For our Scripture reading this morning, turn with me to Luke 17. Luke 17 as we read, beginning at verse 20 through the end of the chapter, verse 37. Verse 32 being the text this morning. Luke 17, beginning at verse 20. Hear now the Word of God. Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, nor will people say, Here it is, or there it is, because the kingdom of God is within you. Then He said to His disciples, The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. Men will tell you, There He is, or here He is. Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in His day will be like the lightning which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first He must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, no one who is on the roof of his house with his goods inside should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. Remember Lot's wife. Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it. And whoever loses his life will preserve it. I tell you, on that night, two people will be in one bed. One will be taken and the other left. Two women will be grinding grain together. One will be taken and the other left. Where, Lord, they asked. He replied, where there is a dead body, there the vultures will gather. Remember Lot's wife. Beloved in Christ, remembering the past. We have good memories. We have bad memories. Some are happy. Some are sad. But our memories of the situations in our lives always have something to teach us as we continue on into the future. This morning we have been called to remember. In the first service, through baptism, we are called to remember the blood of Jesus that was shed for sin. And the washing away of sin for those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. And congregation, as parents promise to teach their children according to the truth of Scripture, a very important part of that instruction must be remember your baptism and what that means. That must be part of our regular vocabulary, if I may say it that way, to our children. Remember your baptism and what that means. And therefore, that presupposes that we also teach our children about their baptism and what it means. And through the Lord's Supper and the call to self-examination, we also remember the saving sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ and the eternal nourishment given today and promise for eternity for the child of God. And through self-examination, we are called as God's people to remember the truth of ourselves without Christ. In other words, to remember the truth of our sin and misery. And we are also called to remember the truth of the only Savior, Jesus Christ, and our salvation. which comes only through Him. And we are called to remember the truth of living the Christian life in gratitude to God. Indeed, the Bible calls us as believers to remember many things in God's history of revelation and redemption in order to remind us of God and His work and to give His people hope for the future. As well, there are many examples in Scripture by which we are to learn what not to do or what we must stay away from. And with this text before us this morning, our Lord calls the believer's attention to one of those examples as He specifically commands, remember Lot's wife. Given the context of this Word of God that Jesus is talking about His second coming, the Word of God here issues the call to prepare for Christ's coming by remembering Lot's wife. Now this may seem like a strange text to preach, three little words, but really, these three words, we might say, say it all. And as we remember Lot's wife, we must first of all remember the time. It's interesting that if we were to scan the Scriptures, we would indeed recall many people throughout Bible history who serve as examples in some way. And many of them are women. And we are able to recite them by name. Eve, Sarah, Rebecca, Rachel, Leah, Deborah, Rahab, and Ruth, just to mention a few from the Old Testament. And there are also those from the New Testament, especially those sisters who were good friends and followers of Jesus, Mary and Martha. And we're familiar with all of these women. They have an important place in God's history, and we can learn something from each one of them. But there is that one woman who doesn't even have a name as far as we are concerned because we're never told what it is. And Jesus gives us a command, not a suggestion, but a command to remember her. Lot's wife. And Jesus is speaking here again about the future of His kingdom and specifically His second coming. And although many deny His second coming and they deny it especially in the way that they live, Jesus Christ is coming again and He is teaching here how to be ready. He's talking about the proper focus that his people are to have toward his kingdom and his coming, and he emphasizes that proper focus with a command that points to something negative, something tragic, an event that makes clear the consequences of having an improper focus. But what do we know about Lot's wife? Really not very much. Only one detail of her life, yet an extremely important detail that no doubt even the majority of the boys and girls, if not all the boys and girls, remember. She may have been a loving and a supportive wife and a wonderful mother and a devoted friend and neighbor to some. She may have been a pillar of integrity to her community. She may have had a great personality. She may have been a beautiful person. But we don't know. Because God doesn't tell us any of that. And really, beloved, what a reminder that as important as many of those things are, especially for living the Christian life, none of that saves you. None of that saves you. Being a good person, being a beautiful person, being a helpful person, none of that saves you. But for those who know their Bible history well, we