The Just God
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Today is one of the most famous sections in Scripture concerning the judgment of God.
Today is one of the most famous sections in Scripture concerning the judgment of God.
Within Genesis so far we have seen 2 examples of God’s judgment for sin.
The first came after the first sin.
Adam sinned, and when he sinned sin came into the world.
God’s judgment was that man now would face death.
A certain bit of vanity came with the human experience, because no matter what we do, how great we are, or how small we are … we all die.
It’s God’s judgment.
Then a few chapters later, the 2nd example of God’s justice came, the Flood.
Sin had infected mankind so much, that every thought of man was wicked from his youth.
God then sent a global flood upon the earth, and all mankind except for one family was destroyed in a flood.
And today we come to God’s 3rd demonstration of his judgment against sin in Genesis.
We come to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
I’m not going to read the passages out loud for us ahead of time.
It’s a big chunk of Scripture, I’ll let you do it with your families when you get home.
We will be covering the text of .
So feel free to open up to and follow along as we look at the text.
(NASB95)
6 Its rising is from one end of the heavens, And its circuit to the other end of them; And there is nothing hidden from its heat.
Our first point of the sermon is God’s careful justice
Our first point of the sermon is God’s careful justice
The first half of , has God visiting Abraham and Sarah, and telling them that they can be expecting a child in the next year, and they are to name him Isaac.
The second half of the chapter is a conversation with God and Abraham.
God informs Abraham about a coming destruction upon Sodom and Gomorrah.
And what’s Abraham’s thought?
What about Lot?
Lot was his nephew who left his homeland with him.
Lot grew rich being around Abraham.
In fact he grew so rich that they had to split up.
The last time we saw Lot, he was in Sodom and Gomorrah.
It’s never been a good place.
And Lot’s experience there hasn’t been so great.
It looked nice on the outside, but inside it was full of wickedness.
Back in , it was described as a place with great sinners against the Lord ().
You may remember, in chapter 14, Lot was even kidnapped from Sodom.
And yet, he never left.
But by now, God’s had it with Sodom and Gomorrah.
He says that there is an outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah.
The outcry is that God sees sin.
Just as Abel’s blood cried out to God from the ground after Cain murdered him.
The sin of Sodom cried out to God.
He couldn’t ignore it.
So He was going to destroy it.
But there’s Abraham, beside himself.
If Sodom is destroyed, then what’s going to happen to Lot.
, calls Lot a righteous man.
Abraham doesn’t want to see his nephew killed.
So he begins exploring the grace of God.
He asks the question if God would spare an entire city if there were righteous people in it <cough, cough> Lot.
What if Lot is in the town that God is going to judge?
Abraham then begins a conversation with God about his justice.
Would God allow the righteous to suffer the same punishment as the unrighteous?
Abraham asks, suppose there were 50 righteous people in Sodom, would He still destroy the town.
Basically, is God willing to kill the righteous, in order to destroy the wicked.
Abraham asks, suppose there were 50 righteous people in Sodom, would He still destroy Sodom.
And God says no.
Then Abraham says, what if there were 45 righteous people in Sodom, would He still destroy it?
God says no.
What if there were 40 - God says no.
What if there were 20 - God says no.
What if there were 10 righteous people in Sodom - and again God says no.
God makes it very clear, He will remain just in His violent justice.
He will not wrongly accuse the righteous.
The second point of is that God rescues from His justice.
The second point of is that God rescues from His justice.
Two of the angels that were with God, go down into Sodom in the evening.
God rescues from sin
God rescues from sin
Lot’s at the entrance of the town.
He doesn’t know these are angels, they look just like men.
They are planning on spending the night in the town square.
Lot doesn’t know the men, but he knows his town.
He knows where you should and shouldn’t go.
Just like here.
I wouldn’t recommend you go down into the creek across the street from the church.
And I’d never recommend you spend the night there.
Just as we know places you shouldn’t go in Murrieta and Temecula, Lot knew you shouldn’t spend the night anywhere outside in Sodom.
He pressed these men to come into his home.
Not merely to be a host, but to protect them.
They were visitors to the town.
He’s thinking maybe they made a wrong turn.
They’re unfamiliar with the type of people who live there.
He brings them into his house, feeds them, and offers them protection.
Then the bad stuff happens.
They are about to go to sleep for the night, and Sodom awoke.
In , it says that the men of the city surrounded the house.
It doesn’t say some of the men.
It doesn’t say the old men.
It doesn’t say the middle aged men.
It doesn’t say the young men.
It says, “both young and old, all the people to the last man” surrounded the house.
They tell Lot to bring the two angels outside so that they may know them.
When it says they want to know them, they aren’t implying that they are the town welcoming committee and they’d like to give them a basket with homemade cookies.
They aren’t the TSA, or Border Patrol, wanting to know what type of immigrants are entering the town.
When the word know is used here, it’s a very … intimate know.
It’s a sexual know.
The NIV pulls know punches when it translates verse 5.
“Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
That’s what it means by the word know.
This isn’t the first time that this has happened in Sodom either.
Remember, they have a record of great evil, of great sin.
Judgment was already coming to Sodom, that’s why the angels were there in the first place.
