God's Salvation Through Judgement - The Life of Abraham Genesis 19:1-29
Main idea:
Sin is always more destructive and deceptive than we think. It can only be truly seen against the backdrop of God's total holiness and justice. Yet, even as God unleashes judgement on sin, in his love and covent faithfulness he is seeking to awaken us and save us. Only in his presence does his holiness become our true delight.
Main points:
1. Lot, at home in the Sodom.
2. Surrounded in sin city.
3. Clinging to a false home.
4. God's fiery judgement unleashed.
Key Themes:
• The deceptive and dangerous power of sin in the face of a holy and perfect God
◦ Are you naïve about the power and danger of sin?
◦ Do you find yourself making excuses about things you know aren't right?
◦ Is your daily life a continual practice of seeking and living in the presence of God?
• The covenant faithfulness and mercy of God
◦ Has the love of Jesus lead you to love his holiness?
◦ Is God’s righteous truth a source of power and direction in your life?
◦ Do you delight in the power of his love for you?
Scripture references:
• Genesis 19:1-29
• Ezekiel 16:49-50
• Psalm 27:4
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Darkness never sleeps.
What is your relationship to sin today?
There are generally three categories:
• Are you living life, doing whatever you want, completely unaware of the danger of sin and the holiness of God?
• Are you living a life that dances on the line with sin - thinking that you are aware of if danger, but not thinking that danger is really close to you?
• Are you running daily to the face of God, to walk with him, to delight in his forgiveness and holiness, ever aware of the danger and evil of sin?
These three categories describe the characters we will face in the story we read today, a story that will help us to see how - as crazy as this story is - it is much closer to our own lives than we think.
READ TEXT - Genesis 19:1-29
Setting the scene:
Back in ch. 13 - Abraham's nephew Lot chooses to leave and live in the valley near the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah - a place that Moses tells us was exceedingly wicked - very evil - but also rich and wealthy.
Abraham had distanced himself from the kings of these cities - and Lot already faced trouble down there when he got caught in the middle of a war there and was taken prisoner - Abraham rescued him from that.
This story reconnects in ch 18 where God says he has heard a great outcry against this city and its terrible sin, and he will go down to investigate it first hand. The time has come for judgement.
Abraham jumps in to question God - of course there is sin there - but what about the good people that live there, the people who don't parttake in those sins? Will God destroy the good people with the evil ones?
Here we see God's heart and his patience. He will spare an entire CITY - even if there was as little as 10 people in it that were righteous.
Even as this conversation between Abraham and God is taking place, the two angels head down from the hills into the valley to visit the city - the question that is left hanging in the air - what will happen next? What will he find in the city?
1. Lot, at home in Sodom.
What became of Lot?
Abraham is worried about him.
Earlier we read that he moved to set his tents near the cities.
Here we meet him sitting at the city gate. He is now PART of the city. He has a HOUSE in the city. and he is probably part of its leadership - the city gate was the place where disputes were settled and leaders were present.
Right off the bat, we see the Lot seeks to follow in the right path, he has correct values - he runs to meet the visitors - greet them and invite them into his house.
We have noted already that hospitality and welcoming strangers is a major value in the Bible - and disregarding hospitality and mistreating strangers is a major sin in the Bible that God seeks justice for.
He wants to welcome them, set a feast before them, take care of them. He is seeking to be a good person and uphold a right standard.
But we also get the first hint that something might be off in his own sense of urgency when the visitors say that they want to stay in the city square.
His response is very strong.
"He urged them so strongly..."
"no no no please you CANNOT stay in the city square...."
Usually in those days, it was more dangerous to stay outside the city - because of the threat of bandits and robbers. The city was supposed to be a much safer place.
But here we see something different. This city that Lot has made himself part of - is a dark and dangerous place at night.
After dinner, before they go to bed, we learn clearly why Lot had such urgency in his voice about his own city.
2. Surrounded in sin city.
"4 Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. 5 They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!”
6 Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. 7 He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers."
What were the sins of sodom?
We can break them into two categories:
social immorality
sexual immorality
Ezekiel 16:49-50
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. 50 They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
But there is also sexual immorality. This story is one of the clear pictures in the bible that practicing homosexuality is evil and wicked. these men took it to a whole other extreme - seeking to take this two visitors as a mob.
We do need to make the point however that homosexual desire is not the same thing as practicing homosexuality. There are many poeple who struggle with same sex attraction who affirm and know its not God's way and vow to follow God in thier lives.
We are all broken sexually in different ways.
Christians in the past have done a very bad job at differentiating that - treating people who confess to struggling with same sex attraction but who want to follow God and his ways - as vile and disgusting.
