Luke chapter 17. The Gospel of
St. Luke chapter 17. I want to begin
reading with verse 26 and read down through verse 37. in the days of the Son of Man.
They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given
in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and
the flood came and destroyed them all, likewise also as it
was in the days of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they
bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day
that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from
heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the
day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he which shall be
upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come
down to take it away, and he that is in the field, let him
likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save
his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve
it. I tell you, in that night there
shall be two men in one bed, the one shall be taken, and the
other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together,
the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be
in the field, the one shall be taken, and the other left. And they answered and said unto
him, Where, Lord? And he said unto them, whethersoever
the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together."
So I've read to you this morning a portion of Luke chapter 17
and my text this morning primarily is verse 32 where it says, Remember
Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. Now I believe this is a very
solemn portion of scripture that we have before us today, and
I believe it deals with the subject of the second advent of our Lord
Jesus Christ. We believe in the coming of the
Lord Jesus. This is our hope. We believe
that he's coming back. The scripture says that our citizenship
is not in this world, but our citizenship is in heaven. And
from whence we look for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, who
will change our vile bodies and fashion them according to his
own body and he'll do this according to the power whereby he is able
to subdue all things unto himself. Our God is a sovereign God and
the Lord Jesus will come back in sovereignty and power and
he will separate the sheep from the goats and there will be a
time, a very solemn time on earth when the Lord gathers his own
unto himself. But we must take seriously our
relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ. Are we truly in Christ? Are we truly God's children? Do we have the marks of grace
upon our hearts? Are we truly in the way of the
Lord? Do we understand the gospel?
Do we understand what it means to belong to the Lord Jesus Christ? Do we understand the wickedness
of this world? and the terrible, terrible danger
that we're in if we have made a false profession, if we're
not serious. about our relationship with the
Lord, do we understand the danger that we're in? Well, certainly
this scripture talks a great deal about the danger that we're
in, and it speaks to us as if we need to be alert, and need
to be ready, and that we need to be able to make a quick move
toward the things of God, and be serious about our walk with
the Lord in this world. Now this woman, she was Lot's
wife, I call her a nameless sinner in a half-forgotten age because
we don't know her name, we don't have her name. Now this text
of scripture says, remember Lot's wife. Now, the text does not
say that we're to remember Lot, although we might probably do
so. Our brother read to us 2 Peter
2, and in verse 7 and 8 of that chapter, it talks about Lot and
how that he was a just man, a righteous man, and how his soul was vexed
with the filthy conversation of the wicked when he was down
in Sodom and Gomorrah. There's a great warning in the
history, I believe, of Lot himself. If professing Christian men are
so wise, so unwise, might I say, as to conform themselves to the
world, and even if they keep up, as it were, the outward character
of a Christian in a measure, they're going to gain nothing
by worldly association, but being vexed with the filthy conversation
of the ungodliest lot was, they will be great losers in their
own soul. What I'm saying is that if you're
like Lot, who was inconsiderate of many of the things that he
ought to have been considerate of, you may live in this world
and you may somewhat keep up a major testimony to those around
you, but if you're too much involved in this world, you're going to
be the loser by it. Your life, my friend, will not
count, and certainly you're going to miss many of the blessings
of the Lord in this life. There are some warnings that
are pointed out by Lot's failures in the scripture. I want to mention
three of them without dwelling upon them at any length. First
of all, his choice of residence, where Lot chose to live. Surely
this is a needed lesson, and it's written large across the
story of Lot's life. He preferred the well-watered
plains above Abraham's fellowship and Abraham's altar, because
those well-watered plains looked like the garden of God unto Lot. He was a carnal man, a fleshly-minded
man, even though he was righteous as far as his position before
God, his state. was certainly it lacked something
and we're pointing those things out. Now he regarded temporal
advantages only. He looked to that which was temporal
and he wanted the advantage in a temporal way. And he had no
regard for his or his family's spiritual welfare. And what a
lesson we need to learn from that. How many professors of
religion are there now who, when looking for a place to live and
work, follow his sinful example? Is there an altar of God where
you live? Is there somewhere close by where
you can fellowship with the Lord's people? Is there somewhere close
by where you can feed on the Gospel, where you can listen
to the Word of God and hear the Gospel of Christ presented? Is there someplace near where
