0:00
0:00
Chapter 13
Now to be a Daniel in Babylon, an Obadiah in Ahab's house, an Abijah in Jeroboam's family, a saint in Nero's court, and a righteous man in Sodom, a man must have the grace of God. Without grace it would be impossible. Another evidence is that he vexed his soul with the unlawful deeds he beheld around him, 2 Peter 2.8. He was wounded, grieved, pained, and hurt at the sight of sin.
This was feeling like holy David who says, I beheld the transgressors and was grieved, because they kept not thy word. Rivers of waters ran down mine eyes, because they keep not thy law. Psalm 119, verses 136 and 158.
This was feeling like Saint Paul who says, I have great sorrow and continual heaviness in my heart, for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh. Romans 9, verses 2 and 3. Nothing will account for this but the grace of God. Another evidence is that he vexed his soul from day to day with the unlawful deeds he saw, 2 Peter 2.8. He did not at length become cool and lukewarm about sin as many do.
Familiarity and habits do not take off the fine edge of his feelings as too often is the case. Many a man is shocked and startled at the first sight of wickedness, and yet becomes at last so accustomed to see it that he views it with comparative unconcern. This is especially the case with those who live in towns and cities, or with English people who travel on the continent.
Such persons often become utterly indifferent about Sabbath breaking, and many forms of open sin. But it was not so with Lot, and this again is a great mark of the reality of his grace. Such in one was Lot, a just and righteous man, a man sealed and stamped as an heir of heaven by the Holy Ghost himself.
Before we pass on, let us remember that a true Christian may have many a blemish, many a defect, many an infirmity, and yet be a true Christian nevertheless. We do not despise gold because it is mixed with much dross. We must not undervalue grace because it is accompanied by much corruption.
Read on, and you will find that Lot paid dearly for his lingering. But do not forget as you read that Lot was a child of God. 2. Let us pass on to the second thing I spoke of.
What does the text, already quoted, tell us about Lot's behavior? The words are wonderful and astounding. He lingered. The more we consider the time and circumstances, the more wonderful we shall think them.
Lot knew the awful condition of the city in which he stood. The cry of its abominations had waxen great before the Lord. Genesis 19.13 And yet he lingered.
Lot knew the fearful judgment coming down on all within its walls. The angels had said plainly, The Lord hath sent us to destroy it. Genesis 19.13 And yet he lingered.
Lot knew that God was a God who always kept his word, and if he said a thing, he would surely do it. He could hardly be Abraham's nephew and live long with him, and not be aware of this. Yet he lingered.
Lot believed there was danger, for he went to his sons-in-law and warned them to flee. Up, he said, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. Genesis 19.14 And yet he lingered.
Lot saw the angels of God standing by, waiting for him and his family to go forth. He heard the voice of those ministers of wrath ringing in his ears to hasten him. Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
Genesis 19.15 And yet he lingered. He was slow when he should have been quick, backward when he should have been forward, trifling when he should have been hastening, loitering when he should have been hurrying, cold when he should have been hot. It is passing strange.
It seems almost incredible. It appears too wonderful to be true. But the Spirit writes it down for our learning, and so it was.
And yet wonderful as it may appear at first sight, I fear there are many of the Lord Jesus Christ's people very like Lot. I ask every reader of this paper to mark well what I say. I repeat it that there may be no mistake about my meaning.
I have shown you that Lot lingered. I say that there are many Christian men and Christian women in this day very like Lot. There are many real children of God who appear to know far more than they live up to, and see far more than they practice, and yet continue in this state for many years.
Wonderful that they go as far as they do, and yet go no further. They acknowledge the head, even Christ, and love the truth. They like sound preaching, and assent to every article of the gospel doctrine when they hear it.
But still there is an indescribable something which is not satisfactory about them. They are constantly doing things which disappoint the expectations of their ministers and of more advanced Christian friends. Marvelous that they should think as they do, and yet stand still.
They believe in heaven, and yet seem faintly to long for it, and in hell, and yet seem little to fear it. They love the Lord Jesus, but the work they do for him is small. They hate the devil, but they often appear to tempt him to come to them.
They know the time is short, but they live as if it were long. They know they have a battle to fight, yet a man might think they were at peace. They know they have a race to run, yet they often look like people sitting still.
