Remember Lot's Wife

Luke 17 verse 32 says, Remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. Now I want to read about that woman.

Go back to Genesis please and chapter 18. Verse 20 of Genesis 18 and the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah was great, because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which has come unto me, and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood yet before the Lord.

And he prays and he asks God if there are fifty righteous in the city, will he spare it? And God said he will. And then he came down to 45 and to 50 and to 30 and to 20 and to 10. And God said if there are ten righteous found in the city, I'll spare them.

But they couldn't be found. Now look at chapter 19. Verse 12, And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides son-in-law, thy sons and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast of the city? Bring them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is wax and grate before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.

And Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get you out of this place, for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed unto them as one that mocked. Look at verse 15, When the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, thy two daughters, which are here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.

And while he lingered, the man laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful unto him, and they brought him forth, and set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain, escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. Verse 20, Lot says, Behold, now this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one, let me escape hither.

Is it not a little one, and my soul shall live? Verse 22, God says, Haste thee, escape thither, for I cannot do anything till thou become thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zor. The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zor.

Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

And Abram got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain. And beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. And it came to pass that God destroyed the cities of the plain.

God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the old world, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot dwelt. Now this is a very sad, sad event in the history of the nation. I was thinking, why does God say, remember Lot's wife? Memory is a remarkable thing.

I referred, I think yesterday, to the days of World War II, when our country was bombed by the Japanese Naval Air Force. Hundreds and hundreds of men lost their lives in Pearl Harbor. And right across our nation, in the post offices, were pictures of Uncle Sam, with his tall striped hat, and his uniform.

And he was pointing, and underneath were these words, remember Pearl Harbor. The nation sought to instill patriotism in the people of this country, so they might rally and group together to combat the enemy. Remember Pearl Harbor.

And the day came when the victory was won. Those Japanese Naval and Air Force officers lay down their swords on a table on the deck of that big battleship, the Missouri, that I've seen often. And they were brought to their knees.

The terms were unconditional surrender. But it was that sneak attack that aroused the patriotism in our country. They never forgot it.

Remember Pearl Harbor. Now God wants you to remember Lot's wife. I want to suggest a number of reasons, very simply, at the close of this meeting.

The first thing I note, she was born in a doomed city. God looked down from heaven, and he saw the corruption. Not only Sodom and Gomorrah, but Admah and Zerboam, the cities of the plain.

And when God saw the wickedness of this world, he said, I'm going to destroy them. I wonder what he thinks in 2016, and the month of October, when he looks down on the city of La Crosse, and all the rest of this land. I wonder what God thinks.

Certainly, we're living in a day that is just like the days of Lot. You remember in the days of Noah, God tells us they were eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving, and marriage. They knew not until the flood came, took them all away.

What's wrong with eating, and drinking, and marrying, and giving, and marriage? Nothing. That's just normal existence. But they forgot God.

But in the days of Lot, it was marked by promiscuity, that we see in our day. No mention of marriage, and giving, and marriage in the days of Lot. Just corruption, sin, and lawlessness.

I read a verse recently. Let me just read it to you, lest I misquote it. It's in chapter 1 of Habakkuk.

Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk. Chapter 1. Listen to what God says in verse 2 of chapter 1. How long shall I cry, and thou not hear, and cry unto thee of violence? God says, why dost thou show me iniquity, and cause me to behold grievance? For spoiling and violence are before me. Verse 4. Therefore, the law is slacked.

The judgment doth never go forth. The wicked doth compass the righteous. Therefore, wrong judgment proceedeth.

Does that describe our day? Violence, lawlessness, the law is slacked. Everything seems to go by the board, and there's absolutely no control. That's like the days of Lot.

And God said, I'm going to destroy them. They were doomed for judgment, and the fire fell and destroyed those cities. Some years ago, I have read of the island of Martinique down in the West Indies.

It was their carnival week, all of their drunken orgy that goes on for about a week. And in the midst of that activity, they crucified a sow, a pig. Crucified it in mockery of the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus.

But you know what the Bible says? God is not mocked. God wouldn't allow ungodly sinners to mock the crucifixion of His Son, and in the midst of that drunken orgy, there was a volcano called Mount Pelee. It erupted, and in four hours, there were 30,000 people died on the island of Martinique.

