Episode Ten: Remember Lot’s Wife

Episode Ten: Remembering Lot’s Wife in Luke 17:32

 

Andrewes on the requisite intentions for spiritual growth

and the lifelong perseverance that marks

the lives of true believers.

 

May 30, 2022

 

Sermon IV of Lancelot Andrewes’ Sermons Preached in Lent

Preached before Queen Elizabeth on March 6, 1594.

 

Copies can be found in Lancelot Andrewes Works,

Sermons, Volume Two, or on The Project Canterbury Website.

 

Summary:

      Andrewes teaches on the sobering example of Lot’s wife, which Jesus commanded His followers to remember in Luke 17:32.

 

1. Introductory Remarks
   1. This verse is short so there is no excuse for not memorizing and learning its lesson.
   2. The context of this verse is applied to future events, so it still applies to us
2. Two Moments of God’s Judgment
   1. The lake of Sodom – a punishment for resolute sin
      1. For sins of commission – a judgment against those in a state of sin
      2. We ought to learn the dangers of living in open sin
   2. Lot’s wife’s pillar – punishment for faint virtue [Christ’s emphasis is on this one]
      1. For sins of omission – a judgement against those in a state of grace
      2. We ought to learn the dangers of not continuing to grow/progress in faith – “We sprinkle ourselves with the salt of her pillar that we turn not again to follow, or fall away from our steadfastness.
      3. If we stop growing, then we stop going.
3. Two Necessary Reminders
   1. In regards to religion
      1. Her story is for old-timers, not new converts
      2. She motivates us take serious progression in religious life
   2. In regards to nature
      1. As breasts complete the work of the womb, or a healthy regiment completes the work of the physician, so remembering her story completes our first faith
      2. She motivates us to take serious the proneness-to-wander-astray of our nature
         1. Like Israelites wanting to go back to Egypt
         2. Like the Romans turning their backs on Paul
         3. Like the declining morality of our time: “The wavering and amaze of others that stand in the plain with Lot’s wife, looking about, and cannot tell whether to go forward to little Zoar or back again to the ease of Sodom, show plainly that Lot’s wife is forgotten.”
4. Point One: Christ uses such stories and calls us to remember these stories of the past
   1. By the office of preaching reminding us of the fragility of life and dark days to come
   2. By the preservation of the Scriptures for us to remember the days of old
      1. We are to hold our actions up in comparison to the actions seen in these stories
      2. We are to read stories past so that we do not become the stories of the future
5. Point Two: What to remember about Lot’s wife particularly
   1. Two kinds of “remembering”
      1. Remembering examples to follow
      2. Remembering examples to flee from
   2. Two things to be remembered: “what they did” and “what their outcome was”
      1. What Lot’s wife did – “she drew back, or looked back
         1. She did not head the angel’s warning (Gen.19:17) as if there was no peril
         2. She did all that she was forbidden and despised the counsel of God
      2. What was her outcome – she was turned into a salt stone
   3. The Degrees of Her Disobedience
      1. A wavering Mind with the Sin of Unbelief – She did not keep the Angel’s charge but believed her sons-in-law knew better.
      2. This sin produced a weariness and slow steps – She lost the intent to follow drawing back
      3. For the love of Sodom remained in her heart causing the convulsion of her neck – She cast her eyes for where she longed.
      4. She did not want to give up Sodom’s ease – She had been moving all her life, Sodom gave her a sense of stability and security; she did not want to enter an uncertain future.
   4. The Doubly-heinous nature of her sin
      1. She fell away and looked back after 30 long years of hard faithfulness
      2. She was punished the instant she looked back out of willful defection from God’s mercies
         1. Judged for forgetting all of God’s past mercies to her
         2. After God so warmly remembered her all the times past, she coldly forgot Him here
         3. She chose bodily pleasures of Sodom instead of safety of her soul in Zoar
         4. She was judged for “looking back” not “going back” (sins of the heart)
   5. The punishment of her sin – a fearful death – which we ought to flee from
      1. A Sudden Death – “back she looked, and never looked forward again”
      2. A Death in the Act of Sin – she died with her face toward Sodom
      3. A Strange Death – not death by old age, but one full of terror
      4. A Death without Burial – to remain a spectacle above the ground of God’s wrath
6. Point Three: How to apply the lessons of Lot’s wife’s story “that the salt of this pillar may be the season of our lives.”
   1. This evil is turned to good if we learn by its example
      1. God makes use of both Good and Bad examples
      2. God could erase the memory of evil, but instead preserves its memory so that good can be pursued next time (Memory can be is used to find wisdom).
   2. Lessons to be learned from Lot’s Wife
      1. Perseverance – the Queen and preserver of virtue
      2. Due Care – To intentionally look forward, no looking to old pleasures or securities
      3. Fear – false senses of security
   3. Four Considerations
      1. Just because one is being led does not mean that one is safe
      2. The inconsistency of one hour can make void a whole life’s work
      3. The same end is shared by both unrepentant sinners and non-persevering believers
      4. There are 11th hour disqualifications as much as conversions
   4. Final remembrances:
      1. Remember so that we do not think this can’t happen to us
      2. Remember so that we do not grow weary of what God wants in using us (“Do not grow weary in doing good,” Gal.6:9)
      3. Remember so that we do not stand still in progressing toward God’s calling (“Press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus,” Phil.3:14).
      4. Remember so that we do not look back after putting the hand to the plow (“No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God,” Lk.9:62)
      5. Remember so that we do not leave the old ways in our hearts (“The last state of that person is worse than the first” Lk.11:24-26)
      6. Remember so that we do not squander/waste a lifetime of God’ mercies (“We appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain,” 2Cor. 6:1)
      7. Remember so that we end our lives in the Spirit and not in the folly of flesh (“Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh?” Gal.3:3)
      8. Remember so that our lives leave testimonies of grace not disgrace
      9. Remember so that we do not create a scandal by falling as she did (“If I had, I would have betrayed the generation of your children,” Ps.73:15)
      10. Remember so that we do not leave behind a memory of infamy
      11. Remember so that we do not long for lesser things and others take our place
      12. Remember so that we stay in step with the Spirit leaving no vacancy for other spirits
      13. Remember so that we do not justify Sodom by the way we live; to not go the way of virtue is to go the way of vice
      14. Remember now while we have time to learn from her mistake
      15. Remember Christ is the one who gave us this story; conform to Him not Lot’s wife
      16. Remember so that we persevere and will be remembered by the Lord in the Book of life
   5. The blessing of living under a Queen who remembered Lot’s wife

Beverages of Choice:

Guinness Draught Stout by Guinness Ltd.

Sweet Baby Jesus Chocolate Peanut Butter Porter by DuClaw Brewing

SeaQuench Ale Session Sour by Dogfish Head Brewing 

Cayman Jack Margarita 

 

Music & Sound Attributions:

Music in this episode by Blue Dot Sessions “Lost Shoe” (www.sessions.blue). Sounds used are as follows: “Beer Can Opening” recorded by Mike Koening found at (http://soundbible.com/216-Beer-Can-Opening.html) and “Pouring Drink” recorded by Mike Koenig found at (http://soundbible.com/2115-Pouring-Drink.html).