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Escape For Thy Life
A sermon by Larry Kirkpatrick, presented at Mentone Seventh-day Adventist Church, January 9, 2004
A Cry Gone Up
Today, an important Bible story, a comment from the pen of inspiration, and a call to personal application.
If you will turn to Genesis, chapter 19 you can follow right along with a story very important to us today. The story of God's judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Those ancient Hebrew names have the meaning “burnt” and “destroyed.”
But the story does not begin in Genesis 19. It begins with the cry that went up to God about the moral and ethical state of Sodom. God was “Looking toward Sodom” (Genesis 18:16) for a reason. “Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto Me; and if not, I will know” (Genesis 18:20, 21). And elsewhere the Bible illumines the particular problems of Sodom and Gomorrah. “Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty, and committed abomination before Me: therefore I took them away as I saw good” (Ezekiel 16:49, 50). The place was a lot like southern California. The weather was mild, there was much wealth and luxury and idleness and sensual indulgence.
What was this cry that had gone up? Was it the prayers of Abraham, the prayers of Lot? Was it the pleas of others who had been ill-treated by the roaming bands of vile persons milling around Sodom? It is obvious from chapter 19 that they were a murderous, out of control people. Let's tune in there and get the story.
Last Night in Sodom
Two angels arrive at Sodom toward evening. Lot is at the gate waiting because others before this have been mistreated, and he hopes to prevent disaster from overtaking others. Presenting themselves as unaware of the town's depravity, the angels tell Lot they prefer to stay in the street for the night. Lot urges them to join him in his home, and finally they go. But in the failing light, already passers by in the streets have noted the new arrivals. Already attention has been aroused. On that night, a bored, excitement-seeking town was about to close its probation.
Ellen White, in Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 157 puts it as follows:
Now the last night of Sodom was approaching. Already the clouds of vengeance cast their shadows over the devoted city. But men perceived it not. While angels drew near on their mission of destruction, men were dreaming of prosperity and pleasure. The last day was like every other that had come and gone. Evening fell upon a scene of loveliness and security. A landscape of unrivaled beauty was bathed in the rays of the declining sun. The coolness of eventide had called forth the inhabitants of the city, and the pleasure-seeking throngs were passing to and fro, intent upon the enjoyment of the hour.
People were thinking about a tomorrow that would never come. They were thinking about their buying and selling, planting and trading. “The last day was like every other that had come and gone. Evening fell upon a scene of loveliness and security.” But in the early hours of the morning, the fire would fall.
Lot arrives home with his two guests, the food is served, and a friendly visit is in process. But soon it is interrupted. The sound of an assembling mob was heard. Catcalls, lewd swearing, rocks and debris cast against the wall and upon the roof of Lot's house showed that the situation was rapidly deteriorating.
Lot went outside in an attempt to calm the mob, calling them his brothers, but immediately their anger flared. They were asking for the two men to be brought out to them so that they could abuse them. Now they threatened to do worse to Lot, and were on the point of taking hold of him when the door swung open and the angels grabbed Lot by the scruff of his robe and pulled him inside.
The two men, actually angels, now used their power to strike the inflamed crowd outside with blindness, so that they could not find the door of Lot's home. The angels reveal they have been sent to destroy the city “because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD.” The crowd having dispersed, Lot is sent to try and get his children who live in the city to leave with him. But his visits are to no avail. His sons-in-law, residents of Sodom, refused to take him seriously.
Lot returned sorrowfully to his home and told the story of his failure. Then the angels bade him arise and take his wife and the two daughters who were yet in his house and leave the city. But Lot delayed. Though daily distressed at beholding deeds of violence, he had no true conception of the debasing and abominable iniquity practiced in that vile city. He did not realize the terrible necessity for God's judgments to put a check on sin. Some of his children clung to Sodom, and his wife refused to depart without them. The thought of leaving those whom he held dearest on earth seemed more than he could bear. It was hard to forsake his luxurious home and all the wealth acquired by the labors of his whole life, to go forth a destitute wanderer. Stupefied with sorrow, he lingered, loath to depart. (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 160).
In the dim light of the early dawn, Lot is despairing. The angels insist, he must leave immediately. But he seems paralyzed. Finally, the angels literally take him and his wife by the hands and pull them out! The angels physically move Lot and his wife and two daughters out to the edge of the city. We pick up the action at Genesis 19:17, 18: “And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord.”
