Part 2 - Genesis 19:1-38 - SAVED BUT STUPID!
How amazing was the news story of the 15-month-old boy who survived the train accident in May this year.
It all took place in a split second but for the grandmother who looked away for just a moment from the pram she was pushing, it must have seemed like eternity. When she turned back, the pram was rolling off the platform at Tooronga station (Sydney, Australia). The pram fell onto the tracks into the path of an oncoming train.
I have grandsons and I can't imagine how that grandmother was feeling - the SICK FEELING OF DREAD as this transpired before her and there was nothing she could do. When they pulled the baby from under the train, everyone thought that it was a MIRACLE he was alive. A few scratches and that was it. Talk about a CLOSE CALL. Some say the grandmother should have been more careful. Easy for us to say.
Have you read Genesis 19 lately? Talk about a CLOSE CALL! By the absolute merciful grace of God Lot and his immediate family is saved when Sodom and Gomorrah are destroyed. It is a MIRACLE they survive at all.
Lot is told to gather his family and bring them out of the city before the angels destroy it. Here's an opportunity to OBEY GOD AND BE SAVED. He speaks to his sons-in-law and they think he's joking. As you would. You try telling your family that you've been told by two angels that they are about to destroy Sydney and they need to leave everything, and take the Pacific highway out of town. Lord, if such a time comes, would You mind telling them personally? They'll think I'm mad.
Nevertheless I find it strange that few people today take the message of judgment seriously. Sometimes in the seconds remaining between life and death, they are laughing that hell exists rather than acting on what God has said about salvation. STUPID!
It took all night for Lot to try to convince his family and when morning dawns, the angels are on Lot's case to leave or be "SWEPT AWAY in the punishment of the city" (Genesis 19:15).
Even then there was EQUIVOCATION. They gave Lot opportunity to take the initiative and leave. Lot HESITATES and the angels have to seize the hands of his family in order to DRAG them outside the city. SAVED BUT STUPID!
Even when they are outside the city one angel says "ESCAPE FOR YOUR LIFE! Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley; escape to the mountains, or you will be swept away."
CLEAR INSTRUCTIONS! But Lot says to them, "Oh no, my lords! What is going on here? He asks to flee to Zoar instead. This isn't time to come up with a new plan? Sometimes I am just plain stupid. I want to come up with an ALTERNATIVE SUGGESTION to what God says in His Word, when I just need to be QUICK TO OBEY. By the grace of God the angels don't strike Lot down as an example to the others.
2 Corinthians 6:2 (NLT) says, "Indeed, the "RIGHT TIME" IS NOW. TODAY is the day of salvation." DON'T PUT IT OFF!
It gives me a whole NEW APPRECIATION of what it means to be SAVED BY GRACE (Ephesians 2:8-9). NONE OF US deserve it.
God bless you Church as you seek to see things through the eyes of the Cross and gain a true picture of what it means to be saved by grace. "Lord, help me to be QUICK TO OBEY AND SLOW IN BEING STUPID".
Pastor Ross