know the situation, the time that Jesus is calling to remembrance and that is the story that we find in Genesis chapter 19. That's the only other place in all of Scripture where Lot's wife is mentioned. And we're told in verses 24 to 26, after they had fled from Sodom, we read, Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities and also the vegetation on the land. But Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Now after Abraham and Lot had parted company, Lot and his family went in the direction in which he thought they would find the best this world had to offer. His desire was literally for the rich pastures of this world. And with his family, Lot eventually ended up living in the wicked city of Sodom. Now we don't know what the populations were of Sodom and Gomorrah. I think they were probably rather large. We get an idea of how serious the wickedness was when not even ten righteous people could be found. And I believe that's contrasted to the large number of people in those cities. But you see, beloved, the closer that they lived to this worldly city, the stronger the attraction must have been, like a magnet, until finally Lot had placed himself and his family right in the presence of evil. And that's the danger of playing with the fire of sin and temptation. Before you know it, it draws you in and you become numb to it. And beloved, we must confess that we have become numb to many things. Just think back over the past 10 or 20 or 30 or 40 years and how things have changed for us. How we have allowed things to change for us. We're not shocked anymore, are we, by the language and the sexual promiscuity on the television, not to mention the movie theater. We're not shocked by so much. We have compromised. Let's be honest. We have compromised things that we would never do 20 years ago. We don't see any problem with today. And so often when even some of God's people are challenged with regard to some of these things, right back they shoot the response, where in the Bible does it say? Give me chapter and verse. Where in the Bible does it say? This is especially true with regard to Sunday, isn't it? And Sunday observance. Where in the Bible does it say that we shouldn't eat out at a restaurant on Sunday? Where in the Bible does it say that we shouldn't go to the shopping mall on Sunday? Where in the Bible does it say that we shouldn't work on Sunday? It's not just the Lord's Day. It's other things. Where in the Bible, come on, show me now, where in the Bible does it say that it's really wrong to live with one of the opposite sex if you're truly committed to live with them out of marriage? Where does it say that? Where in the Bible does it say that we shouldn't wear certain clothing fashions? Think about it. Think it through. We have compromised so much over the years. And we should never, as God's people, give that kind of a response. Instead, each one of us ought to be challenging ourselves daily in examination. Where does the Bible say, am I living according to what God requires of me? We also are given another hint of how bad it was in Sodom and Gomorrah by the fact that the men of the city wanted to engage in homosexual activity with lots of visitors. The wickedness was so bad that the Lord says to Abraham in Genesis 18, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great because their sin is very great. In Luke 17, Jesus describes the attitude or focus of the people of both Noah's day and Lot's day. We read again verses 26 to 29, Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying, and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. And we might say, so what? What's the big deal? What's wrong with these things? These are normal, ordinary activities of life. And indeed, that's true. In and of themselves, there's nothing wrong with these things. But on the one hand, in the context of Christ's coming, we are being taught that the day that Christ comes again, it's going to be an ordinary day. Don't expect some sort of a sign, beloved, that will give you time and give others time to repent. It ain't going to happen. It's going to be an ordinary day with ordinary things going on. Indeed, he will come as a thief in the night. Oh, when he comes, it's going to be like lightning. Everyone will see it. Not one eye will miss it. But no one knows when. But also, when it comes to these ordinary things of life, when they are divorced from God, they are no good. They have no eternal value. The people were so busy catering to their own physical needs, they didn't see God as the provider of all that they had. They were too busy doing their own thing to think about God and to concern themselves with the Gospel. They had no time for personal daily devotions. They had no time to sit down around a meal together and read Scripture with their children. They had no time to come to church often. They had no time to fellowship with God's people in the life of the church. These things, these ordinary things in life were not considered to be gifts from God and they were not used to glorify God but became ends in themselves which were used then to satisfy the selfish, fleshly, sinful desires of the people. And they were so absorbed with their physical desires that they took no time to satisfy the need of their souls because their hearts were far from God, as Isaiah says. Spiritually speaking, the days of Noah and Lot were days of indifference and laziness. They had absolutely no concern for things above, but instead they were busy living for the day at hand. They had no time to think about the future and eternity. They were storing up things on earth where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal. And the character of those days was gross materialism and cold selfishness and false security because they would not heed the warning. But