Mercy in the Midst of Judgement

“Mercy in the Midst of Judgment”

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In this chapter we see the judgment and mercy of God running side by side. God is a God of judgment, but He is also a God of mercy, nowhere is that seen more clearly than in the account of God judging Sodom and Gomorrah, and in mercy rescuing Lot from the destruction. Lot deserved to be buried under the fire and brimstone of God’s wrath, but God didn’t give him what he deserved, He showed him mercy.

Someone defined “mercy” as God not giving us what we deserve, and “Grace” as God giving us what we don’t deserve.

We are told in V:16-“The Lord being merciful to him: and brought him forth, and set him without the city”

This is the first time mercy is mention in the bible, in the midst of Judgment God showed mercy to Lot and his family. God judges sin, He has judged this world before and He will judge the sin of this world again. We are told that every unsaved person is already under the judgment and condemnation of God.

But in the midst of judgment God wants to show mercy, He makes deliverance, and salvation available.

We are told all though the bible that God is both a God of judgment and mercy:

-“Shall not the judge of all the earth do right”

-“God will judge the world in righteousness”.

God is called the righteous Judge, and true and righteous are His judgments. As the righteous Judge, God alone determines what is right and wrong, what is lawful and what is against His law. What He condemns, and pronounces sentence against will be judged, whether you and I like it, or our society likes it! He alone is the righteous Judge! And what His says is against His law is against the law!

God tells us in His word what He condemns, and what He will judge! God judges sin!!

But thank God, He is also a God of Mercy:

-“And the LORD passed by before him, and proclaimed, The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth”.

-“It is of the LORD'S mercies that we are not consumed”.

When Jesus walked this earth He demonstrated God’s mercy everywhere He went!

-“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

-“in wrath remember mercy.

God wants you to experience His mercy in the midst of a world on a Collison course with judgment.

The account of Sodom and Gomorrah is given to warn us of God’s judgment on a society that rejects His righteous law, a society that had become morally bankrupt, and to show us God’s mercy in the midst of judgment.

-“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

God is saying; HEY-if you’re thinking about living an ungodly life- LOOK at want happened to Sodom and Gomorrah!! This account is given to us as an example; it is here to teach us to live godly lives.

There are three things we should do when we read this account.

#1 we should:

1. Listen to God’s Warning!

V:1-14.

The first fourteen verses records the sin of Sodom and the warning of God’s coming judgment. The account starts with Lot meeting the angels at the gate of the city of Sodom.

Sodom is mentioned 6 times in the Old Testament.

4 times in the New Testament. And when Sodom is mentioned it is always mentioned with a sense of shame, condemnation and fear because it was such a wicked city.

-“But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly.

-“And the LORD said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous”.

Sodom is synonymous with sexual perversion. It’s in the Bible as the outstanding example of judgment on a society given over to excess and sexual perversion.

Let’s follow the story line; the angels come into the city, Lot greets them, he invites them to stay at his house for the night, they refuse and say they will stay outside tonight.

Lot knows what will happen to them if they stay on the streets of Sodom, so he urged them to stay with him. The 2 angels stay with Lot, he fixes them a meal, but before they can go to bed, something terrible happens. The men of the city, young and old, surround Lot’s house and demand he turn the men over to them that they might have sexual relations with them. "Where are the men? Where are the men?" It was the vilest, most degraded, perverted demand that can possibly come from the lips of men. Homosexual practice had become a dominant way of life in Sodom.

Lot goes outside shuts he door behind him, and says, V:7-“ I beg you don’t do something so wicked”

Lot made a moral judgment; lot declared what they wanted to was wicked, and they didn’t like it!

Lot telling them that want they wanted to do was morally wrong offended the sodomites.

V:9-“ stand back, you came here, and now you think you can judge us, we are going to deal worse with you.

No longer did the perverts practice their abominations in secret, ostracized by the rest of the community. No longer were their shameful sins tolerated by a permissive society as something people had a right to practice if they pleased.

Now the people were an aggressive, insistent force in the city with which none dared interfere. For their behavior was not looked upon by the Sodomites as criminal but as constitutional. They had the constitutional right to indulge their passions when and where they wished and any attempt to stop them could be expected to lead to open riot in the city.

V:10-“But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door.

The angels, open the door and jerk Lot back inside and strike the men outside blind, so they can’t find the door of the house.

Once Lot is inside the angels said to Lot,

V:12-13-“And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? Son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.

God warns Lot that Judgment is on the way, if you have anybody here, family, friends, you must warn them to get out of this place judgment is on the way!!

Today, listen to God’s warning! Judgment is coming to this sin cursed world!!

