DELIVERED ON LORD'S-DAY MORNING, AUGUST 24, 1879,
BY C. H. SPURGEON,
AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON.
"RememberLot's wife." Luke 17:32.
IT was the purpose of God always to maintain a testimony for truth and
righteousness in the midst of this ungodly world. For this end of old
He set apart for Himself a chosen family with whom He had fellowship.
Abraham was the man whom God chose, that in him and in his household
the witness might be preserved. This chosen family was called out and
separated from its ancestors and led to dwell apart as wayfaring men in
the land of Canaan. They were not to go into the cities and mingle with
other races, but to dwell in tents, as a separate tribe, lest their
character should become polluted and their testimony should be
silenced. It was the Lord's intent that the people should dwell alone
and not be numbered among the nations.
Abraham, being called, obeyed and went forth, not knowing where he
went. His separated life gave great exercise to his faith and so
strengthened it that it became a calm, unstaggering assurance and this
enabled him to enjoy a quiet, sublime and happy career, dependent only
upon God and altogether above as well as apart from man. With him was
his nephew, Lot, who also left Haran at the Divine call and shared with
the Patriarch his wanderings in Canaan and in Egypt. He was not a man
of so noble a soul, but was greatly influenced by the stronger mind of
his Uncle Abraham. He was sincere, no doubt, and is justly called
righteous Lot, but he was more fit to be a follower than a leader. He
also sojourned in tents and led the separated life until it became
necessary for him to become an independent chieftain because the flocks
and herds of the two families had so greatly multiplied that they could
not well be kept together.
Then came out the weak side of Lot's character. He did not give Abraham
the choice in selecting a sheep walk, but like all weak natures, he
selfishly consulted his own advantage and determined to go in the
direction of the cities of the plain of Jordan where well-watered
pastures abounded. This led to his dwelling near the cities of the
plain, where crime had reached its utmost point of horrible
degradation. We read that "he pitched his tent toward Sodom." He found
it convenient to be near a settled people and to enter into friendly
relations with them, though he must have known what the men of Sodom
were, for the cry of them had gone forth far and wide. Thus he began to
leave the separated path.
After a while he went further, for one step leads to another. He was a
lover of ease and, therefore, he gave up the tent life, with its many
inconveniences, and went to live with the townsmen of Sodom–a thing to
be wondered at as well as deplored. He did not cease to be a good man,
but he did cease to be a faithful witness for his God. Abraham seems to
have given him up altogether from that day, for we find that noble
Patriarch enquiring of the Lord concerning his heir, saying, "Lord God,
what will You give me, seeing I go childless and the steward of my
house is this Eliezer of Damascus?" And the Lord said, "This shall not
be your heir." Now, this enquiry would have been needless had Lot been
still reckoned to belong to the chosen seed, for naturally Lot was the
heir of Abraham–but he forfeited that position and gave up his portion
in the inheritance of the elect house by quitting the separated life.
Lot, although he dwelt in Sodom, was not happy there. Neither did he
become so corrupt as to take pleasure in the wickedness of the people.
Peter says that God delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy
conversation of the wicked. He tried to bear his protest in the place,
but signally failed, as all must do who imitate him. His witness for
purity would have been far more powerful if he had kept apart from
them, for this is the protest which God demands of us when He says,
"Come you out from among them, be you separate." In the midst of the
world, which lies in the Wicked One, Lot lived on–not without greatly
degenerating in spirit–until the kings came and carried him away
captive. Then by the intervention of Abraham he was delivered from the
captivity which threatened him and brought back again.
This was a solemn warning and you would have thought that Lot would
have said, "I will go back to Abraham's way of living. I will again
become a sojourner with God. Sodom's walls without God are far less
safe than a frail tent when
God is a wall of fire around it." His vexation with the conversation of
the lewd townsmen ought to have made him long for the sweet air of the
wild country, but it was not so. He again settles down in Sodom and
forgets the holy congregation which clustered around the tent of
Abraham. Being, still, a man of God, he could not be allowed to die in
such society–it was not to be endured that "just Lot" should lay his
bones in the graveyard of filthy Sodom.
