Daily Devotional Readings
The Lord, Jesus Christ is our peace. He is not only the Friend of peace and the Prince of peace, but peace itself. He has not only made peace and proclaimed peace, but Christ is our peace.
Christ is our peace with God. There was a wall of partition separating us from God: our sin and guilt. But Christ came in human flesh to reconcile a holy God and his sinful people. In order to (to so, he established righteousness for us, such as God's law required, and satisfied the justice of God against us by pouring out his own life's blood unto death as our Substitute. By his great atonement the Son of God has taken away the sin which separated God and his chosen people. But another wall of partition had to be broken down: our proud, sinful, rebellious will had to be subdued. Christ has done that too. By the power of his Spirit, through the preaching of the gospel, the Lord Jesus Christ has persuaded us who believe to be reconciled to God. 'He is our peace, 'because he has reconciled God to us by his effectual blood and reconciled us to God by his irresistible grace.
Christ is our peace with one another. He has made all true believers one in himself'. Coming to Christ in faith, we are united in heart and purpose with all other true believers. Faith in Christ destroys all those distinctions of the flesh which alienate sinful men: race, social standing, education, etc. In the kingdom of grace there is neither black nor white, male nor female, rich nor poor: but Christ is all, and in all. 'He is our peace,' because we are one in him.
Christ is our peace within ourselves. When Christ rules in a man's heart, he causes that heart to be at peace. It is written: 'Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee. "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."He is our peace,' because he brings peace to the heart.
In great measure the work of the Holy Spirit is a work of confirmation. He confirms to the hearts of God's elect all the blessings of God bestowed upon us in the covenant of grace and purchased for us by the blood of Christ. He seals the covenant of grace in our hearts and seals our hearts in the grace of God.
The Holy Spirit confirms the faith of God's elect. True faith is the gift of God. It is the product of divine power. And it is the inner witness of the Spirit through the Word of God that assures the believer that his faith is genuine. 'Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father' (Gal. 4:6). 'As many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God ... The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God' (Rom. 8:14,16).
The Spirit of God confirms God's elect in the truth of God. He is the Spirit of truth. Our Lord said, 'He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you' John 14:26). 'When he, the Spirit of truth is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself, but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come. He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall show it unto you' (John 16:13-14). None of God's elect will ever be deceived by the heresy that abounds in these dark days. No true believer will ever be moved away from the hope of the gospel. You who are the sheep of Christ will not hear the voice of a stranger. You will not follow his doctrine, because 'ye have an unction from the Holy One, and ye know all things' (1 John 2:20).
The Spirit of God confirms the Ministry of God's servants to the hearts of his people. If a man is called of God to the work of the gospel ministry, Cod the Holy Spirit will give him the ear of his people (I John 4:1-6).
Our Lord had plainly told his disciples to stay in Jerusalem until they had received the power of the Holy Spirit, and then to go into all the world to preach the gospel. But they became so engulfed by his ascension that they ignored his command. We have many who make the same mistake among us today. They are so engulfed with their theories and speculations about prophecy that they seldom, if ever, get around to preaching the gospel to any creature.
I spent five years 'studying theology' in two leading Bible colleges, and about all we did was 'gaze into heaven'. Semester after semester was spent trying to unravel the visions of Daniel, Ezekiel and Revelation, but never, not even once, in five years did I hear a professor answer such fundamental, essential questions as these: 'How can a man be just with God? "How can he be clean that is born of woman?" "How can God be just and yet, justify the ungodly?"
Be assured, our Lord is coming again. At the time appointed Christ will appear in power and great glory. But no man knows, or can know, when that time is. God has not given us one shred of information to indicate when Christ will come, because he does not intend us to know. Only fools pry into those things which God has kept secret. It is our responsibility, not to speculate about when Christ will come, but faithfully to preach the gospel of his grace, serving the interests of his kingdom and seeking his glory, with hearts full of expectation. It is our business to be about our Master's business.
