The half-way Christian home may be little more than a prep school for hell.

This perhaps sounds shocking but it is nonetheless true! Get God’s view of the home by turning to the story of Lot’s family in Genesis 19. When divine judgment fell on Lot’s city, he lost nearly all he had.

What is happening to our nation? The answer is in the homes.

Why do not our churches have power enough to turn back the angry tide of evil?  The answer, again, is in our homes!  A church is no better than the family life behind the doors of each home.

A study of our text (Genesis 19) will disclose how Satan is again using homes even as he worked in Lot’s.

I. LOT’S SITUATION COMPARED TO OURS TODAY

Keep in mind that Lot is called a righteous man by the Apostle Peter. He was a nephew of faithful Abraham and had a religious background.

You will find Lot’s first big mistake in Genesis 13, when he chose to live in the Sodom area where they “were wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly.” He should have selected a location for his home with the spiritual lives of his family in mind. Do you? How many really make spiritual considerations of first importance?

It was only natural, then, that his children enter into mixed marriages. Advice against this is of little effect if the whole home life is not based on spiritual principles.

Fire is coming!  is the urgent warning God sends by angels to Lot.  Sodom and Gomorrah are to be destroyed by fire.  dashing to his married children, Lot warns them to flee before the fire falls.

“Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!”  he pleads. BUT WHAT A JOLT HE GOT. “But his sons-in-law thought he was joking,” verse 14.

They would not budge. He had begun too late to teach! They had imbibed deeply the very spirit of their father. Little they cared for his late words.

You see, Lot himself was too much in love with the things, the ease and even some of the sin of the world in which they moved. Read verse 20 and hear him beg the angels not to send him too far away from the bull’s-eye of evil.

Now, remember Lot was by and large a righteous man, according to II Peter 2, but he failed to lead his own family right.

Still more, the cancer of covetousness had gripped his wife’s soul — so much so that even after turning her back on the sinful city she wavered and looked back. Immediately God struck her down in judgment. Two thousand years later, Jesus counseled “Remember Lot’s wife,” Luke 17:32. Are any listeners here who once made solemn promises of dedication to God but have now turned back?

“Then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens,” verse 24. Except for his two unmarried daughters, every loved one and every possession of Lot sank into oblivion under the fiery torrents.

How startling, then, to hear Jesus’ warning that as it was in Lot’s day so it will be when He returns to earth at the end of our present age, and His glory is revealed to us all.  Read this in Luke 17:28-30.  Friends, our own age seems to be facing the fire! Let us put away the things that burn and lead our family to do likewise. Oh what will become of hearts that are attached to “inflammable things” of this life?

Do you see the picture?  Just as our Lord predicted, men are carelessly eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting and building, verse 28. Study such passages as Matthew 13:36 and following and Revelation 14:8 to see how angels and fire will again be employed.

Turning next to II Peter 2:4-9, we see that God promises to keep wicked men under the sentence of fiery judgment and to deliver the godly — just as he did in Lot’s day. Then the same epistle in chapter 3 contains the awesome picture of the entire world aflame in atomic upheaval.

“Their work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each person’s work. , ” I Corinthians 3:13.

Seeing such things are squarely in the path of the world’s history, surely each parent should heed God’s orders to Lot: “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, Genesis 19:12. Do we teach our children that “the fashion of this world passes away?”

II.  SPECIAL APPLICATIONS TO OUR LIVES

Sad it is that Satan has enlisted some parents against their own children! Here’s proof:

Some parents “let” their children go to church. That is not enough. Some encourage their children to go to church.  That is not sufficient,  Some definitely send them.  Not enough!  Some take turns going with them.  Not enough. (Now hold your hat!) In other cases, both parents go with them to Sunday School and church. EVEN THIS IS Not ENOUGH! What is your home? That is the all important question.

Most parents have heard Proverbs 22:6. “Start children off on the way they should go, and even when they are old they will not turn from it.” To whom is this order given? Certainly not to God. Nor, to the church. PARENTS are commanded to do the training in godliness. BUT are mothers and fathers training their children to fear Almighty God? To flee divine wrath? To prepare for great Judgment? To serve Christ? Gain heaven?

Of course, we tell them to ‘go right.’ However, by the strongest teaching force — example — are you showing them how to utterly neglect in daily life things eternal? Little wonder today’s children, like Lot’s, find Sunday warnings and Bible teachings as so unrelated to their life. As with Lot “but his sons-in-law thought he was joking,” so the real things to modern young people are not spiritual things. Who cares for “preacher talk” anyhow! Parents have failed to bring God’s teachings into daily life.

