Sodom and Gomorrah - Part 2 (Gen 18:22-33)

Introduction

If you have your Bible, please open it to Genesis 18:22-33.

While you’re turning there, let me give you both a rundown of where we’re headed next and then a recap of where we are in the passage.

Per our normal routine when the summer months role around, after this weekend, we’re going to take the summer off from the book of Genesis. I’m pointing this out for two reasons: (1) so you understand why all of a sudden we’re in a completely different book next week and (2) because I want to be abundantly clear that I’m not abandoning the book of Genesis because I don’t want to preach about Sodom and Gomorrah—I’m not afraid to teach against the issues of homosexuality and the other sins represented in Sodom and Gomorrah—so, please don’t think that we finally got to that issue and I abandoned ship. We’ll be back into the book of Genesis in the fall.

We do this for two reasons: (1) it is the summer, so we fully anticipate people not being around every weekend and I know many of you don’t want to miss the sermons from our longer series and (2) it gives a bit of a break—sometimes it’s a bit tough to go through one book for so long. So, we try to break it up with other series from time to time.

Until the fall, we have three different series coming up for the summer months.

From June 2nd - July 7th, we’re wrapping up our series on the Pastoral Epistles by working through the letter to Titus, which is a short letter written by Paul to a young pastor on the island of Crete.

From July 14th - August 4th, we’re going to be focused on the Theology and Practice of Prayer, which is intended to not necessarily be a comprehensive guide to prayer, but to help you develop your understanding of prayer and how to pray.

And then from August 11th - September 1st, we’ll be working through a series concerning our church’s core values. You see them every week on the screens when you come in and leave, but you may not know what all is meant by them—that final short series will help you learn what all we mean.

And then, on September 8th, we’ll be back in Genesis dealing with Sodom and Gomorrah again.

So, as we jump into Genesis 18 this morning, if you remember with me, Abraham and Sarah had just had a meal and conversation with God in which God reminds them again of His covenant with them before God makes it a point to tell Abraham what is about to happen to Sodom and Gomorrah.

God tells Abraham that the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah is so great that He has heard the outcry from the cities, but at this point in the text, we haven’t really been told what Sodom and Gomorrah are guilty of doing—we were told earlier in Genesis that they were known for their wickedness, but we don’t know what the wickedness is yet.

In Genesis 18:22-33, we see Abraham intercede on behalf of not all of Sodom and Gomorrah, but for those who are righteous in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Let’s read the text and I’ll explain how we’ll work through today’s sermon:

Genesis 18:22–33 ESV

22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 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 that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” 27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.

As we study this passage, we’re not going to break it into multiple parts, but rather, we’re going to look at vv. 22-33 in one unit and then we’re going to add a second section afterwards. This section of Genesis 18, I’m going to call Abraham’s Intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah (22-33) and it covers the conversation between God and Abraham as Abraham tries to convince God to spare Sodom and Gomorrah. The second section for today has to do with prayer, I’m calling it Abraham and Prayer, which might not seem like it connects, but the reality is that even though Abraham is speaking directly to God face to face, this event provides a great model for how we ought to pray.

Ultimately, the goal of today’s sermon is two-fold, it’s to remind us that God never pours out His wrath on His own people and it’s an encouragement for us to persist in prayer for others.

Prayer for Illumination

Abraham’s Intercession for Sodom and Gomorrah (22-33)

Our text starts this morning by giving us the premise or the main idea.

Remember that Abraham had just heard from the LORD that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah would be judged for their wickedness.

And we want to be abundantly clear on this—Sodom and Gomorrah are facing judgment, God’s wrath for their sin is being poured out on them.

The reason we want to be abundantly clear on this is because of the purpose of their destruction itself—this isn’t happening because God doesn’t like them nor is it happening because God got bored and decided to do something (He isn’t a child who gets bored of his ant farm).

Rather, this is an act of God’s judgment or His wrath against sin—and let me be clear, don’t think that God hasn’t given warnings to Sodom and Gomorrah.

We don’t see records of God’s warnings to them, but we do see God giving warnings to other nations that weren’t His to repent before destruction came upon them.

We see God giving warnings to unbelieving and wicked nations and people groups elsewhere in Scripture—for instance, when Noah builds the ark, he’s told to preach that judgment is coming for those who refuse to repent.

Jonah was told to proclaim a message of repentance to the Ninevites, who did repent. Nahum was told to preach a message of repentance to the Ninevites and the second time, they refused and God sent destruction upon them for their wickedness.

Even when considering the New Testament, you see a continuous warning that something is coming—John the Baptist preaches “repent for the kingdom of heaven is at hand,” Jesus continues that message during His ministry on earth, and then apostles proclaim that same message to the end of the book.

