God’s faithfulness and mercy

Abraham a Man of faith was a chosen vessel of the Lord who received a direct call from God.  His steadfastness of faith paved the way for many generations to follow His footsteps till now and call we all him the father of all the faithful.

One of the greatest virtues of his faith was the measure of trust that God had developed in him. As a fortifiedman of God through all his experiences he learned to trust the Lord in all of his life circumstances.

In the early part of his journey with God he was being strengthened in faith by his many trials, yet they all served in making him the man he became.

One of the greatest works of God in Abraham was the trust he developed in the Lord, that no matter where he goes the God who called him was faithful to sustain, provide and save him and all his household from all things that came his way.

He became a pillar in the House of his God Upon His call to leave Egypt and his return to the land of Canaan the Bible teaches us that Abraham and Lot stayed together with a great wealth acquired from their journey into Egypt and they both became very rich in owning cattle’s and livestock and servants and made servants. However soon we read enmity or quarrel began to take place between their servants and they decided to part in peace, in order to keep their love strong between them.

As at times the Lord might direct me and you to leave some of our most loved ones for a better future and future blessing in each other’s lives.

This became the story of these two men whom Bible calls them both righteous.

However in their parting from each other Abraham being the uncle of Lot asked his nephew to choose the place he wanted to go stay, giving Lot his free will of choice in picking up the land of his pilgrimage.

Therefore Abraham and lot went up to the mountains where all the land before them was easy to be seen and he told Lot if you choose the west I will go to the east and if you decide to go to the east I will go to the west.

And it was in this way that Lot looking into the physical beauty of the land of Sodom and Gomorrah chose the green and parched land and left the wilderness to Abraham.

Abraham being a true worshipper of God had been fortified through his numerous experiences with God in faith that it was not his carnal choices that would sustain him, but it was God’s presence that was needed for his success. Here we learn our greatest lesson in trusting God over our best choices.

Many Christians even today after so many reproofs are still running like righteous Lot after what is pleasant to the eyes, thinking in this their safety and security is kept for them.

Yet we very well know the opposite is true.

Very soon the Bible says the men who were two angels and Christ in His Christophany appeared to Abraham and soon after they were served by him they told him the

Outcry of many people’s has brought God’s judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah. Through this Abraham’s long expected fear become real in wanting to see Lot spared from the wrath to come and thus he began hisintercessory prayers to God on Lot’s behalf. Until we read in Genesis 19^th chapter that the angels were sent to Sodom to rescue Lot from the coming judgment on that perverted city.

Here is where I would like to start the core of our message for today.

It is about God’s unfathomable mercy on the righteous and the just. How God loves His own even when they are caught up in the midst of the worst predicaments of their carnal choices.

The Lord is always faithful to pull us all out of our own self afflicted sin and misery.

The story of Genesis 19 tells us the detail of Lot’s rescue mission by the angels and how the wicked men of Sodom wanted to Sodomize God’s angels, yet how the power of God through the angles blinded the men of that wicked city. Then we read how the angels urged them in verse 15 to leave the city, with their son in laws who would laugh on Lot’s plea to leave the city. Finally the Bible tells us that even with Lot and his two unmarried daughters and his wife the angels had to carry those out of the city since they lingered at the day break the word says to get out.

This goes on to show how we could be very strongly tied dawn to material thing or the wrong people and worldly choices in life, yet God is pleading with us to separate ourselves, so that we too would not perish with their plagues.

The reproof in verse 15 is an amazing reality of God’s grace to the righteous.

Hear what the angels are saying to the righteous Lot, the man whom the New Covenant writers like Apostle Peter call the Righteous Lot suffering with the unrighteous acts of the wicked.

“Hurry Arise take your wife and your two daughters, who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city”

Wow what a huge proof of God’s love and mercy, yet if not heeded what a warning that even the righteous could be consumed with the punishment of the wicked.

This same is said by Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 5 about the Day of the Lord. In verses 1 through 9 Apostle Paul is warning us in regards to live like the unbelievers , or be among them as one of them, since in verse 9 he says “ For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation ( Meaning the final salvation of our bodies )  through our Lord and savior.

This tells me being a beleiver you could miss

God’s best act of mercy to escape the judgment of the unrighteous at the end of days. Can you imagine? How merciful and kind God is? Not wanting any to perish, but for all to come the saving knowledge of His Son?

Yet read on with me the respond of this righteous man. The angels are asking them to flee to the mountains and not to even remain in the plain around Sodom, yet he stubbornly using God’s kindness is asking to remain in a near city, instead of fleeing where God was promising them complete safety.

Doesn’t this sound just like us folks? After God’s powerful act of mercy to free us from the sin and addictions and junk we have chosen for ourselves to live in, we are still telling God. Oh no Lord do not ask me to go to the mountain of your choice.

Since you are so merciful let me live closer to my carnal choices a little longer. As though God’s chosen place of rescue would kill us?

“Daaaaa”, as though we know better!!!

Can you imagine the stubbornness of sin in man? God has send His angels to rescue Lot a righteous man from perishing, yet he still wants to use God’s longsuffering and goodness to abuse it by his own selfish choices of self preservation. To remain in the plain. Some say Oh my Lord let me enjoy the passing pleasures of sin a little longer? How we would turn God’s best dawn for our own carnal choices?

Church even in such stubbornness of sin, God had His mercy extended by sparing their lives until they got to Zoar. However the Bible says they still had to leave Zoar to the mountains one day.

The story is getting even more dramatic, when Lot’s wife lingering looks back to Sodom and she begets what the wicked got, even being physically outside of the city.

This means you could even be aided by God’s own angels to escape the coming wrath, but our own hidden motives can make us look back to the earthly ties we have in this passing life.

The fires of hail and brimstone destroyed the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and Lot’s wife received the same penalty looking back. This is why the Lord Jesus in His words in Luke chapter 17 mentions Lot’s wife as a model of the believers who would live in the last days before His second coming and are strongly tied dawn to things of this world.

In Luke chapter 17 Jesus speaks about the coming Kingdom of God and the sign of the last days. There He says people will be doing exactly like all normally do, marring one another being given to marriage until He comes back. Just like the days of Noah and Lot Jesus says.  But when Lot left Sodom Jesus says the Lord rained from Heaven the fire and brimstone and destroyed all things. Then Lord tells us a metaphorical example of what did first happen in 70 A.D.  And now at the end of the age.

It is here in Luke 17:29-32 that our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ mentions the story of Lot and His wife. Here Jesus associates carnal attachment to the worldly pleasures and even peoples can become a hindrance to escape all that is going to come on this earth.

Here it is in the following verse that The Lord says “Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it”.

What life is Jesus speaking about? What is He saying here anyway? We do not live in Judea or even near there? Is the Lord speaking to us? Or to the generation before us? Here the Lord is speaking of leaving all for Him by living a consecrated and chaste life in expectation of His soon return. Not a loose life of sinful pleasure, or having a deep love for the things of this world like the unredeemed. The life He wants us to lose for Him is the earthly mindedness of living like a hidden.  This is what kept Lot’s wife to suffer the consequences of an unrighteous and wicked and sinful nation.

Jesus Christ is calling you and me to come to Him and to live all for Him, let us not refuse the call of whom who is calling from heaven to join Him in this everlasting invitation of love.

Neither your father, nor you mother can give you what He has. He died in you place and mine that we might live the Bible says.

Scarcely one would even dare to die for a good man, but the Bible says He the truly righteous died for the unrighteous. Please let us not ignore the call of this Righteous One who gave all for you and me, so we would not have to perish

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