01-57 The Righteousness of God
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Genesis 18:16-33
Genesis 18:16-33
August 6, 1945 began like every other day. Men rode to work on their bicycles. Housewives folded the laundry, swept the floors and prepared meals. Children ran off to school. Young mothers nursed their babies and changed diapers. They had no idea that creeping toward the city was the Enola Gay—A US B-29 bomber. Nor could they have known that its payload would bring certain and instant death.
In the blink of an eye, the men on the bicycles, the women in their homes, the children and their teachers at school, the young mothers and their babies would be engulfed in the white-hot flame, incinerated and instantly carried into eternity.
The bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki would drive the Japanese government to the unconditional surrender, bringing an end to WW2. That was nearly 80 years ago and yet there is a profound similarity b/t the people of Hiroshima and the people Sodom.
28 “It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; 29 but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
There was no warning, there was no message from a prophet or even an angel. The residents of Sodom and Gomorrah were caught off guard and in a moment they all were brought to eternal destruction. We can more readily justify the destruction at Sodom and Gomorrah—thinking these people deserved to die…and more so than all the innocent people in Japan. But when we look back on history—we are challenged by our understanding of what is right and wrong, what is ethical and unethical, what is moral and immoral.
And the debating begins: was the US right to drop those bombs? Was God right to destroy S&G? This last question is one that we shouldn’t really be asking b/c in it, we are sitting in judgment over God’s activity.
Many years ago—William Perkins (Eng pastor of 16th century—foremost leader of Puritan movement)
paraphrasing: “We must not think that God does something b/c it is good and right…rather the thing is good and right because God does it.”
It is God, therefore (b/c of His nature), who defines for us what is right and what is just (justice and righteousness are joint truths). God’s free will (His freedom to act in complete unison with His nature) is behind His justice & righteousness. This means that whatever God wills—it is just not b/c some standard has judged it to be just—but it is just simply b/c God wills it. God’s justice and righteousness is not subject to our assumptions of what justice should be. We must only look to God and His will (as revealed to us) for our understanding of true justice and righteousness.
So as we come to the beginning of a portion of Scripture that ends with the destruction of S&G, we must do so with the certainty that anything God does is in unison with His nature.
75 I know, O Lord, that Your judgments are righteous, And that in faithfulness You have afflicted me.
12 So then, the Law is holy, and the commandment is holy and righteous and good.
12 There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the One who is able to save and to destroy; but who are you who judge your neighbor?
S&G provide us with an example of the certainty of God’s judgment.
22 “For not even the Father judges anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son,
27 and He gave Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of Man. 28 “Do not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, 29 and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment.
30 “Therefore having overlooked the times of ignorance, God is now declaring to men that all people everywhere should repent, 31 because He has fixed a day in which He will judge the world in righteousness through a Man whom He has appointed, having furnished proof to all men by raising Him from the dead.”
27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
1 After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; 2 because His judgments are true and righteous; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and He has avenged the blood of His bond-servants on her.” 3 And a second time they said, “Hallelujah! Her smoke rises up forever and ever.”
All heaven praises the Lord b/c of His judgment. I’ve entitled the message “The Righteousness of God” b/c we see the testimony of His nature in this introduction to judgment on S&G. Our passage has 3 divisions which highlight both justice and mercy.
I. The Lord’s Deliberation
I. The Lord’s Deliberation
vv 16-19
The meal is concluded and they looked toward Sodom. Tradition identifies the place where the men were looking from to be the village of Beni Naim (3 miles E of Hebron) and would overlook the Dead Sea 18 miles south. S&G were most likely along the southern shore of the Dead Sea—so Moses says they “looked down toward Sodom.”
As they were walking we have another glimpse into the private thoughts of the mind of God. There is similarity here to the reasonings within the divine council that have been revealed to us (1:26; 2:18; 6:7; 11:6-7). Here YHWH is asking Himself a question that He intends to answer. There is divine deliberation as to whether Abraham should be made of aware of the Lord’s intent to destroy the cities in judgment.
