Sad Results of Poor Witness — E.A. Johnston

The Urgency of a Faithful Christian Witness

I have a very solemn message to bring before you today, friends, as it lays heavy upon my heart. My message today will be like a knife to some of you, and a challenge to others. I believe we are too close to the return of Christ to be poor witnesses for Him in a sin-soaked world, that our testimony for Christ in the gospel will be either felt in our generation for good, or our silence for Christ to the lost around us will be a great loss, and stand as a witness against us at the judgment.

I feel sorry for the person who claims to be a follower of Christ and has no active witness for Him to a dying world. The title of my message today, friends, is Sad Results of a Poor Witness, and my text can be found in the book of Genesis.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We'll be in chapters 18 and 19. The story of Abraham and his nephew Lot is well known to each of us as Abraham pleaded before God for the sake of a number of righteous persons that could be found in wicked Sodom before its sudden and swift destruction.

We're well familiar with the results of that interaction between Abraham and the Almighty, and how God in His mercy pulled Lot and his family out of Sodom before its final destruction. But I want to look at this tragic story today, friends, from the viewpoint of Lot's failure as a missionary to the Sodomites, and his great failure in a silent witness for God in his own family, with the attending sad results as found in our passage today.

There are several aspects I would like to explore and bring before you in regard to being a witness for God in our generation. I will read us out of chapter 18, and then we'll look at chapter 19, and I'll demonstrate to you the contrast between a man of God who walks closely with God and is witness for Him, as opposed to a weak man who has a weak walk with God and a weak witness for Him, and the ensuing results of both in regard to their responsibilities to their own families and the generation in which they live.

Abraham’s Intimacy With God

Well, let's take a look at verses 17 through 19. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him?

Let me pause here, friends. We see in our text how God considers Abraham His servant, how God views him, that God considers Abraham to be in such an intimate relationship to Him that He cannot hide a thing from him, like if you had a close friend that you shared your intimate secrets with, the intimate details of your life with.

This is how God sees Abraham. God sees Abraham as a man in whom the very nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Well, let's continue with our text as we see what else God has to say about this man Abraham.

Abraham’s Spiritual Leadership and Witness

For I know him. Let me pause here again, friends. God declares He knows Abraham. Notice we never hear God make that comment about Lot, but God says Abraham. For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and judgment, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him.

Now I want to draw out several aspects from our text today which speak of the positive aspects of Abraham's walk and witness for God. Look at number one. God speaks of Abraham's walk. God says I know him.

God recognizes the close walk Abraham had in a life of faith with God, and God delights in Abraham. I know him. I know that boy. I know him. Like a proud parent would brag on a favorite son. Number two.

God speaks of Abraham's witness. He will command his children and his household after him. Abraham had a large extended group of people around him and a spiritual influence upon them. Those extended people, which are part of his family, were the servants.

Abraham had a huge responsibility to this large group of people to speak to them about the ways and commands of a holy God, and God testifies to Abraham's witness to his generation and to future generations.

All the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. Number three. God speaks of Abraham's obedience. He shall keep the way of the Lord. Abraham was a man of faith, my Bible tells us, and Abraham followed hard after God in obedience to God, even to the point of offering Isaac, his son, to God as a sacrifice.

Why that's obedience, friends. Number four. The fulfilled blessings and promises of God in Abraham's life that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken of him. The positive results of a walk of faith with God are here spoken of by God, so we see these wonderful positive aspects as they play out in the life of Abraham.

Lot’s Failed Witness to His Extended Family

Let's look at his nephew Lot and see the contrast and discover the negative aspects of his life as seen in chapter 19 and in verse 14, 26 and 30 through 36. Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law, which married his daughters, and said, Up, get ye out of this place, for the Lord will destroy the city.

But he seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law. Why, these young men turned and looked at Lot and listened to him, and then grabbed their bellies and laughed themselves sick. He was such a laughingstock to them as a witness for God.

All they could do was shake their heads and laugh. Number one, we see that Lot was a poor witness to his extended family. He'd never previously witnessed to his son-in-laws before, and they saw his lack of witness for God in the wicked city of Sodom.

So when he does try to warn them, they can't take him seriously. They just laugh at him and point at him and shake their heads. Well, let's look at verse 26. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

Lot’s Poor Example to His Wife

This went against God's implicit warning, for in verse 17, the angels warn, Look not behind thee. We see point number two. Lot was a poor example to his wife, the way he carries himself in their home each day Sodom spoke volumes to his wife.

She saw he was just a worldly man whose chief aim in life was to make a place, a stature for himself and his family within the wicked city of Sodom. And he did this by securing a government position of sitting at the gate each day.

Those who sat in authority at city gates were usually prominent citizens who were looked up to in the community. Lot's wife, who is unnamed here, feels no godly influence in her life nor spiritual leadership from her worldly husband, Lot.

I wonder, friends, how many Christian husbands fail to be a daily example in the home for Christ and fail to impact their spouses for Christ. How many men are there in churches today who fail to grab their wife's hand tenderly to pray with her each day, to fail to sit down with her and open up their Bible and share the scriptures to their wives and share godly insights with them and have a spiritual influence upon them for good.

Here Lot was a miserable failure and she's brought out of Sodom and as she is, she pauses to turn and look at what she's leaving behind. Well, what's she leaving behind? Her stately home, her beautiful possessions, her good friends.

She turns to look and she lingers in her look and she's turned into a pillar of salt on that burned out plain of Sodom. There stood for centuries, historians tell us, a peculiar formation of crumbling crystalline rock that was noticed by many in that day and was associated with Lot's wife.

The historian Josephus declared that this pillar still remained in his day and that he had personally seen it. This pillar was also seen by other prominent men like Clement of Rome and Irenaeus and others.

