CHARACTERISTICS OF THE TEMPTATION OF OUR LORD (Matt. iv. 1-11). I. IT WAS A TEMPTATION TO WRONGFUL ENJOYMENT. LESSONS FROM THESE TEMPTATIONS Our Lord's reply to the first temptation yields the lesson- II. THAT EXTRAORDINARY HELP IS NOT TO BE LOOKED FOR WHEN NOT IMPERATIVELY NEEDED. To look for such help is to tempt God. Whilst the third reply conveys the instructionIII. THAT AMBITION IS UNLAWFUL WHEN IT FORGETS GOD. I. IT WAS A TEMPTATION TO A WRONG USE OF POWER TO SATISFY IMPERATIVE NEEDS. VOL. III. C II. IT WAS A TEMPTATION TO A DOUBTFUL USE OF POWER TO GAIN WORLDLY APPLAUSE. III. IT WAS A TEMPTATION TO WRONGFUL ACT TO GAIN DOMINION. LESSONS. FIRST MORNING LESSON. "ESCAPE FOR THY LIFE" THE character of Lot is a type of a large number of men, who have good dispositions and inclinations, but are easily affected by circumstances, easily influenced by society, and unwilling to make a strenuous fight with evil, an ardent effort towards obedience. His indecision appears in this narrative, and is the occasion of the peremptory direction given to him in the language of the text. I. THE DANGER TO BE LEFT BEHIND. The city in which Lot had dwelt was corrupt in morals, and was doomed to judgment and destruction. Sodom serves as an emblem of the state of the unsaved. Apart from the gospel of Christ and the privileges of the Church, men are in imminent danger from 1. Sin, which takes all forms, not only those prevalent in the cities of the plain, but others, less offensive to decency, but not less displeasing to God. 2. Destruction, which may not befall the sinner in the same manner in which divine justice visited the guilty Sodom, but which by a law of righteousness is affixed to sin as its inevitable penalty, apart from compliance with the terms of salvation. II. THE SAFETY TO BE SOUGHT, Lot was instructed to escape to the mountain. By the Word of God all men are admonished to flee for refuge to the hope set before them in the gospel. I. It is salvation through Christ. 2. It is spiritual salvation. 3. It is eternal salvation. III. THE URGENT MOTIVE PRESENTED. "For thy life." "It is not"-as though the angel had said to Lot-" a time to think of house, or property, or associates; thy life and the life of thy family is at stake." And through the urgency of the messenger, "the Lord being merciful unto him," he was led into safety. Repentance and faith, consecration and prayer, are urgent. duties. They cannot be postponed without danger; they cannot be neglected without disaster and destruction. Those who value their true, their higher, their spiritual life and well-being, will arise and flee, never looking behind them, but escaping lest they be consumed. "THEN THE LORD RAINED UPON SODOM AND GOMORRAH BRIMSTONE AND FIRE FROM THE LORD OUT OF HEAVEN; AND HE OVERTHREW THOSE CITIES, AND ALL THE PLAIN, AND ALL THE INHABITANTS OF THE CITIES, AND THAT WHICH GREW UPON THE GROUND. BUT HIS WIFE LOOKED BACK FROM BEHIND HIM, AND SHE BECAME A PILLAR OF SALT" (Gen. xix. 24-26). LoT chose the plain of Jordan because it was well watered, &c. (chap. xiii. 10, 11). How many choose their dwelling, associates, &c., without any regard to the spiritual interests of themselves or children! How infatuated is this! It is as if one were to choose a road merely on account of its picturesqueness, &c., and without any regard to where it led; or a ship merely on account of the fittings of her cabin, and without any regard to her seaworthiness or her destination. Lot had soon reason to repent of his choice. He was taken prisoner, and lost those goods which he so disproportionately prized. Abraham, whose claims he had so selfishly ignored, generously relieved him. But again he chooses Sodom; worldly advantage to spiritual safety and benefit. God's forbearance with Sodom at last reached its limits, and it must be destroyed. Fire rained from heaven on the fertile plain, and it became a desert, and the guilty inhabitants were destroyed. Lot, who, in spite of his inconsistencies, was a good man, escaped along with his wife and his two daughters. I. THE DESTRUCTION OF SODOM. See in this destruction 1. That worldly prosperity may prove a curse rather than a blessing. Sodom and Gomorrah were in a fertile plain, and specially favoured in regard to wealth and prosperity. Fulness of bread was their curse. God, so to speak, would fain bless His people with plenty, health, friends, but often dare not. The water-line of their frail bark must often be drawn low down, lest they succumb to the storms of temptation. "Give us our daily bread" is the utmost we can safely pray for. 2. That punishment must sooner or later follow sin. The wicked shall not go unpunished; nothing is more certain than this. Nature has its penalties which it exacts alike from the morally guilty and innocent. In the end it must