Sodom & Gomorrah

Good morning everyone…I am so glad to see you all here this morning. Now is the time that our awesome kids get to go back to the most amazing teachers in Ogle County. I mean we have people that are focused in on sharing the Gospel with our kids in a way that makes sense to them, and we are beyond blessed to have this group of people to be a part of our church family, so when you see a teacher, please take a moment and thank them for what they are doing in the lives of the kids of LRBC. Then of course we have those of you joining us online right now. We want to thank you, whether you are joining us live or via one of our podcast options later in the week, it is so encouraging to know that God is using LRBC to be a blessing to you in your life…wherever you are.

So, last week I told you about Mount Morris Christian Academy, and there was a pretty good sized group that went over to pray over the facility…I want to invite you again tomorrow evening. I am planning on being there around 6pm to pray over the building and over the staff and students that will register for school this coming year. I am planning on probably a couple of times a month scheduling a time to head over and pray over the facility and maybe Ill even have new items to pray about from time to time. So, feel free to join me tomorrow evening at 6pm. Now, if you can’t make it, thats ok…I figure we will schedule these at different times to allow for more people to attend from time to time. Feel free to message me with some times that you would like to have us schedule to go over and pray over this new ministry moving forward.

Now, last week we talked about this amazing conversation that Abraham had with God about the potential of saving Sodom from judgement, or at least from total judgement. Remember last week God said, “I will not destroy it on account of ten”…That is important because of what we are going to see here today. I also want to caution you that today will be a little less PG and a little more PG13. I am not going to apologize for the Scriptures today as many who consider themselves to be pastors will do. Today is going to be a little harsh, and I plan to explain a little about what is going on here. Now, we don’t have time for an exhaustive study on this particular passage, and so you might want to listen later in the week as I upload a recap with a little more information than I have time to address today.

For today though...I want to tell you about a story. There is a story, and I don’t remember when this happened, but there was a story about a haunted bridge. One evening this guy and girl were on a date and they decided they wanted to go check out this haunted bridge. So, they got to the hill that will take them up to a bridge and they walked up…Now there were signs saying that this was unsafe and private property. They didn’t pay attention to those signs, so they walked on by them. Finally they came to a fence that had safety warnings all over it, but they saw a place where the fence had been cut, so they squeezed in through the cut fence. They continued up the hill and through the woods despite multiple signs that this was unsafe. Well, they got to the bridge and decided to step out on the bridge…they started to walk across it because it seemed safe…However, after a while they heard some loud noises and some lights at a distance. Well…they knew what this was, it was a train and they were out to far on the bridge to be able to run back to where they started, and they were too far from the other side to be able to run to safety so they only option was to hang on the side of the bridge and hope to not fall until the train passed them by. Well, the guy was able to get down, but the girl was unable to get down and she was hit by the train and thrown off the bridge. After the train passed the guy was able to climb back up and ran down to where she was and she had, unfortunately passed away. This young man saw the signs, and he and his date ignored those signs, but after all of this…he wished he had paid attention to the warnings.

In the same way, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a warning sign for us, for alot of things. It shows us the consequences of ignoring God's commandments and living in sin they way we want to…it shows the results of living your truth. So, now we should listen to this warning and make sure we are living our lives in a way that is pleasing to the Lord…and not focused on ourselves and our own evil desires…so let’s look at the

Warning of Sodom & Gomorrah

First of all, let’s take a look at todays passage together…Now this is going to be kind of a hard passage that we are going to look at together, but it is also can be an incredibly encouraging passage to read. I know no one has ever said that Genesis 19 is encouraging…but I believe it is, and Ill tell you why if you just hang in there with me. Now, I’ve really gone back and forth on how to talk about this passage and about how to break it down for you this morning…After some thought and prayer, I think we should just read it together and then Ill give you a little perspective on what is going on here. So, go ahead and grab your Bible, use the app, grap a Bible from the pew, or one from the back and open up to

Genesis 19:1–29 (ESV)

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 and spend the night and 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 and 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. And 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 at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who 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 the house with them and shut the door. And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door. Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and said to his sons-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 sons-in-law to be jesting. 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 them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back 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, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor 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 Zoar. The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the 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.

Wow…Now, I have heard people speak on this particular topic many times…and many times it typically starts out something like this...”Listen, today we are going to talk about a very sensitive topic, but I really want you to know that I have a great love for those that practice homosexuality, and I have some friends who are in this community, and so please understand my great love and respect that I have for these men and women, and and I guess now they would add in the non-binary. Now, I heard another pastor talk about this topic before, but he put in different sinful behavior…Listen to this. Hey everyone, today Im going to talk about adultery and I just want you to know that I love adulterers, I greatly respect those that are in the adultery community, some of my best friends are adulterers…That sounds pretty messed up right? Yet that is what happens across thousands of churches every time they will get up and speak on one of the “clobber” passages that addresses the sin of homosexuality. For those of you that don’t know, a clobber passage is a derogatory phrase that refers to the six passages that actively speak out against the homosexual lifestyle in the Bible. This passage that we are looking at today is one of those passages.

