"The Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous" (Genesis 18:20).
We all love to hear about God's mercy, grace and patience. But we do not want to consider seriously the fact that someday soon He will come against everything that is as it was at Sodom.
God revealed about his character to Moses this way: "The Lord passed by before him, and proclaimed, The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin" (Exodus 34:6-7). but then in the very next phrase, God continued and also proclaimed: "I will by no means clear the guilty"
The Lord was saying, "I will not close and open My eye at sin as a signal of affection or greeting! Yes, I am merciful and longsuffering, but the time is coming when my patience with your sin will end. And that is when the real Sodom in your life will burn!"
Two angels came to Lot and warned, "Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city" (Genesis 19:15).
Lot did not take this warning seriously because he slept in the next morning and the angels had to rouse him. His wife, daughters and sons-in-law must have thought, "If he really believed the warning, he would be on his way out of here immediately. He doesn't believe it, so why should we?" We need to take this as a lesson to us all. We need to live with great conviction that the coming of the Lord is soon such that others will listen to our witness.
The above example in the life of Lot teaches us, There are "Final divine demands"—times when the Holy Spirit knows what is about to bring you to ruin. It could be your sin or the environment in which you live as in the above example.The Lord comes to you and says, "I am the God of grace, and I want to deliver you out of the mess that you are in. Now, turn away from your sin or the environment in which you live. Obey My Word!"
These kind of statements are found throughout the Bible. For instance, Acts Chapter 5 tells us Ananias and Sapphira were warned not to grieve the Holy Spirit by lying to Him. But they disobeyed and lied—and instantly fell dead
It does not matter how faithful you are in doing God's work or how much you pray or fast, if you do not believe God will deal seriously with your sin, know that you are deceived!
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