Notice here the desperate situation of Lot. The angels, and he knows they are angels, have physically dragged them out of their house, out of the city. They have told him in no uncertain terms, “Flee for your life!” And Lot stops to have a mindless discussion with them. Lot's argument? “I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die” (Genesis 19:19). Lot secured permission to go to a small, nearby city. But all his lingering took a toll far greater than he expected. “Hesitancy or delay now would be fatal. To cast one lingering look upon the devoted city, to tarry for one moment from regret to leave so beautiful a home, would have cost their life. The storm of divine judgment was only waiting that these poor fugitives might make their escape.” (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 160). In the end, his wife disobeyed. “But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt” (Genesis 19:26).
And now, an insight that will shock you, and make you swallow, and begin to understand the influence you can have on others for good or ill.
One of the fugitives ventured to cast a look backward to the doomed city, and she became a monument of God's judgment. If Lot himself had manifested no hesitancy to obey the angels' warning, but had earnestly fled toward the mountains, without one word of pleading or remonstrance, his wife also would have made her escape. The influence of his example would have saved her from the sin that sealed her doom. But his hesitancy and delay caused her to lightly regard the divine warning. While her body was upon the plain, her heart clung to Sodom, and she perished with it. She rebelled against God because His judgments involved her possessions and her children in the ruin. Although so greatly favored in being called out from the wicked city, she felt that she was severely dealt with, because the wealth that it had taken years to accumulate must be left to destruction. Instead of thankfully accepting deliverance, she presumptuously looked back to desire the life of those who had rejected the divine warning. Her sin showed her to be unworthy of life, for the preservation of which she felt so little gratitude. (Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 161).
Getting Out of Sodom
Need you or I today to get out of Sodom? Is there some place where sin reigns unchecked in your life, some place over which Heaven's judgment hangs, dark and glowering, pulsing, thundering, threatening, warning that you have played with some certain sin too long, that it is now or never, that Jesus is calling you to come across the line, to leave that filthy thing behind? Is there any skeleton like that in your closet? The bones have begun to rattle something fierce, and you are afraid that at any moment that door might fling open and you be exposed. You are caught between habit and convenience on the one hand, the fact that you're still breathing, that God's mercy has been extended to you this long. Between that, and the fact that you know what you are doing is wrong. You know it brings tears to the eyes of Jesus. You know, it is self-destructive. You know God's judgment is upon it. You know you must flee for your life—someday.
But you've been waiting. And waiting. And years have gone past like clouds across the sky in hyper-speed. And you have left that thing unresolved. Today it is a canker, a barrier between you and your God. You feel altogether trapped between what you are chained to, and what you want to be with Jesus. But you know you can't stay in this compromised state forever. Every day you seem one step further away from Jesus. You are going down to moral defeat in slow motion.
God, Just go Ahead and Kill Me?
Maybe you thought you couldn't be saved, you thought of asking God to just simply annihilate you, execute His wrath upon you in full. You thought you'd gone too far, that it would be an embarrassment to His kingdom if He were to be merciful and save you at all. But friend, making such a request does no favor to God. Jesus has already experienced the equivalent of your second death; He has already paid your penalty for you, been seared under the immeasurable heat of the Father's wrath toward the evil your life generated. Already. This was part of Jesus' experience in the garden of Gethsemene, His experience at the Cross. Jesus has taken your place, experienced destruction for you. And He is alive again. The Father has accepted you through Him!
Don't hold back from Him now. In Matthew 10:37, 38 Jesus tells us, “He that loveth father or mother more than Me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after Me, is not worthy of Me.” You and I, no matter how we may feel about ourselves—our unworthiness, our wormfulness, our sin and evil, the dark red murderous slimetrail of sins winding about the record of our life, our bloody handprints all over the foot of the Cross where our sins murdered JesusÑour heart may condemn us but God is greater than our heart.
When we accepted Jesus He asked the Father in our behalf, “Father, forgive him,” “Father, forgive her.” And He did. So who are we to come back and say, “God, I'm sorry you can't save me. Just take my life away.” That has been settled. Jesus' life was taken away. He died for me. Now my life is to be the scene of Heaven's ultimate answer, “Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:27). Now Heaven is ready to glorify the Father through the amazing moral surgery Physician Jesus is performing on my life. WIll a man rob God when it is finally time for Jesus to be specifically joyful about you? Just now, when Jesus is ready to do something beautiful, to change another charcoalified victim of evil and bring springtime for the first time to your soul, now will you turn back, drop your cross, and sink back into the mire from which Jesus labored to rescue you?
Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory
You have been a lost sheep, a lost coin, a lost son, and Heaven came and found you. From whence comes now this desire to tremble and be destroyed? In Steps to Christ we are told,
There are those who have known the pardoning love of Christ and who really desire to be children of God, yet they realize that their character is imperfect, their life faulty, and they are ready to doubt whether their hearts have been renewed by the Holy Spirit. To such I would say, Do not draw back in despair. We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God. No; Christ is at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Said the beloved John, ‘These things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.’ 1 John 2:1. And do not forget the words of Christ, ‘The Father Himself loveth you.’ John 16:27. He desires to restore you to Himself, to see His own purity and holiness reflected in you. And if you will but yield yourself to Him, He that hath begun a good work in you will carry it forward to the day of Jesus Christ. Pray more fervently; believe more fully. As we come to distrust our own power, let us trust the power of our Redeemer, and we shall praise Him who is the health of our countenance.
The closer you come to Jesus, the more faulty you will appear in your own eyes; for your vision will be clearer, and your imperfections will be seen in broad and distinct contrast to His perfect nature. This is evidence that Satan's delusions have lost their power; that the vivifying influence of the Spirit of God is arousing you.
No deep-seated love for Jesus can dwell in the heart that does not realize its own sinfulness. The soul that is transformed by the grace of Christ will admire His divine character; but if we do not see our own moral deformity, it is unmistakable evidence that we have not had a view of the beauty and excellence of Christ.
The less we see to esteem in ourselves, the more we shall see to esteem in the infinite purity and loveliness of our Saviour. A view of our sinfulness drives us to Him who can pardon; and when the soul, realizing its helplessness, reaches out after Christ, He will reveal Himself in power. The more our sense of need drives us to Him and to the word of God, the more exalted views we shall have of His character, and the more fully we shall reflect His image. (Ellen G. White, Steps to Christ, pp. 64, 65).
Notice that “We shall often have to bow down and weep at the feet of Jesus because of our shortcomings and mistakes, but we are not to be discouraged. Even if we are overcome by the enemy, we are not cast off, not forsaken and rejected of God.” But this in no way means that we may continue in sin and still be accepted of God. The same passage speaks of what? “Pardon.” Pardon is the language of sin and transgression and repentence, the turning back to God. Pardon is what comes when we ask that our sins be forgiven. Let none misunderstand Mrs. White to be reducing sin to mere “shortcomings and mistakes.” She is writing with tender language for the broken and discouraged heart. The call is that “we come to distrust our own power,” and then instead to “trust the power of our Redeemer.” Do you think you can do that?
In calling us to separate from sin, to “flee for our lives,” God is in no wise merely filling up space and asking the impossible. He is insisting that we let Him renew us, He is calling us to walk so closely with Him that He can heal us. He calls us to keep our eyes open, our head up and out of the ostrich sand hole. The hours and the days and the years are ticking away. There is much to be accomplished to secure our salvation. Peter urges to “give diligence to make your calling and election sure” (1 Peter 1:10).
Conclusion
Brethren and sisters, many years have gone past. How have we all arrived here? Through a series of interactions with God and with Satan, to be honest. For years we've taken a step forward here and a step backward there. We've been very busy with so many things. God hasn't always had first place. Seeking first God's righteousness hasn't always had first place. Getting the sin out hasn't always had the first place.
And along have come spiritual leaders who have urged us not to focus on sin because that would distract us from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Be careful children. While we're not here to focus exclusively on sin, we're not here to neglect it either. We're not here to have an argument with God when He addresses a sin problem in our experience and says “Flee for thy life!” I can assure you, by this He doesn't mean for us to reply like Lot: “Not so my Lord,” or, “Its only a small one, my Lord.”
Today let us renew our understanding of the seriousness of sin. Let us pause to think what it has cost Jesus to make it possible for us to get out of Sodom. Whatever it is that has become that which so easily besets you, flee for your life, and don't ever turn back. There are beautiful things just ahead for those who will repent and forsake Satan and his selfish government, and enter into the life of unselfishness Jesus is waiting to fill us with.
Nor let us be blind to the influence our attitude towards sin and obedience has upon others. Lot could have facilitated his wife's being saved had he not been so weak and indecisive about obeying the angelic warning. INstead, his delay and hand-wringing led her to cherish feelings of hostility toward God who had reached out to save her. She never really got out of Sodom. We will never in eternity have a conversation with her. She is eternally lost. Brethren and sisters, search out the master sin in your life and leave it behind. Get out of Sodom now. Flee for thy life!