THEREFORE, I MAKE THE FOLLOWING SERIOUS CHARGES AGAINST MANY SO-CALLED CHRISTIAN HOMES TODAY:

1. Homes are training their children to neglect their faith all week long. Maybe there is the little dash of church on Sunday, but what of daily family worship? Is the child led to have his own, private devotions in prayer and Scripture reading — just as he daily feeds his body? Does not the soul count? (I would be most happy to give help to interested parents who have failed here and want to get started.)
2. Homes are teaching rebellion against God’s authority. All authority comes from God. The parent is doing God’s work when he guides and disciplines, thus when a child is allowed to talk back, they are being steadily schooled in rebellion – ultimate rebellion against God. Do your children answer back? Remember, first- time obedience is the only kind of obedience there is! What happens when you tell them to go to bed? Do they — at once? And, without arguing? “Oh , it is only normal that they express themselves,” some say. Well, God does not so say!

Many set their home schedule around Junior’s whims. (What a jarring he will get later upon discovering LIFE IS SIMPLY NOT THAT WAY!) Who decides when you get up in the morning, you or the children? To make them secure emotionally, they need not be made selfish. The give-and-take of life must be learned early.

Satan wants many to be good moral people. He can’t afford to place too many with Crime Syndicate or the like. Sometimes it is those who have good manners and carry well the wine of this world who serve selfish evil most effectively.  Among these are “church” people. Let us continue the charges.

3. Children are being trained to make easy, expedient, self-centered choices. This is deadly cancer to the spiritual spine. So often I find myself teaching one set of standards and parents teaching another.

Well, let us invite Jesus to accompany us to a typical school dance. As we approach, from quite a distance, you can hear the music and the beat. “Lord, this is our music, what do you think of it?”

Now, let us take Jesus inside and look over the scene with Him.  Christian parent, you do not require any pastor to dictate your life’s details. Right there in your heart with the dance floor scene in full view, you ask Jesus “What do You think of it? Is it good for the young girl to shake herself in front of her partner?  Do you recommend that adolescents spend an evening in swaying embrace? Are people so pure that all this means nothing? Lord, what do you think?”

While there, you might want to wander out behind the gym, too, and even trail along with some of the cars into the after-action. And for those who plead the care exercised in proper chaperoning, etc., let me pose the question: Who will watch over them at the first college frat party, etc.?

Even if it can be denied that there is a wrong sex-atmosphere about it all, let it at least be admitted that this is a road that leads some place. The dance floor spawns many things. It is a road which the ungodly do not hesitate to travel.

If you dread that your child may appear to be “different,” then, thank God that you are getting them started! In later life, they will need plenty of fiber to stand much more serious testings. (Of course, if there is no preparation for this and no deep convictions, then little good will come of it.)

“You must not read the Bible in school, but you must dance.” That is the situation today. However, it does not have to be so, if parents are truly concerned.

Another test area is the issue of the LORD’S DAY. The attitude of parents here is ruinous if it leads the son or daughter to make the easy, self-centered choice.

Sunday is now used for youth sports, parades, civic functions, business and what-not by the world. Christians string along by using it themselves for travel, social functions, recreation, etc. Parents, you and your family, need an entire day for the S-O-U-L.

What is even more important, our children need to see an example of thorough consistency. These “adjustable” standards hurt.

Each summer we see other young people drop their standards regarding the Lord’s Day. They need money for future plans; their new job requires Sunday work, so — “Goodbye, Lord’s Day.” The argument is always the same, “I prefer not to work on Sunday, but it must be done; no other work is available, etc.” Notice, the matter is not decided on the basis of principle — whether it is right or wrong, whether it pleases God or not, whether it benefits the soul or not — it is expedient. That is ruinous thinking!

The brave missionaries and martyrs must blush with shame when they look upon such a brand of Christianity! Can’t trust God for a summer’s work! If God should say, “Delay your plans and take longer,” shall parents teach their children to argue back, “Go along, God, I’m running my life! “?

Here is a truism that needs burning into the very warp and woof of every young spirit: IT IS NEVER RIGHT TO DO LESS THAN RIGHT FOR ANY REASON.  Doing “slight” wrongs to accomplish good ends is treacherous living. Shall we “do evil, that good may come?” Study Romans 14:2-23 for other valid principles.

