"A Monument to Disobedience"
TEXT: Gen. 19: 12- 26
INTRO: A monument is a
structure erected in remembrance of something or person. The
reason I have chosen this title for
this message is found in (Lu 17:32)
which says, “Remember Lot's wife” (“as a pillar of salt” she- became a
monument to
disobedience)
A. Lot was in a very bad situation.
1. He had spent years down in the city of Sodom.
2. He had learned to tolerate this sort of thing,
although he calls it wickedness.
3. He had seen his sons and daughters grow up, and
they apparently had married among people with those ethical
standards.
B. When the time came that Lot
received this word from the Lord to leave the city, he went to his
sons-in-law and said,
"Let's get out of here. God is going to destroy this city."
C. They laughed at him. They ridiculed him.
1. He had lived so long as one of them without any
real difference, that they took his warning as a big joke.
D. He was out of the will of God in this place, and he had no witness for God.
1. He did not win anybody for the Lord in this city.
2. The same principle is true today: when you go down
to the worlds level you do not win them.
E. Lots wife turned and looked back because she did not want to leave Sodom.
1. She loved Sodom and she didn't want to leave it.
2. She was probably a member of the country club- the
sewing club, and all the other Clubs in town.
3. She just loved these little get-togethers in the
afternoon.
4. They probably even studied religion in a nice
little religious club also.
5. She was right in the thick of it all and she
didn't want to leave.
F. Her heart was in Sodom. Her body walked out, but she left her heart there.
G. Today there are a great many
people talking about how they want to see the Lord come, but they are
not living as if
they mean it.
H. On Sunday morning, it is difficult to ask them to leave their lovely home.
1. And on Sunday night they are not going to leave
their lovely home because they love television, too.
2. They are going to look at the programs on Sunday
night because there are some good ones then.
3. But when the Lord comes you are going to leave the
television; you are going to leave that lovely home; you are
going to leave everything. Will it
break your heart to leave all of this down here? What are we to
“remember”
about Lot’s wife? Jesus was
teaching concerning His return back to this earth when He incorporated
this
three-word statement-“Remember Lot’s
Wife” (Luke 17: 20-37.).
I. Lot had lived so long as one
of the citizens of Sodom without any real difference that they took his
warning as a joke.
1.
When you go down to the worlds level you do not win them.
J. Lot lost everything except his soul.
K. His life is a picture of a great many people who will not judge the sins of their lives.
1. They, like Lot, will be saved so as by fire.
I. CHURCH MEMBERS ARE TO GO FORWARD AND UPWARD
A. (Lu 9:62) And Jesus said unto
him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is
fit for the
kingdom of God.
B. This is the very thing that
Lot’s wife did… (Ge 19:26). But his wife looked back from behind him,
and she became a
pillar of salt.
C. The instruction was… (Ge
19:17). 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.
D. They were warned against
looking back. This is exactly what Jesus was saying in Lk. 9:
62…And Jesus said unto
him, No man,
having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the
kingdom of God.
1. This man was a halfhearted follower of Christ.
2. He wanted to be a disciple, but he did not want to
make any commitment or sacrifice.
3. He was not impelled by the urgency and importance
of the mission.
4. Remember that our Lord Jesus Christ was even then
on His way to the Cross.
5. He had steadfastly set His face to go to Jerusalem
(Luke 9:51)
E. The cost of discipleship is high.
1. It demands all we have to give Luke 14:26 If any
man come to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife,
and children, and brethren, and
sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple.
a. This verses is
simply saying that we should put God first.
b. A believer’s
devotedness to Jesus Christ should be such that, by comparison, it
looks as if everything else is
hated.
c. All terms which
define affections are comparative.
2. The apostle Paul wrote, “Brethren, I count not
myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting
those things which are behind, and
reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the
mark for
the prize of the high calling of God in
Christ Jesus” (Phil. 3:13–14).
II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF LOOKING BACK
A. The term “looking back” means
that our interest is not upon the Lord and His commandment (Pr 4:25)
Let thine eyes
look right on,
and let thine eyelids look straight before thee. (Heb 12:2)
Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of
our faith; who
for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the
shame, and is set down at the right
hand of the throne of God.
B. The interest of Lot’s wife was
back in Sodom and Gomorrah- that is the reason she looked back.
1. We are not told what exactly caused her to look
back.
a. Possibly it was
her children she left behind; maybe it was her grandchildren; and it
could have been her
friends.
b. What ever it was,
it cost her- her life.
c. The pillar of salt
was a monument to her disobedience.
C. We note also that Lot was not
leaving Sodom willingly… Ge 19:16, And while he lingered,
the men laid hold upon
his hand, and
upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the
LORD being merciful unto him:
and they brought him forth, and set him without the city.
1. It is most likely that Lot held a political
position in Sodom… (Ge 19:1) And there came two angels to Sodom at
even; and Lot
sat in the gate of Sodom: and Lot seeing them rose up to meet them; and
he bowed himself with
his face toward the ground;
2. He certainly was attached in such a way that he
did not want to leave.
3. Probably because of his children and their
decision to stay in Sodom… (Ge 19:14) 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
as one that mocked unto his sons in law.
D. Look at some of the monuments that Lot left behind.
1. He left some of his children in Sodom.
2. His wife was turned to a pillar of salt.
3. His two daughters that came out with him - gave
birth to two nations… (Ge 19:36-38). Thus were both the
daughters of Lot with child by their
father. And the firstborn bare a son, and called his name Moab:
the same is
the father of the Moabites unto this
day. And the younger, she also bare a son, and called his name
Ben’am’mi:
the same is the father of the children
of Ammon unto this day.
4. The end of Lot’s life was marked with
tragedy.
a. There is no record
of his death and burial.
5. Remember, it was his choice what direction he
would lead his family… (Ge 13:12) Abram dwelled in the land of
Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities
of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom.
6. Fathers, take heed to this lesson from Lot.
III. THE BENEFITS OF OBEYING GOD (ABRAHAM'S NAME LIVES ON TODAY)
A. (Ne 9:7) Thou art the LORD the God,
who didst choose Abram, and broughtest him forth out of Ur of the
Chaldees,
and gavest him
the name of Abraham; (Mark 12:26) “… have ye not read in the book of
Moses, how in the bush
God spake unto
him, saying, I am the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God
of Jacob?
B. What a testimony- “I am the God of Abraham!”
1. This was not said of Lot, even though he was a
saved man… (2 Pe 2: 7-8). And delivered just Lot, vexed with
the filthy conversation of the wicked:
For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed
his righteous soul from day to day with
their unlawful deeds;)
C. I don’t have the time to
list all the monuments Abraham left behind. But here are a few…
1. He is said to be the father of the faithful… (Gal
3: 7, 29). Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the
same are the children of Abraham. And
if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to
the
promise.
2. He is said to be the father of Jesus in the flesh…
(Mt 1:1) The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of
David, the son of Abraham.
3. All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in
Him…(Ge 18:18) Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great
and mighty nation, and all the nations
of the earth shall be blessed in him?
4. He was a faithful, spiritual leader in his
house…(Gen 18:19), For I know him, that he will command his
children
and his household after him, and they
shall keep the way of the LORD, to do justice and judgment; that the
LORD may bring upon Abraham that which
he hath spoken of him.
CONCLUSION: God has given man the equal choice to decide whether he will serve God or not.
A. The kind of monuments we leave behind will be determined by the choice we make.
B. What kind of monument will you leave behind?