10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
10250 North Freeway @ West Road
Houston, Texas 77037
Tel: (281) 447-8484
What We Believe and Why - Vol. II
Written by Dr. Lester Hutson
Copyright - Lester Hutson -
1982
This material is copyrighted and may not be copied or reproduced without the express
written permission of Dr. Lester Hutson.
Chapter Forty Nine
Lot in Politics
INTRODUCTION: Text: Genesis 19:1-26
There is extreme debate these days over whether or not Christians should be involved in politics. The fact that some of God's people have gotten involved has sparked a vial of criticism and many efforts to discredit Christianity itself. The secular humanists of our day, who have for years imposed their anti-God policies over us, and even used our tax dollars to finance their impositions against us, are suddenly incensed that we Christians would seek a voice in what is going on and that we'd seek to impose Christian thinking in policies on the society. It is suppose to be perfectly all right for the God-rejecting humanist to impose their humanistic religion on everybody, but when Christians seek to even influence the society toward Christian principles, they are banned as bigots, narrow-minded, dictatorial and suppressive of civil rights. They have yelled and screamed about the separation of church and state, calling preachers "pulpit politicians," and saying Christian people should have no voice in the political process. Of course, they still insist that Christians must pay their taxes and support the law, regardless of how anti-Christian and detrimental to the cause of Christ these godless laws may be. They say the thinking of the church should be left out of politics. In other words, the church is to be separate from the state, but the state is not to be separate from the church.
Folks, such thinking as this in no way reflects our American Constitution. The Constitution does not even mention the separation of church and state. It simply states that Congress cannot make laws that establish a national denomination or prohibit the free exercise of religion. That supposed "wall of separation between church and state" came from a letter by Thomas Jefferson to a Baptist pastor concerned about government meddling into religion. Jefferson assured the pastor that there was a one way wall of separation that the government had to observe, but that the churches and Christians did not. Church and state are to be separate, but not in the sense that all church thinking is to be excluded from state, or that the state is to have no authority at all over the church. The fact is that the church, through its members, is to influence the state to Godly, just policies, and in turn, the church is to be obedient to the government of the state, as long as it does not interfere with Biblical principles. Every society will either be governed by Christian principles or non-Christian principles. When Christian government prevails, as in our first 150 years, even non-Christian people are free to live and thrive in the society without governmental persecution, so long as they don't infringe on others, or seek to change the government to non-Christian.
Once a thoroughly non-Christian government comes to power, it will not tolerate Christians. True Christian morals, principles and practices become unacceptable in a non-Christian state. History has repeatedly proven that. In Babylon, they threw Christians in the fiery furnace and the lions' dens. In Rome, they made gladiators out of believers. During the Dark Ages, the Roman Catholic Church acting on non-Christian principles, burned, sawed, beheaded and otherwise murdered millions of true Christians. Russia persecuted, imprisoned and killed its Christians. Today, China imprisons and kills its Christians, as do most middle-eastem countries under Islamic control.
America is developing a more and more non-Christian government, and it is not coincidental that that development is being paralleled by a consistently more unfavorable treatment of churches and anyone who holds Christian convictions. The true fact is that men are only free where the government is run by Christian principles. A vote for any politician who will not govern according to Biblical principles is a vote for tyranny and a loss of freedom. Silence and a refusal to let your Christian influence be heard is a vote against freedom, especially against religious liberty. It says to the non-Christians, "Shut me up just as soon as you can. Make it so bard on me that I have to defy the government to worship my God. Make me bide and worship in secret; then persecute and kill me, if you find out about my faith in God. " It says, "I'm doing my best to put the power in your hands to make it hard on me, and exterminate me if you can. "
The facts that I have been setting forth here are well illustrated in the life of Lot. His political story is told in Genesis 19:1-26. I think it would be well to read these verses before pointing out to you certain truths which are found there.
I. LOT SAT IN THE GATE.
A. Genesis 19:1 says, "Lot sat in the gate of Sodom......" Here is Biblical language setting forth the fact that the Lord was involved in the government of Sodom.
1. The Keil Delitzsch Old Testament Commentary explains that the gate in ancient towns of the East was generally an arched entrance with deep recesses and seats on either side, where the inhabitants asembled either for social intercourse or to transact public business.
2. You can see from Lamentations 5:14 that the elders or governing officials of the city met there. This verse says, "The elder have ceased from the gate." That government business was conducted there is evident from Deuteronomy 2l:18-21. "If a man have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have chastened him, will not harken unto them: then shall his father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the elders of the city, and unto the gate of his place; and they shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a drunkard. And all the men of his city shall stone him with stones that he die. So shalt thou put evil away from among you; and all Israel shall hear and fear."
3. In view of the government business being conducted there, the govemment and the gate were often equated, and the government was simply referred toas"the gate." This is how the government of Tyre was referred to in Isaiah 24:12, "In the city is left desolation, and the gate is smitten with destruction. " By referring to Daniel in the gate, Daniel 5:49 points out Daniel's involvement in the government of Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. God is calling for just and righteous govemment when He speaks of justice in the gate in Amos 5:12-15, "For I know your manifold transgressions and your mighty sins: they afflict thejust, they take a bribe, and they turn aside the poor in the gate from their right. Therefore the prudent shall keep silence in that time; for it is an evil time. Seek good, and not evil, that ye may live: and so the LORD, the God of hosts, shall be with you, as ye have spoken. Hate the evil, and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of Joseph."
