Vexation of the Soul & The Righteousness of Christ

Genesis 19 and the Wickedness of Sodom

If y 'all turn with me to Genesis chapter 19 this morning, we're going to read a somewhat lengthy passage to kind of set the tone, and then we will pray and get on with the message for today. I'm going to keep this up here so I can watch my time.

Genesis chapter 19, we have a very interesting biblical narrative here. Let's look through it. Verse 1, it starts, And there came two angels to Sodom at Eden, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them.

And he bowed himself with his face toward the ground, and he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, in your servants' house and tarry all night and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early and go on your ways.

And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street all night. And he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in unto him and entered into his house, and he made them a feast and did bake unleavened bread, and they did eat.

But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night?

Bring them out unto us that we may know them. And Lot went out the door unto them and shut the door after him and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly, do not do so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man.

Let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you and do to them as is good in your eyes, only unto these men do nothing. For therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge.

Now we will deal worse with thee than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hands, this is the angels, and pulled Lot into the house to them and shut the door.

And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they were wearied themselves to find the door. And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides, son-in-law, and thy sons and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place.

For we will destroy this place because of the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the Lord. And the Lord hath sent us to destroy it. And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city.

But he seemed as one, and then mocked unto his sons-in-law. And when the morning arose, and the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand and upon the hand of his wife and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto them and brought them forth and set them without the city.

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 the plain, escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord.

Behold, now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast shown unto me in saving my life. I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die.

Behold now, this city is near to flee into, and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape thither. It is, is it not a little one? And my soul shall live. And he said unto them, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for which thou has spoken.

Prayer and the Theme of a Vexed Soul

Let's pray real quick and then we'll get started. Heavenly Father, we thank you so much for this wonderful day that you blessed us with for bringing us all together once again, and allowing this fellowship to take place, allowing this local body of believers to edify one another, and to lift each other up as we gather in the worship of your word, in the worship of you, in the study of your word, in the fellowship of one another.

We ask you to bless this time. We ask you to bless this service. Let the words be your words, and we ask that you guide all of it. And we ask these things in your name. Amen. Now, the primary topic, well, first of all, the title of today's message is Vexation of the Soul and the Righteousness of Christ.

And believe it or not, despite the opening passage here, and at least half the title, this is going to be a very edifying message, but there's a purpose behind starting it the way that we did. The primary topic, again, of today's message is going to be the power of the righteousness of Christ and how our position as Christians in this righteousness is our salvation from a culture that has gone mad, much like the one that Lot found himself in at the time that this particular story took place.

But in order to really understand and appreciate the power of Christ's righteousness, it can be helpful to kind of survey the thing which stands opposite to that divine righteousness. And of course, that would be man's wickedness.

That would be the wickedness of the world, the wickedness of the flesh. So we find ourselves in the 21st century here in America, having to battle not only the evils that are the source of this wickedness, the principalities and powers that Paul tells us about in Ephesians 6, it's a wickedness that attempts continually to penetrate the minds of all of our fellow citizens, even our own brothers and sisters in the Lord.

It's attempting that, it's attempting it continually every day. Not only do we have that going on, but we also have to battle our own inner turmoil that the images, that the language, the societal degradation that all of that wickedness leads to puts us, or that it puts within us.

In other words, the things that we see, the things that we hear, those things in and of themselves can bring a sense of inner turmoil even for us today. So we have to battle that simultaneously as we battle the source itself, the principalities and the power, the putting on the armor of God to defend ourselves from these things.

These are things that vex or can vex our souls as we move through each and every week. Well, those feelings of despair, that inner turmoil that is possible, that can crop up, it's not anything new. It's something that the called of God have had to deal with forever.

But the question then is how exactly do the called of God deal with that? How do they deal with the despair that may come with the feelings of a vexed soul as we find ourselves in a culture gone mad, as a lot did.

How do we deal with it exactly? Now, that is the most important thing that we're gonna be looking at. We're gonna see how resolution has been found in the midst of such despair by our patriarchs, by the patriarchs of the faith.

But really quickly, let's go back at the beginning of that Genesis passage for a second. Let's reread some of it, not the full thing, but a few of the verses with a couple of thoughts before we lead into the next phase of the lesson today.

In verse one, and there came two angels to Sodom at even, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. And Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. He said, behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant's house in Tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall rise up early and go on your ways.