God certainly has given them warnings, we know this if for no other reason than His typical pattern is to give warnings.

We also know this based on his character—God is not unjust. So, we can assume that in His justice, He had given them warnings in different ways before.

So, Sodom and Gomorrah are facing judgment for their sin, but Abraham asks a simple question, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?”

Or, in other words, will you allow your people to go through judgment just like the wicked? Which, we know, of course, that God never pours out His wrath on His own people.

Even as we see the wrath of God poured out on Jesus during the crucifixion, we see that the reason for that is because Jesus had been made sin who knew no sin on our behalf. We see that in 2 Corinthians 5:21 “21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

The premise then of both this passage and Abraham’s concern is based on God’s character and God’s unwillingness to pour out HIs own wrath against people who had already been made righteous by faith.

As the passage continues, we then see Abraham asking God to spare the cities from God’s wrath based on how many righteous people lived within the city.

We see the same question repeated over and over, “Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the [however many] righteous who are in it?”

We see the question first asked in v. 24 with the number 50, then in v. 28 with 45, then in v. 29 with 40, then in v. 30 with 30 people, then in v. 31 with 20, and then in v. 32 for ten people.

Now, I don’t think we ought to view Abraham’s questions as a lack of respect for God nor do I think that he’s doing this in a way that’s meant to be unusual or anything like that.

What I think is actually happening is that Abraham starts by asking for God to spare the city if there were 50 righteous people and then almost as soon as he says it, he thinks “honestly, it’s Sodom and Gomorrah, there probably isn’t 50 righteous people.”

So, he drops the number and then he drops it again and then he drops it again because the more he asks God to spare the city, the more he realizes just how wicked the people of Sodom and Gomorrah really are.

It’s really more like this—please spare the city for 50 righteous people, “oh, there probably aren’t 50,” well what about 45 and then 40 and then 30 and then 20 and then 10.

It’s notably that by the time Abraham gets down to ten, ten really isn’t that much larger than an average family; and yet, there clearly still aren’t enough righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah because God does indeed destroy the cities.

Abraham is interceding on the behalf of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in this passage and it’s important to note that Abraham clearly already has an impression of what the cities are like and it’s important to recognize that this isn’t some sort of haggling and neither is it God’s mind being changed through the process.

He recognizes that they’re wicked cities to the extent that he continues to lower the number of righteous people for the threshold of the salvation of the cities.

And yet, he’s still trying to intercede on their behalf—and there could be multiple reasons for this:

First, it could simply be because he recognizes that his nephew Lot and his family lived close to the city—it’s hard to say whether or not Abraham had knowledge that Lot and his family had moved into the city, but at the very least, Abraham knew that Lot lived near the city—and thus, it could just be familial concern that has Abraham asking for God’s mercy and grace for the cities.

Second, it could genuinely be out of compassion for the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. While knowing that the cities were wicked, there ought to be a part of Abraham that recognized the need for their repentance and would rather see the cities repent than be destroyed for their wickedness—I think Christians today ought to take note of that idea (it’s better for those who are wicked to repent than for them to be destroyed).

Third, it could be like Moses’ concern after the Exodus—that if all the Israelites had been destroyed it would cast doubt on who God is and what His character is like—that the God of the Israelites would take them out into the desert for their destruction rather than for their salvation.

It could each idea individually or it could be all three together or it could be any number of different reasons.

And yet, Abraham is still interceding on the behalf of wicked people because he didn’t want to see their destruction—he wants them to repent.

In addition, don’t see this as some form of haggling and don’t see this as God changing His mind throughout the process.

First, if Abraham is haggling, he really isn’t very good at it because the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah are still destroyed by the end of the process.

It’s not as if Abraham convinced God to do anything other than what God had planned to do—Abraham did not convince God to not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

Abraham didn’t convince God to spare a greater number of people from the destruction than the number of people that were going to be saved from Sodom and Gomorrah (meaning Lot and his family).

Abraham really made no headway in this conversation whatsoever.

Second, know that God isn’t changing His mind in this situation whatsoever.

Remember last week, when I mentioned that even though the text says that God needed to go and see whether Sodom and Gomorrah were actually as wicked as He had heard, He already knows? He’s God.

I mentioned a specific word that describes when Scripture is utilizing human attributes and ideas to drive a point—it’s an anthropomorphic statement.

Likewise, this conversation between God and Abraham is essentially an anthropomorphic conversation—it’s recorded to show us this interaction between God and man.

And yet, God really isn’t changing His mind, but rather, He’s accommodating to mankind.

Abraham repeatedly asks God to spare the city for sake of however number of people might be righteous.

And God continuously agrees to spare the city for the sake of however many people might be righteous knowing full well that there really aren’t even ten righteous people within Sodom and Gomorrah.

