Bible says the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleansed us from
all sin and that's why we sing about the blood.
I know if you think about it from a human standpoint or human
perspective, it sounds like a gory thing or something like
that. But honestly, what Jesus Christ
went through us on the cross was a pretty gory thing.
He was whipped, he was beaten, He was, he was tortured.
And then he then he was killed and hung up on the cross and he
did it all for us. He could have, he could have
called 10,000 angels to come take him off that cross anytime
he wanted to. And he and he, he very could
have done it. And and if I was him, I probably
would have. But he knew what he was doing
and he knew why he was there and he knew was for me.
He knows for you. And he did it anyway.
And he loved us so much that he was willing to shed his blood on
the cross. You know, some people say well.
Jesus could have died in a different way.
You know, He could have just been maybe, maybe clubbed on the
head and died and that would have been a little bit easier or
something and and and and, you know, you think about it from
that perspective. Maybe it would have been easier.
But The thing is, all throughout the Old Testament, you see that
it was blood that had to be shed in order for that sacrifice to
be made. Jesus Christ had to shed his
blood on the cross. He had, He had to not just die,
he had to shed his blood. And that's why we say for the
blood. And that's all that I have to
plead. It's through the blood that
Jesus shed for me. I can't earn my way there, can't
do anything. I can't do enough good to
account for all the bad one sin. One sin is another.
Bible says, for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet
offended one point is guilty of all.
Just like somebody who loves the store one time is called a
robber, right? Somebody who tells a lie one
time is a liar. And that's why when we sin even
once, we're sinners and we can't get into heaven without Jesus
Christ. I'm so thankful that he died in
the cross for us. If you don't know Jesus Christ
as your Savior, I mentioned this on Thursday night in our
Institute class. I I would never be under the
illusion that in a crowd this size, every single person here
is saved. I think the majority of people
are saved, some of some that have not been in church all that
long time. Maybe it's you, and maybe you're
questioning whether or not you're saved.
That's you need to get it settled.
And I will always share the gospel in a message because
there's always somebody that does not know for sure that
they're on their way to heaven. And we need to make sure that
that that's that that we have that settled.
And boy, what a precious, precious thing that is.
I would never want to make the blood of Jesus Christ of none
effect. He shed his blood for you.
And when you reject that shed blood of Jesus Christ, you are
rejecting everything that he is and everything that he's done.
And what a horrible, horrible thing that would be to have to
stand before God and say I rejected your son.
I would not. I I would not want to be in that
position. And that's why I've accepted
Jesus Christ as my Savior. Doesn't have anything to do with
me. It has everything to do with
him. But I'm so thankful that he did.
I'm thankful that I've had that opportunity.
Genesis chapter 19 is a story that you're probably at least a
little bit familiar with. But before we get into anything
about the message, I want to read the passage to you this
morning. This is the story of Lot and the
destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
Sodom and Gomorrah was a wicked place, and a whole lot of things
that were going on in there that were just that.
They were thinking that quite honestly, were an abomination to
God. The homosexuality was one of the
things, but there was a lot of other things that were going on
in Sodom and Gomorrah that were displeasing to God as well.
And God decided that he was going to destroy Sodom and
Gomorrah for their sin. But obviously Lot and his family
were living there and Abraham being a just man and and and a
friend of God as the Bible says, went to God and said, hey, if if
I can find 100 righteous, will you spare the city?
And God said, all right, I'll spare the city And he started
looking and he couldn't find 100.
He said, well, how about 50? Couldn't find 50, how about 10?
All right, 10 And even 10. Righteous could not be found in
the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And so God gave Abraham an opportunity to get Lot his his
nephew out of the city before he destroyed it.
There was some, there was some stipulations as they were
leaving. Don't look back.
And the Bible says this in Genesis chapter 19 and verse 15.
And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened, A Lot
saying, Arise, take thy wife and thy two daughters, which are
here, lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city.
And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and
upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two
daughters, the Lord being unto him.
And they brought him forth and set him without the city.
Think about this. Lot was Lot was a just man.
The Bible says that it vexed just Lot.
Right? Lot was a just man, But Lot
decided that he was going to pitch his tent.
Towards Sodom and he just puts his tent in that direction.
He didn't go into it. He didn't settle down the city
of Sodom until Sodom started to wear him down and he started to
look at that city. And the more he looked at it,
the more he desired it. And the more he desired it, the
more he made the decision that he was going to move in.
