Remember Lot’s wife. (Luke 17:32)
But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (Genesis 19:26)
“Almost Saved” is a banner that could have been placed by a pillar of salt that was Lot’s wife. Mrs. Lot had received so many spiritual blessings, yet she was not saved. She enjoyed the godly companionship of Abraham and Sarah, her husband was a believer, she was personally warned by angels of Sodom’s impending doom, and if that were not enough, angels literally took her by the hand and guided her out of Sodom (Genesis 19:16). So close to being saved, yet lost forever! “Almost saved!”
Christ warned His disciples to: “Remember Lot’s wife!” Remember, that spiritual privilege does not equal escape from destruction. Many of us have enjoyed great spiritual privileges. We have experienced the company of godly “Abrahams,” we have heard the warnings of men and women of God, and people who care for us have pulled us away from destruction. “Others save with fear pulling them out of the fire” (Jude 23a). Make sure you do not perish just outside of Sodom: “Remember Lot’s wife!”
A Couple of Thoughts In Remembering Lot’s Wife:
BE READY TO LEAVE:
Be Ready To Leave By Placing Your Treasure in Heaven:
Our treasure is like a compass. Our heart will naturally point to our “true north:” “where your treasure is there will your heart be also.” We must consciously invest our treasure in heaven: “Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth.” (Colossians 3:2). Our time, talent, and treasure must be deposited into the kingdom to come. If we invest our lives in eternity, we will be ready for departure when God calls us out, and we will not look back.
Lot’s wife looked back to where her treasure was. Her heart was back in Sodom.
Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also. (Mark 6:19-21)
Be Ready To Leave by Realizing That This World Is Only Temporary.
For he (Abraham) looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10) Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp, bearing his reproach. For here have we no continuing city, but we seek one to come. (Hebrews 13:13-14)
Lot’s wife’s faith was in things she could see, but Abraham’s faith was in the invisible God and in the eternal city of God. When Abraham was called, he quickly left his hometown of Ur of the Chaldees, but when God called Mrs. Lot, she chose “this present (temporary) evil world” (Gal. 1:3-4).
The temptation of Sodom is that it provides a false sense of security. Mrs. Lot’s husband held a place of prominence in the city, their family was wealthy, and they lived in comfort. There was an allusion that Sodom would go on forever and ever. But, God in His mercy gives nations, cities, and people a space of grace to repent and come to Him. God repeatedly warns us not to mistake the goodness, forbearance, and longsuffering of God as His approval of sin, nor are we to scoff God thinking that He will never judge sin. God waits patiently, but His judgement falls rapidly! (II Peter 3:1-13). Those living in Sodom were like the “foolish man” of Christ’s parable. They built their houses (lives) on a foundation of sand instead of on the Solid Rock. The rains and the floods were about to come.
Jesus told us that Noah’s day and Lot’s day were warnings for our present day. What happened to the old world and Sodom is exactly what the second coming of Christ will be like. Everything on earth is only temporary and we must hold our earthly possessions with a very loose grip. We must be ready to “leave our stuff in the house…” and go!
And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed. In that day, he which shall be upon the housetop, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away: and he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot’s wife. (Luke 17:26-32)
DON’T LOOK BACK TO WHAT GOD HAS DELIVERED YOU FROM:
“What an evil thing it is to look back upon that which God hath delivered us from.” – Charles Spurgeon
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)
For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, they are again entangled therein, and overcome, the latter end is worse with them than the beginning. For it had been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than, after they have known it, to turn from the holy commandment delivered unto them. But it is happened unto them according to the true proverb, The dog is turned to his own vomit again; and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire. (II Peter 2:20-22)
Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him. But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:38-39)
And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62)