you can have some fellowship, Christian fellowship, with sound
believers? Well, the Bible says, Seek ye
first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness, And all these
things will be added unto you, Matthew 6 and 33. So we're to
seek the Lord's righteousness and His kingdom first in our
life, and certainly the Lord will provide for us, and He will
take care of our needs. Maybe not all your wants, but
He certainly will take care of all your needs. You need to be
concerned about your spirituality and the spiritual life of your
family. Second then, his decision, we
find here that his yielding to the spirit of worldliness was
certainly a fault in his life. And his yielding to the spirit
of worldliness. Now beloved, there is a spirit
in this world which is not of God. There is a spirit in this
world which tends toward making us worldly minded. Even though
we may be in Christ, and that we may have in our hearts the
desire to do what we ought to, nevertheless there is a spirit
that would draw us away. There is a blanket that would
be cast over us as it was, a blanket of coldness and lukewarmness
that would make us yield to the mind of the world. And Locke
seems to be a type of that class of Christian who aims to make
the best of both worlds. He wants to dabble in the world,
he wants what the good things of the world, and then he really
would like also to have a little bit, you know, a fellowship maybe
on the side, as one would call it, with the Lord. But he doesn't
want to really be occupied with God and the things of God and
let those things rule his life. The things of earth, my friend,
will move in to your life and you will be filled with these
ideas that the world has. They rub off on us real easy
and we nevertheless, as we go along, we may try to hold, as
it were, to the hounds and run with the hare. We have this tendency
to get too much involved in the things of this world. And Lot
was a man who sowed to the flesh. Mike read these verses out of
Galatians 6 this morning. Well, Lot was a man who sowed
to the flesh, and of the flesh he reaped corruption. He did
indeed follow his life right out to the end. And you'll see
that that was the case. He sought temporal prosperity,
but in the end he lost even his worldly possessions. My friend,
you best trust the providence of God. You best walk in the
light of the Word of God. You best give up yourself and
the rule of your life unto King Jesus and submit yourself to
Him. And in the end, you'll come out
exactly where you ought to be. You can trust God, my friend.
You can trust God to lead you right. His life on earth was
a wretched failure. The life of Lot was a wretched
failure made up entirely, I believe, according to what Paul mentions
in Corinthians, of wood, hay, and stubble. What is your life
made up of? Is there any jewels, precious
stones in your life? Have you lived so unto God that
your life would be that which it ought to be in this world
and that it would portray your Lord to those around you as it
ought to, I say, His life, was a wretched failure. And now there
was no witnessing for God in his life, no blessing of God
upon his family. Why would a man live so that
there would be no blessing of God upon his family? Are you
not concerned? Are you not concerned about your
family? Do you not want God? Listen, I want God to bless me.
And if I want God to bless me, how can I be so selfish that
I wouldn't want God to bless those around me? I would like
that God would bless my family. He has, and I believe that He's
blessed some of your families, and I believe we must recognize
that and call down and pray and stay where we ought to be that
the blessings of God would fall indeed upon our families. Lot
is a concrete warning. He is a danger signal for all
Christians who feel a tendency to be carried away by the things
of the world, by the things of time, by the thing of carnal
sense. And then thirdly, let's say just
a word or two about his miserable end. Wretched indeed must have
been the closing days of Lot's life. Wretched indeed, I say. Here he was cowering in a cave,
stripped of all of his earthly possessions, his son-in-laws
destroyed back yonder in Sodom, having been killed as the Lord
rained fire and brimstone out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
and his wife, she was turned into a pillar of salt, and he
left face to face with the fruit of his own awful sin. Well, my friend, this was his
end. Even though the Bible says he
was a godly man, he was a righteous man, he was a righteous man,
and I say that he was righteous from the standpoint of his position
before God, as you and I are in Christ, in the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was righteous for that reason
that the Lord had made atonement for his sin, and the Lord had
put away his sin, but his life was an awful example of what
a believer ought to be. And this is what I'm talking
about today. Well let's get on to the text. Here he does not
bid us to remember as we said Lot or Abraham or Isaac or Jacob
or Sarah or Ruth. No one but remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. And remember
here this morning that he's speaking to his disciples, not to the
Pharisees or the Sadducees. He's talking to his disciples
and he speaks as if we were all in danger of forgetting the subject
here and that is Lot's wife and the second coming of the Lord
Jesus Christ and our condition as we live out our days in this
world. He stirs up our lazy memories
as it was. He bids us keep the case before
our minds. And as we begin the year 2002,
I wanted to bring this before you this morning to stir up your
minds that you might be able to think upon your condition
and where you stand. Now note the lessons which his
wife is meant to teach us. The last days are here. They're
coming. Since the advent of our Lord
Jesus Christ back to glory, we've been living in the last days.