be that responsible beings shall receive the just reward of their deeds in exact proportion to their moral worth or demerit. God will avenge though He bear long. 3. That punishment may overtake the sinner with awful suddenness. There was eating and drinking when the Flood came. The night before Sodom's last morning, Lot "seemed as one that mocked unto his sons-in-law" when he spoke of the coming doom. The way to the beetling cliff may be smooth and level onward to the fateful edge. II. THE DELIVERANCE OF LOT. In his deliverance we see 1. That God does not punish the righteous with the guilty. No doubt, in the general operations of Providence, the innocent suffer largely along with the guilty, often even in room of the guilty; but the righteous Lot is ever saved from the final doom of Sodom. The wheat is separated at last from the chaff. "That be far from Thee, to slay the righteous with the wicked." 66 2. That urgency is needed in the matter of the soul's deliverance. Lot must at once arise and flee. Up and follow Me" was the Saviour's constant command. The Israelites' departure from Egypt. What other interest can claim prior attention to the soul's salvation? The saving of the soul means the saving of all that a man is from shame and ruin to bliss and honour and endless capabilities of growth. Our sense of this must be marked by our putting the soul's interests first. 3. That an unreserved renunciation of sin must be made by the soul ere it be delivered. Lot must leave entirely behind that Sodom where he had accumulated his dangerous wealth, and had lived in perilous ease. He was not even to look behind. Our salvation is from sin, not in it, or with any conscious preserving of it. "Come out and be separate, and I will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be sons and daughters of the Lord Almighty." III. THE DOOM OF LOT'S WIFE. She looked back." Partly, perhaps, it was unbelief; mainly, love of the world. 1. It is good, but not enough, to have pious friends. The wife of righteous Lot, the relative of nobler Abraham, remembered in those prayers which "avail much:"-all this was a high privilege. But the "succession" can be broken; often is; and the pillar of salt stands through the ages to tell that God is no respecter of persons, that the soul that sinneth it shall die. 2. It is good, but not enough, to begin well. Lot's wife set out, and that was well; but she lingered and looked behind, and that undid all. It is always possible to go back. There are decisive steps that nearly necessitate all which follows; but turning to God is not one of these. It is not committing your self to a resistless current, but setting out on a wide and generous sea. You must trim your sails, and steer day by day for the desired haven. 3. "Keep thy heart with all diligence." The eyes of Lot's wife were guided by the affections of her heart. Heart and life tend ever to unite; it is unnatural for them to live apart. "Set your affections on things above, and not ou things beneath," and those things, however high, will yet be yours. You will sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. FIRST EVENING LESSON. “WHERE IS THE LAMB FOR A BURNT-OFFERING ? GOD WILL PROVIDE HIMSELF A LAMB FOR A BURNTOFFERING" (Gen. xxii. 7, 8). THIS narrative has always been understood to convey more than meets the eye. It is not simply the record of the trial of Abraham's faith; it is a deep spiritual parable of the relation between the Divine Father and that one only Son whom, for His love to the world, He sent as the sacrificial Lamb who took away its sins. I. THE CRY OF HUMANITY. "Where is the Lamb?" &c. I. There is a universal desire for a medium of approach to a righteous God. 2. This desire finds utterance in human prayers, sometimes in human hopes, sometimes in human despair. 3. And it finds expression in the sacrifices and the priesthoods of human invention and authority, which have abounded throughout the history of our race. Often perverted by superstition, these practices and institutions tell of a restless, dissatisfied heart, that longs for reconciliation and harmony with God. II. THE RESPONSE OF DEITY. 1. There was an intimation of this response in the sacrifices of the elder economy. 2. The fulness of this response appears in the mission of "the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sin of the world." Observe in the appointed Mediator-(1.) His lamb-like character and demeanour, His innocence and gentleness. (2.) His lamb-like death, when He was led as a lamb to the slaughter, &c. (3.) The efficacy of the sacrifice He offered. Accepted by God, this offering is available for men, without any distinction of race, or past history, or condition in life. (4.) The perfect satisfaction which the response of Heaven affords to the longing and |