Before long, Lot was sitting in the gate of the city.
That means Lot was one of the city leaders there in Sodom.
If anybody could have changed anything, Lot could have done
something to change it. But he didn't.
And before long, Lot's entire family was taken up in the
wickedness in the filth of Sodom.
To the point that when God gave Lot an opportunity to escape
that city alive before he destroyed it, Lot had to be
dragged out by the hand, by those angels.
He had become so attached to that city, so attached to that
wickedness, so attached to that lifestyle and everything that
went along with it, that even when he was faced with absolute
destruction, not only of himself but of his entire family, he
lingered. And the angels had to drag him
out, And and boy, what a phrase, the Lord being merciful unto
him. And they brought him forth, and
set him without the city. And it came to pass, when they
had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy
life, Look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the
plain. Escape to the mountain, lest
thou be consumed. And Lot said unto them, Oh, not
so, my Lord, Behold, now thy servant has found grace in thy
sight, and now it's magnified thy mercy.
Which thou has showed unto me, and saving my life.
And I cannot escape to the mountain unless some evil take
me, and I die. Behold, now this city is near to
flee into, and it is a little. 10 Let me escape thither, is it
not a little one? And my soul shall live.
And he said unto him, See, I have accepted the concerning
this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city for that
which that for the which thou has spoken haste thee escape to.
Therefore I cannot do anything till become thither.
Therefore, the name of the city was called Zoar.
Even then, lots fighting with this Angel.
No, no, I can't go into the mountains.
If I go into the mountains, something's going to happen to
me in the mountains. Let me go into this little city.
And Angel again, God being merciful, said all right, fine,
go into that city, but get over to the city.
Can't do anything to you. Get over there.
God's being merciful to you. He's trying to get you out of
this place. Just get out of this place.
Verse 23 The sun was raising upon the earth when Lot entered
into Zoar. Then the Lord reigned upon
Sodom, and upon Gomoral brimstone and fire from the Lord
out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities,
and all the plane, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and
that which grew up on the ground.
I looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he
stood before the Lord, and he looked towards Sodom and
Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plane.
And behold and loathe, the smoke of the country went up as the
smoke of a furnace came to pass when God destroyed the cities of
the plane. That God remembered Abraham and
sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the
cities in which Lot dwelt. It's an amazing thing.
And if you have been taking part in the Bible geography lessons
in that we've been doing on Sunday nights, you've seen the
pictures. Sodom and Gomorrah is a desert
now, but it was obviously used to be a very lush place, a very
lush plane. That's why a Lot even pointed
himself in that direction in the first place.
But when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, he destroyed them for
for basically all the time. Now that land, the Bible says
it's going to be healed when Jesus Christ comes back.
And and in that end time all of that land where Sodom and
Gomorrah, all that desert area, the Judean wilderness and all of
that is going to grow and be as lush as the Bible says, as the
as the plane of sharing, which is one of the lushest places in
Israel right now. But you see what happens here in
this, in this, in this story. Could you imagine what Lot must
have thought when he realized that his wife was a pillar of
salt? I don't.
I I'm not sure just exactly when he realized that she was a
pillar of salt, she was behind him as they were running out of
the city. And I don't know if maybe he
looked back only to check on her and God was merciful again to
him because he wasn't looking at the city, he was looking at his
family. I don't.
The Bible doesn't tell us. But maybe, maybe, maybe he
never. Knew until they were safely in
the city of Zor. That is somehow he found out
that she had turned into a pillar of salt.
I don't know, but could you imagine what Lot must have
thought when he found out that his wife was a pillar of salt?
Why did she turn back? What a tragic story.
I don't know why she turned back because the Bible again doesn't
get that answer. But some people have suggested
that she was actually from Sodom, which is also was a great
possibility if you look at the story of of Abraham and Lot.
Sarah, Abraham's wife has mentioned many times in that
story. Lot's wife was never We don't
have a name for her. We don't know who she was, We
don't know where she was from. We don't know anything about
her. When a Lot pitched his tent
towards Sodom, there was no wife with him, at least in the story.
Maybe she was, maybe she wasn't. Maybe she was from Sodom and
that's why she looked back. Maybe she was looking back to
see if any of the other her other family had decided to
follow her. Maybe she was looking back to
get one more look at her beloved city.
Either way, she made the grievous mistake of looking
back. God had very specifically told
them, when you leave the city, don't look back.
