Book of Genesis - Ch. 19,Vs. 15-38 (10/01/2000)

Park Meadows Church

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All right, come with me back to Sodom and Gonorrhea. Chapter 19, verse 15, you remember last week we left right in the middle of the angels and Lot, and we had just witnessed the awful display of the people of Sodom, and our lesson today opens with these words, and when the morning arose, my what a statement, what a thought, when the morning arose.

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Then the angels hastened Lot, saying,

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Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

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Hasten, the angels are hastening Lot. Bill, why do you think that the scripture tells us that they were trying to hurry him along?

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Well, it looks to me like Lot would have already been halfway out of the city, but he's lingering.

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He's not in a hurry to leave. Why do you suppose that that would be?

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Now, you're going to have to put your hand up so I can look at you.

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All right, you've already finished talking, though. I meant to put it up before you speak.

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Deborah? That's right.

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Well, there's lots of thoughts we could gather on this. In the 16th verse, and while he lingered, so we know that he was lingering.

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For what reason, we don't know, several, I suppose, he didn't want to leave.

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This is where he made a lot of his money. He did care for some of the people.

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Perhaps. But, at any rate, the angels, or the men, laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the

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Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth and set him without city. Now, when it says that they laid their hand upon him, they took a hold of him physically and pushed him.

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It wasn't just a nice handhold and you walk, strolling out of the city.

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They forced him to leave. They brought him forth and set him without the city.

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They actually drug him out. Lot is now placed before our

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Lord, pre -incarnate. I don't know if you picked that up or not, but when these men appeared to Abraham, there were three.

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One of them was the Lord himself. He stayed behind while the other two went on to Sodom, and then later he left.

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Now we have two angels in the city, but then when

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Lot is brought out, we find the Lord outside the gate waiting on Lot.

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He didn't go into the city, didn't set foot in it.

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The angels, he sent his angels together the righteous out of it. Now, does that ring a bell with anyone?

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I say, does that ring a bell with anyone? Who's talking?

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That's right. He'll send his angels together, won't he? Together those.

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Then in another place, the wheat and tares will be separated when the angels gather.

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So here we find the angels gathering. Yes. That's right.

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That's right. Just exactly as Lot did. I would hope we're not as slow as Lot.

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I'd have to be pulled out, or I'd have to be pulled out.

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You'd have to be pulled out. Well, I really never did get that picture of us when we leave.

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God is more merciful to his people than they are to themselves. That's us.

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If he were not, we'd all perish. 17, and it came to pass when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, now we switch to singular pronoun, he said, escape for thy life.

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This is the Lord speaking. Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all of the plain.

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Escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. Now you notice in this statement, in this verse, the

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Lord has instructed him exactly what to do. He said, you're to go to the mountain, do not stay in the plain because you will be destroyed along with everything else.

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And then he made another little, almost insignificant statement, look not behind.

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Now you could overlook that very easily, but he said, do not look behind.

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Look not behind you. And the word for look here is to look intently, to look longingly.

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You remember when the children of Israel came out of Egypt, they were not out hardly a week yet till they wanted to go back.

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And they were longing to go back to those cucumbers, which I never could understand why, but they wanted to go back to the melons and where everything was so good.

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This is how quickly we forget. Look not behind you.

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Do not look intently at or to regard with pleasure, favor, or care.

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Every word here in the Hebrew is emphatic, staccato emphatic.

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Neither stay thou in all the plain for it is to become the dead sea.

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Just not looking behind. Paul admonishes us in two or three places to not look behind, to look ahead.

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I'm thinking in Hebrews six, where he said, and this we will do pressing on to that that is before us.

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Now I know we, we like to reminisce in our memories sometime, but we should never live there.

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I doubt if there's any of us look back longingly to our past life.

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Oh, we think it was so great, but that's because we have modern conveniences today.

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I can remember when that was not true. And okay, I, I just don't think that I'd want to go back to that.

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Because it was sure cold in Western Oklahoma. Go to the outhouse.

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Lot said unto them, oh no, not so my Lord. Not that, please not that.

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As if one who rescued him could not protect him. He says,

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I just can't do it. So do you begin to see now how easy it is to find fault even with our

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Lord? Adam started that. Behold now thy servant hath found grace in thy sight.

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And thou hast magnified to thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life.

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And I cannot escape to the mountain unless some evil take me and I die. Now, Clarence, I don't think that statement would hold up in court.

