Genesis 12:4 – So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran.

Hey all, back with a new blog today, and continuing looking at Lot’s life, and in this blog we will be looking at how Lot resembles many of us today. Jesus said that when he returns it would be like it was in the days of Lot. Just like we are in the the days of Lot today, we also see many people who are just like the person Lot today as well. We also see the world in a state of wickedness just like it was in Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot is a picture of a backslidden believer, his life is a lesson to believers and nonbelievers alike. Lot’s life is a warning, and in reality most of us turn out like Lot, rather than like faithful Abraham, if we are being honest with ourselves today. It is easy to miss the lessons in Lot’s life, we probably think we are nothing like Lot, we probably think we are above him and the mistakes he made, but in reality we probably bear a striking resemblance to Lot, our lives more closely mirroring his life than Abraham’s. This is not to say Abraham was perfect either, Abraham made mistakes, Abraham faltered, but the paths of these two men diverged massively, and it came down to choices they made and lived with, it came down to their relationship, fellowship and communion with God. All our lives are proportional to what we do with God, do we put him on the backburner, do we walk with him by faith, or do we deny his existence altogether? We all make mistakes, we all sin, we all equally need to be saved, and once we are saved we have a life to live. Once we are saved there is a life to live, God doesn’t save us and leave us there, he renews us, he transforms us, he changes us, because there is a new creature born inside us at conversion, and the fruits meet for repentance that John the Baptist preached of are evident. A salvation that doesn’t produce change is not salvation at all. But what we have today are false gospels, false spirits, false Jesus’s rampant in the world today, producing false converts, false professors, false teachers. Don’t be gullible, don’t be so easily fooled. Satan aligns his best lies very closely with truth, just like the Gibeonites in the book of Joshua who were far more successful against Israel through their subtlety and deception, rather than the other nations that came against Israel to fight them and were easily destroyed.

The first thing about Lot’s life  that we notice is that he’s continually mentioned as being with Abraham. “And Lot went with him”, “And Lot with him”, Abram took Lot … Lot lived his life like most Christians live. Breathing on the fumes of someone else’s Christianity. Riding coattails, benefiting from the faith and walk of someone else. We know that something about Lot was real because the Bible calls him faithful and righteous, but beyond his salvation, Lot didn’t have much of a backbone or much of substance. He went well while he was with Abram, and once separated his life spiraled out of control. There was a king in the Bible who was like this, Joash, who did right while Jehoiada the priest was alive, but once the priest was dead he went off the rails. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 3:14 – But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them. If you don’t know of whom you have learned them, you will be tossed around. Either the Spirit of truth abiding in you is teaching you locking down things in your heart, or your faith is superficial and proportional to other people. And the reality of your faith will be tested, as it was in Lot’s life, and we see what it revealed. Do you know of whom you have learned? Paul was teaching Timothy something very serious, your faith has to be your own, it has to be real for yourself, in your own life, Paul said – I know whom I have believed. Do you know the Lord Jesus Christ yourself? Or is yours a second hand experience?

It is amazing that we see all throughout the chapters of Genesis with Lot and Abraham, that we see Abraham in constant relationship, fellowship, communion with God. But we never see that with Lot. Lot was out of line with God, out of step. He was not walking with God by faith. Lot needed to return to God, but instead he kept drifting farther away. We drift away from God when we leave the boundaries, the security, the guidance of the written Word of God. When we get seduced, enticed away, when our lusts lead us astray, when. And it all can be traced back to that day with Abram when their herdmen had strife and they separated. Lot chose a different path, a different route. He departed from faith, he backslid on God, Lot got disconnected. He started walking according to his own sight, while we are told in the Bible that Abraham walked with God by faith, he looked on the things which are not seen. He had the eyes of faith, Lot is a believer who walks according to their own intellect, their own reasoning, their own eyes. While Lot was down in Sodom, God was talking to Abram, Abram was receiving precious promises and blessings. Abram was in his tent, he was a pilgrim on the earth, meanwhile Lot in the city of Sodom, he was invested in the world. He invested his life in the wrong place, he invested in something that was about to be obliterated. Lot has no legacy or inheritance today. His descendants, the product of himself and his daughters … it was sexual immorality in Sodom, and he ended up in sexual immorality with his daughters … who says you can be around and play around and toy around and excuse sin and it not eventually get you? Lot’s descendants would be enemies with Israel, which was Abraham’s descendants. Sin affects others, it visits other generations, sin is selfish at it’s core. Lot descendants were wicked, ungodly, all because Lot lost his way.