She violated a very direct command to look back at the old
life, to look back at the old world, where they were coming
from. And we need to look at the
command that we're given in Luke chapter 17.
Turn over there. One of the shortest verses in
the Gospels. Now obviously John 1135 is the
one that all the kids are familiar with.
Jesus wept. And what a story that is, and
and I think it's it deserves a verse of its own.
But this one in Luke chapter 17 and verse #32 is also one of the
shortest verses in the Gospels. And Jesus is giving a little bit
of a dissertation if you will, talking about several different
things when it when it comes to talking with a crowd of few.
If your if your Bible has verses in red, then you can see that
most of chapter 17 is in red. Jesus is talking about the
second coming and in the middle of all of that he starts to to
talk about this story of lot. And then he says this in Luke
chapter 17 and verse #32. Remember lots wife.
Now that's a command.
You know anything about English grammar?
There is no subject. And when there is no subject,
it's an understood you. You remember Lot's wife.
This is a command that we've been given.
We only have one thing that we have to remember about Lot's
wife, because we don't have anything about her.
We don't know her name, so we're not.
It's not her name that we're supposed to remember.
We don't know anything else about Lot's wife except what she
looked back. And he says remember Lot's wife?
It's so if it's so important that we we remember the fact
that Lot's wife look back, then there must be an important
message in that for us. And there is.
And that's what I want to share with you this morning is some
reasons why in remembering Lot's wife, we should not look back in
our Christian life. Let's pray.
And then we'll look at a couple of those reasons this morning.
Father, we love you again. We thank you so much for your
goodness. I thank you for the story and
the reminder that we have to not look back.
Having put our hands to the plow.
God, I'll pray that this would be an encouraging and a
challenging message to us this morning.
We thank you for all that you do for us.
In Jesus name. Amen.
Turn, if you will, the Galatians Chapter 3.
The first thing that I want to mention as far as why we should
not look back is because there's been so much that we've there.
There's so much that we've been saved from.
If you know Jesus Christ as your Savior, then you're a changed
person. You should be.
Our life before salvation is characterized as the old man or
the flesh. And the Bible talks about all
all throughout the the the, the writings of Paul, especially the
fact that we are going to be constantly fighting against that
old man, that old nature. The old man is the man that we
used to be before we became a new creature in Jesus Christ.
Therefore, if any man being Christ, he is a new creature.
The Bible tells us in First Corinthians old things are
passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. So that old man is, is, is who
we should be putting off, and we should be putting on the new
man. But that's the part of us that
fights against our desire to do right.
That old man is constantly going to be there.
We can never get rid of this flesh, this robe of flesh.
I'll drop and rise to seize the everlasting prize, but that does
not come until we meet Jesus Christ in glory.
We're going to be dealing with this flesh all the way up until
that point, but why is it so much easier to do wrong?
Why is it so hard to live a consistently godly life?
Because we have a sin nature called the flesh, and we fight
against that. It constantly fights against Our
Calling as a Christian to live for Jesus Christ.
Paul uses what he knows about this war in the Soul to ask the
Church of Galatia a very important question here in
Galatians chapter 3. In verse #3, are you so foolish?
Having begun in the Spirit, are you now made perfect by the
flesh? He said.
How? How can you think that if you're
a new person in Jesus Christ, a new creature in Jesus Christ?
How is the flesh going to help you with that?
It's not. And I mean, he's point blank
about it. Why are you so dumb?
How can you be so foolish to think that the flesh is going to
help you? Flesh is not going to help you.
We've been saved from the flesh. We've been set free from living
as the old man. Are you so foolish that you
think that going back to that old man, or that old way of
living, that old lifestyle, can do something for you
spiritually? You've been saved from that.
Why would you go back to that? That's what Paul is asking
there. In other words, don't look back.
Because what you've been saved from, the flesh is weak, is not
an excuse to sin. It's a warning not to sin.
And I think I I believe the problem is that so many
Christians are abusing the doctrine of grace.
If I turn over to Romans chapter 6, a lot of Christians have this
idea in their mind that because they're saved from spending an
eternity in hell, it doesn't matter how they live their
lives, right? Well, I've got liberty and Jesus
Christ, and you do. But that liberty is not a
license to sin. That liberty is a license to
live for Jesus Christ. And you have the ability to do
that because of the fact that you are in Jesus Christ.
