Fire from Heaven: God Destroys Sodom and Gomorrah, Part 2

Introduction

If God has a small wrath against sin, then you need only a small salvation. If your sin was a minor thing, then you need only a minor Savior. If Judgment Day is a light thing, then you do not need much righteousness to survive it. If God constantly changes, then Genesis 19 has nothing to say to us today. But if God never changes — if He is the same yesterday, today and forever — then Genesis 19 speaks to us today. Genesis 19 tells us that God has a great wrath against sin; therefore we need a great salvation. Our sin is a great matter in His sight; therefore we need a great Savior. The righteousness needed to survive Judgment Day is a great and perfect righteousness; therefore, we need Christ.

I have pulled out seven timeless lessons from this passage, though there are many more,. We looked last week at the first one.

Characters and Plot

This narrative, which changed the course of human history, unfolded in eight acts, forever removing two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah, and smaller cities in the whole region, turning it into a salty desert wasteland, a land of death rather than a land of life.

In act one, verses 1-3, the angels arrived, and Lot extended his hospitality to them.

In act two, verses 4-11, the Sodomites attacked and Lot sought to protect the guests who had come into his home, but he failed to do it. Rather, it was the angels that protected him by striking these evil people with blindness and preventing them from finding the door they were seeking to invade.

In act three, verses 12-14, Lot tried but failed to rescue his extended family. They thought he was mocking and joking. He had no weight, no moral authority with them. They blew him off. We saw also that Lot was lingering in Sodom, not wanting to leave.

In act four, verses 15-17, the angel strongly rescued Lot, his wife, and his daughters from Sodom, from certain destruction.

In act five, verses 18-22, the angels graciously allowed Lot to stay in Zoar, a small city on the way. God also graciously spared the city of Zoar because one righteous man was in it.

In act six, verses 23-26, finally the wrath of God poured down from Heaven above on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, destroying them forever. Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salt because she turned and looked back and lingered and disobeyed the angel’s command to flee.

In act seven, verses 27-28, Abraham beheld the destruction the next day and the smoke rising from the plain like a densely boiling furnace, a pillar of smoke of destruction.

In act eight, verse 28, Abraham saw the destruction but he could not see Lot’s rescue, his salvation, in Zoar.

Next week, in the epilogue, we will see Lot and his daughters in the cave, the end to a sordid descent for Lot.

III. Seven Timeless Lessons

The Holiness and Wrath of God

We began to look last week at seven timeless lessons. The first lesson that I emphasized by itself is that God has a passion against evil. Our God is a passionate being. He has a great wrath against sin, and He has not changed at all. God has an anger against every sin. God’s wrath against Sodom and Gomorrah is meant to be put on display for all time, so we can see that this is the kind of God that He is. Scripture reveals that we would not know if it had not told us and if we did not know what to look for. Scripture tells us that God reveals His wrath in some display every day.

Romans 1:18 says, “The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” God is pouring out his wrath in some hidden way every day. But Sodom and Gomorrah was different because it was not a hidden pouring out of the wrath of God. It was an open display of God’s holiness. “Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong.” [Habakkuk 1:13] He had tolerated Sodom and Gomorrah long enough. But we saw also last week how this great, fearsome wrath of God was metaphorically put into a cup and handed to Christ to drink, and how Jesus drank it to the bottom at the cross.

Hallelujah! What a Savior, that He drank in, spiritually speaking, fire and brimstone for you and me so that we could go to Heaven and not Hell. You will have a light appraisal of what Jesus did for you if you have a light appraisal of the wrath of God. The more you feel in your heart that you deserve what the Sodomites got in Genesis 19, the more grateful you will be to Jesus for drinking your cup for you, the more joyful you will be, the less you will complain about the circumstances of your life, the gladder you will sing hymns and praise songs to him. If you feel the weight of your own guilt, and the burden of God’s wrath which hung over you apart from Christ, and then you realize that Jesus stood in between you and the wrath, and drank it completely, what joy is yours and what great salvation. But if you have not trusted in Christ, then all of that wrath still remains on you — all the wrath for what you have done, for the sins that you have committed.

The Perversion of Homosexuality

The second lesson has to do with Sodom’s open sinfulness, recorded in Genesis 19, mainly related to sexual perversion, namely homosexuality. The last year in America, this issue has really forced itself upon us. The activist mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom, took it upon himself, contrary to the laws of the state, to issue 2000 marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He was lauded as a courageous hero by some, the same people who wonder why the present Attorney General does not uphold the law of the land on abortion. This law of the land was openly flouted and those marriages were permitted in San Francisco. Not long after that, on May 17th, 2004, with a court order, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts became the first state to authorize same-sex marriage. This is all part of a vast plot originating from the mind of the devil, but also intelligently advanced by people to change the way we think about homosexuality. The agenda here is not merely tolerance, not merely acceptance, but rather a celebration of what the Bible calls perversion. We are to celebrate it, and if we do not, we are labeled homophobes or narrow-minded bigots or other names.

This is a great concern. There is a group called Gays and Lesbians in Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), whose stated strategy is to be positive and cheerful. They actively seek to train media outlets — news stations, for example — on how to handle stories about gay people. Realizing that the strange behavior and bizarre clothing worn by people at Gay Pride parades is not the image they want to project, they urge local media stations to do special interest stories on gay people. Getting dressed, going to work, shopping, everyday life, to normalize what the Bible presents here in Genesis 19 as shocking and evil. TV programs, movies, songs, popular culture controlled by the media elite in Hollywood and others seek to brainwash us to think differently than what the Bible says.

