I was thinking today how it's
a good thing just to go through the scripture in the order that
it's given, because it doesn't allow you to skip anything. When
I would read the Bible to my kids, I just read right through
it, you know. And we tried to explain it the
best we could, but here's a place in scripture that should raise
the hair on the back of our neck because God is a judge. God is
the judge of sinners. And if that were the only case,
then we would be in constant dread and fear with no hope.
But thank God He showed us that the Lord who is the judge is
also our Savior. We just came through Verses 16-19
last week where the Lord had spoken about Abraham and said
he wanted to reveal himself, his way to Abraham, what he was
going to do. And so now we're right at that
point where God is going to go down. And he's going to see whether
Sodom and Gomorrah is as he has heard they are. And so I'm going
to read verse 20, actually start at verse 20. And I've entitled
this message, The Righteous Judge and Our Great Savior. I hope
that you can see both of those things in this verse today, in
these scriptures today. Beginning at verse 20 of Genesis
18, I will go down now, I'm sorry, and the Lord said, because the
cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin
is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have
done altogether according to the cry of it which is coming
to me, and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces
from thence and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood yet
before the Lord. And Abraham drew near and said,
Will thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Because Abraham
perceived that God was going to go down to Sodom and Gomorrah
in order to judge them. So he intercedes. He asks the
Lord, Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? And verse 24, per adventure there
be fifty righteous within the city. Will thou also destroy
and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein?
In other words, are you going to destroy the whole city if
there's fifty righteous? Only fifty? That be far from
thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the
wicked. And if the righteous should be
as the wicked, that be far from thee. Shall not the judge of
all the earth do right? Abraham isn't correcting God
here. He's praying based on what he
knows about him. He says, when he says those words,
that be far from thee, to destroy the righteous with the wicked.
He's saying that because he understands that's the way God's nature is.
He will not do that. And verse 26, And the Lord said,
If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will
spare all the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and
said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak unto the LORD,
which am but dust and ashes. He himself was dust and ashes
and he had taken upon himself to speak to God in prayer for
these people, these wicked sinners. Verse 28, Peradventure, Abraham
goes on in his prayer, Peradventure there shall lack five of the
fifty. Wilt thou destroy all the city
for lack of five? And he said, if I find, the Lord
said, if I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it.
And he spake unto him yet again, Abraham spake to the Lord again,
and said, peradventure there shall be forty found there. And
he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. And Abraham said
to him, O let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Peradventure
there shall be thirty found there. And he said, the Lord said, I
will not do it if I find thirty there. And Abraham said, Behold,
now I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord. Peradventure there
shall be twenty found there. And the Lord said, I will not
destroy it for twenty's sake. And he said, O let not the Lord
be angry, and I will speak yet but this once. Peradventure ten
shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy
it for ten's sake. And the Lord went his way. As
soon as he had left, communing with Abraham. And Abraham returned
to his place. That's a big word, isn't it?
Communing with Abraham. The Lord God communing with this
man. Don't you want to commune with
the Lord? Don't you want to be able to approach Him? Don't you
want to know Him, like Abraham did? And to have Him receive
your prayer for Christ's sake, like He did Abraham's? Chapter
19, let's see what happens. And there came two angels to
Sodom at even time. And Lot, this was Abraham's nephew,
Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. He must have been one of the
rulers at this point, because that's what you do when you sit
in the gate. He sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot, seeing them,
rose up to meet them." He saw the two men who were angels. "...to meet them, and he bowed
himself with his face toward the ground." Obviously, Lot understood
that these were men sent from God. And he said, this is Lot speaking,
"...behold now, my lords, turn in, I pray you." into your servant's
house and tarry all night, and wash your feet, and you shall
rise up early and go on your ways." I wonder if he was hoping
they would just go their way because of what he knew about
the city. And they said, Nay, but we will abide in the street
all night. And he pressed upon them greatly.
And they turned in unto him, and entered into his house, and
he made them a feast, and did bake unleavened bread, and they
did eat. Verse 4, But before they lay
down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the
house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter,
It's pretty clear here that this was a universal behavior amongst
the men of the city. Verse 5, And they called to Lot,
and they said to him, Where are the men which came in to thee
this night? Bring them out unto us, that
we may know them. And Lot went out at the door
unto them, and shut the door after him, and said, His door
behind him is closed and he's talking to the men of the city.