It is good to understand that the Lord does not have to reveal anything. This is His prerogative and the fact that He proceeds to tell Abraham what is going to happen is an indication of the true relationship b/t God and this man—Abraham is indeed the friend of God.
The explanation as to why Abraham needed to know is given:
The Channel of Blessing
The Channel of Blessing
vs 18
This is another reaffirmation of God’s promise of 12:1-3. The purpose of the Lord cannot be hindered. God’s unconditional promise to Abraham was to bless the man so that he would in turn become a blessing to the rest of the world— “in him all the nations of the earth...” So it is with all of God’s people.
If God has blessed you—I’m speaking primarily of His grace, salvation, forgiveness of sin, reconciliation…are you a channel of blessing to those around you? Are you sharing the good news? Are you praying for the spiritual condition of your neighbors?
Jesus commissioned His disciples to go into the world and serve it…to be the hands and feet of the Lord:
7 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
The Lord knew that not everyone would receive the disciples but nevertheless, He commanded them to go forth and be a blessing to the world in darkness—and leave the results to God who is just:
14 “Whoever does not receive you, nor heed your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake the dust off your feet. 15 “Truly I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
The Covenant Keeper
The Covenant Keeper
Abraham also had the responsibility to keep the covenant (17:9-10) which meant to safeguard it so as to pass it along to the next generation. God would reveal His purposes regarding Sodom to Abraham so that he would “command his children...”
Lessons from God’s judgment should be a powerful illustration of the need to follow the way of the Lord. And yet obedience out of fear is inferior to obedience out of love.
37 “Because He loved your fathers, therefore He chose their descendants after them. And He personally brought you from Egypt by His great power, 38 driving out from before you nations greater and mightier than you, to bring you in and to give you their land for an inheritance, as it is today. 39 “Know therefore today, and take it to your heart, that the Lord, He is God in heaven above and on the earth below; there is no other. 40 “So you shall keep His statutes and His commandments which I am giving you today, that it may go well with you and with your children after you, and that you may live long on the land which the Lord your God is giving you for all time.”
5 “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6 “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.
This was the responsibility YHWH placed before Abraham…and a reason why He chose to reveal what He was about to do with Sodom to Abraham.
The Lord defines what it means to “keep the way of the Lord...” as “doing righteousness and justice.” This was God’s will for His covenant people. To uphold righteousness and justice—not only within the assembly of God’s people but to everyone. In fact, this becomes the major tenet of the Law given thru Moses.
18 ‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as yourself; I am the Lord.
14 For the whole Law is fulfilled in one word, in the statement, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
This too, is the responsibility of every Xn parent…to talk of righteousness and justice, to exemplify it (perhaps the greatest teaching tool) before your children.
II. The Lord’s Knowledge
II. The Lord’s Knowledge
vv 20-21
The Lord is explaining to Abraham why the destruction of S&G is intended to be a warning that he must pass on to his children. God is not ignorant of sin, wickedness, unrighteousness, evil or injustice. In describing the omniscience of God, Tozer:
“God knows instantly and effortlessly all matter and all matters, all mind and every mind, all spirit and all spirits, all being and every being, all creaturehood and all creatures, every plurality and all pluralities, all law and every law, all relations, all causes, all thoughts, all mysteries, all enigmas, all feeling, all desires, every unuttered secret, all thrones and dominions, all personalities, all things visible and invisible in heaven and in earth, motion, space, time, life, death, good, evil, heaven, and hell.”
The sin of Sodom is not hidden from God’s perfect knowledge. The Lord says He will come down to investigate and what will be proven is that the evidence is exactly what the Lord already knows. He has heard the “outcry” of the city. This term is used in the Bible for the cries of those who are oppressed and brutalized.