They know the judge is at the door, and there is wrath to come, and yet they appear half asleep. Astonishing they should be what they are, and yet be nothing more. And what shall we say of these people? They often puzzle godly friends and relations.
They often cause great anxiety. They often give rise to great doubts and searchings of heart. But they may be classed under one sweeping description.
They are all brethren and sisters of Lot. They linger. These are they who get the notion into their minds that it is impossible for all believers to be so very holy and very spiritual.
They allow that eminent holiness is a beautiful thing. They like to read about it in books, and even to see it occasionally in others. But they do not think that all are meant to aim at so high a standard.
At any rate, they seem to make up their minds it is beyond their reach. These are they who get into their heads false ideas of charity, as they call it. They are morbidly afraid of being illiberal and narrow-minded, and are always flying into the opposite extreme.
They would feign please everybody and suit everybody, and be agreeable to everybody. But they forget they ought first to be sure that they please God. These are they who dread sacrifices and shrink from self-denial.
They never appear able to apply our Lord's command to take up the cross, and cut off the right hand and pluck out the right eye. Matthew 5, verses 29 and 30. They cannot deny that our Lord used these expressions, but they never find a place for them in their religion.
They spend their lives in trying to make the gate more wide and the cross more light, but they never succeed. These are they who are always trying to keep in with the world. They are ingenious in discovering reasons for not separating decidedly, and in framing plausible excuses for attending questionable amusements and keeping up questionable friendships.
One day you are told that they are attending a Bible reading. The next day perhaps you hear of them going to a ball. One day they fast, or go to the Lord's table and receive the sacrament.
Another day they go to the race course in the morning and the opera at night. One day they are almost in hysterics under the sermon of some sensational preacher. Another day they are weeping over some novel.
They are constantly laboring to persuade themselves that to mix a little with worldly people on their own ground does good. Yet in their case it is very clear they do no good and only get harm. These are they who find it in their hearts to quarrel with their besetting sin, whether it be sloth, indolence, ill-temper, pride, selfishness, impatience, or what it may.
They allow it to remain a tolerably quiet and undisturbed tenant in their hearts. They say it is their health and their constitutions, or their temperaments, or their trials, or their way. Their father, or mother, or grandmother was so before themselves and they are sure they cannot help it.
And when you meet after the absence of a year or so, you hear the same thing. But all, all may be summed up in one single sentence. They are the brethren and sisters of Lot.
They linger. Ah, if you are a lingering soul you are not happy. You know you are not.
It would be strange indeed if you were so. Lingering is the sure destruction of a happy Christianity. A lingerer's conscience forbids him to enjoy inward peace.
Perhaps one time you did run well, but you have left your first love. You have never felt the same comfort since, and you never will till you return to your first works. Revelation 2.5 Like Peter, when the Lord Jesus was taken prisoner, you are following the Lord afar off.
And like him, you will find the way not pleasant, but hard. Come and look at Lot. Come and mark Lot's history.
Come and consider Lot's lingering and be wise. 3. Let us consider, next, the reasons that may account for Lot's lingering. This is a question of great importance and I ask most serious attention to it.
To know the root of a disease is one step towards a remedy. He that is forewarned is forearmed. Who is there among the readers of this paper that feels secure and has no fear of lingering? Come and listen while I tell you a few passages of Lot's history.
Do as he did and it will be a miracle indeed if you do not get into the same state of soul at last. One thing then I observe in Lot is this. He made a wrong choice in early life.
There was a time when Abraham and Lot lived together. They both became rich and could live together no longer. Abraham, the elder of the two, in the true spirit of humility and courtesy gave Lot the choice of the country when they resolved to part company.
If thou, he said, wilt take the left hand then I will go to the right. Or if thou depart to the right hand then I will go to the left. Genesis 13 verse 9 And what did Lot do? We are told he saw that the plains of Jordan near Sodom were rich, fertile and well watered.
It was a good land for cattle and full of pastures. He had large flocks and herds and it just suited his requirements. And this was the land he chose for a residence simply because it was a rich well watered land.
Genesis 13 verse 10 It was near the town of Sodom. He cared not for that. The men of Sodom who would be his neighbors were wicked.
