Genesis 19:23-29 NKJV The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. (24) Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. (25) So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. (26) But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (27) And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. (28) Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace. (29) And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when He overthrew the cities in which Lot had dwelt.
Luke 17:32 NKJV Remember Lot’s wife.
- If you have been following along with us in Genesis, then you know exactly where we are…
- There is this incredibly wicked set of cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, that is violently sexual.
- They are homosexual, they are rapists, they are as far gone into sexual sin as you can possibly go…
- They even tried to rape a pair of Angels.
- God has decided that these cities need to be destroyed, in fact others in the region have been crying out to God to intervene against the wickedness of these cities… and God has answered their prayers.
- But in this city was one man whom God, through His grace, has considered righteous…
- One man who hated the sin of the people of this city… but for some reason still chose to leave there and be a leader there.
- So God sends his angels to save this man, Lot, and the angels rescue Lot, his wife, and His daughters… and they give this one command “Don’t look back”.
- Now that we are all caught up… can I suggest to you something…
- I believe these events are real… I know they really happened, that Sodom and Gomorrah was really destroyed, that Lot’s wife really disobeyed and looked back, I even believe she was physically turned into a pillar of salt… because I believe the Bible.
- But can I suggest to you that these events are not only historical, but they also happened as an example for us.
- I believe that we can see the Gospel in the events of Sodom and Gomorrah.
2 Peter 2:6-7 NKJV and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; (7) and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked
- Now if you were here last week then you are familiar with this verse, we did a deep dive into Sodom and Gomorrah as a warning to those who would live ungodly lives… but I think there is even MORE that we can learn from these events.
- I think there is a Gospel message here… Ok, let me show you what I am talking about…
- Let’s try something… Raise your hand if you have ever had an ungodly past.
- EVERYONE SHOULD BE RAISING THEIR HANDS… all of us had to be saved… even if you were saved as a child, there was some amount of time in your life where you did not know Jesus as savior.
- Some amount of time in your life where you did not know God… in other words… all of us have some amount of time where we were not living according to God’s word… some of us have a longer and more severe ungodly past than others… but we all have it.
- It is why we all had to be born again… and don’t worry if you are not born again there will be time to do that later this morning… but we all had to be born again, we all needed the old man to die and the new man to come.
- Or in context of Genesis 19, we all had our own personal Sodom and Gomorrah that needed to be destroyed… but instead of being destroyed by fire and Brimstone, it was destroyed on the Cross.
- And I believe this to be the case, which is why Jesus said “Remember Lot’s Wife”… not because he was warning you that if another city blows up you shouldn’t look at it… but instead that he was warning you that when your own personal Sodom and Gomorrah is destroyed on the cross, when you move on into a new glorious life with Christ… you should not look back on the old you, that old self, that ungodly past with fondness in your heart.
- Sodom and Gomorrah is an example for us, and Lot’s wife is an example for us… Remember Lot’s Wife… that is the message this morning.
- Now this morning we have two very simple points as we talk about remembering Lot’s wife…
- Remember Lot’s Wife
- Point One: Don’t Yearn For What Has Been Destroyed
- Point Two: Remember What Has Been Destroyed and Move On
- So let’s dive right in with our first point: Don’t Yearn For What Has Ben Destroyed.
Point One – Don’t Yearn For What Has Been Destroyed
Genesis 19:24-26 NKJV Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. (25) So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. (26) But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
- If you are wondering why God killed Lot’s wife, it is because she disobeyed the direct orders of the angels just a few verses before… remember this verse from last week?
Genesis 19:17 NKJV So it came to pass, when they had brought them outside, that he said, “Escape for your life! Do not look behind you nor stay anywhere in the plain. Escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed.”
- So God, by way of an angel, commanded “Do not look back at the city”
- And Lot’s wife disobeyed… But why did God command that, and why did God chose to turn her into a pillar of salt?
- Let’s look at that second question first… there is a lot of speculation amongst Christian and Jewish scholars as to why God would choose to turn Lot’s wife into a pillar of salt.
- But I don’t think we should look too much into that… if God wanted us to know, He would have told us.
- However, we do know that in this region of the world, especially around the dead sea, there are natural pillars of salt… unique rock formations jutting out of the ground.
- And so it seems as though God used the topography of the region as His basis for the destruction of Lot’s wife…
- In the title slide there is one such formation of salt… let’s bring that up again…
- This formation overlooks the Dead Sea and is commonly believed to be, literally, Lot’s wife.
- I don’t know if there is any truth to that, but it gives you the idea of what Scripture is talking about.
- So when Jesus says “Remember Lot’s Wife”, He is not saying “Remember that lovely lady that was married to Lot? Wasn’t she nice?”
- NO! He is saying “Remember the terrifying wrath of God. HE CAN MUMIFY YOU IN AN INSTANT! JUST LIKE HER! DON’T LOOK BACK!
Luke 17:32 NKJV Remember Lot’s wife.
- So we know that each of us have a past… have you ever been tempted to go back?
