The Savior says to his disciples,
remember Lot's wife. She was fleeing from Sodom. She
turned around and she turned into a pillar of salt. Remember
Lot's wife. Now, we know very little about
Lot's wife. He may have met her in Sodom
because we don't read her name mentioned. In Genesis 12 or 13,
when Abraham and Lot departed and went several places, her
name is not even mentioned. So I don't even know that she
was ever even around Abraham, but she was a very privileged
woman being married to Lot. And we know that Lot was a believer.
The Holy Spirit calls him a just and righteous man. and how clearly
we see the gospel in that, how that a man like Lot can be called
a just and righteous man. That's because he had the righteousness
of Christ, and God in justice claimed that concerning him because
of what Christ did for him. But she was a very privileged
woman being married to Lot. And I feel quite sure she was
not practicing the sin that Sodom was guilty of. And the angels
of the Lord took her by the hand just like they did Lot. But as
she was running out, she looked back and turned into a pillar
of salt. Now would you turn to Genesis
chapter 19 and let's read the account of this. beginning in verse 16. 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, the Lord
being merciful unto him. And they brought him forth and
set him without the city. That's what's called sovereign
grace. Sovereign grace. Aren't you glad the Lord grabbed
you by the hand and pulled you out? And it came to pass when
they brought them forth abroad, he said, look at the instruction,
escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou
in all the plain. Escape to the mountain, lest
thou be consumed. And isn't that faith in Christ?
You look to him only. Don't look behind. Don't look
to your experience. Don't look to the stuff you think
you know. Look straight ahead to Christ. Escape to the mountain,
Christ. Leave the plain, the place God
has cursed. Now that is a very simple instruction. And Lot said unto him, O not
so, my lord. Behold now, thy servant hath
found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy,
which thou hast shown unto me in saving my life. And I cannot
escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die.
Behold now, this city is near to flee into, and it is a little
one. O let me escape thither, is it not a little one? And my
soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted
thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this
city, which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither, For
I cannot do anything till thou become thither." Isn't that glorious? The angel says he could not destroy
the city until Lot and his family was out. You see, Lot was somebody
for whom Christ died, and the justice of God against sin cannot
fall upon one for whom Christ died. He says, I cannot do anything
till you're out of here. Verse 23, the sun was risen upon
the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained fire
upon Sodom, upon Gomorrah, brimstone, and fire from the Lord out of
heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and
all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the
ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became
a pillar of salt. Now this woman disobeyed the
clear command, don't look behind you. And she was turned into
a pillar of salt in the very act of looking back. And the
Lord says to his disciples, remember Lot's wife. We, like Lot's wife, have been
highly privileged. Do you believe that? How many
people in Lexington, Kentucky have ever even heard of the gospel
of God's grace? A lot of people haven't. A lot
of people have never heard the gospel. We, like Lot's wife,
have been greatly privileged. And the Lord says to his disciples,
Remember Lot's wife. Now what did she do? She looked
back at Sodom and the word looked back. Now, I try to put myself
in her place. If I was running and I knew that
the place was on fire, it would be such a temptation to look
behind and look what was happening. But that's really not the issue.
That's really not the issue. You see, this is a gospel type.
It's not just that you're forbidden to look at the fire and brimstone
coming down. This is a gospel type, so remember that. She looked
back at Sodom, and the word look back is also translated to have
respect, to regard, to regard with favor, care, or pleasure. And this is how she viewed Sodom. With favor, with regard, with
respect, with care, and pleasure. And while her physical body had
been brought out by the angels, they grabbed her hand too, and
she began to run. Yet she lagged behind because
her heart had never left Sodom. Her body had, but her heart had
never left Sodom. Now what does Sodom represent?
Well, the first thing that comes to our mind is homosexuality
and moral perversion, isn't it? That's the first thing that comes
to our mind. It's introduced with the angels being in Lot's
house and the men, old and young, coming out and saying, bring
out the men that came into your house that we may know them.
