Introduction
Sodom and
Gomorrah. If there is a day coming in Australia when there will be passages of
the Bible it is illegal to read or preach on, this will be one of those
passages. It is one of the most famous passages in the Bible and it gives us
famous phrases like Sodomy and Sodomite, but for some reason not Gomorrahy or
Gomorrahite. There are many people in this world who would consider this
passage hateful, and let’s face it, there are probably many preachers who have
preached this passage in hateful ways. It’s not like the church is always spot
on about how we talk about sin in general, and some sins in particular.
As
Christians we are not to hate anyone, but even though this is true, we will
still be accused of hate, because much of our world stands in opposition to God
and his word. And as Christians we are commanded to stand on God’s word, no
matter what comes. So, if, and more likely, when this passage and others like
it become illegal, we still have to teach it, and we still have to be willing
to say things our world doesn’t like. And no matter how lovingly we try to say
these truths and talk about sins like homosexuality, we will still be accused
of hate.
We have
examples of this in history. Did you know that the ancient Romans called
Christians ‘atheists’? They called Christians atheists because they believed in
only one God and denied all the rest. The Romans were highly offended by this,
highly offended. It was one of their motivations for persecuting Christians and
restricting their freedom in Rome. The Christian message that only Jesus was
Lord, was a direct challenge to the Roman worldview, highly offensive to the
Roman way of life, and yet the Christians spoke this truth anyway. If we want
to call ourselves by the same name, we too should be willing to speak unpopular
truths, that offend. And this morning this sermon will cover some of that.
But this
passage is about more than just homosexuality, that is a big part of the sin of
Sodom and Gomorrah, but there was more to the wickedness of this city than just
that. This passage has a lot to teach us about our role in the world as
Christians and as the growing family of God. And it has a lot to teach us about
God’s judgement, God’s mercy and desire to give humanity time. So, let’s go
through this whole passage and see what God has to teach us today.
1. Abraham’s Role In The World (18:16-21) – We start here with Abrahams role in the world,
which actually highlights our role - “16 Then the men set out from there, and
they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their
way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18
seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the
nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he
may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the
Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what
he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom
and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see
whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me.
And if not, I will know.”
1.1 God is planning to go down to Sodom
and Gomorrah to see whether or not they need a good butt kicking, but before he
does, he wants to let Abraham in on his plan? But why?
1.1.1 Because Abraham is going to be God’s
representative in a dark world, and he is going to teach his children to also
be God’s representatives in a dark world: “19 For I have chosen him, that he may
command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by
doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he
has promised him.”
1.1.2 Abraham is going to be a minority God
follower in a majority God rejecting world. Some of Abraham’s descendants will
find themselves in cities just like Sodom and Gomorrah. So God wants to let
Abraham in on his plans. Abraham’s response it pretty awesome.
2. Abraham Questions God (vv.22-33) – Abraham challenges God. “22 So the men turned from there and went
toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew
near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24
Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the
place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from
you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that
the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of
all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty
righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham
answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am
but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will
you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy
it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose
forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.”
30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose
thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty
there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose
twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not
destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak
again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake
of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had
finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.”
2.1 I love the boldness of Abraham here,
but also his heart. He cares about the righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah,
of whom he is probably thinking of his nephew lot, and his family.
2.2 But he is also realistic. Ah, God,
would you save Sodom for 50 righteous people…when he knows there’s not 50 good
people in that city. So, he bargains down.
2.2.1 Wickedness tends to drive good people
away. But not Lot, Lot had chosen the land in the Valley near Sodom. Even
though Genesis 13:13 says, “Now the men of Sodom were wicked, great
sinners against the Lord.” This tells us Lot wasn’t the brightest of
blokes, or the most righteous.
2.3 But God’s response to Abraham is
pretty awesome here, Sodom is an incredibly wicked city, but God would refrain
from destroying it for just 10 good people. 10 righteous people who are not
opposed to the Lord.
2.3.1 This would have been a comfort for
Abraham as he knew he and his descendants, would be among the righteous people
living in wicked cities.
2.4 Billy Graham once famously said that
if God did not judge the USA, he’d have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah…,
actually his wife said it and he quoted her.
2.4.1 But there are righteous people in
America. I know some of them personally, there are many, many of them in fact. God
restrains his judgement on the nations to give his righteous people an
opportunity to have an impact on those nations.
2.4.2 As descendants of Abraham we carry on
his legacy of being a blessing to the nations, all nations, all people, God
creates his family to change the world. What God is saying is if we here today
had been in Sodom and Gomorrah, he wouldn’t have destroyed it, because there
would have still been hope for the cities.
2.4.2.1 You know that this means: we can turn
this ship around here in Australia. I really believe that. I refuse to be a
defeatist Christian.
3. Sin City (Gen. 19:1-11) – “19
The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of
Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face
to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house
and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on
your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 3 But
he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house.
And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. 4 But before
they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all
the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot,
“Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may
know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him,
7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have
two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do
to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under
the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This
fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse
with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew
near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought
Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with
blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great,
so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.”
3.1 Now there is no doubt that
homosexuality is involved in this situation in Sodom, all these men in this
city want to “know” these angels of the Lord. In other words have sex with
them, in fact in this context, sexually abuse them.
3.1.1 It’s obvious that this is a city where
God’s created design for sex to be between a man and his wife has been
completely rejected. But there is more to the sin than just that, this city has
been completely given over to wickedness of many kinds.