Judgment fell. I want to tell you, dear soul, if you're not saved today, you're in danger of the judgment of God. You're only playing at your existence.

You've heard the gospel, likely most in the meeting here, and you know you're a sinner, and you know you're going to be in hellfire, and in the lake of fire for eternity. If you die as you are, but you just linger. That's what it says about Lot and his wife.

They lingered. That's what they're doing. And so she was born under the sentence of death.

Something else we read in this chapter. She had an uncle that prayed for her. You know, the prayers of your loved ones are no guarantee that you'll be saved.

I could tell you of godly men that have gone to heaven, and their children are still living, and they're not saved yet. But the prayers of loved ones are no guarantee that you'll be saved. Some years ago, Mr. Crawford and I were preaching the gospel down in Matoika in Virginia.

That's where one of our older preachers, Sam McCune, lived, and he had a son who was a dentist. And one day, Mr. Crawford and I visited him, and he took us into a room, and there was a wall covered with silver platters and silver trophies, and he pointed to them. He said, there's the fruit of a wasted life.

He was a tennis professional. That's what he lived for, playing tennis. He wasn't saved.

But then he told us, when I saw my father lying in the casket, I thought, he'll never pray for me again. And shortly after, he got saved, and his dear father didn't live to see it. So because you have a loved one that prays for you, it's no guarantee that you'll be in heaven.

Lot's wife had an uncle that prayed for her and her husband. But more than that, she had a saved husband. Lot was a saved man.

You wouldn't know it until you come to the New Testament, where we read that he was a righteous man, his righteous soul was vexed from day to day with the filthy conversation of the Lord. He was a true Christian. And I could tell you of some who have a saved partner, but they're still not saved.

Wonderful when both in the family circle are saved. Wonderful, I'll never forget when our last child of five professed to be saved. I thought, they're all in the ark now.

It humbles you to think about it. Undeserving we are, but it's all God's doings. And if you have a family member not saved, let me encourage you to keep praying.

You may not live to see them saved, but our God is a God who hears and answers prayer in his time. So she had a saved husband. I want you to think of the message that she heard.

God had said he was going to destroy the city. They were told to get out of this place. We're going to destroy it.

But Lot seemed on to them as one that mocked. How often have you heard the message of the gospel? Times without number. When my wife fell about a year before she passed away a couple of years ago, she got a couple of compression fractures in the vertebrae and we had to get what they call home help to come in every night to help her to learn to walk again.

One night there was a young woman came to the door, 33 years of age. And in talking with her, we learned that she had three little children. And when she found out I was a preacher, she said, you know, Mr. McCullough, there comes a time in life when you realize that something's missing.

And I said, I can tell you what that is. And I can tell you what you need. And I told her how she could know for sure that she would be in heaven.

She had been raised a Roman Catholic. She and her husband had stopped going to church. But she came several nights, maybe three nights in the week, had all kinds of questions.

I told her how I was brought to know the Savior. My wife told her how she was saved. And after a number of weeks, I ventured to give her that gospel tract, God's way of salvation.

And the next night when she came back, by this time, she was calling me, Eric. When I opened the door to let her in, she said, Eric, I'm saved. I said, oh, that's interesting.

How do you know that? She said, because Jesus died for my sins. And she opened up that tract, and she had highlighted with yellow these words. I don't feel saved, but I know I'm saved, because the word of God says so.

And she's as happy as can be. I want to tell you, God blesses His word in His own way. This woman was warned of her danger.

She was told of the judgment. And you know that judgment is coming. Something I notice is missing in a lot of our gospel preaching, and it was what spoke to me more than the fact that I was going to hell.

I knew that. I was a sinner, and I knew it. But the fact that the Lord was coming.

At any moment, we can almost hear His footfall on the threshold of the door, and I want to tell you, He may come today. Before the midnight hour, before the morning sun arise, the Lord may come, and all of your opportunities will be over. That's why you need the Savior.

She was told the way of escape, warned of her danger, and actually, there were angels that took her by the hand. These angels, they hastened, they said to Lot, take thy wife, thy two daughters, lest thou be consumed. And while he lingered, the angels laid hold of his hand, and upon the hand of his wife.

How close she was, actually holding an angel by the hand. But you know, Lot's wife desired the sins of the city. She just looked back.