If God would save a man, He must fetch him out from the world–no man
can remain part and parcel of an ungodly world and yet be God's elect
one, for this is the Lord's own words to the enemy at the gates of
Eden–"I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed
and her seed." Did He not also say to Pharaoh, "I will put a division
between My people and your people?" The Lord will sooner burn all Sodom
down than Lot shall continue to be associated with its crimes and
dragged down by its evil spirit. And so it came to pass that Lot was
forced out–he was placed in such a strait that he must either run for
his life or perish in the general burning.
Happy had it been for him if he had lived all the while in the holy
seclusion of Abraham. He would not, then, have lost the inheritance for
his seed, nor have passed away under a dark, defiling cloud, nor have
missed his place among the heroes of faith of whom Paul writes in the
famous chapter of Hebrews–"These all died in faith, not having
received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were
persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were
strangers and pilgrims on the earth."
Here I must pause, or you will think that I have misread my text and
that I am preaching from the words– "Remember Lot"–and, indeed, I
might profitably do so, for there is much of warning in the history of
Lot himself. If Christian men are so unwise as to conform themselves to
the world, even if they keep up the Christian character in a measure,
they will gain nothing by worldly association but being vexed with the
conversation of the ungodly–and they will be great losers in their own
souls–their character will be tarnished, their whole tone of feeling
will be lowered and they themselves will be wretchedly weak and
unhappy. Conformity to the world is sure to end badly sooner or
later–to the man himself it is injurious and to his family ruinous.
But the text says, "Remember Lot's wife" and, therefore, I must let the
husband go and call your attention to her, who, in this case, is "his
worse half." When the time for separation arrived, Lot's wife could not
tear herself away from the world. She had always been in it and had
loved it and delighted in it. Though associated with a gracious man,
when the time came for decision, she betrayed her true character!
Flight without so much as looking back was demanded of her, but this
was too much–she did look back and thus proved that she had sufficient
presumption in her heart to defy God's command and risk her all–to
give a lingering love-glance at the condemned and guilty world. By that
glance she perished.
That is the subject of our discourse. The love of the world is death.
Those who cling to sin must perish, whoever they may be. Do not omit to
notice the connection of the text, for there our Lord bids us hold the
world with a loose hand and always be ready to leave it all. When we
are called to it, we are to be ready to go forth without a particle in
our hands. "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." They were not to
hold life, itself, dear, but to be ready to lay it down for His sake,
for He said, "Whoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it; and
whoever shall lose his life shall preserve it."
To be divided from the world–its possessions, its maxims, its
motives–is the mark of a disciple of Christ and, in order to keep up
the feeling of separateness among His followers, our Lord bade them,
"Remember Lot's wife." She is to be a caution to us all, for God will
deal with us as with her if we sin as she did. "The thing which has
been is the thing which shall be." If our hearts are glued to the
world, we shall perish with the world! If our desires and delights look
to the world and if we find our comfort in it, we shall have to see our
all consumed and shall be ourselves consumed with it in the day of the
Lord's anger. Separation is the only way of escape–we must flee from
the world or perish with it!
"Depart you, depart you, go you out from there, touch no unclean thing;
go you out of the midst of her; be you clean, that bear the vessels of
the Lord."
I. "Remember Lot's wife." And our first point shall be–REMEMBER THAT
SHE WAS LOT'S WIFE. She was the wife of a man who, with all his faults,
was a righteous man. She was united to him in the closest possible
bonds and yet she perished! She had dwelt in tents with holy Abraham
and seemed to be a sharer in all the privileges of the separated
people–and yet she perished! She was dear to one who had been dear to
the father of the faithful and yet, for all that, she perished in her
sin!
This note of warning we would strike very loudly, for, commonplace as
the truth is, it needs often to be repeated that ties of blood are no
guarantees of Divine Grace. You may be the wife of the saintliest man
of God and yet be a daughter of Belial. Or you may be the husband of
one of the King's daughters and yet be, yourself, a castaway! You may
be the child of a prophet and yet the curse of the prophet's God may
light upon you! Or you may be the father of a most gracious family and
yet still be an alien to the commonwealth of Israel. No earthly
relationship can possibly help us if we are personally destitute of the
spiritual life.