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No, I think that's just what he was wishing. Because he talked about God protecting the son of the

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Lord in truth. I just cannot go to the mountain because something will kill me before I get there.

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Kind of like Abraham. He said, tell them you're my sister so they won't kill me.

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When he'd already been promised to have a son. So joy, just how nearsighted can we be?

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Well, here Lot's just been forced out of a situation in which he would have lost his life.

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And he's now afraid that the one who saved it cannot protect him. Has God protected you up and including today?

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You sure of that? You really believe that? What do you worry about tomorrow?

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Some of us don't. Some of us say we don't.

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What do you say? Practice. We can look at our past life and truly see how he has guided and controlled every step.

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Is that not true, Greg? I'm talking to you now. But when it comes to the unforeseen step,

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I'm talking to all of us. We act as though because I do not know what it will be, he doesn't either.

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Now, we're all guilty of that, whether you will admit it or not. Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is but a little one.

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Oh, let me escape thither. Is it not a little one, and my soul shall live?

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Bill, it looks to me like he doesn't want to live in the country. He's got to be in a city.

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If it's just a little one, there would be just maybe a little bit of sin there, but it would be nothing like Sodom.

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So let me go there. This is a very small town.

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Surely you would let me live in it. I just couldn't get in very much trouble there.

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Lost, determined to live in a town. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing, also that I will not overthrow this city for the which thou hast spoken.

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Now, this was Zohar, and it escaped the destruction.

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Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything till thou become thither.

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Therefore, the name of the city was called Zohar. Now the sun was risen upon the earth when

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Lot entered into Zohar. What does this tell you, Richard, about his time of departure?

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Russell, excuse me. Richard's not here, is he? All right.

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It says the sun was just coming, just breaking day when he entered Zohar. Now, what does this tell us about the time that he left home?

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Yes, it was before sunup. We don't know exactly, and I have forgotten just how far this was, but it was quite a ways by foot.

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Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the

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Lord out of heaven. Brimstone just speaks of judgment of God.

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And it literally means Jehovah's breath. And he overthrew those cities and all of the plain and all of the inhabitants of the cities and that which grew upon the ground.

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We find that God opened the earth by earthquakes. This released great quantities of gases.

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They would explode and throw immense supplies of petroleum in the air.

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This would burn. And when all of this flammable material was ignited, there would be enormous sheets of flaming liquid come back to earth.

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Have any of you done any soldering? Was it electric solder or soldering iron of any kind?

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Did you ever get some melted solder on you? Did you shake it off?

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You can't shake it off. I've tried to run off and leave it. Lots of conjecture on what is meant by a pillar of salt.

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Roger, do you know? The mixture that was in the air.

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Remember, this becomes the Dead Sea, which is salty. There must have been salt mineral.

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And I'm not going to explain what happened because I don't know. There's been several different sightings where people have claimed that this pillar or this rock or whatever was

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Lot's wife. But we don't know that. But I thought it was interesting that she looked back and the rest of them kept on going.

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Now, Greg, what's this tell you about their walk? That's right.

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Lot was in front, the two daughters, and then she. Now, David, why did she look back?

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All of her friends of the PTA were there. The library club, the club, the ladies aid society.

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Besides that, where is she going to get her hair fixed next week? Things of the world.

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So she didn't really want to leave, but she had to because her husband said so.

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Well, this is true, but we must remember the custom of that time would not allow that. Even born again women, they could not walk even with their husband.

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I don't think she would have thought about other things. He didn't expound upon it.

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He just says, leave and don't look back. You see how very important every word of the

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Lord is? I think

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Lot was consumed. I don't think he would be. I don't think he was consumed in the fire.

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But he was killed and consumed by the earth. And his destination was to be the father of the

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Moabites. And a place where he was killed and consumed.

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Or by a well place. But isn't he acting wrong now?

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Even though he was told to go to the mountains, he said,

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I don't want to go there. He wanted to take a detour.

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He wanted to do it his way. Anything else?

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Okay, they were walking single file. They'd been told not to look back.

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Don't do that. With earphones on it sounds like an explosion.

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Well, I'll say try not to do that. So they never knew what become of Mrs.

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Lot. Lot and his two daughters because they were not aware that she had looked back until they got to Zoar.

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And they just knew that they weren't supposed to and she did and she's not here. We are to never look back.

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Make no provisions for failure. Verge, listen to me.