And so we are definitely in the last days. Now, tribulation and
the second coming of Christ are near. Judgment is right down
the road. Do you believe in the coming
judgment of God upon this world? I believe this world is under
the judgment of God, and I believe that God in His time will bring
judgment to bear upon this world. Now the emphasis on materialism
is at an all-time high. and seems to be increasing daily.
And the professed people of God seem to be friends of the world,
and we must remember Lot's wife. It's time to remember Lot's wife. Listen to me. The protest that
God demands of believers living in this world is that we keep
ourselves unspotted from the world that we keep ourselves
separate from the world. He said, come out and be a separate,
say of the Lord. This is what the Lord said. You
come out and be separate from the world. God's people need
to distinguish themselves as who they are and whom they belong
and come out from the world and to be separate from the world.
Now, beloved, let me say that the love of the world is death.
It is death for a man to be so in love with the world that he
lives his life for it. John 2 and 15 says, Love not
the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if
any man love the world, he is of the world. The lust of
the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life are not
of the Father, but is of the world. But they that will do the will
of God shall abide forever. So to love the world, my friend,
is not in a man who loves this present
world as Demas loved it. Those who have sinned must perish,
be they who they may. We're talking about the wife
of a man who was positionally righteous before God. Whoever
is willing to sin and if your heart is full of the world, whoever
you are. We're to hold the world with
a loose hand and we're to be ready to leave it. loosen their grip on the things
of the world. And day by day, the older we
get... By the way, Chris Garamond is
50 today. The older we get, my friend,
listen to me, the older we get we must be loosening, loosening,
loosening our grip upon this old vain and sinful and wicked
world and must be getting closer and closer in our minds to be
able to lay it all down and to leave this world. We should be
called upon to leave it and we must be ready To relax our grip,
we must be relaxing our grip day by day. We're encumbered
in our day with a host of people who call themselves Christians,
but are as much of the world as the other people who are living
in this world, whose inheritance, whose pleasure is in this world. whose speech is worldly and who
are altogether of the world. There's many, many people that
are in churches today just like that. And because they are of
the world, the world loves its own. Therefore, there is little
or no strife between them and the world. Now, if you live like
the world, then you will not have any trouble from the world.
If you just say, well, I'll just coast through this thing, and
I'll just turn a deaf ear to what's being said, but at the
same time, I'll just go along. And sometimes we get trapped
in various situations where we need to make a show of where
we stand and what we believe. And certainly there are many
who just decide that they're not going to say nothing, they're
not going to do nothing, they're not going to make any fuss as
they go through this world about all the sin there is around them
and the wickedness that's around them. Now the church is so worldly
and the world is so churchy, we cannot tell where one ends
and the other begins now. We just cannot tell. We don't
know where one ends and where the other begins. Separation
from the world is the only way of escape. We must flee from
the world or we shall perish with it. What did Peter say to
those that he was preaching to in the book of Acts? He said,
save yourselves from this untoward generation. Well, there are three
things. I just kind of opened up the
text to you. There are three things I want
us to look at. Number one, concerning Lot's wife. One, her privileges. Number two, her sin. And number
three, her punishments. May God give you an ear to hear
what we're saying. Notice first of all the privileges
which Lot's wife enjoyed. Now here she is. As we said,
we don't know her name. We don't know anything about
her background. We just know that she married this man Lot.