Our first birth does not avail us in the kingdom of God, for that which
is born of the flesh is, at its very best, flesh, and is prone to sin
and will certainly perish. We must be born again, for only the new
birth, which is of the Spirit and from above, will bring us into
Covenant bonds. O you children of godly parents, I beseech you look to
yourselves that you be not driven down to Hell from your mother's side!
O you relatives of those who are the favorites of Heaven, I beseech you
look to yourselves that you die not within sight of Heaven in spite of
all your advantages! In this matter, remember Lot's wife.
Being Lot's wife, remember that she had, since her marriage, shared
with Lot in his journeys and adventures and trials. We cannot tell
exactly when she became Lot's wife, but we are inclined to the belief
that it was after he had left Haran, for when Abraham left Haran we
read that he took "Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother's son," but we
do not read of Lot's wife. The name of Abraham's wife is given, but of
Lot's wife there is no mentioning whatever. Again, we read, "Abram went
up out of Egypt, he and his wife and all that he had, and Lot with him,
into the south." "And Lot, also, which went with Abram, had flocks, and
herds, and tents." But nothing is said about his having a wife.
She must have been a person of very small consideration, for even when
it is certain that Lot was married, when he was taken captive and
afterwards rescued by Abraham, all we find is this–"And Abraham
brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and
his goods, and the women also, and the people." We suppose that Lot's
wife is included under the word, "the women." Now the Holy Spirit never
puts a slight upon good women–in connection with their husbands they
are generally mentioned with honor–and in this book of Genesis it is
specially so.
Sarah and Rebekah and Rachel have each an honorable memorial and as no
mention is made of Lot's wife we may infer that she was not worthy to
be mentioned. She could hardly have been an inhabitant of Sodom, as the
Jewish traditions asserts, unless she was a widow, as they say, and the
daughters mentioned were hers by a previous marriage. For at the
destruction of Sodom, Lot had marriageable daughters and it would not
seem that Lot had then been separated from Abraham for many years.
True, the women of Sodom may have been given in marriage at an earlier
age than was usual with the Abrahamic stock and, if so, Lot's wife may
have been a native of Sodom, for it is possible that he dwelt there for
20 years.
More probably, however, either in Canaan or in Egypt, Lot married a
Canaanite or an Egyptian woman–a person utterly unworthy to be taken
into the holy household and, therefore, the marriage is not recorded.
It was the custom of that elect and separated family, as you know, to
send back to Padanaram to fetch from there some daughter of the same
house, that the pure stock might be preserved and that there might be
no connection with the heathen. It was Abraham's desire for Isaac and
he charged his steward to carry it out, saying, "And I will make you
swear by the Lord, the God of Heaven, and the God of the whole earth,
that you shall not take a wife unto my son of the daughters of the
Canaanites, among whom I dwell: but you shall go unto my country, and
to my kindred, and take a wife unto my son Isaac."
This also was Isaac's desire for Jacob, for we read, "And Isaac called
Jacob, and blessed him, and charged him, and said unto him, You shall
not take a wife of the daughters of Canaan. Arise, go to Padanaram, to
the house of Bethuel your mother's father; and take you a wife from
there of the daughters of Laban your mother's brother." It seems to me
that Lot had married a heathen woman and so her name is omitted.
Whether it is so or not, it is certain that she had shared with Lot in
the capture of the city of Sodom–she had seen the ruthless sword slay
the inhabitants and she, herself, with her husband, had been among the
captives–and she had been delivered by the good sword of Abraham. So
you see that she had been a partaker of her husband's trials and
deliverance and yet she was lost.
