God Judges Sin
. A faithful person comes to the realization that there really are consequences to our choices. As with our carbon footprint, if we individually and as a society do not begin making different choices regarding our environment there will be significant consequences – so scientists tell us.
And in the same manner, if we as individuals and as a society do nto begin to make different choices regarding our spiritual lives there will be significant consequences – so scripture, history, theologians and preachers like me tell us.
In this story… God declares judgment for wickedness
This is the second time God has deemed it necessary to bring judgment - the flood and this situation, and in both cases God rescues those who are righteous.
We find Lot sitting at the gateway. The Gateway of an ancient city was a very significant place. The elders of the city would sit in the gateway, the king of the city, the important people of the city are there. Business happens at the gate. Taxes are paid at the gate. This is the place Lot rubs shoulders with the important people of the city. Lot is considered a foreigner of the city, but is trying to become an important person in the city and so he hangs out with those he wants to be like.
We can do the same things, we want to hang out with those we want to be like, sometimes that is good and sometimes that is bad.
Prov 13:20 He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm.
Lot had chosen poorly. Lot had a track record of moving closer and closer to corruption and wickedness. He chose to move towards these cities when he left Abram and pitches his tent near Sodom (13:12)
Before long he moves into the city (14:12) when he and his family are carried off by Kedorlaomer and Abram rescues him
Now he is living in the city and hanging out at the gate with the leaders of the city – wanting to be like them.
We find out his daughters are marrying guys from the town – instead of going back to Haran like Abraham would do for Isaac.
Lots ambition to join the people of Sodom had caused him to compromise his values. Little did Lot realize that his ambition had placed him in mortal danger. He didn’t really think there was going to be any consequences associated with his lifestyle choices, the way he was living, but he was wrong!
Sodom and Gomorrah had a terrible reputation in the eyes of God, and when God looks at a city, he does not see beautiful buildings or great centers of commerce – he sees PEOPLE, the collection of individuals who are making conscious choices regarding how they will live.
Gen 18:20-21
Then the Lord said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous 21 that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know."
Gen 19:13 “The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."
Thoughout history these cities have represented wickedness & divine judgment.
The text does not discuss specify the wickedness that so moved God’s heart that He would move him to exercise holy vengeance against these cities. The sin of the Sodomites is self-evident and multileveled, blatant, and unambiguous. There is nothing subtle or secretive about their behavior. No inhibitions interfere with their threats of violence or demands to indulge their lusts. Like in the case of William Pickton, no one is expected to come to the defense of Sodom or try to make excuses for their behavior.
The text also makes it clear that the wicked behavour is not isolated. All the men, young and old, are involved. The use of “ALL” can be hyperbolic, the description of young and old indicates widespread participation. It is unlikely though that every single member of the male population is involved because Lot’s son-in-laws don’t seem to be present.
Lot’s response to the demands of the men in verse 8 is startling. Is Lot actually offering his daughters to be gang-raped and probably murdered? An alternative is that his suggestion implies a more subtle “I would as soon have you violate my family members as violate those whom I have taken in and offered hospitality. It would be like sarcastically saying to your mortgage company, “Why don’t you just take the clothes off my children’s backs and the food off their plates?” Not suggesting they would actually do that but highlighting their ridiculous actions in an effort to prick the conscience of the mob and diffuse the situation.
Clearly the moral climate of these cities is at an all-time low and God plans to bring judgment
God always balances his judgment with mercy – He is a merciful God
The destroyer angels give Lot time & opportunity to warn his family members and urge them to leave (v12)
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.
God was bringing judgment to these cities and there were several Responses to God’s judgment
- Lots response to wickedness was tolerant diplomacy v6-8
He tries to convince the men of the city to not engage in their wicked behavours – at least not this time, not here. Lot had been living in the midst of this wickedness, these were the people he was choosing to live around, to be friends with, collegues with, marry his daughters off to their sons. Lot was clearly tolerating their lifestyle, His tolerance communicates approval, acceptance of by the act of choosing to live among these people. There is no evidence he was trying to be a ‘light in a dark place’ because his diplomacy was view as judgment of them and their actions… “NOW you want to play the judge???” they say – “who are you to judge us?” Lot’s tolerance was not beneficial and his diplomacy was ineffective!
- Men of city – defiance – v9
“you want to play judge…we will treat you worse than what we have planned for your guests!” today we might say…”judge me and I will make your life miserable”…”you have no right to judge me, I can do what I want”
- Sons-in-law – joking - not take seriously – v14
“you can’t really be serious” “judgment is not coming, you don’t know what your talking about” the structure of this phrase also conveys the idea that the young men considered what Lot was saying was in “bad taste, not acceptable in our enlightened, liberated society”
- Lot’s wife – independent rejection – v26
Lot and his family are instructed not to direct their attention behind them, but stay focused on what is ahead for them. But, Lots wife abandons their rescue.
Luke 17:28-34
28 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 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.