They wanted perversion with these men. And the scripture says in
Genesis 13, 13, the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before
the Lord exceedingly. Now, there is typical significance
to Sodom. In Revelation chapter 11, verse
8, speaking of the two witnesses, their dead bodies shall lie in
the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom. Jerusalem, the place where Christ
was crucified, the place where the religious leaders put to
death the Son of God, is called Sodom. Now, regarding homosexuality,
it's a sin. It's a sin. And it is not the
worst sin. On at least two occasions, the
Lord said the gospel, when people reject the gospel, they'll have
it worse on the day of judgment than the men of Sodom. So that
establishes that, doesn't it? I mean, it is sin. It's not the
worst sin. To hear the gospel and to reject
it and refuse it is a worse sin than the sin of homosexuality. Now, If anybody in this room
goes to hell, including me, we will be more severely punished
than those men of Sodom who cried, bring them out that we might
know them. Now, it's a sin that God has
forgiven. You can read that in 1 Corinthians
9, 11, where he says, he talks about such were some of you,
and included in that list were homosexuals. Such were some of
you, but you were washed, but you're justified, and you're
sanctified. It is a sin, and it is, I don't
believe, any worse than other sexual sin. All sexual sin is
wrong. The only, God invented sex. Sex is beautiful. Sex is glorious.
It's meant for a man and woman in the covenant of marriage only. And it's good. Outside of that,
any kind of sexual sin is wrong. You remember when the Lord said,
marriage is honorable and all, and the bed is undefiled. He
said through the writer to the Hebrews. But whoremongers and
adulterers, God will judge. Homosexuality is sin along with
fornication, adultery, any of those other things. And you know,
with regard to this sin, I feel sorry for homosexuals. I really
do. And I hate gay bashing. I hate
the way people act with regard to
homosexuality. Now, I hate it like I hate any other
sin. But as far as gay bashing and things of that nature, here's
how I want a homosexual to feel around me. I want him to feel
like he knows that I love him and that they're not going to
feel judged and threatened around me. The only hope they have is
the only hope I have, the grace of God. the blood of Christ,
and I want to be able to preach the gospel to them and not make
them feel like I feel morally superior to them because I'm
not one of them. I hope none of us act in that
way toward the homosexual community. It's sin. It's wrong. We're not
for it, but we're against all sin, and we're against the sin
in ourselves. And I can't look down my nose at a homosexual
and think, well, I'm better than him because I know I'm not. I'm
not, not a bit, and neither are you. That's just the truth regarding
this thing. But what homosexuality is, this
is, he's talking about, this is typical. Homosexuality, sodomy,
represents human religion. Works religion. Free will religion. Reformed, legalistic religion. You have
an act, that cannot produce life. It will never produce life. You got the act, you got the
so-called pleasure, but it will never produce life. False religion,
works religion, if you have any kind of works religion that you
think salvation is in any way dependent upon something you
do to make it work, you're a sodomite. You're in that which cannot produce
life. And that's the typical significance
of her looking back. It's not just her looking back
to see the fire come down or her looking back to see her home
destroyed or her relatives destroyed. It's what this represents. There's
great typical significance to this. In Jeremiah 23, 14, God
calls the false prophets men of Sodom. Men of Sodom. In Ezekiel chapter 16 verse 44,
the sin of Sodom was said to be pride, fullness of bread,
and abundance of idleness. That sounds very much to me like
the church at Laodicea, rich and increased with goods and
have need of nothing when you don't know you're wretched and
naked and miserable and poor and blind. Now, Sodom represents
the world, the worldly religion, the worldly maxims, the worldly...
Turn to 1 John chapter 2. 1 John chapter 2. John says in
verse 15, love not the world, neither the things that are in
the world. Now, when John's talking about
love not the world, let me tell you what he's not saying. I've spent the last week in St.
Martin. Claire and Annie were with me. We loved it, didn't
we? It's the Lord's world. It's the Lord's island. I had
some great food. Don't think I didn't love every
second of it. It was good. Love the world in that sense.