An unsafe person cannot live a spiritual life.
An unsafe person cannot live a godly life because they're still
in the old nature. They're still, they still have
that flesh. They've never been a new
creature in Jesus Christ. They've never been made new.
They can't please Jesus Christ. They that are in the flesh, the
Bible says, cannot please God. Grace covers a multitude of
sins. That seems to be the mantra of
so many Christians today. But look what the Bible says.
This is Paul writing in Roman chapter 6 and verse #1.
Paul says this. What shall we say then?
Shall we continue and sin that grace may abound?
God forbid. How shall we that are dead to
sin live any longer? Therein he's saying you.
You're dead to sin. How are you going to live in it?
You. You.
What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin just so
we can have grace? No, He says, God forbid.
How shall we that are dead to sin live any longer in sin?
Look what he says in verse #6. Knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin, for he that is dead
is freed from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him.
We're dead to the old nature. We're dead to those things alive
in Jesus Christ. That's what gives us the ability
to live the Christian life in a joyful way.
That's what gives us the ability to to to be able to live that
abundant life that he talks about.
Verse #12. I think he brings it all
together in this. Let not sin therefore reign in
your immortal body, that you should obey it in the lust
thereof. Neither yield you your members
as instruments of unrighteousness unto sin, but
yield yourselves unto God as those that are alive from the
dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness
unto God. For sin shall not have dominion
over you, for you're not under the law, but under grace.
So don't use grace as a license to sin.
Use grace as a license to live the abundant Christian life.
Don't yield your members as instruments to sin.
Yield them to God for him to use you.
Right. A knife can be a good thing and
a bad thing, right? A knife in the hand of a
criminal can be used as a weapon of murder, right?
But a knife in the hand of a of a surgeon can be a a weapon of I
don't know if weapon is the right word, but an instrument of
healing, right? It's whose hand is it in?
And that's exactly what he's talking about, yielding your
members as instruments not to sin so that you can have grace
yield them to God. You're already you're alive from
the dead. You're made new in Jesus Christ.
Let him use those instruments. He deserves them.
He's the one that's purified him.
Let him use those instruments. In other words, because what
you've been saved from, you cannot just live your life like
you please. Why would you want to do that?
He says You've been saved from a whole lot of things.
Yes, you have, Grace. And yes, God will forgive you
for the things that you do in your life, because we're not
going to be perfect. But we don't just go sin because
we have grace, because we have grace that should keep us from
sin. Of course grace covers those
sins, but we should avoid sin and that old lifestyle at all
cost. Turn to Galatians chapter 4.
See a lot of people that don't know Christ.
Look at the Christian life is nothing more than a series of
do's and don'ts. Well, why would I want to get
involved in church? Just don't do this.
Don't do this, do that, do that. And I honestly, that's the way a
lot of young people look at the Christian life.
Just a list of do's and don'ts. They see Christianity as living
in change because of all the things that we can't do.
Well, you can't do this. You can't do that.
You can't drink. You can't smoke, you can't
curse. You can't.
You can't know.
The truth is, I could. If I wanted to, right, Nothing.
Stop me from going down to Wawa and buying a beer and and
drinking the whole thing. Nothing stopping me from doing
that right? I could go grab a pack of
cigarettes and smoke the whole thing this afternoon if I wanted
to. I probably couldn't.
I'd probably choke to death before I did that.
I've never had one, so I don't know.
But I could, right? I I could go, I could go do
anything that I want to do. It's not that I can't do those
things, it's that I don't have to do those things.
Think about the man that's addicted to alcohol.
He's in change to that alcohol. A person that's addicted to
smoking is in change to those things.
You think about pornography addictions.
Those people are addicted to that.
They they're in change to those things.
They're the ones that are in bondage.
Not me. I have the freedom in Christ.
I'm not in bondage to that lifestyle, like all of those who
are in those lifestyles that are trapped and looking for meaning
and happiness and peace, only to find out that that that in the
bondage that that they're in, it just constantly draws them back
in, right? How many times have, well, I've
been clean for for a month, but unfortunately I went back to it,
right? No, as a Christian, I don't have
to do those things. I've been clean for 35 years, 40
years. I've never been involved in any
of those things. That's because of my freedom
that I have in Jesus Christ. I'm freed from those things.
I'm not a slave to those things. And Paul sums it up perfectly
what we've been saying from in glacial chapter 4 and verse #9.
