Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #24 of Genesis, chapter 19. We are going to read Genesis 19:16-17:

And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; JEHOVAH being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

I will stop reading there. In our last study we were looking at verse 16 and we saw how the two men laid hold upon Lot’s hand, the hand of his wife and the hand of his two daughters. In doing so, it said, “JEHOVAH being merciful to him.” It was an act of the mercy of God. Historically, we can see this clearly. We know the city of Sodom was marked for destruction – it had no future. It would not be a continuing city and it was time to get out of the city. Lot had lived there for a certain time, but he could live there no longer.

It is very similar to what happened to the corporate church. For a time, God’s people were to be found in the congregations while the Spirit of God was in the midst of the churches. But when we reached the time of the end, the churches were given over to Satan for their destruction. And the Lord opened up His Word to reveal that it was time for all the true elect children of God to come out of the churches. We could no longer stay behind.

Again, the people of God realized, “It was nice while it lasted. It was good to have an outward representation of God’s kingdom on earth.” We realized that it was just an outward representation; it was not the actual kingdom of God, but it pointed to the kingdom of God. And since we had been saved and given a new heart and blessed with citizenship in “Jerusalem above,” the kingdom of God, we were able to look at this in an objective way and we said, “Let us see if the Bible is really teaching this.” God’s people turned to the Bible and we discovered that the Bible is teaching these things. God had stored up this information until the time of the end. Now that we are in the time of the end of the world, He has opened up the Scriptures to the understanding of His people and we realized the judgment of God had begun upon the corporate church and there was a necessity to come out of the churches and congregations.

You see, God’s people could objectively reason that way and listen to the Word of God, the Bible, to see what it was teaching because we had the safety and security of knowing that we had an eternal citizenship in the eternal kingdom of heaven. And we could never lose that citizenship. We could lose citizenship with an earthly organization that represented that heavenly kingdom, but even though that was sorrowful, it was not such a big deal to us because we could not lose that eternal citizenship in the glorious kingdom of God. So, we really had not lost anything. That was the response of the true elect children of God.

On the other hand, for those that were tares and unsaved in their souls (even though they called themselves Christians), their connection to the kingdom of God was completely tied to the outward representation of the kingdom of God, the corporate churches. To them, leaving the churches was a daunting thing and it was too big a thing to ask of them. They could not leave the corporate church because that is where their security and assurance resided: it came from their pastor and the denomination; their adherence to the creeds and confessions; their church membership in good standing; their partaking of the Lord’s Table under the supervision of the church authority, and so forth. It was all based in the outward, earthly church on their local street corner. Therefore, they dared not give up their membership and all those things because they had no real connection to the eternal, heavenly kingdom of God. So, they rejected the idea (of the end of the church age) out of hand. They said, “Leaving the church has to be of Satan.” To them, leaving an earthly church was akin to losing salvation, because, in truth, their salvation was wrapped up in the corporate church. It had been put forth by the churches and the churches set the guidelines, like believing certain things and doing certain things, like being baptized and partaking of the Lord’s Table and attending regularly. If they did these things, they were told (and believed) they were saved. Their salvation was associated with the corporate church itself.

By contrast, the salvation of the elect child of God is not based upon what a church told us or by following the dictates of the pastor or priest. Our salvation was based on the Word of God. It was based on the faith of the Lord Jesus Christ and not our own faith. It was totally God’s doing and it was not something we felt the church was instrumental in accomplishing in any way. So, the elect of God were in a position to be much more open and objective to the whole idea of whether, or not, the church age was over and whether, or not, we must come out of the churches. We were willing to see what the Bible said about it, whereas the masses of professed Christians that populated the world’s congregations had “too much at stake.” Everything was at stake – it was as if their salvation was at risk and, therefore, they just would not hear it. They shut their ears and refused to hearken. They would not obey. It is in disobedience that one’s true spiritual condition reveals itself. When we look at the world, that is the reason we say it is an “unsaved world,” because they are in active disobedience to the commandments of God and they want nothing to do with God. That indicates they are not saved. It is the same thing for those that simply profess they are Christians when God puts them to the test. It was a test for everyone in the churches. God was saying, “The test is this: Who will you listen to? Will you listen to my Word as I reveal my will in the Bible? Or, are you going to listen to the church traditions or the church authority?” It was a test of obedience. Who would they obey?

It was very similar to the Garden of Eden, when God said of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, “Ye shalt not eat of it.” Satan came along and said, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” When Adam and Eve disobeyed God and obeyed Satan, they chose whom they would serve – they served sin and Satan. And all mankind has been making that same choice to serve sin and Satan, unless God had mercy upon them and saved them.

Again, we read in verse 16 that God (in the form of two men) grabbed hold of Lot’s hand, the hand of his wife and the hand of his two daughters, and then it said, “JEHOVAH being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.” It was a merciful act to bring Lot and his family out of that city which would soon be destroyed with fire and brimstone from heaven.

Everyone that remained, without exception, would die, including men, women and children. No one would survive God’s raining down of fire and brimstone. Everyone would die. God delivered Lot and some of his family. He delivered them from that destruction. He saved them from it. That is why we read: “JEHOVAH being merciful unto him.”

