Destruction and Deceit

Wrath. Judgment. Perdition. Hell. Punishment. Our sin being offensive to God. These are difficult things to talk about. These are things that many Christians avoid talking about. These are things that many Christians deny because they are difficult. As we heard Brian read one of the more outstanding passages of Scripture referring to how sinful man has become, we feel the discomfort. Why is it we are embarrassed of a God who punishes evil and sin? Why is it that we are afraid to talk about God's wrath, God's judgment, hell and punishment? Are we embarrassed of a God who is gloriously just and holy and good? This morning's topic is heavy. This morning's topic is difficult because it's talking about our sin. And it's talking about our sin in light of God and His greatness. Now, something I want to talk about first is this concept of what is wrath? Wrath isn't an attribute of God. God is not eternally wrathful. God is not eternally seeking to punish. The wrath is an outworking of His being. Friends, God is just. That's His character and His attribute. God is holy. God is good. So usually when we confess how good God is, we think about the good gifts He gives us in mercy. But really, if we think about God's goodness, God's goodness means he necessarily has to punish sin. If God is good, he has to hate evil. If God is light, he's opposed to darkness. If God is truth, he is opposed to lies. Why is it we're embarrassed to talk about God's wrath? Because we don't view it properly. Because we don't have a proper view of ourself and our view of God. Praise God, he has revealed himself as a good God. He is a God who is committed to being good. He's a God who committed to truth and to life. He's a God who's committed to righteousness and justice and holiness. We should be thankful that our God is good and that he punishes sin. Of course, where it gets scary is the fact that when we realize we're sinners. And we have opposed God's holiness. What I want to talk about this morning is, well, what Scripture talks about here in Genesis 18 and 19. We're going to see grace, we're going to see mercy, but this is the ultimate declaration of sin. This is the ultimate declaration of punishment for sin. This is Sodom and Gomorrah, the two names of these cities that are euphemisms for sin and detestable sin. Friends, we worship a God who is good. and justly judges all sin. We worship a God who is just and should punish us all for our sin. We all like to talk about His love, His mercy, His kindness, His good deeds towards us. But these really are empty unless we truly see that He should punish us instead of show us mercy. Until we really see how deep our sin is and how great and holy God is, we will not truly appreciate what Christ accomplished for us on the cross. So this morning, we're going to see two things. First, we will see God's goodness and holiness in his destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. We will see God's goodness and holiness in his destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. And secondly, we will see his faithfulness to his people. As he saved sinners, according to his promise. We're going to see his goodness and his destruction, and we're going to see his goodness and his mercy. Praise God, we have a good God who hates sin and overcomes sin. If we look at Genesis 18 and 19, a point of context, this is a continuation of Genesis 13 and 14. For Abraham and Lot, Lot is Abraham's nephew. They've traveled together. Their herdsmen are starting to bicker and fight. And so Abraham says, turn to the east, west, north and south. You make a decision where you're going to go because we've gotten too big. And Lot makes a foolish decision. He goes down to the cities. He flirts with sin. And here, Genesis 18 and 19 is just a continuation of that decision, because it already set up that the fact that God was going to destroy these cities. Genesis 18 and 19 also relate to chapter 17. It's a different literary unit, you have a different visitation here, you've got the Lord and two angels, you've got three visitors in verses 18 and 19. But the similarities in content are very similar. In chapter 17, Abraham laughs at God. Chapter 18, Sarah laughs at God. In chapter 17, Abraham gets the promise that about this time next year, Sarah will have a child. Chapter 18, that promise is given to Sarah directly. So the time frame must be similar because both times he says about this time next year. So these events are taking place close together in time and are similar in what they are declaring. We have three sections this morning. Chapter 18, 1 through 15. That's where we see God's remaining faithful to his promise. Chapter 18, 16 through 33, that's where we see God allowing Abraham to talk to him as a friend. We see a great prayer of intercession take place in chapter 18, verses 16 through 33. And then chapter 19, as Brian read, we will see God exercising his goodness. Only it will be an exercise that acts with wrath and judgment. Let's look at our text, chapter 18, 1 through 15. Here we will see the Lord remains faithful to his promise and purpose to save us. Read with me, and the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day, he lifted up his eyes and looked and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth and said, Oh, Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. Let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree while I bring a morsel of bread that you may refresh yourselves. And after that, you may pass on, since you have come to your servant. So they said, Do as you have said. And Abraham went quickly into the tent of Sarah and said, Quick, three says of fine flour, knead it and make cakes. And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man who prepared it quickly. Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Let's stop here because we see Abraham really exercising great hospitality for these guests. He's sitting there, as we can appreciate, as the summer heat is starting to set in. You've got the nice Virginia humidity. It's a lot nicer under the shade than out in the sun. We can appreciate Abraham in the heat of the day. He's cooling himself, sitting in shade. And all of a sudden, these three men come. And Abraham's response is offering them a morsel of bread and some water. Well, as you see, this is not exactly what he intended, because he goes and he has bread made especially for them, and he prepares a fattened calf. He prepares a feast for them, whereas really what he's asked them to stay for is just a morsel of bread and some water. Even more so is the interesting, that's supposed to stand out if you're a Hebrew, Abraham being old, he runs. This is unbecoming of an elderly man. Not because he's physically incapable, because his honor is not supposed to allow him to run. He's supposed to walk and carry himself with a certain demeanor. Running was unacceptable for an older man because of the cultural expectation of honor. Here he doesn't care about the honor. He runs. Because he's excited and wants to serve these men. Notice in verse 5, you have come to your servant. And that's exactly how Abraham acts. Notice there in verse 8, he took all the curds, the milk and the calf, he prepared it, set it before them and then he stood by them under the tree while they ate. Here's three men, they're eating and Abraham stands back. as their servant. He's not partaking in the meal with them. He is there. Here's the father of all nations. The one man in all of history that was called by God to be the father of all nations. The head of Israel. The head of the covenant family. And he's standing here as a servant to these three men as they eat the fattened calf, the choice curds, and the fresh bread. From this interesting here, the amount of hospitality that that Abraham puts into the passage or into the care of these three men, I believe this passage is actually referenced in Hebrews 13 to. Where it says, do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. This is really begs the question, as we we think about it in in our Christian context, before we move on to the bigger picture. Now, how hospitable are you? There's a command to be hospitable throughout Scripture, 1 Peter 4, 9, show hospitality to one another without grumbling. Romans 12, 13, contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. Those two passages from Peter and Romans are talking about being hospitable to your fellow saints, your fellow church members. It's inviting others into your home and going to their home and caring for others needs. The Hebrews passage is talking about the stranger. And then, of course, we have Matthew 25 when Jesus says, you saw me in need of food and clothes, and yet you did not help. That, of course, is also referring to the stranger. I want to take the opportunity here as we think about Abraham's hospitality to to challenge us as a church. If there's one thing I would love for us to be known for, well, it's the gospel. And I would love for the gospel to have a proper fruit and a proper effect that we actually love one another enough to show hospitality to one another. We seek to honor one another by having each other into our homes. We want to have an intimate, personal relationship with each other. We don't want to just come here in this building, sing some songs, hear the Word, and go out and not relate and care for one another. No, we want to be a church. that seeks intimate, deep, loving relationships. And I think the best venue for that, I think the best way for us to do that is to be hospitable. To start inviting each other into our homes. That's one of the major things. If Sunday night, if we don't have anything planned, and all we are doing is having a culture where we're all inviting each other into our homes, that is a beautiful picture of the Kingdom of God. That is a beautiful way of loving and serving and caring for another. If I were to add to that long list of vision statements I gave my very first weekend here, hospitality would be one of the things I would add after we nail down the gospel and discipleship. I would love for us to be known as a church that exercises hospitality, inviting visitors into our homes after Sunday, inviting other members in the evenings. Let me give you a simple way to do this. In case you're overwhelmed with the idea of being hospitable to everyone. My wife and I, we haven't been able to hit the routine here yet, but we hope so in Louisville. We had a hospitality night. There was one night of the week where we would look through the church directory and we would say, this person is new to the church. This person has been here a long time. Let's vote. Let's invite them both to our home and we'll have fellowship. We'll ask them their testimonies. We'll ask them how things are going at the church, what their personal needs are. It's a very simple