Sodom & Gommorah
Father, we thank you that it was your body that was given for us. And Lord, it is because you have died and gone and ascended into heaven now that the helper has come. The Holy Spirit who now speaks to us through your word. We pray that we may hear him, That you may open our hearts to be changed by him. And so we just pray for your power on all things, Lord. That you may guide our hearts. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Beautiful. So, if you're coming here for a really family-friendly, child-orientated sermon today, hate to break it you, should probably block some of your kids' ears because we're doing Sodom and Gomorrah today. So, there are definitely some fun bits in here. But anyway, now, I'm going to read through it bit by bit and then we're just going to pull it apart. Now, Fair warning, there is some stuff in here that can be bit confronting. We can hide under, oh, it's just a story and it's, you know, kind of put it, cause it's just words on a page, but this is stuff that actually happened. This is history that happened and it contains things as, where's kids gone out of the room? Anyway, things like homosexuality, incest, rape, drunkenness, murder. Lots of really fun topics for a Sunday morning, right? But these are things that we have to cover. You see, right, it'll be so easy to just go through scripture and just kind of pick out the stories that we want to deal with. The ones that kind of deal with the things we want to talk about and yet avoid the things that we'd rather not. But the downsides of preaching through books is that you can't avoid these things. They are there and we must deal with them and then you actually find out there's actually really good, even encouraging things for us in there. And it's actually a tactic of the devil to say, oh, this is a controversial passage. It's just to avoid this. Because often in the controversial patches, that's what we call them. God doesn't call them that. We actually find truths about God which are very encouraging, refreshing, and really a comfort to our souls. So anyway, one thing I'm going to do, uh I'm going to read through Genesis 19, but I'll recap Genesis 18 real quick. So last week we did the covenant of circumcision, we're talking all about that. then he is, Abraham has promised an offspring. You're going to have a son, even though you're 100 years old and your wife's 90. What are the chances? And so then after that, after being given this promise, there is these three visitors that come, it just says they're three strangers. We later find out that it's God himself and two angels or something like that. And they come to Abraham and Abraham sees them far off. He runs to them and he just says, please come into my home. Let me make a meal for you. He gets one of his servants, the servant goes and cuts up a calf for him and they make a meal for them. Show them hospitality. And it's gonna be a really important aspect throughout this passage. Hospitality is the thing that we're dealing with here. It's gonna be not the major theme of everything we talk about, but it is a big part. that when Abraham saw God, he showed him hospitality. Because hospitality back then, it's to invite someone into your home. It's not just, come around for a beer and a few snacks. It's come into my home. Let's share in one another's lives. And it was basically to say, we're in relationship with one another. It's to show friendship. And so Abraham did that. And then they were given the promise again. Sarah laughs, there's a whole bunch of stuff. And then these three angels or visitors, anyway, the representative of God say, we must go down to Sodom now because the cry to God has become so great because of their wickedness. And so they go to investigate, right? God's not just saying, oh, I just take the surface level. He says, no, I will go, I will investigate. I will not simply just deal with blanket statements. I must see for myself. the wickedness that is in Sodom. And then you get a whole passage where Abraham gets up and he intercedes and says, God, you are the just judge. Will you wipe away 50 people? If there are 50 righteous people, if there's a good church planned in that city, will you wipe it out? He said, no, I won't. 40, 30, 20, 10. God says, no. There is no way that I will wipe away the righteous with the unrighteous. Basically he says, will not be unjust. And so Abraham intercedes for the people in that town right there. So that even if there should be a single righteous person in that town, all of them shall be saved. And so then now we come to the angels entering into Sodom. So from Genesis 19, one to 11, we're gonna read. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, my lords, please turn aside to your servant's house, spend the night, wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way. They said, no, we will spend the night in the town square. But he pressed them strongly. So they turned aside to him, entered his house and he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house. They called to Lot. Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them.' Lot went out to the men of the entrance and shut the door after him. And he said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who I have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men for they have come under the shelter of my roof. But they said, stand back. And they said, this fellow came to Sojourn and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them. Then they pressed hard against the man lot and drew near to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands and brought lot into their house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of their house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out, groping for the door. Right, so the men have come down. These two, now there's not three angels anymore, there's just two, okay? They walk down. They come and they see Lot at the gate. Now before, remember, Lot had separated from Abraham and he'd gone down the Jordan Valley because he said, oh man, there's so much good farmland here, it's just great. And he moved all the way to the outskirts of the city, right, of Sodom. It was basically as far as you could go. But he was on the outskirts of the city. He wasn't in the city yet. But here you see him now sitting in the gate. That means now he's got a house there. uh He says, I don't want to live out in the bush anymore. Give me a house in the city. I don't know, many people would probably agree they want to do that. But look, he says, there are good things here and I say, he makes his home among them. He takes a wife from there and his family grows up there. His daughters are also from there and engaged to men from there. And so these men come down, they want to investigate what's going on. Lot meets them, he says, please turn aside, come into my house, come into my house. Why do you think he's telling them, come into my house, come into my house? Because he knows what's likely to happen. He's sitting here happy, he's got his home, he's got his 600 square meters or whatever he's got. But yet he says, please, please come into my house because I know what will happen to you if you stay out here. But these men say, no, no, no, we want to spend the night in the town square. What do you think you'd want it, well someone offers you a bed, why would you sit in the town square? Because they're coming to investigate. Hiding out in someone's house isn't going to truly reveal to them the wickedness of these people. They want to spend time, they want to put themselves in a dangerous situation to see how these people will react, these sodomites. But they don't even need to worry about that because they're in the house anyway, the men find out, gossip spreads through the town and the men say, knock, knock, knock lot, will you please bring these men out that we may know them? Now, if you know anything about the Bible, know them doesn't mean we're going to have a casual conversation. It means we're going to get to know them real well. It basically means they want to rape them. They want to take these men aside and they say, want to do with them as we wish. most of you probably just vomited in your mouth a little bit because it's disgusting to think about such a thing, such an atrocious wickedness and evil going on in this town. It is just appalling. You sit there, you take it back. There's a reason I don't even like reading about Sodom and Gomorrah. Yeah, I'm preaching on it, but it's not because I want to. It's because we have to, because it's there, because it's revealing a very certain truth to us. And so here you have all these, you know, these men who are violent. They're likely going to kill these men. They're going to have intercourse with them. And now I want to ask you this question. What was the greatest, you know, if you could give a sin that just kind of categorised everything they were doing, what would it be? You know, what was really the worst thing, the epitome of what they were doing? Was it that they were seeking to endeavour in homosexual acts? Was it that they were doing it unconsensually? Was it, I don't know, just that the blatant nature of what they were doing so publicly they weren't ashamed of it, they were just openly happy? to tell everyone of their desires. This is every single man in Sodom. Now remember I talked about earlier about the hospitality. You're gonna think I'm weird for saying this, but really the sin that covers over everything that they were doing was that they were being inhospitable. Now, might sound weird because I think you would agree with me. Yeah, they're probably being bad hosts if you go into someone's house and they say, hey, I'd like to get to know you in that way. Yeah, probably not a very good host. But you see, when I was saying before, hospitality was about saying, come into my home. I want to get to know you better. Let's be in relationship. Let's commune with one another. And so Abraham was saying when he brought in the three angels who represent the Lord, I want to commune with you. I want to be in relationship with you. But these men of Sodom saw these two angels from God. and said, seek to commit the most grievous and worst harm against these men. They were showing the complete utter rejection of God and their worship of themselves. Because they say, we don't care about the needs of these men. We will not put them up for the night. We simply want to know what we can get from them. But yet we will demand it, we will forcefully take it from them. And so you see their atrocious sins pulling back to their selfishness that was displayed in their lack of hospitality. Okay, so what's the point of this for all of us? And now really the whole point of this story, the whole chapter, you're gonna find out, you're gonna be given a bunch of different characters. From all of them, you're gonna basically learn what not to do. All right? There is nothing here which we can truly emulate, which is good. It is all bad, even in Lot himself, as we'll soon come to see. But what can we learn from the men of Sodom here? I want to ask you the question. If you lived in Sodom, do you think you'd be any different? I don't just mean like you just moved there like Lot did. Like you've grown up there, you know, you've probably got a few brothers and sisters in town. Maybe you've got a vacation home, so you go off every couple of months, but you spend most of your time there. Would you be different? Would you be among these men, small and