This is Lot. He said, I pray you brethren, do not so wickedly. Because they wanted to take these
men and make them serve their corrupt lusts. Verse 8. Behold
now, Lot says, I have two daughters which have not known man. Let
me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as
is good in your sight, in your eyes. Only unto these men do
nothing, for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof.
Now the men of the city said, Stand back. And they said this
again, This one fellow came into sojourn, and he will needs be
a judge. Now will we deal worse with thee
than with them. And they pressed sore upon the
man, even lot, and they came near to break the door. And verse 10, But the men inside
of Lot's house put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the
house to them, and shut the door. And they smote the men that were
outside the door of the house with blindness, both small and
great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. That's a solemn
occasion, isn't it? God is going down. The Son of
God is going down. to see, he sends his two angels
to see, what is it? Is the cry of Sodom really as
it... Of course, the Lord knows, but
he's going there to get first-hand evidence. Now, we're going to back up to
what we read in the first part in chapter 18. And I want to
point out here, first of all, that Abraham knew God. And that's
an important thing. He approached God because he
knew God. Abraham knew that he himself
was only righteous before God because of the righteousness
of Jesus Christ. He believed that by faith. Genesis
15.6, the Lord counted it to him for righteousness. And Galatians
3.7-9, it's clear that Abraham believed that through his seed,
Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ would justify the heathen through
faith. And so Abraham understood how righteousness is imputed
by God. The righteousness, the obedience
of Christ to death. His obedience to God. His sin
atoning death in which he laid his life down for his people.
That is the righteousness that was imputed to Abraham. And he
received it by faith. God counted Abraham as righteous
as he counted his son to be. And he gave Abraham faith to
see that and receive it. And so Abraham knew that. He
knew God. He knew that God promised by covenant with Christ to bless
His people with eternal salvation and an eternal inheritance. He
knew that God was also the judge of all and that He could do no
wrong. He knew that God would not destroy
the righteous with the wicked. He knew that God is long-suffering
toward the world for the sake of the righteous. And this is
spoken about in several places of scripture, but in 2 Peter
3, verse 15, it says this. Let me turn you to that scripture
in 2 Peter 3. He said there that God's long-suffering
is the reason that God waits and doesn't bring judgment immediately
on this world. Look at 2 Peter 3, verse 15. He says, "...an account that
the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation, even as our beloved
brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, has
written to you." God's long-suffering is salvation, not to all men,
but to His people. And so God saves the world. He
saves His people out of the world and preserves the world in order
to do that. Abraham understood that. And
Abraham knew that God hears the prayers of intercession for Christ's
sake. Because Abraham knew all these
things, because he knew God, he prayed to Him. He knew that
God was going to judge the wicked. He was the judge of all. And
so he came to the Lord by the blood and righteousness of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And this is what God-given faith
in Christ does. And he prayed according to God's
character and nature. He said in verse 25 of Genesis
18, "...shall not the judge of all the earth do right?" That's
a phrase that echoes throughout time and throughout scripture. "...shall not the judge of all
the earth do right?" Have you ever thought that? God is the
judge and He will do right. Don't you submit yourself to
Him? In your heart, by faith, saying, Lord, I know that you
will do right. When we see the world as it is,
we know the Lord is going to do right. When persecution comes
against God's people, we know the Lord will do right. And we
leave it into his hands. But he interceded like Stephen
did when he was being stoned to death. He said, Lord, do not
lay this sin to their charge. Now, the men of Sodom were sinners
exceedingly before the Lord. And the Lord said, because the
cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin
is grievous, therefore he's going to go down to see if it is. The
cry that God speaks about here was the cry of their sins to
God in heaven to bring vengeance upon them for that. It was a
cry of God the judge to be just, because he is just. And so God
doesn't need to go down and physically see men. He knows. God knows
our thoughts. He knows the thoughts of every
man at all times before we think them. He knows our character,
just like we saw last week. Psalm 139 says, The darkness
does not hide from thee. The darkness and the light are
both alike to thee. God sees in the dark as well
as he sees in the day, because he who made the eye shall he
not see? God sees clearly. He sees all
things. All things are naked and opened
under the eyes of Him with whom we have to do according to Hebrews
chapter 4 verse 12. He sees, as we saw in Mark chapter
5 a couple weeks ago, the Lord Jesus Christ, when the man came
running to Him full of a legion of devils, possessed by these
devils, the Lord Jesus saw those invisible evil spirits and He
commanded them to depart from that man. Christ sees them. And He commanded them to depart.