Here Jesus clearly implies that Lot’s wife was not simply glancing back over her shoulder but was returning to Sodom. “You’re a fool Lot, and I refuse to go one more step with you in this direction. I am going home, I will see you in a day or two whenever you come to your senses”
Yes, she had heard the Angels message, though she may not have believed they were angels, Yes they had led her and her family by the hand out of the city, Yes she had every opportunity to be resuced, but still she said “NO” I can handle whatever is coming – if anything is coming at all”
People today will say “I may go to hell when I die, but I am going to enjoy my life until then. I can handle hell IF it is really real”
These are some common responses to the message that God will and is bringing judgment…and the truth is God does bring judgment. And even in that judgment, Lot makes another common response…
Lot’s little sin – we want to justify a little sin in our lives.
“I can't flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I'll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it — it is very small, isn't it? Then my life will be spared."
I got rid of the ‘big’ sin in my life, but let me just have this little bit of sin, this little bit of enjoyment, this little thing I have become accustomed to. I am not hanging around those guys any more, I stopped doing this…, I have overcome this…, so let me just live with this little thing, It wont really hurt anyone, I will die without this…
Lot felt like – and we also will believe , a little sin is good for us, it helps me ‘enjoy life’, I need this in my life, and the truth is all sin leads to death.
The angels allow Lot to go to Zoar, but we quickly see in a few verses that Lot and his daughters actually end up in the mountains anyway, the place they were told to go in the first place, and we see from archeology that Zoar was destroyed as well.
They lived – We lived like our sin doesn’t matter, that we can live how ever we like to live and there really aren’t consequences. We live like God won’t judge when he clearly says he will and we have evidence that he does.
2 Peter 2:6-7
“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;
This is what Peter says of this place 2300 years after it happened, it was an example then and 2000 years further, we read it and it is an example to us today.
Sodom & Gomorrah: Archeologists have discovered the ancient cities of Sodom & Gomorrah south of the Dead Sea. I was at the Dead Sea, unfortunately I was not able to go to these sites but let me show you a little of what it looks like today.
They have discovered cities completely destroyed by the fire of millions of balls of burning sulphur!
Faithful response to sin – FLEE – (“HURRY” v 15; “FLEE” v17)
The way to deal with sin is not to play with it but treat it for what it is something that leads us to death - and flee it…
1 Tim 6:11-12
But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness.
2 Tim 2:22-26
Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
We must take our sin seriously. It is a trap, it leads to death…
Jesus is the only response to mankind’s sin, and we should run to him!
By God’s mercy, Jesus brings us salvation that we may no longer live according to the sinful patterns of this world but instead be brought into His kingdom of life. It is not our righteousness that saves us but it is his mercy that makes it possible for us to be saved.
Jesus comes to earth to rescue us – to bring us from the dark kingdom of this world and to bring us into the kingdom of Light, truth, and life, the kingdom of his Father.
Jesus goes to the cross and dies in our place to satisfy God’s judgement for our sin. He took on our sin and carried our judgment to his death, so we may enter in and live in God’s Kingdom
Jesus lays out the situation we all live in…
John 3:16-21
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
Do you want to enter God’s kingdom?
1 Cor 6:9-11
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
Rev 21:8
8 But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death."
This morning, maybe you need to come clean before God. As He sent his angles to Lot at Sodom he is bringing this same message to you, in Vancouver in 2011. God will judge this world and everyone in it. We are all, each, accountable for our sin, even the little ones. But Jesus has come to this world with a very important message “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near” (Mtt 4:17)
“unless you repent, you too will all perish” (Lu 13:3)
Acts 17:31
For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead."
Jesus says “I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and will eat with them and they with me.”
This is a real message, If you have never acknowledged your sin and repented of it. Do it today, receive Christ into your life and begin to live in an entirely new place of your life.
If you have received Christ, but have allowed sin to control your life again, you have been listening to the world around you and justifying your sin, letting some ‘little sin’ live in you – repent of it here and now, allow the message of Christ to live in you again- come clean and live in His kingdom as faithful children.
Do you realize John Newton’s story as a slave ship captain turned minister of the Gospel, it was over 15 yrs of pasturing that God actually confronted Newton about the sin of being involved in the slave trade, until then, he saw nothing wrong with it. Not until he was a man in his 50’s did God reveal his sin and break his heart
God continued to push John Newton’s understanding of who He was in his relationship with John, and John began to look at his time as a captain of a slave ship from a whole different light. John began to discover the “20,000 ghosts” and the ghastliness of his own role in their lives. God began to reveal to him the depth and death of his own sin that went beyond his foolish, self-centered, arrogant life as a young man that God had already honed out of John, but now God was revealing the depths of his sin.
Initially John could not speak of his time as a captain of a slave ship without being overwhelmed with guilt and shame. It had never been an issue to him before, but now God was shinning his light into new and different places of his life and John was finding it more painful than ever before to be confronted with his own sin.
Relief for John came as he brought his sin into the light, as he finally began to confess his actions and the consequences of his sin. As John wrote his confession
There were two real truths that guided John Newton’s life – that allowed him to live in the amazing Grace “I am a great sinner and Jesus is a great saviour”
To become a Christian:
- Confess and repent of your sin
- Believe Jesus died on the cross for your sin and ask God to forgive you
- Ask Jesus to take your life and receive His new life in you
- Commit to follow Jesus the rest of your life
Lets pray…