Lot was a spiritual weakling, he was a Christian who never grew up. Abram was a man of faith, and Lot departed from the man of faith. Lot is a picture of a Christian departing from the faith, who is seduced, enticed, who does not endure sound doctrine, a Christian who walks away and backslides on God. Today we see as Lot departed from Abram, we see Christianity today has departed from the Authorized King James Bible for something else. Something more appealing, Canaan land doesn’t appeal anymore, Christians prefer the well watered plains of Jordan. Christians without discernment of coming judgement, who cannot make good choices, because without submitting to the authority of the Word of God you won’t make good long term choices. Lot and Abram suddenly had strife, there was broken fellowship between them. And in we read in 1 John 1:6,7 – If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth: But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin. Our fellowship with each other is directly proportional to our fellowship with Christ. Lot was out of fellowship with Christ, and thus could not get along with Abram. Christianity is in strife today, faithful believers and unfaithful believers will never get along. It is best to part ways. It was their herdmen that started this, and these new Bibles are different herdmen today. They herd a different flock of believers, the herdmen looked after these men’s prosperity, and people today reject the herdmen of the Authorized King James Bible in favor of the herdmen of the new contemporary Bibles. The herd you to a new pasture, a “better” pasture, but in reality all they are is leading you to ruin. And as they had strife, so these Bibles do not get along, they contradict, they say different things, their words carry a different message, a different gospel, a trumpet with an uncertain sound… choose one or the other, compromise does not work, but bear in mind one leads you to faith, the other leads you on a dangerous descent to Sodom. One increases faith, one disconnects you from God…. one has a sure inheritance based on sure words, one has an inheritance that is to be destroyed based on ambiguity and doubt. Why does God allow this? The Bible speaks of a famine of hearing of the word of God. People do not want truth. God allows the new Bibles to test how much you want truth, to test what’s truly in your heart, just as God left the other nations in the promised land to prove the people of Israel. If you truly seek truth you will find it, you have to want it, do you really want truth?

Lot was a Christian that could not let go of the “little” thing in his life. When the angels had brought him out he didn’t want to go to the mountains as God said. This in itself shows that he was out of step with God, Lot’s will, Lot’s path was not aligned with God’s will and plan for his life. A new Bible will do that to you. What we want should come under and align with what God wants for us, but this was not the case. Lot’s relationship, fellowship, communion with God was far different from Abram’s. This is where the key difference in the trajectory of their lives lay. Lot said, Let me go to Zoar. It is just a little one. Just a little one… it is no coincidence that this is the last chapter of Genesis that deals with Lot. His life just trails off. After this chapter we are focussing solely on Abraham, a believer who went all the way with God, who was strong in faith, who obeyed God, the same Abraham whom Jesus said rejoiced to see my day, and saw it, and was glad – at Mount Moriah! God had given Lot a command, if he obeyed he could get back on track with God, it didn’t have to end badly. But Lot could not let go of the “little” thing in his life, and so we are like this today. The little things that trip us up, that ruin us. Achan had a “little” thing hidden in his tent, it was a little thing, but it became a very big thing in his life and cost him and his family their lives. The little things are what will get you, Moses said be sure your sin will find you out.