does that sound familiar? Look around. The apathy, beloved, is all around us, even in the midst of us. As even many professing Christians treat God as if He is nothing more than a wishy-washy friend who will turn His back. He doesn't really care. He doesn't care if we compromise. He doesn't care if we sin. Instead of treating Him as He truly is, He is a holy and just God who cares very much about us and what we do. The attitude of the people, you see, was that of the rich man in the parable who said to himself, soul you have many things laid up for many years take your ease, eat, drink and be merry but God said to him fool, this night your soul will be required of you then whose will those things be which you have provided so is he who lays up treasure for himself and is now rich toward God how else can we describe the situation except that it was completely godless except for Lot and Noah now they were sinners to be sure the Bible teaches us that But in 2 Peter 2, we read that Lot was considered to be a righteous man. Hard to believe, isn't it? Hard to believe considering the fact that he allowed himself to get drawn into the culture of the day of Sodom, but his family had fallen prey, you see, to the lust of the flesh. His daughters were engaged to men who thought Lot was joking when he asked them to leave. They made no mistake as to what was important in their lives, not their fiancés. But even Lot himself, you see, lingered to the point that the men, the angels, took him and his wife and his daughters by the hand as we sometimes do with our children to keep them from danger and literally drug them out of the city. Lot, you see, was saved by grace. In many ways, Lot's family had fallen in love with the riches of the city, with the materialism and the so-called good things of this world. The things that we too just say, oh, they're okay. It's okay. They didn't want to leave. They were having a good time. Lot's wife is a prime example of one whose heart was enamored with the things of this world. Her desire was stronger for the temporary than for the eternal. And as they were fleeing the city, the Lord's command was clear. Escape for your life. Do not look behind you. But Lot's wife could not forget that easily what she was leaving behind. Just one last glance was all she wanted because she left her heart in Sodom. She couldn't see, beloved, that she was being delivered from destruction and instead she chose destruction. And in an instant, the Lord made a stiff example of her that remains so clear throughout history. But all Jesus has to do is say, remember Lot's wife. And his point is clear. She had rejected the saving word of the Lord. She had rejected life. Escape for your life. You see, this call to remember Lot's wife is also then a call to remember the result. And what a lesson there is in the result. The tragedy here is not that she was turned into a pillar of salt, as tragic as that may be, but the tragedy is that in her scale of values, she placed earth above heaven and material things above spiritual things. She regretted leaving the comforts of her nest and as she ran, as she ran, she must have been wondering every step of the way if the reasons were really good enough to leave the city. Is it really worth it? Therefore, questioning God's authority and His Word. Lot's wife and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah are examples of the world in the last days. In the last days, the world would be going about its godless business not having a clue that the righteous judge is near and their temporary days of earthly glory will quickly be turned into eternal doom because they rejected the warning. But God's people are commanded to remember Lot's wife. Don't turn back. By the grace of God, we are to learn from her faulty example, We'll learn to leave the world behind where Jesus Christ is unknown and run the race of faith with our eyes focused on the finish line. Verse 31 says, On that day, no one who was on the roof of his house with his goods inside should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. See, when Christ returns, only one thing will be important, and that is Him and a right relationship with Him. and it's the only thing that will be important. He says, leave everything else behind. We sing, let goods and kindred go. This mortal life also, let them go. But do we really do that? Do we really let go, or do we try to hang on? Even just a little bit. Sometimes we joke around and say, well, I've never seen a hearse pulling a U-Haul trader, which of course means you can't take it with you. Jesus says, don't turn back because everything left behind will be destroyed. And as appealing, beloved, as appealing as the world and the activities of the world are to our flesh, things that seem on the surface to be so indifferent, we are not to ask. May we never ask if the reason for God's grace in delivering us from destruction, if the reason was really good enough. And we never ask that. Don't look back. Look ahead. But this doesn't mean when it comes to the ordinary activities and things of life, it doesn't mean that we neglect them. Instead, it means that we view them differently. It means that the ordinary things of life are to be done in the shadow of Christ's saving grace and His return, which gives meaning to the ordinary things of this life. God's grace and the return of Christ gives meaning to our marriages, to our families, to our eating and our drinking, to our working. It gives meaning to our relationships apart from God's grace and Christ's coming again. Everything else is meaningless. By the gracious operation and power of the Holy Spirit, we are to continue going about the tasks and activities that God places before us with our thoughts and our words and our actions focused on Jesus Christ. All that we do and how we do it is to be done out of love for our returning Savior, being ready and willing to give up everything for Him. Jesus says in verse 33, right after saying, Remember Lot's wife. Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever tries to lose his life will preserve it. In other words, whoever, like Lot's wife, wants to keep the life of this world, the life of the sinful flesh and the unregenerate life, the unregenerate man, to whoever that is more important than anything else, they will lose everything in favor of eternal death. But whoever loses his life, that is embraced as the saving, regenerating grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and dies to the old self, he will have eternal life. Lot's wife, along with all of her friends in the Twin Cities, were focused on saving their lives. and they lost them. By God's grace, His children lose their lives. They lose the life of the old man only to gain the gift of eternal life. Beloved, preparing to come to the Lord's table includes examining our lives to see if there are times when we look back with fondness at the life the world seems to enjoy. There are times that we look back at the darkness from which we have been delivered, that which we have been called out of, and do we recognize things that we really don't want to give up? We'd rather hang on to for a while. You see, self-examination includes confessing those sins before God and knowing that nothing can compare with the life that He has in store for us. Self-examination means seeing if indeed we have put off the old man and left behind the characteristics of the natural man, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life. And instead, do we see and understand the glory of Jesus Christ and the eternal beauty of life in Him and that nothing can compare with that? Do we recognize, beloved, that He has saved us from destruction and not we ourselves? And do we demonstrate the life He earned for us by focusing on and living always and only for Jesus our King? As well, beloved, we all lead busy lives. There's no secret about that. the day planner is full with different activities for our children. Then there's our work, and then there's cooking and cleaning, and there's keeping up the house and the yard. There's volunteer work. There's providing a family taxi service. There's even being involved in the programs of the church, which just become busy work and so much more. And we get so busy that we start giving excuses for not really focusing on the things of the Lord as we ought. In fact, at times, we tend to forget exactly why it is we do the things that we do. But Paul is quick to remind us, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. As believers who are saved by grace, what is to be the reason for all that we do? Because Jesus Christ is coming again. Why do we care for our families as we do? Because Jesus Christ is coming again. Why do we perform our tasks willingly without complaining and do our work to the best of our ability? Because Jesus Christ is coming again. And why are we called to faithfulness as God's children? Because Jesus Christ is coming again. All that we do and how we do it is to be done out of love and devotion for our God, knowing that we live today and look forward to eternity by His grace alone. And those who have been saved by grace through faith are to throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Then the writer of Hebrews continues, Consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Congregation, as believers, we must be reminded through Lot's wife that we must not look back and desire the life, the old life, from which we have been delivered. Instead, we must remember the blood Jesus shed, symbolized in the water of baptism, blood that washes away our sins and earns eternal life. And we must remember His saving sacrifice which alone saves us from eternal destruction and points to that heavenly eternal banquet signified and sealed in the Lord's Supper. And we must remember that only those who look to and remember by faith what Christ has done for them in the past will be prepared by the power of the Spirit to enjoy His coming in the future. Lot's wife is an example to remember that we might not follow. Jesus Christ is the perfect example for us to strive to follow in the strength of the Holy Spirit. He not only paved the way to the Father for us and leads us on the way, but He is coming for His own at the end of the way. And only those who are in Christ can say with confidence one day, I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Finally there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give to me on that day, and not to me only, but also to all who have loved His appearing. Amen. Shall we pray? Dear Heavenly Father, at the close of this sermon, once again as we bow before You, we thank You and praise You that You are not silent about how Your people are to walk and to live before Your face. We know, Lord, that there are so many times when we would desire to go our own way. There are so many times when we would let ourselves be influenced by the world around us instead of standing out and being different. But continue to remind us day by day, O Lord, that true life is in living always only for the King. And often that means in opposition to the world around us. We ask for your blessing in this week of self-examination. We pray to you that you would use the tool of the preparatory meditations that we have received this morning to lead us throughout the days of this week. That your Spirit would truly prepare our hearts to examine ourselves as you have called us to do. Prepare us, O Lord, to dine with God's people and our Lord around your table in this life looking forward to that eternal banquet Father hear our prayer for Jesus' sake and in His name Amen