Lessons from a Life Gone Bad Genesis 19:30-38

Expository Preaching and Topical Preaching

I've been your pastor for a little over 16 months, and by now you know what kind of preaching comes from this pulpit. There are a lot of different styles of preaching that one can do, and the type of preaching that I do is known as expository preaching.

The other type of preaching that is very common is known as topical preaching. And let me explain to you briefly the difference between the two. Expository preaching starts with a text and digs in to find the meaning of the text, and then from that, finds the application for the congregation.

On the other hand, topical preaching starts with a topic and then goes to the Bible to see what it says on that specific topic. Last summer, we actually did a topical sermon series on the attributes of God, and I looked at a specific attribute and then found what the Bible said about that characteristic of the Lord.

Topical preaching is fine, and it has its place, as long as it is not overdone. The Lord has commanded pastors to preach the Word, 2 Timothy 4 .2, and to preach the whole counsel of God. And that means that nothing in Scripture should be intentionally avoided.

Preaching through books of the Bible prevents one from avoiding anything. And we've seen that recently. We've preached through some controversial topics. When you preach through a book of the Bible, this is what happens, inevitably.

And we've been going through the sermon series on Genesis, verse by verse. So every word we've looked at. And the Lord wants His people to see everything that He has written. Everything is in there for a reason, in all 66 books of the Bible.

And today we are going to see one of those texts that one who solely does topical preaching probably would not go to. As I mentioned in the introduction, it's a very bizarre passage. And that text is Genesis 19, verses 30 -38.

We're going to look at the sin of incest committed by Lot and his daughters. And I encourage you to turn there with me. So if you're using a red Bible, it's on page 17. Those are in the pews. And what we will see is that the sin of incest is not the main focus of the text, but it's right there.

And so we can't avoid it, we'll look at it. So it's not the focus, but rather the failures of Lot are the focus. And our big idea, our proposition, is Lot's life is predominantly a warning about what not to do.

Lot's life is predominantly a warning about what not to do. And this text provides us three warnings. The first warning is, do not be a fearful person. Do not be a fearful person. We'll see this in verse 30.

But before we get there, I'm going to give you a little bit of a recap about last week's sermon. I know we have some people here, not today, including our missionaries who weren't here last week. So what we saw was the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the entire valley region south of the Dead Sea.

We saw that destruction. And 2 Peter 2 .6 says that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. And the application that we saw from this passage was that judgment is coming on this world.

And anyone who refuses to repent and put their trust in Christ will be swept away in judgment just as those in Sodom and Gomorrah, the wicked people there, were swept away. And this is serious. This is a warning to our world that this is coming.

And anyone who trusts in Christ is safe because Jesus paid God's just wrath at the cross so that you don't have to. And how beautiful the gospel is. So last week we closed the book on Sodom and Gomorrah after spending several weeks focusing on that.

And today we are going to close the book on Lot. What we will see is that his life does not end the way you would want a life to end. His legacy is not a legacy that you would want to have. And I say all of that even believing that he is in heaven.

And I say that because 2 Peter 2 says that he was a righteous man. But we still do not want to follow his example. And so what I am going to do is begin by reading verse 30 so that we can see where Lot left off after the destruction of Sodom and the new development in his life.

So if you please look with me at verse 30. Now Lot went up out of Zor and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zor. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. Now remember, Zor was the small town that was supposed to be destroyed.

But Lot pleaded to the angel to let him escape there. And the Lord through the angel graciously let Lot escape to the small town in the valley. The city of Zor, and by the way the word Zor meant small, it was a small town that was in this valley.

This is where Lot lived. We don't know for how long, but for a certain period of time, this is what he called home. And Lot left Zor with his two daughters and went to the hills. These would have been the same hills that the angels told Lot and his family to escape to as they fled from the coming destruction on the valley region.

And the remainder of the verse 30 tells us why Lot fled to the hills. The text says that he was afraid to live in Zor. And this has been the common theme that we've seen in Lot's life. He was afraid. And we see here that he was afraid to live in Zor.

And the examples that we've seen already, and we saw in chapter 19 that he was afraid to leave the city of Sodom when he was told by the angels that it was going to be destroyed. We saw that in verse 16.

Then he was afraid to run to the hills because he did not think he could get there in time. That was verse 19. And now he is afraid of the city of Zor. And we don't know specifically what he's afraid from.

But sometimes when people are in cities, they can have this fear that can come over them. I know when I drive into Minneapolis, I like it more in the country. It could be a fearful thing to be there. We don't know what it was that caused him to be afraid.

