Well, good evening again. I'm glad to have the opportunity to spend a few minutes looking at God's Word with you this evening. I am always glad for the opportunity to preach. I wish it weren't under the circumstances of me preaching because Paul isn't well, but it's an opportunity for us to remember to pray for him that God would heal him. I want to look at Genesis chapter 19 with you this evening.
If you have your Bibles, you can look there. You probably know either from an announcement or looking at the options tomorrow morning for the breakouts that Lot and Lot's wife is already on there twice. So this will make three times that we've heard about this man, I think that it's worth us giving attention to it. I okayed it with both Puyon and Mike, who will be looking at Lot and Lot's wife tomorrow morning. They were very confident that I wouldn't do it justice and said, just go ahead, we'll take care of it tomorrow.
So there's always a rough draft before the final copy. So tonight's the rough draft. They'll sort it all out in the morning. All the difficult things that I just graze right over, you can go to their sessions and they'll sort it perfectly for you. Genesis chapter 19, beginning in verse one.
Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise early and go on your way. They said, however, no, but we shall spend the night in the square.
Then he urged them strongly. So they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he prepared a feast for them and baked unleavened bread. And they ate. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter.
And they called Lot and said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them. But Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him and said, please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man. Please let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like.
Only do nothing to these men in as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand aside. Furthermore, they said, this one came in as an alien and already he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than them. So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door.
But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway. Then the two men said to Lot, whom else have you here, a son-in-law and your sons and your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place because of their outcry, because their outcry has become so great before the Lord that the Lord has sent us to destroy it. Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters and said, up, get out of this place for the Lord will destroy the city.
But he appeared to his sons-in-law to be jesting. When morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, "'Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, "'or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.' But he hesitated. So the men seized his hand and the hand of his wife and the hands of his two daughters, for the compassion of the Lord was upon him and they brought him out and put him outside the city. When they had brought them outside, One said, escape for your life. Do not look behind you, and do not stay anywhere in the valley.
Escape to the mountains, or you'll be swept away. But Lot said to them, oh no, my lords. Now behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness which you have shown me by saving my life but I cannot escape to the mountains for the disaster will overtake me and I will die. Now behold this town is near enough to flee to and it is small. Please, let me escape there.
Is it not small that my life may be saved?" He said to him, "'Behold, I grant you this request also not to overthrow the town of which you have spoken. Hurry, escape there, for I cannot do anything until you arrive there. Therefore the name of the town was called Zor. The sun had risen over the earth when Lot came to Zor. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven.
And he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. But his wife, from behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt." I wanna take this passage and split it into two sections. Initially, verses one through 11, looking at the lay of the land as a bit of background and context, and then verses 12 through 26, lingering and looking back. So the lay of the land and lingering and looking back. As the chapter begins, we find Lot sitting at the gate in Sodom.
The gate was the focal point of all of community activity. All the matters of justice were dealt with there. It's where the marketplace was located. Here's the takeaway. Lot appears to feel right at home among the people of Sodom.
He had evidently bought property, he had married a local, and he is sitting at the gate among the elites. We know this to be true. Assimilation with the world is only possible by compromising with God. And Lot had compromised. The psalmist says it so well, how blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the path of sinners, nor sit in the seat of scoffers.
And we see that that's exactly what has happened with Lot. He's sitting at the gate of the city. He calls those that he's there with, my brothers. These people who are coming from the city to take advantage of the guests, he calls them my brothers. His daughters are evidently engaged to local boys, Sodomites.
Yet still, Lot expresses hospitality towards these two messengers from God. This is one of the very few positive points in the story. It's one of the few commonalities that Lot has with his uncle Abraham, it gives us a little bit of evidence that Lot really did have a different spirit than the rest of Sodom's population. He was hospitable, he was kind, he was protective, but he was also terribly backslidden spiritually. He was desperate to protect the angelic guests, but he was also desperate to make peace with the corrupt culture.
And this is coming to a head in the life of Lot here. Lot had made wrong choices. That's how he ended up in Sodom, choices that were based on worldly advantages rather than the word of God. Now, if we did not have 2 Peter 2, 7 and 8, we would easily cast Lot off as lost. But we know that there's some sort of tension there.
