The time has come when the Word must mean a great deal to us. We must come to the realization of the perils and the conditions in which we live. We must realize what effect the surrounding environment will have upon us, how we will be pressured, and what will come out of it.
In the days of Lot, the conditions of the world were very different as far as culture and environment was concerned. But as far as spiritual pressures are concerned, the conditions were very similar.
Three periods occur in human history which the Master says are alike. As it was in the days of Noah, so it was in the days of Lot, and so it will be in the end time (Luke 17:26–30).
We know that the days of Noah resulted in a tremendous judgment. The state of humanity in its hour before judgment brought it to a very similar position again in the days of Lot at Sodom and Gomorrah, and again to the days in which we are living.
We read the Scriptures and find the Master refers to the days of Noah and the days of Lot and says, “So will it be when the son of man comes.”
This message came in a brief flash of revelation. I saw three things coming forth in this story of Lot. They came one, two, three. I want to show you exactly the peril of the time in which we are living. It may be very difficult for you to face what is going to happen in the days that are to come.
First of all, the compromise with conviction was a thing which happened in the days of Lot. Very vivid in my mind is something which happened in World War II during the Nazi persecutions.
This was a way the Nazis discredited a man of God. They broke one of the big spiritual leaders of Germany in a very subtle fashion. They took this man and a nun and stripped them. Then they submerged them in intensely cold water; they were weighted down and only able to breathe. The guards would pull them out and dump them on the side of the deep tank, and then when they began to recover, shivering and blue and cold, they would put them in again.
They did this again and again, trying to break them, until the man of God and the nun, almost freezing to death, turned to one another in some strange compulsion to seek warmth and love and embraced each other. Thus they succeeded in breaking down the morals of a great man of God—but it took days to do it.
You wonder how along a person can be subjected, in the days to come, to the harassments and the persecutions before he breaks down? How long does it take to harass a man with brainwashing before he says there is no God?
How many times do they strap him down, put the electrodes on his head and shock his brain before they have obliterated the memory of God out of his mind? What does it take?
The Scriptures say that Lot’s soul was vexed day to day by the unrighteous deeds; it grieved him and worked at him (II Peter 2:8). But the time came when the pressures caused Lot to compromise his convictions, and then what he believed in was no longer a real way of life to him.
There were arguments between himself and Abraham and between their shepherds; then Abraham said, “Let there not be contention. You pick where you want to go.” And Lot looked down in the valley of the Jordan river and picked that land because that was where the grass was green (Genesis 13:7–10).
Next we see Lot living in Sodom; we find him in the gates of Sodom, which means that he was one of the elders, one of the rulers of Sodom (Genesis 19:1).
Lot watched his daughters marry men of Sodom. Then the time fully came when it was too late. He had lived by such a compromise and under such intense difficulties that when the angel told them to flee he warned his sons-in-law, they thought he was jesting (Genesis 19:14). With the angels leading, he, his two daughters and his wife leave the city (verse 16).
The thirteenth and the eighteenth chapters of Genesis are well worth your reading. You realize that Lot no longer is to be considered a man of God. The pressures have been so great; the compromise of his convictions has come. His family looked upon him as someone who is mocking or making jokes (Genesis 19:14). He has compromised his convictions; the truth which had been so real to him is no longer real.
When you talk to people six months after they have left the church, you will notice that they don’t seem to have any understanding of what happened. They don’t seem to have any convictions about it. It’s not real to them anymore.
Something has happened; their whole convictions and faith has been eroded away by what they have been through, like someone who has been brainwashed. I know this sounds discouraging, but as it was in the days of Lot, so it will be again.
The Lord made real to me what took place in Luke 17 when Jesus said, “Remember Lot’s wife.” He was saying that, at the moment of fleeing from disaster and judgment, she still was so engrossed with the life and the ties and the bonds with Sodom that she disobeyed and looked back. She was turned into a pillar of salt; and the Lord made that a moment and a warning for us: In the day that He comes, remember Lot’s wife. Luke 17:32.
The first thing that happened to Lot was his compromise with his convictions. He found himself becoming so accustomed to the evil atmosphere that after awhile he didn’t react to it as he should.
Do you understand what this can do to you? You can live in this generation and be exposed to all of its pressures until you finally become, not sympathetic so much as tolerant of it, and you don’t pay any attention to it.
