Audio Messages:
Pastor Wade Burleson

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Choice People Can Make Poor Choices Too

Genesis41.mp3 (9.44 MB)

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Genesis 13:10-13 (KJV)

10. 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, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar.
11. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other.
12. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
13. But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

You have probably heard many Sunday School lessons or messages on Lot's wife, the woman who turned into a pillar of salt when she turned back to look at Sodom and Gomorrah, but this morning you are going to hear a message on the life of Lot himself. God turned the cities of Sodom and gomorrah into ashes, condemning them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly, and delivered just Lot (II Peter 2:6). Peter calls Lot a just man or a righteous man. He was vexed in his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds (II Peter 2:8). How did Lot wind up in Sodom? How did Lot lose his wife? What happened to just Lot?

Lot's downward spiral did not happen overnight. There was a progression to his slide.

1. Lot pitched his tent toward Sodom . . . Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld (v.10).
   One never pitches his tent toward Sodom (v.12) until he first looks and desires it.
2. Lot made his home in the city . . . And they took Lot . . . who dwelt in Sodom (14.12).
3. Lot sat at the gate in the city . . . Lot sat in the gate of Sodom (19:1). This phrase is a Hebraism which describes Lot as a leader within the city -- and elder of the city.
4. Lot called the Sodomites "brethren" . . . I pray you brethren (Gen. 19:7).

This progressive slide away from that which was best for Lot gives us some vital lessons.
"O Lord help us to hear the serpent's rattle before we feel its fangs" Thomas Tallmadge.

1. Your tempter begins with small temptations that will lead to larger temptations.
   Take us the foxes, the little foxes that spoil the vines, for our vines have tender grapes (Song of Solomon 2:15). By 'little foxes' Solomon designated 'little sins'. "The best of men have always been afraid of little sins" (C.H. Spurgeon).
2. Your tempter travels a well-beaten path, using known and experienced methods.
   There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape (I Corinthians 10:13). 'Common to man' is the translation of one Greek work that portrays a 'similar custom among mankind'.
3. Your tempter takes advantage by attacking in areas of natural appetites.
   "Satan, like a fisher, baits his hook according to the appetite of the fish" (Thomas Adams).
   "Satan never sets a dish before men that they do not love" (Thomas Watson).
   Throughout the Bible we find men falling at the point of their greatest appetite.
4. Your tempter seeks to convince you that you are compelled by necessity to sin.
   "I could not help it" is the modern cry. But, Resist the devil and he will flee (James 4:7).
5. Your tempter uses all his resources, including people, to mount the attack.
   When Jesus was tempted by Peter to not fulfill his mission by dying on the cross, Jesus turned to Peter and said to him, 'Get thee behind me Satan' (Matthew 16:23).

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