Walking With God And Holding Hands With The Devil

Walking w/God & Holding hands w/the Devil

Scripture Reading: Genesis 13:10-13

Introduction:

You know the old story of how to boil a frog. You don’t put him in a pot of boiling water. You drop him in the boiling water and he’ll jump out before he’s injured. So you put him in a pot of cold water, and he’s perfectly comfortable. Then you put him on the stove, and little by little the water gets warm. It’s very pleasant at first. Then it gets to Jacuzzi level, and he begins to be a little alarmed. Finally, when it’s boiling, it’s too late. Some “Christians” are like that, aren’t they? They try to live as close to the world as possible. First they get into the world and it’s oh so pleasant at first. And then it gets a little warmer and it’s pleasanter yet. And one day we realize the danger: “This is going to kill me, and I haven’t the strength to get out!”

This morning you may have noticed as you passed in front of the church, on the church sign I have the message “You can’t walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.” Now, that may seem a little obvious and maybe even a little humorous, but I want to tell you this morning that that is exactly what a lot of people are trying to do today. There are millions of people in this world that would claim to be Christians but if you were to examine their lives you would find that they are no different than those who don’t claim to be Christians. There are those who claim to be Christians who lie, cheat, steal, etc. just like everyone else. Well, I want you to know this morning that you can’t walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.

This morning I would like to talk to you about Lot. Lot is one who exemplifies for us someone who fell into the trap of the Devil and tried to walk with God and hold hands with the Devil. Jesus said in Matthew 6:24 and Luke 16:13, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (money).” Jesus spoke those words nearly 2,000 years ago, but there are still people today who are trying to do just that. A.M. Hills said, “They seem to doubt the supreme importance of spiritual things, and to be inclined to the opinion that it pays better to be a “half-hearted Christian,” getting the cream of this world, and heaven besides. In truth, these people are after both worlds. They make sure of this, and they hope not to miss the felicity of the next.”

Lot is evidently one of these types of people. A.M. Hill again said, “His whole life seems to have been tinged with earthly colorings, and to have been struck through with the spirit of the world. He preferred to live on the borderland of true Christian experience, rather than in the land itself, and to be quite a little more at home with the filthy Sodomites than with the praying household of his Uncle Abram. Alas! He was dominated by the spirit of the world!” You might say he tried to walk with God and hold hands with the Devil.

This morning I want to talk to you about how Lot ended up in the midst of the wicked and perverse city of Sodom. How did a man with so much going for him with a godly uncle like Abraham, how did he end up in such terrible condition as what we just read about in Genesis 19? Well, Lot ended up in Sodom because he…

I. Lot Looked toward Sodom.

“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”

What happened was that Abraham and Lot came to this new country that God wanted them to live in, and not long after they arrived, two of Abraham’s and Lot’s herdsmen got into a fight about the water and pasture privilege for their flocks. It is here that the underlying principles of these two men, Abraham and Lot, come to surface. It is here that we see their true character. Abraham, to whom the whole land had been promised, showed a deep determination to honor God even in the presence of the heathen people with whom they were now living. Whatever loss he might suffer, he would not fight with his nephew Lot before them. So, he unselfishly gave up his claim to the land and generously offered to Lot the first choice of the whole land.