What we have in sodom is not that. Here we have a prideful, all out celebration of evil and perversion. And the whole city was gathered here for it.
Moses makes it clear that this was not just a few bad apples.
"the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population"
Here, before this perverse crowd - Lot finds himself on this particular night.
Here we also see, that Lot was in deeper trouble than he realized. The life he thought he could live - to live among these people and these sins and think that it wasn't going to touch him - is about to come falling apart.
"my brothers, please don't do this unspeakable evil"
"8 Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.”
9 “Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as an alien, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door."
First of all his priority to protect his guests eats up his priority to protect his family.
When you think you can live close to sin and not be altered you will always get played.
The first thing that goes is your OWN ability to evaluate your problems based on God's standard of truth. Your life will fall apart from the inside first of all because you will start making terrible judgements that you see no problem with - things you never would have done in the past.
Lot offers his daughters to this vile abusive crowd to protect the strangers.
The second surprise for Lot here is that these people never counted him as their friend.
Scripture tells us that friendship with the world is war against God. But it is also true that the friendship of the world is a false friendship based on false promises and false allegiances. Sin makes it so that no one is safe under its kingdom.
Again, when you read good stories you see this contrast - among the righteous, there is true love, loyalty and belonging. Among the evil, there is always suspicion, anger - never safety.
Lot was a fool to think these people were his brothers.
The men are pressing in to break the door. And its the mercy of God that saves him out of it.
This is the moment of revelation - the men are not just men. they are angels sent by God. They blind the men and create a moment of safety to reveal their mission.
“Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, 13 for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.”
In the Hebrew the whole structure of this story peaks at this pronouncement. this is the point towards which everything was headed. This was obvious to everyone except Lot.
These are the works that tear his whole world apart.
Everything from this moment is filled with a deep sense of urgency and danger.
This moment SHOULD have been a moment of shock and awakening for Lot. but its not.
3. Clinging to the city.
What is the response of Lot and his household?
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
"went out" - his sons in law were not in the house with him.
It is clear that these men who were about to marry Lot's daughters were men who were very much PART of the city.
They just laughed at him.
"common man, your just mad about the mob at your house, chill out a bit."
But its not just the sons in law. Notice the night is passing and dawn breaks, but the family is STILL in the city!
15 At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.”
don't you see the danger you are in??
and here are the words that shock me every time:
"16. But he hesitated."
The clouds of fire and judgement are gathering above the city - destruction is about to be unleashed - and STILL he hesitates to leave it!!
the deceptive and deadly weeds of sin were woven through his heart and his mind MUCH more deeply than he himself realized.
Its like that devasting image of a soldier in battle who has been torn up and about to die, but hes still trying to buckle his helmet. Man you are already dead.
This is what sin does to us. It rips a whole in your life and you think you can put a bandaid and make it right.
it deceives us as it destroys us. it takes away our ability to judge our own lives and situations.
When we think we can play with fire and not be burned with will suffer. When we think we can live our lives dangerously close to sin we are already dead long before we know it.
In the midst of this picture of blindness and judgement is a picture of the shocking mercy of God.
16."Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. They brought him out and left him outside the city.
17 As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!”
As the sky gets ready to rain down fire, in the midst of the choas of this city and the foolishness of Lot and his family - God sends these angels to grab them by the hand like children and pull them out of the danger that they dont fully understand.
Dr James Hamilton says, "The God of the Bible is always displaying his glory in salvation through judgement."
Where there are sinful people, doing wicked and foolish things. Where there is the judgement of God being called on the world. There is also God, pulling people out of the fire, providing a way of escape.
Why does God do this??
Did Lot deserve it?
We will answer that in a minute.
Some might say - well Lot made some mistakes, but look, God still saved him out of it. God will always have mercy on us!
Do i discuss lot and his righteousness here? Move this to summary.
Yeah. At what cost???
4. God's fiery judgement unleashed.
23 The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. 24 Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord. 25 He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt.
27 Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace.
The only thing that shatters the darkness and foolishness of sin is the holiness of God.
God's holiness means that judgement is coming. It means that sin and evil will be held accountable. and that justice that God unleashes against sin is a terrifying justice.
Hebrews 12:29 says that "our God is a consuming fire..."
Does God delight in bringing destruction upon his creation?
No.
But neither does he apologize for unleashing his justice against a world of rebellion where he has made his power visible to all.
In the Chronicles of Narnia, when Mr. Beaver tells the kids that Aslan is a lion, Susan responds,
"Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion"..."Safe?" said Mr Beaver ..."Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you.”