thing to do. You go through the directory and you just start checking folk off. And if you're worried about what to talk about, talk about the gospel. Talk about the sermon. Now, I realize there may be one intimidating thing, and that there are a lot of large families here. I've thought of this. It could be difficult to think, how can I bring all 10 of this family into my home? I know the larger families fairly well. I think what you could do is say, can I prepare food and bring it to your house? I don't think they're going to oppose that. You can stand up if you want to oppose that idea. Nobody? All right, great. Let's see. It's done. But one thing is we look at Abraham's hospitality, and I just wanted the opportunity to walk through those New Testament commands. Be challenged to love one another by inviting one another into your homes with hospitality. Now let's look at the real meat of this passage in the way the gospel is most clearly presented here. This is in verses 9 through 15. They said to him, where is Sarah your wife? And he said, she is in the tent. The Lord said, I will surely return to you about this time next year and Sarah, your wife, shall have a son. And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. Now, Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years, in case you forgot. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. So Sarah laughed to herself, saying. After I am worn out, And my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure?" Imagine the difficult words there. Sarah, who has longed for a child, longed for this promise to be fulfilled for twenty-some plus years. Shall I finally have pleasure? The Lord said to Abraham, why did Sarah laugh? And say, shall I indeed bear a child now that I am old? Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time, I'll return to you about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son. But Sarah denied it, saying, I did not laugh, for she was afraid. He said no. But you did laugh. This is not as awkward as chapter 19. This is an awkward dialogue here. One of the things you need to know is whenever you have company in this culture, the men and women didn't eat together. They were like shakers. I don't know if you're familiar with Kentucky. There were a group, men and women did it, fellowship with one another. The men and the women, they would not eat together. Furthermore, a visitor would not address another man's wife by name. That was part of the way they exercised and tried to establish headship. So it's odd that the person here, the Lord addresses Sarah by her name. I think all this points to the fact that this visits for Sarah. See, chapter 17, Abraham got the great promise about this time next year, Sarah will have a child. I wonder if Abraham told his wife. Maybe it's one of those things he thought he did and he didn't. I have moments like that. Where is Sarah, your wife? She's in the tent and the Lord then gives this great promise. He gives a time frame. The promise is a time frame. About this time next year. Finally, a concrete hook. I know when it's coming. All the other promises from 12, 15, 17, they were more difficult promises. Because it's a promise that is going to happen, not when. Here they have that concrete temporal hook. We know it's going to have to be this time next year. Sarah listening. Laughs. Now, there's a contrast here between the way she laughs and Abraham laughs. Abraham falls on his face and laughs. I think he's awkwardly trying to believe the impossible is still true. He's still trying to believe the new name for God, El Shaddai, God Almighty, is going to reveal itself. And he awkwardly laughs as he bows his face. Sarah laughs to herself. After I'm worn out and my Lord is old, shall I have pleasure? You see, a genuine crying out to God. A genuine doubt. We don't necessarily see a lot of faith. The Lord challenges Abraham for his wife, laughing. And He says, is anything too hard for the Lord? He challenges Abraham. He challenges Sarah, because she's still listening. Is anything too hard for the Lord? Is this truly too impossible for God? See, what Sarah's doing is questioning God's power. That's the sin in the text. That's the sin in the event. Sarah is questioning God's power to do what He has said. It's interesting how God deals with Sarah. Yes, He gives a strong confrontation. Oh, no, you did laugh. He doesn't throw His wrath out upon her. She's continued to doubt. She threw out Hagar to her husband. She's been a problem with the covenant people. God's been patient with her. I think God has been all this time taking little steps with Sarah, reminding her of the promise over and over again so that she'll finally and eventually believe. I believe this shows the tenderness of God, even though there's the hard confrontation. This event and the way we see God dealing with Sarah shows his love and his patience. One author said this, from the time when God begins to be kind towards us, he is never weary until by adding one favor to another, he completes our salvation. God continued to be kind and kind and kind and kind and giving promise after promise after promise until I believe that this must be his final push to have Sarah finally believe in the promise. The promised child has to be born in faith. Abraham has believed, and I have to read between the lines here and see that Sarah must have finally believed. Friend, are you with us and you still doubt God? Is