My first concern is that those who are caught up in this lifestyle may think that it is actually something good, something to be celebrated, and as a result, will not turn to Christ, will not trust in Him, will not believe in Him, will not repent. Therefore, they will stand under the wrath of God that all sinners stand under if they do not turn to Christ and repent. There may even be somebody here in the sanctuary today who thinks it is alright, who has accepted the agenda, the brainwashing message, and therefore will never flee to Christ, and therefore will spend eternity in Hell, apart from God.

My second concern is that both those individuals and people in the church will think of homosexuality as an unforgivable sin or something from which one can never be transformed, that it is permanent, built into your genes, there is nothing one can do. That is false as well. I would rather you embrace Jesus Christ and the transforming power of the Gospel and realize the very same Gospel that saved you can save somebody out of that lifestyle.

My third concern goes to the nature of what the human heart does with conviction. Whenever we read a story like this, we seek a way of escape where we are not standing under it. It is easy, in Genesis 19, if you do not struggle with the sin of homosexuality, to think it does not apply to you, that the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah do not say anything to you at all. I found a single verse in Ezekiel which changed forever the way I looked at Genesis 19. Do not misunderstand — it is clear from the way Moses wrote Genesis 19 that he intends to connect the homosexual perversion of the Sodomites to the judgment that comes, but it was bigger and broader than that. Ezekiel 16:49 says, “Now, this was the sin of your sister, Sodom, and of her daughters. They were arrogant, overfed, unconcerned and did nothing for the poor and needy.” It is about so much more than homosexuality.

I come to deal with the text and the entire account biblically, to try and understand everything that is here. But the first lesson that we need to draw out today after the lesson we learned last week is that there was an open sin of homosexuality in this account in Genesis 19. Some people, apologists for that way of life who somehow try to use the Bible to support their lifestyle, question whether Genesis 19 has anything to do with homosexuality at all.

The NIV typically tries to explain what the text means rather than just simply translating it in this case. But the ESV has done a good job stating what it simply says: “And they called to Lot, ‘Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.’” (ESV Genesis 19:5) That is all it says. I saw this on a website that unfolded this whole way of thinking, saying that the residents of Sodom simply wanted to be hospitable and friendly, and Lot was hoarding them all to himself. It is amazing to me that this is what people do with Scripture. They say, “OK, you want to be literal, that is literally what it says, ‘Bring them out to us that we may know them.’” They will even go so far as to say that God brings down terrible wrath and judgment on people who will not accept those who are different than themselves, who are afraid of them or ignorant or bigoted or biased. They are setting the table then, for the wrath to fall down on homophobia rather than on homosexuality. They turn the whole thing around.

But that does not make any sense. Is the issue in Genesis 19 failed hospitality? Does that not pervert the way you would read any text? The Bible is using a euphemism. It is a common Hebrew word, “To know.” But it says very plainly in Genesis 4, “Now Adam knew Eve his wife and she conceived and bore Cain…” They were not simply getting to know each other, out on a date night. They had marital relations, and as a result, Cain was conceived. Even plainer, verse 8 says that Lot brought out his daughters and said, “Here, you can have them. They have never known a man.” It uses the exact same Hebrew word right in the text.

But if that is not convincing enough, the despicable, wretched parallel account in Judges 19. This happened in Israel. Judges 19:22, 25 says, “As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, ‘Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.’ … But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.” That is not about hospitality. It is about great perversion and wickedness, and it is clearly meant to be a parallel. In those days, Israel had no king and everyone did what was right in their own eyes, and they ended up just like Sodom. The clincher is in Jude 7 (ESV): “…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.” Literally, the Greek in Jude 7 is, “To go away after other flesh.” The context is one of great judgment and the rejection of God.

But we do not need all these, you need only the simple biblical teaching on these issues, the very straightforward statements that God makes in other places. For example, Leviticus 18:22 says, “Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.” It can be no plainer than that. Leviticus 20:13 says, “If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.” Romans 1:26-27 says, “Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.”

Scripture cannot be twisted to make homosexuality righteous. It is not. It is a great sin. It is portrayed in the middle of Romans 1 as the great example of the way humans pervert what God has ordained, to say, “No, we will do what we want. We are kings, we are queens of our own lives.” That is a great example of the attitude of sin that is in all of our hearts, taken out to that degree. These activists try to find establishment for their lifestyle by twisting Scripture.

I would urge them to do something different — the way out is found in Scripture through repentance and faith in Jesus Christ. Not one of us did not need saving. Not one did not need to have the heart of stone taken out and a heart of flesh given. Not one did not need the Scripture, the law of God, written on our hearts, the indwelling Spirit to help us live that righteous life. Not one did not need Jesus to drink the cup of God’s wrath on our behalf. Not one. But the answer is not to deny sin, to say it is not sin, to say that the Bible calls it righteous — not at all.

1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says, “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: [Do not buy into the propaganda going out today]; 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 [if that is what you are, you will not go to Heaven]. And such were some of you [Conversion transforms sinners and makes them righteous — “If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) There is great power for transformation]. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.”