- Have you ever been tempted to go back… to the sex, the alcohol, the drugs, the greed, the gossip, the witchcraft, the lying…
- It is a question that is worth asking… because I have counseled people through broken marriages because someone in the marriage decided to go back.
- I watched dozens of Christians walk away from Jesus because they decided to go back… back to their own personal Sodom.
- MY STRONGEST DESIRE FOR YOU IS THAT YOU WILL RUN YOUR RACE, AND YOU WILL ENDURE, AND YOU WILL PERSEVERE, AND I WILL SEE YOU IN HEAVEN ONE DAY.
- But the truth is, many, MANY, people turn back… like lot’s wife, they turn back.
- And honestly it is a temptation that I have… and maybe it is a temptation that you have too… so let me just talk about myself for a moment.
- Before I was saved I had a uniquely digital Sodom and Gomorrah in my life.
- Internet pornography was a huge addiction I had.
- Pirating tens of thousands of dollars’ worth of software.
- And I even dabbled in hacking…
- You see I am a computer programmer… well, I was… well, I was in school to be one… I never went that rout because God called me to pastoring… but I knew how to code and I knew how to hack.
- On one occasion, with a group of friends, I hacked a foreign governments website to interfere with a local government project… it was stupid, and we did it just for fun and no one got hurt… but we did it.
- On another occasion I hacked into Microsoft Reward program and sent myself an Xbox, a Zone, a bookbag, and gift cards all for free. I didn’t go overboard, because I didn’t want to raise any red flags… but I just wanted to see if I could do it… turns out I could.
- This is one of the reasons that I praise God that he saved me and redeemed me… because if he didn’t I would probably be in prison.
- Because as smart as I was with computers… I sure was dumb when it came to thinking about the consequences…
- Now God destroyed that man, He destroyed the hacker, He destroyed the pirate, He destroyed the internet pervert… THAT MAN IS DEAD! I HAVE BEEN BORN AGAIN THANK YOU JESUS!
- But sometimes… sometimes I want to go back… sometimes I think “I could so easily get this for free”.
- And worse, sometimes I fantasize about who I could have been.
- One of the dirtiest tricks the devil ever did to me was when I was in college at Seattle Pacific University.
- I was studying Computer Science even though God had called me to be a pastor… that’s a story for another day.
- But while I was there my Junior year the FBI approached me and tried to recruit me.
- If I said yes I would drop out of school immediately, they would pay off all my loans, I would move to Lancaster California where I would start my training that week.
- I would be a hacker for the United Stated government, and I would be extremely well compensated…
- The only thing that kept me back was my calling to the pastorate and my relationship with the local church… all I could think was “I can’t leave my Faith and Victory family”.
- The enemy was trying to bring me back into a lifestyle that had been destroyed… because Hacker Christian was dead. Pastor Christian was born… and the FBI is not recruiting for pastors…
- You know sometimes I still wonder what would have happened if I said yes to that Job…
- I wouldn’t have meet Amanda… I wouldn’t be a pastor… I probably would have gotten into a lot of sexual sin… I would have married and divorced… likely would have walked away from Christ… I truly believe that the offer from the FBI was really an offer from the devil for destruction.
Luke 9:62 NKJV But Jesus said to him, “No one, having put his hand to the plow, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.”
- Guy’s, whatever God has delivered you from… I am sure it was fun… I am sure it was exciting…
- I am sure you were the best whatever… but if God called you out of it, then let it burn with the rest of Sodom.
- When you get down, when you get depressed, when you get lonely… it is easy to remember the comforts of your old sinful lives… BUT BE WARNED HERE AND NOW… Fantasizing about those comforts… longing for them… longing to talk to that girl again, to be with those friends again, to watch those shows again, to do WHATEVER AGAIN… it’s different for all of us… longing for the things that have been destroyed will lead you down a path of destruction…
- Now before we move on to point two, let’s just quickly look at Hebrews 10 and the second coming of Christ…
Hebrews 10:36-39 NKJV For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise: (37) “FOR YET A LITTLE WHILE, AND HE WHO IS COMING WILL COME AND WILL NOT TARRY. (38) NOW THE JUST SHALL LIVE BY FAITH; BUT IF ANYONE DRAWS BACK, MY SOUL HAS NO PLEASURE IN HIM.” (39) But we are not of those who draw back to perdition [Destruction], but of those who believe to the saving of the soul.
- Jesus is coming back, AMEN‽
- Jesus is coming back SOON, AMEN‽
- But Jesus has been coming back soon for the past 2000 years… soon is a relative term… and His definition of soon and your definition of soon might not be the same…
- So what this verse in Hebrews says is “Look, Jesus is coming back… but you need to Endure… because it might not be in your lifetime… you need to persevere… you need to live in faith EVEN when the going get’s hard, and your soul get’s weary… and you are just like “Maranatha Lord… why haven’t you come back yet… why do I have to deal with this… why do I have to keep going through this”… you have to endure.
- Because in those times, there is a temptation to draw back.