God is acting consistently in His own character—He does spare the handful of righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, but in justice He judges those who are wicked.

Now, before we get to our application, I do want to spend a few minutes talking about prayer in this context.

Abraham and Prayer

Clearly, this passage is not directly about prayer—we know this because Abraham is speaking directly to God, which isn’t quite the same as what we mean by prayer.

When we’re talking about prayer today, we’re referring to the spiritual communication between a believer and God in which a believer does several different things.

Prayer is the means through which believers make petitions to God—I’m always reminded of a hymn by John Newton (who also wrote the hymn Amazing Grace) called “Come, my soul, thy suit prepare,” particularly the first two stanzas:

Come, my soul, thy suit prepare, Jesus loves to answer prayer. He Himself has bid thee pray, rise and ask without delay.

Thou art coming to a King, large petitions with thee bring, for his grace and pow'r are such, none can ever ask too much.

We make petitions to God through prayer because He is a great King who has the power to make changes in creation—that’s why Abraham interceded on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah.

Prayer is a means through which believers give thanks for all that God has done and continues to do. I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as Paul wraps up his first letter to the Thessalonians that he encourages them to “pray without ceasing” and that “in everything [they ought] to give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus.”

Prayer is a means through which a believer is transformed in the renewing of his or her mind.

Prayer is a means through which believers experience the grace of God; so, it’s really no wonder that when we neglect prayer we struggle to feel God’s grace.

There are several other purposes of prayer, but I think you can tell how similar Abraham’s conversation with God is to this idea of petitioning.

However, Abraham shows us some ideas that we can then apply to prayer.

First, we see Abraham’s willingness to simply ask God for help.

How often do we not ask because we make the assumption that God won’t answer our prayer favorably?

Truthfully, if anyone could’ve utilized that excuse it would’ve been Abraham—he was literally asking God to not destroy wicked cities for the purpose of saving the handful of righteous people living in those cities.

Consider James’ statement, “you do not have because you do not ask God.”

Abraham shows us that it’s worth asking even for something like this.

Second, we see Abraham’s persistence.

While the content of the prayer is consistent, the fact that he keeps asking in different ways shows us his willingness to keep interceding on behalf of people that he already knows is wicked.

There’s a lot that can be learned from that idea, but I think the biggest idea is simply that we shouldn’t give up in our prayer, we should keep persisting in prayer.

Consider James 5:16 “16 The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” I actually memorized that verse when I was a kid in the KJV, “The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.”

Abraham shows us that persistence when communicating with God is worthwhile.

Third, we see Abraham’s compassion.

We all know people that need Jesus—we know plenty of people whether family members, friends, co-workers, fellow students, or even acquaintances that need Jesus.

But, honestly, how many of us can say that we’re regularly, compassionately praying for them?

What Abraham is doing is he’s essentially asking for the salvation of these wicked people—when we say that people need Jesus, what we’re asking for is the salvation of our family member, friends, co-workers, fellow students, or even acquaintances.

We ought to be praying for them and if you aren’t praying for unbelievers to come to know Jesus, the real question is why not? When you consider the Great Commission is to go and make more disciples and then you consider the fact that you cannot change someone’s mind only the Holy Spirit can do that, it does seem that the first step of making more disciples really ought to be prayer.

So, let me challenge you on that this morning (before I even get to our application today, let me give you a side application)—write down the names of five unbelievers that you see regularly and start praying for them each and every day.

Finally, concerning what we see from Abraham that connects with prayer—it all comes down to what Jesus accomplished on the cross.

Whereas Abraham is speaking to God directly, we speak to God through our mediator Jesus Christ who provided a means for us to come into the Holy of Hollies and commune with Him.

And as the author of Hebrews states—since Jesus has made a way for us to commune with God through His flesh, let’s take advantage of the fact that we can now speak to the Father.

Abraham gave petitions to the LORD—we can do so as well.

Now, in the last few minutes that we have, let’s talk about some specific application.

Application

While we spent some time talking about prayer, the reality is that this passage is not about prayer and thus, our primary application isn’t concerning prayer. However, let me encourage you to consider your prayer life comparing and contrasting how you speak to God with how Abraham spoke to God—whether you’re actually making petitions, whether you’re praying persistently with compassion because of what Jesus has done for you on the cross. So, yes, you ought to walk away from this passage considering your prayer life and whether you are compassionately, persistently making petitions for the salvation of those around you that don’t already know Jesus, but that’s not the primary point of the text.

Instead, our primary application stems from this idea that God’s wrath is never poured out on His own people. As Abraham petitions to the Lord about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, it’s made abundantly clear that if there were righteous people in Sodom and Gomorrah, then God wouldn’t destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.