But now after that you have known God, or rather are known
of God. How turn ye again to the weak
and beggarly elements where until you desire again to be in
bondage? What's he saying?
He's saying a prisoner that's been free doesn't walk out and
say, you know what? I don't really like this free
air stuff. Let me go back into prison here.
Take me back and put me in chains.
Who does that? Nobody does that.
Right? You get your free.
I'm free. I'm free.
There's no walls around me. This is this.
I can't believe how beautiful the sky is today.
I can't believe what the sun looks like.
Right. That's what somebody who's freed
from prison does, and that's what we as Christians should do.
And what Paul is saying is when you go back to those things that
you've been freed from, it's the same thing as walking back into
prison and sitting down and asking to be put in chains
again. How can you do that?
How turn here again to the weak and beggarly elements where
until you desire to be in bondage, It's it's almost like a
rhetorical question, Paul. It's like Paul is just
dumbfounded. How can you want to do that?
And that's the question that I have for you this morning.
If you're a Christian, if you know Jesus Christ is your
savior, how can you participate in the things that the world is
participating in? How can you jump in and be
involved in the homosexual lifestyle and then sticking up
for all of those things? How can you be involved in
sticking up for abortion? How can you be involved in
Hollywood's productions? And you are when you're watching
those things, By the way, if if nobody watched it, they would go
out of business, right? You see that happen with Bud
Light, right? Everybody stopped drinking and
and they lost a huge, huge market share because people
finally standing up to some of this craziness in this nonsense.
And that's I mean that's biology.
That's all that stuff. That doesn't that.
I mean it does have a little bit to do with spirituality because
God said that he made a male and female.
But think about all the things that we should be standing up
for when it comes to Christianity that Christians
have just backed away from. If enough Christians would stand
up to it, we'd make a difference in this world.
But too many Christians want to go back to the weakened beggarly
elements where and to they desire to be in bondage.
Huge part of the problem is that most of the people who claim to
be Christians are not. There's not near as many
Christians in this country as claim to be Christians.
That's why the Bible. Says many will say it to me.
In that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in the name?
And then I name have cast out devils, and then and in thy name
have done many wonderful works? Then will I say to them, Depart
from me, ye cursed into everlasting fire.
I never knew you, right? That's people who are getting up
and preaching, getting up and proclaiming the word, getting up
and healing people and doing all these other things.
And we did all this in Jesus name, he said.
I don't know who you are, right? It's like the devils.
Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you?
Right? They they were, they were
religious. They were going to go cast out
these devils. They were going to do all this
stuff in the name of Jesus. And he said, who are you guys
again? We don't know.
You and Jesus is going to do the same thing to a lot of people
who think they're Christians, who have pretended to be
Christians for a long time. These guys I know.
But who are you? I don't know You, and if I don't
know you, you're cursed into everlasting fire.
What a sad thing that is. That just goes to show you that
there's so many in this world today who claim to be Christians
who are not because they've never been washed in the blood
of the lamb, they've never been to Calvary, they've never had
their sins forgiven, and there's no change in their life.
You see. You don't have to change in
order to be saved, but you change because you have been
saved. There ought to be something
different about you and all these churches that are out
there preaching. Oh, just come as you are.
You don't have to change in order to be saved.
You don't have nothing. Nothing has to change.
Just just just claim the name of Jesus.
That's not salvation. You have a whole churches full
of people who have never been transformed by Jesus Christ.
And if nothing changed from the moment you got, from the moment
you accept that Jesus Christ is your savior, then I highly doubt
you accept that Jesus Christ is your savior.
Therefore, if any man being Christ, he is a new creature.
Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become
new. You're not working for your
salvation, you're working because of your salvation.
You've been saved from something.
You ought to show a difference, and there ought to be a
difference in your life to show the.
Gratitude that you have for what Jesus Christ did for you on the
cross. Don't turn back.
Don't even look back because of all that.
You've been saved from when you remember the sacrifice that
Jesus made by going to the cross, when you remember how
miserable your life was before Jesus Christ, when you remember
what it was like to be in bondage to sin, how can you look
back? Remember Lot's wife?
She looked back. We shouldn't because we've been
saved from so much, but also #2, because there is yet much work
to do. Turn over to Luke Chapter 9.
The world is likened in many places in the Bible to a harvest
field, Jesus said. The harvest is plenteous, but
the laborers are few. And I will tell you that the
that the harvest is getting less and less plenteous part partly
because there are so few laborers, right?