Listen to what Peter writes, Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men, for by what he saw and heard, That righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds. Lot was oppressed by the sinful behavior all around him. He was tormented in his soul, Peter tells us. Yet he remained unwilling to give it up. He wasn't oppressed enough.
He wasn't tormented to the degree that he was willing to walk away from it. So he's a righteous man living in the midst of Sodom, but he lacks the pilgrim spirit. One commentator says not even a brimstone will make a pilgrim out of lot. Bring them out. The people from the community say, Where are they?
Bring them out that we may have relations with them, that we might take advantage of them sexually. They didn't want to sit down and get to know them and have coffee. They wanted to take sexual advantage of them. These are men in the city coming to take advantage of men. This same gender intimacy is a perversion of proper human relations.
What we're dealing with with the gender controversy and same-sex attraction and homosexuality in our day is not at all new. Since the beginning of time, sinners have been taking the precious union that was meant for marriage and twisting it, corrupting it and perverting it. And that's what's happening here. And it, and it's not just a, a minor few over in a corner of the city that are involved in this sin. The scriptures plainly say young and old, all the people from every quarter, it was ubiquitous.
It was prevalent everywhere. And Lot tries to make amends. I have two daughters, have not had relations with any man. Please let me bring them to you. Do whatever you want.
Do nothing to these men. And they respond, Stand aside. He's cast off by the locals. He wants so bad to be a part of the culture, to be a part of the world, to be at peace with them. And as much as he wanted to be seen as one of them, at the end of the day, he lacks the history and the heart that's required for citizenship in Sodom because of mercy.
They basically mock him for assuming membership in their society. This one came in as an alien, he's an outsider, and now he's going to judge us? They promised to treat him worse than the guests that they were planning to mistreat earlier. He ends up being saved by these messengers from God. Verse 11, they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, all of them, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway.
Lot was seeking to be a friend with the world. James 4 calls that adultery, spiritual adultery. Do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. This doesn't mean if you're out there making friends with the world, that's unquestionable that you're an enemy of God, even if the longing is in your heart, whoever wishes, whoever desires for a little more of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
There is no better way to blunt and dull your spiritual discernment than to coddle the culture in which you live. No better way to blunt your spiritual discernment. That's where Lot was. Now, it may not necessarily be sinful for Lot to have an address in Sodom, but we know for a fact that it was terribly costly for him to have an address there. It was ridiculously unwise, and it was spiritually damning for the souls close to him.
Right? His wife left her heart in Sodom. Sodom left its morality in his daughters. Everyone's negatively affected because of Lot's selfish, worldly choices. That's the lay of the land, verses one through 11.
Then there's lingering Lot and the looking back of Lot's wife. Whom else have you here, they say to Lot? Bring them out of the city. We're about to destroy this place. The inspection tour is over.
They have confirmed, yes, evil is rampant. Yes, judgment is deserved. The inspection tour is over and destruction is on the horizon. Get out of this place. The Lord will destroy the city.
And Lot hesitates. Look at verse 16, but he hesitated Take everyone in your home everyone in the city that you have get them out of here Judgment is coming punishment is coming But he hesitated how How can you hesitate in that moment? Because he's been coddling the culture. Why hesitate in that moment? He's completely unconvinced with regard to the Word of God and the promise of God and the judgment of God.
Not only is he unconvinced himself, he's fairly unconvincing. Right? He goes to his sons in law. If he was convinced of the calamity that was coming, he would have been more convincing when he urges them to leave before the destruction. They're completely unresponsive.
But there's Lot. He's telling another dad joke. Sarah had laughed at the notion of divine grace with the promise of Isaac. These sons-in-law are laughing at the notion of divine judgment and God is not mocked. But he hesitated.
Lot delays his departure, presuming that he knows best. Such a dangerous place for us to be, presuming that we know best. Sometimes it's a commonplace for us, unfortunately. When they had brought them outside the city, Lot hesitated. The men seized him by his hand, the hand of his wife, the hands of his two daughters, because of the compassion of the Lord that was upon Lot.
And they bring him outside the city, they set him outside the city, and they say, verse 17, escape for your life. In verses 17 through 22, five times, you may have noticed in the reading, escape, escape, escape, escape, escape. It's emphatic. Do not look behind you. Do not stay anywhere in the valley.