One backward look, that was all. God said to flee, look not behind thee, escape for thy life. But she looked back, and we read that she became a pillar of salt.

I remember reading from Josephus, who lived about the time of Christ some years ago. I read that his comment on this chapter was that Lot's wife became a pillar of salt, and Josephus says, it's there until this day, for I have seen it. This literally happened.

She became a pillar of salt. She disobeyed God's command. She had one last look back toward the city.

I wonder what you're occupied. What keeps you from the Savior? Some darling sin? Maybe something no one knows about but you and God. That's your interest.

It's like an idol coming in between you and God's salvation. She was almost saved. They were out of the city, almost, but she perished.

Dear soul, you be careful. If God speaks to you when you listen to the gospel, and there are thoughts come into your mind about my need of a Savior, and the fact that I'm a sinner in the eyes of God, and I'm in danger of perishing, do all that you can to fan that into a flame. Don't stifle the dealings of God.

Here's a woman. She was awakened. She was almost saved, but she perished.

And when Abraham stood in the morn and he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, he saw the smoke of the country just going up. The judgment fell, and God has said, judgment is coming, and he says, the Lord is coming. Be wonderful if you would realize that I need this salvation, and I'm going to make up my mind within my power and my ability.

I'm going to do all that's possible to see if I can get this salvation. You know, there's nothing else worthwhile in this life. When I was a boy and we moved over to Ireland, my folks hadn't seen their parents for 17 years.

There were no planes flying from New York to London. It was five days by boat, and so my father decided that he and my mother would go back to visit their parents before they were all gone. My mother's father had passed away, and they thought they'd like to see them again.

So they made that five-day trip on the boat, and I always say it was the best year of my life. The year I went to school, I learned more in one year there than I did in four years high school here, because the teacher had a little bamboo cane, and she knew how to use it for every math question that you missed or every spelling word you got wrong. You got a whack on the cane on your hand.

But I was taken to gospel meetings, and I listened to a little Scotchman, Mr. David Craig. He preached for five weeks, six weeks from Isaiah's prophecy every night. I don't remember one of his messages, but I remember every night he gave out a beautiful hymn, Out of the ivory palaces into this world of woe, only his great eternal love made my Savior go.

And those meetings came to an end, and I thought, I'll never be in heaven. God knows I want to be saved. Why can't I get this salvation? And I, for the first time, being persuaded by some of my classmates to go in and talk to the preacher, we sat on the little chairs in a Sunday school room, and he opened his big Bible, and he showed verses to me that I could have quoted to him.

And finally, like a wise man, he said, We'll pray. And I walked about a mile home to the little cottage where we were living, and just as I got there, his car drove up, and he got out, and he asked me to sit down beside him on the running board. Some of you don't know what a running board is.

It used to be a step on the side of the car where you could get up into the car. He thought of an illustration. He told me of a man that was bent on suicide.

The days of sailing vessels. He jumped overboard, and one of his shipmates lifted a life ring with a coil of rope on it and threw it out over the waves, and they all cheered as it landed right over his upraised arms in the water. But then, to their horror, they watched as he took that life ring and threw it as far as he was able to throw it.

He didn't want to be saved. He drowned. And Mr. Craig said, That life ring is like the gospel.

The Lord is offering it to you. But it didn't help me. I spent another sleepless night.

The next morning, a Monday morning, my mother came into the room, and she said, Eric, are you saved yet? No. I said, Mother, but I'd love to be saved. And she opened a little Bible on the dresser to Isaiah 53 and 5. Mary and I were saved through that same verse.

She said, Put your name in it. And I read, But he was wounded for my transgressions. He was bruised for my iniquities.

The chastisement of my peace was upon him. And I didn't finish the verse. It just dawned on me, that's why Jesus died.

As if I was the only sinner in all this world. He suffered and died on the cross to put away my sin. And I was saved.

I was happy. I tell you, friend, that's what you need. To rest on what God says.

Forget trying to believe it. The late Mr. Oliver Smith that I preached with often in earlier days. At times he would murder the English language.

And he would often say, Believing never died for anybody. But that's terrible grammar, you know that. We say, Believing didn't die.

He would say, Believing never died for anybody. But then he would say, But Christ died. That's the answer.

Christ. Not your believing. The work is done.

Finished. We heard that last night. And God wants you just to accept what he says to be true.