By Pastor Robert L. Cheek Jr.
Victory Baptist Church
Genesis 19:1-20
If there is one saved man in all the Old Testament with a bad testimony, I would have to say it is Lot. I think his testimony was so bad, that you rarely find Christians today willing to name their children after him. When was the last time you met a guy named Lot? I can’t think of a single person I’ve ever met with that name. The Old Testament end its narrative of the life of Lot with this verse.
Genesis 19:36 Thus were both the daughters of Lot with child by their father.
What an awful testimony Lot had, but the Holy Spirit was not through using Lot as a negative illustration. We find him mentioned several times in the New Testament. The Lord used the illustration of Lot to describe the days of His second coming in Luke 17. Peter mentions Lot in 2 Peter chapter two.
Have you ever thought about Lot and wondered why? Why did he go to Sodom? Why did he stay? Why could he not get all his family out in time? Well, one word answers all these questions. That word is COMPROMISE. Lot was a compromising child of God. We can take a look at Lot and see a life of compromise. Now, Lot is not alone in this area of compromise. All Christians are vulnerable to compromise. Let’s use Lot as an illustration of the characteristics of a compromising Christian. As we consider these characteristics, let each of us examine ourselves to see if these compromising characteristics are found in us. If they are, we should immediately deal with them, so our testimony does not end up like Lot’s did.
1. A Compromising Christian Is Embarrassed By Godliness
Genesis 19:1 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;
Genesis 19:2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
Lot was not wanting these angels to get up early so he could have more time to fellowship with them. He wanted them to get up early so they could leave the city before many noticed that they were godly. Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. He was a political or judicial figure; a man of high position in the city. When he saw these angels, he immediately summoned them to his house where he could get them out of the public’s eye. He did not mind them visiting for the evening, but he wanted them out of sight come the next morning.
Ephesians 5:13 But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light: for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
The light of righteousness shown through these angels to the point that Lot was embarrassed at his own lack of righteousness. When the angels wanted to remain in the street all night, notice how Lot reacted.
Genesis 19:2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
Genesis 19:3 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.
Lot could not allow himself to be associated with their godliness. That would make himself look like a hypocrite in the extreme. And that is the way the heart of a compromising Christian is. They find godliness embarrassing. For example, the compromising Christian gets embarrassed when:
A Christian lifts his hand or says amen in church.
A Christian stops to witness to a lost person in public or hands out a tract.
A Christian prays in the restaurant before eating.
Any time we are ashamed of Jesus, or righteousness, that is a sign of compromise in our life.
Sometimes children, because of their sincerity and honesty, can reveal a bit of compromise in the parents. One time we were walking in a parking lot and there were a couple of teenagers playing rock music. One of our children looked at them and then blurted out, “That’s wicked.” We were sure they said it loud enough for the teenagers and everyone else to hear. I’m not sure if it was embarrassment or fear that made us tell the children to keep quiet about it. If it was embarrassment, then our hearts had some compromise in them. The ones that ought to be embarrassed are the sinners doing wrong, not the saints doing right! We should never be ashamed of doing right. We should be ashamed of not doing right.
Psalms 31:17 Let me not be ashamed, O LORD; for I have called upon thee: let the wicked be ashamed, and let them be silent in the grave.
One time while street preaching, a car load of church members from my church passed by the spot where I was and waved at me and praised the Lord in front of the other cars. They were not ashamed of me and I was not ashamed of them.
Paul’s testimony was this:
Romans 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
One characteristic of a compromising Christian is that he or she finds godliness embarrassing.
2. A Compromising Christian Has Something To Hide
Genesis 19:2 And he said, Behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you, into your servant’s house, and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and ye shall rise up early, and go on your ways. And they said, Nay; but we will abide in the street all night.
Lot tried to hide two things. First, He tried to hide ungodliness from the godly. Lot did not want the angels to see the wickedness of the people of Sodom. That is why he pressed them so hard to enter his house. That is why he hastened to make a meal for them. Nothing makes a man more ready to sleep than a big meal. Lot did not make them just a meal, he made them a feast!
Genesis 19:3 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.
Lot figured if he got them full of food, they would lay down and sleep the night away. Then, he could whisk them away in the morning and they would not hear or see what went on in the streets of Sodom after the sun went down. Whenever we have things in our life that we want to hide from others, especially from godly Christians, chances are we are a compromising Christian.