But something in Zor made him afraid. And so what does he do? He leaves Zor to go to the caves. Now this doesn't sound like an upgrade, right? You're leaving a populated area to go to a cave to live with your daughters.

This is a downgrade. This fear is driving Lot to do something foolish once again. And I mentioned a few weeks back that fear is a major problem among people. And it's even a problem among Christians. This is something you can still struggle with as you follow Christ.

At one time, I saw a close-up example of what fear can do to a person. When I was going through seminary, I worked security. And I mainly did that job because when I was done with my work, I was able to study for school.

So it was actually a really nice job as I was going through seminary. But I had a really interesting encounter one day. And I had several encounters as I was working security, where interesting situations where the Lord would bring someone across my path.

And you have those experiences too, where the Lord just brings someone across your path providentially. I had a lady who was probably in her 30s or 40s, who came up to me when I was working at the front desk.

And I could tell that she was troubled about something. And she came up to the front desk and said, could I use your phone? And I let her use the phone and she called someone. And I started to talk to her and she really opened up to me and said that she was actually running from her parents who had been abusing her.

And she was trying to escape and call a friend who could help her out in this situation. But then we started, before I knew it, the conversation turned into a topic about the Lord. And we started to talk about God.

And she told me how afraid she was in her life. And she was so afraid that she could not leave her home. She was overtaken with fear and paralyzed with fear. She told me that it was like someone was out for her.

And she wasn't even talking about her parents. She always felt like she had to look over her shoulder, like someone was watching her. And I don't exactly know what she was talking about, if it was something demonic or something else.

But she was so paralyzed with fear that she could not leave her home. And people are so overtaken by fear that that happens. Now most people who struggle with fear are not paralyzed by it to the point where they can't leave their house.

But it still does cause problems on a daily basis, and maybe you face it. And I have a confession here. This is one of the things that I struggle with at times, is fear. And fear is actually a sinful issue.

It's anxiety. It's when you're not trusting the Lord. It's when you're trusting yourself and you're letting a circumstance overtake you. And a verse that's been very helpful to me is Philippians 4, 6, and 7.

The Apostle Paul wrote, he said, Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, make your requests known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

So the best medication for fear or anxiety is to trust the Lord and give it over to Him. And when you do that, you feel the peace of God as He guards your heart and your mind. I've experienced that in my own life, as I pray.

And it's all the problems, all the things you're thinking about, that you can't get out of your mind. That peace just comes over you, and it's tremendous. And so that's what we need to do. We need to go to the Lord.

And for those who struggle with fear like me, we may not be as bad as Lot, where we make major life decisions, like moving to a different region, because of the crippling fear. But it still affects your life.

It does. And it's a sin that needs to be put to death. And it may be a lifelong struggle, but as we go through the life of faith, this is a sin that can be weakened as you grow. And we need to pray for each other in this.

So this is the first warning about what not to do in reference to Lot's life. Do not be a fearful person. The second warning about what not to do in reference to Lot's life is do not be influenced by others to sin.

Do not be influenced by others to sin. We'll see this in verses 31 -35. And now that they have left Zor, this presents a problem for Lot and his daughters. The older daughter tells the younger daughter the problem in verse 31 as they've gone to this remote place.

And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old and there is not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of all the earth. So these daughters, soon to be sons-in-law, as we saw, were killed in the destruction of Sodom.

And now that they have left a population area, they find themselves alone. And the problem they are faced with is obvious. They want to continue their family line, but the fact that they live in a cave makes them realize that they are going to have trouble continuing their family line because there are no men around.

And this is a situation where they should have trusted the Lord. That the Lord would bring someone across their path to populate their line. And what we're about to see is that they do something very foolish to continue their family line.

And I say this story jokingly, but partly seriously. When I was at my old church, and in my early twenties, both my brother and I were single. And we joked one time that we were the only people in our twenties besides the pastor and his wife.

There were no people our age. They were all older people. And we thought, of course, if you're a Christian, a great place to meet a spouse is at church. And so, but we knew the Lord wanted us to stay at the church, so we said, you know what, we're not going to leave.

We're not going to leave this place. We're going to trust that the Lord will bring a wife along in his timing. And he did. Neither of us left our church, and he met his wife, and I met Brianna, and we got married.

Now in this situation, of course, they didn't do that. They did not wait on the Lord for his timing. They tried to take things into their own hands. Lot's daughters did not trust the Lord's timing, so they came up with this foolish plan in verse 32.

This is what the older daughter says to the younger daughter. Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father. So we see their foolish plan.

They want their father to drink so much wine that he becomes drunk, and therefore impaired, so that they can take advantage of their father and have sexual relations with him. God is not afraid, by the way, in Scripture, to paint the ugly picture of sin when it shows up in his word.