It will be a sad, sad thing if there should come an eternal severance
between those united by marriage bonds–that we should live together,
work together, suffer together and should be delivered, by the
Providence of God, many a time
together–and should see our children grow up together and yet should
be torn asunder at the last, never to meet again! This is a prospect
which we dare not think upon. Tremble, you whose love is not in Christ,
for your union will have an end! What says the Savior? "I tell you, in
that night there shall be two 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." It matters not how close the
association, the unbeliever must be divided from the living child of
God! If you cling to the world and cast your eyes back upon it, you
must perish in your sin, notwithstanding that you have eaten and drunk
with the people of God and have been as near to them in relationship as
wife to husband, or child to parent. This makes the remembrance of
Lot's wife a very solemn thing to those who are allied by ties of
kindred to the people of God.
Lot's wife had also shared her husband's privileges. Her husband had
not forgotten his association with Abraham and he could not have failed
to communicate this knowledge to her. The one God was worshipped and
Lot's wife was present. She knew of the gracious Covenant which God had
made with His separated people and she knew that her husband was one of
the families. She had apparently cast in her lot with the chosen people
of God though her heart was not in it but she, nevertheless, joined
their sacred songs and their holy prayers. She saw the daily provision
which God made for His people and the joy which Abraham had in abiding
under the shadow of the Almighty. Even in Sodom her husband kept up
such separateness as he could in such an evil place and she saw the
goodness of the man with all his mistakes.
When Sodom must be destroyed, the angels came to their house and she,
herself, helped to entertain them. She received the merciful warning to
escape as well as her husband and she was urged as much as he to flee
from the wrath so near at hand. Thus is it with many of you who are
enjoying all sorts of Christian privileges and are yet unsaved! You
come to the Lord's Table and eat and drink of the memorials of His body
and blood–and yet you remain unsaved. You seem to be part and parcel
of the Church of God and if there is any privilege or advantage, a
share of it is set before you. If there is any fellowship you are not
excluded–if there is any joy it is not denied you. You will have to
say at last, "Lord, Lord, we have eaten and drunk in Your Presence and
You have taught in our streets," and, oh, how wretched it will be to
hear Him say, "I never knew you! Depart from Me, you workers of
iniquity." It must be so if your souls are clinging to sin and you are
casting a yearning eye to the ungodly world! It must be so and if you
need proof, "remember Lot's wife."
Lot's wife had shared in her husband's errors. It was a great mistake
on his part to abandon the outwardly separated life, but she had stayed
with him in it and, perhaps, was the cause of his so doing. I suppose
he thought he could live above the world spiritually and yet mingle
with its votaries, even as some now do who enter into worldly company
and yet hope to walk with God in spirit. He said to himself, "It is
very uncomfortable to wander alone in this deserted wilderness and to
dwell in these temporary tents. I wish I had a more abiding dwelling
and could mingle on peaceable terms with those around me." He ceased to
look for the city which has foundations whose Builder and Maker is God
and he wanted to take up citizenship in the world. I should not wonder
if Lot's wife influenced him in that way. He was a man of weak mind and
while his uncle had him under his wing, he was right enough, except
that even then he had what a writer calls, "a lean-to religion"–he did
not stand alone, but leaned upon Abraham.
When he was married it is probable that his wife assumed the ruling
place and guided the way of his life. She began to think that it was a
pity that the family should live in such separation, so unfashionable,
so rigid, so peculiar and all that. She tossed her head and cried,
"Really, people must mix with society and not keep up old-fashioned,
strait-laced ways! You might as well be dead as be shut out from life."
When her husband had an opportunity of getting out of that rigid style
by leaving his uncle, she said she would like to go down Sodom way
because it would be nice for the girls and give them a taste of
something liberal and refined. The old style was all very well for such
an antiquated couple as Abraham and Sarah, but Lot and herself belonged
to a younger generation and were bound to get into a little society and
find eligible matches for their young people. It would be well for them
to dress better than they could learn to do if they always kept roaming
about like gypsies.
You see, Abraham's people did not study the fashions at all and were a
very vulgar sort of shepherds who had no ideas of refinement and
politeness. And it was pity that people in Lot's station in life should
always associate with mere sheep-shearers, drovers and the like. If
they got to Sodom there would be nice parties, dances and all sorts of
things! Of
course the people were a little loose and rather fast–they went to
plays where modesty was shocked and gathered in admiration around
performers whose lives were openly wanton–but then you see one must be
fashionable and wink at a good deal! We cannot expect all people to be
saints and, no doubt, they have their good points. By some such talk
Mistress Lot gained her husband over to her way of thinking.