great, all of them, young and old? All of us would. Now, of course, you're going to think, Matt, no, I would not, because I'm not inclined that way. I would not be doing such things as that. Because for me to say you're a part of that group is basically to say you're in with the homosexuals and the rapists and the murderers, right? To say that we're among the worst of them. But you see, in this story, we can have a disposition to say and to read ourselves into the best people, right? When there's David and Goliath, we're not the scared Israelites up on the hill. We're David. We're the one conquering the giant. But actually you'll often find in the Bible, the one we truly need to learn the lesson from are the worst people in the story. So how in any way are we like the Sodomites? Have you guys ever, do you know that passage, Matthew 5 28, right? Can you put up on the screen if that's all right? Anyway, where Jesus goes through and he compares lust to adultery, right? Adultery, serious sin, divorces have happened over this. No one is okay with adultery, but then he says, I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lustful intent has already committed adultery with her in his heart. any act of just a thought that passes by that we hold onto, that we think about a little too long, is akin to adultery itself. Better yet, he goes on later and says, okay, none of us are murderers, but if you simply hold anger towards your brother, it is the same as murder. How can Jesus say these things? Sometimes it can become a bit of a thing that we use, oh, you know, you're not You shouldn't think sexual, like lustful thoughts in your mind because it's like adultery. But no, no, no, he's saying it is like adultery. Do you really feel the weight of that? Like it's to be discovered in bed with someone else. To literally be found cold, cold-handed, sorry, red-handed, killing your brother. The same thing. How? I'm not a murderer. I'm not an adulterer. So how can Jesus say these things about me? I want to ask you, why aren't you like the sodomites? What makes you different? understand that the reason Jesus can say these things is because when lust or anger comes up in our hearts, what is it that stops you? Why don't you go and murder everyone you get angry at? Why don't you go and commit adultery with everyone you lost after? Because there are things in the way. We're scared of the law, we're scared of the police. Better yet, God has given us all a conscience. Isn't that an amazing thing? So we don't go and do these things, but Where do these things come from? I didn't make the laws, I didn't give myself a conscience. I don't deal out the consequences. It is God who does those things. It is God who puts all those things in place. So you see, the very thing that's holding us back from becoming like these men is God. So you see, this is the thing when you pull back every single part of us, when you say, don't want God, I don't want him part of my life. Well, you say, okay, well, let's see what you were like without God. Pull it all back, this is who we are. We become a part of the crowd. We do things we could never imagine when God disappears from our lives. Paul talks about in Romans that if we truly wish to pursue our sinful desires, God will hand us over to them. You see, in his love, he puts things, obstacles in the way, stops us from going down those paths. But if we continue to pursue it, he'd say, all right, I will hand you over to it. We're good people, good people. because God makes us that way. On the inside of us, we are wicked. It is the things outside of us that stop us pursuing our sinful desires. And so without God, our sinful self runs into unrestrained, unashamed, sinful living. And so you see, that is the first truth of Sodom here. Right. We can't distance ourselves from these men. It's not like we're not like them. We are like them. We're just blessed with a country. with laws, with consciences that have not been so seared by our upbringing that we don't engage in things like this. The men of Sodom were not so blessed. And so, here we learn the first truth, that we are not always the good guy in the Bible. We are often the bad guys. And see, we first have to deal with this truth, the wickedness that truly lives within us, the fact that we can't distance ourselves from these men because then, and only then, will you truly come to appreciate the depth of Jesus' love, in God's love in sending His Son to sacrifice Himself for us. So again, that was, sorry, I should have prefaced that first, that was my first point. that we are wicked. We're onto the second one now, which is that we love the world. So we're going to read on now from verse 11. So into verse 12, we'll read now. Then the men said to Lot, have you anyone else here? So this is the angels talking to Lot. Son in laws, sons, daughters, anyone you have in this city, bring them out of the place, for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against us people has become great before the Lord. The Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and said to his son-in-law who were to marry his daughters, up, get out of this place for the Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his son-in-law to be jesting. And as morning dawned, the angels urged Lot saying, up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him. And they brought him out and set him outside the city. And as they brought him out, one said, escape for your life. Don't look back, stop or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away. And Lot said to them, oh no, my lords, behold, your servant has found favor in your sight. You have shown me great kindness in saving my life, but I can't escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to you. It is a little one, look at it. Let me escape there, is it not a little one? And my life will be saved. He said to them, behold, I grant you this favour also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zor. We'll read the next couple of verses as well. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zor, then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. He overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the city and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord and looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah toward all the land of the valley and he looked and behold the smoke of the land went up like a smoke of a furnace. So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived. So, here now we turn to the character of Lot. And again, like I said, he is called the righteous man in the New Testament. Still, there's not much in his life that you should emulate. And also a great point, many of us live very messy Christian lives. Often where we can struggle to see the obvious fruit in one's life. That's why we cannot discern people's hearts. But here we can learn something from Lot. what were your best to avoid? So you see, we had already taken note of the fact he'd moved from the outskirts and now he's living in the city. He took a wife from among them. He's made his home there now. Because you know, right, he looked out in the bush. And again, you know, this isn't like living out on farmland. You don't have your house with your nice aircon. He's living in a tent. All right? There are things that are better about living in Sodom than living in a tent in the bush. All right? So we're talking about living in a canvas swag, basically. And so he says, I don't know. I don't want to live out there in the bush. So we find why Lot stayed there. But you see, did he become like the men of the city? No, he was different to them. It says in 2 Peter 2 verse 7 to 8, God rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. For as the righteous man lived among them day by day, he was tormenting his soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. So he saying he was being tormented, tortured virtually. It's like he's being waterboarded, just seeing what these people are doing every day. It's just grating his soul. He's, I cannot believe, that's why he was so quick to run to the angels, and quick, come into my house. I cannot let what I know will happen happen to you. He sought with all his might to protect them, even offering up his own daughters. Why would Lot stay in a place like this? I guess because it probably had running plumbing, right? It had amenities, things. There were things that he could get in the city that he couldn't get out in the wilderness, right? Where people gather, naturally you can get more things. There's a reason that we often traveled to Toowoomba or Dolby or Brisbane even to get things. There are reason that so many people settle in that place because you can find more. There are so many other enticements, things that you can get for yourself. And so he liked life. It was easier than trying to make it yourself out on the land. But why stay there? Because even though his soul was being graded, he refused to lose the good things in order. So in order to do that, he just shut out the bad things. He said, I'll just ignore that, put it by the wayside, doesn't matter, whatever about that, you know. But you see and you'll find out this life quickly becomes impossible. You see, Jesus tells us, Matthew 6, 24, we can only serve one master, right? No one can serve two masters. Either they will hate one, love the other, or he'll be devoted to one and despise the other. So you see. oh that Lot was in a very dangerous place. The angels especially, you notice how they blinded all the men. They didn't smite them, didn't kill them, but rather in blinding them showed their true state. That these men were blind to the goodness of God. Abraham saw it from far off, he ran to meet them. But these men have had them come into their tower and they seek to do atrocious things to them. They are blind to the goodness of God, their consciences have been so seed that they cannot see God. And so you see, this was the danger for Lot, that in him being among them, this is the case for any of us. When we seek to have the world and the world that's just being those, it's society, the way of living, the way that the world tells us to live contrary to the Bible. When we love the things, the money, the possessions, the careers, the whatever, the things that cease to be with us, well, when we love them more than God. especially when we seek to surround ourselves with people who love them as well. Because we don't want to lose those people because they're a part of us. Slowly our consciousness becomes seared. What happens when you play on the guitar for a couple of weeks? Or what happens when you're out working on a farm or building a house? What happens to your hands? You get calluses. Because they're abrasions, right? Friction all the time. Your hands become harder. So you can deal with it. That's exactly the same thing that happens to us out in the world. Our conscience can't deal with the realities of what's going on in the world. So especially when we, but we still want to be around it because there's some good thing that we still want in it. So our conscience just becomes hard. We get calluses on our heart and we just become numb to them anymore. Why do you think there are people out there who can just serial killers who can just commit complete atrocities? Most of them weren't, they couldn't just kill someone super easily when they started. But one, two, three, to the point their heart had become so hard, it meant nothing to them anymore. There was no value in life. They only cared for themselves. And so, here we see the great danger for us. It's what John tells us in 1 John 2, 15 and 17. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. and the world is passing away along with its desires and whoever does the will of God abides forever. So you see, we cannot love the world and at the same time love God. We get that. And the great danger, why? Why is that such the case? Because this world is passing away. See, the men of Sodom loved their city so much, they loved themselves so much and so, they perished. And that was what happens to all those whom love the world, who love themselves and what they wish to do rather than seeking to surrender their lives to God. And now this is an incredible danger for us because we live in the Western world. Life is comfortable. The world is easily accessible. Yes, the world hates us. But it's also pretty easy to be a Christian nowadays. And so, it becomes very dangerous because there is no price to walking in that door. And that's a good thing. It's a good thing that there's no price. Because obviously we want everyone to hear the gospel. But part of that is we can often come in here and think nothing needs to change. We come and sit and say, I am a Christian. But we come in with this It's what we call syncretistic. Sorry, I don't normally use big words, but it's often used a lot in missions where you'll find people who've been converted by people who've come, you you go to Papua New Guinea or something like that. You can go into the, sorry, into the churches there. You'll find people dressed to the nines. They dress like white people do. And then you see them and they do, but then you find them the other six days of the week. They're wearing what they normally wear, tattered clothes, just living like a normal life, but yet they feel the need to dress up for Sunday. And so you find that they often merge parts of their beliefs with the church, right? I can still worship my ancestors and their ancestral spirits and also believe in God. But we also have this danger. Because notice with Lot, this is exactly the thing he struggles with. You look in verse 16. The angels tell him, get out, get out, go. and a lingus. And then they say, now flee to the mountains. And what does he say? Oh, can't I just stay in this little town? It's not as big as Sodom. They're not as bad. So can I just stay in the valley? Like you can get rid of most of it, but can I just have this little bit, please? And then better yet, you see his wife in verse 26, turns back and looks longingly on her home, turned to a pillar of salt. And so we declare, know, God, we know it's bad. We know the things in the world are doing us and inevitably they will lead us to our death. But God, do I have to let go of all of it? Can't I just keep some bits? Because inevitably there is a price to be paid. When we cut ourselves off from the world, there was always something that leaves that we must leave behind. And so you see, as Christians, we cannot just be called to act good on a Sunday. We are actually called to be different every day. And see, this is a hard thing because, you know, there are probably days when I can walk into a cafe on a Tuesday, and maybe some of you are sitting there and they're having a conversation, and I couldn't tell you a conversation apart from every other group of ladies in there who's gossiping about everything going on in the town. For some of you, could walk into, and again, look, I'm guilty of this as well. I'm not saying this just to indict you. I am guilty as well. But I can walk into your homes, into your work. You can seem like a lovely person on Sunday, and yet you are completely different when you are at home or when you're at work. You treat people incredibly differently. And so you see, this is the hard thing. Because we want to have this, but we don't want to lose that. We want to still be able to act the way. We don't want to have to change that much. but it is what Christ calls us to. And so look, I can't label everywhere in which you're worldly. I'm not gonna sit here and, you know, come up with a long list of, here's everywhere in which you love the world. But ask this of God. Reveal to me that which I love but you hate. Prod your own heart a little bit and find those things. If you're never seeking them out, you're not gonna find them. But ask God to open your heart to see who you really are. Because... Now we jump into the good news. Chapter 3. Some of us, right, sorry, all of us are like the sodomites, right, we covered that, point one. All of us are wicked in our hearts and then even as we become to be Christian, there are still parts of us like a lot. Don't let us leave it behind. Let us have just a little bit, let us stay in the valley. We don't want to run to the hills. Don't let us turn and leave it behind. So what are we to do now? It's actually not a matter of what are you to do. It's actually a matter of what are you to hope in. Who are you to hope in? Who are you to trust in? Because the reality is, we're all sodomites. We all deserve to stay in the city. Better yet, we're all like lot. We all wanna stay there. We don't wanna leave. So we need someone who will spare us. from the destruction and we need someone who will rip us from our love of the world. And so, remember when I was talking about Abraham in Genesis 18, that he was interceding for Sodom. He said, Lord, if there are 50 in that town, 40, 20, 10, if there's anyone, don't wipe away the righteous with the unrighteous, for you are just Lord. We see him interceding as one day one of his sons would, his son Jesus. And so you see Abraham's intercession there was the reason that and his family were saved. Because you even see it says down in there on verse 27 that Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord, looked down on Sodom, toward Sodom and Gomorrah, looked and behold the smoke. So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. When he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived, he was spared because Abraham interceded for him. Now, all of us are sitting in Sodom at this very moment, waiting for the destruction to come. Who shall intercede for us? Who shall be the one to send the messenger? It will be Jesus Christ. Jesus is referred to as our great high priest. A priest is someone who stands between two parties. You have God and you have us. A priest stands between the people and God and represents us to God. Right? Saying, God, please don't do this to them. Moses, when he was in the Exodus, when he saw the golden calf and all the things that the Israelites had done, he said, God said, I will smite them for doing this. And Moses said, don't do it Lord, remember your promises. And so Jesus now at this very moment is doing the exact same thing for us. Because as Christians, we still sin. As everyone continues to until the very day they die. But how does Jesus intercede for us? What does he offer to God? Does he just say, hey Jesus, sorry God, pretty please, don't hurt them? Or does he say, look, I'll work on them, I'll make sure they're better next time? No. Hebrews 9.26. Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin, how? By the sacrifice of himself. So you see, right, the men of Sodom... suffered the fire of God, the eternal fire, sulfur in the fire, and it went up like a furnace. Showing imagery which is very similar to that of hell. But yet, we are there, sitting amongst Sodom right now, how will we be spared that? Someone stands in the way of that fire. Someone stands in the way of that anger and wrath that is Christ Himself on the cross. On the cross, that was our death. That was wrath. Just think about someone being crucified. You're being nailed through your arms, held up by your feet. You can barely breathe for hours, if not days. It's where we get the word excruciating from. That was the wrath of God just physically demonstrated to us. That was Him dying in our place. We weren't meant to die in our sleep, we were meant to die there, all right, on that cross. But now He is spared and now every day in heaven, He is saying, Jesus, sorry, Jesus is saying to God, spare them Father, do not look on their sin. Why? Because I have wiped it away. I have taken it. The wrath of God is gone. Sin is gone forever and ever. And so you see, we like Lot are not spared because we deserve it, but because Christ in His love has spared those who are undeserving. Now we have peace with God. Okay, so that deals with the fact that we're in Sodom, but we still need to be pulled out away from it. How will He separate the righteous from the unrighteous? Notice how He does it with Lot. They told Lot, need to get out of the city. But then it says in verse 16, sorry, yeah, verse 16, that he lingered. And so what did they do? They seized him, his wife and his two daughters and brought him out because their Lord was being merciful to him. So you see, he was delivered from his love of the world in this way. Sorry, I'll read verse from 1 John 4, 4. He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. Okay, we have a job to separate ourselves from the love of this world, but you cannot do it by yourself. just never, because remember, when we peel back everything that's left, everything, when you take away everything that God has done in your heart, it's just wickedness. You cannot change yourself, but Jesus can. And better yet, He delivers us here. Because He who is in you is greater than He who is in the world. That is Christ in us. He delivers us by seizing us and bringing us out forcefully. You see, He didn't wait for lots of permission. And He won't wait for us. God will destroy the love of the world in your heart. Now, okay, why is that some encouragement? Don't we need to be the ones that are actively going after it? Yes, we do. But like I said, remember, you are hopeless in and of yourself. And so this is the promise. Christ will destroy your love of the world so that you are not destroyed along with the world. And so you see, if we will not let go of our love, what does he do? He disciplines us. What does that mean? He sends something our way to wean us from our love of the world. Right? You want to accrue all the money in the world because you think that'll make you happy. So he will make it that you go into financial debt, that you feel so financially insecure every day of your life so that you come to learn there is no hope in riches. He will send all kinds of suffering, all kinds of things that way, not because He doesn't love us, but because He does and because He wants us to see that all we need is Him. So in His grace, He's dragged us out of a prison that we never wanted to leave, but was destined to be destroyed. You're not in a prison that you want to escape from, you're in a prison that you love. They've got comfy chairs, 24-7 buffet. They want to keep you there and you don't want to leave. But in His grace, He drags us out. And so I want to just from a poem of John Newton, really it's a song or a hymn. Some of you might know it. He's called, I asked the Lord that I might grow. I'm not going to quote the whole thing. But it is this poem that John Newton wrote. If you don't know anything about John Newton, slave trader who was converted, came to Christ and then became a pastor. And he talks about how he would pray to God. And he says, God, I pray I would be more like you. He's praying a good prayer. I want to be Christ-like. I want to know you more. And so he said, I just hope that after I pray that prayer, in that very hour, God's love