It mattered not. They were sinners before God exceedingly. It made no difference to him.
The pasture was rich. The land was good. He wanted such a country for his flocks and herds.
And before that argument all scruples and doubts if indeed he had any at once went down. He chose by sight and not by faith. He asked no counsel of God to preserve him from mistakes.
He looked to the things of time and not of eternity. He thought of his worldly profit and not of his soul. He considered only what would help him in this life.
He forgot the solemn business of the life to come. This was a bad beginning. But I observe also that Lot mixed with sinners when there was no occasion for his doing so.
We are first told that he pitched his tent toward Sodom. Genesis 13.12 This as I have already shown was a great mistake. But the next time he is mentioned we find him actually living in Sodom itself.
The Spirit says expressly he dwelt in Sodom. Genesis 14.12 His tents were left. The country was forsaken.
He occupied a house in the very streets of that wicked town. We are not told the reason of this change. We are not aware that any occasion could have arisen for it.
We are sure there could have been no command of God. Perhaps his wife liked the town better than the country for the sake of society. It is plain she had no grace herself.
Perhaps she persuaded Lot it was needful for the advantage of his daughters that they might marry and get settled in life. Perhaps the daughters urged living in the town for the sake of gay company. They were evidently light minded young women.
Perhaps Lot liked it himself in order to make more of his flocks and herds. Men never want reasons to confirm their wills. But one thing is very clear.
Lot dwelt in the midst of Sodom without any good cause. When a child of God does these two things which I have named we never need be surprised if we hear by and by unfavorable accounts about his soul. We never need wonder if he becomes deaf to the warning voice of affliction as Lot was Genesis 14 12 and turns out a lingerer in the day of trial and danger as Lot did.
Make a wrong choice in life an unscriptural choice and settle yourself down unnecessarily in the midst of worldly people and I know no surer way to damage your own spirituality and to go backward about your eternal concerns. This is the way to make the pulse of your soul beat feebly and languidly. This is the way to make the edge of your feeling about sin become blunt and dull.
This is the way to dim the eyes of your spiritual discernment till you can scarcely distinguish good from evil and stumble as you walk. This is the way to bring a moral palsy on your feet and limbs and make you go tottering and trembling along the road to Zion as if the grasshopper was a burden. This is the way to sell the past to your worst enemy, to give the devil vantage ground in the battle, to tie your arms in fighting, to fetter your legs in running, to dry up the sources of your strength, to cripple your energies, to cut off your hair like Samson and give yourself into the hands of the Philistines, to put out your own eyes, grind at the mill, and become a slave.
I call on every reader of this paper to mark well what I am saying. Settle these things down in your mind. Do not forget them.
Recollect them in the morning. Recall them to memory at night. Let them sink down deeply into your heart.
If ever you would be safe from lingering, beware of needless mingling with worldly people. Beware of lots choice. If you would not settle down into a dry, dull, sleepy, lazy, barren, heavy, carnal, stupid, torpid state of soul, beware of lots choice.
A. Remember this in choosing a dwelling place or residence. It is not enough that the house is comfortable. The situation good.
The air fine. The neighborhood pleasant. The rent or price small.
The living cheap. There are other things yet to be considered. You must think of your immortal soul.
Will the house you think of help you towards heaven or hell? Is the gospel preached within an easy distance? Is Christ crucified within reach of your door? Is there a real man of God near who will watch over your soul? I charge you, if you love life, not to overlook this. Beware of lots choice. B. Remember this in choosing a calling, a place or profession in life.
It is not enough that the salary is high. The wage is good. The work light.
The advantage is numerous. The prospects of getting on most favorable. Think of your soul, your immortal soul.
Will it be prospered or drawn back? Will you have your Sundays free and be able to have one day in the week for your spiritual business? I beseech you, by the mercies of God, to take heed what you do. Make no rash decision. Look at the place in every light, the light of God as well as the light of the world.
Gold may be bought too dear. Beware of lot's choice. C. Remember this in choosing a husband or wife if you are unmarried.
It is not enough that your eye is pleased, that your tastes are met, that your mind finds congeniality, that there is amiability and affection, that there is a comfortable home for life. There needs something more than this. There is a life yet to come.