They did not mean to actually go into the worst society of Sodom, but
they intended to make a careful selection and go only a little way.
Surely they could be trusted to know where to stop. So they pitched the
tent towards Sodom where it was within an easy walk of the town–a
little separated, but not far. If anything did happen that was very bad
they could move away and no harm would be done–but until they saw the
harm of it they liked the neighborhood and the ways of the townsfolk.
It was no doubt wise, they said, to go and see Sodom and know the
people, for it would be ridiculous to condemn what they had not seen!
They would therefore try it and give the young people some idea of what
the world was like.
Very sweet the city life became. The free and easy ways of Sodom came
to be enjoyable. Not the gross part of Sodom life–Lot could not bear
that–and it made Mistress a bit uncomfortable at times, but the
liberal spirit, the fine free bearing of the people, their gaiety and
artistic culture were quite to her mind and so she was right glad when
her husband put away the old tent, had a sale of the sheep and lived as
a retired grazier in the west end of the city. I think I am not
mistaken in the conjecture that Mistress Lot's influence brought her
husband there and when there, introduced him to the best families and
found suitors for the daughters who had been fully imbued with the
liberal ideas of the place. At any rate, whatever were Lot's faults,
she was a partaker in them. She was with him in the choosing the plain
of Jordan; with him in the pitching of the tent towards Sodom; with him
in actually settling in Sodom and I could almost hope with him in
bearing as good a protest as they could against the vilest of Sodom's
sins–but certainly with him in giving up the strictness and severity
of the separated life.
Yet at last she was separated from him forever! For his errors,
notwithstanding their grievous mischief to him, did not utterly destroy
the life of God in his soul. As for her, she never had any spiritual
life and now, when she is called to leave Sodom, she shows her love to
it by a distinct disobedience to God and an open turning to the doomed
city. And so she perishes. Oh, you that are Christian people because
your friends are Christian people! You that associate with us because
it happens to be the way in which you were brought up! The time will
come when the secret attachment of your hearts towards a giddy world
will show itself most clearly and in a fatal moment you will give a
look of love towards sin which will prove you do not belong to the
people of God! Then will it happen to you according to the word of the
Apostle, "It had been better for them not to have known the way of
righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy
commandment delivered unto them."
II. And now, secondly, "Remember Lot's wife" and remember that SHE WENT
SOME WAY TOWARDS BEING SAVED. Mistress Lot so far believed the message
that came to her about the destruction of the city that she was
awakened. She rose early as her husband did and she prepared to leave
the house. She ran down the streets; she passed the city gate; she
reached the open plain along with her husband. She was willing, for a
while, to run with him, following his example. She did so for a
considerable distance till she began to think over what she was doing
and to consider what she was leaving. And then she slackened her pace
and lingered behind.
Remember, then, that she did go part of the way towards safety and yet
she perished! And so many may go part of the way towards Christ and
they may go a little way out of the world–but if their hearts still
linger with the ungodly, they will perish, notwithstanding all. There
is one very solemn thought and that is that the angels' hand had
pressed her wrist. When they said, "Up, get you gone" and Lot
lingered–the men laid hold upon his hand and the hand of his wife. So
it is expressly said. An angel's hand had pressed her wrist to draw her
forth to safety and she had gone a little way under that sacred
constraint–and yet she perished.
Some of you may have had spiritual touches upon the conscience and
heart which you will never be able to quite forget and the
responsibility of this will cling to you, though you have drawn back
from godliness and your heart cries after vanity and lusts after its
idols. This woman was actually out of Sodom and she was almost in Zoar,
the refuge city, and yet she perished! How near she was to the little
city of escape, I cannot tell, but she was certainly almost there and
yet she perished. Almost saved, but not quite. Let me repeat those
words, for they describe some of you who are present at this hour–and
they may be your epitaph if you do not mind what you are about–"ALMOST
SAVED, BUT NOT
QUITE." Escaped from the vilest form of sin, but not truly in Christ!