would constrain my desires and make me more like Him. But He says this, that instead of this, He made me feel the hidden evils of my heart and let the angry powers of hell assault my soul in every single part. And He said, God, why are you doing this? I asked that I might be made more like you and let I feel like I am suffering and troubled and nothing is going right. Wouldn't you choose the easy way? But then in the last verse, God speaks and he says this. Sorry, I memorized it and so now I'm trying to keep it over in my head. He said, these inward trials I employ from self and pride to set you free and break your schemes of earthly joy that you would seek your all in me. All right? He said, I'm using these things to break your love of the world so that you would see that you can't do it in and of yourself. You're not sufficient for these things. You need me. And so you see that at the end of it all, Jesus is our intercessor and He is our deliverer. He is the one you need. He is the one that we come to in everything and He is the one who shall deliver us from this great problem that we suffer. And so now, we're going to turn to our last passage, the last bit of Genesis 19, from a rather interesting, passionate scripture, and just draw out one last thing. After that we have walked through all these points that we have seen in our desperate need for Christ, what are we to do with it? Now Lot went up out of Zor and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zor. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. And the firstborn said to the younger, Our father is old. There is not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our Father drink wine, and we will lie with Him, that we may preserve offspring with our Father. So they made their Father drink wine that night. And the first one went in and lay with her Father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose. And the next day the first one said to the younger, Behold, I lay last night with my Father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you may go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our Father. So they made their Father drink wine that night also. The younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. The firstborn, Borah's son, had called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. The younger also, Borah's son, had called his name Benami. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day. Well, if you ever needed a warning against not drinking too much, pretty good one, Yeah. eh But here you see, right, they have fled up into the mountains. It's funny, because Abraham's asked, oh, can I just have this little town? And now they're so scared because they're the only ones that survive from Sodom, they think people are going to come back to them. They say, why did you survive? How did you get out of it? And maybe label them responsible. And so then they flee to the hills to live as nomads away from everyone, scared for their lives. But the daughters fear. They say, but what about us? We shall have no offspring to come after us. And you've got to understand right back in this day, offspring is massively important because that was almost how women derived their worth. People honestly thought that they lived on through their offspring. So that was how you would create a legacy for yourself. So if they were to have no offspring, they were to be of no worth whatsoever. So they come up with this great plan. Let's sleep with dad. Well, there you go. If ever there was a plan. And so you see, from them come two offspring. One came called Moab, another one called Ben Ami, who it says there became the offspring that would become the Moabites and the Ammonites. And now just a very quick overview of what they became known for, particularly the Moabites. Both of them became vicious enemies of God, these people. But the Moabites we encounter, as the Israelites have gone into slavery, come out and they're about to enter into the promised land. You read it in Numbers 25, 1 to 3. It says, while Israel lived in Shittim, the people began to whore with the daughters of Moab. These invited the people to the sacrifices of their gods, and the people ate and bowed down to their gods. So Israel yoked themself to Baal of Peor, that's just the name of their god, and the anger of the Lord was kindled against Israel. So, what legacy lives on in Lot's daughters? It is the legacy of Sodom. They have, because of they didn't say and sit there and say, God carried us out of Sodom. He has cared for us at every single point. Surely he'll provide offspring for us. He provided offspring for their 90 year old auntie. Surely he can provide offspring for them. They said, no, we must go about it in our own means. And so in that way, their offspring rejected God. And then in the end, they faced the same end as Sodom. says in Zephaniah 2.9, therefore as I live declares the Lord the God of Israel, Moab shall become like Sodom and the Ammonites like Amorah. What a great legacy, right? In their effort to preserve their name, they destined their children to wrath. You see, even Abraham's children themselves would not be preserved by their link to Abraham only. Because it even says in Genesis 18.19, for I have chosen him that he may command, so this is God saying of Abraham, I have chosen him that he may command his children, his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. They had to have faith in God, all right? And that has always been the call to have faith in God. And so that was Abraham's job to tell his offspring to continue to trust in God, that which Lot failed to do with his daughters. by letting them be raised in the world. And so you see, Abraham's offspring was preserved through faith. And so, that leads