And yet still we find lot unwilling to fully obey. Oh no, no, no, no. Verse 18 verse 19 I cannot, I cannot escape to the mountains. Is it okay if I pull up a little short? He's arguing with the messengers from God who've come to save him.
They've literally had to take him by the hand out of the city before the fire and brimstone come down and he's still debating the Word of God essentially Because like us all too often his circumstances require special treatment We begin to see clearly in Lot and Lot's family here that family relation and covenantal connection are insufficient evidences of grace. Being a relative of Abraham did not provide automatic protection from God's judgment. Lot knows that God is going to destroy the city. But he hesitated. Lot knows that God always acts according to his word.
But he hesitated. Lot knows that he's in great danger. But he hesitated. He knows that his family is in great danger, but he hesitated. He knows that these messengers have been sent from God, but he hesitated when lot should have been acting quickly.
He was slow when he should have been hurrying. He was loitering when lots life should have been marked with immense activity, only activity, it's passive, it's passivity that marks his steps. Hurry. Escape there, verse 22. I cannot do anything until you arrive there.
And when he gets to the little place called Zor, stopping short of the initial command, Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And God overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground." The description is brief. The destruction is swift. The idea is that it's pointed and definitive. God promised that he would destroy them and he did.
And then verse 26, But his wife from behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt. But his wife, she suffered the same fate as all the inhabitants of Sodom. After being taken out of the city, the way Bunyan describes this in Pilgrim's Progress, It's as if there's a way to hell, even from the gates of heaven. We must note here that Lot's lack of full and fast obedience was contagious to those around him and cruel to those close to him. Stopping short allowed the longing look that solidified his wife's tragic end.
Verse 19, I cannot escape to the mountains. The disaster will overtake me and I will die. But if you pull up short of full and final obedience, your wife will look back and become a pillar of salt. It's no wonder that Jesus, when teaching his disciples, tells us to remember Lot's wife. Remember.
Now it's a very common and universal practice to commemorate people and historical events. I mean, we erect monuments, we write books, biographies, fest rifts, we set aside days. I mean, this happens in civil history, in secular history, in church history, in many church traditions. I lived in Ethiopia for a few years, the Eastern Orthodox calendar is packed full of holidays honoring saints and martyrs. Every day is set aside to worship some person of old in history.
Have you ever seen a day set aside on a calendar for lots wife? Anyone ever read a biography on lots wife? Anyone ever visited a monument dedicated to lots wife? I bet I know what it would be made out of. Never, never even a consideration.
I'm quite sure. Yet this is the single case in our Lord's life in which a solemn divine command can be appealed to. Remember Lot's wife. Think about this. Jesus did not mention giving attention to anyone else.
Not a single one of the patriarchs. Not Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob. Not a prophet. Not Isaiah or Jeremiah, Zephaniah or Zechariah. Not an apostle.
Not Peter, James, John, nor even Paul. Not a single martyr, not one. Not even Moses or King David. Christ does not say about anyone else what he says about this nameless sinner from a half forgotten age. Remember Lot's wife.
She receives singular prominence from the lips of our Lord, otherwise she is obscure and seemingly unimportant. Jesus focuses our attention on Lot's wife. Remember her, he says. What should we remember about her? Typically, when we remember people, we recall the same essential basics about those lives that we've commemorated.
Their name, their birthday, the day of their death, their extraordinary achievements, their notorious mistakes. Let's apply that to Lot's wife. What is her name? Bible trivia. Never mentioned.
When was she born? It's never noted. We know Abraham's wife, her lineage, but Lot's wife? Without mother. Without father.
Her birth, a secret. Her name? Blank. She's not referenced in all the history of Lot's migrations or even in his residence in Sodom. Note this, if your Bibles are still open, when the two messengers ask the question in verse 12, whom else have you here?
A son-in-law and your sons and your daughters and whomever you have in the city, bring them out of the place. Whom else have you here? The son-in-law, the sons, which he doesn't have, daughters, and whomever. She is not explicitly mentioned by these men and angels. She's just referred to as whomever.