Think of your soul, your immortal soul. Will it be helped upwards or dragged downwards by the union you are planning? Will it be made more heavenly or more earthly, drawn nearer to Christ or to the world? Will its religion grow in vigor or will it decay? I pray you, by all your hopes of glory, allow this to enter into your calculations. Think, as old Baxter said, and think and think again before you commit yourself.
Be not ungrateful. Be not unequally yoked. 2 Corinthians 6.14 Matrimony is nowhere named among the means of conversion.
Remember Lot's choice. D. Remember this if you are ever offered a situation on a railway. It is not enough to have good pay and regular employment, the confidence of the directors and the best chance of rising to a higher post.
These things are very well in their way, but they are not everything. How will your soul fare if you serve a railway company that runs Sunday trains? What day in the week will you have for God and eternity? What opportunities will you have for hearing the gospel preached? I solemnly warn you to consider this. It will profit you nothing to fill your purse if you bring leanness and poverty to your soul.
Beware of selling your Sabbath for the sake of a good place. Remember Esau's myth of pottage. Beware of Lot's choice.
Some reader may perhaps think, a believer need not fear. He is the sheep of Christ. He will never perish.
He cannot come to much harm. It cannot be that such small matters can be of great importance. Well, you may think so, but I warn you, if you neglect these matters, your soul will never prosper.
A true believer will certainly not be cast away, although he may linger. But if he does linger, it is vain to suppose that his religion will thrive. Grace is a tender plant.
Unless you cherish it and nurse it well, it will soon become sickly in this evil world. It may droop, though it cannot die. The brightest gold will soon become dim when exposed to a damp atmosphere.
The hottest iron will soon become cold. It requires pain and toil to bring it to red heat. It requires nothing but letting alone, or a little cold water to become black and hard.
You may be an earnest, zealous Christian now. You may feel like David in his prosperity. I shall never be moved.
Psalm 30, verse 6. But be not deceived. You have only got to walk in Lot's steps and make Lot's choice, and you will soon come to Lot's state of soul. Allow yourself to do as he did, presume to act as he acted, and be very sure you will soon discover you have become a wretched lingerer like him.
You will find, like Samson, the presence of the Lord is no longer with you. You will prove to your own shame an undecided, hesitating man in the day of trial. There will come a canker on your religion, and eat of its vitality without your knowing it.
There will come a slow consumption on your spiritual strength, and waste it away insensibly. And at length you will wake up to find your hands hardly able to do the Lord's work, and your feet hardly able to carry you along the Lord's way, and your faith no bigger than a grain of mustard seed, and this perhaps at some turning point in your life, at a time when the enemy is coming in like a flood, and your need is the sorest. Ah, if you would not become a lingerer in religion, consider these things.
Beware of doing what Lot did. 4. Let us inquire now what kind of fruit Lot's lingering spirit bore at last. I would not pass over this point for many reasons, and especially in the present day.
There are not a few who will feel disposed to say, after all, Lot was saved, he was justified, he got to heaven. I want no more. If I do but get to heaven, I shall be content.
If this be the thought of your heart, just stay a moment and listen to me a little longer. I will show you one or two things in Lot's history which deserve attention, and may perhaps induce you to alter your mind. I think it of first importance to dwell upon this subject.
I always will contend that eminent holiness and eminent usefulness are most closely connected, that happiness and following the Lord fully go side by side, and that if believers will linger, they must not expect to be useful in their day and generation, or to be very saintly and Christ-like, or to enjoy great comfort and peace in believing. a. Let us mark then for one thing that Lot did no good among the inhabitants of Sodom. Lot probably lived in Sodom many years.
No doubt he had many precious opportunities for speaking of the things of God, and trying to turn away souls from sin. But Lot seems to have affected just nothing at all. He appears to have had no weight or influence with the people who lived around him.
He possessed none of that respect and reverence which even the men of the world will frequently concede to a bright servant of God. Not one righteous person could be found in all Sodom outside the walls of Lot's home. Not one of his neighbors believed his testimony.
Not one of his acquaintances honored the Lord whom he worshipped. Not one of his servants served his master's God. Not one of all the people from every quarter cared a jot for his opinion when he tried to restrain their wickedness.