'Why stand ye gazing up into heaven?' Are there no needy ones for you to help? Are there no hungry ones for you to feed? Are there no sick ones for you to visit? Are there no sinners perishing for lack of knowledge? Go and do as the Lord has commanded you, until he comes to take you home. Let us be found in the place God has appointed, doing the work which God has appointed for us, in that hour which God has, appointed, when our Lord shall appear.
Imputed righteousness is an act of God's grace in redemption. Because the Lord Jesus Christ lived in righteousness upon this earth as our Representative and died under the penalty of God's law as our Substitute, the law and justice of God declare that we are righteous. The very righteousness of Christ, his perfect obedience to God as a man, has been imputed to us. That is to say, righteousness has been laid to our account. In exactly the same manner as our sins were imputed to Christ, his righteousness has been imputed to us. When God made Christ to be sin for us, he charged him with our sin. The Son of God became responsible to the law of God for the sins of his elect. And the penalty of sin was exacted from him. He died under the wrath of God. Even so, God having imputed the righteousness of Christ to us who believe, we have become responsible for righteousness in the sight of God's law. And we shall receive the just reward of the law for righteousness, eternal life and everlasting glory. As our works of sin were made to be our Lord's, so his works of righteousness have been made ours. As he received the reward of our sin, we must receive the reward of his righteousness. That is substitution. Our righteousness before God is perfect, unalterable righteousness. It is the righteousness of Christ, our Substitute. Child of God, can you realize this? Your standing, your acceptance with God never varies. God is always well pleased with you in his Son!
Imparted righteousness is an act of God's grace in regeneration. In the new birth God gives his people a new heart, a new will, a new nature, created in righteousness and true holiness. Your standing before God is not improved at all by the new birth. God has given you a heart, nature and will of righteousness so that you now love the things you once hated and hate the things you once loved. By this act of divine grace in regeneration the righteous nature of Christ is imparted to God's elect.
Some poor people go to Mt Calvary to get salvation and then run back to Mt Sinai to get sanctification. They look to Christ to give them life and look to Moses to rule their life. That will never do. I rejoice to find both salvation and sanctification in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ. 'The cross of Christ is our source of life and our rule of life. How can I, as a believer, live in this world for the glory of my God? To find the answer to that question, I must go to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. 'For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow in his steps' (I Peter 2:21).
Children of God, we are not under the law. We do not need rules, regulations, threats of punishment or promises of reward to motivate and govern our hearts. In order to live in this world for the glory of God, we must simply follow the example of the one who hung upon the cursed tree, bearing our sins. When I see Christ hanging upon the cross as my Substitute, I see that self-sacrifice is essential to honouring God (Luke 14:33). There is a battle for me to fight, a trial for me to endure, a service for me to perform and a cross for me to bear. I cannot serve God without self-sacrifice and self-denial. As Christ hangs upon the cursed tree, bearing our sins, he sets before us an example of willing obedience to our heavenly Father. Our Saviour willingly obeyed his Father's will, even unto death (Isa. 50:5-7). This is the way we must serve God. God will never accept any gift, any worship or any service, unless it comes from a willing heart (2 Cor. 8:12). The cross also shows us our Lord's dedication and perseverance. He not only agreed to bear our sins and promised to die for us; he actually did it. God requires dedication and perseverance from all who follow Christ. Our Lord's death upon the cross also sets before us an example of real love and patient submission to the will of God.
The Ammonites had come against Israel with a very great army. Even to Joab, a man of great military skill and experience, things looked bad. But he encouraged himself and his brother, Abishai, with these words: 'Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the cities of our God: and let the Lord do that which is good in his sight' (I Chron. 19:13). In this time of great difficulty and danger, Joab set before us an example of persevering faithfulness and reverent submission which should be followed by all who seek the glory of God and serve the interest of his kingdom in this world.
Our lives should be characterized by a persevering faithfulness to our God and to the work he has committed to our hands. I say to you, 'Be of good courage, and let us behave ourselves valiantly for our people, and for the church of our God.' The Lord has entrusted us with the gospel of his grace. He has given us the means and the opportunity to proclaim the gospel to this generation, and he has commanded us to do so. This is the point of our responsibility. We do not know what God has decreed, but we do know what he has commanded, and what he has commanded we must do. 'Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved.'