God has power to transform sinners and make them righteous. He has power to give them a great and comprehensive salvation, to take away everything sin has done — the corruption of the mind and heart, the standing before God under His wrath, the fact that there is no righteousness with which to survive Judgment Day, the things that sin does to the body, the things it has done to the world around us — salvation in Christ can transform all of that and make it perfect. That is the way out, not by twisting scripture.

The Danger of Prosperity, Leisure, and Unconcern

That is Sodom’s open sin, but then there was the other sin. 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.” Arrogant and over-fed literally means too much bread in Hebrew. They were unconcerned, and did not help the poor and needy. That has been a convicting passage for me. This passage screams “America!” more than the sin of homosexuality does, although that is part of the problem as well. In Genesis 13:10, Lot saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered and lush like the garden of God. The ancient irrigation systems resulted in bumper crops year after year, resulting in an abundance of food. With the trade routes passing through, the people became materially prosperous, with plenty of food and plenty of everything the world had to offer.

As a result, they became lazy, indolent, and complacent. Their hearts grew hard. They were looking for the next big thrill, because that kind of life leaves you numb. They found it in sexual ways, but they also found it in other ways. The back side of that is that their hearts were hard and callous toward the needy. They never thought that the abundance they had was meant to supply others who had need, never been meant to be kept and hoarded. They never thought they had enough. They were meant to be a conduit, a pipe of blessing to the poor and needy. The passage in Ezekiel says they did not think that way.

An ABC news report from December 8 said that nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight and almost one in three is obese, according to the Federal Government. Physical inactivity and being overweight account for more than 300,000 premature deaths annually in the US, second only to tobacco-related deaths. One preacher I heard said, “More people die with a fork in their hand than a knife in their back.” That is a testimony in reference to what is going on in America today. The Center for Disease Control reports indicate that diabetes increased by 33% among American adults during the 1990s, reflecting a surge of obesity during that same period. Juvenile diabetes is on the rise. More youngsters are overweight.

The residents of Sodom were also arrogant, prideful, boastful. “Surely we are the people and wisdom will die with us. Surely, it is because we are so good at farming that we are so wealthy.” There is an arrogance there. I see it in our country too. God hates arrogance wherever he finds it. I hate the word pride; rather, let him who boasts, boast in the Lord. Let us boast in the Lord, not in ourselves. We see arrogance and pride, and we call ourselves the greatest nation on earth. Alexis de Tocqueville, a French political philosopher who lived 200 years ago, reflected on his travels through America: “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world of commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.” That is appropriate when you look at what was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. It is not in the wealth and prosperity that the greatness of a nation lies.

It also says that the residents of Sodom were unconcerned. The ESV says they had prosperous ease. There is an old familiar saying that idle hands are the devil’s workshop. When you have plenty of time, you get into trouble, but the Lord meant for us to be busy about the work of the Kingdom; there is no room for idleness. America also has a common unconcern, a prosperous ease, a luxurious comfort, making our hearts unresponsive to the goads of conscience and to the word of the Lord. As a result of all of their unconcern, the people of Sodom did nothing for the poor and needy, unresponsive to their cries.

Randy Alcorn of Eternal Perspectives Ministry said, “If you have enough food, decent clothes, live in a home that shields you from the weather and own some kind of reliable transportation, you are in the top 15 percent of the world’s wealthy. Add some savings, a hobby like hunting or fishing that requires equipment, two cars (in any condition), a variety of clothing and your own house, and you have reached the top five percent” in the world in terms of wealth. You may not feel wealthy, but that is only because you are comparing yourself to someone else who has more than you do.

To get a better handle on this reality, consider that more than 1.1 billion people in the world live on less than the equivalent of $1 US per day. 500 million people are hungry, and another 500 million people are so poor that they do not get enough food to be fully productive. Every day, nearly 75,000 people, most of them children, die because of dirty drinking water, disease or malnutrition.

These statistics will give you an idea of what the church could do about it. In the year 2000, American evangelical Christians collectively made $2.66 trillion in income. Over the next 50 years, statistics show that between $41 trillion and $136 trillion will pass from older Americans to younger Americans, suggesting that roughly $1 to $3 trillion a year in wealth changes hands. The average donation by adults who attend US Protestant churches is about $17 per week. Read that again.

Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations or their historical antecedents in the United States and Canada per member giving as a percentage of income was lower in the year 2000 than either in 1921 or 1933. In 1921, per member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9%. In 1933 at the depth of the Great Depression, per member giving grew to 3.3%, but by 2000, after a half century of unprecedented prosperity, giving had fallen to 2.6%. Isn’t that incredible? It is as though the more prosperous, the less is given percentage-wise.

Overall, only 3-5% of Americans who donate money to a church actually tithe, or give a 10th of their incomes, though many more claim to do so. 33% of US born again Christians say it is impossible for them to get ahead in life because of financial debt — credit card and other — that they have incurred. If members of historically Christian churches in the United States had raised their giving to the Old Testament minimum standard of giving the tithe, 10%, in 2000, an additional $139 billion would have become available per year. 80% of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America, right where we live. The total represents more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission.

I find that convicting. Honestly, I find it shattering. This was the sin of Sodom and her sisters. They were arrogant, over-fed, unconcerned, and did nothing for the poor and needy. Let that not be said of you, and if you fear that it might rightly be said of you, repent and say, “Lord, from this point forward, I want to live differently. I do not want to be like that. I want to live for Your kingdom and for your glory, not for myself.”