This one fellow came into sojourn, they said, and he will needs be a judge. Genesis 19.9 His life carried no weight. His words were not listened to.
His religion drew none to follow him. And truly I do not wonder. As a general rule, lingering souls do no good to the world and bring no credit to God's cause.
Their salt has too little savor to season the corruption around them. They are not epistles of Christ who can be known and read of all. 2 Corinthians 3.2 There is nothing magnetic and attractive in Christ reflecting about their ways.
Let us remember this. b. Let us mark for another thing that Lot helped none of his family, relatives, or connections towards heaven. We are not told how large his family was, but this we know.
He had a wife and two daughters at least in the day he was called out of Sodom. If he had not more children besides. c. But whether Lot's family was large or small, one thing I think is perfectly clear.
There was not one among them all that feared God. d. When he went out and spake to his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and warned them to flee from the judgments coming on Sodom, we are told, he seemed to them as one that mocked. Gen.
19.14 What fearful words those are! It was as good as saying, Who cares for anything you say? So long as the world stands, those things will be a painful proof of the contempt with which a lingerer in religion is regarded. d. And what was Lot's wife? She left the city in his company, but she did not go far. She had not faith to see the need of such a speedy flight.
She left her heart in Sodom when she began to flee. She looked back from behind her husband, in spite of the plaintiff's command not to do so. Gen.
19.17 And was at once turned into a pillar of salt. And what were Lot's two daughters? They escaped indeed, but only to do the devil's work. They became their father's tempters to wickedness, and led him to commit the foulest of sins.
In short, Lot seems to have stood alone in his family. He was not made the means of keeping one soul back from the gates of hell. And I do not wonder.
Lingering souls are seen through by their own families, and when seen through they are despised. Their nearest relatives understand inconsistency if they understand nothing else in religion. They draw the sad, but not unnatural conclusion, surely if he believed all he professes to believe, he would not go on as he does.
Lingering parents seldom have godly children. The eye of the child drinks in far more than the ear. A child will always observe what you do much more than what you say.
Let us remember this. See, let us mark for a third thing that Lot left behind when he died. We know but little about Lot after his flight from Sodom, and all that we do know is unsatisfactory.
His pleading for Zohar, because it was a little one, his departure from Zohar afterwards, and his conduct in the cave, all tell the same story, all show the weakness of the grace that was in him, and how low the state of soul into which he had fallen. We know not how long he lived after his escape. We know not where he died, or when he died, whether he saw Abraham again, what was the manner of his death, what he suffered, or what a gloomy deathbed the deathbed of Lot must have been.
The scripture appears to draw a veil around him on purpose. There is a painful silence about his latter end. He seems to go out like an expiring lamp, and to leave an ill saver behind him.
And had we not been specially told in the New Testament that Lot was just and righteous, I verily believe we should have doubted whether Lot was a saved soul at all. But I do not wonder at his sad end. Lingering believers will generally reap according as they have sown.
Their lingering often meets them when their spirit is departing. They have little peace at the last. They reach heaven to be sure, but they reach it in poor plight, weary and foot sore, in weakness and tears, in darkness and storm.
They are saved, but saved so as by fire. I ask every reader of this paper to consider the three things which I have just mentioned. Do not misunderstand my meaning.
It is amazing to observe how readily people catch at the least excuse for misunderstanding the things that concern their souls. I do not tell you that believers who do not linger will, as a matter of course, be great instruments of usefulness to the world. Nor preached 120 years and none believed him.
The Lord Jesus was not esteemed by his own people, the Jews. Nor yet do I tell you that believers who do not linger will, as a matter of course, be the means of converting their families and relatives. David's children were, many of them, ungodly.
The Lord Jesus was not believed on even by his own brethren. But I do say it is almost impossible not to see some connection between Lot's evil choice and Lot's lingering, and between Lot's lingering and his unprofitableness to his family and the world. I believe the Spirit meant us to see it.
I believe the Spirit meant to make him a beacon to all professing Christians. And I am sure the lessons I have tried to draw from the whole history deserve serious reflection. And now let me speak a few parting words to all who read this paper, and especially to all who call themselves believers in Christ.
I have no wish to make your heart sad. I do not want to give you a gloomy view of the Christian course. My only object is to give you friendly warnings.