And we must serve the Lord our God with a reverent submission. 'Let the Lord do that which is good in his sight.' Joab was saying to Abishai, 'If God saves us, we shall be saved. If we perish, we shall perish. That is up to him. But we will serve him valiantly.' This is our work. We must preach the gospel to all men, as God gives us opportunity. If he is pleased to save men, we shall rejoice and preach the gospel. If God is pleased to harden men, we shall still rejoice and preach the gospel. He is God. We are his servants. Let him do with us what he will. 'Let the Lord do that which is good in his sight.'
How can a holy God forgive sin? How can God be just and yet justify the ungodly? How is iniquity purged? The wise man, Solomon, gives us the answer of divine wisdom to this question: 'By mercy and truth iniquity is purged.'
The law of God, as it was given at Sinai, proclaims truth without mercy. The law accepts no excuses and makes no exceptions. The soul that sinneth, it shall die.' The unrenewed heart desires mercy without truth. Truth without mercy would destroy every transgressor. Mercy without truth would dishonour God and trample his law in the ground. If truth stands alone, this earth must cease to be a place of holiness. There stands God, the judge of all, in his strict justice. Here we stand, guilty sinners, having broken God's law, deserving eternal damnation. If God gives us our due, there will be no mercy, If he simply passes by our transgressions, there will be no truth. God cannot be merciful at the expense of his justice, and he cannot be just at the expense of his mercy. How can God be both true to his law and merciful to sinners?
Behold the incarnate God, hanging on the cursed tree as the sinner's Substitute, suffering the penalty of God's law in the sinner's place, the just for the unjust. In the cross of Christ truth and justice are fully satisfied and mercy and grace are righteously bestowed upon sinners. 'Mercy and truth are met together; righteousness and peace have kissed each other' (Ps. 85: 10). The truth of God and the mercy of God, the justice of God and the grace of God, have put away the sins of God's elect by the sacrifice of God's own dear Son. 'For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him' (2 Cor. 5:21).
Before the world was, when God dwelt alone in the bliss of his own ineffable glory, the three persons of the blessed Trinity held a council of peace and established an everlasting covenant of grace, by which the everlasting salvation of God's elect and the glory of God in their salvation were guaranteed.
God the Father voluntarily agreed to save a people whom he had chosen in his own everlasting love. God the Son willingly agreed to be Surety for those people whom he and his Father loved. He volunteered to come in human flesh to obey the law as our Representative, establishing righteousness in the earth, and to suffer the penalty of the law as our Substitute, satisfying the justice of God for our sins. The Son of God asked the Father for the souls of his beloved people, to trust into his hands their immortal souls, their eternal salvation and the very glory of the eternal Godhead. And the Father, looking on his Son in absolute confidence, gave his Son all the host of his elect and declared them to be in Christ redeemed, justified, sanctified and glorified. God the Holy Spirit joyfully agreed to come in the fulness of time to each of those people who were chosen of the Father and for whom the Son had become Surety. He volunteered to regenerate them, call them, give them faith in Christ and preserve them unto the day of resurrection and everlasting glory.
Thus before the world began, God Almighty sovereignty arranged and secured the salvation of every sinner who would be saved by his grace. This is what God promised in that covenant: 'They shall be my people, and I will be their God: and I will give them one heart, and one way, that they may fear me for ever, for the good of them, and of their children after them: and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me' (Jer. 32:38-40).
Paul admonishes all of us to make our calling and election sure. He says, 'Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?' He does not admonish us to examine one another, but he does tell us to examine ourselves. Here are three points by which I examine my own faith. I urge you to do the same.
1. Is my faith based upon the Word of God? I know this: 'Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God' (Rom. 10: 17). If my faith is genuine, it is born in my heart by the Word of truth. True faith arises from a proper knowledge of God, as he is revealed in Christ, in his holy and sovereign character (John 17:3). True faith arises from a proper knowledge of Christ, the incarnate God, in the glory of his efficacious, sin-atoning sacrifice as our Substitute. And true faith arises from a proper knowledge of ourselves, our guilt, our depravity and our inability. Until a man knows what the Bible says about God, about Christ and about himself, he cannot exercise saving faith.