One of the greatest sources of compromise can be seen in our family entertainment. It’s so easy to compromise in the area of recreation. Let me ask you a question. Is there a movie in your house you would not want the preacher to see? Well, if it would be wrong for another Christian to see it, why is right for you to see it? There have been several times in our life that we have had to throw out movies we have bought because we could not in good conscience loan them out to others with our approval. Yet we allowed ourselves to tolerate a little leaven in the movie. This is just one example of having something to hide. While I am here, let me ask a question to you parents. If it’s wrong for your child to watch an rated “R” movie, why is it o.k. for you to watch it? Does Righteousness have age limit?
Second, Lot tried to hide godliness from the ungodly.
Genesis 19:4 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:
Genesis 19:5 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.
Genesis 19:6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
Lot would not allow the ungodly men to see the righteous. Now we know their motive for wanting the angels to come out, but let me pass a thought on to you through instruction in righteousness. Do we ever hide the fact that we are a Christian from lost people? When we are around lost people they ought to know that we are saved. We should not prevent them from seeing Christ even if they do not want to have anything to do with Christianity.
Psalms 107:2 Let the redeemed of the LORD say so, whom he hath redeemed from the hand of the enemy;
Sometimes Christians will have lost people working on their vehicle or their house and they will intentionally not mention that they are Christians so they won’t get the guy cross with them for fear he might not do a good job for them. So, for the sake of their possessions, they won’t tell the man they possess Christ. That is compromise. Now, that doesn’t mean Christians have to shove the Bible in the face of every lost man that they run into. But when the Holy Spirit moves on us to display our Christianity, we should not hesitate to do so.
A compromising Christian has something to hide.
3. A Compromising Christian Has Unscriptural Relationships
Genesis 19:6 And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him,
Genesis 19:7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.
This is a real reflection of Lot’s compromising. Here, Lot calls Sodomites brethren. When a Christian has no problem calling a Sodomite a brother, they are definitely compromising their Christian testimony. When we have unscriptural relationships we are compromising. I will not hesitate to tell you that lack of separation is one of chief causes of compromise in the Christian life.
You have heard me preach many times on the importance of separation. I simply want to stress that lack of separation is a sure sign of compromise in our life.
Let me briefly give you a list of unscriptural relationships. If we have any of these in our life, we are compromising our Christianity.
Fellowship with the lost is an unscriptural relationship according to 2 Corinthians 6:14.
Fellowship with a Christian who is backslidden is an unscriptural relationship according to 2 Thessalonians 3:6.
Fellowship with those who are heretics is an unscriptural relationship according to Titus 3:10.
A heretic would be defined as any person teaching false doctrines about Christ. Those who teach works for salvation are heretics.
Every one of these relationships are unscriptural and forbidden by God. We simply do not have a choice in the matter if we want to be right with God. If we have unscriptural relationships, we are a compromising Christian.
A compromising Christian has unscriptural relationships.
4. A Compromising Christian Exercises Ungodly Reasoning
Genesis 19:8 Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Notice what Lot is trying to do. This is one of the classic examples of the end justifies the means. The end here is that he wants to protect the angels. But he wants to protect them by defiling his own daughters. The means is sin. This is ungodly reasoning, but Lot doesn’t know that because is a compromising child of God.
There is another man in the Bible who exercised ungodly reasoning. His name was Jephthah. Jephthah vowed a vow to God that if God would give the children of Ammon into his hands, he would offer up to God by burnt offering the first thing that met him at the door of his house. God delivered the children of Ammon, but when Jephthah went home his daughter met him at the door. The ungodly reasoning was exercised when he held firm to his vow to slay his daughter. It is never right to do wrong. God would have excused his vow because in keeping the vow, he would have violated God’s command. His was ungodly reasoning even though he was a great man of God.
There are several examples we could give of ungodly reasoning among Christians today. For example,
In order to be able to tithe more, a Christian takes a job that requires him to work on Sunday. That is ungodly reasoning.
In order to better provide for his family, a Christian accepts a job promotion that moves him to an area where there is no Bible-believing church to attend. That is ungodly reasoning.
Any time a Christian makes a decision that is contrary to the Word of God and the principles of the Bible, they are exercising ungodly reasoning. In order to really know “What would Jesus do”, we must study the Word of God. Forget about trying to reason what God would do. If we study the Bible, we will know what is right and what is wrong reasoning. One thing is for sure. The world’s way of reasoning and God’s way are almost always opposite.
1 Corinthians 1:27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1 Corinthians 1:28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
If we happen to know the way the world would reason something out and then do the opposite, we would probably not be far from God’s way.
A compromising Christian exercises ungodly reasoning.
These are four characteristics of a compromising Christian.
They are embarrassed by godliness.
They have something to hide.
They have unscriptural relationships.
They exercise ungodly reasoning.
As we think about these 4 characteristics, do we see any signs of compromise in our own hearts and lives?
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