I desire your peace and comfort. I would fain see you happy as well as safe, and joyful as well as justified. I speak as I have done for your good.
You live in days when a lingering, lot-like religion abounds. The stream of profession is far broader than it once was, but far less deep in many places. A certain kind of Christianity is almost fashionable now to belong to some party in the Church of England and show a zeal for its interests, to talk about the leading controversies of the day, to buy popular religious books as fast as they come out and lay them on your table, to attend meetings, to ascribe to societies, to discuss the merits of preachers, to be enthusiastic and excited about every new form of sensational religion which crops up.
All these are now comparatively easy and common attainments. They no longer make a person singular. They require little or no sacrifice.
They entail no cross. But to walk closely with God, to be really spiritually minded, to behave like strangers in pilgrims, to be distinct from the world in employment of time, in conversation, in amusement, in dress, to bear a faithful witness for Christ in all places, to leave a savor of our Master in every society, to be prayerful, humble, unselfish, good-tempered, quiet, easily pleased, charitable, patient, meek, to be jealously afraid of all manner of sin and tremblingly alive to our danger from the world, these, these are still rare things. They are not common among those who are called true Christians, and worst of all, the absence of them is not felt and bewailed as it should be.
In a day like this I venture to offer counsel to every believing reader of this paper. I do not turn away from it. Do not be angry with me for plain speaking.
I bid you give diligence to make your calling and election sure. 2 Peter 1.10 I bid you not to be slothful, not to be careless, not to be content with a small measure of grace, not to be satisfied with being a little better than the world. I solemnly warn you not to attempt doing what never can be done.
I mean to serve Christ and yet keep in with the world. I call upon you and beseech you to be a wholehearted Christian, to follow after eminent holiness, to aim at a high degree of sanctification, to live a consecrated life, to present your body a living sacrifice unto God, to walk in the Spirit. Romans 12.1 Galatians 5.25 I charge you and exhort you by all your hopes of heaven and desires of glory, if you will be happy, if you will be useful, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a do not be a fool, be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not do not be a fool, do not be a do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a fool, do not be a do not do not be a fool, do not do not be a fool, do not be a fool, be a us all remember the souls of others as well as our own.
If at any time we see any brother or sister lingering, let us try to awaken them and try to arouse them, try to stir them up. Let us all exhort one another as we have opportunity. Let us provoke unto love and good works.
Hebrews 3, 13 and 10, verse 24. Let us not be afraid to say to each other, brother or sister, have you forgotten Lot? Awake and remember Lot. Awake and linger no more.
Chapter 10, page 164. A woman to be remembered. Remember Lot's wife.
Luke 17, verse 32. There are few warnings in scripture more solemn than that which heads this page. The Lord Jesus says to us, remember Lot's wife.
Lot's wife was a professor of religion. Her husband was a righteous man. 2 Peter 2, 8. She left Sodom with him on the day when Sodom was destroyed.
She looked back towards the city from behind her husband against God's express command, and she was struck dead at once and turned into a pillar of salt. And the Lord Jesus Christ holds her up as a beacon to his church. He says, remember Lot's wife.
It is a solemn warning when we think of the person Jesus names. He does not bid us remember Abraham or Isaac or Jacob or Sarah or Hannah or Ruth. No, he singles out one whose soul was lost forever.
He cries to us, remember Lot's wife. It is a solemn warning when we consider the subject Jesus is upon. He is speaking of his own second coming to judge the world.
He is describing the awful state of unreadiness in which many will be found. The last days are on his mind when he says, remember Lot's wife. It is a solemn warning when we think of the person who gives it.
The Lord Jesus is full of love and mercy and compassion. He is one who will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smoking flax. He could weep over unbelieving Jerusalem and pray for the men that crucified him.
Yet even he thinks it good to remind us of lost souls. Even he says, remember Lot's wife. It is a solemn warning when we think of the persons to whom it was first given.
The Lord Jesus was speaking to his disciples. He was not addressing the scribes and Pharisees who hated him, but Peter, James and John and many others who loved him. Yet even to them he thinks it good to address a caution.
Even to them he says, remember Lot's wife. It is a solemn warning when we consider the manner in which it was given. He does not merely say, beware of following, take heed of imitating, do not be like Lot's wife.