4. We believe therefore that when Genesis 19:1 speaks of Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom, it means more than that he just sat at the physical entrance of the city. Yes, he did that, but he also was involved in the government of Sodom. The Hebrew word for gate in Genesis 19:1 is "shaar." James Strong, in his Dictionary of Hebrew Words, says it carries the idea of acting as a gatekeeper. Henry Morris, in The Genesis Record, says he believes Lot was a magistrate in Sodom. In his commentary on Genesis, Griffith Thomas says Lot was in a place of importance, and Dr. Louis Entzminger, in his Genesis Commentary, says Lot was in a place involving judgment. In Genesis 19:9, the men of Sodom called Lot a judge. The Hebrew is "shaphat," meaning to "pronounce sentence; to govern; to litigate; to rule.
5. It is a safe and almost universally accepted position that Lot was a political officer in Sodom.
B. Like Lot, everyone of you is in government.
1. There are many nations where that cannot be said of the people, and it looks like it won't be said here much longer. But right now, every American is a part of the government. Our government is declared to be a government "of the people, for the people, and by the people. " Primarily, because of our freedom to speak out and vote, and exert our influence, each of us has a voice in the government of the United States of America. Most people of the world cannot speak out about their government, seek to change it, or vote for their government officers. They have no real part in their government, but free Americans do.
2. You may not be an officer like Lot apparently was, but officer or citizen, you do have a voice. The officer may have a stronger voice than you citizens, but the citizen does have a voice, and the final voice, and can remove the officer with an evil voice and replace him with a better voice. We are blessed in America that the final voice is still the ballot box, and that is where Mr. Citizen speaks.
3. You may say, "Well, I have no voice and am not involved in American politics, because I do not even vote." Don't kid yourself. This is one area where silence truly does give consent. Your failure to cast a right vote for a Godly principled candidate is an automatic vote for the wrong candidate. He automatically wins by your default. Do you suppose a court would hold you innocent for watching a baby drown when it was within your power to prevent it? Certainly not, and neither are you innocent of wicked govermnent which flourishes when it is within your power to prevent it by your influence and voice at the ballot box. Fellow American, in our system of government, you are involved in politics, whether you want to be or not, either by your active participation or by your silence. In one way or another, you are helping establish either a right or wrong kind of government. If you are not actively involved and do not oppose evil, you must bear responsibility for the evil that flourishes.
II. LOT SAT SILENT IN THE GATE.
A. There is no indication that Lot ever tried to turn the people from their wicked ways and to God.
1. It is true that Lot was "vexed with the filthy conversation (lifestyle) of the wicked" Sodomites. (II Peter 2:7-8) Yet, the man did nothing to change them.
2. Here was a Christian man in a town of gays. (Sounds like a Berean in Houston, doesn't it?) And, he just looked at it, hated what he saw, but did little or nothing to change it. (It still sounds a lot like a Berean in Houston, doesn't it?)
B. Now folks, somebody is going to run our government, either Godly thinking men or ungodly thinking men.
1. When Godly thinking, Christian oriented people rule, then freedom and justice prevails, and the People of the society rejoice. Proverbs 29:2 says, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice.....". The principles of our God work. They are fair, equitable and just. The principles set forth in God's Word are true. (John 17:17) The truth makes men free. (John 8:32) We've seen that right here in America. The men who founded this nation and those who led it for many decades were Bible-oriented people. They believed in God, Bible morality, the family, patriotism, the free enterprise system, law and order, liberty, and justice for all, all of which are basic Bible positions. Under this kind of authority and leadership, America flourished and became unquestionably the most powerful and prosperous nation on earth. It has only been since we've had a larger percentage of Bible rejecting leaders in our government that our nation has begun to deteriorate and lose her power.
2. Our deterioration under ungodly rule really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Solomon not only said, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice," but he added, "but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn" (Proverbs 29:2) You can mark it down. In any nation, at any place, at any time, the more the rulers reject Biblical thinking, the more miserable and oppressed the people will become. Freedoms are lost, crimes increase, taxes rise, justice and fair treatment vanish, and in countless ways life becomes hard and oppressed. Folks, only those who are deliberately blind, cannot see this trend in America today. Yet it is amazing how many people refuse to equate the departure from Bible principles by the leadership of our people with the steady decadence of our society and nation. The two run together like the rails of a railroad track, yet many can see no parallel at all.
C. Now the fact is that when Bible thinking people sit back and refuse to have a voice in their political process, refuse to oppose God-rejecting men, and support and vote into office Bible-believing men, they are inviting their own ruin and the ruin of their country.