The Degeneration of Godliness Immersed in Wickedness

The fourth lesson comes from Lot’s dreadful descent, which I will talk about next week. I will say this though — Lot did not understand what was happening in his heart. He did not realize how little by little he was being corrupted by Sodom and Gomorrah. As a result, he descended to a level he probably never could have imagined he would get to. He did not see the hardening happening in his heart. Week by week, month by month, year by year.

But Lot was called righteous elsewhere. 2 Peter 2:7-8, which talks about Lot, is one of the more surprising passages, if you know anything about Old Testament history. If you read the story of Lot in Genesis 12-19, would you have concluded he’s a righteous man? Someone once said, “Could it be my whole life is only to serve as a warning for others?” It seems that is how it was for Lot. But the Bible calls him righteous.

Being Tormented by Lawlessness Saved Lot’s Life

2 Peter 2:7-8 “…and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men, (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard).” Peter called him righteous three times.

It is hard to believe, given how polluted we see him by the end of the account. What was the nature of his righteousness? It is that he was tormented in his soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard. He seemed powerless to change it and paralyzed to move out from it, but he was tormented by it within. He hated where he was living. These are strong words — tormented means distressed or oppressed, like a form of slavery with a wicked master. He was tormented like the paralyzed man that Jesus healed in Matthew 8. He was tormented like the demons of the Gadarenes who were afraid to be thrown into the pit lest they be tormented before the appointed time — same Greek word. He was tormented like the boat that was tossed to and fro in the waves when Jesus stilled the storm. He was ripped apart by what he saw in Sodom and Gomorrah. Why is this important? You may feel powerless to do anything about America, paralyzed to move in any way, but the question is, what is going on inside you? Are you tormented by what you see, does it bother you?

The account indicates that it was solely this attitude that saved Lot’s life, the fact that it deeply bothered him the way Sodom and Gomorrah was. Ezekiel 9 gives a parallel account. This is a time when Jerusalem was corrupted, when there was great wickedness, and God sent Ezekiel, the prophet, to speak to the people. He took Ezekiel on a tour in the Spirit of the underbelly of life in Jerusalem; He showed him all of the wickedness. In Ezekiel 9:4-6, three angels stood before God, one with a writing kit by his side. God commands the angel, “‘Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.’ As I listened, he said to the others, ‘Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.’” They began with the elders who were in front of the temple. In other words, those who were grieving and lamenting would survive, but those who did not would be destroyed.

At that moment Ezekiel fell down and said, “Oh Lord, will you really destroy all the remnants of Israel?” He interceded. The account ends in Ezekiel 9 with the first angel, the one with the writing kit, coming back to report that God’s command had been accomplished. It may not have taken long to mark everyone in Jerusalem who grieved and lamented over the things that were going on. It took the other two angels longer to do their work; they did not come back in Ezekiel 9. You may feel paralyzed and powerless to do anything about America. But at least this much is so — if you are a believer in Christ, you should grieve and lament over wickedness, beginning with your own, saying, “Lord, transform me and make me like Jesus Christ.”

God’s Merciful Display in Rescuing the Godly

The sixth lesson is that God knows how to rescue people from the city of destruction. Verse 16 says,“When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.”

Do you realize how much you depend on God doing this for you? You get yourself into trouble with sinful habits and thought patterns and behaviors that are not good, and the Lord through His grace, by the indwelling Spirit, or by a brother or sister in Christ, or perhaps even by an angel, grabs you by the hand and says, “Oh no, you’re not going that direction” and gets you out of trouble. Lot did not want to go. He wanted to stay right where he was. The angel was in effect saying, “You will thank me in the morning. Let’s go!” Praise God for that. So Lot fled. How sweet is the grace of God to reach down into your life with his powerful hands and say, “No, you will not do that anymore.” He will frustrate your sin nature, and He will sanctify you and give you new desires and move you in a different direction, for he knows how to rescue the righteous from the day of destruction. He knows how to get you through this world, this Vanity Fair.

Loving Life Means Losing It

The seventh lesson is Jesus’ whole application of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. Three words: Remember Lot’s wife. She did not want to leave. She lingered, she disobeyed, she turned back. And she was turned into a pillar of salt. The full of context to Jesus’ statement is Luke 17:32-33: “Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.” If you are willing to take up your cross daily and follow Jesus, you will save your life. If, on the other hand, you do not want any part of that — the Christian life is too hard, you have no interest in following Jesus, the gate is too narrow, the road is too straight — then you will lose your life. Remember Lot’s wife. Do not become enamored with your earthly life. Give it up. Give up the money, give up the ease, give up the comfort, give up anything that makes us like Sodom.

Application

Flee to Christ. Christ is better than Zoar. He is better than the two angels that were sent to rescue Lot and his family. Christ is the incarnate Son of God who came down to take hold of you and never let you go until he is done saving you. He said, “I have come down from heaven not to do my own will, but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and has eternal life, everyone who looks to the Son has eternal life and will not be destroyed. I will raise them up at the last day.” Trust in Christ. If you wrestle or struggle secretly with the sin of homosexuality, Jesus has the power to deliver you, he has the power to rescue you. He has done it to other brothers and sisters, he can do it to you.