and we know something about what happened to her. But these are
her privileges. In the days of Abraham and Lot,
true saving religion was very scarce in the earth. No Bibles,
no preachers, no churches, no missionaries. The knowledge of
God was confined to a few favored families upon earth. The greater
part of the inhabitants of the world were living in darkness,
were living in ignorance, and superstition and sin. Not one in a hundred had such
a good example, such spiritual society, such clear knowledge,
such plain warnings as Locke's wife had. She was a favored woman. She had a husband who was, as
we said, was a righteous man. Wouldn't have known it if Peter
had not told us, but he told us. She had Abraham, the father
of the faithful, for her uncle by marriage. She had their example
from Abraham. All of God's dealings with this
man and God's dealings with Abraham were tremendous. And she had
the privilege of being able to look upon and see a godly family
and to see them in hope. of the Lord's outworking of His
purpose. She had this example before her,
and there was one time when Lot and her had been taken captive. Abraham had 318 trained servants,
and they went and recovered and rescued Lot and his wife. Surely she was not blind to what
was going on around her. Then the angels came to Sodom
and Gomorrah the night before God destroyed it. Now this is
no small privilege to have the very angels of God to come right
down to your house and come into your house and to spare you like,
well they spared Lot and they spared his household. by striking
those who were at the door, those homosexuals that was at the door,
striking them with blindness and as it were confusing them
to where they were not able to work their sin and malice like
they wanted to. This was no, I say it was no,
it was no little privilege. And these angels came not just
to have a little conversation, They came to personally lead
Lot and his daughters and his wife and his son-in-laws out
of the city. The angels came to spare them. And this is no little privilege.
Learn this. Learn this, if you will. That
the mere possession of religious privileges will save no one's
soul. You can have all the religious
privileges in the world, it'll save It'll save no one's soul. You may hear the best preaching.
You may dwell in the midst of light and knowledge and holiness
and good company and remain unconverted and at last be lost forever. Go off to a devil's hell, be
lost forever. You remember Joab was David's
captain and Gehaziah was Elisha's servant. Demas was Paul's companion. We mentioned him a moment ago.
Judas Iscariot was Christ's disciple. And Lot had a worldly, unbelieving
wife. These all died in their sins
in spite of their opportunities. Every one of them. Think about
those who travel in the way as we just mentioned them. They
traveled in the way, and they had all of the influence, the
godly influence, and the opportunities that would come with a man like
Joab following in David's footsteps, being his captain of his army,
and Gehazi. was Elijah's servant, saw the
lame and the leper healed, and yet he took advantage of the
situation. And Demas loved this present world. He was a companion
of the greatest apostle that ever lived on the face of the
earth, the apostle Paul. And then Judas Iscariot, who
listened to our Lord preach, and who was around him when he
did good, and performed miracles, and it did nothing for him. It
did nothing whatever for him. These all died of their sins
and went to their own place in spite of every opportunity they
had. So value religious privileges,
but don't trust them. Don't trust them. Men and women
sit back on their blessed assurance and say, well, I'm a member of
the church. I'm a member of the church. My
friend, don't trust it. Don't trust it. Children of godly
parents, No better than Lot's wife. No better than Lot's wife. You say, I got some religion.
God help us. If we have any religion except
Jesus Christ, any at all, if you have any religion except
Christ, then my friend, it'll damn your soul. Well, tithes
of blood are no guarantees of grace. My mother is a godly woman. But
ties of blood are no guarantees of the grace of God. No earthly
relationship can possibly help us if we're personally destitute
of spiritual life. My friend, we must be born again. We must be regenerated by the
Divine Spirit. We must be born from Heaven. You may have the life of God.