God doing a work in you so that you have curiosity, you have interest in what God is doing, but you haven't yet committed yourself to faith? If you truly want to know God and believe Him, it's simple. Look at his promises. Test what he has declared. Look and meditate upon his great declarations. Read the Gospel of Mark. Just start reading about what Jesus said and what he did. Read John 3, one of the great passages that talks about how Christ has come to die for sinners. Read through Mark and ask me or others in the church questions. If you want to wrestle through your doubts, if you want to come to a true faith, let the promises penetrate over and over again. Let the kindness of God be meditating, be always in your heart and in your mind. It's interesting, this verse, is there anything too hard for the Lord? That's verse 14. This should sound familiar because this is what is recorded in Luke 137. The angel is speaking to Mary, giving her the promise that the spirit will come and cause her to be pregnant as a virgin. She will conceive miraculously as a virgin because the spirit will come and hover in her womb. She has given assurance that this promise is going to be true because Elizabeth, her older relative, she will become pregnant. And then the question is asked, is anything too hard for the Lord? You see, this promised child, Isaac, in 18, is given this challenging question to the lady who was supposed to respond. Sarah receives this challenge. Is there anything too hard for the Lord? The answer is no. The promised child, the first promised child, Isaac, the question is presented there. Then the true promised child, Jesus Christ, the question is presented there. If we look at what's truly impossible in natural means, we can see that God is able to accomplish His purpose. Now, friends, are you in an impossible situation? Are you in a situation where you feel pressed? Where you doubt God? Where you doubt how He could ever work in you and ever fix your problems? Maybe it's personal. Maybe it's financial. Maybe it's your health. Maybe it's the salvation of a loved one that you see always rebelling and never interested in spiritual things. Do you trust God? Or do you, like Sarah, question Him? This is truly impossible. Friends, we need to know that God is good. We need to look at Him and see all the promises He has made and trust Him that His will will be accomplished and His will is good. We need to look at the impossible situation and apply to it what we know about God. Now, let's say you have a health problem. Well, God hasn't promised you good health. That actually isn't a promise that you get, like Sarah had her promise that she would have a child. What God does promise you is that He's going to be with you. He's going to comfort you. He's going to care for you. He's going to guide and direct you. As we look at our problems, we have to be able to see there are other promises that aren't directly relating to our particular problem, but they're what we need in the midst of that problem. One of my favorite arguments from Paul is in Romans 8.11. If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you. See the beautiful reasoning. The Father who raised Jesus up, He has given you His Spirit. The Spirit indwells you. If you believe Jesus is able to rise from the dead, if you believe the Father is able to conquer sin and death, how can you doubt the comforting power of the Spirit that is dwelling in you? And the context here is actually fighting against sin. Do you feel like you're in an impossible situation with your temptation of sin, whether it be greed or lust? Do you feel like you're impossibly always being defeated? Look at the power that God has placed inside of you. Not your own strength, but it's the Holy Spirit. The same power that rose Christ from the dead, the same power that conquers sin and death is dwelling inside of you. It's a matter of resisting your sin and turning to God. Friends, if you do not find yourself in impossible situations, are you truly living by faith? If we are not in an impossible situation, if we're not looking to God, wondering how you're ever going to fix this thing, are you truly walking by faith? Or have you so surrounded yourself with comfort and ease that you don't need God? Finally, our second section this morning, Genesis 18, 16 through 33, there's a major transition that takes place. The promise has been given to Sarah. The Savior is going to be the son who will be the line of the Savior. He will come. But here we have a transition to the focus on Sodom and Gomorrah. Let me read chapter 8, 16 through 33. Then the men set out from there and they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham went with him to set them on their way. The Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do? Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the earth shall be pleased, we should be blessing him. For I have chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him. Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know. So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom. But Abraham stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are 50 righteous in the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing. to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked. Far be it that from you shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And the Lord said, If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes, suppose five. of the 50 righteous are lacking, will you destroy the whole city for five, for lack of five? And he said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there. Again, he spoke to him and said, suppose there are found there, suppose 40 are found there. He answered, for the sake of 40, I will not do it. Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak. Suppose 30 are found there. He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there. He said, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 are found there. He answered, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak again. But this once, suppose 10 are found there. And he answered for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it. And the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place. It's quite the bartering. Quite the interesting dialogue here with Abraham and the Lord, we we see a beautiful intercessory prayer taking place here. What we have to realize is that this intercessory prayer is really based upon what preceded it. If you look at verses 16 through 21, God reveals His secret plan to Abraham. He looks at Abraham and says, You are going to be the father of all nations. You are my promised child. Should I keep back from you what I plan on doing? He says, I will tell you of what I'm going to do in righteousness and justice. This is an invitation that God has given to Abraham to be his friend. There's many passages. James 2.23 is one of the great declarations that Abraham was a friend of God. That phrase isn't found in Genesis, but I believe this must be the basis of it. Here, God comes to Abraham like a friend. He shares his secret counsel with him like a friend, like an equal. Obviously, he's God and Abraham's a creature. There's the creator-creature distinction. But here, it's the way God talks to him. Should I keep anything from you? I'm going to let you know what I'm going to do. I believe this is the foundation for why Abraham was able to make this long entreat, this long prayer of intercession. And notice how he prays. You're a righteous and just God. He prays based upon what he knows about God. He prays based upon how God has revealed himself. You are righteous and just. Will you destroy the city if there's this many righteous people, if this many righteous people and so forth? There's two ways to think about why he ends up the number 10. Or why he even begins making this this intercession. One is that Abraham was just asking out of curiosity. Is Abraham trying to figure out God's secret ways beyond what God has already told him? Is Abraham taking the opportunity to speak to God now as God has revealed his secret plan to him? That's one possibility. The other one seems more likely in that Abraham is concerned for Lot. Abraham knows that Lot has gone down through Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knows that he is numbered there with those. And if God is going to destroy Sodom, that means Lot is going to be destroyed with him. And I believe Abraham begins the process of cranking it down to that number 10, because he must believe that is the number in Lot's household. If you count daughters, wife, sons-in-law, and his supposing servants as well. I believe that must be why he counts down to number 10. But he takes the opportunity. That's the beauty of this passage. God's gracious declaration. This is my secret counsel. This is my secret plan. He shares with Abraham like a friend, and then he lets Abraham talk to him as a friend. This is a challenge to our prayer life. Do we pray to God as the great divine creator who has condescended to us? to be our friends. He has descended himself. He has lowered himself so that he bends his ear on our level. He allows us to speak to him at our level. Do we take full advantage of this? Do we truly think that God is listening as a friend who wants to know what we believe, who wants to know what we think, who wants to know what we desire? Is it God who wants to hear our personal request? Now, something that is interesting here as well is that Abraham is praying according to what he knows about God. He's praying based upon what God has revealed about himself. God is good. God is trustworthy. God is committed to his children. God is loving. God is holy. God is just. As we pray to God, we have to keep in mind who we're praying to. Pray according to what you know about God. Let that be the basis and motivation for your prayer. Let's move into Sodom and Gomorrah. As Brian has already read it, there's something interesting here. It's two days are presented here. Chapter 18 is interesting because the three men, they come during the day. It's more of a sunny visit. Chapter 19, they go out in the evening. I believe this time of day is supposed to give you a recognition of something different is happening. One's a sunny, happy visit. One is a dark, doomsday visit. If we look at chapter 19, we see just absolute wickedness. These two men, the two angels, the Lord stays with Abraham. The two other men go down. They want to stay in the square, but Lot says no. I think he knows why he doesn't want them to stay in the square. Come spend the night with me, he says. And then verse four is where we want to pick up before they lay down the men of the city, men of Sodom, both young and old. They come to Lot's house. They want to know these two men. This is interesting in the fact that the detail is printed out here. The detail