Even if you do not struggle from that sin but you struggle from the four that are listed in his Ezekiel 16:49 — “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.” — he has the power to deliver you from that too. Trust in him.

Second, remember Lot’s wife. Be suspicious of the corrupting power of the world around us. It is working on us all the time. Get brothers and sisters to pray for you to be accountable to them. Be part of a good, healthy church. Fight sin at every turn in the road. Confess sin to God frequently. Read His Word, saturate your mind with it, lest you be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

Third, I’m gonna speak quite directly to the members of First Baptist Church. At the present time, we do not have an organized inner city ministry. We have people who have done things, but some of the leaders in our church are not able to continue that ministry. We have no leadership for reaching out to Northeast Central Durham to the poorest people in this area. That cannot stay the same. We cannot have no ministry to the inner city. I know there are people who are listening to me today who want to serve and reach out to poor people in this community.

If you want to help us, we have opportunities. We have a tutoring ministry that is non-existent right now. It has been fruitful up to this point, but we need laborers. Even more than that, we need leaders who will organize this ministry of bringing in inner city kids for tutoring. This is a great opportunity to build relationships and lead folks to Christ. We have the opportunity, with Child Evangelism Fellowship, won for us in the Supreme Court of the United States, to go into the public schools after hours to conduct Bible clubs for kids who have never heard the name of Jesus. Trust me, there are many in the inner city who have never heard of Jesus. We have the opportunity, but we need 10 to 15 laborers at least for each club. We have other inner city opportunities.

If you are interested in doing this, meet with me and the other pastors in the parlor after the service. We will take down your name and your information. It could be anything from some smaller ministry to a larger one. This is an opportunity for you, a chance for you to serve the Lord. If you are called to other ministries, do not feel ashamed that you are not able to do those that I have mentioned. Serve in those other ways, but if you feel a calling to work in the inner city, please come and talk to the ministers at the end of the service.

These are only preliminary, unedited outlines and may differ from Andy’s final message.

Homosexual agenda in America today very aggressive

Desire:  not just tolerance, not just acceptance… they want America to CELEBRATE homosexuality

June 15, 2004:  President Bush refused to authorize a “Gay Pride Month”.  That proclamation would have enabled Gay Activists to use government monies to promote their lifestyle;  some groups have prepared a lawsuit on this question

GLAAD = Gays & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation… purposely chosen to be positive and cheerful;  GLAAD has actively sought to train media outlets (news stations, for example) on how to handle stories about gay people.  Realizing that the strange behavior and bizarre clothing worn by “Gay Pride Parade” marchers is not the image they want to show, instead advocate showing homosexual people in everyday life situations (making dinner, driving to work, playing sports), playing up the “human interest” angle so they are not seen as “fringe people” in society

ALL GEARED TO MAKING AMERICA EMBRACE AND CELEBRATE THIS LIFESTYLE

TV programs, movies, songs… popular culture controlled by the media elite in Hollywood and other places are seeking to brainwash Americans on this issue

HOWEVER, anyone who rejects this lifestyle is painted with the darkest colors possible:

Boy Scouts of America was reviled in popular magazines for their refusal to allow gay men to lead Boy Scout Troops.  Government agencies and community groups like United Way pulled their support funds from the Boy Scouts

Major recent issues  So-called “Gay marriage”, led by activist Mayor of San Francisco, Gavin Newsom… who issued 2000 marriage licenses for same-sex couples despite the fact that the “law of the land” rejected these so-called marriage

On May 17, 2004, due to a court order, the Commonwealth of Massachusetts became the first state to authorize same-sex marriage

Deepest concern:  That people will be deceived into thinking that this is not a sin to be judged, and they will not flee to Christ for salvation

Second deepest concern:  that the church will think that homosexuality is an unforgivable sin, that Christ cannot transform a person and make them a new creation

ALSO:  That the church will think that homosexual perversion was the only sin of Sodom and Gomorrah, or even the most prominent… Ezekiel the prophet told us otherwise

HOWEVER, It is vital to see the center of this text concerns God… His character, His wrath AND His ability to save even a single individual from destruction

I.  The Cast of Characters

A.  Lot:  Righteous but Polluted

B.  Lot’s Family:  Corrupted to the Core

C.  The Angels:  Holy, Disguised, and Powerful

D.  The Inhabitants of Sodom:  Violent and Perverted

II.  The Drama Unfolds in Eight Acts

A.  Act 1:  The Angels Arrive and Lot Extends Hospitality (vs. 1-3)

B.  Act 2:  The Sodomites Attack, Lot Fails, Angels Protect  (vs. 4-11)

C.  Act 3:  Lot Fails to Rescue His Family, Lingers in Sodom (vs. 12-14)

D.  Act 4:  Angels Strongly Rescue Lot, His Wife and Daughters (vs. 15-17)

E.  Act 5:  Angels Graciously Allow Lot to Stay in Zoar  (vs. 18-22)

F.  Act 6:  The Wrath of the Lord Destroys Sodom & Gomorrah, and Lot’s Wife  (vs. 23-26)

G.  Act 7:  Abraham Beholds the Destruction, But Not Lot’s Salvation (vs. 27-29)

H.  Act 8:  Epilogue:  Lot and His Daughters in the Cave (vs. 30-38)

III.  Seven Timeless Lessons

A.  God’s Fearsome Display in Sodom:  The Holiness and Wrath of God

1.  Display:  Sodom and Gomorrah were meant to be an example to the world

2.  Wrath of God:  Aggressive, initiative, devastating, inescapable

Romans 1:18 The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness

3.  Holiness:  God’s hatred of sin… He will have it out of His universe

Habakkuk 1:13 Your eyes are too pure to look on evil; you cannot tolerate wrong. Why then do you tolerate the treacherous?