Listen, you must have the life of God in you. A man can receive
nothing except to be given to him from heaven, and he's got
to get what it is that saves the soul from heaven. He's got
to get it from God. Life must come down into your
soul from the Lord. Remember that nothing so hardens
a man or a woman in this world as a barren familiarity with
sacred things. And there are many, many people
that live around them. You're always around somebody
that is reading the Bible, and you're always listening to the
scripture, or to the radio, or to the tape player, or something. But a barren familiarity with
sacred things will harden your soul. If God, listen, if you're
not serious about what you hear, don't trifle with your soul. Don't play around and listen
to this and listen to that and become very familiar. There are
many, many people who are familiar with the name of Jesus. And they
just simply, you know, He's just an ordinary man to them. Why,
His name is a household name. But my friend, He's more than
that. He is the God-man. He's the Savior. And He's the one that's coming
again. And He's the one that's going to separate men, His people,
from those that are the wicked and the lost. He's going to separate
them. And the day is coming when you
must face Him. Second notice, if you will, the
first thing we talked about was her opportunities and her privileges. Now notice the sin which Lot's
wife committed. The sum and substance of her
sin lies in these three words. She looked back. That's what
she did. She looked back. When the angels
were leading her and her husband and her two daughters out of
Sodom and Gomorrah, the angels said, I'm going to get you out
of here. Rise up. Come on. Lot was lingering. They
took him by the hand and let him out. And listen, does this
seem like a small thing to some of you? You may say, well, that's
just a small thing. She looked back. Well, I mean,
how could that be so serious? Well, I think there was far more
in that look that strikes the eye at the first glance. A whole
lot more in it than that. It implied far more than it expressed. No, little symptoms are often
the signs of a deadly and incurable disease. Little symptoms, I say,
are often the signs of a deadly disease. And the apple that Eve
ate was just a little thing. But my soul, what did it lead
to? What happened? She just ate an
apple. Well, the death of every son
of Adam, every son of Adam, every son of Adam, tasted spiritual
death that caused Eve to picked this apple and gave it to her
husband and he didn't eat. All the sorrow, grief, misery,
sickness, death in this world was caused by that one sin. Now you just face that. You say,
that's just a little thing. It may be a little thing, but
my friend, you can see what were the ripples that just kept on
going and kept on going. And if you had the ability to
see it and an eye to see it, you'd see that every sin you
ever committed had ripples and ripples, and ripples, and ripples,
and ripples, until it would fill the sea of the earth. It would. My friend, sin is a terrible,
terrible thing. Now a straw may show which way
the wind blows, and one look may show the rotten condition
of a sinner's heart. One look can show the rotten
condition of a sinner's heart. It reveals a true character.
of Lot's wife. The world was in her heart, and
her heart was in the world. Do you believe that? I believe
that is exactly what the problem was. It told of her secret love
of the world. Her heart was in Sodom, though
her body was outside Sodom at this time. She had left her affections
behind when she fled her home. Her eye turned to the place where
her treasure was as the compass needle turns to the pole. So
her heart turned right back. Where your treasure is, there
will your heart be also, the Lord Jesus said. Your heart's
in the world, your treasure's back there, all you have is there,
that's where your heart is going to turn. Next, I believe it told
of disobedience. It spoke of disobedience. The
command was straight and it was unmistakable from the angels
of God. The angels of God said, look
not behind thee. Now, that's what the angels said. Look not behind thee. You know, somebody said, well,
I don't like this precise God business. I don't like to have
to deal with a God that is so precise. My friend, Like it or
not, the God of the Bible is absolutely precise. You must
listen to what He says, and you need to believe what He says. Look not behind thee. To obey is better than sacrifice.
Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. When God speaks plainly by His
Word, our duty is clear. Our duty is clear. Now, no need
to ask the preacher. Somebody said, well, I know what
the Bible says, but I'm going to ask our preacher. Well, you
go ahead and ask your preacher if you want to. Well, somebody
says, well, I know, but I never heard that before, so I'm going
to ask mom and papa whether that's true or not. Well, and the church,
I'm going to go to the church and have them to vote on this
and see if that's, to see whether or not, well, you know, I want
to know, but nevertheless, my friend, if God says it, the duty
is clear. the duty is clear. If God says
it plainly, lays it out in the word of God, if he says that
unmistakably, look not behind thee, you better not turn around
and you better not look. You better keep your eye straight
ahead of you. Keep it straight ahead of you.
Now then, and then it told I think also not only of her, not only
of her rebellion and disobedience But it told of her unbelief.
Her unbelief. She seemed to doubt whether God
was really going to destroy Sodom or not. She seemed to doubt it. No danger. Why all this haste? Why all this fuss? Why God? He's not going to do anything
in a hurry. God is never in a hurry. He's
not going to do anything in a hurry. What's the hurry there a lot?
What's the hurry? You're walking awful fast. What
are you in such a hurry for? Speaking to the angels of God.
Listen. Listen to me, my friend, and
you may say, well, you're like those scoffers in 2 Peter. You
just say, well, the world's continued just like it was. What's all
this talk about the Lord coming? What's all this talk about the
Lord going to come and separate people? And families are going
to be dissolved, and there's going to be a time of parting,
eternal parting. We know about families parting,
and we know about families separating, but you haven't seen nothing
yet. You've not seen anything yet until the Lord comes. And
when He comes, that's going to be an eternal separation, a time
when God separates. I mean the husband from the wife,
the wife and the husband, the children from the parents. God
will separate them and he will take them unto himself, those
that are his. But now, what's all the fuss here? Why are we
in such a hurry? My friend, this is serious business.