- The temptation is rarely in times of revival… when you are ON FIRE for Christ and you are seeing miracle after miracle and you are hearing His voice and moving in the Spirit…
- But the truth is, sometimes there are times where the fire doesn’t seem to be fanning into flame…
- Where the miracles are not seeming to happen as much…
- Where the voice of God has grown strangely quite…
- When depression grips us, or loneliness grips us, or the cares of the world grip us… it is in those times that our soul is tempted to draw back to destruction.
- But we church, WE ARE NOT OF THOSE WHO DRAW BACK TO PERDITION.
- WE ARE NOT OF THOSE WHO DRAW BACK TO DESTRUCTION.
- We don’t return to our own vomit, we don’t look back at our sin with affection… we don’t think about what COULD have been, instead we think about who we are in Christ…
- Now that brings me to point two this morning: Remember what has been destroyed and move on.
Point Two – Remember What Has Been Destroyed and Move On
Genesis 19:24-28 NKJV Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens. (25) So He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. (26) But his wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (27) And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the LORD. (28) Then he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain; and he saw, and behold, the smoke of the land which went up like the smoke of a furnace.
- Lot’s wife looked back and was turned into a pillar of salt… but in the very next verse Abraham looks at the destroyed cities and nothing bad happens to him…
- Some of y’all are missing it… Abraham LOOKED on the cities… but Lot’s wife LOOKED BACK on the cities…
- It wasn’t the looking at the destruction that was the problem… it was the LOOKING BACK at the destruction that was a problem.
- It was the longing for the good ol days…
- It was the shedding of a tear for what could have been.
- It was the wondering if there is anything left to return to.
- Abraham had never been a Sodomite… he had never engaged in business with Sodom…
- Even when the King of Sodom offered Abraham a deal too good to refuse, Abraham shoot him down…
- Abraham was separate from Sodom… not in Sodom, not Adjacent from Sodom, but separate from Sodom… set apart from Sodom…
- That is what the word Holy means… it means “Set Apart”
- Abraham was Holy, he was set apart from Sodom.
- Abraham looked on Sodom.
- Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom.
- Here is the thing church… YOU ARE NOT WHO YOU USED TO BE… the old you is dead, the new you has come.
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
- You are a new creation, the old things have passed away… You are not a woman leaving a destroyed city, you are a born again believer, a saint, more than a conqueror… growing from glory to glory towards perfection as you grow to be like Christ…
- This puts you in a unique position, Saints… you have the ability to be Abraham, holy and set a part, looking at what God has destroyed…
- And you have the ability to be like Lot’s wife… looking BACK at what has been destroyed.
- You can look at your old life longingly, remembering the “Good ol’ times”, fantasizing about past sins and what could have been.
- Or you can look at your old life for what it really is… DEAD, DESTROYED, NEVER COMING BACK.
- I don’t ask you church to forget your old life, but to instead remember it and testify about it…
- Testify about how Christ destroyed it… testify about how you are not that person and will never be that person again.
- If you used to be an Alcoholic and Christ delivered you, then use your testimony to help deliver other alcoholics.
- If you used to be a liar, testify of the truth.
- If you used to be a pervert, testify of your purity.
- I used to be addicted to pornography, now I lead groups and help people break free from sexual addiction.
- And I start those groups by sharing my TESTIMONY… because it gives men hope that they too can be free.
- And when new temptations come… remember the destruction of your own personal Sodom… and let it be a warning to you, like Second Peter says.
- I used to be unforgiving, and it took so much… so much pain, so much prayer… so much perseverance to break that horrible dark sin in my life…
- Now when someone offends me, I think about that destruction that took place… when God destroyed unforgivness in my life…
- I remember how hard it was for me… I remember the pain of it all… the many MANY tears that I and my wife shed over it…
- And I think to myself “You know, I don’t want to go through that again… I think it is just so much easier to forgive”.
- When I am tempted to fall back into lust and porography… I remember the years it took to fully recover as God destroyed that sin from my life… the conffessions, the prayers, the hard conversations with my wife…
- I don’t want to go through that destruction again… so I remember it, and I move on.
- I remember it… but I don’t LONG for it… there is a big difference… you guys picking up what I am laying down?
- Let’s concluding this thing with a verse from the book of Revelation
Conclusion
Revelation 12:11 NKJV And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.
- The problem with Lot’s wife is that she loved her past life… the thought of giving it up and moving into some cave was too much for her…
- She had so much wealth, and possessions, and power, and authority in Sodom… she couldn’t believe it was all gone… she just wanted a little bit of that old life again… and it ended up killing her.
- The saints of Revelation, on the other hand, would RATHER die than go back to their old lives… to go back to destruction… and through the blood of the lamb, and the word of their testimony, they overcame the evil one…
Join us this Sunday at either 8:30AM or 10:30AM for worship followed by this message from the Word of God.
Christian Life Church of Cedar Rapids
2808 Schaeffer DR SW, Cedar Rapids, IA 52404
www.CedarRapidsChurch.com
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