The same sins of Sodom are here today, and God is going to judge this nation because of the sins it is committing!

-“And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an example unto those that after should live ungodly;

Paul teaches in , the toleration of the sins of Sodom indicates that that culture is a totally abandoned culture. The destruction of Sodom is held up as the supreme example of the coming judgment on the world. Jesus said: - "As it was in the days of Lot... so shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed"

What was happening in Sodom will be happening when the Lord Jesus comes in Judgment.

-“Look, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and abundance of idleness; neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. And they were haughty and committed abomination before me; therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

These are the sins that brought the judgment of God on Sodom, and they will bring the judgment of God today!

The smoking ruins of Sodom, is an example of how God feels about the sins of Sodom.

· Pride.

There’s a sin that God hates more than sexual perversion, and its pride. Many people will never become sexual perverts are eaten up with pride. Pride is the very first thing that God listed on the sins that He hates. God hates the sin of pride. The bible says, God resists the proud. There's some of you here today who will not get saved because you'll not admit your need. You won’t walk down this isle because your pride says don't admit that you have any need, don't go down there in front of all of those people to receive Jesus Christ as your personal Savior. And Sodom is a testimony that God hates the sin of pride.

· Fullness of bread

They were living lives of materialism, selfishness, thinking only of the things of the flesh, living to gratify the flesh, eating, drinking and ignoring God.

· Abundance of Idleness.

They had become lazy, and work had become a thing of the past. Their prosperity had become their curse, and they were lazy and idle, and that lead to immorality and selfishness.

The bible says that six days shalt thou work; and even when you get retired from your business, that does not mean that you're to quit working.

That means you're to come down here to Crossway and work, and find other ministries you can work in. Serve the Lord, don’t sit around in a rocking chair, and die, God has something for you do for His kingdom. The worse thing that could happen to a nation is for people get the idea their not supposed to work anymore.

· They didn’t help the poor and needy.

There are people in this city who are poor and needy, they don’t have a place to live, food to eat, or clothes to wear. And we ought to look for was we can help them, we can help ministries that know how to help those who are poor and needy.

· They were haughty and committed abomination.

What was the abomination they committed?

The abomination they committed was sexual perversion and God calls that abomination.

-“If a man also lie with mankind, as he lies with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them.

This is what Ezekiel is talking about when he says they were haughty and committed abomination.

They were not only committing abomination before God, they were haughty and proud about it!

A nation is on its last leg, when it is committing sexual perversions and proud of it.

"-For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature. Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not fitting”.

We are living in a society today that is accepting what God condemns! Sexual perversion was the sin of Sodom and it is the sin of America. When a nation becomes proud of what God condemns that nation is headed for the judgment of God!

Homosexuality was an accepted and prevailed sin among the old and young in Sodom, and God judged it, then and He will judge it today!

Today we should listen to God’s warning?

#2 we should:

2. Learn From Lot’s Mistakes!

V:14-22.

The angels tell Lot to warn his son-in-law’s and daughters and get them out of Sodom, because God is going to destroy the city.

Lot goes and tells his son-in-law’s what God has told him, I can picture him running from house to house, he woke up his children, gathered the family of this one and that around him in the living room. He told what had happened. He told them about the coming judgment of Sodom. "Hurry! Hurry!" get up and get out of this place.V:14-“But he seemed to them as one that mocked unto his son-in-law’s.

The old man's crazy, he does know what he is talking about! We don’t believe in divine judgment! He walks away with tears in his eyes because he has no influence with his grown children. His testimony had been ruined over the years because he had been compromising with sin. And his warning fell on deaf ears. He had taken his daughters to Sodom and now he had lost them to Sodom. They had married men of Sodom, and now they had the mentality of Sodom. They were unable to receive spiritual truth. And Lot, with years of backsliding behind him, had no spiritual power.

How sad, he lost his testimony, and his family!

What happened that day when his son-in-law’s and daughters thought what he said was a joke, didn’t start that day!

Here is a man that had a slow fade; little by little he gave up spiritual ground until he had no testimony left!!

What we read in V:15-16, seems unbelievable; the son is rising, and the angels are rushing Lot, get your wife and daughters and get out of here ,or you’re going to be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And Lot lingered, he is dilly dallying around, he is delaying his departure, he is reluctant to leave; you want to say to him-LOT WHAT WRONG WITH YOU GET OUT OF TOWN!!

V:16-“ While he is lingering, the men laid hold of his hand, and the hand of his wife, and the hands of his 2 daughters; the Lord being merciful to him: and bought him forth, and set him without the city”.

Lot had become so attached to Sodom that he had to be dragged out! He is a carnal backslidden believer!