Have you ever watched birds pecking in the street? They are so stupid. A big truck comes zooming up and right at the last minute they flitter off, and then come back to peck at whatever they were pecking at. The birds have become so accustomed to living with disaster that it doesn’t mean anything. I’m wondering if we don’t sometimes get just a little bit too close to danger. We haven’t kept the healthy fear we ought to keep of this age.
I am going to pray for the Lord to give us two things: first—a real sense of righteousness, so that we can walk before the Lord without fear; and second, a very healthy respect for the peril of the age in which we are living. Parents should take a little closer look at their children. Don’t let them get by with things. Watch them closer; keep alert to their need.
The second thing I saw in the story of Lot was the withdrawal or looking back. Lot’s wife did it, and she turned into a pillar of salt, the eternal monument to the peril of putting your hand to the plow and looking back, and not being fit for the Kingdom of God.
This is happening right now. God puts it in our hearts to set our faces toward the Lord, and many things will present themselves as being very attractive and interesting, to tempt us to turn aside.
Don’t look to find your entertainment, your relaxation, your diversions, in the world. You must get away from that. God will let the times of immaturity happen, but you will find that something pulls you down in your spirit when you go out to the world to make their entertainment yours.
The world is changing fast, and you will find the only pleasure, the only encouragement, the only inspiration, the only diversion you get will be with God’s people. You will not find it in the world. You won’t be able to sample the world and then come running back to the Lord. If you do, you will find yourself, like Lot’s wife, as one who starts to walk with God and starts to flee from destruction. Then you will find yourself looking back and yearning when God says not to.
So much of her heart was still in Sodom. God said, “Don’t look back. Don’t desire after it. Don’t think anything is good there that could still meet your need. There is nothing there. Turn your back on it. Walk away and never look back to the world.”
I learned a long time ago that when God delivers you from a habit, leave it alone. Turn your back on it; never go back to it.
The third thing that the Lord showed me is that great peril of evasion. As they came out of Sodom, God said, “Just flee.”
“Oh please, angel, we want to turn aside. Zoar is such a little city, it’s not much. Let us go there, please” (Genesis 21:20). That is evasion; wanting your own will.
There is Lot and his two daughters—behind them is the smoke of Sodom. Could they walk with God then? No, they wanted to compromise a little bit, evade the word God gave, work around it.
Evasion is what those daughters of Lot did.” It was evasion. The eighteenth chapter of Genesis tells how the Moabites and the Ammonites got started. It’s not a pretty story. It’s a story of incest. The girls got Lot drunk and seduced him and they became pregnant by their own father. The Moabites and the Ammonites began that way.
Sometimes you can get people out of Sodom, but how do you get Sodom out of them? We can get you out of Babylon, but can we get Babylon out of you? We can get you out of the ways of disobedience, but be sure to get the thing out of your own heart also.
We must find an answer in the Holy Spirit where we can say, “Lord, what you spoke to me is the thing I’m going to live by. I am not going to look back from the course you set before me. I’m not going to evade the word or try to work around it. I am going to listen to what You say and then absolutely do it.”
It may not be what we want to do, but it will be the cross on which God will work His will in us. It will be the death to the old way and the new life in the Spirit will come forth. Let’s lay it all before the Lord. “God, I don’t want to fall short; I don’t want to compromise the things You’ve set before me in this walk with you.”
We pledge our very lives to contend earnestly for that faith which was once delivered to the saints (Jude 1:3). We will not evade the word that the Lord gives us, we will not try to work around it. We will not withdraw from the path the Lord sets before us and desire after the flesh pots of Egypt or any of the ties and bonds of Sodom behind us. We will not look back; we will not compromise, but we’ll walk in what is set before us, in the name of the Lord.”
There will be no compromise with convictions. The children need to hear this. You can’t be one kind of person when you’re in church, another kind with your parents and another kind when you are in school, going along with your school mates, talking like they talk and trying to fit in with them.
You must be a child of God twenty-four hours a day wherever you are. No evasion, no drawing back; there can’t be any compromise. Let’s live it. It is a good life and it is a rugged one. God will help us.
Say, “Lord, by Your grace I’m going to follow in the conviction You have set before me. I will not be evasive, I will not look back. I’m going to walk on with the Lord as He gives me the grace.”
The Lord will help us. I have a feeling deep in my spirit, a witness that we are just about ready to see some of the most glorious visitations of the Lord upon His house that we have ever seen. And we believe for it, in the name of the Lord.