What we read about here in is just one of many occurences of grave sin.
, is a chapter that describes sexual sin.
One of the reasons why God was bringing His judgment upon the people in the land was because of their rampant homosexuality.
In , it’s called an abomination.
says, “But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.”
26 But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you 27 (for the people of the land, who were before you, did all of these abominations, so that the land became unclean), 28 lest the land vomit you out when you make it unclean, as it vomited out the nation that was before you.”
What you see in and 19 was the behavior of the people there, and God was bringing judgment because of it.
The men of the town demand that the angels be brought outside, but Lot refuses.
He goes outside and tries to reason with them.
But the people will not be bargained with or reasoned with.
They are set on sin.
The angels pull Lot back into the house.
Yet the people of the town were dead set on their sin.
They actually started trying to break the door down.
The angels then intervene by making the men of the town blind.
Yet they are still set on sin.
The men of the town, both young and old, continue to beat at the door of the house.
It says they wore themselves out groping for the door.
God’s justice is always true and honest.
He punishes sin because He is just.
He punishes sin because He is a good judge.
In some sense because He’s good, and because He’s just, He’s bound to judge sin.
Failure to judge sin would contradict Himself.
says, “Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
These things were present in Sodom and Gomorrah; therefore, God was obligated by His own character to execute justice.
But the kindness of God, the mercy of God is that though His justice demands He punish the lawbreaker, He also rescues people from His justice.
We’ve seen this in His other demonstrations of judgment.
Adam and Eve didn’t die the day they sinned.
They continued to live.
In fact they were promised children.
Mankind’s thoughts were wicked from their youth, yet Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and he and his family were spared the judgment of God when the waters were unleashed.
And now, God is going to rescue Lot and his family.
It’s a strange thing, you’d think that this is good news.
God’s about to unleash fire and brimstone from the sky.
He’s about to burn a town to the ground.
And these angels are there to rescue them.
They’ve already demonstrated supernatural power by blinding the men of the town.
And when the angels warned Lot’s daughters’ fiancees … they thought it was a joke.
It’s a strange thing that God’s justice is often seen to be a joke.
When people think of Hell, they think of fiery caves, where Satan’s dressed in a leotard, with a pitchfork.
But Hell is no joke.
And if it’s not seen as a joke, it’s seen as unbelievable.
“There’s no way God could actually send people to Hell.”
Or after going through the Law with people, sometimes their response is, “Well, if that’s true then everyone deserves Hell.”
And I say, “You’re right.”
Even among Christians we sometimes have a glimpse of this.
We know there is a Hell.
We know there is a justice of God.
But what do we do about it?
How does it affect us?
When you think of your unsaved friends, when you think about your unsaved family, what goes through your mind?
Right now, I’d like every person in here to think of an unsaved friend or family member.
Picture his or her face in your head.
God’s justice is coming, His wrath is on the horizon, and what do you think about it? What’s coming to your loved one?
What have you done about it?
You see, you’ve known about His wrath, but you’ve probably not done a whole lot about it.
Your lack of action is probably more like Lot’s daughters fiancees who thought it was a joke.
You see, Lot’s family was a lot like us.
We’ve got the Word of God that tells us His wrath is coming.
Lot’s family had two angels in their home, that said the same thing.
Then when we get to it says the morning was dawning.
God’s wrath is coming.
It’s on the horizon.
Like the sun peaking over the horizon on the East in the early morning.
His wrath was near.
What do they do?
They wait till the morning.
As if they had time to spare?
As if Sodom and Gomorrah has tomorrow.
Don’t we do that with our unsaved friends?
We live as if there’s always tomorrow.
Why aren’t we more aggressive with the Gospel?
Is it because we think we have time to spare?
You know I can make all sorts of jokes about how they waited till morning … but I can’t.
It’d be too hypocritical.
Because how many mornings have come and gone with us having unsaved friends who we’ve not warned?
They waited one morning.
I’ve waited years.
But God rescues sinners.
We may be lackadaisical, but God’s mercy is active.
The text says that the angels seized the daughters by the hand, and dragged them out of the house.
If you only knew how true that illustration is.
In , Jesus says, “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.”
That word for draw can also be translated drag.
Do you see the picture being painted here.
Jesus says come to me.
And yet, we have this inability to do it on our own.
The evangelist sometimes says that we are like the person who fell off a boat, drowning in the ocean, and a life ring has been thrown out into the waters.
All we need to do is grab that life ring.
But Jesus says something different.
Eph
We need to be rescued.
We are dead in the water.
says we are dead in our trespasses.
We can’t grab the life ring, we need Him to grab us and pull us to safety.
When it comes to salvation, we aren’t dragged kicking and screaming.
We receive a new heart.
The Lord circumcises our heart and causes us to love him.
And so we are dragged, but joyfully.
The Christian life is us being dragged into sanctification and singing, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.”
God actively rescues from His justice.
And if you’ve been born again, then you know that to be true.
Because it’s happened to you.
Lot and his family escape God’s judgment upon sin.
Lot and his family escape God’s judgment upon sin.
It says that sulfur and fire fell on the earth.