What happens when you have a whole field of corn that grows
up and it's ripe and it's ready for picking and nobody goes and
picks it, Eventually it dies and eventually it keeps other things
from growing up, right. And I think that's exactly
what's happened in our world. The harvest still is plenty.
Plenty of harvest out there to gather, but most of those fields
are dying because nobody's harvested them.
Says the harvest truly is plenty of, but the laborers are few.
In Luke Chapter 9, Jesus is giving a lesson on true
discipleship, and he has two different men that come to him
and tell him that they're willing to follow him anywhere.
And then Jesus gave them the command to follow him, and they
both came up with excuses why they couldn't.
The head of something that they had to do first.
So Jesus gives them this strong statement in Luke Chapter 9.
In verse 62, Jesus said unto him, No man having put his hand
to the plow and looking back as fit for the Kingdom of heaven.
I think we could certainly apply that to somebody who is who
wants to go to heaven, but it's not willing to give up his sin
and his worldly lifestyle and forsake those things to accept
Christ. You don't have to be sinless to
be saved. You don't have to stop all your
sin to be saved, but you have to want to.
You have to have a desire. You have to have a new
relationship with your sin when you meet Jesus Christ.
That's what repentance is. Repentance is recognizing that
I'm a Sinner and that my sin is sending me to hell.
And I need a Savior, and I need a new relationship with him, and
I need a new relationship with my sin.
No longer will I love that sin. No longer will I revel in it.
No longer will I want to go back to it.
I've been saved from that but but, but I believe that we can
also apply this to Christians. He was saying you're not fit for
God's work if you if you look back I think there's a strong
allusion to Lot's wife in this passage.
In fact turn over to Matthew chapter 6.
See, I think was what Jesus was saying is if you have a desire
to follow me and to reap the benefits of those who do follow
me, you can't be looking back to a worldly life again and and
hankering after it. You can't be, you can't be
having that draw that that makes you want to go back.
Not all of us are going to have that temptation.
There's that's part of temptation, A temptation to go
after this thing or that thing. But if, if, if you, if, if your
whole life is pointing back in the direction of, I want that,
like like the Israelites in the wilderness, right?
How many times did they say, oh, if we could only just go back to
Egypt, oh, life would be so much better back in Egypt.
The idea of putting your hand to the file with someone who's
intent on doing his job, he's not looking back with regret
that he undertook that job, right?
And that's exactly what he's talking about.
Somebody who is a Christian, somebody who's been saved,
somebody who who is going forward for the cause of Jesus
Christ does not regret the decision to become a Christian.
It's exactly what Jesus is trying to get across in our
spiritual lives. If you're going to serve him,
serve him with your whole heart. You come into a relationship
with Jesus Christ still loving the world, still looking with
regret on the pleasure that you gave up the wealth, the world,
the honors, and you're not fit to be called a servant of Jesus
Christ. I find it so interesting how the
Bible interprets the difference between where our loyalties lie.
Matthew, chapter 6, verse 24. No man can serve 2 masters, for
either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will
hold to the one and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon. Now, he doesn't say that we
choose between God and the devil.
What is? What is he saying?
That we're choosing between God and mammon, right?
You know what mammon is? It's wealth, treasure, riches.
So many people are drawn away by that.
The God says that we choose between him and the world, him
and that lifestyle, him and riches.
Serving Christ is everything or nothing.
Person that is not willing to sacrifice everything for the
cause of Christ is really not willing to sacrifice at all, and
that's what he's talking about. No man having put his hand to
the plow and looking back is fit for the Kingdom of heaven.
Don't look back. Don't look back because of what
you've been safe from. Don't look back because there's
much work to do. And #3 if you'll turn over to
Philippians chapter 3. Don't look back, because there's
a reward waiting in heaven. We have the past, the present,
and the future. The past is what you've been
saved from. The present is what we have to
do now. The future is where we're going.
There's treasure and a reward waiting in heaven.
Philippians Chapter 3 is a familiar passage to most of us.
In verse #13 it says this brethren I count not myself to
have apprehended, but this one thing I do, forgetting those
things which are behind. And reaching forth into those
things which are before I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
You know some people so well you shouldn't focus on on heaven.
You know, why would you focus on heaven as being a reason why
somebody would want to accept Jesus Christ?
Or why would you focus on on earning crowns?