me to a great quote that someone told me once, God doesn't have grandchildren, right? God only has children. So you see, there is this reality where we have so many beautiful children in this church, young people as well, and they're not going to get into heaven by virtue of our faith, right? They must get in by their own way. Christ is endlessly merciful. and we can take hope. He's put them in this church, in these families for a reason. It's not like it's 50-50 either way. He has put these children in these families so they may be raised up to know God. And you see it is most important, because you see this is my final point. I called it next generations in the thing, I also have it written down, get them while they're young. That sounds a bit weird, but anyway. Because this is an important thing, because... one of the statistics said that 75 % of Christians make a commitment before the age of 18. Most people in this building, not all, but most, came to faith in those early years. Now, God can break into any heart. This is not at all a call to say that God cannot work in people who are older. He most definitely can. But what I am talking about here is the desperate need we have to pour into the lives of those who are younger. And better yet, this is the biblical pattern. Paul is always saying in his letters, those of you who are older, instruct and advise and mentor those who are younger. Teach them. Spurgeon had this analogy where he said he used to look on his grandmother's mantelpiece and she had this apple encased in glass. And he was like, how did that thing get in there? It had a little narrow opening on top, but he looked at it and he couldn't find, there was no opening on the bottom. There was no seam where the glass had been joined. He said, how did that apple get in there? There's no way you could squish it in. And then one day he was walking through his grandmother's apple orchard and he saw that tiny glass jar sitting over a barely budding apple. And so he said, right, you can't fit it into the jar. after it's grown and ripened, but it can be placed in when it is young. And then it is encased in that glass. And so you see, as a church, we have an urgent job. As Christ said, let the little children come to me, and so we have a responsibility. This isn't just, I'm not just saying this to those of you who are older, this is to me as well. I have a right to instruct my children to those who are younger than me. All of us are called to this. And so I would really just ask all of you, what are we doing to help those who are younger than us? All of us obviously have a passion to see the younger generation grow up in the faith. And I'm not asking you to do everything. If you can do nothing but pray, that's the most important thing. But truthfully ask, what can I be doing? Can I catch up with them? Can I read the Bible with them? Can I pray with them? You've got no ideas, come talk to me. I'll give you some ideas. I've got plenty. Don't be scared. Don't think you don't have something to offer. You most definitely do. And so I'm not just talking about the kids here, I'm talking about young adults. I'm talking about parents. All of us need your help. I need you guys, desperately. Don't palm off this responsibility. All of us need to be ministered to and you will be. But man, I just offer you this, you'll see fewer encouragements than this and seeing young people walk in the faith. We are currently in a time when so many young people are walking away from God. We should be endeavouring to see them continue in whatever way we can, trusting in God, not ourselves. And so, bring all of this to a conclusion. Some of you today at this very moment are still in the pit of sin. You're still living in Sodom. Some of you don't know God. m and you need to repent. Jesus is there, He's there, He's sent His messengers, He's telling you, repent and come to Me. I love you, I want to save you, but you will only find salvation in Him. And so He's telling you now, repent and come to Me. Others of us have been saved, rejoice. You've been carried off, you've been saved, you've been delivered, you no need fear judgment day. So those of us who are now in the faith, those of us who mature especially, we are to endeavour to support those who are younger in the faith so that they may not stay in Sodom. This is not about doing it at our own strength, it's about praying for them, it's about talking to them about God and encouraging them, especially as they will suffer loss as all of us have. So, we'll finish up in prayer now. Father. oh You have spared us, Lord, from such a horrible and atrocious fate, from the fires of hell itself, Father, from our eternal punishment. You have spared us. We deserved it. We couldn't escape from it, but You sent Your messages in, Lord. You have declared to us the way of salvation, Father, so we pray that we may grasp a hold of it tightly. The way of salvation is Your Son. We cannot do anything. We are not good enough. Father, that is why we have you and your Son, that we shall place our trust in Him when we repent and believe in Him and His death upon the cross we are saved. We no longer need fear judgment day. I pray that you would pull from the pits those who were there, that they would be freed from the guilt that they sit under at this moment, that you would open their hearts to conviction, Father, but that they would be delivered and shown the forgiveness that is in Christ. and that you would help each and every one of us as a church, those who have known you, Father, for two years, 20 years, maybe some people here even 200 years. uh but that all of us would seek to encourage one another in the faith and to see the next generation come to know you. We pray all these things in Jesus' name, amen.