2. Does my faith cause me to have a well-grounded hope of a saving interest in Christ? True faith causes a man to have a good hope through grace. Trusting the merits of Christ's righteousness and shed blood, the true believer has a confident, assured hope of eternal salvation and acceptance with God in Christ. True faith does not depend upon feelings, works or desires. True faith trusts Christ alone and enjoys peaceful hope of eternal glory in him.
3. Does my faith produce a principle of love in my heart for Christ and his people? Faith causes a man to love Christ as he is and love the people of God as they are in Christ. This love is a self-denying, self-sacrificing commitment to Christ and his people. Any faith that lacks this love is a false faith.
I do not suggest that the law is evil. It is not. God's law is holy, just and good (I Tim. 1:8-9). I do not say that the believer is free to break the law. Not only is the believer not free to break the law, he has no desire to do so. To those who believe, God's commandments are not grievous (I John 5:1-3). If we could, we would love God with all our hearts and our neighbours as ourselves. But we do not have the ability to do so. I do say that in Christ the believer is entirely free from the law, because 'Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth'. 'We are not under the law, but under grace.' We have been crucified with Christ and have 'become dead to the law by the body of Christ'. There is no sense whatsoever in which it may be said that the believer is under the law.
We have no covenant with the law. We live under a covenant of grace. We have no commitment to the law. Our commitment is to Christ, who obeyed the law for us. We do nothing by the constraint of the law. 'The love of Christ constraineth us.'
Christ is the end of the law's purpose. The purpose and object of God's law is to bring us to Christ. Once it has served that purpose, it has no other (Gal. 3:24-25). The law is the sheriff's deputy, who shuts men up in prison for their sin, concluding them all under condemnation, so that they may look to the free grace of God in Christ for deliverance. The law is God's black dog, by which he fetches his sheep home.
Christ is the end of the law in the sense that he has fulfilled it as our Representative. He has magnified the law and made it honourable, establishing righteousness to meet the law's demands as our Representative and dying under the law's just penalty as our Substitute.
By his obedience to the law, Christ has terminated the law's claims upon the believer so that in Christ we are entirely free from the law.
Without question a man is free to do anything he wants to do and has the ability to do. But all reasonable people must acknowledge that a man's desires and abilities are limited by his nature. A mother has the ability to strangle her nursing baby, but she has no desire to do so; it would be contrary to her nature. The Ethiopian may desire to change the colour of his skin, but he has no ability to do so. No, man's will is not absolutely free. It is limited and bound by his nature.
Because man by nature is a fallen, guilty, sinful and depraved creature, altogether without life towards God, our Lord declares that with regard to righteousness, faith and eternal life, man has neither the desire nor the ability to obtain these things. They are altogether contrary to his nature and beyond his ability. The Lord Christ says, 'Ye will not come to me, that ye might have life' (John 5:40). That is to say, in your natural condition, you have no desire to come to Christ. In another place, the Son of God says, 'No man can come to me' (John 6:44). The natural man has no ability to come to Christ. He is spiritually dead. He has no spiritual inclinations, desires or abilities. With regard to the things of Christ, he has no free will.
Yet, in order to be saved, a man must come to Christ in true faith, surrendering to him as Lord with a willing heart. How can this be? God the Holy Spirit sovereignly comes to men and women who are dead in sin and gives them life in Christ. He creates a new heart and a new nature within them. By the preaching of the gospel, he calls them to Christ, with irresistible grace and power, and they always come. Grace makes men willing to come to Christ. Grace gives men the ability to come. And grace sees to it that they do come. Well might every sinner cry out, 'Heat me, O Lord, and I shall be healed; save me, and I shall be saved' (Jer. 17:14).
It is plainly written: 'He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned' (Mark 16:16). Salvation comes to sinners by simple faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe Christ and you will be saved. Yet anyone who reads the Bible, except those whose minds are blinded to all reason by modern religion, knows that true, saving faith is based upon certain revealed knowledge (Rom. 10: 13-17). In order for a person to be saved, these five things are essential. The Word of God makes it abundantly clear that true, saving faith involves these five things.