And they said, nay, but we will abide in the street all night. Now, that's a very interesting response given who gave the response. It's a very strange one, because it's coming from the angels who knew exactly what goes on at night in the streets of Sodom.

They knew the place in which they were going, they were entering to not only save Lot, but to bring destruction. And so they give Lot this interesting response and say, no, we're gonna hang out in the streets, we'll be fine.

And being angels of the Lord, again, they knew that realistically, at least in normal people, would have been in danger in that same circumstance. However, what they knew also was that this answer, by them answering in that particular way, it was gonna bother Lot to a great degree, because they were putting Lot in a situation where he had to physically move them to demonstrate his concern for their well-being as a result of the great sins that he was surrounded by daily.

He knew, again, what would have happened to them had they not come into his house for safety. So they put Lot in a position where he had to physically move them, it says in verse three, and he pressed upon them greatly, and they turned in unto him and entered into his house, and he made them a feast, and they did break unleavened bread, and they did eat.

That Hebrew word for pressed upon, it literally means to press upon physically. So he had to go outside of his house, put his arms around these guys, push them into his house to, again, demonstrate his full-blown knowledge of the type of culture he found himself living in.

Verse four says, "'But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every corner.'". So we have an exhaustive description of the types of people in Sodom that were showing up to this particular place.

What we can gather from that, of course, is that outside of Lot, there was not a single person in the city with a God-ward frame of mind. No one was thinking about godly things, holy things, or God at all.

They were putting their own lusts and things of that sort, their own in-the-moment lusts above everything else, including their own well-being, but certainly above God. And they called, in verse five, unto Lot, and said unto him, "'Where are the men which came into thee this night?

Bring them out unto us, that we may know them.'. And Lot went out the door unto them, and shut the door after him.". So Lot here, he was so hyper-aware of how wicked his environment was, he didn't even want his guests to see any of what was about to transpire outside as Lot was about to begin this discourse with the wicked men of the city.

He shut the door behind him. He did that to shield his household from the behavior of those fellow citizens. And he knew, again, how bad these people were. And he says in verse seven, "'I pray you, brethren, do not do so wickedly.'".

In Romans 1, we learn that the sinful human being, which rebels against his creator continually, will eventually be turned over to a reprobate mind, the result of which is an implacable person with no remorse for their wickedness and no conscience left to restrain what would be right objectively.

And they're turned over to essentially do what's right in their own mind. So Lot's plea with them here would do no good in discouraging their sinful lusts, because we have a demonstration in the people of Sodom here of what Romans 1 looks like practically.

They were given over to a reprobate mind. They were implacable. Nothing that Lot could have said to these particular guys, because time and time again, they slowly seared their consciences and pushed God out of their minds.

They are now at a point where there is no morality. It's whatever I say goes, and it doesn't matter what Lot's about to tell us. We know what we want, and we're going to get it, is the way they were thinking.

Great demonstration of Romans 1 there. Now skip down to verse 15, skip a little bit. "'And when the morning arose, "'then the angels hastened Lot, saying, "'Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, "'which are here, lest thou be consumed "'in the iniquity of the city.'".

The angels understood that there is a lot of urgency behind everything happening right now. Because if there's not urgency, and if Lot doesn't heed their warning, Lot would be consumed from the human viewpoint in the punishment of these people's sin.

But what does Lot do next? How does he respond to the angels letting him know about this urgency, about the fact that we cannot mess around at this particular time? And it's right here, beginning at verse 16, that we start to get a glimpse of the effects of immersing yourself in such a wicked culture like Lot did.

Now you can make an argument that, well, if you live in a culture at all, you're immersing yourself in it. And I might agree in the general sense, but you can certainly see levels of immersion. For example, Abraham had separated himself, but Lot was right in the midst of this city.

So that's what I mean. He, Lot, is right in the thick of wickedness. And because of that, what is the effect? In verse 16, it says, "'And while Lot lingered, despite the urgency that the angels were giving him, the man laid hold upon his hand while he was lingering, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth, and they set him without the city.'".

So how does Lot respond to the angels' charge? He hesitates. He tarries, he lingers. Deep down, even though he was surrounded by degenerate sodomites and knew it, and had a very good idea of exactly what that meant and the implications of it, the only interest of these people, with the degraded mind, was to defile themselves and those around him, even with the knowledge of knowing that is what he was finding himself in, and what the angels were warning him about.