So, this really is a hard passage and I will tell you that I was getting lost as I was researching this passage this week. I was rewatching and rereading various articles and archeological evidence about these cities that are talked about here, and let me tell you there is truly some fascinating information out there about this region…some of which I never heard until this week. For instance there is a place in one of the suspected sites of the cities of the plain where there are pure balls of sulfur…So pur that it is not found anywhere else on the planet, so pure that you can still take a match and it will burn that ball of sulfur down. In that same site there are layers of ash…as well as graves and cemeteries for over 500,000 people…Im telling you it was truly fascinating…Anyway, we aren’t going to get into all of that, but I just wanted you to know that because it does speak to the historical confirmation that this is a city that existed about 4,000 years ago and was wiped out rapidly..So thats pretty cool.

Ok, now what is this passage telling us today? Last week we saw how Abraham boldly pleaded with God to save these cities, but now we see that these angels have come down to visit the city…and they have experienced some horrific events. Let’s go over those briefly together…let’s look at

What Actually Happened?

In the very beginning of this passage we see that these two angels have come down to the cities. They have left Abraham and God has left them to do their jobs, and they walk down and enter the city. What do you think they experienced as they walked into the town here? Well, we can actually get a glimpse of what it would have looked at by looking at another passage. Turn over to

Ezekiel 16:49–50 (ESV)

Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom: she and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.

Ok, we read a little about the town in general…So these were a people who were wealthy…we know that because this passage says that they had excess and were prosperous. We also see that they were prideful…in other words they thought they were the best and no one else was as good as they were. The felt they were the most important city in the plain maybe, and likely spoke down to outsiders, and guests…Of coarse they also did nothing good with all of their excess. They did not take care of the poor and needy that lived there. As I read that I honestly think about some of the big cities of America, right? I mean when you drive around you see homelessness and people with no food dying. Now, Im not saying anything anti-US becuase there are programs to help people, ok…But in this town it would seem that there was nothing to help them. Honestly, it makes me think of places like LA where they have tent cities in the middle of town and they allow homeless and mentally ill people to walk around naked and urinate and defecate on the ground out in the open. Well…that is until the Oscars, or Grammys, or whatever happened last week. In preparation for that, those that are part of a particular crowd erected tall fences to keep out those that would be in need so that they would not have to see what was really going on. honestly, I think that is a pretty good example of that same pride that was likely present in the city of Sodom as well as the other cities of the plain.

Well…how about a super quick replay here…Lot greeted them with hospitality. Then after they ate, The men of Sodom surrounded the house. As they yelled and essentially started a riot yelling that they desired to gang rape men, not women. In the morning The Angels forced Lot, his wife and daughters to leave

Then, The Lord destroyed the city…Look at

Genesis 19:24–25 (ESV)

Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

Lot and his family were told to run and not to even look back, yet Lot’s wife was turned to a pillar salt because she struggled leaving and looked back at the city… Later we see that Abraham looked out and saw the destruction and we see that

“...God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.” —Gens 19:29

That is a whole lot of terrible going on here isn’t it…Do you remember what “God remembered” means? It doesn’t mean God forgot…it means God is actively fulfilling his promise…Thats encouraging…even in the midst of a whole lot of evil…God remembered Abraham. Now, there really there is a question that has been asked for many years…Some don’t like the answer while others ignore the whole context..So

What was Sodom’s sin?

Well we saw earlier in Ezek that there was a great sin of Sodom, so those sins were really wrapped up in the sin of pride. I mean the pride caused them to have excess that they desired not to share. Then you have the pride that caused them to be haughty, which is really just another word for arrogant, or essentially the verb of pride…Truly we see pride is a large part of their sin. Now, there are some that will say that this is the whole thing or that maybe they had another sin of being inhospitable…I mean, I guess you cannot possibly get more inhospitable than gang rape, but there seems to be something more going on here. Remember in Ezek is said that they did an abomination before the Lord? Yeah…that exact phrase was used. As a matter of fact, this is the exact same word that is used in

Leviticus 18:22 (ESV)

You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination.

It seems pretty clear to me that even in this passage in Ezekiel Sodom is condemned for their homosexuality. However, I want you to pay attention to something in this passage. You see in verse 4 of our passage today it says,

“...the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house”— Gens.19:4

Do you see that…every single man in this town of somewhere between 25K-50K people are surrounding this house wanting to desperately gang rape these angles. EVERY ONE in the town not only did these acts, but approved of those who did.Paul actually wrote something about this in

Romans 1:32 (ESV)

Though they know God’s righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them.

