Receiving God’s Abundant Mercy

Introduction

Read Genesis 19:1- 16

Genesis 19:1–16 (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.

Background:

Sodom

The Evils and Sins of Sodom - The Outcry of Sin to God

Rejection of God

Violence

Immorality

Homosexuality

God heard the outcry of sin from the city

the cries of the child being abused

the cries of the marginalized and oppressed being taken advantage of

the cries of those being hurt and killed in our streets

the cries of unborn child being denied the right to life

the cries of the one gossiped and slandered

the cries of the children and girls being trafficked and men finding illicit pleasure in their pictures online

All of humanity stands, like Sodom, under the righteous Judgment of God

Lot

The allure of prosperity in spite of the wickedness of the surrounding culture

The sinful apathy of Lot

The refusal to flee from sin

The failure to speak truth and life

We even see Lot’s complicity in the sinfulness of the culture when he offers his own daughters to the men.

Instead of seeing his daughters as women made in the image of God, he sees them as objects to be used for the consumption of men.

Our Salvation Depends Upon God’s Mercy

First, we each need to understand that we are not saved by our own wisdom and obedience.

None of us were wise enough to understand our precarious position and to seek God out.

Paul quotes the Psalmist when he writes:

Romans 3:10–12 (ESV)

as it is written:

“None is righteous, no, not one;

no one understands;

no one seeks for God.

All have turned aside; together they have become worthless;

no one does good,

not even one.”

Our Ignorance and God’s Mercy

What we see here is that all of us are blind to the sin and wickedness we are trapped in.

Lot’s future sons-in-law

After the angels tell Lot what they were sent here to do and the reason for the destruction, they tell him to gather up his family to get them out of the city. They are sent to rescue Lot from the destruction that the city is about to face.

So Lot goes to the young men who are betrothed to his daughters.

But they think he is only joking.

In fact, as we read, we don’t know what tone Lot shares this news in.

Was he urgent in his message, or was he sharing it with an unsure and questioning tone? Maybe they doubted the conviction he had himself about the truthfulness of this message.

Lot and his family

The thing that can make us think that Lot wasn’t fully convinced of this message himself is his own response to the angels’ urgent message.

Genesis 19:15–16 (ESV)

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.

Lot was not in a hurry to leave the city. The angels are urging him to get out of the house.

Anyone have one of those mornings where you are trying to get your kids dressed and ready for school or church and it feels like everyone is moving at half-speed and you just know there’s no way you’re going to make it on time and emotions are flaring up because you are trying to rush out?

In response, the angels have to literally drag Lot and his family out of the house. Out of compassion, they seize them all by the hands and say, “Let’s go. Get out of here!!!”

Us

In the same way, we all need the compassionate mercy of God to not give to us what we all deserve.

Without the initiating work of God, none of us would see our need and respond to his gracious work.

There are those, who in their testimony, share that they were not looking for God. And yet, when the message of salvation came to them, it was like God turning on a lightbulb and drew them to Himself in a miraculous way. They look back and think, if God hadn’t shown Himself to them, they would never have the desire to turn and believe in Him.

But there may be those of us here who grew up learning about Christ, like myself, and we can’t hardly remember a time when we didn’t know and believe in Christ. We can be tempted to think, I came to Christ on my own.

But our need is to see God’s merciful action towards us to place us in a situation where, through our homes and upbringing, God reached us at a young age so we would not really know a time of living apart from Him. But that does not mean that we needed His mercy any less than anyone else. We did not choose which family we were born into. We did not choose whether our parents would teach us the gospel. We did not choose when God gave us understanding about the good news. His mercy was just as much at work in those who grew up in a Christian home as it is in the lives of those who spend their lives running from God and He stops them in their tracks.

God’s Compassionate Mercy

God’s mercy is required to open our eyes to the danger. We will never see the danger we are in without God intervening and opening our eyes.