Like Lot, Christians today not just dwell in Sodom, but are happy there, they invest there, they want to remain there. They are powerless believers, ineffective, unprofitable believers. It cost Lot his witness, and so today Christians are useless in the service of God. Lot seemed as one that mocked to his sons in law. A Lot Christian has no witness and no power in their lives. There is power in separation UNTO God, Samson had immense power because of his Nazarite vow, he was separated unto God by God from his birth. Via your new birth (if you have been saved) you are separated unto God by God, and that has power associated with it. But here was Lot compromising with the world, casting pearl before swine. He, like Samson, eventually got caught up and brought down. Sexual immorality got Lot in the end, it was rampant sexual immorality of the worst kind in Sodom that had surrounded him the whole time he was there. Lot excused the Sodomites, he knew it was wrong, but he remained there. He even became a judge there, Christianizing someone never works, and particularly Sodomites. And this is reflective of a “Lot” Christian, they lose all sense of right and wrong, they are judges who cannot judge at all, to their shame as Paul said in 1 Corinthians. A Christian who cannot judge righteously is a shame, the word of God is the judge. There is no common ground for the believer and the city of Sodom, just like light and darkness are day and night apart. It is a dangerous place for the believer, you shouldn’t be there, get out, you have no business there. God sent the angels to destroy, not to preach to them. Sodomites are reprobates, God gives people up read Romans 1. When you deny God, when you reject the gospel, all that’s left is a lie… Jesus IS truth, if you reject Jesus all that’s left is lies and delusion. Is God finished with you today? Have you rejected God for the final time? Belshazzar was a dead duck even while he was drinking his life away in his party in Babylon. The writing was on the wall, even when Daniel gave the interpretation, he did not change. God will harden your heart, or you will repent, what is true of you? Either way, the truth will come to you, and you will do something with it, and at some point God will say that’s it.

Lot made bad judgements in his life. “Judge” is a buzzword. People say don’t judge me. People quote “Judge not that ye be not judged”. People don’t know the Bible, and neither did Lot. Do you know the Bible enough to know what the Bible teaches about judgement and judging? The Bible speaks about judgement, Satan is judged, he is finished, the world is under judgement, it has been judged and will be again. What judges the world is the word of God. Much of the Old Testament is about the statutes and the judgements of God. What God says is right and wrong. But here was Lot, a judge in Sodom… what a paradox. And he was a poor judge, he made poor judgements in and for his life. He judged Sodom poorly for a place to bring up his family in, and he lost his family. He judged the plains of Jordan poorly for his inheritance, because it got destroyed and remains uninhabitable to this day. Believers that do not grow in the faith, who do not know things based on what the Bible says, who do not abide in and meditate upon God’s word will make poor judgements, poor decisions. We all make judgements all the time, you judge that a chair you sit on will be able to hold your weight, when you drive your car you make judgements constantly about your speed, your lane, turning and so on, you make judgements about places you go, where you live, how you live, friends you keep… so we all make judgements… but our judgements should be according to God’s word… what does the Bible say… not our own personal opinions. The Bible says let God be true and every man a liar. Live your life, stake your being, your existence on God’s word. It will hold up.

It is interesting to note that the angels wanted to stay in the street rather than go into Lot’s home. This says a lot about Lot, the state of his home and his life. The angels weren’t there to minister to him, he had no business in Sodom, they were saving him for Abraham’s sake the Bible says. These angels were happy to receive Abram’s hospitality, but would rather have stayed in the street than in Lot’s house. There wasn’t any fellowship to have because Lot had broken fellowship, Lot was out of the will of God. Because Lot was a double minded man, Lot was a compromiser, he wasn’t in line with God’s word or God’s will for his life. Where is God in your life? Is your heart that unfit, that far removed from him? Repentance, confession of sin, seeking mercy, having a humble and broken spirit is what paves the way for God in our lives. That’s what John the Baptist preached … the voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord. Lot’s heart wasn’t prepared for God and God alone. Lot wanted God, but he wanted the world, but you can’t have both. Jesus stands outside the door and knocks in the letter to the church of Laodicea. Christians today have kicked the Lord Jesus Christ to the kerb… he is outside… he is not welcome anymore. We see church after church today where he is OUTSIDE the church. He is not present. We remember the story of Eli and his sons in the Bible in 1 Samuel, Eli was a judge of Israel, he was a priest, but his sons were wicked and he did not restrain them. They caused people to abhor coming to the tabernacle and getting right with God. And when the Philistines came in and slaughtered Israel and the ark of the covenant was taken… one of Eli’s sons wives gave birth and called his name Ichabod – saying the glory has departed. God has departed from many churches today, the glory is gone… sure the church is a good social club, has some feel good music and emotional stuff going on… but the truth is absent, the truth is gone, God’s word is missing. And when we want God in, there is no heart prepared for him, there is no repentance, no mercy seeking. The Bible says a double minded man is unstable in all his ways. Jesus said no man can serve two masters.  Jesus said when he returned would he find faith on the earth? Does God find lodging in your heart, he stands at the door and knocks, you know he does, but will he stay outside your life because you reject him, because you reject truth, because you love the world, because of compromise, because of disobedience, because of broken fellowship with him?