1. You must know God in his true character (Exod. 33:19; 34:5-7). Very few people know who God is. The god they worship is but an idolatrous figment of their imagination (Ps. 50:2 1). God's true character is revealed in the Scriptures. God is absolutely and universally sovereign (Isa. 46:9-1 1; Dan. 4:35-37; Rom. 9:11-24). God is inflexibly just (Ezek. 18:20; Gal. 3: 10). God is infinitely gracious (Micah 7:18-20; Rom. 3:24-26).
2. You must know yourself in your true character (Eph. 2:1-3). Man is spiritually dead. His heart is depraved (Matt. 15:19). His actions are evil. He is justly condemned by the law of God. And he has neither the desire nor the ability to change his condition (John 5:40; 6:44).
3. You must know the Lord Jesus Christ in his true character (I Tim. 3:16). Jesus Christ is God in human flesh. He is both God and man in one person. Because he is man, he is able to suffer the penalty of sin. Because he is God, he is able to satisfy the claims of divine justice.
4. You must know what happened at the cross (2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 9:12; Isa. 53: 10-11). By his one great sacrifice for sin, Christ satisfied the justice of God for us and put away the sins of his elect.
5. You must be reconciled to God in your heart (2 Cor. 5:20). To be reconciled to God is to justify God (Psa. 51:4), willingly bow to Christ as Lord (Luke 14:25-33) and trust Christ alone (Rom. 10:9-13).
We who believe the gospel doctrine of absolute predestination do not for a moment entertain the monstrous notion that God forced Adam to sin in the garden, though there are many who delight to accuse us of that evil. Yet we do not accept the preposterous idea that the sin and fall of our father Adam was an accident, which took the eternal God by surprise and shattered his plans for man and creation. A god whose plan and purpose could be shattered, or even shaken, by his creature would be no god at all. Two things must be recognized by all who worship God and receive the revelation of Holy Scripture as the Word of God.
1. If it had been God's will and purpose to do so, he could have kept Adam from sinning in the garden as easily as he kept Abimelech from sinning with Sarah (Gen. 20:6).
2. The sin and fall of our father Adam, like all other things, was predestinated by God in eternity and was brought to pass by the rule of God's sovereign providence for the eternal good of God's elect and the glory of his own great name (Eph. 1: 11; Rom. 8:28; 11:33-36).
God did not force Adam, or in any way compel him to sin. But all the circumstances which brought to pass the sin of Adam and the fall of our race were ordained of God in infinite wisdom, goodness and grace. In the same way, God did not force men to crucify his Son. Yet his Son died by the hands of wicked men at exactly the time, and in exactly the way, which God had from eternity predestined (Acts 2:23). God is answerable to no man's judgement. And I certainly do not pretend to have understanding in the mystery of God's purpose and ways. But I do see one glorious aspect of infinite wisdom and grace in the fall of Adam: had Adam not fallen, we could never have known the glory of God's grace in Christ. Adam fell in the garden, according to God's purpose, so that we might know the love, the grace, the wisdom and the glory of God in Christ, the Lamb of God slain from the foundation of the world.
Baptism - confessing Christ. Baptism is the believer's public confession of faith in Christ. It is a public identification with Christ and his people. It is a public vow of our commitment to the glory of Christ. Being buried with Christ in baptism, the believer says to all the world, 'I belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. I died with him as my Substitute, was buried with him and have been raised up again with him in life. Christ is my life. Henceforth, I live not for self, not for the world, not for Satan, but for Christ' (Rom. 6:3-4):
Church membership - fellowship with Christ in his body. A local church is a body of believers voluntarily gathered in the name of Christ for the worship of Christ, the furtherance of the gospel and the salvation of God's elect. The fellowship of believers in a local church is vital to our spiritual growth in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We need one another! (Heb. 10:24-25.) Church membership is an avowed commitment to the body of Christ (Phil. 2:1-4.) As a family, we are committed to one another. Church membership is communion with the body of Christ. I love the fellowship of God's people, because in the fellowship of God's people I find fellowship with my God and Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ (Matt. 18:20). Church membership is more than having your name on the same church register. It is care for the body of Christ. The true people of God truly care for one another (I Cor. 12:24-27).