The mind not weaned from its idols, iniquity not given up in the soul,
though perhaps given up in outward deed!
O you who are ALMOST SAVED, BUT NOT QUITE, "Remember Lot's wife."
III. This brings me to a third point of remembrance, which is
this–remember that though she went some way
towards escape, SHE DID ACTUALLY PERISH THROUGH SIN. The first sin that
she committed was that she lingered
behind. Moses tells us, "Lot's wife looked back from behind him." That
is, the good old man was making such haste as he could, but she, though
she had run side by side with him, lingered in the rear–I should not
wonder but what the same angel had one of them by the right hand and
the other by the left while the other angel brought the two daughters
on behind. But Lot's wife slackened her pace and fell behind.
That is the first sin with most people who profess religion, but are
not true to God–they begin to backslide by creeping along very
slowly–they are not half so earnest as they used to be, so they lag
behind. One service a day is sufficient. A very little reading of the
Bible contents them. They do not quite give up the appearance of
prayer, but still there is very little of it. They do not see the good
of being in such a fury over religion. They do not see why they should
exercise any sacred violence to take the kingdom by force. They linger.
It is because, after all, the world is master of their hearts! They
would, if they dared, be as worldly and as ungodly as others–and they
finally prove their true character by slackening their pace.
Having slackened her pace, the next thing she did was she disbelieved
what had been told her. You must remember that their flight out of
Sodom was to be an act of faith, for the angel said, "Look not behind
you." That Sodom was to be destroyed did not appear at all likely, for
it was a bright morning. They were to fly with as much haste as if they
could see the fire-shower falling, but they were not to see it. Their
flight was to be urged forward by faith in the angels' words. Faith may
be as well exhibited by not looking as by looking. Faith is a look at
Christ, but faith is a not looking at the things which are behind.
Lot's wife saw the sun rising, so we are told–"the sun had risen upon
the earth when Lot entered into Zoar."
She saw the bright dawning and everything lit up with it and it came
across her mind–"It cannot be true! The city is not being destroyed.
What a lovely morning! Why are we thus running away from house, goods,
friends and everything else on such a bright, clear morning as this?"
She did not truly believe–there was no real faith in her heart–and
therefore she disobeyed the law of her safety and turned her face
towards Sodom. Yet, mark you, she had received the angels in her house;
she had seen them blind the wicked mob around her door; she had heard
their majestic words of persuasion and felt their kind compulsion–she
had plenty of evidence that God was speaking–but she doubted the truth
of His Word and here was the very essence of her sin!
What if some of you that have mingled with the godly–and have been
numbered with them and have participated in their worship,
should–nevertheless come short because of unbelief? It is by no means
improbable, for out of all that came out of Egypt there were only TWO
that entered into Canaan! They could not enter in because of
unbelief–their carcasses fell in the wilderness. May it never come to
pass with any of us that we shall leave our carcasses outside of the
eternal hope because we, too, do not believe in Him who is invisible,
but must walk according to the sight of the eyes! Having gotten so far
as lingering and doubting, her next movement was a direct act of
rebellion–she turned her head– she was told not to look, but she
dared to look.
Rebellion is as much seen in the breach of what appears to be a little
command as in the violation of a great precept. Our fall at the first
came from the plucking of forbidden fruit–and this woman's death came
by a look! Take care of little things. There is life in a look and here
is a case in which there was death in a look. She looked, but why did
she look? I suppose it was this–her heart was that way. She loved
Sodom and she abhorred the separated life. She had led her husband and
her children away from the peculiar people of God, for she felt that
she would rather mix with the reprobate multitude than with the chosen
few! She was not of the spirit that could walk with God, alone–she
clung to society and to sin. Though she was running for her life, she
thought of her household stuff and of the ease of Sodom–and she looked
back with lingering eyes because she wanted to be there.
And it came to this, that as her eyes went back, her whole body would
have gone back if time had been allowed. She already lingered. She
would have soon turned. That one glance betrayed which way her soul was
going! A little thing in professors may show what they are and we may
readily betray the inward turning of the soul by an act as simple as
that of
turning the neck to look towards Sodom. This was her sin. Now, dear
Friends, let us remember Lot's wife, each one of us, by learning a
personal lesson. Here is a hard thing–we must go outside the camp or
utterly fail. Can you maintain the life of God and walk with Christ and
be separate from the world?
