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“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds),” 2 Peter 2:6-8.

We could be forgiven for believing that Lot was not a saved man were we only to have the accounts of him recorded in the book of Genesis.

He was not called by the Lord to go forth from Babylon to the land promised to Abraham. He merely tagged along with his uncle!

“Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. So Abram departed, as the LORD had spoken unto him; and Lot went with him: and Abram was seventy and five years old when he departed out of Haran,” Genesis 12:1-4.

I have no doubt that Abraham would have shared the contents of the Lord’s promise with his family members, including Lot, and I would be of the opinion that it was the prospect of future ‘material’ benefits that were to be bestowed upon his uncle, and which he could share in, that moved Lot to go with Abraham to the land promised of God.

This is not just an opinion based upon mere prejudice on my part, but rather on the information given us about Lot in the divine record.

In the many references to Abraham building altars and calling upon the Lord, there is no mention of Lot sharing in these times of worship!

Quarrel

In the incident involving strife between the herdsmen of the two men, I believe we can see a kindly, accommodating spirit manifested by Abraham. (more…)

Just recently I received an email most courteously written by a brother in Christ, who is a member of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.

He felt that as a Christian he could maintain his walk with the Lord in that denomination and hope that the Free Presbyterian Church and his could work together to further the cause of Christ.

I attempted to reply in the manner in which his email was written but I did have strong things to unavoidably say and in a bid to be faithful to the Word of God sought not to ‘water down’ Holy Scripture.

The Lord’s command to Jeremiah clearly indicates that there is the temptation to couch God’s Word in what appears less extreme or forceful terms than the Lord employs, so that those to whom we are sent to speak His Word, will accept it.

“Thou therefore gird up thy loins, and arise, and speak unto them all that I command thee: be not dismayed at their faces, lest I confound thee before them,” Jeremiah 1:17.

There is a lot of that folly about today. The ‘old fashioned’ terms of the Bible give offence to a world bent on rejecting Christ and all that is of Him. The objections of the ’sodomite lobby’ to the Bible’s references to their perversion and the inevitable damnation that such iniquity will bring, has provoked court action and public disorder by these perverts!

Sadly, even ministers of the gospel feel that they can set forth the Gospel in terms better than its Author, and are stupid and arrogant enough to engage in such folly and adopt the world’s terminology in place of God’s words!

For the sake of younger believers, who may be carried away with this folly, I am reproducing the answer I gave to the Christian brother who wrote to me. (more…)

“Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter?” Ezekiel 16:20.

As Paul the Apostle acknowledged, confronting Christians with their backsliding and disobedience of the Lord is not an easy matter.

It causes much heartache to the one required of the Lord to do it!

The apostle wrote to the Corinthian church, which he had to rebuke very sharply for their departure from the truth of God: “For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote unto you with many tears; not that ye should be grieved, but that ye might know the love which I have more abundantly unto you,” 2 Corinthians 2:4.

If there is anything of the Father’s love and concern for His children in the heart of a faithful minister, then he will act in a manner like that of the Father!

 

“And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons. Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live? For they verily for a few days chastened us after their own pleasure; but he for our profit, that we might be partakers of his holiness. Now no chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous, but grievous: nevertheless afterward it yieldeth the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby,” Hebrews 12:5-11.

The passage in Ezekiel from which we have chosen our  verse, begins with the record of the Lord’s past mercies to Israel and ends with the oft repeated promise of future blessings.

In between is the sad account of Israel’s sins as seen by the Lord.

Stark Language

The language and descriptive terms the Lord uses when dealing with the sins of His covenant people, indicates that to the Lord the ‘backsliding’ and ‘rebellion’ in which His people were engaged at that time, was far more abhorrent and offensive to Him than the offenders could possible understand!

Backsliding dims our view of sin and it becomes ‘less sinful’ and more excusable than it is otherwise perceived to be by sanctified eyes! (more…)