Finally, it ceased to exist where now the Dead Sea exists. Number three, Lot was a poor missionary to the Sodomites. Here was a man who daily sat at the city gate and held a position of influence and authority within his community and he did nothing with it for God.

Lot’s Silence Before the Sodomites

How many men who go to church today and hold positions of influence in their community and like Lot do nothing with it for God or the gospel. Lot sat day by day at the city gate in Sodom and conversed with his neighbors and joked with them and talked to his fellow citizens as he did business with them and never once told them about the Lord Jehovah nor even shared with them God's exploits like drowning the world but saving Noah and his family in the ark.

Why, Lot could have used that story alone to gain the attention and ear of his Sodomite friends so they'd heed his warnings to them now but he doesn't even bother to warn his fellow neighbors of the coming catastrophe from the hand of God in judgment upon them.

And how many of us fail to warn those around us of the coming judgment of God upon mankind in which he will judge the world in righteousness. We fail to warn others to flee from the wrath to come and stand accused like weak and silent Lot.

So Lot had a place of influence among the wicked Sodomites but he failed to capitalize upon it for God and his glory and for his fellow man by being a poor missionary for God among them. The Sodomites heard no testimony from Lot about the wonderful God of heaven and earth.

Lot never sat and sang God's praises before them nor witnessed to them of God's mercies. He sat at a prominent place in Sodom every day at the gate of the city where all commerce was and activity commenced and Lot spoke daily to his neighbors about Sodom's commerce and business and the things of Sodom's municipality.

But Lot was completely silent to these lost and sinful inhabitants of Sodom about a God in heaven who could save sinful man. Lord have mercy on us all. Number four, Lot was a poor example in the home to his daughters.

Lot’s Failure as a Father

Look at verses 30 through 36, friends. And Lot went up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountain and his two daughters with him for he feared to dwell in Zoar and he dwelt in a cave and he and his two daughters.

Let me pause here, friends. Here is a father who has just been miraculously snatched out of a burning city by two angels and who was the recipient of great mercy from Almighty God who could have easily destroyed him in Sodom like everyone else.

And not only that, although his wife sinned by disobeying God and looked back and was changed into a pillar of salt, Lot still has his two darling daughters with him. Some time has passed between the overthrow of Sodom and this time upon the mountain.

And I wonder how often they look down at the still smoking ruins of the cities of the plain and saw in the distance in the wispy smoke as it swirled around that standing pillar of his wife as a testimony to all who saw it to never disobey Almighty God.

Oh, what great opportunity Lot had to counsel his grieving daughters over the loss of their mates and mother by sharing with them God's mercy in that they were brought out alive and saved. But old foolish Lot does not capitalize on the grace of God nor speak of the glory of God to his wicked daughters.

And the firstborn said to the younger, our father is old and there's not a man in the earth to come in onto us after manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our father drink wine and we will lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father.

And they made their father drink wine that night and the firstborn went in and lay with her father and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose. Poor drunken Lot was a poor pitiful example to his daughters to such a sad degree that they believe it's good to have incest with him.

And it came to pass on the morrow that the firstborn said unto the younger, behold, I lay yesterday night with my father. Let us make him drink wine this night also and go thou in and lie with him that we may preserve seed of our father.

And they made their father drink wine that night also and the younger one arose and lay with him and he perceived not when she lay down nor when she arose. Thus both were the daughters of Lot with child by their father.

That's the tame King James description of two bawdy knights of sex and incest friends were Lot so dead drunk that he grievously sins against God and his daughters and doesn't even know about it. It's obvious who controlled who in that family.

The daughters had control over pitiful Lot rather than the father exercising a godly role of authority in the home and keeping it under for God. So we see the positive aspects of Abraham's life lived on to God and the great blessings he received from God contrasted with the negative aspects of a church member, if I may so speak, who is one thing at church and quite another at home.

Self-Examination of a Christian Testimony

And because of Lot's poor example to his family and friends and the silence among them for God, we see the smoke and runes and wreckage of his family life and testimony for God. Let me ask you, friend, how many babies are named Abraham in the world?

Why, there are numerous Abrahams out there. I've met many of them. How many parents choose the name Lot for their little baby boy? I've never met a man once yet whose name was Lot. Why would a parent name the boy Lot?

Why would they? Uh, let me ask you, friend, how was your walk with God? And how was your witness for God? Can your own family members say of you that they witness you pray every day, that you hold up Christ to them every day, that you are a godly example in your home every day, that you have a consistent walk with God before them, that you are the spiritual leader of your home, that you are a living testimony to the lost around you in the community, to the gospel of Jesus Christ that you witness to them on a regular basis because you're great concern for them?

Or do those who know you say that your testimony in Christ is a shame and a fake because of the life you live and you're one thing at church and another at home and you've got no bold witness to the lost around you, that the only thing they see in you, your witness for Christ, is your love for the world and your sad silence about Him?

Accountability Before Christ and the Coming Judgment

Uh, well, we've looked at the sad results of a poor witness here today, friends. But I fear the saddest time is yet to come for when we die and face Jesus Christ on that day at the bema seat where He hands out gold, silver, and precious stones or wood, hay, and stubble as we give an account of our lives to Him who is eyes of fire and all our works are placed into the fire for review as to how we live for Christ and how we witness for Him to His glory and to our generation or how we fail to witness about Him to end our great loss as we stand knee-deep in the ashes of a wasted life.

It's not too late, friends, to confess our lack and to repent and ask God to make us better witnesses for Him in our day as we spend our lives living for this world or living for eternity. Only one life that will soon be passed.

Only what's done for Christ will last. Let us pray.