And, of course, as Christians today, we know what makes one righteous—it’s not by working harder, it’s not by trying harder, it’s not even by manner of life, but rather what we believe. A good example for this idea is actually all of Hebrews 11 in which we see some Old Testament heroes of the faith who were commended (who were made righteous) not because of their own ability, but rather because of their genuine faith that resulted in actions.

It is faith in Jesus Christ that makes one righteous and when one is made righteous by Jesus Christ, you become a member of the family of God, a child of the King, a co-heir of righteousness.

And because Jesus makes you righteous by His substitutionary work on the cross for your sins, you can then be confident that God’s wrath against sin will never be poured out onto you—Jesus has already taken God’s wrath for your sins on the cross as He atoned for you.

Or, in other words, there is hope in knowing that God’s wrath is never poured out on His own people if you are genuinely one of His own.

Now, that doesn’t mean that He never disciplines HIs own people, but it does mean there is no fear that we would or even could experience the type of wrath that the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah definitely experienced. Let me explain that:

God is your heavenly Father and like any good father, He will use different means to discipline you, to correct you as He conforms you into the image of His Son—there are varieties of ways that God does this (e.g., David speaks of some illnesses being a form of discipline and sometimes general struggle in life can be discipline for sin). Often the temporal consequences for your sins might be the discipline that God enacts because of your sin.

The fact is that if you’re a believer, you are His child and any good Father disciplines His children.

But you will never face the wrath of God for sin like unbelievers do, if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. It would not be fair of God to pour out His wrath on you for your sins when Jesus has already taken the wrath of God for your sins on the cross.

With this in mind, your application for Genesis 18:22-33 is two-fold:

First, you ought to praise Jesus for taking the wrath of God for your sins.

You’ve often heard me make the statement that we often taken for granted what Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross.

I think part of the temptation to take for granted Jesus’ sacrificial atonement on the cross for our sins is the simple truth that most people don’t understand how terrible sin truly is.

We tend to justify our own sin by lessening it’s seriousness, but Scripture is clear that all sins are an affront to God—they’re all open rebellion against the King of kings and Lord of Lords.

And since we no longer have to participate in the sacrificial system of the Mosaic Law, we don’t see the truth of Hebrews 9:22 “22 without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.”

Sin carries with it death and apart from Jesus’ blood covering your sin, there is no life.

But unless we remind ourselves regularly of Jesus, the cross, the Gospel, we tend to forget about the gravity of the situation.

Jesus saved us from the consequences of our sin and sin itself, which is something that we could not do on our own.

And then He offers that salvation to us as a free gift.

The least we can do with all this in mind is offer praise to Jesus.

Really, the least we can do when we consider Jesus’ atonement for our sins is to do what Romans 12 says, offer ourselves as a living sacrifice as our spiritual worship.

And we ought to keep in mind what the hymn “Jesus Paid it All” states,

Jesus paid it all, All to Him I owe; Sin had left a crimson stain, He washed it white as snow.

As we go about our daily lives.

You need to allow the truth of the Gospel to drive you to praise and worship that envelops every aspect of your life.

Second, when you fall into sin, don’t despair; get back up and keep following Jesus.

Often when we do fall into sin, we tend to allow our failure in sin to drive us to despair.

Now, there’s a certain level of disappointment in ourselves that ought to accompany our sin—we ought not be happy when we’re sinning. Rather, we ought to recognize what we’ve done as sin and it should drive us to repentance.

But it shouldn’t get to the level of driving us to despair in which we think we’ve lost it all or we’ve lost our salvation or we dive into discouragement, depression or anything like that.

The reality is that we will all fall into sin on this side of eternity.

Those who say otherwise are at best a little foolish, at worse, perhaps a false teacher because it’s clear even in Paul’s writings that we will continue to struggle with sin—we know what’s right and we know what’s wrong and yet we continue to do the wrong thing despite the knowledge that we have.

And yet, Solomon writes that the righteous man isn’t the one who never sins again on this side of eternity, but rather the one who falls and then gets back up and gets back on the journey of faith.

This is possible only because Jesus has already paid the consequence of your sins.

And thus, when we do sin as believers, the proper response isn’t to fall into despair and think all is lost, but rather to get back up, repent, and keep following Jesus.

Don’t think just because you’ve fallen into sin that you’re about to face the wrath of God like those in Sodom and Gomorrah.

Jesus has already paid the penalty for your sin.

Just repent and keep walking.

Genesis 18 reminds us that there is judgment coming for those who refuse to repent, but for those of us who know Jesus and follow Him, there is great hope that ought to drive us to praise and worship even when we fall into our sin because He has paid it all.

Pastoral Prayer