Remember Lot’s Wife

Luke 17:32

Introduction:

1. We are in the year of 2004, and we have covenanted together to cut off temptations more than ever before.
2. Let us read Luke 17:20-37, where Jesus warns of the sudden destruction soon to come on Jerusalem in 70AD.
3. This is not a message on Bible prophecy. There is an important lesson in this prophetic section for holy living.
4. Remember three simple words that warn you to preserve your soul from judgment? “Remember Lot’s wife!”
5. We considered I Cor 2:1-16 this morning, with emphasis on 2:9. Let us see this sermon as a contrast of minding earthly things and being totally enthralled with the things God has prepared for His elect (2:9).

The CONTEXT

1. Pharisees asked Jesus of His kingdom, for John and He preached the gospel of the kingdom (17:20).
   1. They desired and expected an earthly kingdom of ruling over Gentiles in power and prosperity.
   2. Jesus denied their false views and stated that His kingdom was not a visible and pompous one.
   3. It came with spiritual observation – seeing of Satan cast out by the power of Christ (Matt 12:28).
2. Jesus explained His kingdom was a spiritual kingdom that existed within the hearts of men (17:21).
   1. His kingdom would not arrive in the public way earthly princes raised armies for their kingdoms.
   2. His kingdom had already arrived, for it was within the elect Jews, not these Pharisee hypocrites.
3. He then explained in kind language for His disciples that He would soon be revealed plainly as King with great kingdom power and glory in a coming brilliant display – destroying Jerusalem (17:22-25).
4. Moving toward His lesson, He compared His generation’s sins to those of Noah and Lot (17:26-30).
   1. God judged the world and Sodom, taking all the wicked away in destruction. Saints were left!
   2. The carnal cares of those generations were like the evil days when Jesus showed up as King!
5. He then specifically warned of the sudden judgment and the need to avoid worldly cares (17:31-33).
   1. These were sober, kind, and practical warnings for personal survival in the days of judgment.
   2. These warnings are further developed by Jesus elsewhere and applied by Peter at Pentecost.
6. He gave three vivid illustrations of the discriminating judgment of God on Jerusalem (17:34-36).
   1. These commonly abused verses are describing the wicked being taken and the righteous left!
   2. What is the difference between the men? The invisible condition of their hearts with the King!
7. The disciples (17:22) asked where this judgment and the seizing the wicked would occur (17:37).
   1. Jesus said the Roman armies would come on the dead carcass of the Jews at Jerusalem (17:37).
   2. These prophetic words are developed more elsewhere, but they plainly have 70AD in mind.

The TEXT

1. The verse itself is one of the shortest verses in the Bible, but with a very valuable lesson behind it.
2. For the details of the lesson and its connected lessons, we need to review the event in Genesis 19.
3. The angels told Lot to get his wife and daughters out of Sodom before its destruction (Gen 19:15).
4. While Lot delayed, the angels mercifully took him and his family by the hand out of the city (19:16).
5. The angels instructed the four of them to flee to the mountains without looking back at all (19:17).
6. Lot, still stuck in the cesspool of carnal compromise, asked to stop in a little nearby town (19:18-22).
7. Lot entered a little city of compromise, and the Lord rained fire and brimstone on Sodom (19:23-25).
8. Lot’s wife, trailing behind her carnal husband, likely in reluctance, became a pillar of salt (19:26).
9. John Gill wrote in Gen 19:26 that Josephus, Irenaeus, and Tertullian reported it still in their days!