He commands the light to shine out of the darkness. And so when
it says, I will go down now and see whether they have done all
together according to the cry of it which has come to me. This
was the Son of God in human form who stood and talked with Abraham.
He sent His angels to Sodom to bring the report of the cry of
their sins back to Him. And to bring Lot out of that
city. He knew what He would do. He
was going to rain fire and brimstone on them from heaven. And this
is a most sobering thing, to see that the Son of God is our
Judge. He judged the evil spirits. In
Mark chapter 5 we saw that. He judges His sheep. He judges
between them and the wicked. Remember in Romans chapter 9
how God withholds His... He has vessels of mercy prepared
before to show mercy upon. And yet He has those that He
hardens and leaves them to the just deserts of their sins. It's
a sobering thing to know that unless the Lord translates us
from the kingdom of Satan to the kingdom of His dear Son,
we will be bound in Satan's kingdom and will remain there in captivity. It's a sobering thing, isn't
it? To know that we are imprisoned by our own sins and justly deserving
the wrath of God. It's a sobering thing to know
that unless God brought Lot out of Sodom, when he was reluctant
to come, that God would have destroyed Lot and he would have
perished with the wicked. It's a sobering thing, isn't
it? And that's why it speaks in Hosea about fearing God's
goodness, because He's good to us and saves us. We work out
our own salvation with fear and trembling, because we know that
unless the Lord does it, we will not be saved. He gives grace
and salvation to his people in spite of their wickedness. He
judges the wicked for their unlawful deeds. And he gives leave to
the evil spirits to go into swine. And commands those spirits to
come out of his elect. That's what God the Lord does.
And so Abraham knew these things. And then Abraham interceded for
Lot. To intercede means to go in between
as a mediator. And so Abraham sees that God
is going to destroy Sodom for the wickedness. And what does
he do? He intercedes and interposes himself in prayer. Praying to
God on the basis of who God is, His nature and character. How
He won't destroy the righteous with the wicked. How He's just
and cannot do wrong. And he goes to Him and he prays
to the Lord. He stood before the Son of God.
He stood before the Lord to intercede in prayer for the righteous in
Sodom. He drew near. And that takes confidence in
Christ to draw near to God. As a sinner, if we presumptuously
come to Him in our sins, that's not faith. We will be in our
sins if we come that way. And we will be cast out. But
He stood before the Lord and was accepted because when He
came, He looked to the blood of Christ. And so he drew near
with boldness by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and he
drew near with great reverence. In verse 27, Abraham answered
and said, Behold, now I have taken upon me to speak to the
Lord, and I myself am but dust and ashes. He wasn't irrespective
of God or disrespectful of God. He was very humble before the
Lord. Abraham knew that his nephew Lot was a believer. He must have
wondered that if Lot was a believer and when Lot departed from him,
his servants and his flocks were too many for them to both be
together. He must have wondered, isn't
it the case that if Lot who was a righteous man went away, that
surely there would be others who believed on the Lord because
of him and through him. So Abraham didn't know how many
there might be. 50? 45? 40? 30? 20? Perhaps 10? Because he knew that
God said, I won't destroy it for 50 or 45, 40, 30, 20. And
he kept going down because he never got the sense that he ever
hit the number. And the Lord would say, if I
find there even 10 righteous, I will not destroy the whole
city for the sake of those 10. But there was only Lot. There
was only one man. And so Abraham prayed that the
Lord would spare Sodom for the sake of the righteous. It doesn't
appear that he thought to pray an alternative. It doesn't seem
like he thought that God would save the whole city. Or maybe
there was another way of doing it, which the Lord actually took.