Many of you cannot. You may pretend to do so, but you cannot, it is
beyond you. I fear that the number of true Christians in the world is
very much less than we suppose. We are encumbered with a host of people
who call themselves Christians, but are as much of the world as other
people–whose inheritance is in the world, whose pleasure is in the
world, whose speech is worldly–and who are altogether of the world.
And because they are of the world the world loves its own and,
therefore, there is little or no strife between them and the world!
Alas, I fear the Church is not true to itself and, therefore, the world
begins to love it. It says, "You have come to live with us and do as we
do. You do not bear your awkward protests as you used to do and so we
need not to burn you as we did your fathers. You are hail fellows well
with us and, therefore, we will treat you kindly."
Only let as live as Christ lived and we shall find the dogs of this
world howling at us as they used to do at our forefathers! My Hearers,
can you live the separated life? If you can, God help you and bless you
in it! But if you cannot, remember though you do not so go into Sodom
as to indulge in its most gross sins, yet the very looking at it, the
wishing for it, the desiring to be there shows where your heart is and
your heart's tendency is your true character. You will be judged
according to the going of your heart. If your heart goes toward the
mountain to escape and if you have desired to be with Christ to be His
separated follower, you shall be saved.
But if your heart still goes after evil and sin, his servants you are
whom you obey and from your evil master you shall get your black
reward!
IV. Here comes our remembrance of Lot's wife in the fourth and most
solemn place and that is–remember that HER DOOM WAS TERRIBLE.
"Remember Lots wife." Remember that she perished with the same doom as
that which happened to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah but that
doom befell her at the gates of Zoar. Oh, if I must be damned, let it
be with the mass of the ungodly having always been one of them! To get
up to the very gates of Heaven and to perish there will be a most awful
thing! To have lived with God's people. To have been numbered with them
and to be joined to them by ties of blood–and then, after all, to
perish–will be horrible, indeed! To have heard the Gospel. To have
felt the Gospel, too, in a measure, and even to have amended one's life
because of it. To have escaped from the filthiest corruption of the
world and to have become moral, amiable, excellent and yet to still not
have been weaned from the world, not to have been divorced from sin and
so to perish–the thought is intolerable!
That same brine and brimstone which fell upon the inhabitants of the
four cities overtook Lot's wife! She was on the margin of the shower
and as it fell she was salted with tar–she was turned into a pillar of
salt where she stood! Dreadful doom! On the verge of mercy to be slain
by justice! On the brink of salvation to be the victim of eternal
wrath! This came upon her all of a sudden, too. What a picture! She
stops as she is fleeing–she turns her head! She scarcely looks! The
gaze is not long enough to single out her own house–and, lo, she is
turned into a pillar! The fire-salt has fallen on her! She will never
move again! She had not time to start or turn and, with her neck just
as it was, she stands as a statue of salt–a warning to all who should
pass that way.
I do not suppose Lot's wife to be standing there now, as some travelers
have imagined–the pillar was not even there in Christ's day, for if it
had been, as Bengel very properly remarks, our Lord would have said,
"See Lot's wife." But as she was not there, He said, "Remember" her.
Her doom came all of a sudden, without a further warning or a moment's
time to consider. What if sudden death should strike some of you down
at this moment? You professors who still love the world–what if you
now fell dead? You professed Christians who sneak in among the ungodly
to have a suck at their pleasures, suppose you should be struck down in
the theater one of these days! You that pretend to be Christians and
frequent the dance saloons–suppose you should fall dead there! It
would not be a new thing under the sun, for God deals severely with
those who profess to come under His Covenant–He has jealous laws for
those who join His Church and yet have not the Grace of God in their
hearts.
These men die not the death of common men, but are often overtaken by
strange punishments that the world may see that the Lord has set a wall
of fire around His Church which none may break through on peril of
their lives. Ananias and Sapphira entered the Church, but they could
not live there–a glance of Peter's eyes and they fell dead before him!