This is my father's world. He's given us all things richly
to enjoy. This is not talking about some
kind of asceticism when he says, love not the world, like you're
not, you know, the touch not, taste not, handle not thing,
no. That's, that's, Paul said if that's your religion in Colossians
2, you'll perish with the using of it. This is not what this
is talking about. When we think of a worldly person, well that,
I drive a Camry and the other guy drives an Avalon. He's worldly
and I'm more conservative. That's ridiculous. We don't believe
anything like that. Worldliness is not having a nice
car or a nice house. I mean, I love conservativeness,
but that's not what worldliness is. So when he's saying love
not the world, what's he saying? Love not the world, neither the
things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the
love of the Father is not in him. For all that's in the world,
and this is what he's talking about, the lust of the flesh,
the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not of the Father,
but is of the world. And the world passes away, and
the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth
forever. The lust of the flesh, the cravings,
of fallen human nature, the sinful cravings of fallen human nature. Don't you hate it? Does that
mean you don't have it? No. You have it. If you have
a human nature, an old nature, you have it. But you hate it,
don't you? You don't love it. The lust of the eyes? That's
being more concerned about what men see than what God sees. That's what the lust of the eyes
is. It's keeping up with the Joneses. It's me being more concerned
about what you think than what God thinks. I want to appear
righteous to you. I want to appear some way to
you. The pride of life. What's that? Self-righteousness, power. I'm
somebody. I've got influence. The lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life, pleasure,
popularity, and power. Now that's what he's talking
about when he says, love not the world. If any man loved the
world, this world that hates Jesus Christ, this world that
has no love for the gospel, this world that despises the way of
salvation by grace, the worldly maxims, the worldly principles,
the worldly ways, love not the world. Now, once again, that's
not talking about we can't enjoy the world. Like I said, I do
enjoy God's creation. I enjoy Every creature's good,
and it's to be received with thanksgiving, and it's lawful.
So this is not talking about some kind of asceticism or taste
not handle not. This is talking about this world
that has no love for Christ. And when she looked back, she
was saying, I love this world. Lot's wife loved the world. Now think about this. Sudden judgment in the scripture,
where people didn't just die of old age or disease or sinfulness,
but I mean a sudden judgment when God all of a sudden just
wipes them out. What's it done for? Every time
with that exception, it was for a religious sin. Every time. Take Belteshazzar in Daniel chapter
5. He's partying with his buddies.
They're getting drunk, having a good time, and God doesn't
say anything about it. You'll meet God on Judgment Day
one of these days. And then what happens? He says,
let's get the vessels of the Lord and bring them in and let's
drink our wine out of them. And then what happens? There's
the writing that comes on the wall. Thou art weighed in the
balances and found wanting. And he died that very night.
You see, when he was just acting like the world, nothing happened.
But when he brought religion into it. What about Uzzah? Uzzah
touches the ark. He had no business touching the
ark. He was getting ready to fall off a carpet. He was going
to help God out. He touches the ark. God kills him. What about
Nadab and Abihu? They offer strange fire before
the Lord. What happens? Fire came down
from the Lord. It was fire that wasn't from
the altar. They were bypassing the sacrifice of Christ. They
said, any old fire will do. Fire came down and consumed them. The sons of Korah, they think,
I can offer a sacrifice. I'm able to do that. They bring
their censers in, and God opens up the ground and kills all 250
of them who thought that they could offer a sacrifice without
the great high priest. They said to Aaron and Moses,
we're as holy as you are. And God said, no, you're not.
And he put them to death. What about Ananias and Sapphira?
When they gave, it wasn't the amount they gave, it's the lie
they told. They said, we sold the land for
so much, here's the money, and they actually sold it for more,
and God killed them. What about Herod? Herod's giving
this oration, and everybody said, these are not the words of a
man, but of God. He didn't correct them, and right then, God smote
him with worms, and he died right then. Every sudden judgment that
I know of in the scripture was a religious judgment. Uzziah, a good king, all of a
sudden the scripture says his heart is lifted up within him,
and he walks into the temple and says, I'm gonna offer up
a sacrifice. And what does God do? He smites him with leprosy. Now, Lot's wife, It wasn't that
she, when she was running out of Sodom, she just couldn't resist
to see what was taking place and just see what happened to
her family and her home and her stuff. What this means is she
had, her heart had never left Sodom. It had never left. And this is a warning to us.
The Lord says, remember Lot's wife. And this is a warning I
need to hear. remember Lot's wife. If we're like her, we'll have
her end. And listen to me, the only way
we will not look back to Sodom is if we have something better
to look to. That's the only way. If you don't
have something better to look to, you're going to look back.
