#2 (THE "TEMPTATION" SERIES)
“TEMPTATION TO LOOK
BACK!”
TEXT: Gen. 19:1-29; Lk. 17:32
INTRO: The worst thing that can happen to a Christian is to look back! To turn back toward a life of sin after finding Christ as savior is one of the most miserable ways to live, and can have horrible consequences.
As Christians, it is vitally important that we are always looking forward, not back. Why? It is a fact that where we are looking is where we are heading. The saddest stories in the Bible are those of individuals who turned back, who turned away from God. Such people as King Saul, Lot’s wife, Judas, the Apostle Paul’s co-worker Demas, and others like the unnamed prophet who turned back and was killed by a lion for it, as well as all those who turned back and left Gideon. Hosea’s wife turned back to a world of sin after being redeemed. In Jesus’ own ministry we read in John 6:66 “From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him.”
Jesus said of Judas that it would have been better to have not been born than to have turned away from Christ. Solomon put it more graphically when he talked about those who returned to their old ways when he said, “the dog that returneth to its vomit.” Prov. 26:11
PROP. SENT: The Bible teaches us that to turn back to sin is to lose the life God has chosen for us; this temptation is real, and many have taken this sad path back to ruin.
I. A
“
A. Choices! Gen. 19:1-5
1.
a.
b. He moved
toward a big city named
c. He later
moved into
d. He took
up leadership in
e. He raised his family where he could get the most out of the world, putting little priority on the things of God.
2.
a. It was one bad choice after another, each one just a little closer to the world, and a little further away from God’s best.
b. Each choice took him deeper and deeper into compromise, all the time he still maintained his personal faith in God but the impact of his life of compromise would take its toll on him, and on his family.
ILLUS:
One summer two college
boys named Jack Prickett and Fred Stahl entered into the lowlands of
3.
a. Abraham
had already once come to his rescue from being with the people of
b. This
time, God would come to his rescue directly, but
B. Contamination! Gen. 19:6-11
1. The angels had come from God to rescue Lot and his family, judgment was about to fall on this wicked city … eventually all sin will be judged by God.
a. The whole city was so wicked that there were not even 10 righteous souls in it.
b. The
reason Abraham had stopped at 10 was probably due to the fact that Abraham knew
c. Abraham
hadn’t counted on the depth of contamination that
2. While
3. The man
a. He begs the angels to stay with him, not in the town square … he knows why!
b. He begs the men of
c. He begs the men of
d. He later begs his sons-in-laws to leave with them, but they laugh at him!
e. He then begs to stay, and the angels have to grab his hand and drag his family out!
f. He begs then to go to Zoar instead of fleeing to the mountains as he had been at first told … “Zoar” meant “little city” and was probably a small replica of Sodom so he could still have his old life back to some degree!
4. Little
by little
ILLUS:
Several years ago,
experts restored the famous painting of the Dutchman Rembrandt entitled, “THE
NIGHT WATCH.” The magnificent
painting had hung for years in
5. Did you
notice how
a. This
alone says a “
b.
c. This was
a man who had slowly become contaminated by sexual values that were contrary to
God’s values, all because he looked at what
d. This was a believer??? … Who had salted whom?
II. A “
A. Credibility!? 19:12-14
1. The same
a. The men
of the city had no respect for
b. His
credibility as a moral man was lost when he offered his daughters to these
wicked people in order to have them raped.
His respect had probably disappeared a long time ago as
c. Our credibility in this world when we TALK about God is only as good as how we WALK with God.
2. Compromising with the devil never works!
ILLUS:
A Russian parable talks
about a hunter that went into the woods to hunt for a bear to kill for a fur
coat. He finds one, and just as he
is about to pull the trigger to his great surprise the bear says to him in a
soft voice, “Isn’t it better to talk about this instead of shooting me, maybe we
can work something out to satisfy both parties. The hunter lowered the rifle and agreed
to hear him out. The bear asked
him, “What is it that you really want in shooting me?” The hunter answered, “A fur coat.” The bear then said, “And all I want is a
full stomach, so let us compromise.”
A few minutes later the bear walked away alone, the negotiating had been
a great success … the bear now had a full stomach and the hunter now wore
fur!!! Compromise rarely satisfies
both parties in equal measure!. – Source
Unknown
3. His sons-in-laws merely laughed at him for his message of doom and destruction!
a. The world will never listen to us, if they can’t respect us.
b. The right to be HEARD comes from the HOLY life we live.
4.