It was the Lord's will to save Lot. And it was Abraham prayed
that God would spare the righteous. And in this sense, the Lord answered
Abraham's prayer. Because it was the Lord's will
also to destroy Sodom. And so the Lord found a way in
his wisdom both to take vengeance on the wicked and to save the
righteous. And this is what he does throughout
time and throughout this world. He is going to execute vengeance
and justice in the world. The judge of all the earth will
do right. And He has done right in saving
the righteous. Because the judge of all the
earth will do right. We are saved according to righteousness. According to justice. Because
the Lord Jesus Christ took the full weight of the punishment
of our sins. on himself, bore that weight,
and answered God for it. And God received satisfaction,
full satisfaction, to His justice, for His people, His elect people,
through the blood of Christ. And in the Lord Jesus Christ,
He also received full honor to His law, because He obeyed it
in life and death. With all of His heart, soul,
mind, and strength, He loved His enemies and His neighbor
as Himself, and saved them from their sins. The Lord is the judge
of all. But the Lord Jesus is not only
judge of all, He's also the Savior. Look at Acts chapter 17. I want
you to see this. Paul is speaking to the men at
this place in Athens. These men were idol worshipers.
They even had an idol that said, this is the idol to the unknown
God. They were ignorant. But Paul says in Acts 17, he
says, In verse 31, because he hath
appointed a day, verse 30 says, the times of this ignorance God
has winked at, but now commands all men everywhere to repent
because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge the
world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained, whereof
he hath given assurance to all men in that he hath raised him
from the dead. that man is the Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus said in John chapter 5 verse 22 and 23, God is committed to
the Son all judgment, that all men should honor the Son even
as they honor the Father. Jesus Christ is the judge of
all, but He's also the Savior. There's no other name under heaven,
given among men, whereby we must be saved. And so such knowledge
should make us immediately and continuously to fly to the Lord
Jesus Christ by faith for refuge from the enemies of our sin,
the enemies of our sin and from Satan and from death. Does God's justice make us afraid
because we're sinners? Do we fear God? Do we fear that
God requires from us what we cannot give? That's what the men, remember
that Jesus cast where he cast the devils out of the man in
Mark 5? The men of that place, the men of the Gadarenes, When
they saw that Jesus had cast the evil spirits out of this
man, they weren't glad. What were they? They were afraid,
and they begged Him to leave their country. Why would these
men be afraid of the Lord Jesus Christ? They saw that He could
cast and see, He could see invisible evil and cast it out. He had power over that evil which
was stronger than them. And He judged them and sent them
out and they destroyed these swine. They saw that and they
knew what they were and so they were afraid of Jesus Christ.
Does His justice make us afraid? Do we fear that God requires
from us what we cannot give? God's law was given to us to
convince us of this, to convince us that our sin makes us guilty
before God, just like we sang in that song. There's no safety,
there's no hiding place in the law of God. It only uncovers
our guilt. But the gospel was given to convince
us of God's righteousness, that there is no other except that
which is found in Christ. These two things, God's law that
convinces us of our sin and guilt, and opens up the depravity of
our heart because that which is holy makes our sin exceedingly
great. in God's eyes. It becomes apparent
even to us and others. And then God tells us about His
only satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ. And these two things
act first as a prison and then a release, a redemption in Christ. This is an amazing thing. How
God sends the Son of God into the world to judge the world
and to save His people. He's both a judge and our Savior.
We must see Him. We must see Him as that. We deserve
His wrath, but we don't deserve His grace. But we must come to
Him and find grace in the Lord Jesus. The men of Sodom were
not afraid. They were not afraid. They were
brash. They were arrogant. Their hearts
and their heads were hard as stone against the truth of God.
So when the angels came to Sodom, instead of fearing God's judgment,
they tried to overpower the messengers of God. Romans 1 verse 32 says, These
men who knew the judgment of God, that they which commit such
things that they were committing are worthy of death, they not
only do the same, but they have pleasure in them that do them.