4.  Amazing courage and love:  Christ drank the cup of God’s wrath

B.  Sodom’s Open Sin:  The Perversion of Homosexuality

1.  Some people question whether homosexuality is even an issue here

Pro-homosexual website:  In Genesis 19:5, the word was used to express the request of the people of Sodom that Lot should bring out the strangers in his house so that they could know who they were.  Sodom was a tiny fortress in the barren wasteland south of the Dead Sea.  The only strangers that the people of Sodom ever saw were enemy tribes who wanted to destroy and take over their valuable fortress and the trade routes that it protected.  Lot himself was an alien in their midst.

The story of Sodom clearly teaches that evil and violent people who attack aliens and strangers whom they do not know or understand receive God’s quick and terrible punishment. The purpose of the story is to show that misunderstood, strange, or feared minorities in any community are in danger from violence by the majority when that majority is ignorant, ungodly, selfish and afraid.

2.  They focus on the euphemism “know”

ESV Genesis 19:5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.”

They say the issue in Sodom and Gomorrah was bad hospitality… violence!  They say the word “know” NEVER means “have sexual relations with”… but they are WRONG

Homosexuality and the Western Christian Tradition, Dr. Sherwin Bailey argues that the Hebrew word translated “know” in this verse does not refer to sex at all. Instead, the request on the part of the townsmen to “know” the visitors was merely a request to become acquainted with Lot’s guests, especially since they were outsiders.

It makes no sense in the flow… if sexual relations were not on the minds of the men, why did Lot offer his two daughters who he says “have never known a man” (vs. 8)?  Clearly the issue is sexual

The word is used obviously in the wretched parallel passage in Judges

Judges 19:22 As they were making their hearts merry, behold, the men of the city, worthless fellows, surrounded the house, beating on the door. And they said to the old man, the master of the house, “Bring out the man who came into your house, that we may know him.”

Judges 19:25 But the men would not listen to him. So the man seized his concubine and made her go out to them. And they knew her and abused her all night until the morning. And as the dawn began to break, they let her go.

3.  Clincher:  Jude

ESV 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.

Literally Greek is “go away after different flesh” … clear the issue in Jude is that the people of Sodom did something sexual… since two words are used, and one of them is clearly sexual; Jude 7 says Sodom and Gomorrah were judged for pursuing strange or other flesh.  The Gay Rights folks who know about this passage say the word in this text is “hetero”, but the context is one of sin and of pursing something DIFFERENT, something other than God designed

4.  Bible is very clear about the perversion of homosexuality

Leviticus 18:22 “‘Do not lie with a man as one lies with a woman; that is detestable.

Leviticus 20:13 “‘If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable. They must be put to death; their blood will be on their own heads.

Romans 1:26-27  Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.

Though homosexual activist try to escape the force of these verses, they cannot.  They try to deal with the situation by twisting Scripture… Scripture itself points to a different way… the transforming power of the gospel of Jesus Christ

1 Corinthians 6:9-11   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, 10 nor thieves, nor the greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

God has power to transform and save sinners, including homosexual sinners, from their sins.  Through faith in Christ, wrath is averted and the very basic nature of sin is changed!!

C.  Sodom’s Other Sins:  The Danger of Prosperity, Leisure, and Unconcern

1.  People focus on homosexuality as if it were Sodom’s only sin

2.  FAR FROM IT!!!  The root issue was rebellion from God, egged on by prosperity and ease

3.  Sodom and Gomorrah were located in a lushly fertile plain, as Genesis 13 tells us

Genesis 13:10   Lot looked up and saw that the whole plain of the Jordan was well watered, like the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, toward Zoar. (This was before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah.)

4.  Ezekiel tells us the whole story

Ezekiel 16:49 “‘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.

1)  Arrogant

2)  Overfed

3)  Unconcerned

4)  Inactive toward the poor

This screams “America” more than homosexuality, although that is also part of the problem as well

Sodom and Gomorrah were located in a fertile, well-watered valley, and their crops were harvested successfully and lavishly every year.  America also sits on lush farmland—we may be located on the largest section of fertile soil on the entire earth

Sodom and Gomorrah was therefore overfed… rather than help the poor with their excess, they ate it themselves;  they grew fat and lazy.  America has an ever-increasing problem with obesity, with juvenile diabetes, with heart disease, and with other problems related to being overfed

ABC News report from December 8:  Nearly two-thirds of Americans are overweight and almost one in three Americans is obese, according to the federal government.

Physical inactivity and being overweight account for more than 300,000 premature deaths annually in the U.S., second only to tobacco-related deaths.

“As obesity rates continue to grow at epidemic proportions in this country, the net effect will be dramatic increases in related chronic health conditions such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease,” says Dr. Jeffrey Koplan of Mayo Clinic

Recent CDC reports indicate that diabetes increased by 33 percent among American adults during the 1990s, reflecting a surge in obesity during the same period.