3.1.2 They are so wicked that they want to
harm these visitors, who they obviously do not realize are angels (nor does Lot
likely know this either).
3.2 Hospitality was a big deal in this
culture, Lot says to them, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so
wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me
bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these
men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.”
3.2.1 It’s pretty shocking to us that Lot
would offer his daughters to protect two strangers. There are two ways to
handle this statement:
3.2.1.1 1) Lot is just being dramatic. He could be saying something similar
to: why don’t you take the clothes off my back as well. Like someone may say to
a bank today.
3.2.1.2 2) Or he is serious in his commitment to provide hospitality. To us
today we think of hospitality as bringing someone into your home for a coffee,
and cake, or maybe for a meal. But in the ancient near east, and even today in
the Middle East when you took a visitor into your home they came under your
complete protection. It is one of their highest cultural laws.
3.2.1.2.1 The movie ‘Lone Survivor’ highlights
this very well (explain how the Afghani man takes the US Navy Seal into his
home and protects him from the Taliban).
3.3 So, homosexuality is a problem in this
city, but they are also seeking to attack the weak, or at least who they think
are weak. We are told this in Ezekiel 16:49 “Behold, this was the guilt of
your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and
prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.” We are also told
this in Jude 1:7 “…just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise
indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example
by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.” So, what is at the heart
of their sin? These cities had inverted everything that is good.
3.3.1 They had inverted God ordained sexual
roles. The men of this city, are lusting after these new men in town.
Homosexuality is an inversion of sexuality. One our culture celebrates. But so
is every other form of sexual sin (expand).
3.3.2 They had inverted hospitality.
Instead of protecting the strangers they wanted to abuse them. Instead of using
their wealth to care for the poor, they oppressed them.
3.3.3 In other words they had become the
epitome of a selfish, self-love culture. What happens to a culture when you
completely reject God, the same thing that happens to the solar system when you
boot out the sun: everything goes haywire.
3.4 The whole basis of Christian morality
is this: what God says is what we shall do: because he is the sun to our solar
system. He is our creator and knows what is best for us. This city was filled
with people who said: we are our own gods. Because this is what we are saying,
when we determine that our way is better than God’s way.
3.4.1 Whether it is homosexuality, or
adultery, or living selfishly with our wealth, or taking advantage of those who
are weaker than us, or anything like this, it all goes against God’s design for
how humanity is to live. How do you save a city like this? With righteous
people.
4. A few good people – We are told in 2 Peter that Lot was a righteous man, whom God saved, but
he wasn’t very effective. “14 So Lot went out and said to his
sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for
the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be
jesting. 15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your
wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the
punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife
and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they
brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out,
one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the
valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away… 23 The sun had risen on the earth
when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and
fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the
valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26
But Lot's wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. 27
And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before
the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the
land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up
like the smoke of a furnace. 29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities
of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the
overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.”
4.1 His sons in laws did not take him
seriously, neither did his
wife. In fact if you keep reading you will see that Lot’s daughters weren’t
very righteous either. “30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in
the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he
lived in a cave with his two daughters…34 The next day, the firstborn said to
the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink
wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve
offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night
also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay
down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by
their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the
father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called
his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day…” If
this family had lived today they would be a reality TV show family. They could
called it: Keeping Up With the Lot of them, or Desperate Cave Daughters, or
something.
4.1.1 Lot had failed to be a blessing to
Sodom and Gomorrah, even though he was a judge in the city, ruling at it’s
gate. He had failed to have an impact.
4.2 But this is where Abraham and his
descendants come in: it was through them that God wanted to impact the world
for righteousness. Through Abraham teaching his children the way of
righteousness, and his children teaching their children, and their children
teaching their children.
4.3 In other words, how do you save a
city like Sodom or Gomorrah? With a few good families raising their children in
righteousness and sharing the way of God.
4.3.1 I know what some people here are
thinking right now, let me answer it this way. I was watching this Star Trek
style comedy and this planet is about to be destroyed and Cmdr. Kelly Grayson says,
“Captain there’s families on that planet.” And the pilot whispers loudly to
himself, “There’s probably plenty of single people too.”
4.3.2 I just laughed, because it’s so true,
single people often get left out in situations like this. Jesus was single,
Paul was single. But what’s fascinating is that they both dedicated their lives
to building families around them – brothers and sisters in the faith. Building
the Family of God.
4.3.3 There is a place for all of us in
building the family of God, and there is a place for all us in having an impact
on our city, such that people are saved from destruction – and this is our
purpose in this world.
5. Conclusion: Judgement – There is a judgement day coming. Those are the stakes. To
paraphrase Israel Folau – Hell awaits everyone who does not repent. Turn or
burn may sound harsh, but that is what it all comes down to in the end.
Everything else is just extra. I feel like we have forgotten about just how frightening
the judgement of God can be on wickedness.
5.1 There are pastors who won’t talk
about.
5.2 There are pastors who publicly won’t
call out sin, or particular sins like homosexuality and greed and gluttony,
etc. There are other pastors who pretend that these are the only sins.
5.3 There are pastors who like Lot give
people the impression the judgement of God is nothing to fear. Our role as
Christians is to make sure people are aware. For some judgement day will be
worse than it was for Sodom and Gomorrah. For everyone who repents it will be
better. Trust in Jesus while there is still time, and take that message to
others.
5.3.1 All it takes is just a few good
people to get the message out there, and we’ve got more than that.
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