Such judgments still purge the ranks of the professing Church as all
that observe must know, for the Lord will be sanctified of
them that come near to Him. "For this cause," says the Apostle, "some
are sickly among you, and many sleep," because the discipline of God
goes on in the midst of His visible Church. He lets the world alone
till the fire-shower comes, but to those that profess to be His people,
He is always a jealous God. I speak strong things–strong things are
needed in these compromising days. May the Holy Spirit impress these
weighty facts on all your hearts.
The worst point, perhaps, about the perishing of Lot's wife lay in that
she perished in the very act of sin and had no space for repentance
given her. In the instant she turned her head she was a pillar of salt.
It is a dreadful thing to die in the very act of sin–to be caught away
by the justice of God while the transgression is being perpetrated! Yet
such a thing may happen and let those who profess to be Christians and
yet parley with sin, "remember Lot's wife" and how swift God is to deal
out His judgment against professors who betray His holy name and cause.
I cannot help going back to the text I started with, which was one of
my own making, and that is, "Remember Lot." Though Lot himself was a
righteous man and escaped from the doom of the wicked city, yet I
cannot help tracing the death of Lot's wife, in some degree, to her
husband.
When a man walks with God and imitates God, he gets to beget
character–that is Abraham. When a man walks with a holy man and
imitates him he may rise to be a good character but he will be a weak
one–that is Lot. But when one walks with Lot, the weak character, and
only copies him, the result will be a failure–that is Lot's wife. It
is like the boy's copy book. If he will copy the top line, the boy
makes an Abraham line. But if the next time he does not look at the top
line, but imitates the second–that makes a Lot line–very far short of
the first. If he next copies No. 3, the Lot line, the result will be a
poor affair–that is Lot's wife. Beloved, we are to live having the
perfect Father for our example, looking and following in His steps! And
if we do so by the power of the Spirit, we shall reach a grand, noble,
Abrahamic character.
But suppose you get to imitate some good man and he is your standard?
You will make a second-rate Christian! It will be a weak affair, like
Lot. And then if your wife and children get to copying you, oh, the
mischief that must come of it! Lot ought to have been firmer, more
steadfast, more thorough. He had no business going to Sodom. If he had
said to his wife, "No, my Wife, we belong to a chosen people. God
called us out of Haran and away from the gods of our fathers that we
might live a separated life. And here I am going to stay and you must
stay with me," she would have had to obey, or else if she had not done
so, Lot was not to do evil to please his wife. She could not have
learned the ways of Sodom– she might have given her heart, still, to
the world, but she could not have been so clearly mixed up with it and
her daughters could not have been so evil as they were if he had
resolved to live apart from the town's people.
I Believe that fathers and husbands ought to take the lead in the
management of their families and parents are bound to arrange their
households after a godly fashion. Do not say, "Oh, we cannot manage our
families." You must do it! Eli failed in this and, instead of being
firm, he timidly said, "Do not do this, my sons." Poor dear old Eli–he
did not like to get into trouble with his sons by finding fault with
them. But what did his softness cost him? The Lord smote his family
because he had not ordered his household aright. If Christian men leave
their families to go anyway they choose, they will soon find the Lord
has a quarrel with them. And if the children and if the wife should,
after all, perish, it will be a horrible thought for the head of the
household, even if he is a saved man, that it was his ill example which
caused their ruin.
It was partly Lot's own doing that his wife became what she was. If Lot
had never gone to Sodom, his wife would not have perished near it. Look
to yourselves lest you lead others astray! Keep near to God and you
will be blessed and become a blessing to others. Abraham did not have
this trouble with Sarah, nor Isaac with Rebekah, for they walked with
God and their influence was felt in their tents. Live near to God and
let your own life be according to the command which God gave the
Patriarch–"Walk with Me and be you perfect," and you shall see that He
will bless your household and your children after you.
But if you do not thus walk before the Lord, you will have to "remember
Lot's wife." May God add His blessing on these words, for Jesus' sake.
Amen.
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The First Note of My Song