The LESSON

1. In Noah’s time, the activities of life choked out the warning of coming judgment (Luke 17:26-27).
2. In Lot’s time, the activities of life choked out any consciousness of sin and judgment (17:28-29).
3. In our Lord’s time, the activities of life would be a threat to the safety of the disciples (17:30-36).
4. “Remember Lot’s wife” was a simple way of emphasizing the importance of leaving the world.
   1. Lot’s wife had family back in Sodom for whom she grieved, but the Lord said to flee away.
   2. Lot’s wife had all her possessions in Sodom, but the Lord had said to flee without looking.
   3. Lot’s wife had many friends and comfort in Sodom, but the Lord had said to flee away.
   4. It didn’t matter to the holy God that Mrs. Lot was a woman, wife, mother, or anything else!
   5. The events of the Old Testament like this were recorded for our learning (I Cor 10:4-12).
   6. The disciples were to be careless in their leaving the world in order to follow Jesus Christ.
5. Leaving this world’s things for the kingdom of Jesus Christ is a very hard decision for many.
   1. Jesus warned plainly that you could not be His disciple without forsaking all (Luke 14:25-33).
   2. Jesus warned plainly that efforts to save your life would cause you to lose it (Matthew 10:39).
   3. Jesus told a man willing to follow Him that looking back was a disqualification (Luke 9:57-62).
   4. David and Solomon warned about envying sinners (Psalm 37:1,7; Prov 23:17-18; 24:1-2,19-20).
   5. Moses was willing to leave the riches of Egypt for the reproach of Jesus Christ (Heb 11:24-26).
   6. Paul counted all things of his unconverted life to be dung in comparison to Christ (Phil 3:4-11).
   7. It is belly worshippers and enemies of Christ who cannot forget earthly things (Phil 3:18-19).
   8. Some disciples forsook fathers and professions to leave and follow Jesus Christ (Mark 1:16-20).
   9. The converts at Ephesus showed the proof of their faith by burning their books (Acts 19:18-20).
   10. Peter described those converts who would return to the world as dogs and pigs (II Pet 2:20-23).
   11. Demas forsook the apostle Paul in his hour of need out of love to the world (II Timothy 4:10).
   12. Paul described true believers and true saints as those who did not draw back (Hebrews 10:38-39).
   13. How can the things of this world compare with the things God has prepared for us (I Cor 2:9)?

The APPLICATION

1. What has the Lord told you to leave without looking back? If you compromise, expect His judgment.
   1. Do not think about holding on to ungodly family members in compromise (Matthew 10:34-38).
   2. Do not think you can linger about worldly ambition and still be a Christian (I Timothy 6:6-11).
2. Paul taught saints and ministers to flee fornication, idolatry, ambition, and youthful lusts, and to follow righteousness (I Cor 6:18; 10:14; I Tim 6:11; II Tim 2:22). Does “flee” sound familiar?
3. Joseph gave an example of fleeing fornication; he ran away from it, at great cost, for great reward!
4. We need to set our focus on the prize ahead and our affections on heaven (Philippians 3:14; Col 3:2).
5. We cannot consider compromising God’s order to come out from among the world and its idolatrous religion, in such obvious things as Christmas and Easter and even Valentine’s Day (II Cor 6:14-17).
6. We have a religious mandate to leave Rome and all her doctrinal abominations (Rev 17:5; 18:4); we have little in common with those who simply wanted to reform a church with such fatal corruption.
7. What is keeping you from being a full-blown, red-hot, single-minded lover of Christ and holiness?
8. Burn your bridges! Contrary to the world’s philosophy, we neither desire nor need the world at all.
9. Wives! Jesus raised a woman as an example of looking back at what she was leaving! Forget them!
10. Husbands! Lot led his wife into carnal living by pitching his tent toward Sodom and lingering in Sodom, so he promoted her carnal weakness and inability to completely leave the things of this life.

Conclusion:

1. God’s chastening can come at anytime; He can judge those in this church; His Second Coming draws nigh!
2. Can you sing with a pure and fervent conscience, “Jesus, I my cross have taken; all to leave and follow thee”?
3. Let us remember the great contrast of minding earthly things that will all be destroyed and fervently pursuing those things God has prepared for them that love Him and wait for Him (Phil 3:18-19; I Cor 2:9; Is 64:4).

Other study material:

1. Sermon Outline: Playing with Sin
2. Sermon Outline: Belly Worshippers