B. Conditioned! 19:15-17
1. Now when
morning arrives the angels tell them to hurry to leave, yet
a. There is no time to go get anyone else; his married daughters are to be left behind, the byproducts of their surroundings, and to their deaths.
b. The only ones to escape now will be those with God’s messengers.
c. It is
remarkable that
2. He was so conditioned to Sodom that he couldn’t bring himself to go, even with the fires of destruction ready to fall!
a. The hesitation reveals his true heart and what he really loved.
b. Those today who hesitate to give to God what belongs to Him show the same conditioning from this world.
3. Lot must have been unaware of just how much he had come to love Sodom, or at least how much it had influenced his life and family. He had become so used to the place he couldn’t bring himself to leave.
ILLUS:
A Blacksmith’s dog used
to spend most of its time in the smithy, and thus got used to the constant fire
and sparks. Other dogs occasionally
came into the shop with their masters only to quickly run away when they saw the
fire and sparks flying, but not the smithy’s dog … he was used to it. One day the shop caught fire while the
owner was away, his dog was still inside.
The dog burned to death because its instinct to run from the fire had
been dulled by it being around fire all the time. Thus, it cost the dog its life. Conditioning to fire had removed its
natural fear, and thus it perished when the death flames came. Have you become accustomed to being near
the fire? – Source
Unknown
4. This was
Lot, conditioned to the “hell” in
a. The angels had to literally grab his hand, his wife’s hand, and their two daughters and drag them out of the city to save them.
b. Once outside, they instructed them all “DON’T LOOK BACK!”
c. This was a new chance for them to break away from their backslidden condition, to start over again; they were not to LOOK BACK because this would tempt them to GO BACK!
5. They are instructed to flee to the mountains, to get to HIGH GROUND again!
a. If you have slipped and “lowered” yourself to the ways of this world, move up to the “high” ground of God’s ways again!
b. The only safe place was “up.”
III. A “
A.
Compromise!
1.
a. He goes to a city named “ZOAR” which in Hebrew means, “Little City.”
b. No doubt
this “little city” was a “little
2. If he can’t look back, he will look for something familiar!
3. This little compromise reveals the level of contamination in his heart.
4. Lot just kept making the wrong choices, even when God was trying to save him.
5. Ironically, those in Zoar must not have received him well either, for he doesn’t stay there, in fear he leaves there too!
6. Lot just kept selling out, a price tag that later proves very costly.
ILLUS:
There was a dying man in
B.
Catastrophe!
1.
2. Her
turning back indicated where her heart truly was, it was back in
a. Interestingly enough that area of the world has large natural asphalt pools with crusted salt around them at times.
b. Some believe it was a glob of fiery brimstone or asphalt that fell on her and encrusted her with salt, killing her instantly.
3. Lot had
lost his married daughter’s already, they stayed behind in
4. Abraham
gets up and notices all the smoke rising from the area of
a. Abraham
is living for God and his family, he had stayed away from
b.
5. Jesus
warns in Luke
a. If only they had listened to God’s voice and not looked back, they would have been off to a new start.
b. What is God saying to you today?
c. Are you listening to His WORD, or to the WORLD?
6. We must obey His Word if we are to be spared catastrophe.
ILLUS:
A man and his son were
fishing in the cold waters of a northern sea. They had stood on a little ice tip that
reached out into the water, to fall into that freezing water would mean almost
immediate death. Suddenly as they
stood on this ice outcropping they heard a noise and realized that the ice
section they were standing on had just broken loose from the main section and
they were beginning to drift out to sea!
Immediately the father shouted, “Son, jump now! … this very second,
quickly!” The father did just that,
assuming his son had obeyed him and followed, but when he landed on the main
flow again he turned and saw his son still standing on the ice piece floating
away! The boy had not jumped! With horror the father watched his son
slowly float out to sea, no way to rescue him. His hesitation to jump had cost him his
only opportunity for life, he would eventually die on that ice piece, somewhere
at sea, all he could do was weep over the loss and watch his son slowly
disappear, lost forever because he failed to obey his father! – Source Unknown
7. Why did
God even spare
a. It was
Abraham’s prayers that had saved
b. Thank God for those who don’t give up in prayer!
8.
9. All because they LOOKED BACK! Fight the temptation to LOOK BACK, or you will GO BACK! GOD’S WAYS ARE BETTER!
CONCLUSION: The saddest thing in all the world is the person who has accepted God’s love, but has looked back to the world for their comfort and security! Those who look back to the world will not be able to see God up ahead! The future is found only in God, don’t be tempted to look back!