This environment, despite that wickedness, is what Lot was used to. It's what he was comfortable with. It's what he knew. He knew his home. He knew his surroundings. He knew his environment. And so he lingered when he was told, you got to get out right now, because it's about to all be gone.

He was struggling with the thought of leaving his life behind, even if it meant escaping the evil around him and starting anew, which is essentially what would happen. But we also see God's mercy upon him as well, because even while Lot was grappling with this inner battle between what he knew was right and what had become his comfort, what he had become comfortable with, the Lord was still merciful with him.

We don't see a lot of wisdom in Lot right now, is kind of the point I'm trying to get. We're getting an idea of his character. We're getting an idea of his concerns, of the effects of total immersion in a wicked society.

In verse 17, it says, 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.

So the angel knew what Lot's greatest temptation would be. His greatest temptation would be to look back. It would be to yearn for the culture that he had become all too familiar with and presumably still desired deep down to be in, which is why he tarried.

It's because it's simply what he knew. And that struggle of leaving all of that was very real in the life of Lot here. As we all know, this was a temptation to look back that Lot's wife, who undoubtedly cared more about her life in Sodom rather than the commands of the Lord, she did succumb to that temptation and we know what happened there.

But this is in many cases, the natural result of that total immersion in such a culture. Whether that be the lingering, the tarrying of Lot or the full blown desire for it like Lot's wife, that led to her death because of her disobedience.

In verse 18, it says, and Lot said unto them, Oh, not so my Lord, not so. He didn't want to go to the mountain. He didn't want total separation, which would have been in the likeness of Abraham, not so.

Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight. He's buttering them up a little bit. He's making a plea and thou has magnified thy mercy, which thou has showed unto me in saving my life. And I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me and I die.

Well, what other kind of evil would he be worried about? I mean, he's rationalizing here is what's happening. Behold now, this city is near to flee into and it is a little one. Oh, let me escape to there is it not a little one and my soul shall live.

So Lot's secondary desire was to flee to a smaller city. If he couldn't stay in the city that he was used to, that he was comfortable with, that he loved to some degree, surely. His secondary desire was to avoid total separation, but rather to go to a smaller city.

One originally intended by the way to be destroyed with Sodom and Gomorrah and the only reason it wasn't is because they accepted his request and they knew Lot was there. Because it tells us a few verses later that that city would have been destroyed as well.

The gravity behind the influence of these cities, Sodom, Gomorrah, this little city on Lot's life was so great that his desire to live within them directed his will for the future of his family. They were part of his identity at this point.

And he was struggling with the prospect of leaving that part of him behind. Now, why is all of that important to us? How could we possibly compare ourselves to Lot in this context? Well, it's not necessarily a one for one comparison.

That's for sure. We're in Corsican and Navarro County. That's not nearly as bad as the heart of San Francisco is one example, one of many examples you could use. But one of the main points that I hope that we can all draw from this is that in our, I'm gonna speak broadly for a second, just generalizing for just a moment.

In our Sodom-like culture, and I mean, you can turn, where's the railroad track? I guess it's back there. Turn right over there, right down the street, and you can see what I'm talking about. There's a great demonstration of it right there on the other side of the road from our church.

When we find ourselves in a Sodom-like culture like we're in, like we live in today, we find a powerful force that can literally alter our perceptions, our sensitivities to wickedness, our desires, and even what we consider to be normal, what we would consider to be comfortable living.

And that is a danger that we all need to be aware of. It's not necessarily that I'm trying to make a one-for-one comparison between anyone here and Lot, or any of our brothers and sisters around us, although some of them perhaps.

But what we can gather from this story so far, it's not the end of it, but what we can gather so far is that there are consequences, and those consequences can sneak up on us and take hold of us, alter our perceptions, dilute our sensitivities to that which God hates a little bit over time.

And eventually you find yourself in a place, or eventually you could find yourself in a place like Lot, where all of a sudden, I'm kind of okay with it. I know there's some wickedness going on around me.

I don't want my guests going out in the street, but I don't want to leave either. And so there's a great danger in letting that happen. Again, in letting the subtleties of, let's just say secular culture, because that's kind of the modern equivalent of what Lot was dealing with, the subtleties of that altering our lives in such a way that we're all of a sudden okay with the culture, and are even willing, and perhaps even have the desire to live within it.

But all of that aside, because that could be kind of a completely separate topic by itself, what I really want to hone in on this morning is how a person like Lot, whose desires and whose proclivities were completely opposite of what they should have been, that being set apart from the world, holy living, maybe in the likeness of his uncle Abraham, even a person like that, he could be saved in the midst of his vexation.