Like Lot dwelling in Sodom, so Christians today dwell in harmony with Sodomites. They do not warn of judgement. Both live together willingly ignorant of God’s sure wrath coming down the pipe. The Bible has declared judgement on sin, on this world, on the prince of this world – the devil. God can and does judge, but he is longsuffering, merciful, gracious. But people use this as an excuse and validation that their sinning, and their thumbing their noses at God is okay. God hasn’t shown up, and they keep going and going in their blatant sin, shaking their fist and he that sitteth in the heavens. Read 2 Peter, we know that their damnation slumbers not, it’s not lingering, God is just giving space for them to repent, for them to fill up their iniquity, to heap coals of fire upon their own head. God allows what’s going on today, he’s letting people prove themselves, he lets people prove what’s in their own heart. God said as the angels headed towards Sodom… Shall I hide this thing from Abram? When you are judged and in hell, do not say there was no warning, the thing has no been hid, it has been declared. The Bible says to flee from the wrath to come. Get out the way of it. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The best thing, the wisest thing you will do, is get a Godly fear of God, it will guide you into making the best decisions. By the fear of the Lord men depart from evil. The fear of the Lord is one of the seven spirits of God, of which all seven are one.

Lot was a Christian who never grew. How do we grow? By desiring the sincere milk of the word, that we may grow thereby as the Bible says. We grow by reading the word of God, by believing, by being built up in the faith. Abide in him and he in us. Abide in him, the Bible calls the word of God the engrafted word and that God of his own will begat us with the word of truth. But here was Lot, a spiritual babe, God’s word is spiritual, it transcends ink on paper, someone who is truly spiritual is someone who has the Word of God abiding in them, as 1 John 2:14 says. Young men who are strong, Lot wasn’t, young men in whom abides the Word of God, wasn’t in Lot’s case. Lot got unhooked and disconnected from God. We see broken fellowship, no communion… Abram was constantly in communication with God, and in obedience… meanwhile we see Lot separated living down in Sodom. Abraham was separated UNTO God, Lot separated himself unto the world. Lot pulled towards the world, and in doing so pulled away from God, you cannot have both. The Bible says to love not the world for a reason. But it isn’t as easy as it sounds, the world dishes up stuff that appeals to our eyes, our flesh, our lusts. If Abraham is a picture of faith, we see Lot left faith. We know in the last days that many will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, getting enticed away, who will not endure sound doctrine, but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears. Lot had different herdmen which had strife with Abram’s herdmen, different Bibles will “herd” you in a different direction, into a place that looks good to your carnal vision and intellect and human understanding and reasoning, but a place of vanity, temporal, to be destroyed…. different Bibles will unhook your faith in God’s word, it will furnish you with a replacement faith, just as Satan is in the substitution and counterfeiting business… he appears as an angel of light, his ministers as ministers of righteousness. The herdmen managed their prosperity, and Lot’s herdmen took him to a bad place, Abram’s herdmen did not. Who have you put in charge of your prosperity. Lot’s herdmen guided his life to destruction. Who and what is dragging you down, away from the truth, into danger, into despair? Lot’s faith was misplaced, he placed his faith in something that was about to be destroyed, whereas Abram’s faith was in something established and verified by God’s sure word and promise to him. God’s word matters, it is the tangible thing we all have. Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