1. Such silence in the gate actually says, "Here is a facet of my life where I shall leave God out, even though, we do live here; we pay taxes to finance what our government does; we have to live by its laws; and our lives and the lives of our children are influenced by what it allows to go on around us." Whether we like it or not, government is a part of every one of our lives. Now fellow Christians, is Jesus to be Lord of all or not? Colossians 1:18 says that, "In all things he might have the preeminence." Now does that mean in all things except the government? Does that mean Christians are to keep their Christianity out of government?
2. I ask you, fellow Christian, is it right for God's people to sit silent and let a Godless government impose Godless laws upon us? And use our tax money to finance it? Is it right for Christians to sit silent in a government that legalizes the murder of 1.3 million babies a year and uses our tax money to pay for many of them? Is it right to sit silent and fail to oppose a politician who is in favor of Sodomites in the land, a thing that is directly opposed in God's Word? Is it right to sit silent while our government educational system systematically teaches our children the basic tenets of humanism, a religion that is in direct opposition to God's Word? It teaches there is no God, denies creation and teaches evolution, rejects morality and teaches amorality, condemns capitalism and advocates socialism, condemns patriotism and advocates internationalism, and on and on. You show me in the Bible where God's people are to be silent in the gate, tolerate sin, and leave God out of a facet of their lives, and I'll eat the book, cover and all. Brethren, the Book tells Christians they are the salt of the earth. (Matthew 5:13) They are to shine as lights in this dark world. (Philippians 2:15) They are to be zealous of good works. (Titus 2:12-14) God says, "Let the redeemed of the Lord say so." (Psalm 107:2) There is absolutely no reason to believe God meant for that to be true in every area except the political arena. When a child of God, by his silence, allows corrupt men and evil to flourish and triumph, he cannot justify it in the sight of Almighty God. And God will not hold such apathetic ones innocent in the day of judgment.
3. The idea of separation of church and state applies to direct control, not influence. In fact, a good percentage of our founding fathers, who wrote the First Amendment from which the idea comes, were believers. The evidence shows clearly that they used heavy influence in the very framing of our Republic. The separation clause is to guarantee that the church does not directly control the state, like the Catholics did in Europe 500 to 600 years ago, and to also guarantee that the state in no way controls the church by dictating its curriculums, subsidizing its treasury or taxing its operations. The separation concept in no way says Christians are to stay out of politics or that churches are exempt from obedience to civil law. In fact, Christians ought to use all the influence they have and their power at the ballot box to influence government to be as righteous and Godly as possible, for the more righteous government is, the better conditions will be for everybody in the entire nation.
III. LOT LOST HIS CHILDREN, WIFE AND CITY.
A. I know that it is not easy to speak up for righteousness and oppose evil.
1. When Lot belatedly did speak up in the very end, the people of Sodom sneered at him, calling him a judge. Genesis 19:4-5 tells how these men of Sodom came to Lot's house wanting to commit their homosexual acts with the visitors. Verses 6, 7, and 8 say, "And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. 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." Listen to their response in verse 9, "And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now we will deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. " That sounds like something right out of today's news. You stand against abortion, sodomy, and other evils, and they say you're a judge. Like it was with Lot, they'll say you're bigoted, and it is not your right or business to tell them what is right or wrong. They'll say you are violating their civil liberties by trying to impose your morals on them.
2. Amos the prophet warned, "They hate him that rebuketh in the gate, and they abhor him that speaketh uprightly. " (Amos 5: 10) Brother, once you begin to speakup for Godliness in government, you'll quickly find Amos to be true. Men will still hate you, oppose you, fight you, and tell you that you are out of place.
B. Folks, if you let ungodly men intimidate you into silence, you will surely ultimately lose everything.
1. Genesis 19:14 says, "And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-laws which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place; for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law." Folks, this man had outright lost his children. They didn't believe in his God and in his moral codes. The thinking of Sodom had infiltrated them. While he had been silent, the people of Sodom hadn't been. Even Lot's two youngest daughters had been hooked by Satan's thinking. Genesis 19:30-38 will tell you of their incestuous relationship with him, and the resulting shame and disgrace they were to Lot. Mister, I tell you today, just sit silent in the gate, and the wicked, Godless thinkers of our day will take the minds of your children. You'll lose your children.
2. Genesis 19:26 also says Lot lost his wife. "But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt." You cannot be neutral sitting silent on the issues and yet keep the respect of your mate. Weakness breeds contempt. And, as divorce, promiscuous sexual conduct, sodomy, and sensuous living become more and more accepted conduct, the greater the odds that your wife will be caught up in it. Let her sit home and watch the filth on TV, or go out into the workplace, and you run the same risk Lot ran with his wife. If you do not actively oppose that kind of thing, chances are you will ultimately lose your wife also.
3. Furthermore, Lot lost his city, and fellow Christians, you and I are sitting on the threshold of America's death as a free nation. If wedon't wake up, and speak up, and stand up, we are going to have to give up our homes, freedom of religion, freedom of speech, and our money. We are going to find ourselves in a government that kills not only the babies, but the old and the dissenters. They will own all property, and we will work for them. They will defend crime and wickedness, and persecute straight living people. They will take our children and indoctrinate them in anti-God philosophies. Folks, if we remain silent in the gates much longer, it will be for us as it was for Lot: irreversibly too late.
"It Does Make a Difference What You Believe"