All these things show the futility of trying, through the church, to overcome the carnal influence of the home. Children who are trained to make the easy, selfishly desirable choice — never to pay a price or suffer real loss of some good thing for something better — will not be vital Christians.

Here is the reason our young people turn from the Lord and the church. It is the parent who, with his own hand, has put into the life the destructive cancer of easy choices. Most of these young people will finally fade out of the church. Others will settle into church in a sort of semi-conscious spiritual state. They might even assume some active office, but their pastor will find them strangely lacking in spiritual perception. They will be dead and unfruitful. He will wonder what is wrong. The answer, by then, will be perhaps out in the cemetery — their twice-dead parents who reared them. Now, they in turn will reproduce in kind.

4. Children are led to be ignorant of the Scriptures.  It is important that families get right down to serious Bible instruction. The Bible is revelation, not confusion. It can be learned. Parents can know it, and they can teach it.

Take a little test. Try to answer these simple, basic questions: l)Where would you look for the book of Hezekiah? 2) Who was Zerrubbabel? 3) Where did Queen Esther live? 4) Who wrote Acts? 5) What is the purpose of the Epistle to the Hebrews? 7) Distinguish’ clearly between justification and sanctification. (P. S. There is no such book as Hezekiah, in No. 1! Did you know?)

It is a shame to leave all spiritual instruction for the church to do. It needs daily attention.

5. Live for this world, not the next — boys and girls are being taught. “Be honest. Be industrious. You can’t get something for nothing,” parents intone. But WHY are these things taught? I fear it is so the child can get along in this world only.

Day by day our youth are urged to value time and money, choose proper friends, work  hard, keep pure — all without any direct relation to Christ the Lord.  It is all for the now, not for God.

Are you embarrassed to talk plainly about Jesus?

Even in the most intimate areas of life, youngsters need to have plain teachings connected with their view of the Lord of all. Daily teaching, if emptied of the Lord, is just what the devil wants. He will gladly let them live a bit on the upright side so long as they are spiritually vacant! The One Satan hates, the only One he fears, is Jesus Christ. I therefore charge that many church-going parents have unwittingly entered into a terrible partnership with Satan in blinding their own children spiritually.

Such children will grow to look somewhat like Christians but will be a tare in God’s garden of wheat and ultimately a child of hell, unless God mercifully intervenes.

“But,” one objects, “I trained them in the right way!” You did? When did you lead them to Jesus? He is the WAY, John 14:6.

CONCLUSION

For a parent to turn from wrong to right and then lead his whole family will require an act of God. This spiritual miracle will happen only in the repentant parent’s heart.

Do you truly desire to rear your child dedicated to God? Then it must be according to His directions, “in the fear and the admonition of God.” To fear God, he will have to put God first ALL the time — all else second. This must be learned from the daily example of parents.

Covetous, worldly, money-loving, spiritually-flabby adults will never have what it takes to transfuse vitality into young souls. Rather, they will exude deadening fumes of carnality — a stifling atmosphere — from the very pores of their own spirits. “It must needs be that offenses come, but woe to those from whom they come,” warned Jesus. Tragic if they come from Mothers and Dads!

In addition to the spiritual surrender to the Lord, parents will have to face up to the discipline problem. There must be exact, alert, dependable, steady, constant, firm, old-fashioned discipline. Not yelling and bickering, pleading and goading, but the quiet, once-spoken word that is obeyed each time.

Sit down and have frequent conferences with your family and explain quietly that a new day has dawned — a day of law and order, peace and quiet, respect and obedience. Then ask God for the grace to carry it forward. The miracle will happen in time.

Some have too long used the old excuses, “They aren’t bad, just ‘lively,’ or full of ‘nervous energy.'” I fear the real problem is that those youngsters have parents who simply do not make them obey!

Mother! Dad! Will you right now come to terms with God? Yours is a serious trust. Failure here is to disobey God and to bend and distort little lives entrusted to you. Only the grace of God can handle such a sin. Thank God for I John 1:7.

Some are perhaps sadly saying, “Pastor, it is too late for us; our children are older, even away from home. It is not too late for God — providing you are ready to put the blame where it belongs: not on God, not on the church, maybe not all together on the children, but on your own head. Come now to the throne of mercy and repent of this your wickedness and who knows but what God may turn and leave behind a blessing!  “If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.  If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.”  I John 1:6-9.