[AI translation] This is the story of Lot, the son of Abraham's brother. We talked about him once, a long time ago, in the Abraham series, and we saw then who Lot was. We found out from the Scriptures that he was not a man of independent faith, that he relied on the faith of others, that he was attached to the prayer of others, that he was aligned with other believers. He went out with Abraham, walked with him, partook with him of the Lord's many blessings, but then he separated from him in an event, returned to the world, went to sinful Sodom. It was then observed that even if such Lot separated from the believers and returned to the world, even if they separated from the faith, God would not forget them, would go after them, seek them out and bring them back - but this would usually involve much suffering.Well, now we see from this story that God does indeed catch up with, seek and rescue his runaway child, but also the great loss such a person will suffer to escape judgement. A very painful picture is presented in this description, the picture of a bankrupt believer. Unfortunately, it is a picture that many of us can recognise ourselves in. Let us take a closer look and see if we really know ourselves in the light of the Word!
Right in verse 1 we read that "Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom." (Genesis 19:1) This means that Lot was involved in the administration of the city, that he had a role in the work of the public administration. For at that time, sitting in the gate was not idle idleness, but on the contrary, a public forum for the administration of justice and public administration. In the gate sat the king, the court, the city council, all the officials who were in charge of the people's affairs. So Lot held some official position in the city's administration. And he did it well. A child of God has a place in public life, he should take every opportunity to serve, where he can work for the good of the people, for the good of the population. This is how Jesus puts it: 'You are the acid of the earth...., you are the light of the world.' (Mt 5,13-14)
This Word was once explained by someone as saying that what the soul is to the organism of the body, the believer is to the world. Take the soul out of the body: it becomes an incinerating corpse - leave the soul in the body: it remains a wonderfully living organism. Salt gives flavour, a good taste to food, makes it palatable, and preserves, protects against spoilage, decay. And clarity serves. It never dominates, but always and everywhere, wherever it flares up, it serves, burning itself up, digesting itself! The role, the importance, the task of the believer, of the people of God, of the Church in the world, is defined by Jesus in these words of unheard-of ambition: 'You are the acid of the earth..., you are the light of the world.' (Mt 5,13-14)
The power, the beauty, the taste, the flavour, the light of the image of joy - such as love, joy, peace, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, trustworthiness, purity, temperance - shine through you into the world, into the places where you live, work, talk, teach, turn from Sunday morning to Sunday morning, all week long! But does it really shine, does it really shine? Because in Lot's case it is precisely that it did not flow, it did not shine! And then he sat at the gate of Sodom in vain! So the problem was not that he sat there in the gate - it was his duty, he did well - but that he sat there in vain! Jesus says it like this, that if salt is unseasoned, it is good for nothing but to be thrown away and trampled underfoot! Salt is good, but unseasoned salt is not only no good, it is good for nothing! Nothing! Jesus knew very well that His religion, which saved the world from this useless state, could itself become the most useless thing in the world if it did not fulfil its calling. And in that case it will be thrown out and trampled underfoot!
A world-famous Christian thinker once said, "If I had to choose - thank God I don't have to choose - I would much rather choose a humanism without religion than a religion without humanity!" Do you see why the world prefers the former? It is said that the lily, when it begins to rot, emits a greater stench than the weed. Such is the rotten religion, the stagnant religious life, the believer turned into a salt without taste, the church without a word! This is what Lot was in Sodom: unleavened salt, and Sodom was destroyed for lack of the necessary preservative. He sat there in vain at the gate, but could not work for the blessing of the whole community. From his own family he should have been the 10 righteous ones, for whom the Lord would have had mercy on the whole city. A pinch of salt like that would have been enough to conserve, but it wasn't. Lot was saved by the mercy of God, out of respect for Abraham, but he had no strength left to save the whole city. And if he had salt, he could have saved it.
To be a heifer out of the fire, and to be saved alone at the last judgment, it is enough to be Lot. But to save others, you must be Abraham! A lukewarm man cannot warm the world around him. What does it profit the world if you know Jesus, believe in Him, receive His blessings and grace? It is not enough to have the assurance of your salvation - if you have it! The unpalatable salt is thrown away and trampled underfoot!
Look, this is exactly what happened to Lot. When at last, apparently for the first time in his life, he wants to intervene in the destruction of Sodom with a prophetic word, because he could no longer tolerate it, and he admonishes the men who want to desecrate the strangers: 'I beg you, brothers, do no evil' (Gen 19:7) - what is the answer? "Get out of here!" they shout at him! Shaking their fists, they wanted to beat him, they wanted to deport him. "But if the salt is unseasoned,... it's no good for anything but to be thrown away and trampled underfoot." (Mt 5,13) This is how the believer turned into unseasoned salt, the people of God turned into unseasoned salt, fails in the world, in public life, in society!
