About the Author

Thomas Ray Floyd was born in 1953 in Simpson County, Mississippi, the son of Roy Thomas Floyd and Lina Sue Shows Floyd. Thomas Ray's mother was a member of a Primitive Baptist church, and he cut his teeth on the doctrines of distinguishing grace.

When he was a small boy, his father was converted to Christ and became a member of a Missionary Baptist Church. Thomas Ray joined the church of his father when he was 13 years old, and thought of himself as a Christian. The doctrines of grace that he had heard as a child continued to be precious to him and when he became an adult, he joined a Primitive Baptist Church. When he was 27, Thomas Ray made his first effort to preach the gospel in public and was ordained to the full functions of the ministry in 1985. In 1986 he was convinced under the preaching of Rolfe Barnard (by tapes from Mt. Olive Tape Library), the written sermons of Spurgeon, and the ministry of Elder Zack Guess that he had been a false professor and cried out in agony of soul to the Lord Jesus Christ to have mercy and truly save him. And He did! Floyd then began to preach the gospel as he had been taught of the Lord.

Floyd has pastored churches in Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee and until recently was pastor of a church plant known as "Particular Baptist Fellowship." He and his wife Brenda presently attend Zion Baptist Church at Polkville, Mississippi, pastored by Elder Glen Hopkins. The pulpit ministry of Zion Baptist Church can be heard at Sermonaudio.com.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

The Righteous Vexed by the Ungodly


(Article for publication week of 4-3- AD 2013)

“… And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) “ (II Peter 2:7-8).

God’s people are in the world, but they are not of the world. Therefore, as righteous Lot, we are disturbed and tormented by the evil lifestyle of the people of the world. It is good evidence that we are genuinely saved if we are, like Lot, vexed day by day with the filth and degradation all around us. Be sure, it is no virtue to sympathise with evildoers. Romans 12:9 commands us to “abhor evil.” God Himself hates the wicked (Psalm 11:5). Charles Spurgeon once commented, “Sympathy with sin is conspiracy with crime.”

Lot lived in a degraded and debauched culture similar to the one in which we live here in modern day America. The region of the twin cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were given over to the same perversions that are now being openly practiced and embraced and promoted in our own nation. Those degraded people were so notorious for their filthy perversions, that these filthy sins are properly known as “sodomy”. You may be sure that God did not consider the perverts of Sodom and Gomorrah to be “gay.” He despised them so much He killed the whole caboodle of them and sent them straight to hell. (I encourage you to go read the larger passage in II Peter 2:4-10 if you don’t believe me.)

As Lot was vexed day by day by the ungodliness of the wicked sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah, so we who are righteous in America are vexed day by day with the filth all around us. It is sickening to even listen to the news reports of the goings on in the Supreme Court and the State capitols, and so forth. You can be sure, God does not consider perversion to be debatable. He has already pronounced eternal judgment on it. The filthy sinners of Sodom and Gomorrah have been in hell now for four thousand years and they won’t ever get out. And the wicked perverts parading around today in America won’t escape either. Nor, will any who take their side in any fashion.

Lot was the only righteous man in the whole twin metropolis of Sodom and Gomorrah, and the righteous in America are also are a very small minority (the Lord knoweth them that are His). As God delivered just Lot (that is he was justified by the saving grace of God in Christ), so He will deliver the righteous (those saved the same way Lot was) in every generation. The larger passage in II Peter 2 is a warning to the ungodly to repent for the judgment of God is coming, and also a consolation to the righteous who have to live in this ungodly world. God is going to set all things right in His Own way and in His Own good time. God will preserve His people in this low ground of sin and sorrow and at last make us inhabitants of the New Heavens and the New Earth “wherein dwelleth righteousness” (II Peter 3:13). God has reserved the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished, but He knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations as He did righteous Lot.

Our message this week is a two edged sword. There is a warning to the ungodly to repent before it is everlastingly too late, and an encouragement to the Lord’s people to trust in God in this dark day in which we live. Dear child of God, I know you are like Lot vexed day by day with the perversion and filth all around us. That is a good sign that you really are saved. Take heart and do not despair, for our God will preserve you and at last destroy the ungodly. May the Lord bless His little flock.

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