God is good. God is abundant in mercy and grace. But God is not safe. To a world of sin and rebellion, to a christian culture than can treat Jesus like a homeboy that will always be soft and give you hugs no matter what - a terrible surprise awaits.
Lots wife did not get this. After all warnings. All the yelling and forcing and running. she STILL can't let the city go, she still has to disobey and to look back.
And there she stands.
yeah there was mercy. but Lot lost everything. His house, all his livelihood. And his wife. In the end he homeless, living in a cave, and the next story - which we don't have time to go in to - show his end was sad and broken.
• the deceptive and dangerous power of sin in the face of a holy and perfect God
◦ we are often naive - like Lot.
Lot is called righteous by Peter. Moses very clearly presents him in a negative light starting from chapter 13. In what sense was Lot righteous? Clearly not in the same way Abraham was. But also, we do see that Lot wasn't like the people of Sodom.
He was disturbed by their sexual immorality. The problem is he wasn't disturbed enough to move away. He really lighted the prosperity and comfort of Sodom. So he stayed, and maybe he thought he could live this close to the evil and not have it enter his own life and his own home.
what is your fight on worldliness today?
When we speak of worldliness, what do we mean?
Obviously - drugs, sexual perversion, orgies, parties, abuse, selfishness
But more subtly - worldliness refers to anything in the world that the culture is culturally worshipping. The idols of the day. There can be deep sin and worldliness in healthy things - business, money balance, fitness and health, learning and knowledge.
We are not called to physically remove ourselves from the world. We are called to remove ourselves from sin and worldliness. This means that we must live all our lives with a deep diligence, alertness and war against sin in all of life.
This is clear in our weekly routines - our entertainment choices, our interests, our passions.
Are you living dangerously close and dangerously comfortable with the sins of the surrounding culture?
Do you find yourself making excuses about things you know aren't right?
• too much drinking
• too much movies
• jealousy, anger
Or do you live a life of vigilance and alertness?
How do we do that?
In the story there is an interesting contrast. Abraham looks down into the valley where the smoke rises up. The cities lie down in the valley, but Abraham lives up on the mountains - near the Oaks of Mamre - the place where the Lord appeared to him.
Key biblical theme - Mountains - places where God meets people, where heaven meets earth. Ezekiel 28 tells us that Eden was on a mountain. The law of Moses was given on the mountain. Abraham was called to give up his on a mountain. Its symbolic of the presence of God.
Abraham pursued the presence of God as the place where he built his home, where he lived.
Lot went down into the valley to make his home among the sins of Sodom.
How do we avoid the corrupting trap of sin in our lives? We must seek to live in the presence of God above all things.
Psalm 27:4
I have asked one thing from the Lord;
it is what I desire:
to dwell in the house of the Lord
all the days of my life,
gazing on the beauty of the Lord
and seeking him in his temple.
The question isn't "do you read your Bible and pray?"
The question goes deeper - where is your heart planted all throughout your days? Do you seek out, desire and long to live in the presence of God all your days? Are you talking to him throughout the day? Are you asking for his help and wisdom? Are you thanking and praising him?
Or do you live your spiritual life in a naive sense that you can stay clean from the evil around you just because you call yourself a christian?
We stay alert to sin when we are learning to live in the presence of God and seeking his faithfulness.
or maybe you are like the people of Sodom - livin it up.
Someone paid of this life you live. Someone gave you breath today. And it wasn't you. And you will answer to that someone - because this world is his.
God is perfect and holy in his justice. All evil and sin will meet a thundering and terrifying end.
• The covenant faithfulness and mercy of God
Why did God save Lot?
29 So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived.
God saved Lot because God was faithful to Abraham and his prayers.
God was true to his promises.
God made a covenant with Abraham - a binding relationship, a promise - that through him all nations would be blessed.
That covenant promise is also the reason we are all here today.
That covenant promise was expanded through the law God gave through Moses. It was clarified through the promise God made to David - that an everlasting King would come from him.
And it was realized in Jesus.
We are all born in sin. We all come into the world living in the city. But God in his faithfulness and mercy entered our world personally to come to us, to wake us up, to get us out.
Jesus came to get you out - even if it meant he had to face the fires of heaven in your place.
God's holiness is not just about burning judgement. Its also about burning love.
He has faced judgement for you, so that his holiness may be your delight rather than your death.
His perfection, his kingdom, his righteousness can now be your power, your song, your joy, your mission in life.
Do you linger in the darkness - or do you run to his light, confessing sin, casting your trust upon him, forsaking everything so that he might wash you clean and make you new?
Do you marvel at the power of his love?
Do you delight in his holiness?