She appears here in history for the first time, and almost the last, in the hurried escape in the midst of Lot's lingering hesitation. The man seized his hand, verse 16, and the hand of his wife after they told him in verse 15, take your wife. That's the first mention of her. Take your wife. And half of her recorded history is complete.
So you're halfway through a biography on Lot's wife. Yet we have no hint of her origin or education or background or experience or character. Does it not seem rather odd that Jesus would suggest that we remember Lot's wife. The disciples who Jesus, who were Jesus's audience that afternoon had the exact same information that we have. So in asking the question, what should we remember about Lot's wife?
We must assume that Jesus was not referring to the angelic intervention and amazing deliverance from the doomed city of Sodom. Right, if miraculous deliverance is the emphasis of Jesus, surely Noah's wife is a better example. She actually survived. And then the other half of Lot's wife is verse 26. She looked back.
From behind him, she looked back and became a pillar of salt. She appears in history only long enough to disappear again. Her entire history is captured in this single moment in time. There's no beginning, no middle, only an end, a fearful end. And it is this dreadfully fearful end that Jesus is no doubt referring to when he says to his disciples and to us this evening, remember Lot's wife.
What should we remember about her? Her end. That she looked back. And that she became a pillar of salt. Why?
What is so peculiar about her end that renders her such an ideal example for us? I'm gonna suggest two things primarily. First, she is worth remembering because she was almost saved. Notice the extraordinary deliverance. Notice the unexpected escape.
Notice the certain safety that she had just experienced. I mean, with regard to expectation and probability, she was saved already. But in actual experience, she was in fact only almost saved. The burning city was behind her. She had been led out by the hands of angels.
Her husband and her children were at her side. The assigned refuge was in plain sight. Surely the voice of the angels was still ringing in her ears. Escape for your life. Do not look behind you.
Do not stay anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains or you'll be swept away. Given her resume with these incentives to escape with her family on one side and her Savior on the other with Sodom behind her in the mountains in front who would not consider Lot's wife completely safe from destruction and saved ultimately. She could have been left, left in Sodom to perish in the flames, the suicidal victim of her outright unbelief, but she was not. She was extended mercy.
She was brought outside the city by the hands of the angels. She was pointed in the right direction. The truth was told to her. And here she is with the cry of the angel in one hand and the crackling of the flames in the other both pressing her onward to that promised refuge in the mountains she appeared to be so close Why is she an example worth remembering? Because she was almost saved.
Point number two. Why is she an example worth remembering? She was not saved. She perished after all. Now the fact that she perished is not necessarily the major issue.
But Where she perished is worth us taking serious note. Remember Lot's wife. In her eyes, in her estimation, from her perspective, according to her understanding, she must have perished from safety. She had escaped the obvious danger, right? Then the very moment of deliverance, she perishes.
Which is why Jesus says, remember Lot's wife. Remember that she was almost saved. And remember that she perished. Why remember her? So that we might profit from her terrible example.
You, like Lot's wife, may well be almost saved. You may have fled the outright unbelief of our day. You may not be living among the Sodomites of our time. You may be hand in hand with friends and family escaping the apparent destruction. You may be secure from the wicked heathens out there and safe from the worldly pagans out there.
Yet too many of us are lingering in the valley. And it's not safe. Because lingering leads to longing, which results to looking. Which for Lot's wife resulted in perishing. Do not stay anywhere in the valley.
Do not look back. Now the valley must be traveled. Lot and his family had to go through the valley. We have to travel through this valley that we call earth. It's safe to enter.
It's safe to travel through. It is not safe to linger in. The Roadrunner, Perfectly safe, always moving, always traveling through. Beep, beep. We're probably close to the same age.
The valley's not safe to settle in. We must press on, pressing through, not looking back, not letting up, not stopping, running as in a way to win. Remember Lot's wife. Remember that she was almost saved. Remember, oh please, remember that she perished.
And she was following safe guides. She was heading in the right direction, but she stopped. And she looked back And she perished. And so will you. And so will you if you set up a comfortable camp in the valley.
If you for whatever reason, for whatever motive, look back, so will you. Are you convinced of the impending danger? So was Lot's wife. Are you escaping the apparent danger? So was Lot's wife.
