Sodom and Gomorrah - What About You? August 21, 2011 Genesis 19:1-29

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1 I. Introduction Sodom and Gomorrah - What About You? August 21, 2011 Genesis 19:1-29 This record of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is known by many people still today religious and secular. It is from the homosexual activity in Sodom that we get the words like sodomy. Some people use this story to show God s abhorrence for homosexual behavior and His punishment for this sin. But Sodom s sin wasn t just homosexual behavior, Ezekiel 16:49 says, "Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. In Isaiah 3:9 we read, The look on their faces testifies against them; they parade their sin like Sodom; they do not hide it. Woe to them! They have brought disaster upon themselves. Sodom was guilty of many sins; today s Scripture just shows us the culmination of all of them. Homosexual behavior isn t the only sin that is punished by God. In Romans 1 Paul lists homosexuality as a sin but then goes on to list others turn to Romans 1: Later, in Romans 3:23 Paul writes that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. And, still later, in the familiar verse of Romans 6:23 he wrote, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. The good news is that all the sins listed in Romans 1 as well as others described throughout the Bible are capable of being forgiven if a person has a relationship with God, repents of doing them, and confesses them to God. There are at least 3 things that we can see in this story of Sodom and Gomorrah 1) God s answer to Abraham s request; 2) God s response to unrepentant, rampant sin; 3) a warning and example of the spiritual decline of a God-fearing man. First, God s answer to Abraham s request: II. God s Answer to Abraham s Request Last week in Genesis 18, we saw Abraham plead with God to spare Sodom. Understandably, Abraham s first concern was for his nephew Lot and his family who lived in Sodom. But, Abraham didn t want to see any of those people die and be lost forever. We saw that he had a heart for others just like God does. As God said in Ezekiel 33:11, As surely as I live, I take no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but rather that they turn from their ways and live. Abraham was sure that, including Lot and his family, there were at least 10 believers 10 righteous people in the city. So he had been content to stop there in his request. But as we see from our reading this morning, there may have been only 1 righteous person Lot. 1

2 When the time came for judgment for the cities to be burned up, God sent His angels to rescue Lot and his family even though the 10 righteous people could not be found. As Paul wrote in Romans 5:20, where sin increased, grace increased all the more. God delivered Lot and his family. As He does so often in our lives, God did even more than Abraham had asked. III. God s Response to Unrepentant, Rampant Sin As we have already seen in Ezekiel 16 and Isaiah 3, the inhabitants of Sodom were filled with unrepentant sin. Verse 4 of today s Scripture says, All the men from every part of the city of Sodom both young and old surrounded the house. There may have been a few that didn t show like Lot s sons-in-law to be but for the most part, everyone was there. Their lack of repentance is seen in their response to being struck blind in verse 11 even though this terrible thing had happened blindness they still tried to find the door so that they could get in to the two strangers. Turn to Isaiah 55:6-7. If they had only repented, Sodom would not have been destroyed. But they didn t repent. They continued in their sins. God s patience has a limit. In Romans 12:19 God said, It is mine to avenge; I will repay." As was said earlier, The wages of sin is death. The cities had reach God s limit and they were going to be destroyed so completely that the locations of Sodom and Gomorrah are not known today. IV. A Warning and an Example to Righteous People But the main purpose of this story is to be a warning to righteous people to us about where we make our home; how we live our lives. As 2 Peter 2:7 says, Lot was a righteous man a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men. He had made some bad choices but would be saved as by fire. Turn to 1 Corinthians 3: Lot was saved, but he had nothing to show for the time he had lived in Sodom. When the heavenly visitors came to visit Abraham in chapter 18, he was at his tent door. As Hebrews 11:9-10, tells us, He was a pilgrim and stranger, just passing through this world. But Lot had gradually abandoned his tent and settled down in Sodom. Instead of keeping his eyes on the promised heavenly city, he looked toward Sodom and began to walk by sight instead of faith. Then he moved his tent near Sodom and finally, he moved into Sodom. When the heavenly visitors came to visit Sodom, Lot was sitting at the gate of the city; he was now part of the city. He had become a man of some authority, for he was where official business was conducted the gateway to a city. But Lot s problem wasn t his physical location, but his heart s attitude. His heart was in Sodom long before he settled there. Turn to 1 John 2:

3 When the 2 visitors arrived, Lot invited them into his house. At that point in time, he didn t know who they were, but as he had been taught by his Uncle Abraham, he invited them to stay with him for a meal and the evening s rest. Knowing the Sodomites, Lot was horrified when the visitors declined his invitation. He feared for their safety and insisted that they come home with him. Lot s fears for the safety of these visitors were fully justified. Within a short time, a lustful mob was outside his door for immoral purposes. Even knowing the depths of his neighbors lust, Lot courageously went outside to reason with them. In a demonstration of lost personal values, Lot was willing to sacrifice his 2 unmarried daughters to the lust of the crowd, but they weren t interested. The reaction of the mob towards Lot and his family escalated. They announced that they were willing to treat Lot with the same violence that they threatened his guests. Rather than responding to this city leader with respect, the mob threw the role back into his face as an accusation. Who made you judge? Lot was unable to enforce the law or punish the violators. Lot and his whole household were saved by the 2 angels striking all those outside with blindness. God s message to Abraham had been a joyous one he and Sarah would have the promised son within the year. But the message to Lot was frightening God was going to destroy Sodom and everything in it! God would have spared the city had the angels found 10 righteous people, but since they didn t exist, God was mercifully going to rescue the believers they did find. Lot had no spiritual influence in the city or in his own home that had declined along with his character. When he went to his future sons-in-law, they laughed at him, accused him of joking, and refused to leave the city. After Lot returned home, he didn t seem to do anything during the night either no packing or any preparation. It s as if he preferred to remain in Sodom. Regardless of the attitude of the mob, this was his home, his family was here. This is where he had put down his roots. They had had bad times before and were able to weather them they d be all right this time, too. The first time God rescued Lot, he was a prisoner of war. After Abraham had rescued him, Lot went right back to Sodom. That painful experience should have warned him that he was out of the will of God. But, if Lot had heard the warning, he must have ignored it just like he did this time. Now God had to take him by the hand and, literally, drag him out of Sodom! First, Lot hesitated, then he argued, then he begged to be allowed to go his own way. During the years after leaving Abraham, Lot s character had deteriorated. Instead of being grateful for God s mercy and obeying his rescuers, Lot resisted them and created trouble for them. He couldn t live in the mountains. If life was going to go on for Lot and his family, he needed civilization. God relented and said that they could go to a little village called Zoar. 3

4 But that concession wasn t enough for Lot s wife. The angels had told the four of them to flee for their lives, not to look back, and not to stop in the plains. But when they got to Zoar, in disobedience to the command perhaps missing the things she had left behind, perhaps she desired to go back and be with her friends we don t know why, but Lot s wife looked back. Her heart was still in Sodom. Because she didn t believe God, she became a pillar of salt. This part of the chapter about Sodom started with Lot sitting in the gateway of the city. It closes with the godly Abraham looking down on the plain that used to hold the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that now had dense smoke rising from the land. He knew that God had not found 10 righteous people. But God had delivered Lot, not because of anything in Lot, but because of Abraham s intercession. It was a matter of God s grace and mercy. V. Conclusion Psalm 1:1 represents the progressive decline of Lot s life, it says, Blessed is the man who does not walk in the council of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. Lot didn t jump hook, line, and sinker into the Sodom lifestyle; he was slowly transformed by it. He went from walking in it, to standing there and finally, he became one of them. Since Lot allowed himself to be conformed to the world, all that he lived for went up in smoke and was buried under ruins somewhere in the area around the southern end of the Dead Sea. Lot is a warning to all believers not to love the world, become friendly with the world, or be identified with the world, because the day of reckoning will finally come. One summer Linda and I worked in Sequim, Washington for the Department of Energy. We stayed in an apartment complex that had a hot tub. I found that if I would sit in the tub and let the water in the tub heat up, I can stand the temperature a lot hotter than if I would heat the water before getting in. Sin is the same way; if you re not careful on your guard it kind of sneaks up on you. Sin is deceptive. Before you know it, the heat has increased like Lot, your character and influence have gone down as the heat went up. For another example of the progressive or deceptive nature of sin, consider getting out of work. First, you allow yourself to get comfortable with a little sin like leaving work 5 minutes early. Everyone else does it, so why not you. Well, you know, minutes isn t that bad and you get your work done when you have to. No one s going to complain. Soon, you find yourself taking all afternoon off for an extended lunch break. You ve slid down the slippery slope of sin. The devil sometimes comes as a roaring lion that is easy to detect, but sometimes, as Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 4

5 11:14, Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light. As we read in James 1:27, we need to be alert and Keep oneself from being polluted by the world. The amazing thing is that Jesus Christ died for sinners even like those in Sodom and Gomorrah. The Apostle Peter wrote in 1 Peter 3:18, For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. Christ didn t die for good people, because there are none. Romans 3:10 says, There is no one righteous, not even one. Jesus died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6) and for sinners (Romans 6:8). We may not have committed the same sins as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we are sinners just the same. Without faith in Jesus Christ, we cannot be saved from the judgment to come. When the inhabitants of the cites on the plain woke up that morning, they had no clue that it was going to be the last day of their lives. Life was going on as usual, and then the fire fell. When the judgment comes, will you be like Abraham and not have to worry about the wrath of God? Or, will you be like Lot; will you be saved but through fire? Or, will you be like the people of Sodom, will you be lost forever? The choice is yours choose wisely. 5