You get right with God or you will perish. You get right with
God, you love the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, Orinathe
be unto you. The judgment of God be upon you.
When He comes, you must look to the Word of God and believe
it. Unbelief. We must get rid of our unbelief. No danger. No danger. We haven't seen anything change.
No, we haven't seen anything change. But God says He's a point
of the day in which He's going to judge the world in righteousness
by that man whom He hath ordained whereby He hath given assurance
unto all men in that He raised Him from the dead. The Judge
has been raised from the dead and He's ready to judge. He's
ready to judge. Now, the moment a man begins
to think he knows better than God, and that God does not mean
anything when He threatens, that man's soul is in great danger. Well, did the Lord mean what
He said? Did He mean what He said? I'm
going to destroy this city. I'm going to destroy the cities
of the plain. He said, I'll let you go to Zor.
I'll spare that city, that little city of Zor. But he said, this
city of Sodom and Gomorrah, he said, I'm going to bring judgment
on this city and I'm going to make them an example to all that
will afterward live ungodly lives. I'll make them examples. And
so he piled them up in a pile and he burned them. He burned
them. He sent fire down from heaven and he consumed them all. I mean, he finished the job. He destroyed them because God
had threatened to do so. Now then, believe it or not,
believe it or not, when God says something, my friend, that's
the way it is. If God threatens, you better
listen. You better listen. If God says
two men shall be in one bed, one shall be taken, the other
left, you better believe that. That's going to happen. Two women
shall be grinding together, one's going to be taken, the other
left. Two men shall be in the field, one taken, the other lit.
You better believe it. Well, the disciples said, Where,
Lord? Where are you going to take them? And he said, Whether
soever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together. And I think what he simply means
here, and there's been a lot of confusion as to what the Lord
meant when he said this, and maybe as somebody said, the disciples
were ignorant of what he said. They asked the question, Where,
Lord? Where? Where are you taking these people?
Where are you taking them? Well, Bishop Ryle, he made this
suggestion. He said the Lord's meaning is
that wherever his body or his professing church is, wherever
his people are at that time of separation, there the angels
shall gather together at the last day and sever the wicked
from the just in order to give each one his appointed place.
This is that time when the Lord comes among his people by the
angels and separates them and takes the elect to be with him,
home to be with him. Now I want you to note something
here, that this woman was no murderess, She was no adulteress,
as far as we know, she was no thief, but she was a professor
of religion, I suppose, and she looked back. She was a professor
of religion, she looked back. Well, my question to you this
morning would be, you a professor of religion, are you? Do you
profess to believe? Do you profess to have some understanding,
some knowledge of the things of God? What would it take to
get you to look back? What would it take to get you
to go back to the world? I know some who went back. I've
known some who just quit and went back. There were those in
Jesus' day that went back because they couldn't take his hard doctrine
on the doctrine of election. They couldn't take the doctrine
of sovereign grace. They couldn't take it, so they
went back. What would it take to get you
to go back? There's been people go back because they felt like
their family was a little bit mistreated in the church. There
are people that feel like, you know, just leaving because of
this happening or that happening. Some little trifling thing that
don't amount to a hill of beans. But what would it take to get
you to go back? Well, every professor of religion
will have his day outside of the city of Zohar to prove him
You're going to have things cross your path to prove whether or
not you're a true possessor of salvation, a true professor,
if you're a true professor or whether you're not. You're going
to have your day. The day's coming. The time's
coming. Circumstances will be right on
you. And you must then decide whether you're going to save
your life or whether you're going to lose it for the glory of God. Beware, my friend, of half-hearted
religion. Beware of supposing that you
can ever get to the place where that you're so heavenly minded
you know earthly good. Beware of that kind of thinking.
Beware of secretly trying to keep in with the world and with
those who you know are not serious about the things of God. If you
can, I say to you and I've told you people over and over again,
if you can, if you can, you will go back. You will. You'll go back. But a true believer
in the Lord Jesus Christ, we're not of those who draw back, but
of those who believe to the salvation of our souls. And we press on,
and we press on, and we press on. We must go on. They that
persevere to the end shall be saved. If you can, you will go
back. Now thirdly, note the punishment.
which God inflicted on Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. That's what we're doing this
morning. We're remembering his wife. She looked back and became
a pillar of salt. She looked back, she became a
pillar of salt. We're not talking about table
salt. We're talking about metallic salt. And the Jews, they built
houses out of metallic salt. And she was turned in to metallic
salt. We have here a miracle of judgment.