That exactly describes these men, doesn't it? Now, Scripture
makes Sodom and Gomorrah a picture of what we are apart from the
grace of God. And I want you to see some of
this. Look at Ezekiel chapter 16. Ezekiel chapter 16 describes
what was really going on in Sodom and Gomorrah. On the inside of
these men. What led up to the events that
we just read about. These events that shock us. and
are revolting to us by nature. In Ezekiel chapter 48, I'm sorry,
16 verse 48, he says, the Lord says, "...as I live, saith the
Lord God, Sodom thy sister hath not done she nor her daughters
as thou hast done thou and thy daughters." He's speaking about
the nation of the Jews, the Israelites, who in their idolatry, had been
worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. But he says in verse 49, Behold,
this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom. Pride, fullness
of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters,
neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. Pride. That was the first thing. Pride. The problem with these men in
their hearts is that they were first and foremost proud. Proud. God says there are six
things, no seven, that the Lord hates. The first one on the list,
pride. Pride is the sin of devils. They
seek the worship of men that belongs only to God in Christ. That's pride. To try to take
what belongs only to God, and in arrogant pride, seek that
for myself. That's what devils do. That's
what the devil did in Isaiah 14, verse 4. Where it says, I
will be like the Most High. And in Matthew chapter 4, remember
the devil told Jesus, I'll give you everything if you just bow
down and worship me. Pride. And pride was the first
sin. of our first parents, by which
they fell and destroyed themselves and their children, pride. Eve
desired to be like God, knowing good and evil. She did not listen
to her husband, didn't seek his counsel. Her act demonstrated
refusal to submit to the righteousness of Christ. How? Because Adam
and Eve were not satisfied to live on the tree of life, which
is living by faith on Christ and Him crucified. That's what
that tree of life signified. He's the tree of life. His cross
is the tree of life to us. And living, eating of that tree
means believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. So Adam and Eve thought
they could maintain favor from God and obtain life from God
and find satisfaction in themselves on the basis of their own works.
And so they ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil, which is eating from the law. Romans 3.19 says, "...by
the law is the knowledge of sin." So they sought justification
before God by their personal obedience. Instead of trusting
Christ alone. That's pride. That was a first
sin. And pride is the sin of the human
nature. Of our nature. It's pride, isn't
it? That's why we won't obey God. Pride. We think that we
can live without Him. Pride is living independent of
God. Unbowed to Him. Unsubmissive
to His truth and to His rule. Not humbled by His word. Doing
what I please as if I were at liberty to live without God.
What a ridiculous thought. Pride is a high opinion of self,
a sense of self-worth, and therefore entitlement from God in man,
and an unwillingness to repent in dust and ashes in the fear
of God, and own that Christ must be all. May God deliver us from
pride. And the other thing these men
in Sodom were guilty of, according to Ezekiel chapter 16 and verse
49 and 50, is that they They had plenty. It says they had abundance or
fullness of bread. Plenty in this world. Now think
about this. Sodom and Gomorrah was situated
in a place where it was well watered before God destroyed
that city. Before God rained fire down from heaven upon them. The land was fruitful. They had
plenty. But realize that by showing this
to us in scripture, God is teaching us that plenty blessings from
God don't turn the hard heart of a sinner. Isn't that the way? God gives us so many blessings
and we don't turn. We're not thankful to Him. We're
not thankful to Him. These men's hearts were not satisfied
with plenty. Proverbs 27.20 says, Hell and
destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. David understood that. He said
in Psalm 119 verse 67, Before I was afflicted, I went astray.
When I lived in the lap of luxury, that was a problem. But when
I was afflicted, then I kept your word. And then Solomon in
Ecclesiastes 5.10 said, He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied
with silver. That's amazing, isn't it? You're
always wanting more of whatever you love and you're never satisfied
with it. Nor he that loveth abundance
shall be satisfied with increase. This is vanity, Solomon said.
But grace, God's grace, humbles us and keeps us so humble that
the believer cries out, God, be merciful to me, a sinner.
That's the contrast. Abundance of bread, fullness
of bread, they had in Sodom and Gomorrah. And they had plenty.
And all of that goodness did not lead them to repentance.
That's the way the world is today. But the believer, given grace,
says, Order my steps in thy word, and let not any iniquity have
dominion over me. Because the believer is made
hungry in his soul for the righteousness that's in Christ alone. And then in Proverbs 30 verse
8, I like this verse. He says, Remove far from me vanity
and lies. Give me neither poverty nor riches. Feed me with food convenient
for me. That's what we want. We don't
want plenty. We want just enough in this world
to live in order that we might serve Christ. And so the righteous
continually cry to God and He hears them. And that's walking
in the fear of the Lord. It's walking by faith. The other
thing that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had was idleness.
