Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 1491
Delivered on Lord’s-Day Morning, August 24, 1879
“RememberLot’s wife.” Luke 17:32.
IT was the purpose of God always to maintain a testimony for truth and righteousness in the midst of this ungodly world. For this end of old He set apart for Himself a chosen family with whom He had fellowship. Abraham was the man whom God chose, that in him and in his household the witness might be preserved. This chosen family was called out and separated from its ancestors and led to dwell apart as wayfaring men in the land of Canaan. They were not to go into the cities and mingle with other races, but to dwell in tents, as a separate tribe, lest their character should become polluted and their testimony should be silenced. It was the Lord’s intent that the people should dwell alone and not be numbered among the nations.
Abraham, being called, obeyed and went forth, not knowing where he went. His separated life gave great exercise to his faith and so strengthened it that it became a calm, unstaggering assurance and this enabled him to enjoy a quiet, sublime and happy career, dependent only upon God and altogether above as well as apart from man. With him was his nephew, Lot, who also left Haran at the Divine call and shared with the Patriarch his wanderings in Canaan and in Egypt. He was not a man of so noble a soul, but was greatly influenced by the stronger mind of his Uncle Abraham. He was sincere, no doubt, and is justly called righteous Lot, but he was more fit to be a follower than a leader. He also sojourned in tents and led the separated life until it became necessary for him to become an independent chieftain because the flocks and herds of the two families had so greatly multiplied that they could not well be kept together.
Then came out the weak side of Lot’s character. He did not give Abraham the choice in selecting a sheep walk, but like all weak natures, he selfishly consulted his own advantage and determined to go in the direction of the cities of the plain of Jordan where well-watered pastures abounded. This led to his dwelling near the cities of the plain, where crime had reached its utmost point of horrible degradation. We read that “he pitched his tent toward Sodom.” He found it convenient to be near a settled people and to enter into friendly relations with them, though he must have known what the men of Sodom were, for the cry of them had gone forth far and wide. Thus he began to leave the separated path.
After a while he went further, for one step leads to another. He was a lover of ease and, therefore, he gave up the tent life, with its many inconveniences, and went to live with the townsmen of Sodom—a thing to be wondered at as well as deplored. He did not cease to be a good man, but he did cease to be a faithful witness for his God. Abraham seems to have given him up altogether from that day, for we find that noble Patriarch enquiring of the Lord concerning his heir, saying, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus?” And the Lord said, “This shall not be your heir.” Now, this enquiry would have been needless had Lot been still reckoned to belong to the chosen seed, for naturally Lot was the heir of Abraham—but he forfeited that position and gave up his portion in the inheritance of the elect house by quitting the separated life.
Lot, although he dwelt in Sodom, was not happy there. Neither did he become so corrupt as to take pleasure in the wickedness of the people. Peter says that God delivered just Lot vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked. He tried to bear his protest in the place, but signally failed, as all must do who imitate him. His witness for purity would have been far more powerful if he had kept apart from them, for this is the protest which God demands of us when He says, “Come you out from among them, be you separate.” In the midst of the world, which lies in the Wicked One, Lot lived on—not without greatly degenerating in spirit—until the kings came and carried him away captive. Then by the intervention of Abraham he was delivered from the captivity which threatened him and brought back again.
This was a solemn warning and you would have thought that Lot would have said, “I will go back to Abraham’s way of living. I will again become a sojourner with God. Sodom’s walls without God are far less safe than a frail tent when
God is a wall of fire around it.” His vexation with the conversation of the lewd townsmen ought to have made him long for the sweet air of the wild country, but it was not so. He again settles down in Sodom and forgets the holy congregation which clustered around the tent of Abraham. Being, still, a man of God, he could not be allowed to die in such society—it was not to be endured that “just Lot” should lay his bones in the graveyard of filthy Sodom.