And then God’s mercy moves us to a place to receive His salvation. For Lot, God physically moved him. Sometimes God physically moves us where we will hear the gospel. Sometimes God moves us spiritually and emotionally in order to hear and understand the good news that has been presented to us.

Either way, God is working at moving our hearts in such a way as to hear and receive the gospel to bring us out of darkness and into His marvelous light.

God’s Mercy Should Lead to a Humble Adoration and Worship of Christ

As we think about where we are at and where God has brought us from, this should lead us to see the beauty of Christ and the mercy He has demonstrated to us.

This mercy should actually humble us. Instead of taking pride in the salvation we have received, we should stand in awe that God would demonstrate His mercy and grace towards someone like me.

God’s salvation should remove from us any boasting and pride we might have in ourselves and place our boasting in the work of Christ alone.

Our response should be the same as Paul in Galatians 6:14

Galatians 6:14 (ESV)

But far be it from me to boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world.

This is what worship is. it is the humble submission to the greatness of Christ and the power of God displayed in the cross. It is the humble acknowledgement that we are dependent solely upon the mercy and grace of Christ and we owe our entire lives and selves to Him.

Our Salvation is Received by Repentance

While God’s mercy is required before we can do anything, it does not mean that we are completely passive in our salvation.

Here we see the tension once again between the Sovereignty of God in salvation and our responsibility to respond to the mercy and grace that we are completely dependent upon.

Read Genesis 19:19-26

Genesis 19:17–26 (ESV)

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.

We Must Trust the Word of God

God’s mercy was shown to Lot when the angels came to him and warned him about the coming destruction.

God’s mercy was also shown to him when the angels seized him and his family by the hands as they led him and forced them out of the city.

But in order to really receive and experience the mercy that God has showing to him, Lot had to listen and trust the Word of the Lord that had come to him.

He was responsible at some point to listen and trust that God’s Word was completely true as it concerned the fate of the city he was living in.

God’s mercy is shown to us when He initiates this Word to us and even moves us out of harm’s way.

We will not even know we are in danger unless God first comes to us.

The fact that each of us is here this morning is part of God’s mercy in leading us here to sit under His Word.

Whether you are here because someone brought you, or this is what you grew up doing, or you had nothing better to do, God moved in such a way as to bring you here. And your presence here is part of God’s mercy to you.

And it is God’s mercy that we hear or read about how we are all sinners deserving of God’s judgment, but that God made a way to escape the judgment when He sent His Son to take upon Himself our sin and God’s wrath on our behalf. And we hear and learn from His Word that we can receive this mercy as we place our trust in His work upon the cross.

But at some point we must take what we hear and actually trust and believe what we are being told. God is calling out to you. Are you going to really listen and follow Him in faith?

We Must Repent

Flee from Sin

So as we hear and trust God’s Word, we hear that God’s Word is calling us to action. Now, we are saved by God’s grace received by faith in His work. But true saving faith and trust is going to lead to action, specifically that of repentance.

Repentance is the act of turning away from our lives and hearts of sin. It is an act of rejection of what we have place our joy in. Just as the angels told Lot to “escape!”, so Jesus comes preaching, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Jesus essentially says, “Turn or escape from your sin. Escape from your anger, jealousy, lust, misplaced sexual desires, idolatry, gossip, malice, murder, pride, selfishness, covetousness.” Turn away from your own sinful hearts and find in Jesus the satisfaction your souls are really longing for.

This is the tragedy of Lot’s Wife

Lot’s wife could not really leave the city, even as it was burning. She may have physically been outside the city, but her heart was still there. She wanted what she left behind in the city more than she wanted the rescue and salvation.

Luke 17:32–33 (ESV)

Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.

Jesus tells us to remember Lot’s wife who wanted to keep her life and she ultimately lost it. But those who willingly lose their lives for Christ’s sake will actually find an infinitely better life than what they gave up.