In Ezekiel chapter 16. It says that they had abundance
of idleness in verse 49. What is idleness? It's not being
busy. You don't have enough to do. You don't have to work to get
what you have. People just give it to you. And
without working for things, what do you get? Lazy. And when you're
lazy, because you have so much free time, what does it lead
to? It leads to perversity. Absolute wickedness. Because
you're just sitting around doing nothing. And so your sinful heart
manufactures wickedness to do. And that's what happened in Sodom
and Gomorrah. They were sitting around proud, abundance, and
lazy idleness. And so that left them to a life
of corrupt wickedness. We should never sit around doing
nothing. The Apostle Paul set an example
for the Thessalonians. He didn't live on their support,
but he labored night and day because he wanted to be an example,
not just a word, but an example to them. And so he said to them,
When we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any work
not, neither should he eat. For we hear that there are some
which walk among you disorderly, working not at all. but are busy
bodies. Now them that are such we command
and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with quietness they
work and eat their bread." That's in 2 Thessalonians chapter 3.
And then in Ephesians 4, 28 it says, Paul says, let him that
stole, steal no more. You used to go out and take what
didn't belong to you, don't do that. Here's what you should
do, but rather let him labor. Working with his hands, a thing
which is good that he may have to give to him that has need."
There's always going to be someone who has need. Then go to work
so you can give to them. And especially giving to the
gospel in order that needy sinners might hear about the grace of
God in Christ. Idleness is an excess amount
of free time. And it leads to laziness. And
laziness leads to perversity. and sins of the nastiest kind."
That should teach us something, shouldn't it? Lay the burden
on your children when they're young. May God give you grace
to do that. And don't be concerned for their
crying, but keep them under that load. Because as they labor in
order to fulfill what you've laid upon them, they're going
to actually work. And they're not going to be laying
around doing nothing. Take away things that cause them
to do nothing productive and give them things to do. Invent
things if you have to. Have them do things that are
hard so that they have to have help. These are things that we
learn by experience looking back on our lives. It's good that
a child should bear the yoke in his youth. But the other thing
they did is they didn't pity the poor. They didn't help the
needy. And though they had lots of time in Sodom, they didn't
care about others. They only cared about themselves.
That's despicable, isn't it? Here you've got all this plenty
and plenty of time and what do you do? You wait for someone
to come in as a victim and make them the object of your perverse
desires. Serving you in your idle perversity. And it says here in Ezekiel chapter
16, they were haughty. They did not regard God or man.
They were haughty, brash, arrogant. Rather than showing hospitality
to the two angels who came in as strangers, they tried to make
them slaves to their corrupt minds. Lot rebuked them for their
sinful behavior. But what did they do? This man
came in to sojourn for us, it says in Genesis 19 verse 9. And he will needs be a judge
over us. What were they saying? You're
being judgmental. You're condemning me. They were
trying to take, you know, words like judge not, lest you be judged,
and apply them to Lot, so that he wouldn't actually expose what
they were. Now, it's easy to see the perversity
of Sodom and Gomorrah, isn't it? At least on the surface.
It used to be, at least. But today, I'm going to use a
big word here. Homosexuality and transgender
identity and so many other unmentionable perverse lifestyles have given
a protected status to these things in our society. There are several
things to learn from Sodom and Gomorrah. Several things to learn. There's several things to learn,
but we want to learn this. That there's a greater evil than
the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah. And we would be shocked to say
that, wouldn't we? Is it even possible that there's
anything worse than this? God destroyed the city. There
is a greater evil. is called spiritual fornication,
spiritual adultery against God. God first blessed Sodom and Gomorrah. Their land was well watered.
He made their land prosperous. They had it easy. What effect
did His outward blessings have on their sinful hearts? Were
they thankful? Were they humbled by God's undeserved kindness?
Did they submit to God's way? Did they love His truth? No. They grew proud, lazy, selfish,
haughty. against God and man, and they
grew more and more perverse, openly, shamelessly, greedy,
selfish, rude, and they would not tolerate even a mild rebuke
without lashing back in self-righteous indignation." It's easy to see
that, isn't it, from these scriptures? The lesson from Sodom and Gomorrah
is that the sinful heart of man will not be bowed by outward
blessings and goodness. Many today, in our society, deny
that the Bible denounces homosexuality. And it's not surprising. Why
is it not surprising that men deny the Bible denounces homosexuality? Why would that not be surprising
to us? Because men reject the work of God's law. That's what
we do by nature. We deny our own sinfulness, and
so in denying our sinfulness, what do we do? We exclude ourselves
from salvation. Because why did Christ Jesus
come into the world? But to save sinners. And if we
reject the work of God's law, we deny ourselves the blessings
of salvation. The demands of the law for penalty
and for obedience stings our conscience. Because we know we're
guilty, doesn't it? That's what Adam did. As soon
as he heard the voice of God in the garden, he hid himself.