The land went up in fire and smoke.
How did it happen?
I don’t know.
Some think God might have caused a volcano to erupt and spew fire on the town.
Personally, God doesn’t need volcanos to produce fire.
He created all of creation without the aid of anything, so I’m pretty sure He can rain fire without tools.
But judgment is real.
Unfortunately, we live in a world where we want things to be proven before we react to it.
says, “And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,”
In , Jesus tells a story of 2 men, one a rich man, and a poor beggar named Lazarus.
The rich man is in Hades.
it’s an awful place.
He looks across the chasm, and sees the beggar Lazarus and in a strange course of events, now begs the beggar for just a drop of water to cool his tongue.
Sadly, for the rich man, there’s no crossing the chasm, nor is there a drop of water for his tongue.
When the water didn’t come, it was as if the temperature in Hades was turned up 20 degrees, it got worse.
He then begged that someone go to his brothers and warn them of the torment.
No one believes God’s judgment … until it’s too late.
Steve Martin, used to be a stand up comedian, and in his Wild And Crazy Guy stand up routine, he jokingly talked about what if it’s all true.
He said, imagine if you die and it turns out there is a judgment, and there is a Hell.
And everyone laughed.
He made it a joke, unfortunately, it’s too real of a joke.
He said, imagine if you die and it turns out there is a judgment, and there is a Hell.
There is a judgment.
It’s real
And it’s coming upon the sinner.
By the way, the reason why Christian doesn’t fear the judgment of God, is because Jesus received the judgment for us.
God never cancelled His judgment or the punishment.
It was still given, only instead of going onto the believer, it is given to Jesus.
The love of God is demonstrated by sending Jesus to die for the sinner.
And so, God never compromises His justice at the expense of His love and forgiveness.
The believer of all people should know the reality of God’s judgment, because our hope is that God’s judgment was accomplished on the Cross.
The final thing is that to be rescued from judgment still means we need to flee from sin.
The final thing is that to be rescued from judgment still means we need to flee from sin.
As the angels were dragging Lot and his family out of Sodom, they were told, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.”
Those words, escape for your life, that’s while having an angel with his hand upon your wrist, dragging you out of the town.
Lot and his family couldn’t remain in the town, they couldn’t keep a summer house there, or a self-storage unit, they needed to bail completely.
The Christian life isn’t like a diet that you cheat on.
Whenever someone goes on a diet, there’s always that one day, or that one food that you cheat on, that you sneak.
Maybe Sundays you decide you’ll cheat and eat like you used too.
Maybe you say you’ll follow a strict diet, as long as chocolate isn’t involved.
It’s not like that with sin.
God never says stop sinning, but I’ll give you one day you can sin all you want, or there is one little sin you can cheat on Him with.
We must develop a hatred of sin.
We must understand that in God’s eyes, any sin is a violation of His law.
Any sin, is a scar on your soul.
And so we distance ourselves from sin.
Paul never told Timothy, sin a little.
Paul never told Timothy, “You’re young and dumb, you gotta have a little fun, you need to have a past so you can have a cool testimony. So live a little.”
He used language similar to Lot’s family’s exodus from Sodom.
he said, “So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
He doesn’t say live like you’re young or in college.
He says “flee youthful passions”.
Never see how close you can get to sin, but run from it.
Flee.
Not only are we to run from sin, but we are to leave that life behind us.
They were told to escape the wrath, and to not look back.
Near the end of chapter 19, you probably know what happens, Lot’s wife looked back.
Immediately, she became a pillar of salt.
There was a while where I lived in an apartment with my dad.
It’s difficult.
My dad liked to save every bit of mail he ever received.
He saved every expired coupon.
It’s hard to stay balanced like that.
They were in piles throughout the apartment.
Most of the time they had expired at least a year earlier.
They were in piles throughout the apartment.
You lean too far towards one direction and the teeter totter falls.
They had expired at least a year earlier.
I remember one time throwing the expired fast food coupons away, and I got in trouble.
If you lean the other way it falls there.
I told my dad that they were expired.
As Christians we are not living a life of balance like that.
You know what my dad told me?
He said they might still be useful.
Instead, we flee our old life and never look back.
He couldn’t let go of them.
They were useless, but he still held onto them.
They had expired, they weren’t useful, we were saving something that was worthless.
We do that with our sin.
What is your sin good for?
Romans says the wages of sin is Hell.
Like the coupons my dad saved, our sin is of no benefit.
All this to say, remember the worth of your sins, they need to be let go of and fled from.
Jesus referred to this passage in , “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.”
This is a strong warning.
Let go of your sin.
If you are a believer, if you’ve been born again, if Jesus died for those sins, then why hold on to them.
Its mocks the cross.
Its mocks His death.
Think of Christ’s agony on the cross … it was because of those sins that He died.
As we bring our time to a close may we remember:
As we bring our time to a close may we remember:
God takes his justice seriously.
And we celebrate the effective mercy of God in that He drags His elect to faith.
The justice of God is real, but for the Christian we trust in Jesus having received His wrath on our behalf, making us justified.
And having been dragged to safety, we let go of our sin and we flee from it knowing that our sin is deadly.