“As we would not be partakers of Sodom’s curse and would not be destroyed, we should flee out of it and not look behind us. There is nothing in Sodom worth looking back upon. All the enjoyments of Sodom will soon perish in the common destruction; all will be burned up. Therefore it is foolish for any who are fleeing out of Sodom to hanker anymore after them. Remember Lot’s wife, for she looked back, as being loathe utterly and forever to leave the ease, the pleasure, and plenty that she enjoyed in Sodom, and as having a mind to return to them again; Remember what became of her.” - Jonathan Edwards

Let us listen to the words of Paul to Timothy,

2 Timothy 2:22 (ESV)

So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.

Taste and See the Lord is Good

But the fleeting pleasures of sin can be hard to resist. How do we turn away from something that is so tempting and pleasing to us?

We cannot do that simply by an act of the will.

First, this is part of the mercy of God that we so desperately need.

It is God’s mercy that leads us to escape and flee the sin that traps us.

But we are given a way for us to be able to turn away from our sinful hearts and to embrace what God has for us.

We have to replace our old loves and desires with a new love and a new desire.

We have to see and open our eyes to the fact that there is something infinitely better than what we are leaving behind.

This is what the Psalmist is getting at when he writes,

Psalm 34:8 (ESV)

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!

Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

If sin seems pleasing and tempting to us, then we need to replace those pleasures with something better.

It’s also why John the Baptist, when he saw Jesus coming down to the Jordan River shouted out,

John 1:29 (ESV)

The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!

When we truly experience and behold Christ, His beauty begins to give us a better desire than what we once had.

Ex. The desire of having the temporary pleasure of greasy fast food vs. the desire of living a long and healthy life. Yes, are we still tempted with the unhealthy food? Yes. But when we begin to think, do I want that or would I rather enjoy a longer and healthier life with my loved ones, I see that the greater desire is to deny myself the temporary pleasure in order to have the greater pleasure.

As we turn our eyes upon Christ and truly experience His love, beauty and grace, our hearts slowly begin to want to reject the fleeting pleasures of sin in order to embrace the greater pleasure of Christ.

Our Salvation is Accomplished for the Sake of Another

Read Genesis 19:27-29

Genesis 19:27–29 (ESV)

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.

Lot’s salvation wasn’t just for Lot’s sake

God saved Lot because of His love for Abraham

If Lot’s salvation was dependent upon Lot alone, he probably would have lost it because of his constant reluctance to listen and believe.

But God remembered Abraham, who had interceded for Lot and God’s promise that Abraham would be a blessing to the world.

So our salvation isn’t just for our sake

God saves us because of His love for His Son.

The assurance of our salvation is not based upon our own righteousness, but upon the righteousness and work of Christ.

God saves us, not because we are worthy, but because Christ is worthy and for the sake of God’s name.

This is actually what gives us the assurance that even in spite of our continued struggle with sin, God will mercifully continue to save us because His love for us is not based upon how good we are, but based upon the perfect righteousness of His Son.

Like Abraham interceded for Lot, so Jesus is constantly making intercession for His people.

Hebrews 7:25 (ESV)

Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them.

God will never deny His own Son, and if our trust and identity is in Christ, then He will never let us go. Our assurance of salvation is based upon the Father’s love and commitment to the Son, not based upon our commitment to perfectly follow God.

Think of the Father’s own words about His Son.

Matthew 3:16–17 (ESV)

And when Jesus was baptized, immediately he went up from the water, and behold, the heavens were opened to him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and coming to rest on him; and behold, a voice from heaven said, “This is my beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased.”

It is not for our righteousness that God saves us, it is Christ’s righteousness. And because of His righteousness and because of the love the Father has for the Son, He will never deny His Son what His Son asks and intercedes for.

This does not give us an excuse to sin. But it does give us confidence that when we do sin, we can confess our sins to the Father because of what the Son has done for us.

1 John 2:1–2 (ESV)

My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world.

Everything about who we are and our position before God is dependent upon His mercy. So as we are a week and a half out from Thanksgiving, let us begin to prepare our hearts to give thanks for all that God has provided for us in Christ and for the mercy and compassion that He has shown in spite of our rebellion against Him.