Character Studies - ElectronicGospel

3. when Lot chose to live in Sodom, he made a selfish and uninformed decision based uponappearances and the consequences nearly killed him more than oncea. how much will you cause to threaten your faith and your family by making shortsighteddecisions based upon appearances?b. walking through the narrow gate and down the strait way that lead to life will require adifferent, selfless kind of vision in which decisions are targeted at eternityC. Learning The Hard Way1. naturally, Abraham's courageous rescue compelled Lot to find a better place to live, right?2. wrong, he went right back to Sodom, knowing their penchant for wickedness and war, anyway3. some of us have to learn our lessons the hard way and it appears that Lot was not going to getthe message until he had no other choicea. he continued to live righteously even in the midst of the wickedness of Sodom, but he wasthreatened every day with becoming acclimated to sinb. the guilt or pain that result from violating God's will ought to teach us a painful lesson, butsometimes we are reluctant to learn and intent upon pushing God to his limit4. God sent messengers to Abraham to tell him that he would soon have a son by Sarah and as themessengers prepared to leave, they had more news (Genesis 18:16-33a. all the wickedness in Sodom had exhausted God's patience and except for Abraham'sintervention, the city would have been lost immediately without reprieveb. somehow Lot continues to dwell there and his daughters have even taken husbands fromamong the populacec. in spite of his insistence upon godliness, his continued presence there had allowed hischildren to put down roots and overlook the evild. our children are often influenced by things that have such little effect upon us that we thinkthem harmless; they have not built up the resistance that comes from age, experience and knowledge andso we end up subjecting them to trials they are unprepared to facee. even religious environments that condone or ignore error can be dangerous places, for wemay understand that the things going on are wrong and that we will not participate, but our children donot and they end up loving the error as if it were truthII. Fire and Brimstone (Genesis 19:1-29)A. Waiting For The Few1. God was willing to wait for 10, but 10 righteous could not be found2. just as when he prepared to flood Noah's world, God would preserve the few righteous hecould find while punishing the wicked majority3. and when Jesus returns, it will be to ransom the righteous few into Heaven while leaving theunfaithful majority to the consequences of their choice4. when all that can be saved are saved and God's patience is exhausted, the end will come, so bereadyB. Homosexuality1. the denominations are falling over themselves trying to justify homosexual behavior in order toappear politically correct and liberally open-minded2. even this passage is interpreted with bizarre exegesis; we are told that God destroyed the citiesof the plain because of their inhospitable nature!a. not to malign the need for hospitality, but there is something more here that justifies thedescription of this place as "exceedingly wicked and sinful against the Lord" (Genesis 13:13)b. clearly the homosexual assault planned by the Sodomites in this passage indicates that thistown was awash in sexual perversion and the New Testament validates this understanding (Jude 5-7)1. this passage closely parallels our first text from Second Peter and clears up any debateabout the exact reason for God's intense anger2. the Sodomites went after strange flesh through "horrible licentiousness" as Robertsonputs it (Romans 1:26-283. homosexuality is sinful, but like any sinful behavior, it is one that can be controlled andovercome and even the sodomite can be saved if he will see his weakness and deny it, as the angry manand alcoholic must not simply give in to theirs194