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Don't make provisions for failure lest you use them.

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Always expect to win. Always expect to be successful. Always expect to live the

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Christian life. Don't expect to live just halfway. Expect the best.

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There's a great many Christians today saying how they want the Lord to come. Oh, I just can't wait.

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But dying and their life doesn't look like it. They don't show it. They're not living like they want him to or even expect him to.

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All right, the scene shifts. We go to Abraham now. Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the

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Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain.

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And beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

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And it came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the plain that God remembered Abraham and sent

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Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. When he overthrew the cities in which

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Lot dwelt. This happened because of Abraham. Is that right?

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That's what the Bible says. Because of Abraham, he saved Lot. Why did he save us?

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Because of Jesus Christ. We had no more to do with it than Lot did.

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The closing chapter of Lot's life is a pitiful one. Lot went up out of Soar and dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him.

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For he feared to dwell in Soar. And he dwelt in a cave, he and his two daughters.

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Now, he's gone from the richest man in the world to living in a cave. It was just what he had on his back.

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And the firstborn said unto the younger, our father is old. And there is not a man in the earth to come in unto us after the manner of all of the earth.

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So they were there by themselves. And as far as they could determine, they were the only humans alive.

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Come, let us make our father drunk. And we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father.

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And they made their father drunk, drank wine that night. And the firstborn went in, lay with her father.

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And he perceived not when she lay down, but when she arose. And it came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said unto the younger,

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Behold, I lay yesterday night with my father. Let us make him drink wine this night also.

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And go thou in and lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father. And they made their father drunk, drank wine that night also.

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And the younger arose and lay with him. And he perceived not when she lay down, but when she arose.

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What's the matter with the Lord? Why was he drunk?

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Why was he drinking wine? Who's talking to me?

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Now what did you say? Exactly.

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Do you suppose that when we get to heaven we'll feel sorry for what we left? When he calls you home, will you say,

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Just a minute, I've got to get these two bottles of wine. Well, thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

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Incest. Out of this come the tribe of Moab. How many

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Moabs have you seen in the last month? Moabites. But isn't it strange that there was one in the lineage of our

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Lord? What was her name? Ruth.

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And the firstborn bear a son and called his name Moab. And the same is the father of the

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Moabites until this day. And the younger, she also bear a son and called his name

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Ben -Ammai. The same is the father of the children of Ammon until this day.

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Now Lot's two daughters, where were they brought up? In Sodom.

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So they were exposed to a very righteous way of living, were they not?

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So this was nothing... Yes. So this really was in line with their thinking.

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Having been brought up in Sodom. The two daughters brought up in wicked

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Sodom, stooped low enough to engage in an act that is unspeakably revolting. The result produced the

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Moabites and the Amorites. Very, very sad picture.

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What is the attitude of the Christian toward a homosexuality? What should the attitude be?

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Should it be for it? Oh, you said abhor it. You have to be careful of me.

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Those listening by tape, she said we should abhor it. The world indulges in it, then calls it a sickness.

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Or an alternate lifestyle. Sin's not as black as it once was.

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I made about four points here. First, we should not even read about it.

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We should not teach but that it is a sin. We should not preach about it.

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We should not even think about it. For this reason.

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If we give thinking time. The next generation will tolerate it.

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The next will condone it. The next will demand it. And I hope I'm gone for it's mandatory.

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We're already beyond the talking and thinking and tolerating.

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There was another country. Just this past week.

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That it was alright for same -sex marriages. I know it's coming.

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I know it's here. That doesn't make me like it. I also know I cannot stop it.

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And I'm held responsible for my own life, not for yours. Except as a teacher.

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Did you realize I'll have to turn in a report card on every one of you? And I would hope

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I could check it well done. A teacher has an awesome responsibility.

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So do you. Alright, we'll go to the next chapter next time.

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I'm glad to leave this one behind. Anything from anyone? I agree with Dave.

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Maybe the abortion bill legal. Bring it in from the birth of his life.

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Get it over here and make it kind of important to vote.

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Very much. Another most important, well I'm not going to say that. I just can't mix politics.

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I'll talk to you individually but not on tape. Anything else?

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Clarence dismisses. In the name of the Gracious Father, we thank you for teaching, for the

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Holy Spirit's knowledge to walk closer to you, and build on our way this week, and enlighten our lives, in ways that please you, and give us mercy, and bless us, and keep us precious.