The Lord's Supper - remembering Christ. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic remembrance of Christ. It is a public ordinance in which believers picture their redemption by the death of Christ (1 Cor. 11:23-30). Those who do not trust Christ dare not receive this, or any other ordinance. They do not discern the Lord's body: the need of the incarnation, the righteousness performed in his body, or the sacrifice of his body. But all who trust Christ are to observe this blessed feast in remembrance of him. And we are to observe it often. It is needful for us, so long as we are in this flesh, to be frequently reminded of our Lord's great sacrifice for our redemption.
Read John 1:35-51
I do not know their names, where they were born, or where they died. The Bible only records one thing that they did. But the one thing which these four men did is the most important work ever performed by men: these four men brought a man to the Lord.
These four men knew the Lord. They had true faith in Christ. They believed him to be the Messiah. They recognized his power and authority as the sovereign Lord, the Son of God. They knew that he had power both to heal disease and to forgive sin. They also knew where Christ was and where he was displaying his power and grace. He is God. He is everywhere present. But there are certain places where he meets with men and manifests his power and grace to them. These men had a friend who desperately needed Christ. Their friend was a hopelessly, helplessly paralysed man. They could not heal their friend or forgive his sin. And they had no way of knowing whether or no Christ would so do. But they knew that if he would, he could. Knowing Christ's power and grace and knowing their friend's desperate need, these four men determined to bring their poor friend to Christ. It was not an easy thing to do. The room was crowded with people. No one offered to assist them nor even to make room for them, But they were not deterred. 'They sought means to bring him in and to lay him before him.' At last they got their friend before the Lord. They said nothing; they simply laid the helpless man before Christ. And as a direct result of their labours and faith towards Christ, two marvellous things happened: a sinner was freely forgiven of all his sins and the Lord God was glorified. These four men had been voluntary instruments in the hands of the Lord, and God used them to accomplish his eternal purpose!
I want to be like these four men, diligently labouring to bring sinners to Christ, faithfully giving myself to the work, allowing nothing to stand in my way. And I want you to be like these men - each one doing what he can to get sinners to the Saviour. We cannot save men, renew their hearts, nor give them faith. But we can get men under the sound of the gospel.
Lot was a righteous man. He believed God and worshipped God. He was served, justified and forgiven. But Lot made some very careless decisions early in life that proved most costly for him. In a dispute over a few four-footed beasts, he left his godly Uncle Abraham, took his family and moved to Sodom. The men of that city, who would be his neighbours, were wicked. In Sodom there was no prophet of God, no place where the Lord God was worshipped and not to be found one person who worshipped and served the Lord. In short, there was not one thing in the city that could be of spiritual, eternal benefit to Lot and his family. But Sodom was a wealthy city and of offered good business opportunities for a man like Lot. He could provide well for his family, his wife would have the comforts of a nice home and plenty of neighbours and his children would receive a good education and be able to enjoy the social advantages of life in the city. Like most of us, Lot took great care to provide the best for his children in this world and, I am afraid, like most of us, he showed little concern for the eternal welfare of their souls.
At last God sent his servants to Sodom to warn Lot of his impending judgment. They told him to go out and gather his family around him and bring them out of this place: for the Lord hath sent us to destroy this city'. Lot knew God; he believed what God's servants told him. Suddenly he was aroused by a sense of divine justice. Fearing for their lives, he went out to warn his sons-in-law of God's judgement. But it was far too late. The actions of his life in Sodom silenced the words of his mouth in their ears. He seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law!' Lot had no influence for good upon his family. Not one soul in his family respected his religion, reverenced his God or regarded his witness. His wife, two of his daughters and his sons-in-law perished with Sodom. And the two daughters who escaped with Lot only had their judgement postponed for a while. They, too, had become Sodomites. Lot is a beacon to warn us of danger. As we love our families and care for their souls, we must avoid the foolishness of Lot.
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