Because sometimes people look at this and say, why is this in the Bible? Isn't the Bible supposed to be clean to the point where even kids can read it, without even worrying about is this appropriate?

Well, the Lord is not afraid to paint the ugly picture of sin. And it shows us how much we need Christ. How ugly sin is. How much we need the spotless lamb who paid the penalty for our sins at the cross.

And so when you come across these passages, just remember that the Lord wants us to see how ugly it is. And we can see it in our world, and the Scripture shows us that as well. The Lord says this about the sin of incest, and that's when sexual relations happen between family members.

He says this about it in Leviticus 18, 6 and 7. None of you shall approach any one of his close relatives to uncover nakedness. I am the Lord. You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father, which is the nakedness of your mother.

She is your mother. You shall not uncover her nakedness. So we see the Lord condemns this outright. And of course our conscience knows that this is a horrible sin. And the sin that lots of daughters are about to commit with their father is the sin of incest.

And there are so many ways to sin in this world, and we've already seen people sin lots of different ways as we've gone through the book of Genesis. And now we see yet another new way that people sin.

And this shows the depths of the depravity that people go to. But this sermon is primarily focused on the man Lot and his tragic legacy. At the beginning of verse 33 details the sin of Lot that leads to this disgusting sin.

So I want you to focus here on Lot. We see the sin of his daughters here, but we're going to see that Lot is not the victim in this. The first part of verse 33. So they made their father drink wine that night.

So let's stop right there. So before the sin of incest happens, we need to pause and look at this. Lot is not the victim in this narrative. He is to blame along with his daughters as he puts himself in this situation.

The beginning of verse 33 says that his daughters kept giving him wine. We know that Lot could have refused the wine, but he kept drinking. And when someone drinks too much and sins while they are impaired, the sins caused by the drunkenness are still that person's sins.

It's not as though one can say, I did not know what I was doing, and so I don't take any blame. No. And by the way, that's why when someone gets drunk and gets behind the wheel of a vehicle and kills someone, they're charged with the crime of killing that person.

The sin of incest that we are about to see is not only the sin of his daughters, but also Lot as well. The firstborn daughter is the first one to have sexual relations with her father, as we see in the remainder of verse 33.

And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. So the author of this passage here, the author Moses, makes it clear that he did not know that he was sleeping with his daughter.

But as I already mentioned, he is still to blame. Now the older daughter, once the sin has been committed, told her younger sister the sin that had been committed the night before. And she tells her what to do as well in verse 34.

So the next day, the firstborn said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him that we may preserve offspring from our father.

When we read this, you don't get the sense that the oldest daughter has a feeling of shame. To her, she probably felt the end justifies the means. In her mind, she probably thought it was noble to continue her family line, even if it meant using her father to get her pregnant.

And she thought so well of her plan that she told her younger sister to do the same. And sadly, the younger sister once again goes along with the older sister. And we see this in verse 35. So they made their father drink wine that night also.

And the younger arose and lay with him. And he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. So once again, in verse 35, we see that Lot is at fault. He knows that if one drinks too much, it leads to impairment which leads to foolish actions.

He should have known when to stop. Instead, he kept filling himself with the alcohol that his daughters gave to him. And while the author notes once again that he did not know that he was having sexual relations with his daughter, he is still complicit in this sin.

Very much so. And as a side note, this is a good time to talk about alcohol. You might wonder, well, what is the biblical position on alcohol? I'll just say, be careful with alcohol. As I mentioned last week, drinking alcohol is not a sin.

But drinking too much is. Personally, Brianne and I have made the choice not to drink alcohol. But if you do, be wise. Drink in moderation and be very careful. Don't let it have a hold on you. Sometimes we have to ask the question, how do we know when something becomes an idol?

An idol is when you worship something other than God. It's when you can't live without it. You say, you know what, we all have these things we love in our life, right? But you know, if I had to give it up, I could.

If you say, I can't live without this, it has such a hold on you, and you long for it so much that it actually reaches an unhealthy point, then you have to consider this might be idolatry. So be very careful.

Be very careful with alcohol. Because if you drink too much and get drunk, it brings great shame upon yourself. And it brings great shame upon your family. Probably if you live long enough, you've seen a situation where someone got drunk.

And it's really an ugly situation. And so this text gives us a reminder. Don't do it. It led to a horrible sin here. And this text is a great example of where it can lead to. Lot is making a mess of his life because he is intoxicating himself, which leads to foolish actions.

And the example we have seen with Lot is not just for drinking. We should not put ourselves in other compromising situations either. People often get in trouble because they put themselves in places where trouble can be found.