Lot's Vexed Soul and the Imputation of Christ's Righteousness

Now, turn with me for a second to 2 Peter, and this is really the primary passage that I have for us this morning. The Genesis passage was to set some context for what we're about to read. In 2 Peter chapter two, and let's read verses, starting at verse four, and we'll read through verse nine, and this is super interesting.

Let me just ask you a quick question before we read this. When you think of Lot in the narrative we're giving in Genesis, where does your mind go? What kind of guy do you kind of associate Lot with his character traits?

What kind of guy do you make him out to be? And for me personally, when you read the story of Lot, even knowing he was a believer spared from the wickedness, spared from the destruction, he wasn't that great of a guy.

He had a lot of, well, for example, he was totally willing to sacrifice his virgin daughters for the protection of these guests. He was totally fine with living in the midst of sodomites and was comfortable with it.

In fact, he wanted to stay there even after the charge from the angels. We all know what happens after he leaves and he does go into the mountain and the sin that followed after that. And so the Old Testament narrative of Lot is not that great.

You come away with it with thinking, I don't really want to be like that guy. And it's a great demonstration of the depravity of man. And yet in 2 Peter 2, starting in verse four, what do we have? We have Peter telling us, for if God spared not the angels that sinned and cast them down to hell and delivered them into the chains of darkness to be reserved in the judgment and spared not the old world, but saved Noah, the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that should after live ungodly.

Who's that ensample for? Those that should live similarly after. That is an indictment on our very culture today in 21st century America. In verse seven, and delivered just Lot, and delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked for that righteous man, according to Peter, that righteous man dwelling among them in seeing and hearing vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished. Now, what we learn here is that despite our first impressions of Lot that were given in Genesis and his character, we learned that in God's eyes, he was a just man.

He was a righteous man. And that because of his righteousness, his soul was vexed day to day as he lived among the presence of absolute wickedness. But how could this be? How could he be righteous? How could Lot, the guy in that story, be viewed righteous in the eyes of God who is holy and infinitely holy compared to us?

Because it can bother us a little bit. We're striving to be a set apart people. We're striving to be holy in the likeness of Christ. And if it bothers us so much, and we would probably look down on a man like Lot with at least the limited knowledge that we have.

And if all you have is the narrative of Genesis, you think kind of bad first impressions. How could a God infinitely holier than us look at him as righteous? How could that be? Well, I think that we get a clue in that the fact that we do not learn about Lot's righteousness until we get to the New Testament.

Thousands of years after Lot lived. In other words, Lot's righteousness, the fact that he was a just man, isn't talked about in that original story. It's not until you fast forward on this side of the cross and you have Peter as he is moved along by the Holy Spirit writing this epistle that we learn about Lot being a just man and learn about his righteousness.

We learn about it at this particular time because in the New Testament, we learn of a doctrine that was unknown to the Old Testament mind. It would not have made a lot of sense, perhaps, to the Old Testament mind had the word of God gone into a lengthy description of Lot's righteousness, of Lot's just character.

And that doctrine that is fleshed out throughout the New Testament that we now have to enlighten us a bit as to how that reality could be the case, that doctrine is the doctrine of the imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers.

The word to emphasize there is Christ's. The imputation of Christ's righteousness to believers. I'm gonna read one quick verse. If y 'all wanna go there, you can, in Matthew 5 .20. You have a really interesting thing that Jesus says, a really interesting statement that Jesus makes talking to an audience about very new things that they had never heard before, they had never considered.

Christ is delivering brand new revelation to the world for the first time ever. And he says in Matthew 5 .20, "'For I say unto you that except your righteousness "'shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes "'and the Pharisees, you shall in no case "'enter the kingdom of heaven.'".

Now, in the context of Matthew, in that Matthew passage there, Jesus is making a rhetorical statement that he knew would resonate with his audience because everyone there knew that you couldn't exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees, the most religious people of that time.

This is a mandate, this is a standard that Jesus just gave that is absolutely unattainable to us. You're thinking about the audience that is there hearing this for the first time. They're hearing this and they're thinking, well, great, I guess the kingdom of heaven is reserved only for our religious leaders then because their righteousness will always exceed ours.

What they didn't know though is that they could. They could exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees even then. But there was a key to it that was yet to be revealed even though it was already in practice.