You're going to look back to the world, you're going to look
back to your old religion, you're going to look back to the lust
of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life. You'll
look back if you don't have something better to look toward. Now turn with me for a moment
to Galatians chapter 6. Verse 12, as many as desire to make a fair
show in the flesh. I think that's such a accurate
description of human religion. A fair show in the flesh. Oh, how good do I look? How righteous
am I? A fair show in the flesh. He said, as many as desire to
make a fair show in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised
only unless they should serve for persecution for the cross
of Christ. Now, they want you to be circumcised so they can
say, see how we've affected them, but they don't want to be persecuted
because if they preach free grace, they'd be persecuted. For neither
they themselves who are circumcised keep the law, but desire to have
you circumcised that they may glory in your flesh. Look how
I've influenced this person. Look how I've won this person
to Christ. Look how I've straightened up this person, how I've helped
him. Look what Paul says. But God forbid that I should
glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. Now this is
the Apostle Paul and he says the only thing I have any confidence
in at all is what my Lord accomplished on Calvary Street. That's it. I'm not going to glory in anything.
I'm not going to have any hope in anything save what Christ
accomplished on the cross. When he said it is finished,
my salvation was completed. That's all I'm going to glory
in. I'm not going to glory in my apostleship. I'm not going
to glory in the fact that I was taken into the third heavens.
I'm not going to glory in any of these things. I'm not going
to glory in me being a writer of scripture. I glory in Christ
only. Now look what he says about that.
By whom The world is crucified unto me and I unto the world.
You see, in light of Christ crucified, in light of his glorious accomplishments
on Calvary's tree, in light of the beauty of the cross, what's
the world? It's a crucified thing. There's
no pleasure in it. And the world feels the same
way toward me. Turn to Philippians 3. Now Paul was talking about his
background. He said in verse 4, Though I
might also have confidence in the flesh, if any other man thinketh
that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I've got
more than him. Circumcised the eighth day of
the sock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, and Hebrew of the
Hebrews, as touching the law of Pharisee, concerning zeal,
persecuting the church, touching the righteousness which was in
the law, blameless. But what things were gained to
me, I counted these as beneficial to me, now I've counted them
nothing but loss for Christ. Yea, doubtless, and I count all
things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus
my Lord, for whom I've suffered the loss of all things, and do
count them but dung, that I may win Christ and be found in Him,
not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. the righteousness which
is of God by faith. That's all I want. I want to
be found at Christ. Touching that stuff from behind, my former
religion, you know what I counted? Dung. You don't want to look
back at dung, do you? It has no interest to you. Oh,
the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus, my Lord. I suffered
the loss of all things, my religious heritage, my works, Nothing to
it that I may win Christ and be found in Him. You know, I
can say this with such sincerity, I have something
to say. Are you really? Well, I think so. My only desire
is to be found in Christ. When God comes looking for me,
simply to be found in Christ, not having my own righteousness,
but He is. Now you look at that, you don't
want to look back, do you? Now I think it's very interesting
and very significant that faith is described by looking throughout
both the Old and the New Testaments. What were the snake-bitten Israelites
to do? Just look. Just look. And there was only
one place to look. They couldn't look to the side,
down at the... They looked at the serpent on
the pole. And everyone who was bitten, when he looked, He lived. In Isaiah 45 verse 22, look unto
me. Look unto me. Oh, would God give
me grace to do that just now? Look unto me. I can't see. Then
look. You look. It doesn't say see. It says look.