Are you near the place of refuge? So was Lot's wife. Press on, friend, press in. Do not halt, do not slow, do not stop, do not look back. Again, the words of our Lord, no one, no one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back as fit for the kingdom of God, no one, no special cases, no special circumstances, Surely, surely you're not willing to live and die as enduring proof that sinners may be almost saved yet not saved at all.
Surely you're not willing to be the one who's found starving to death at the threshold of a feast. Surely you don't want to be the one who dies at the thirst at the fountain of salvation. This is what letting up will get you. Not finishing well may very well earn perishing ultimately. Almost saved is all the way damned forever.
If this is the end that you want, then look back to Sodom. Coddle the culture. Stretch your hands out toward it. Turn back now. Become a lifeless pillar of salt.
But if not, if this is not the dreadful end that is your heart's desire, then heed the words of the angels and escape for your life. Do not look behind you. Do not stay anywhere in the valley. Escape to the mountains. And when temptation arises from within and from without, do not yield.
Let memory do the work of sight and remember Lot's wife. Again, like Bunyan's pilgrim, stick your fingers in your ears and say, life, life, eternal life, and press on, running hard after him. Instead of looking back to perish without hope, remember Lot's wife. If possessions of this world and preoccupations of this world are a primary part of your life, a pillar of salt is your probable end. If anyone had the possibility of escaping the coming calamity it was Lot's wife.
She along with her family had been warned by angels from heaven. Her husband was making his way out of destruction. Though he hesitated, he had at least made it out of the city. Her children as well, escaping the condemnation. But Lot's wife, in a moment of hesitation by her husband, longingly looks back and is turned to salt, and she serves as a beacon for us to avoid at all cost with our Lord saying, remember Lot's wife.
Lot was called a righteous man by the Apostle Peter, but his sad epitaph read, drunk incestuous impregnation of his daughters. And he goes off the pages of biblical history. Lot left Sodom in a moment that night, but Sodom left Lot a lot more slowly. Jeff Pollard read the passage this morning from Matthew 11, Capernaum. "'I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.
I say to you, friend here tonight, if you're not in Christ, it will be more tolerable for Lot's wife and all the inhabitants of Sodom on this fateful day than for you. There's something worse than being destroyed by fire and brimstone in Sodom, and it's being inundated with the privileges of Christ's presence and his word preached, yet remaining unmoved by it all. As we come to a close, Some here tonight are comfortable, completely comfortable in the culture in which you live. Oblivious, turning a blind eye maybe to the impending judgment, consumed with this world, like the citizens of Sodom. Remember Lot's wife.
Some of you find yourself like the sons-in-law, assuming somehow that proximity to Christians will aid you ultimately. When it came down to business, the sons-in-law wanted nothing to do with their future in-laws. It will do you no good, friend, to simply be close in proximity to Christians no matter how close they are to the Savior if you do not repent and believe the gospel. The daughters of Lot, We didn't read the passage, you're familiar with the story. They make sinful choices to satisfy their personal desires.
Concerned how God's going to carry on the family name, they take it into their own hands. Don't be found in the end making sinful choices to satisfy your own personal desires. Remember Lot's wife. Lot compromised early, continued compromising, all the way to the end, it appears from our perspective. Remember Lot's wife.
And then the one that Jesus draws attention to. She was unwilling to give up the world, unwilling to give up sin. Is that you? Are you secretly harboring that desire to be more friendly with the things of the world? It makes you an enemy of God.
Are you harboring secret sin? That all it takes is a little desire and you too are looking back and falling away. If you are wed to this world, you'll be widowed in the next. The only safe refuge is Jesus Christ. And I can promise you this, that all who take refuge in him will never be cast out.
Friend, please remember Lot's wife and find your refuge in Jesus, who says, come, come to me. And find rest for your souls. Let's pray. Our Lord and our God, we thank you for the sufficiency of your word. We pray, God, that you will take the truths as they are in Jesus and embed them deep into our souls, that it might produce fruits in keeping with repentance, that your glory might be made known, that your people might be moved forward in sanctification.
And God will you save souls in our midst, expose and save by the power of your Spirit based on the finished work of Christ's blood, for the sake of your name. Amen.