They were also arrogant… prideful, boasting as though their wealth and prosperity were because of their own superiority.  So also we see arrogance and pride in America as well, the “greatest nation on earth”…

Alexis de Toqueville:

“I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers, and it was not there; in her fertile fields and boundless prairies, and it was not there; in her rich mines and her vast world of commerce, and it was not there. Not until I went to the churches of America and heard her pulpits aflame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, America will cease to be great.”

The residents of Sodom also were unconcerned… ESV says they had “prosperous ease”

Illus.  Old saying “Idle hands are the devils workshop”

The overwhelming prosperity of Sodom gave rise to all kinds of wickedness… also to luxury, ease, unconcern… their hearts were fat = unresponsive to the warnings of their consciences

So also America has a common unconcern, a prosperous ease, a luxurious comfort… it makes our hearts unresponsive to the goads of conscience and of the word of the Lord

Finally, they proved all of this by inactivity for the poor…. Their surplus should have been for the feeding of the poor and needy, but rather it went to themselves

They did not listen to the cries of the poor, but reached for another cake or lounged for another afternoon nap

So it is with the evangelical church in America today:

Randy Alcorn:

If you have enough food, decent clothes, live in a home that shields you from the weather and own some kind of reliable transportation, you are in the top 15 percent of the world’s wealthy. Add some savings, a hobby like hunting or fishing that requires equipment, two cars (in any condition), a variety of clothing and your own house, and you have reached the top five percent.

You may not feel wealthy. But that’s because you’re comparing yourself to someone who owns even more.

To get a better handle on reality, consider that more than 1.1 billion people in the world live on less than the equivalent of one U.S. dollar per day. Five hundred million people are hungry and another 500 million are so poor they don’t get enough food to be fully productive.

Though the proportion of the world’s hungry is slowly declining, population increases mean the number of hungry persons is the highest in history. Every day nearly 75,000 people, most of them children, die because of dirty drinking water, disease or malnutrition.

The Church’s Squandering of Resources

• More than 1 billion people live in absolute poverty. This includes 700 million people living in slums, 500 million people on the verge of starvation, 93 million beggars, and 200 million children exploited for labor.²³
• In 2000, American evangelicals collectively made $2.66 trillion in income.²³
• Over the next 50 years, between $41 trillion and $136 trillion will pass from older Americans to younger generations, suggesting that roughly $1 trillion to $3 trillion in wealth will change hands every year.¹⁰
• The average donation by adults who attend U.S. Protestant churches is about $17 a week.¹¹
• Among church members of 11 primary Protestant denominations (or their historical antecedents) in the United States and Canada, per-member giving as a percentage of income was lower in 2000 than in either 1921 or 1933. In 1921, per-member giving as a percentage of income was 2.9 percent. In 1933, at the depth of the Great Depression, per-member giving grew to 3.3 percent. By 2000, after a half-century of unprecedented prosperity, giving had fallen to 2.6 percent.¹²
• Overall, only 3 to 5 percent of Americans who donate money to a church tithe (give a tenth of) their incomes though many more claim to do so.¹³
• Thirty-three percent of U.S. born-again Christians say it is impossible for them to get ahead in life because of the financial debt they have incurred.¹⁴
• If members of historically Christian churches in the United States had raised their giving to the Old Testament’s minimum standard of giving (10 percent of income) in 2000, an additional $139 Billion a year would become available. ¹⁷
• Eighty percent of the world’s evangelical wealth is in North America—and the total represents way more than enough to fund the fulfillment of the Great Commission

[from generousgiving.org]

D.  Lot’s Dreadful Descent:  The Degeneration of Godliness Immersed in Wickedness

1 Corinthians 15:33 Do not be misled: “Bad company corrupts good character.”

1.  Lot’s slide is completed in this chapter

began by lusting after Sodom’s prosperity

continued by pitching his tent near Sodom

next lived within Sodom itself

shared in Sodom’s fate when Kedorlaomer attacked and carried him off

rescued by Abram, but refused to heed God’s warning from that whole incident

ended up immersed in Sodom’s society… sitting by the gate in perhaps an official function

tormented daily by wickedness (more about that in a moment) BUT he never took control and moved out of Sodom

allowed his family to become completely immersed in Sodom’s way of life and corrupted to their core

offered his virgin daughters to the lust-crazed mob to save his guests

highly reluctant to leave Sodom, the angel had to drag him out to save his life

begged for a break from the harshness of living in the mountains, begged to flee to another smaller city Zoar instead… couldn’t let go of the city life

ended up drunk in a cave with his daughters, whose immorality and perversion is obvious

Lot may have been saved by grace, but his life was a waste

Lot’s legacy was more warning than blessing

2.  Warning to us:  are you being gradually, slowly but surely polluted by the world?

Hebrews 3:12-13  See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God.   13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.

This hardening happens slowly

At one time TV programs would not show even married people in one bed… the “Dick van Dyck” show in the 60’s showed two single beds separated by a nightstand.  The “Bob Newhart Show” was the first to show a married couple in bed together… and that’s ALL they showed.  Little by little, TV  and movies have lowered our guard, led by Satan’s program to harden our hearts

1 John 2:15-16  Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him.  16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh and the lust of the eyes and the boastful pride of life, is not from the Father, but is from the world.

James 4:4 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God.