And God was merciful to us and we should not forget it. We should not forget that it was all according to the mercy of God that He brought us out of the churches and then sealed the fate of all those that remained in the churches and congregations. We should not forget, even though it has been several years since judgment on the churches was completed and the transition was made to judgment upon the entire world. Keep this in mind the next time you feel lonely or the next time you miss some of the church activities you used to partake in. You know, the churches do have some nice social gatherings, especially in the spring and the summer. There were a lot of people around us; and we can look back and think, “Since I came out of the churches, I have not had that kind of Christian companionship and fellowship, and I miss it.” We can kind of look back in our mind’s eye and then say, “Would it not be nice to have that again?” But just remember that even though you may be in a place where you feel uncomfortable and you do not have the fellowship and companionship you thought you had in the churches, you are outside the churches because God was merciful to you and, perhaps, merciful to your family and you would be despising that mercy if you were to return.

As a matter of fact, it would be similar to the Israelites that came out of Egypt. God also uses Egypt as a figure of the corporate church in Revelation 11, a corporate church that had been given up and returned to bondage. God has done what was prophesied in Deuteronomy 28 and He has returned Israel again into Egypt with “ships,” and the ships point to the corporate church. So, when Israel came out of Egypt and wandered in the wilderness for forty years, they were murmuring and complaining. They complained that even though they had been slaves in Egypt, at least they were not wandering in a wilderness under the hot sun, not knowing from where their next meal was coming. However, they really did know. There was manna from heaven every day. Manna, manna and manna, every single day. And when they got thirsty, God provided water from a rock.

You know, natural-minded people like “solid” physical things: “My food is coming from here, my drink is coming from over there, and I can see the animals and the crops.” They like physical security because they are part of the world, so it was the most uncomfortable thing imaginable that they had to wait upon God for their daily bread. Literally, they had to wait each day for “bread from heaven” before they could eat. So, they soon looked back upon Egypt and they began to “blow it out of proportion.” They were blowing it up.

It is the tendency of man to look back at what is ugly and despicable (like our sins) and to remember it with fond memories: “Oh, was that not a good time? Was that not wonderful when we had that experience?” Of course, it was all wrong and done in corruption. The Jews looked back upon Egypt and what they remembered were just (inconsequential) things like “the cucumbers, the melons and the leeks,” but they had been slaves. Then they said, “Would it not be good to go back to Egypt?” They thought this way because they forgot their great deliverance. God had delivered them out of bondage. God had tremendous mercy upon them when He set them free, but after only a few days they forgot. They forgot all about that. They did not even care about that. All they could see was the discomfort of the hot sun beating down upon them and worrying about where their next meal would come from.

So, you see, it is important that we remember and not forget. Those that forget about God’s deliverance and mercy toward us (in allowing us to escape the churches and congregations) have forgotten the blessing of God. If they forget that, then we soon hear another report of an individual that has gone back to the churches. We can be sure that those that have gone back to the churches have forgotten the mercy of God in bringing them out and allowing them to hear and follow the command to leave the church and to go out into the world to a place where the Latter Rain was falling for a time and where there could be blessing in that way, but it was also the place where God would have them to be.

In commanding all the elect to come out of the churches, God brought us “without the camp.” It says in Genesis 19 that they brought Lot forth and set him “without the city.” It refers to “city” here, but the same word “without” is used in Exodus 29:14:

But the flesh of the bullock, and his skin, and his dung, shalt thou burn with fire without the camp: it is a sin offering.

The term “without the camp” is commonly found in the Old Testament regarding sacrifices. Here, it was the bullock that was to be burned with fire “without the camp.” It reminds us of what we read in Hebrews 13:11-13:

For the bodies of those beasts, whose blood is brought into the sanctuary by the high priest for sin, are burned without the camp. Wherefore Jesus also, that he might sanctify the people with his own blood, suffered without the gate. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

We are to follow the example of the Lord Jesus Christ who went forth and suffered “without the gate.” When Jesus went “without the gate,” what did He do? He went forth to demonstrate His sacrifice. All the sacrificial animals that were burnt “without the camp” were all a demonstration of Christ’s sacrifice. It was all part of sacrifice and judgment. So, God is instructing us to follow Christ’s example: “Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.” When was this commandment to be obeyed? What does the “camp” refer to? Look at Revelation, chapter 20. After Satan was loosed and Gog and Magog were gathered to battle, it says in Revelation 20:9:

And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.

The “camp of the saints” is synonymous with the beloved city. And Lot was being brought “without the city.” The New Testament churches are likened to earthly Jerusalem and it is likened to a “camp,” the “camp of the saints.” Again, it says in Hebrews 13:13:

Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach.

Lord willing, when we get together in our next Bible study we will consider how God loosed Satan to come against the camp of the saints. And then we read that interesting command in Hebrews 13 for us to “go forth without the camp, bearing his reproach.” We will look at this statement and how it ties in to Genesis 19:16.