In other words, the reality of salvation by grace through faith and through that faith comes God's imputed righteousness. That was already in action, even at the time of Abraham and Lot. And we learned that and we'll actually read a passage here in just a minute to explain how that was the case and why we know that's true.

But it hadn't been fully revealed up to this point. This made it perhaps kind of a little bit of a paradox for Jesus's audience at the time because they're wondering how could it even be possible to exceed the righteousness of our religious leaders?

But what about to us? What could that statement mean to us today with the complete revelation of God, the complete word as we have it? Well, turn to Philippians chapter three. Let's read some verses here and we will get an idea as to how we can answer that question.

Philippians chapter three, it says, we'll start in verse one. "'Finally, my brethren, rejoice in the Lord. "'To write the same things to you, "'to me indeed is not grievous, but for you it is safe. "'Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, "'beware of the concision.

"'For we are the circumcision, "'which worship God in the spirit "'and rejoice in Christ "'and have no confidence in the flesh. "'Though I might have confidence in the flesh, "'if any other man thinketh that he hath "'whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more.'".

It's a little bit of a mouthful, but we'll break that down in a second. "'Circumcised the eighth day of the stock of Israel, "'of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews, "'as touching the law, a Pharisee.

"'Recall, Jesus's standard at the time "'that he gave his audience "'when he's given the Sermon on the Mount "'was to exceed the righteousness of the Pharisees. "'And Paul is saying, I was that. "'I was one of those.

"'Concerning the law, a Pharisee. "'Concerning zeal, persecuting the church. "'I was so zealous, in fact, "'that I was actively persecuting those that I believed "'stood in opposition to what my standards were, "'what my law was, "'my pharisaical order that I was defending, "'touching the righteousness of which is the law, blameless.'".

So again, Paul actually met the standard that Christ set in Matthew 5, verse 20, in that he was a Pharisee, and by their standards, he was blameless. Verse seven, "'But what things were gained to me, "'those I counted lost for Christ.'".

And there, Paul totally shifts and makes everyone aware that everything I just said, all of those credentials are meaningless. Those things were gained to me, sure. I was living a great, great life in light of how all of this plays out in the mind of the Pharisees.

"'But those I counted lost for Christ, "'yea, doubtless, and I count all things "'but lost for the excellency "'of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, "'for whom I have suffered the loss of all things "'and do count them but dung, "'that I may win Christ and be found in Him, "'not having mine own righteousness.'".

Okay, listen closely here. "'Not having mine own righteousness, "'which is of the law, "'but that which is through the faith of Christ, "'the righteousness which is of God by faith, "'that I may know Him "'in the power of His resurrection, "'in the fellowship of His sufferings, "'being made conformable unto His death, "'if by any means I might attain "'unto the resurrection of the dead.'".

So Paul completely shifts. He completely shifts the tone from trying to put in the minds of his readers at Philippi, look, I meet all of the standards that are needed for righteousness in man's eyes. They're all there.

I did all of them. I crossed all my T's, dotted all my I's, but all of it was lost for the sake of Christ. And it's not by any righteousness that may come from any of that, that I am saved, that I stand here today, that I may partake in the resurrection of the Lord, but by someone else's righteousness.

In verse four and six there, Paul is simply making the point that even if they wanted to leave their confidence in the flesh, rely on their own volition for their eternal destiny, then Paul, of all people, would be qualified.

If there was ever a person that could be saved by what he did, it was Paul. And he made that crystal clear in those verses four through six there. But this very Paul that just said that, that laid the groundwork, that gave all of those qualifications, this very Paul is saying, look, from the human viewpoint, from the subjective righteousness of the Pharisees, and I say subjective there because what were they doing year after year?

They were adding new rules. So you're not righteous if you're keeping our rules from a couple years ago anymore because we got some new things that need to be considered. So it was a subjective righteousness.

It was continually changing. From the viewpoint, though, of that righteousness of the Pharisees, I am blameless, he tells us. And that's still not enough, which is what he goes on to elaborate in the following verses.

It's still not enough regardless of that. In verse seven, he makes it clear that these things that made him such a quote-unquote great person in man's eyes were loss for the sake of Christ. But in verse nine, we have the target back in our sights.

Right when Paul rings the death knell of all hope in our own conceits, we see the brightness of another righteousness, one that's not our own, one that is objective, one that's concrete, one that's immutable.

He says in verse nine, let's read it one more time. And be found in him not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith, that I may know him, that I may know God.