17 -- THE DOOMED CITY

        Dear reader, we now come to the Doomed City and the family of Lot making their escape
from the city of Sodom. The text is Gen. 19:17. "And it came to pass when they had brought them
forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the
plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed." The reader will notice that when the angel
led Lot and his family out of Sodom that he said, "Escape for thy life," and he said it because the
city was doomed to destruction. In this case the city of Sodom stands for a life of sin. All sin is
doomed and all sin will be destroyed, and it makes no difference whom God finds sin on, he is a
doomed man and will be destroyed if he doesn't make his escape from the doomed city. All sin is
to the Lord today just what Sodom was that day.

         I suppose one sin deliberately committed against God is as distasteful and as disgusting
and as destructive in its make-up as ten thousand of the same kind would be committed against
God. You may take any line of sin that you can think of, and the thing is as much doomed as Sodom
was, and as surely as old Sodom went down under the flames of the wrath of a sin-avenging God,
that line of sin is doomed to go the same way. You may think of what the world would call a nice
line of sin, such as dancing and card playing and theater going, and circus running, and Sabbath
desecration, and lodgeism, and tobaccoism, and the race course, and liquor in all of its hideous
forms, and the world thinks that these things are a part of the necessities of life, and can see no sin
in them at all. But nevertheless they are a brood of doomed sinners just waiting for the angel to
come out with the sword of God in his hand and pronounce the awful curse of the Almighty on the
whole herd. So it is run or burn, one or the other, for all Sodom is doomed and the angels are now
on their way to this earth to destroy old Sodom again, and all the Lot family will have to escape or
go down in the flames and be used as fuel to feed the flames.

        So the angel got the man Lot by the hand and said, "Escape for thy life and look not behind
thee, neither stay thou in all the plain lest thou be consumed." Remember Lot said, "Oh no, my
Lord." But the angel took nothing back. It was escape or perish, for the angels were there, and they
were there for the one purpose, and that was to destroy Sodom.

        If the reader will turn to the 13th Chapter of Matthew and read verses 41 and 42 he will
have the destruction of Sodom told over again. Notice the reading of these two verses. "The Son of
man shall send forth his angels and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend and
them that do iniquity, and shall cast them in a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of
teeth." The reader will notice that the angels were used of the Lord to destroy Sodom, and now
Christ tells that at the last day the angels will be used to gather out of His Kingdom all things that
offend and them who do iniquity and cast them into a furnace of fire.

       Again, the reader will remember that when God wanted to destroy all the first-born of
Egypt that He sent out the destroying angel and a mighty wail went up from Egypt for there was one
dead in every home. You will find it recorded in Exodus 12:29, 30.

         You will also remember when the King of Assyria went up to make war against Israel that
he went in the name of the gods that he had made with his own hands, and he defied the God of the
Israelites and told them not to let Hezekiah deceive them, for he said that there was no God who
could deliver Israel out of his hand. He wrote a letter to the King of Israel in which he defied the
God of heaven, and when Hezekiah got the letter he went to the top of the wall of Jerusalem and
spread the letter out before the Lord and told Him to read the letter that King Sennacherib had
written. And the Lord read the letter and that night He sent out one of His mighty angels, and the
next morning there were dead men almost without number. Just turn and read Isaiah 37:36: "Then
the angel of the Lord went forth and smote in the camp of the Assyrians 185,000, and when they
arose early in the morning behold they were all dead corpses." Now reader, that looks like
business to see one angel out in a single night leaving 185,000 dead men on the plains.

        Just think of old Sodom now, and look and see, the angels are already in the city, and
leading out Lot and his family. The city is doomed, but God loved one man and his name was
Abraham, and he had prayed for Lot, and for Abraham's sake God spared Lot, but He destroyed the
city.

         The next clause in this text that we will look at is this "Look not behind thee." It is not well
pleasing to the Lord for a man to start to the land of righteousness or to the hills of safety and then
turn and look at the thing he had to give up. Sodom was doomed and God had said, "Escape for thy
life," and now if the city is doomed and the curse of God is hanging over it and He is now ready to
rain fire from heaven on the city and burn it up, as He will all sin, it is not pleasing to Him to see a
fellow start and then look back at the city or his old life of sin.