Both he and Eve. So we try to hide because it
stings our conscience. We try to change the law to make
its requirements less demanding upon us. That's what religion
does. Let's make some rules. Let's see. You know, we'll do
this, this, and this. We'll put these things down in
our little whatever laws. And we'll keep those instead
of actually obeying God from the heart. Because we can do
this, but we can't do the other. So we change the law. Make it
less demanding. We make it's justice less just. We make it's holiness less holy.
And though we are sinners, we do not want anyone to think we're
evil. Isn't that ironic? So we change
the law. We will not allow anyone to say
we are wrong. That would put us in a negative
light. That would shame us. That would impinge on our freedom.
That would prevent us from vice. So what do we do? We attack the
law, or we attack those who use the law to accuse us. That's
what they did. Self-righteousness and hypocrisy
runs deep. Even in the shameless. Even in
the openly perverse. But this leads us to the second
point, which we need to understand about Sodom and Gomorrah. That
God uses Sodom and Gomorrah in a second way. He uses them comparatively
in order to show us an even greater evil. Because we see this, we
say, that's the bottom, that has to be as low as you can go.
And God says, no, there's something even worse. We naturally, and
we ought to, recoil at the heinousness of the perversity of Sodom. Their
shamelessness, their pride, all these things. But scripture condemns
works religion more than it condemns Sodom and Gomorrah. Jesus said
in Matthew chapter 10, And he was speaking about the city of
Capernaum because they rejected Christ. Our contempt for Sodom
is meant to help us understand God's great contempt for anything
that men trust or anything in which men find satisfaction that is satisfaction and trust
and delight and joy besides the Lord Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Works religion is an open denial
of the truth of God. But more than that, works religion
disdains Christ. It's one thing to deny the truth
of God's law. It's another thing, entirely,
to have disdain and despise the Son of God who came to fulfill
that law to God's honor and the satisfaction of His justice and
to save His people according to the eternal will of God, the
eternal promise of God, the eternal work of God, and the glory of
God. That is worse than this. Works religion. And God will
not tolerate that. How does works religion despise
Christ? Well, works religion does several
things that are abominable to God. But if we really get it
down and draw the string tight, it all comes down to this. Works
religion denies, first of all, that I am a sinner. And that
I can do nothing to please God. That's what works religion denies.
You're not that bad. You just need to come forward
in the church. You need to accept Jesus, exercise
your will, your free will, because God's a gentleman. He's not going
to impose his will on you. And you need to do these certain
things in order to be a Christian. Now, if you do that, God will
respond to you because you responded to Him. And it's an even, even
transaction. You're a peer with God. He can't
save you unless you let Him. That's what works religion teaches.
And then, of course, you have to do these things in order to
maintain your standing in the eyes of God. And before men,
especially. That's more important, actually.
So works religion denies that I'm a sinner. That I can do something
to please God. That I'm only deserving of God's
righteous wrath. Works religion denies that God
is good. And that I am really bad. That's
what works religion does. That God could somehow accept
me. He's not that good. He could accept me. I'm thinking
something. God looks at my desires. He's
going to save me because I'm sincere. Or I shed tears. Or
I had an experience in my life that was traumatic and it turned
me to God. He's going to look at those things
and say, yes, He's someone that I'm going to save because of
these things. Works religion points the spotlight on me and
it finds goodness in me. That's what works religion does.
Works religion not only does that, but works religion denies the
necessity of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that is
an abomination to God. Works religion denies that Christ
is the only righteousness by which a sinner may appear before
God. In Ezekiel, you don't have to turn back there, but in Ezekiel
16, 15, God said, you trusted in your own beauty. That's what
the national Israel did. They trusted in their own beauty.
That's works religion. Idolatry is serving the works
of our own hands. That's what idolatry is. And
God condemned them more than he condemned Sodom and Gomorrah. God compares trusting our works
to committing spiritual adultery and fornication against Him. And so, it's evil. It's evil. It's worse than Sodom and Gomorrah.
It's denying Christ. It's denying God His glory in
Christ. Denying sinners salvation by
Christ. Let me give you an illustration.