It's all it's you should just focus on serving Jesus.
And I agree we should. But The thing is, why would he
give us those motivations if he didn't want us to be motivated
by them, right? If he didn't want us to be
motivated by the prize of the high calling of God in Christ
Jesus, then why would he mention it in this passage if he didn't
want us to be motivated by earning crowns?
And why would he tell us about the five crowns we can earn,
right? If he didn't want us to be
motivated by going to heaven, why would he describe heaven and
all the beauty and everything else?
He I think he wants us. To be motivated to go there and
to earn the rewards that we can earn, right?
But we have to forget some things if we're going to press
forward. And the first thing we have to
forget is past failures. See, the devil is going to try
to remind you where you failed. And we failed.
A lot of times as Christians, especially if you've been a
Christian for for quite a long time or any length of time,
you're going to fail as a Christian.
And the devil is going to point back at those things and say,
hey, remember what you did. God can't use you.
God could never use you again. Look at all those failures.
Look at all the things that you have to your name.
Look at the ways that you've messed up.
Look at the things that you've done.
So try to tell you that you can't be useful to God.
One songwriter put it this way. When Satan reminds me of things
I regret, I bring up Calvary, lest he forget.
What a what a great, what a great statement in a song.
Past failures cannot determine our future success for God,
forgetting those things which are behind, he says.
That means if you've had failures in your past, forget
them. Go forward.
You've made mistakes. The wounds heal.
Turn around and go forward for the cause of Jesus Christ.
But I'll say this too. We have to forget our past
victories. Not that we can't be glad for
them, but a lot of Christians want to live on what they did
yesterday for God. Oh, they like to dwell on things
that they used to do. I remember back in the day, we
used to and we would, and then we would.
And why aren't you doing it now? Forget the past victory.
Pretend they never even happened.
The same way we want to forget all our past failures, right?
We want, we don't want to remember the things that we made
mistakes and we want to talk about how good we are.
And all this, you know well how wonderful I used to be and all
the things that I used to do for God and all of those are still
stacked up to my credit. Pretend they never happened.
What are you doing for Christ today?
What have you done for him in the last week?
What have you done for Christ in the last month?
Forget those past victories. Living in the past is looking
back in the Christian life. Forget those past failures.
Forget those past victories and look forward to the prize that
God has for you to win. If you're still alive, then He
still has something for you to do.
When He's done with you on this earth, he'll bring you home.
If you're not home yet, then you still have work to do.
Get busy. Do it while you have the time.
Use the opportunities that he's giving you now.
You may not have all the energy that you used to have.
You may not have all the abilities that you used to have.
You may not be able to do everything you used to do, but
you can do something and do it for the cause of Christ.
There's so many more victories, so many more blessings, so many
more rewards that he wants to give you.
You can't win them by looking back and only win them by
looking forward and pressing toward that mark.
I have a cousin that's a very gifted runner, had a four year
scholarship to the University of Michigan.
And boy I remember we went up to we went up to Minnesota.
I think they were seniors and they hit their twins and both of
them are fast, but one of them is faster than the other.
One of them got a I think you got a scholarship to a division
two college and this one got a a a four year scholarship to the
University of Michigan to run track and and cross country.
And I remember we went up to visit for a family reunion in
July and we went up to Atasca State Park, which is the
headwaters of the Mississippi. And we're just going out there
to to relax. There's some trails out there
and they they came out there dressed in their running clothes
and they said, yeah, we got to get our run in.
We're we're just going to go run a short 6 miles.
And and like 30 minutes later they came back and they had run
their six miles and they just fit, you know, then they just
did everything that we we did the rest of the day.
I mean, these guys were in amazing shape, but he went to.
University of Michigan and he won.
He won several NCAA titles and different things.
I mean an excellent runner and he's only, I think he's been
graduated two or three years now, so he's not that far out of
it. He actually signed a.
Professional running contract and I forget who he runs for but
he does a lot of that kind of stuff anyway.
My dad being that he's you know obviously his, it's his sister
and and a lot of their family lives up there.
So he goes up there a decent amount, watches the races and
everything else And so he he really gets excited about the
the races. And so every once in a while has
send me a video of of some kind of race that happened or
whatever else. And a lot of times it's my
cousin, but other times it's it's different people.
And anyway. Not too long ago he showed me a
video of an indoor track meet and 1 runner had just.
