decide to be drunkards, drug addicts, prostitutes, murderers, or thieves, but they pitch their tent toward Sodom, and the powers of evil overcome them.” Albert Einstein said, “I do not fear the explosive power of the atom bomb. What I fear is the explosive power of evil in the human heart.” Church, if you do not have the love of the world taken out of your heart, that same love of the world will one day destroy you (carnality)!
Because now I want you to see that Lot looked towards Sodom, and longed for Sodom, but I want you to notice finally that…
III. Lot Lived in Sodom.
The desire for the world that something within him that craved more than he was willing or able to trust the Lord to provide in his life soon lead to Lot living in that terrible sinful place called Sodom.
A. The Appeal of Sodom:
The appeal of Easy Living (13:10 - "well-watered gardens") --The physical attractiveness and productiveness of the land appealed to his desire for prosperous living without backbreaking labor.
The appeal of Independence (13:11 - "separated from Abram") --After living in Abram’s shadow for so long, here also was an opportunity to show that he was his own man, to launch his own enterprise, to make his own way.
The appeal of Excitement (13:13 - "surface attraction of wickedness") --But there was also a lurid appeal in the sensual wickedness of the land that was perversely attractive, dangerous, and challenging at the same time.
The appeal of Sodom soon made Lot blind to the cost of sin. When we believe that anything outside of the Lord can satisfy some desire in us, we often become blind to the cost we will eventually pay for such a passing moment of satisfaction.
B. The Appeal of Sodom soon led to Action:
Lot gradually began to reset his compass. He had already turned his eyes and seen the appeal of the land full of wicked people, but he then made a tragic choice to reset the compass of his life in a deadly direction. Rather than setting his compass to true north to determine to follow the way of the Lord, he began a lengthy, gradual process of redirecting his life toward another destination.
Then Lot intentionally changed his direction. Once the direction had been determined, taking steps in that direction followed immediately. His Willful Choice Was Followed by Decisive Action against God’s Wisdom. The appeal of the land led him to take action, knowing or at least suspecting, that such actions would not line up with the direction the Lord was leading Abram, the way of eternal promises and godly wisdom. His Deliberate Steps Were Taken with Persistent Disregard for God’s Will. Rather than deliberate on what would please the Lord, Lot like most of us, took action without any consideration for, and in fact, with complete disregard for, the will of God.
Can we not say "NO!" to appeals from empty sources and wicked attractions and "YES!" to the call of Christ to live by faith trusting in His promises? Once we take that first step, stopping becomes very difficult, so we need to resist the appeal to act in a manner that leads us away from God’s way.
No doubt when Lot first moved into Sodom the sin of the place must have grieved his heart.
• He may have even justified his settling in the city as a way of hope to evangelize the place.
• Perhaps in his mind he hoped to change the city for God.
• As time goes on however we will see that rather than his changing them, they changed his family in ways that brought destruction to it.
Lot’s choices to live in Sodom and be a part of this community would have ramifications on his entire family, some of which he would never recover from!
• He lost his wife.
• He lost his married daughters and sons-in-laws, they don’t leave with them.
• He also loses the respect of his unmarried daughters who do leave with him, but they later commit incest with him and produce two children by this ungodly union.
In the end Lot will lose all his wealth, most of his family, and his peace of mind, not to mention the spiritual heritage and witness he could have had.
His compromising all through his life left him with almost nothing in the end!
• Solomon discovered a similar fate although he maintained his wealth.
• It is tragic to realize that most of the Biblical characters that fell did so in the later half of their lives, through a process of compromise!
What a sad, sad, story this is! Lot lost everything because of compromise.
Illustration: Cows nibble their way to being lost. They nibble on one tuft of grass here, and here, and here. Then on the other side of the fence, etc.
Although God spared Lot from death in Sodom, he paid a terrible price for playing around with sin.
Conclusion:
I began this sermon this morning by telling you that ‘You can’t walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.’ How true this is!
Lot could have been enjoying the blessing of Canaan-land like his uncle Abraham was, but instead his choose the well watered plains of the Jordan, and he ended up paying the price for his compromise.
So, how about you? Are you compromising? Are you trying to live as close to the world as possible, or are you living in Canaan land? Don’t try walking with God and holding hands with the Devil! We all need to be aware of the fact that the Devil wants to get us to let up a little here, and a little there, until soon we are living in Sodom rather than in Canaan.
Whenever we choose the world and its ways over God and His ways we make a bad bargain! Lot started out with Abram and like him enjoyed the blessings of God, but, he exchanged what Abram could offer for what the world could offer and in the end he lost out! Which direction is your tent pitched – toward Bethel (God’s house) or Sodom (the world)?