And I hope that in this illustration, this experience in my life will
somehow work for your good. I remember once, when our children
were younger, we acquired a small stray cat. The cat was covered with fleas
and I foolishly decided to give the cat a bath to baptize it
by immersion to cause the fleas to leave the cat and drown in
the water. What I failed to account for was that the cat was wiry,
wriggly, wild, and determined to do anything to avoid getting
wet. But I was pretty stubborn, and
I still am. So I held the cat firmly in my
hands. I lifted his little body up above
the water in the tub. And I began to move his body
down towards the water. And as soon as the cat touched
the water, it showed a surprising flexibility under that legal
compression. It twisted. its neck with elasticity,
and it sunk its teeth into my hand. I attempted to adjust my
grip. But as I repositioned my hands,
it sunk its claws into the flesh of my hands and arms. And as
I recall, in my stubborn pride, I think I ended up getting the
cat wet. But my hands were bloody. Now, needless to say, I was ready
to relieve that little cat of one or more of its nine lives. I tried to bathe the cat to wash
away its fleas, but it could not be tamed. Not with respect
to water. Now the cat is my illustration
of our sinful nature. My hands were the law of God.
The water is God's legal requirements. The cat's fleas are sins that
appear more sinful when they are subjected to God's law. God's
law is holy, but my heart is proud. I cannot see, and I will
not see, that I am exceedingly sinful. I imagine that I am good
enough to do something to make myself acceptable to God, to
earn His favor or obtain His blessing, and to avoid His wrath.
And though the law is intended to show me how truly evil I am,
I refuse to accept that assessment. When it discovers my guilt, I
either hide or I reinterpret the law to remove my shame and
make me look better. Because I cannot deny myself
what I want, I bludgeon my conscience and sear it's screaming protest
so that I can have what I want. And since the law promises life
to the righteous, I reason that God would not deceive me, so
I must be able to do what he requires to earn his acceptance
and blessing. And like the cat, I refuse to
submit to the fact that I'm such a sinner that nothing less than
my death will remove my sin, and nothing less than the obedience
of Christ will make me acceptable to God. My self-protecting instinct
keeps me blind to the grace of God. I cannot imagine that God
would be so holy as to reject all that I am, that He would
be so gracious as to provide all of the salvation that I need,
completely outside of myself, out of my personal contribution
and experience, all out of His own Son. So unless grace intervenes,
I will hold to my willful ignorance. I will do works and trust in
them. And I will ask men to give me
something to do. I will trust men rather than
God. I will think that God is not
good, because I'm not all that bad. so bad that he would reject
all that I am. This is idolatry of the worst
sort, because it presumes that I can provide some of my righteousness. And by this claim, that I can
provide righteousness, I can therefore provide all of my righteousness. If I can provide anything that
God can accept, then Christ died needlessly. And that's a sobering thought,
isn't it? If I could do something to attract God's favor, if I
could do something to improve myself so that I'm more savable,
if I could do anything to avert God's wrath, in short, anything,
then the death of Christ was not necessary and God delivered
up his son to death without a just cause. And this is the unavoidable
conclusion of idolatry, the idolatry of works religion. This is why
works religion is worse than the sin of Sodom. The pride and
plenty and idleness and selfishness and haughtiness of works religion
is greater than all of these things that came from Sodom and
Gomorrah. To believe that God can accept
me for some small thing or some large thing that he finds in
me is to deny Christ's death as the only satisfaction of God
for sins. To deny Christ's obedience in
death as the only righteousness God can accept from men. Like
the cat, we writhe, we resist the work of God, the work of
God's law, until God, by His grace, by His efficacious call
to life in the gospel, opens our eyes to see the glory of
God in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so I leave you with this
verse of scripture in Proverbs 29 verse 9. It's our memory verse
for the week. It says, "...if a wise man contendeth
with a foolish man, whether he rage or laugh, there is no rest."
That's what we are by nature. We're the foolish man and God's
law reasons with us. But whether he rage or laugh,
there's no rest. Because until God's grace comes
along and inserts within us a new heart, takes away the stony heart,
and gives us faith by the miracle of God's Spirit in us, we will
never see goodness in Christ. So that we flee to Him as our
only hiding place. What a Savior, that He would
give Himself for sinners like we are, self-righteous, more
loathsome than even Sodom and Gomorrah,