I mean he he had gotten way out in front of everybody else and
he was, I mean to look like there was you know he was just
he was cruising and everybody else was kind of there.
But there was there was one guy and the announcers kept talking
about and they say I think he's just hanging back.
I think he's just waiting for his opportunity to pass and
because he should not be as far back as he is, I think he's just
waiting And he was, he was very near the back.
One lap left and the bell rings to show you that there's one lap
left and this guy started making his move and he started passing
people one after another after another and there was a pretty
good gap between 1st and 2nd place.
This guy moved up into second place and as they're rounding
these corners he was he was closing that gap and the guy
that was out in the front and and you know the the announcers,
of course they're getting all excited.
They're starting to talk about this could be a really close
finish and you know, they're they're getting more and more
excited. And and as they rounded the
final corner on the home stretch.
The the announcer noticed something that the runner in
first place did and he pointed it out and he said, oh, he just
made his first mistake. He looked back and that little
mistake of him looking back to see where that other guy was was
just enough that that guy needed to pass him as they stretched
across and and the guy beat him for first place.
The only way to effectively press toward the mark is to
continue to press toward the mark.
Don't look back. Don't look back.
Unless you want to go back,
because the direction you're looking is the direction you're
going to go. The interesting thing about
Lott's wife is that she was turned into a pillar of salt.
She didn't drop dead on the spot.
Why did? Why?
I mean, God didn't say don't look back or you're going to
turn into a pillar of salt, he said.
Don't look back, right? Why didn't she just drop dead?
Why didn't you know? Why didn't some burning ash
falling on her from Sodom and Gomorrah and she burned up?
Why a pillar assault? I showed you a picture of the
traditional spot of where Lot's wife was as we were going
through this when we visited in Israel.
But there's lots wife. Now whether that's her or not, I
don't know, but that's been there a long, long time.
Josephus, the historian that was alive during the time of Jesus
Christ, mentioned going to see the pillar of Lot's wife.
But God told us to remember Lot's wife.
You think maybe that's why she was turned into a pillar of
salt? Is a memorial, a reminder that
all those years ago in Genesis, when she looked back, got turned
into a pillar of salt. Here we are in Matthew, I'm
sorry, in Luke. And you can say, Hey, remember
Lot's wife? She looked back and she got
turned into a pillar of salt. God left lots Wife there is a
stark reminder to us not to do what she did.
And he says remember lots wife. There's nothing significant
about lots wife that we're given in the Bible other than the fact
that she looked back. Looking back is something that
we would do well to avoid. Don't look back because of what
you've been safe from. Don't look back because there's
yet much work to do. And don't look back because
there's a reward waiting for you in heaven.
Perhaps you're here this morning and you're looking back a little
bit. You've been saved.
Maybe you've even been saved for quite a long time.
Are you looking back? You're looking back and saying,
boy, if I could only do that. Oh, it'd be so wonderful to be
able to have the freedom to do that.
We're using using grace as an occasion to sin instead of as an
opportunity to have that freedom in Jesus Christ, to live for him
and to be used as an instrument of his.
Are you looking back? Are you looking forward in
accomplishing everything that he wants to accomplish through you?
That's the question for all of us this morning.
Let's pray. Father, we love you.
Give me. Thank you for your goodness to
us. Thank you for the reminder that
we have of Lot's wife. Tragic story for her, but a
tremendous reminder for us Don't look back.
This world has nothing to offer us.
And as we saw in our first chorus, I don't want to go back
to the world. There's nothing in the world for
me, God, I pray that don't be the mindset of every single
person in this one. In God, we're making, we've made
some mistakes. Start looking back.
Pray that you help us to get those things right with you this
morning. Pray that you give us the
boldness to take that step and got to do.
Pray If there is anybody in here that's still lost, still does
not know Jesus Christ or their Savior, still wondering maybe
where they're going to spend eternity, I pray that you bring
the conviction in their heart to the point where there is no
doubt that they need you and God.
I pray that you'd help them to make that decision this morning
as well, to accept Jesus Christ as their Savior.
God, may we all be where you want us to be, so that we can be
a church full of people that are being used by you to the fullest
capacity. Nothing that we're missing out
on. Nothing that we're lacking from
you because our hearts are so in tune with yours, pointing in the
direction that you're leading. And God, where we've started to
stray, bring us back. Thank you for all that you do
for us in Jesus. Amen.
If you would, please stand at your seat.