         How many times have we seen the young man or the young lady start for heaven and for
sometime make a splendid run, and then turn back to the old life and become harder and get further
away from God than they were before they started. They have looked back at Sodom. You
remember Lot's wife. She turned and looked back and never took another step in the right
direction. She was left standing there as a warning to all who should come after her that it was
dangerous to leave and then turn and look back at the thing that we have to give up. It is like this.
When Lot and his family left Sodom they had started to another city, and now when they lose
enough interest in the city that they are going to, to stop and look back at the one they have left,
right then and there they are backslidden, for their interest should not be in the city behind them but
in the city before them. God had commanded them to flee from Sodom and He said look not behind
thee. Don't even stop to look back at old Sodom, for she is doomed and will be destroyed. And if
you hang around Sodom and I destroy Sodom I will destroy you with the city. We are to escape or
we are to perish, one or the other.

        No doubt that the devil met Lot's wife as he did Mother Eve and said to her, "Did the Lord
command that you should not look back at the city?" "Yes," said she to him, "that was the
command." "Well," said the devil, "just look yonder. Don't you see the house of your children on
fire? Just listen to their cries. It is a shame for the Lord to treat them that way." And Mrs. Lot

turned herself and took the last look at the city, and she never looked again, and never will in this
world, for the Old Book says that there she was turned to a pillar of salt.

         The next step that we take in the text is this: "Stay not thou in the plain." The idea that we
get from this clause in the text is this: The Lord doesn't want us to stay too close to the place where
we started from. He said, "And stay not thou in all the plain." There is danger of a fellow's staying
too close to his old crowd. If he doesn't watch they will get him back into his old life. Old Sodom,
or the old life, and the old crowd are all kin to the Old Man, or the carnal mind, and if we
undertake to stay too close they will have us back in the old city before we know it. Our only hope
is to get up and flee from the doomed city, and then not even stop and look back at the hateful thing,
and then not stay too close to the city when we get out.

        I have seen young ladies who had been well-nigh ruined by the ballroom, weep their way
to the altar, and weep over their lives of waywardness and confess out to God and forsake the
thing, and sweet peace would come into their lives and they would run well for awhile. But it
would not be six months till the devil and his crowd would have them go to a nice play party, all
the time telling them there was no harm in a nice play party. Then the old life would begin to grip
them like a mighty monster from the forest, and in a few weeks you will hear of them at one of the
nice balls up town. Well, she is now back in Sodom, and will probably stay here till Sodom is
destroyed, and she will go down in the flames never to rise again. Don't you see she did not heed
God's command? He said, "Escape for thy life." He said, "Look not behind thee" And He also said,
"And stay not thou in all the plain, lest thou be consumed." Well, she looked back, and she wanted
to go back, and she did not go on, and of course she turned back and is still back, and will
probably stay back. Well, you say, "Back where?" Back in old Sodom, or the old life of sin, just
where she was before she ever made a start, and she is harder to reach today than she was before
she ever left Sodom the first time. The devil has a harder grip on her than he ever had in this
world. How much it means to escape from the old life, and then not stop on the plains, or look
back, or anything of the kind, but it is possible, or God would never have given such a command,
and the reason He did it was for our good and our protection and safety.

        The next clause in the text is this; now notice it: "Escape to the mountain lest thou be
consumed." The reader will notice that we now have already had one escape, and now we have
another. That makes up the two escapes in this verse. First He said, "Escape from the doomed
city." That is, without a doubt, the sinner escaping from the life of sin, and then He said, "Look not
behind thee," and then He said, "Neither stay thou in all the plain," and now He says, "Escape to
the mountain lest thou be consumed."

        Fleeing from Sodom is nothing more or less than the sinner's giving up his old life of sin
and fleeing to the Savior for salvation. The plains that God told him not to stay on are, without a
doubt, the plains of regeneration, or the justified life. The lesson, with many others, teaches that it
is not God's will for the believer to undertake to live the justified life alone very long, for God
told him not only to get out of Sodom, but He told him not to stay on the plains, and then He added,
"Escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed." The tide of worldliness is so strong today that if a
man tries to live in the average church and do as they do it will not be twelve months until they
will have you back in the old life or back in Sodom. The Lord knew that He made provision for us
to have an experience that would enable us to stand in the face of all kinds of opposition, and

notice this statement, the Lord said if we did not escape from the plains, that we would be
consumed. He was not talking to somebody in Sodom, he was talking to us who have fled from the
old life of sin, or Sodom. So we see at a glance that it was not the Lord's will for us to try to live
the life of a complete Christian until we were wholly sanctified.