What internet sites are you looking at? What are you enabling yourself to see as it comes across the TV screen? What friends are you spending time with? Living in our present world makes this more and more difficult.

What our society has done is made sin more public. Sin has always been here. Of course, ever since Adam and Eve. Sin is down through history. It's been an ugly history of sin. But in America, in the old days, some of you remember this.

There was a time when sin was private, yes, but it wasn't in the public square so much. It was kept hidden. Let me give you an example. The show I Love Lucy had Lucy and her husband, Ricky, in different beds.

I mean, think about how far downhill we've come since I Love Lucy many, many years ago. And now you can hardly watch regular television. Brianne and I were thinking about, should we even let our kids watch TV?

Or let Aletheia or future children watch TV? If you go to a mall, you see sin right on display. Whether you are a man or a woman, it is right there for you to see. And you will be tempted to go down the wrong path.

Brianne and I went to a mall not too long ago and I told her, I couldn't look to the left or to the right. I had to look straight ahead because there was sin everywhere. And this has become normal in our society.

And we will be wise to listen to the words that we heard last week during the call to worship from Proverbs 4, 26 and 27. Let your eyes look directly forward and your gaze be straight before you. Ponder the path of your feet.

Then all your ways will be sure. Do not swerve to the right or to the left. Turn your foot away from evil. So you will be tempted to go places you should not go. To look at things you should not look at.

And to hang around with friends you should not spend much time with who have a bad influence on you. And I'll say a note about who you hang out with here. It's amazing the negative influence the wrong friends can have on you.

A foolish friend will lead you down a foolish path. My old youth pastor used to say, show me your friends, I'll show you your future. There's a lot of truth to that. A lot of biblical truth to that. So be careful who you spend your time with.

Proverbs 13, 20 says this. Whoever walks with the wise becomes wise. But the companion of fools will suffer harm. This morning Rolf was sharing a story about the gentleman from Mexico. He had prayed for one guy to come across his path and the Lord brought one guy.

What was his name again? Joaquin. It was a guy with a cat, right? And he says, give me one guy. And the Lord gave him this one guy. Think about how what an influence just hanging out with Rolf would have on him.

Instead of him hanging out with the other people in his life. And Rolf and Ellen have both seen the Lord work in this man's life. Think of the difference that it makes when you hang around with godly people as opposed to ungodly people.

So we need to be careful about what positions we put ourselves in. What situations we put ourselves in. Because look what happened when Lot put himself in the wrong situation. He was taken advantage of by his daughters.

So this is the second warning about what not to do in reference to Lot's life. Do not be influenced by others to sin. The third warning about what not to do in reference to Lot's life. And this is our final warning.

Is do not be remembered for egregious sins. Do not be remembered for egregious sins. Verses 36 through 38. Because we're going to see the legacy. The sad legacy that Lot leaves. The result of Lot's daughters sleeping with their father sadly met the goal that his daughters set out to accomplish.

Verse 36 tells us. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. So we'll stop right there. Verse 36 tells us that they conceived when each of the daughters had sexual relations with their father.

And what we'll see in verses 36 to 38 is this is flashing forward nine months after this sin was committed. And what is significant about this last point is that two lines of people are descending from Lot.

One line comes from his oldest daughter and the other line comes from his younger daughter. And what we will see is the names of these two sons that come from these two daughters is very significant. It's very significant in biblical history and it's very significant in our sermon today to see the application for us.

So we'll see the first in verse 37. The first lion mentioned. The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. So from Lot's first daughter is a son whose name is Moab.

And the name Moab is the word Ab. In the Hebrew language the word Ab means father. The word May in Hebrew means from. So if you put these two words together you get the word Moab which means from my father.

So in other words the child came from her father Lot. So from this son comes a nation. A nation known as the Moabites. The name Moab may sound familiar to you in your Bible reading because this is the people that Ruth came from.

She was a Moabite and Ruth is significant in scripture because she married Boaz and from her line eventually came King David. Of course King David is enormously significant in scripture because the Davidic dynasty comes from him.

The Messiah would come from his line. And so the Moabites actually play a very significant role in the history of Israel and the coming of the Messiah but again they don't come about the right way. They come about through this sin.

Now in verse 38 I'm sorry verse yeah verse 38 another son is born from Lot's youngest daughter. The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-Ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.

Alright so from the second daughter a child is born from whom the Ammonites would come. So from these two daughters would come the nations the Moabites and then the Ammonites. And what is interesting is that these people would experience some blessing because they came from Lot.