Do you see what has happened to this city…somehow, someway homosexuality was brought into this community and whether it happened quickly or slowly the homosexual agenda took over the entire city…not most of, but the ENTIRE city. So, what was Sodom’s sin…Pride for sure…but also, very clearly homosexuality is a very large part of the sin of this city. We see this in Lev, we see this in Gen, we see this in Rom, we see this in Matt, we see this in Jude…quite literally we see that this sexual sin is a grave sin that must be avoided…Now, there are those that would advocate that this passage is not talking about what we have today…such as loving monogamous homosexual relationships and that this passage simply proves that God is not happy with violence in any form. WRONG…We know there is nothing new under the sun, we read that in Ecc.1:9…the same evil we see today, is the evil they saw then…Whenever someone says this, and Im sorry if Im bursting your bubble, but the only reason someone says this is that they are trying to justify either their sin, or the sin of someone else. Now, let me take a moment to talk about how a heart of pride led the people of Sodom to sin in this great way. Listen, I know many of you would say that thankfully the sin of homosexuality is not something that you struggle with…but what about the heart of pride that led to this sin? You see, as we have talked about before…our heart motives either lead us to the Lord…or lead us away.

Listen, we live in a culture that is forcing a very specific agenda down the throats of everyone…What used to be a “live and let live” became a demand to be recognized, which turned into a demand to be celebrated, and now is currently at a phase of demanding to be replicated. If you will notice that in schools there are clubs and groups that are quite often promoted and encouraged by teachers or administration that are telling kids if you feel uneasy…as every single person going through puberty does…then that means that your sexuality or your gender in incorrect and look we can help you fix this…We are living in a time where those that would identity as LGBTQ2IA+ is increasing every single day…that does not happen naturally…and this is exactly the warning that Sodom ignored…Think about Lot’s son’s in law and how they thought he was joking and went back to sleep…that is happening all throughout Sodom. Lot came into this city with a knowledge of God…For some reason he got pulled into the world of approving of this sexual degeneracy, that I would almost guarantee did not stop at simple homosexuality. The sexual perversion that happened in that place was more than anywhere else…later this week Im going to make a video talking about what Lot’s daughters did to him…this is a behavior they would have learned from somewhere...

Ok, look…Im going to end up getting into a tangent because I have seen first hand the evils of this ideology and I so very much desire to protect as many as possible from being sucked into this evil. That is what this whole chapter is…it is a warning to us…so, really the question is...

How does this apply to me?

And that is a great question, isn’t it? I mean, really there are many applications that we could take from this passage. First of all we should not be approving of others sin, right…I mean that is something I have been saying since I got here, right. If we see a brother or sister in Christ actively sinning, we have a responsibility to them, to help draw them closer to the Lord. So don’t approve of sin. Then of course, we shouldn’t live of the world. Listen, we read throughout the Gospels that we are to be in the world, but not of the world…In other words, we are called, as beleivers to be different…to be set apart for the glory of God…not the glory of self. In other words, focus on the Lord…not the world. Listen, the Bible did not merely say “Avoid evil,” but

1 Thessalonians 5:22 (ESV)

Abstain from every form of evil.

not most…but all. Now the question really becomes…

How do I focus on the Lord?

Well that is honestly a bit of an easy answer…but its a hard application, and I guarantee you will fail more than once. First of all, you must surrender to Christ. Yeah…without first doing that, you have nothing else to rely on. That means that you admit you are a sinner that deserves nothing, that you believe that God raised Christ from the dead, and you confess that to anyone and everyone...Second, you should spend time daily with the Lord. I mean, how can you know someone that you only see a couple of hours a month, right…thats not a relationship, thats an acquaintance. Next, you truly need to memorize the Word of the Lord. Here is why that is important…if you have not memorized the word of the Lord, then you will be unable to remember why something is wrong, or what what the Lord says in a specific situation. Lastly, it would greatly benefit you, if you were to attend church and Bible study regularly. Honestly, without the encouragement from your spiritual family, you will very easily be tempted into a worldly sin pattern. eListen...Guys we are looking at eternal consequences here…If you do not have a relationship with the Lord…and I don’t mean you go to church, or your parents go to church, or your kids go to church…I mean, you personally have surrender to Christ, then what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain will happen to you, for eternity…and I desperately don’t want that to happen. There is one Hope…one Lord…and one Way to eternal life with the Father, and the encouraging thing is that God remembered Abraham, just like God remembers you...

Let’s pray...

Listen, all of this requires that we do not do as Lot’s wife…but that we stay focused ahead. Following Jesus requires turning our backs on the “life” that this world offers. Attempting to “save your life” by focusing on the world, is the same as “looking back” or an attachment to our “old life”, the old way of doing things....the worldly ideologies…and this will cause us to lose our lives, and Lot’s wife is the illustration and example that we would do well to remember to stay focused ahead towards Christ…Guys we are looking at eternal consequences here…If you do not have a relationship with the Lord…and I don’t mean you go to church, or your parents go to church, or your kids go to church…I mean, you personally have surrender to Christ, then what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain will happen to you, for eternity…and I desperately don’t want that to happen. There is one Hope…one Lord…and one Way to eternal life with the Father