        The old life in Sodom represents the life of a sinner, escaping from the doomed city and
getting out on the plains is a type of a justified life, and the escaping to the mountain top is a type of
the sanctified life. It is called the higher life, it is called the fullness of the blessing, it is called
holiness, it is called sanctification, and it is called perfect love, it is called a clean heart, it is
called the baptism with the Holy Ghost, it is called the crucifixion of the Old Man. Some call it the
power for service. But whatever it may be called, He said, "Escape to the mountain."

          There is nothing more lovely than the mountain-top life. Think of it in this light: if there is
any sunshine anywhere it is found on the mountain top; and again, if there is any pure air in the
whole country it is found on the mountain top; if a man gets sick his doctor will advise him at once
to go to the mountain and get the fine mountain air. He tells him to go up to the mountain top and get
some ozone, and the poor fellow will ask the doctor to tell him what ozone is, and the doctor says
that it is a double portion of oxygen. Then he is teaching the second blessing to his patients. Well,
another way to look at it: if there are such things as mosquitoes anywhere in the country, they will
be found down on the plains; and if there are any croaking frogs anywhere in the whole country,
they will be found down on the plains; but if you will get up and flee to the mountain top you will
get out of hearing of the humming mosquitoes and alligators. All of these things go in to make up
the life of the unsanctified Christian. The average Christian is almost annoyed to death with the
little things of life, when it is God's will and purpose for him to live above such things. A drove of
mosquitoes will come in the form of anger and pride and jealousy and impatience, and the little
things that annoy and hinder the Christian who lives down on the plain until he has no rest day or
night But the Lord said, "Escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed." Brother, the frogs and
bugs of different kinds will consume you if you don't escape.

        Again, from the mountain top we get such a fine view of all the surrounding country. Just
think of it in this light: a man down on the plains can't see anywhere, but a man on the mountain top
can see for hundreds of miles away, and the views from the mountain top are just lovely. You see
far out on the plains that lie in the valley below you if you are on the top of the great old mountain.
I don't wonder that the Lord wanted us to push on to the mountain top and bathe in the pure and
warm sunshine and get a good view of all the world around about us.

I can see far down the mountain,
Where I wandered many years;
Often hindered in my journey
By the ghosts of doubts and fears,
Broken vows and disappointments,
Thickly sprinkled all the way,
But the Spirit led unerring,
To the land I hold today.

        Now again look at it in this light: if there are any clouds and fogs, any mist    and darkness,
they always hang over the plains. At times the people down in the plains will have        the most awful
storms and the most awful thunder and lightning you ever heard, and the people on        the mountain top
will have the finest sunshine and the most lovely weather you ever saw. While the        Christians who
live down on the plains of regeneration fight mosquitoes and listen to the croaking      of the frogs and
see the fog and mist, the mountain-top Christian is delivered from the whole thing.

        It is very seldom that the mountain-top Christian ever has a cloudy day, and so he sings:

I am dwelling on the mountain,
Where the golden sunlight gleams.

        There is no comparison on earth between the Christian down in the plains struggling with
his doubts and fears, and the Christian on the mountain top with his skies all bright and clear and
the glory of God in his soul and his life hid with Christ in God and Jesus in all of His fullness and
sweetness dwelling in his soul. The mountain-top Christian has bright sunshine, and he has pure air
to breathe, and he has a good vision of the surrounding country, and he is away from the
mosquitoes, and away from the frogs, and he is above the fog and mist, and he very seldom sees a
cloud. If you will compare these things to the life of the average Christian you will find that the
most of them have never left the plains and they have stayed down there so long that they don't
think they can get away. If we ask them to come up the mountain with us, they will tell you that they
can't get up the mountain, and if we offer to help them up they will make all kinds of excuses, and
while they fight mosquitoes and bull-gnats and dog-flies and bumblebees and hornets, and grope in
the darkness and mist and fog, they will tell you that they got it all at once.

         Yet the Lord said, "Escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed." The little things of this
life are just about to provoke them to death. Well, just watch them; they are going to the mountain
top, or they are going back to old Sodom, one or the other.
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