He uses a different word. He says, remember. He speaks as if we were all in danger of forgetting the subject.
He stirs up our lazy memories. He bids us keep the case before our minds. He cries, remember Lot's wife.
I propose to examine the lessons which Lot's wife is meant to teach us. I am sure that her history is full of useful instruction to the church. The last days are upon us.
The second coming of the Lord Jesus draws nigh. The danger of worldliness is yearly increasing in the church. Let us be provided with safeguards and antidotes against the disease that is around us.
And not least, let us become familiar with the story of Lot's wife. There are three things which I shall do in order to bring the subject before our minds in order. One, I will speak of the religious privileges which Lot's wife enjoyed.
Two, I will speak of the sin which Lot's wife committed. Three, I will speak of the judgment which God inflicted upon her. Number one, I will speak first of the religious privileges which Lot's wife enjoyed.
In the days of Abraham and Lot, true saving religion was scarce upon earth. There were no Bibles, no ministers, no churches, no tracts, no missionaries. The knowledge of God was confined to a few favored families.
The greater part of the inhabitants of the world were living in darkness, ignorance, superstition, and sin. Not one in a hundred perhaps had such a good example, such spiritual society, such clear knowledge, such plain warnings as Lot's wife. Compared with millions of her fellow creatures in her time, Lot's wife was a favored woman.
She had a godly man for her husband. She had Abraham, the father of the faithful, for her uncle by marriage. The faith, the knowledge, and the prayers of these two righteous men could have been no secret to her.
It is impossible that she could have dwelt in tents with them for any length of time without knowing whose they were and whom they served. Religion with them was no mere formal business. It was the ruling principle of their lives and the mainspring of all their actions.
All this Lot's wife must have seen and known. This was no small privilege. When Abraham first received the promises, it is probable Lot's wife was there.
When he built his altar by his tent between Hai and Bethel, it is probable she was there. When her husband was taken captive by Shechadomer and delivered by God's interference, she was there. When Melchizedek, king of Salem, came forth to meet Abraham with bread and wine, she was there.
When the angels came to Sodom and warned her husband to flee, she saw them. When they took them by the hand and led them out of the city, she was one of those whom they helped to escape. Once more I say, these were no small privileges.
Yet what good effect had all these privileges on the heart of Lot's wife? None at all. Notwithstanding all her opportunities and means of grace, notwithstanding all her special warnings and messages from heaven, she lived and died graceless, godless, impenitent, and unbelieving. The eyes of her understanding were never opened.
Her conscience was never really aroused and quickened. Her will was never really brought into a state of obedience to God. Her affections were never really set upon things above.
This Reformation audio track is a production of Stillwater's Revival Books. SWRB makes thousands of classic Reformation resources available, free and for sale, in audio, video, and printed formats. Our many free resources, as well as our complete mail-order catalog, containing thousands of classic and contemporary Puritan and Reform books, tapes, and videos at great discounts, is on the web at www.swrb.com. We can also be reached by email at swrb.com, by phone at 780-450-3730, by fax at 780-468-1096, or by mail at 4710-37A Avenue, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6L 3T5.
You may also request a free printed catalog. And remember that John Calvin, in defending the Reformation's regulative principle of worship, or what is sometimes called the scriptural law of worship, commenting on the words of God, which I commanded them not, neither came into my heart. From his commentary on Jeremiah 731, writes, God here cuts off from men every occasion for making evasions, since he condemns by this one phrase, I have not commanded them, whatever the Jews devised.
There is then no other argument needed to condemn superstitions than that they are not commanded by God. For when men allow themselves to worship God according to their own fancies, and attend not to his commands, they pervert true religion. And if this principle was adopted by the Papists, all those fictitious modes of worship in which they absurdly exercise themselves would fall to the ground.
It is indeed a horrible thing for the Papists to seek to discharge their duties towards God by performing their own superstitions. There is an immense number of them, as it is well known, and as it manifestly appears. Were they to admit this principle, that we cannot rightly worship God except by obeying his word, they would be delivered from their deep abyss of error.
The prophet's words then are very important. When he says that God had commanded no such thing, and that it never came to his mind, as though he had said that men assume too much wisdom, when they devise what he never required, nay, what he never knew.