I don't have any doubt if a blind Israelite would have turned his
eyeball as sockets toward that blazing serpent, he would have
lived. Look unto me. and be ye saved
all the ends of the earth for I am God and beside me is none
else. Psalm 34 5 says they looked unto
him and were lightened. The only way you're going to
have any light as to who you are or who God is or how he saves
sinners is by looking unto him. They looked unto him and were
lightened and their faces were not ashamed. Hebrews 12, 2 says,
looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith. That
word is the only time, that word looking is the only time that
word's used in the New Testament. It means to turn your eyes away
from something and fix them on something else where you never
look at anything else. Looking unto Jesus, the author
and the finisher of my faith. Zechariah chapter 12 verse 10
says, when God pours out his spirit of grace and supplication,
here's what will happen. They will look upon me whom they
have pierced and mourn. Now look, this is what happens
when God gives you grace. When he pours grace about on
you. This is the one way I'll know if he's poured out grace
on me. I'll look to his son. And I look to His Son only. Now
turn with me to Luke chapter 9. And I'm so thankful the Lord
gave us this example of what it is to not look back. Luke
chapter 9, verse 62. And Jesus said unto him, No man,
having put his hand to the plow, And looking back is fit for the
kingdom of God. Now this is such a simple and
beautiful illustration. Plowing, plow. How do you plow a straight furrow? There's only one way. You pick
an object and keep your eyes on it and keep moving toward
that. As soon as you take your eyes off that object, that furrow
is going to go crooked. Every time. You can't plow a
furrow. What's going to happen if you
look back? You look back to your experience. You know, I love
this. You know what gives me assurance? It's not the way I
felt yesterday. It's I'm looking to him right
now. I'm not looking back to some kind of experience. I'm
looking to him right now. I'm not even sure about any experience
I've ever had, but I'm looking to him now. Faith is in the present. It's not in the past. You don't
look at the side, at somebody else's life. You look to the
side, you're going to veer off. Looking at somebody else's life,
that's not what to do. You don't look down at your feet.
You're looking down at your feet, looking at your walk. Don't look
at that. Look to Him. The best thing you
or I, the only thing you or I can do is look to Him. Anything else,
we will most certainly veer off. They looked to him, and they
were lightened. Until them that looked for him
shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation. Now,
remember Lot's wife, when she looked back, it was because she
was not looking to him. Now, what does it mean to look
to Christ? I can't see him physically. You
know that, and I know that. Somebody that says Christ appeared
to me and said this to me or that to me, I don't believe them
for a second. I don't believe that. No one has seen the Lord
Jesus Christ. He's seated at the right hand
of the Father. So how can I look to somebody
that I don't see? Well, first of all, I look to
his person, believing who he is. I look to his person as having
the ability to save me. without any help from me. Do
you believe that? Do you believe he is able to
save you with absolutely no contribution from you? None. None. Do you
believe that? I look to his life, his obedience,
his law keeping as the only righteousness I possess. And I really do. I'm looking to His righteousness
as the only righteousness I possess. That's my personal righteousness
before God. That's the fine linen, clean
and white, which is the righteousness of the saints. Is that some kind
of righteous deeds they've performed that's fine and clean and white?
You got any works like that? That you'd call fine and clean
and white? No. The righteousness of the
saints is the righteousness of Jesus Christ. I'm looking to
his death on Calvary Street as my sin payment. I'm not trying
to offer up any payment for my sin. I'm really not. I'm not trying to present something
to God to make up for my sin. I look to the death of Christ
as the complete removal of my sin. I look to His resurrection
as my justification before God. That's my righteousness before
God. When He was raised from the dead, all my sins were put
away, and His righteousness is given to me, and I'm justified. And I look to His resurrection
as my justification before God. I'm looking to His intercession
right now as the only reason I'm continuing. He's seated at
the right hand of the Father, appearing for me, for every believer,
interceding. These things write I unto you
that you sin not, but if any man sin, we have an advocate
with the Father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. And I'm looking
to His intercession as the only reason I persevere. He causes
me to. And I'm looking forward to His
coming again, as the only way I'll be glorified, because the
Bible says, Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed
upon us, that we should be called the sons of God, therefore the
world knoweth us not. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be, but we know
that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him. Such is the
glory of His person, that one side of Him will conform us perfectly
to His image. I'm looking to His return as
the way I'm going to be glorified. And I'm looking to Him for the
internal enjoyment of heaven. That's why I'll enjoy heaven
beholding His face. That is heaven. When by His grace
I shall look on His face, that will be glory. Be glory for me. Now, He is one who is so beautiful
you can never tire, the new man can never tire of looking at
him. I know you've got an old man
that gets tired, but the new man always loves to behold his
beauty. Now, remember Lot's wife, but I also want to say this,
remember Lot's savior. What a mighty Savior. May the
Lord deliver us from being like Lot's wife. Let's pray together.