That's what we have. A miracle of judgment. Well,
God can work any kind of miracle he wants to, can't he? And here's
a miracle of judgment. The same hand that gave her life
took her life in the twinkling of an eye. Just like that. God
took her life. From living flesh and blood to
a pillar of salt instantaneously. Just like that. Now, here she
was, outside the city of Sodom and Gomorrah, on their way to
Zohar, on their way to safety, On the verge of mercy slain by
divine justice. There you are. You say, I attend
a church where the gospel is preached. Well, that's wonderful. On the verge of mercy are you?
On the verge of mercy. The Lord Jesus. We attend a church
where they say Jesus is there in the midst. Where two or three
are gathered together, there am I in the midst. On the verge
of mercy are you? But Jesus, I do believe, comes
in here. I do believe He walks these aisles. I do believe He
does. But there's some of you that wouldn't have Him in your
life. You would not have Him in your life, and there's no
room in your heart. Your heart's full of sin in the
world, and you wouldn't have Him in your life. He comes in
here. He walks down and through and back and forth all over this
building. He's in the midst of us, but
you won't have Him. you will have on the verge of
mercy on the verge of mercy he's right here he's right here right
here the Savior I'm talking about the Son of God he's right here
in our midst here we are on the verge of mercy would you cry
out to God today would you cry out For salvation, would you
trust the Lord today? Would you believe on Him? Would
you confess Him as your Savior and your Lord on the verge of
mercy, but slain by justice? Here she was. Here she was, a
fearful end to come to, on the brink of salvation, to be the
victim of wrath. And that's what she was, the
victim of wrath. You know, I just wish that there
was some way to get some of you to be serious about your situation. Serious about your soul. On the
brink of salvation to be the victim of the wrath of God. Now
beloved, to die at any time is a solemn thing. I try to keep
that before you. I try to mention that every once
in a while. To die at any time is a solemn thing. To die amidst
kind friends and relations to die calmly and quietly in one's
own bed, to die with the prayers of God's people still sounding
in your ears, to die with good hope through grace, in the full
assurance of salvation, leaning on the Lord Jesus Christ, to
die, even so I say, is a serious, serious thing, a serious business. But, to die suddenly, and in
a moment, in the very act of sin, the sin of disobedience,
the sin of rebellion, the sin of unbelief, to die in the very
act of sin, to die in full health, and to die in strength, to die
by the direct interposition of an angry God, this is fearful
indeed. This is a fearful thing. You
know the Bible says it's a fearful thing to fall into the hands
of the living God. She fell into the hands of the
living God. God said, you have not to look back. And she said,
well, the Lord didn't mean what he said. And not only that, but
my heart's back there anyway. And she was turned into a pillar
of salt. Hers was a hopeless end. There
are cases where one hopes, as it were, against hope about the
souls of those that we see go down to the grave. Every once in a while there's
a rash of people taken out of the world that we've known, and
we've had a measure of hope for them. But charity itself can say nothing
when the soul has been summonsed away in the very midst of wickedness
without even a moment's time for thought or prayer, such was
the end of Lot's wife. Here she was, died suddenly. God said it. Wasn't a hope. Wasn't any time for anyone to
say, dear soul, let me pray with you about this. Let me pray with
you about this. Don't look back. Don't look back.
Let me pray with you about it. No, no, no time for that. No
time for that. Well, call the preacher. Have
the preacher to come and see if he can't talk you out of looking
back. See if he can't somewhere or another convince you that
you need to keep pressing right on toward the Lord and toward
safety in the Lord. Old Noah, you know, he got in
that ark. That's a type of Christ. He was
separated from that ungodly world that perished in the flood. That
ark separated him from the ungodly world. Christ only can separate
you. Look to Him. Look to Him. Keep
looking to Christ. Just say, well, I don't care.