What gets lost among all of this is that it is easy to forget that Lot was doing very well for himself. He was rich, prosperous, he had a high standing in Sodom. Abram got the land that Lot didn’t like the look of, Abram was off in a tent somewhere, seemingly having been dudded. Lot had reputation, he was tapped into a well watered land. But the taps were about to be turned off. Things are not always as they seem. Things can look grim, just like they did for Joseph when he was sold into slavery by his brothers, in Christ we are more than conquerors. You will only be on the winning side if you are on Christ’s side. And the taps are about to be turned off today. Lot was left with nothing, Abraham retained his wealth. Abraham laid up his treasures in heaven, Lot laid them up on earth. Lot invested his life, his time, his pleasure, his heart in the wrong things, and they got taken from him. Satan is a thief, a robber, he robbed Lot’s life. Abram seemingly was a loser, but he was the big winner. It wasn’t Lot’s wife that was barren, but Abram’s was. Abram had the dud patch of land seemingly, Lot got the good patch. Lot had reputation and standing, Abram didn’t. And yet when push came to shove, it was Abram that had the real power, because he had a real and vital walk with God, it was Abram that saved Lot when the kings came and put down the Sodomite rebellion that he got caught up in. It was Abram that had power with God. True power, true inheritance, lasting, eternal things come from God.

We can trace Lot all the way back to that day with Abram. He had been okay, but then he made a bad choice, which set him on a bad path. Lot somehow got all disconnected from God, and we disconnect ourselves from God in many ways today. Maybe there is not that true vital relationship with God to begin with. Maybe you are saved, but out of the will of God. Maybe you are out of the word of God. Maybe you are like those Israelites in the wilderness who were sick of the same old manna, maybe you don’t want the word of God anymore. Don’t turn away from the truth, no matter how unfashionable it is, no matter how confronting it may be. Maybe you are just doing whatever you want, and your journey has taken you to Sodom. Judgement is coming on this world, we are living in the last days… but just like in the days of Noah and the days of Lot, judgement is the furthest thing from our minds. God was merciful and saved Lot out of Sodom, but Lot again did not learn the lesson. Zoar was one of the cities that was to be destroyed, but God spared it because Lot wanted to go there. After all, it was just a little city. The little things cost us BIG. Lot became so entrenched in Sodom, he couldn’t imagine life without it, Sodom had gotten inside him, he knew destruction was coming but still he lingered in the city, the angels literally had to take him out of the city. Lot made a trainwreck of his life, and we need to not make a trainwreck of our lives today. Don’t think it can’t happen to you, Lot was doing a lot better than you will probably ever do, Lot didn’t plan for it to end up like this, but it did.

So what to do? If you aren’t saved, get saved, that is the starting point. Getting saved is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. It is heart belief, not head belief, it is belief and faith that personally appropriates, that receives what God has done for you through his Son Jesus Christ. Confess your sins, believe in your heart, receive his forgiveness, it’s all about his shed blood, his death burial and resurrection, his mercy, grace, longsuffering. Repent, believe and you will be saved.  God would be a liar not to save you, and he is not a liar. Once you are saved, you need to grow in the faith, grow in the grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. His Holy Spirit will guide you into all truth. Lot got lost here, he got saved, but that was it… he lost his way, he backslid on God. How to grow in the faith? Get yourself an Authorized King James Bible, start reading and believe what it says. If you don’t understand, it doesn’t matter, just keep reading and believing. God gives wisdom and understanding, we have to surrender our intellect, our reasoning, our understanding, ultimately our pride. He must increase, and we must decrease. God is God. You and I are not. He gives grace to the humble, he will show you great and mighty things out of his word which you know not. Reconnect with God, stop the disconnect, leave Sodom, stay out of Sodom, live and walk with God by faith. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. The Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. It’s all so simple, don’t stumble at the stumbling stone. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God. Just believe today, call upon the name of the Lord, be saved if you are not, and if you are saved, today is the day to get back on track, and don’t end up like Lot.

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