is very focused. All the men of the city, the young and the old. This isn't just the young naive folk. These are the elders of the city. These are the men who are supposed to know better. These are the men who are supposed to be leading and guiding the young men. And maybe that's the problem. The whole point of saying young and old is the entire city is corrupt. And here you have these Two men being threatened. They're knocking on the door. Let us come in and sodomize these two men. Shocking. The Bible talks about all the sins. The Bible isn't shying away from how wicked and evil we are as human beings. Here are all the city and they're coming, seeking to force these Two men, these angels. If that's not shocking enough, what about Lot's response? No, don't take these two men. Take my two daughters who've never known a man. It just gets more and more wicked. It gets more and more perverse. The sin of Sodom is clear. Now you can see that Lot is as wicked, as gross. This is disgusting. This is uncomfortable. As we look at what, so then the angels, they have to save Lot and his daughters. Lot isn't going to do anything. They strike the town with blindness. You see Lot, he's a bit of a failure. He wants to throw his daughters out to this gang. He then, after the angel has already said, we're going to save you, we're going to take you, go to your son-in-law, he presents it in such a way that his son-in-law is laughing at him. Now, I don't think that's showing how wicked the son-in-laws are, but I think that's showing how weak Lot is. And the rest of the story really makes that clear. In verse 15, it points out he lingered. Or if two men who just struck an entire city blind tells you, get up out of this place with your entire family. We're going to rain brimstone and hellfire down upon this place. You're not going to linger. Lot lingers. This is complete contrast with Abraham who runs to prepare a mill. Here Lot is lingering. And he's lingering to the point in verse 16 that angels have to grab him to move him. And then it gets even more peculiar. They're taking him to the hill country and Lot says, well, if I'm going to have to leave Sodom and Gomorrah, how about I go to the hill country? How about I go to Zohar? How about I go to this small city? You see a man just wicked. You see a man who is said to be a man of faith, but here he's lapsing in all sorts of judgment. He's not trusting God. He's not believing God's word that he's going to truly judge this city. He's not really recognizing the power of God and the mercy of God or the wisdom of God. And of course, that decision not to go to the hill country. Means he ends up in a cave committing incest. Lot is rescued, and there's two reasons Lot is rescued. Verse 16 says it's because of God's mercy. God is good, and he exercises his goodness with mercy. He exercises goodness by showing mercy to whom he will show mercy. It also says that Lot is rescued because God remembered Abraham in verse 29. His mercy is connected to that covenant people. Now, what's interesting also in this chapter is verse 26. Lot's wife looks back and turns to a pillar of salt. This represents the fact that she turned back, not looking ahead to what God had for her. She looked back, wanting that life. She was leaving. And if you want to know more about that, Ben Velord is preaching from Luke 17 tonight, meditating on the New Testament, Jesus' teaching on Lot tonight. I highly encourage you to come. So here we see Lot making foolish decisions and the fruit of those foolish decisions are his daughters committing incest with him. And then you have the Ammonites and the Moabites, two countries that fought against God's people throughout the Old Testament. Let's think about the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. Our sin is offensive and we deserve wrath. That should be our response to this account. We should see that we are doomed. We should be under God's judgment. But God shows us mercy. We are like Sodom. Now, we are not doing the same evil deeds recorded in chapter 19. But it's interesting, as Brian read in Ezekiel 16, God calls Israel Sodom. Their name is a euphemism for evil. And when God's people aren't acting like God's people, He calls them Sodom and Gomorrah. Even more interesting, I'll leave you to read this later, Judges 19. This is the tribe of Benjamin, the city of Gibeah, where Saul, the first king of Israel, comes from. The same account that takes place in Sodom and Gomorrah, the same evil deeds are done there in Israel. We can be an evil and wicked people. We must realize that we are disobedient to God and that our sin is offensive to God. We like to quote Jesus about judging others and embrace his great love without realizing that a majority of his teaching were judgments against other people. If we're truly going to be people of the book, if we're truly going to be people who follow Jesus, we're going to realize judgment against sin is what Jesus came to proclaim along with the salvation of sin. We don't want to. We want God to judge sinners like Mussolini and Hitler. We want to judge the sinners who sin against us, but do we want to recognize that God should judge our sin? You see, friends, the consequence of sin is his wrath. We must all realize we are sinners. We must all realize we have rebelled against God. Our sin is offensive to God. It's uncomfortable. But we must realize that hell is a real place. Hell is a real consequence. Hell