I'm not going to see nothing but Jesus. I'm going to look
to Him. I'm just going to look to Him. That's your safety, my
friend. That's your safety. Keep your eyes on him. Well,
if I would have been there, how would you have counseled that
woman? How would you have counseled her? Here she is, Locke's wife,
and here she is trodden along here, and she's in a state of
misery. And oh, poor soul, wouldn't we
have tried something? Wouldn't we have tried something?
Well, we would. Just like we will with you. We'll
preach to you. We'll encourage you to listen
to what God says. To be mindful of what the Lord
said. Remember Lot's wife. Think about the awful misery
she was in that day. But she went on in unbelief and
turned around and looked back. And when she did, oh my soul,
a moment of divine wrath. Here it is. It was hopeless end. I say she went to hell. That's
what I say. And that's how quick it can be
decided. Just that quick. Just that quick. You see, I'll not have this man
rule over me. I'll never be married to Jesus Christ. I'll never,
never, ever trust my soul in his hand. You're gone, friend. It's over. It's done. I'm here
to tell you there is no salvation anywhere else. There is none
other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be
saved but by the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no
other way. No other way. Sometimes, you
know, you hear things that just simply... I want you to listen
to something. I want you to listen to something
here that really disturbed me when I read this. And here's
a testimony, and I don't know what you think of Mr. Billy Graham. I don't know what you think of
him. And I'm not here to offer an opinion one way or another.
I want you to listen to what he told Dr. Shuler on one of
Dr. Shuler's telecasts. I want you
to listen to this. He says, I think everybody that
loves Christ or knows Christ, whether they're conscious of
it or not, are members of the body of Christ. And that is what
God is doing today. He is calling people out of the
world for His name, whether they come from the Muslim world, or
the Buddhist world, or the Christian world, or the non-believing world.
They are members of the body of Christ, because they are called
of God. They may not even know the name
of Jesus, but they know in their hearts that they need something
that they don't have. And they turn to the only light
they have, and I think that they're saved, and they're going to be
with us in heaven. Now, my friend, apparently what
the Bible says don't mean a whole lot to some people. But the Bible
says there isn't any other name. The Bible says that I am the
way, the truth, and the life. I am the way, the truth, and
the life. I'm the way. I'm the only way, the only way.
Truth and the life. And so, oh no, I have an option,
did he? No, he did not have an option.
He did not. Did Lot have an option? No, he
didn't. One way. One way. One way. And here, my friend, this morning,
you don't have any option. Christ is the only answer. And
you can say what you want to. Well, I don't know him. Well,
if you don't know him, the Bible plainly says that you're lost. Life eternal is knowing the Lord
Jesus Christ. Well, she went to hell, and she's
a monument of divine wrath. Here's a beacon to warn coming
generations, a pillar of salt. It might have vanished from the
shore of the Dead Sea, and the Jewish historian Josephus said
it stood for over 2,000 years, this metallic salt, this Lot's
wife, as she was turned into metallic salt. But it is standing
on the field of sacredness. It may be gone. You may not be
able to find it now. but is standing on the field
of sacred history to warn professionals of religion of their doom. Are you lukewarm and cold? Are
you halting between two opinions? Are you disposed to go back to
the world? Are you secretly cherishing some besetting sin? Is there
some darling evil habit which you cannot tear from your heart?
A Christian must be like a retreating army. He must burn every bridge
as he goes back. He must burn his bridges. You
cannot go out here in this world as a believer and say, well,
I'll just live on both sides of the fence. You've got to burn
the bridges. Aren't you trifling with little
sins? Remember Lot's wife. The Lord
Jesus would have me to tell you, remember Lot's wife. May the
Lord be pleased to bless what you've heard this morning. I
wanted to preach something else very badly today, but I just
didn't have the peace to do it. I know that what you've heard
is what I was supposed to deliver to you. May the Lord own it,
and may the Lord use it. Let's have prayer. Father, in
Jesus' name, bless the reading, the hearing of your word. And
may this be a time in someone's life when they would become very,
very serious about their soul and about their soul's need of
the Lord Jesus. I do pray there shall be a quickening,
a regenerating of lost sinners' hearts in our midst today. Salvation
would come to some poor soul. And if there are those here that
are careless, that are trifling, that are questioning whether
God means what he says or whether he doesn't. May this be the day
when their hearts will be set on becoming obedient unto the
Lord, walking as they ought to walk in this world. Forgive our
sins and strengthen us mightily. We pray for Christ's sake. Amen.