It is no wonder, indeed it is natural, that Lot's faith should be just as bankrupt in his own family. Look at this sad scene: "And the men said to Lot, 'Who else here belongs to you? 'Take your sons-in-law, your sons and your daughters, and all that is yours in the city, out of this place. For we shall lose this place, because the cry of these has grown loud before the Lord; and the Lord has sent us to lose it. And Lot went out, and spake unto his sons-in-law, which had taken his daughters, saying, Arise, go out of this place; for the LORD will destroy this city: but it seemed to his sons-in-law as if he were jesting." (Genesis 19:12-14) Well, so the members of the family appreciate the stern words and admonition of the head of the family! They laugh at him, thinking he is joking. But now he is serious! Deadly serious! Maybe he was joking at other times, but not now! Do you know what that shows? It shows that the members of Lot's family are not used to such serious talk from Lot. Perhaps they had a nice, happy family life, when parents and children, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law, grandchildren, the father and grandfather of a beautifully complete family sat together. They discussed public life, fashion, politics, the economy, animal affairs - but the affairs of that invisible world didn't seem to occupy Lot's family much. He didn't tell them about the Lord, he didn't concern himself much with their spiritual life, with keeping them from becoming infected with sodomite spirituality - for behold, once it was a serious matter, a matter of the utmost seriousness, the admonition of the Lord, he would pretend to his sons-in-law that he was joking. Surely they would not have liked it as a joke if it had not been such an exceptional occasion there, in that family. That's what happens to people in his family who suddenly want to be a prophet at a critical moment in their lives, but who have never been a prophet before: they don't take what he says seriously, they laugh at him!
Yes, he who has not won the trust of his family's soul before, is not believed at the critical time, even if he speaks the truth! He who does not himself experience the reality of communion with God, whose life, whose actions, whose constant conduct do not radiate, whose power of the invisible world in which he believes is not felt even without words, may speak fine words occasionally, but in vain does he refer to God, to the world beyond; he does not give the impression of reality, and at best he is regarded as a dreamer whose words are not to be taken to heart!
Do you know this bankruptcy of the believer in your own family? Parents who are believers often complain that, in vain, they talk to their children, but they live in a different world, smiling at the things of faith, taking Bible truths for a fairy tale, letting go of fine moral exhortations. Well, it is not because the spirit of the age has alienated them from the faith that our children and family members do not listen to us! Oh, no! But because they have noticed that our occasional earnest words are just empty words - even if true, they are just words - and lack the backing that makes them credible: the testimony of a whole life. Can one speak of salvation who does not show himself to be saved, whose other words and whose life do not bear witness to the life-renewing power of the Holy Spirit! Do you know this painful bankruptcy of your life of faith at home, where you cannot pretend to be beautiful, to live a life of grace, as you do before strangers?! For there they know who you are!
Look, Lot has not succeeded in saving anyone from destruction after all. Of all his sons and daughters, only his two younger daughters, who were not yet married, and his wife finally ran out of Sodom. At the last moment, his wife was also left behind: she turned back and froze, turning into a salt lion! She was lost! And the souls of his two daughters, how much they were infected with sodomy, is described in the scene which I have not read! Lot lost all, he could save no one from judgment, from sin, from damnation. He alone was saved from the wrath of God. He is left as a scattered tree, even a tree that has lost its leaves in autumn! Behold, the believer who has no effect on the lives of those closest to him! He can win no one to the Lord, he can save no one from judgment! He himself may be saved, for God is so infinitely gracious in view of the merits of Jesus Christ that even such a Lot, who has still a spark of the Abrahamic spirit, will be snatched from destruction. Oh, how painful it is, to be thus saved, to enter the kingdom of God, naked, naked, alone, taking none of his own with him, and knowing that his wife and children are lost in the judgment!
Do you not think, Brothers, that this Lot looks very frighteningly like us? Is the world not right in many things, when it speaks of the bankruptcy of Christianity when it sees us?! Is it something that is out of date, out of date, out of touch? "And if the salt be unseasoned, it is good for nothing, but to be thrown away and trampled under foot." (Mt 5,13)
A very serious believer, a doctor, was once asked: "Tell me, have you never been disappointed in Christianity? I have never been disappointed in him!
You failed Christians! I wish we could all come to the realization that we can be disappointed in each other, in ourselves, in our faith, in our church, but never in Christ! And if our bankruptcy brings us very low under His sin-removing blood, to the acceptance of His renewing grace, then we shall find with certainty that we are never disappointed in our Saviour Lord!
Come let us pray to Him with this song:
Do not be tempted with me,
O my sweet God!
For I shall not be justified before thee, my soul:
Thou canst damn me.
Thy blessed Holy Spirit,
Please do not take it from me,
But renew in me to praise thy name,
that I may serve thee.
(Canto 205, verses 1 and 9)
Amen
Date: 2 November 1952.