is a real end at the end of this life. I like what James McLeod says about hell. I have never doubted in the reality of such a place, hell, the hell of deep and lasting darkness, but I've never thought of it in popular terms as a nasty boiler room run by little men in red tights. Hell is ultimately a negative, a place of nothing but anguish. It is a place without God or without anything of God, without light, without warmth, without friendship, without peace. No racks, no pinchers, no claws, only the fires of an awkward conscience. The burning thirst of a frustrated ego. The wicked ones of history, they will be there. The killers and the exploiters, they will be there. Libertines and gossips, rapists and drunkards, they will be there. Those whose gods were sex or money or ambition or power, they will be there. Catholics, Baptists, Presbyterians, if only their faith was religiosity, had nothing for eternity but denominational adherence, they will be there. In the darkest, thickest corner of all the nice ministers, the benevolent bishops who told people that it was heaven for all and that love was all that matters, and this I believed, And I believe, too, that there is only one escape by flight to Christ and faith in his finished work, living in his service, but never looking to such toils for my salvation. But there's the final paradox. To believe in this latter end of all things and to live and walk in a world that must one day melt in fervent heat, to walk among the living dead with my bright smile and polite talk and never to challenge and never to warn. When we have seen our God and his righteousness and we have seen the wickedness of humanity, we know the end that must come. But the one who knows the heart of God has the heart of God. It is not the heart of God that the wicked should perish, but they would turn and repent and find salvation. This is a great meditation on hell with the real consequences that we cannot walk around with just smiles and polite gestures. We believe God is good and we believe God has wrath against sin. We can't just think this world is hunky dory and act as if everything's OK. So we must go and seek to save. Seek to proclaim God who saves. I do have one little quorum with the quote. He said it's a place without God. I think God is in hell. I think God's presence is powerful in hell. But I think missing in hell is God's mercy and grace. That's what we have right now. That's why your sin isn't being destroyed and judged right now. Because this is a place where God's mercy and grace is still prevalent. In hell, you have all of God's holy, all of God's glory, all of God's power manifest against your sin. And it's nothing but agony and anguish and pain. You have nothing but God's goodness portrayed against your sin. And your sin causes nothing but absolute internal agony that will never be quenched. But friends, today you have grace. Today you have mercy. Today you can see your sin in light of Jesus Christ. And you can see that Jesus Christ dies for your sin. You can see God punishing your sin, not in hell, but on the cross. You see, friends, God judges us for our deeds. Every lie, every evil thought, every perverse and twisted motivation, that's us writing on the wall in permanent marker. It's us writing our declaration of guilt before God. It's in permanent marker. You can't erase it. You can't whitewash it. There's not a special eraser out in heaven somewhere after you die that you can erase these things before you stand before the judgment seat. You can't do enough good deeds to have erased the bad deeds. When we sin, and we all sin, you're writing in permanent marker. And that permanent sin on your soul will be judged. It will either be judged before God when we die, or we can place our faith in Jesus Christ, who will take that permanent sin, the marker, the declaration of your sin, and He will put it upon Himself. Jesus Christ will take all of your external declarations against God, your cursing of God, your hatred of God, your rebellion, and He'll put all of your permanent markings on His soul. On his cross. And he'll take the judgment for it. For that's the beauty of the gospel. Until we see how offensive our declarations of God are, how permanent our sins are, how they will be judged. We're never going to appreciate the cross. They will be judged. Will they be judged on your wall or on the cross? Friends, praise God that He is good. He's good and He overcomes evil. He's good and He overcomes our sin. He's good. And He looks at us as sinners. He says, I'm not going to let that one be punished forever. I'm going to send my Son, Jesus Christ. to die in their place and to rise again. And in Him we can put our faith and be saved from destruction. Let's pray. Lord, what weighty things Your Word reveals. How weighty it is Your Word reveals how sinful we are. And as we see how You hate sin and how You will destroy it, Lord. Help us, Lord, to be overcome with conviction. Help us, Lord, to be overcome with the sin that is residing within us. And the sin that comes out of our mouths and out of our works. Lord, let us have faith that You love us still. Let us have faith in the power and the love of Jesus Christ that is able to take away the offense of our lives and of our sin. Help us, Lord, to see how great and how deep our treason is so that we might have a greater worship and a greater praise for how great Your love is for us. In Your name we pray, Amen.