E.  Being Tormented by Lawlessness Saved Lot’s Life

1.  Peter called Lot righteous three times

2 Peter 2:7-8  and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men, (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)

Hard to believe given how polluted we saw him by the time this story occurs

2.  What was the nature of Lot’s righteousness?  Peter tells us it was INTERNAL TORMENT over wickedness

Strong words:  “distressed” = oppressed, like a form of slavery with a wicked master; “tormented” like the paralyzed man Jesus healed in Matthew 8, “tormented”  like the torment the demons of the Gadarenes were afraid Jesus would send them to; tormented, like the disciples’ boat tossed and heaved by the waves in a dire storm; tormented like humanity will be during the future plagues of Revelation

Lot was internally crushed by the wickedness, internally ripped to shreds by the lawless deeds he saw and heard

He hated it, but he felt trapped

3.  Do you lament over America?

a.   one famous preacher said

“If God doesn’t judge America, He’ll owe Sodom and Gomorrah an apology.”

At one level, it is a terrible statement, because God never owes anyone anything

Job 41:11 Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me.

However, the point is well-taken… America is degenerating into constant parties, addictions, leisure time corruption, arrogance, lack of concern for the poor, homosexuality, violence, etc.

It is hard to see the difference in kind… perhaps only in degree

b.  judgment on Jerusalem in Ezekiel 9

God summoned three angels in Ezekiel’s presence

After clearly showing Ezekiel how vile and despicable Jerusalem had become, he called one of the angels

Ezekiel 9:4 and said to him, “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of those who grieve and lament over all the detestable things that are done in it.”

Then God called the other two angels

Ezekiel 9:5-6  As I listened, he said to the others, “Follow him through the city and kill, without showing pity or compassion. 6 Slaughter old men, young men and maidens, women and children, but do not touch anyone who has the mark. Begin at my sanctuary.” So they began with the elders who were in front of the temple.

c.  God spared Lot because he was tormented by wickedness;  God spared the few in Jerusalem who lamented over its wickedness

Key question:  Do you lament and grieve over the increasing wickedness you see around you?  Or are you being polluted by it?  Do you secretly embrace some of it?  Do you enjoy aspects of it?  Do you wonder why people make such a fuss over gay marriage?  Do you despise efforts to help the genuinely needy, thinking they are merely just lazy?  Are you indifferent to the sufferings of the poor?

F.  God’s Merciful Display in Sodom:  Knowing How to Rescue the Godly

1.  Peter’s main idea was a DUAL one:  God knows how to punish the wicked AND how to rescue the godly from His own wrath

2 Peter 2:6-9  if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)– 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment.

2.  Notice how forceful the angels were to rescue Lot

vs. 16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them.

3.  Notice how BOUND the angels were concerning the timing of God’s wrath

vs. 22   But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it.”

4.  So also God knows how to get his chosen ones through this wicked world system and safely into heaven

God sent angels to get Lot safely out of earthly Sodom

BUT God sent His only begotten Son to get us safely out of our evil age and out of an eternity in hell:

John 6:39-40  And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all that he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. 40 For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Galatians 1:3-5  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, 4 who gave himself for our sins to rescue us from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, 5 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

2 Timothy 4:18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil attack and will bring me safely to his heavenly kingdom. To him be glory for ever and ever. Amen.

G.  Remember Lot’s Wife:  Loving Life Means Losing It

1.  Jesus had one application from this story… a simple statement

Luke 17:32-33  “Remember Lot’s wife.   Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.”

Lot’s wife didn’t want to leave her comfortable life in Sodom… she refused to believe the warnings;  she resented being forced to go out of the city;  she lingered behind, and perhaps stood to watch the beginnings of destruction

BUT the angel had told them not to look back but to flee, flee, RUN FOR THEIR LIVES

Because she didn’t believe and because she wanted to preserve her old life, she lagged back, and became a pillar of salt… perhaps she stood too close to the city and fallout and debris and heat and sulfur covered her body

Jesus told us to learn the lesson, to take the warning and RUN FOR OUR LIVES

2.  Jesus’ context:  teaching on the second coming

life will go on just as it always has… just like the days before Noah’s flood, and the hours before Sodom’s destruction

BE READY… and don’t cherish your life in Sodom

Luke 17:29-33  But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 “It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.

3.  So also for you now… don’t so cling to earthly comforts and position that you lose your soul

Matthew 16:24-26  Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. 25 For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. 26 What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?

Illus.  Christian fleeing from the City of Destruction in Pilgrim’s Progress

So I saw in my dream that the man began to run.  Now he had not run far from his own door when his wife and children, perceiving it, began to cry after him to return; but the man put his fingers in his ears, and ran on crying, Life!  life! eternal life!  So he looked not behind him, but fled towards the middle of the plain.

Practicalities:  if you find that entertainment is dragging you into Sodom’s vortex… movies, TV programs, magazines, internet, DVDs, etc., then give them up!

If you find that a comfortable life of affluence and ease it making you callous toward the poor, then sacrifice some of that comfort to minister to the poor and needy right here in Durham… get involved in time, energy and money with the ministries like the Durham Rescue Mission and Agape Corner and CEF that minister to the poor

Be willing to CHANGE your lifestyle to escape Sodom’s pull

Ezekiel 16:49 “‘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.

INNER CITY MINISTRY!!!  MEET ME IN THE PARLOR!!!