It is incredible how dull a backslidden person becomes to spiritual truth. Once outside the city the angels said, V:17-“Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed.

Lot is still resistant to doing what God tells him to do, - Read.

He wants to go into the little city of Zoar, Lot still wants a little piece of low living, he is negotiating while he is being drug out of Sodom. He doesn’t trust God who delivered him from Sodom to protect him in the mountains. He is a compromising Christian, who doesn’t want to get to far from the world.

Lot’s life is an example of a half-hearted, worldly-minded, backslidden Christian that was saved from the fire of judgment, but loses everything else he has.

When you read about Lot in this chapter, you who never guess he is a Christian, but when you read about him in the N.T. you are told he was a saved man, -“And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked”.

If it were not for that one verse you would never convince me Lot was a saved man, because he lived like the world. Learn from Lot’s mistakes; if you adopted the world’s philosophy and standards you will lose your testimony, you will have no power with God or your family.

You will hang onto this world with your dying breath, but you’re not carrying any of it with you, and it is all going up in smoke an ashes!

If you live for this world, and try to talk about God you will be a joke to your family and friends!

#3 we should:

3. Look at God’s Mercy!

V:23-29.

God in Mercy delivered Lot from the judgment on Sodom, V:16- the Lord being merciful to him”

God allowed Lot to go to the little city of Zoar,

V:22-“ Hurry up, escape there; for I cannot do anything until you get there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.

Oh the love, mercy, patience of God to wait on Lot!

When the sun is rising, Lot enters into Zoar,

Under the constant urging of the angels, Lot and his family finally moved out of the danger zone. Instantly the judgment fell. Fire and brimstone came hurtling down from heaven, hell rained down from heaven, and the wail of a lost city arose to the sky. And Lot's wife looked back.

"Look not behind thee," cried the angels, "neither stay thou in all the plain." Lot’s family, saved so as by fire, must forget those things that are behind. The world must be given-up, even at this late hour, from their very hearts. But,V:26-“ Lot's wife looked back. It was a steadfast, earnest look, a wistful look, a lingering, hankering look.

Maybe she was thinking of all the stuff she had left behind, maybe she was thinking of her children, that she and Lot had taken there and now they have lost them there for all eternity!!

She disobeyed and looked back and was turned into a monument to a divided heart. She was turned into a pillar of salt. Time and weather has eroded her, but the Lord Jesus has embalmed her in the Bible as a warning to us all. - "Remember Lot's wife”.

No man can serve two masters, you cannot serve God and the world. Jesus said, no man putting his hand to the plow should look back. You can’t go forward for God looking in the rearview mirror at the world.

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah is an example of God’s righteous judgment.

-“Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

God condemned the lifestyle of the men of Sodom, but He extend mercy, and gave the people of Sodom time to repent, and rescued Lot from judgment.

Consider the Lord’s mercy toward the people of Sodom.

· He was long-suffering toward them.

He heard the cry of their sin, and still gave them time to repent.

· He listen to Abraham’s intercession for Sodom.

God said He would spare Sodom for ten righteous people.

· He sent His angels to rescue Lot and his family.

- “But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more”.

Did Lot deserve to be delivered? Of course not! But do any of us deserve to be saved from the wrath to come? Of course not!

The most amazing thing is that Jesus Christ died for the sinners in Sodom and Gomorrah!

-“For Christ also has suffered once for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God”.

Christ did not die for good people, because there are none. He died for the ungodly and for sinners.

We may not have committed the same sins as the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, but we are sinners just the same; and apart from faith in Jesus Christ, we cannot be saved from the judgment to come.

Jesus is the Friend of sinners who will save all who come to Him in true repentance and faith.

The inhabitants of Sodom had no idea that they were awakening that morning to the last day of their lives. Life was going on as usual, and then the fire fell.

The last picture we see in this section is Abraham, V:27-28. He get up early, goes to his prayer place, and looks toward Sodom and sees the smoke of the burned up cities going up like a furnace. We are told that God delivered Lot because of the prayers of Abraham.

As we see Abraham standing there looking at the smoke of judgment rising up from Sodom, and Lot escaping we are reminded that God shows mercy in the midst of Judgment.

Today I want us to stand, and look not at a city judgment because of their sin; I want us to stand and look at a man that was judged for the sins of the whole world, that we through Him might experience the mercy and grace of God; Jesus took the wrath of God on the Cross that you might be saved from the judgment of God!

When the judgment comes, will you be like Abraham and not have to worry about the wrath of God? Or, like Lot, will you be saved “as by fire”? Or, like the people of Sodom, will you be lost forever?

-“Seek ye the Lord while He may be found, call ye upon Him while He is near; Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him; and to our God; for He will abundantly pardon”.