Genesis—Beginning and Blessing Abraham Informed (vv. 17–21)
It is used for the cry of the oppressed widow or orphan (cf. Exodus 22:22, 23), the cry of the oppressed servant (cf. Deuteronomy 24:15), and the cries of the Israelites in Egypt (cf. Exodus 2:23; 3:7, 9). Jeremiah uses it to refer to the scream of terror by an individual or city when it is attacked
Nahum Sarna:
Genesis—Beginning and Blessing Abraham Informed (vv. 17–21)
They connote the anguished cry of the oppressed, the agonized plea of the victim for help in the face of some great injustice. In the Bible these terms are suffused with poignancy and pathos, with moral outrage and soul-stirring passion.… The sin of Sodom, then, is heinous moral and social corruption, an arrogant disregard of basic human rights, a cynical insensitivity to the sufferings of others.
We’re familiar with the immorality of Sodom—even the word “sodomy” is reminiscent of all kinds of sexual perversion that the city was well known for. But this is not the only sin...
The Lord says their sin was “exceedingly grave.” That is the word kabod often translated “glory.” The word means heavy, weighty. The city of Sodom was weighted, heavily with sin. The Lord’s investigation, since He already has perfect knowledge of every sin, will confirm the rightness of the judgement that is about to fall on this city. God says “I will know” if the city acts according to its outcry.
How often are we tempted to think that God has turned aside His concern over the outcries in our own nation—and do we assume that judgment will not fall on us? James Boice:
Listen! Can’t you hear those cries in your imagination? I think I hear the cry of a child—wretched, hurt, and terrified—being beaten by a drunken father. There is another cry. It is the cry of an old man assaulted by a gang of tough street youths. I hear his painful cry as they beat him around the face and shoulders. There is the cry of a teenage girl being raped in an abandoned car. And there … the cry of a wife abandoned by her husband. I hear the cry of a man so trapped by our dehumanizing welfare system that he has given up. I hear the cry of sinful pleasures: the raucous cries in the thousands of bars that scar the faces of our cities, the cries of prostitutes and those who patronize them, the soft cries of drug addicts, the arrogant cries of those who have been able to defeat their enemies or ruin their competitors. But wait! Those cries are only a fraction of those millions of cries that are rising every moment of every day from every street in every city and village of our land—cries that are all heard by God, felt by God. Must God’s judgment not fall on us too, and quickly? How shall we excuse ourselves when the only righteous God comes down to see if what we have done is as bad as the accusation that has reached Him?
So what do we do? do we write off our nation—as it pursues godlessness, immorality, filth and evil, unrighteousness and injustice—running after these things as a treasured prize? Do we give in to the allure of the flesh and join them? no of course not!…but we should follow Abraham’s example:
III. Abraham’s Intercession
III. Abraham’s Intercession
vv 23-33
We see several truths emerge in the closing vv of ch 18: the certainty of divine judgment, the difficulty in finding righteousness among people, the vastness of divine mercy and the profound need to intercede on behalf of others.
Abraham, upon learning of God’s indictment of Sodom asks (vs 23). There is a boldness in Abraham and I’m not certain that we converse with God in the same way.
16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
12 in whom we have boldness and confident access through faith in Him.
Abraham was truly the friend of God and God permits Abraham to entreat Him in this manner. Abraham is bold and yet he doesn’t really get everything right. In vs 25—suggesting that maybe God isn’t right about how He deals with the righteous and the wicked and that humans have the basis for evaluating God’s activity. We need to remember that God can only do what is right—b/c what He does defines for us the very standard of righteousness.
The conversation Abraham has with the Lord is remarkable: 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10...
I’m beginning to think that Abraham is learning how difficult it is to find righteousness on the earth. Perhaps he is trying to survey the residents of the city and he knows all too well that there are very few who would fall into that category. And yet God is also revealing the vastness of His mercy—for He would indeed spare the city on account of a few.