And why does the Lord do this? Why does he bless these people? And we once again need to remember Genesis 12 3 it says those who honor Abraham will be honored and so Lot is blessed because of his association with Abraham.

Those who honor Abraham will be honored and since Lot was associated with Abraham his people would still experience the blessings of that association. The Lord told Israel to wipe out the Canaanites because of their wickedness but when they came to those neighboring the Canaanites the Moabites and the Ammonites they were not to touch them.

So you see this connection from Abraham to Lot to these peoples the Lord still actually looked out for them. He kept his word. Those who honor Abraham will be honored and so Lot's association would actually protect these people down the road.

In Deuteronomy 2 9 the Lord told Israel do not harass Moab or contend with them in battle for I will not give you any of their land for a possession because I have given our to the people of Lot for a possession and the Lord also made it so that the nation of the Ammonites would be protected in Deuteronomy 2 9 when you approach the territory of the people of Ammon do not harass them or contend with them for I will not give you any of the land of the people of Ammon as a possession because I have given it to the sons of Lot for a possession.

So we see Lot the connection there. Throughout the history of Israel these people would cause trouble and so when they attacked Israel that would be the time when they were not protected then Israel would have permission to respond and fight against them.

So what we see here with Ammon the Ammonites is that his name is Ben Ammi and the word Ben means son. Anybody named Ben here? Yeah that's what it means. It means son and within the word Ammi is the word Am which means kin.

So when we put these words together this is very telling. Moab and Ammon together means father's kin. So the names of these two sons and the sons that would follow would always be tied to the sinful way these lions were brought to be.

So that's not a legacy that you would want to follow and it would always be brought back to Lot and his daughters. That's not how you want to be remembered. These names would tell everyone that an egregious sin took place to start these lines of people.

And when people came across the Moabites and the Ammonites they would be remembered as the two lions that were conceived in incest. So it should be our desire never to be remembered for an egregious sin like Lot is known for.

And the names of his ancestors tell the story. If you've been alive long enough you can see this happening in the Christian world when a pastor falls or a missionary falls or someone significant falls in a church and it really is an ugly situation.

It really paints a black eye. And the sad part about it is that that is attached to that person's name for the rest of their life. Now the great thing about it is that these people can still be heaven bound.

Jesus Christ of course paid the penalty for our sins at the cross but still you don't want this to be your legacy. You don't want that black eye connected to you. And this happens to not just leaders but it happens to everybody.

And so we need to watch our steps and not have a major slip up in our life. Because there have been many good names that have been tarnished because of a big slip up. And do you know how valuable a good name is?

The scripture says this in Proverbs 22 .1 It says that a good name is to be chosen rather than great riches. Think about that. Whenever you see someone who lived a very good life following the Lord and then something happened it should make your heart ache because the name is tarnished.

There are people who have lots of wealth who have lost their good name. And what most of them would tell you is that they would give up their wealth to get their name back. That's how much it matters.

And the way to leave a legacy that people will look up to when you are gone is to follow Christ closely and stay on the path. We read earlier Proverbs 4 .26 and 27 that tells us do not look to the right or to the left but to stay on the path.

This is a warning to us. Lot, he's in heaven right now regretting the shame of his life. We don't want to have that regret. Do not do what Lot did and commit a horrible sin that will forever be a dark spot in your legacy.

We should aim to live a life that is honoring to Christ and that's a powerful testimony to the world so that when people see your life they see Jesus. Because when you commit an egregious sin you look a lot like the world.

And it really does reflect poorly on Christ which is so horrible. We don't want to ever reflect Christ poorly. So this is the third warning about what not to do in reference to Lot's life. Do not be known for egregious sins.

So to summarize our sermon this morning, Lot's life is predominantly a warning about what not to do. This text has provided us three warnings. Do not be a fearful person. Do not be influenced by the sins of others.

And do not be known for egregious sins. And as we look at the life of Lot, what we need to remember is that scripture calls him a righteous person. He was still counted by the righteousness of Christ.

That's a fancy theological term it's called justification. What that means is that when you believe in the Lord in the Old Testament or in Jesus now in the New Testament era what happens is that the righteousness of God is credited to you.

And so Lot was counted righteous. He's called righteous in scripture which is why he is with the Lord today. But as we look at this, the three warnings of what not to do are from a saved man. And so this message is to Christians.

We must live our lives walking closely to Christ in the power of the Holy Spirit. And the way to accomplish this is to let the Bible flow through your veins and let the Spirit guide you as the Word of God is filled with your mind.

We all shared that earlier. We need to be people who have the Bible flowing through our veins. There was a 19th century pastor by the name of Charles Spurgeon. He said you should have Biblion flowing through your veins.