34 Righteousness exalts a nation, But sin is a disgrace to any people.
F.B. Meyer
Ungodly men little realize how much they owe to the presence of the children of God in their midst. Long ere now had the floods of deserved wrath swept them all away; but judgment has been restrained, because God could not do anything while the righteous were found amongst them. The impatient servants have often asked if they should not gather out the tares. But the answer of the righteous Lord has ever been: "Nay, lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up the wheat also with them." Ah, how little the world realizes the debt it owes to its saints, the salt to stay its corruption, the light to arrest the re-institution of the reign of chaos and night! We cannot but yearn over the world, as it rolls on its way towards its sad dark doom. Let us plead for it from the heights above Mamre. And may we and our beloved ones be led out from it into safety, ere the last plagues break full upon it in inevitable destruction!
The vastness of mercy is evident in what God allows. His patience/longsuffering is the glorious display of mercy and the people around us, in our nation have little concern today that they are running headlong toward the day of judgment—all the while, storing up for themselves the wrath of God.
4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance? 5 But because of your stubbornness and unrepentant heart you are storing up wrath for yourself in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God,
And so when the church rises up and proclaims the gospel—we do so with great love for our neighbors to warn them of impending judgment point the way to salvation thru LJC. And it seems like many don’t want to hear that message.
Be Obedient Chapter Seven: So as by Fire (Genesis 18–19)
Charles Spurgeon said: “If they [lost sinners] will not hear you speak, they cannot prevent your praying. Do they jest at your exhortations? They cannot disturb you at your prayers. Are they far away so that you cannot reach them? Your prayers can reach them. Have they declared that they will never listen to you again, nor see your face? Never mind, God has a voice which they must hear. Speak to Him, and He will make them feel. Though they now treat you despitefully, rendering evil for your good, follow them with your prayers. Never let them perish for lack of your supplications”
We have the privilege, like Abraham of interceding on behalf of the unrighteous and wicked around us. Let me close with 4 words that describe principles of prayer for neighbors, towns, cities, nations and world.
Modest
Modest
Abraham didn’t demand knowledge of God’s secret purposes (in election or in judgment). We may not know what God intends for people or for our own country but like the friend of God, we come unhindered and unrestrained with bold intercession that God in HIs mercy would save people. In fact never more like JC than praying that God would forgive the sinner.
Humble
Humble
Abraham did not expect for a moment that God was obligated to answer or act in the way b/c of something in himself.
27 And Abraham replied, “Now behold, I have ventured to speak to the Lord, although I am but dust and ashes.
We pray to God, b/c He invites us to pray, exhorts us to pray and promises to hear the prayer of His people.
Persistent
Persistent
Abraham’s prayer was persistent—6x on behalf of Sodom that God would spare the city if He found some who were righteous. Our Lord’s illustration of persistence in prayer serves the purpose of promoting faithfulness in us to keep coming back to the righteous judge:
1 Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, 2 saying, “In a certain city there was a judge who did not fear God and did not respect man. 3 “There was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ 4 “For a while he was unwilling; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, 5 yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, otherwise by continually coming she will wear me out.’ ” 6 And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said; 7 now, will not God bring about justice for His elect who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? 8 “I tell you that He will bring about justice for them quickly. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?”
Persuasive
Persuasive
Abraham did not pray according to what he thought God owed him, but his prayer was persuasive b/c he appealed to the character and glory of the unchanging God. “Will not the judge of the earth deal justly?” Abraham knew that God could not deny His own character and that He could only do what is right which would not be the case if the righteous perished with the wicked.
I know many of you are concerned about the condition of our nation. If we were to superimpose the US on Sodom—I think our nation is as guilty (if not more) than that city. The mercy of the Lord upon this nation, the exposure to the gospel and God’s grace upon His own and common grace toward unbelievers is only temporarily holding back the flood waters of God’s wrath. Jonathan Edwards likened it (Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God) to a river of God’s wrath being held back by a dam (dam of patience, mercy) but the longer that dam holds back judgment, the pressure is building and eventually the dam will break and God’s wrath will come like a tsunami and the unrighteous will be carried away into eternal judgment.
There is 1 way to avoid that judgment—cross of JC. And those of you concerned about your neighbors and loved ones who are facing this judgment—keep praying and when the door opens, share the gospel of God’s love. And whatever happens we rest in the understanding and conviction that God always does what is right.