God's Big Picture: Genesis 18:16-19:38

CIT: God has promised to save the righteous and punish the wicked, therefore our hope can only be found in Christ alone.

God loves the righteous (Gen. 18:16-33)

God is merciful (Gen. 19:1-22)

God hates the wicked (Gen. 18:16-33)

God is wrathful (Gen. 19:23-29)

Bad company corrupts good character (Gen. 19:30-38)

We have hope in Christ alone

God loves the righteous (Gen. 18:16-33)

God tells Abraham that he is going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah

Abraham has been chosen by God to bless the nations and be righteous

Abraham asks God to relent for the sake of the righteous

God promises not to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah if even ten righteous people are found

Because God loves the righteous so much he promises to forego the destruction of an evil city

God is merciful (Gen. 19:1-22)

God pauses his judgement in order to save Lot and his family

God has promised to bless the nations through Abraham, and this is evidence of that taking place

Lot is living in the city of Sodom now

In Gen. 13 Lot was living outside of the city of Sodom, but now he is living in the city with the people

Lot is dragged out of the city of Sodom

Even though Lot and his family don’t really want to leave the angels drag Lot out of the city in order to save him

Sometimes this is what we need. Jude 21 tells us that we are to “keep ourselves in the love of God,” we are to be active in keeping our faith and abstaining from sin. But in Jude 23 he tells christians to save others by snatching them out of the fire. This is what happened to Lot, God snatched him out of the fire of destruction. when we are so deep in our sin sometimes we need our brother or sister in Christ to snatch us out of the fire before it destroys us.

God hates the wicked (Gen. 18:16-33)

God has heard the outcry about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah

We have seen just how wicked of a city that Sodom is, and when God heard the outcry he knew that these cities were woefully wicked.

Because of the wickedness of these cities they are to be destroyed

We may be tempted to think, well why doesn’t God just show mercy and grace to them, they don’t need to be destroyed. That thought comes from an underestimation of how horrible our sin really is. God has shown mercy and grace in allowing Sodom and Gomorrah time to repent for their wickedness, but even we, as broken sinners, can recognize how horrible of a people are in this city, they’re so horrible there aren’t even ten who could be counted as righteous.

Sin always earns punishment

God promised Adam and Eve that their sin would result in punishment, and it did. God promised Sodom and Gomorrah that their sin would result in punishment, and it did. God promised Israel that their sin would result in punishment, and it did. Why would we then think that God would not punish our sin.

God is wrathful (Gen. 19:23-29)

God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for their sin

Lot’s wife looked back at Sodom and was turned into a pillar of salt

Lot’s wife doesn’t want to leave her sin, and it gets her killed. Are you going to be like Lot’s wife and look back at your sin longing to go back to your old ways?

Paul tells us what we are supposed to do as Christians with our sin in Colossians 3:1-14

Bad company corrupts good character (Gen. 19:30-38)

The sinful influence of Sodom and Gomorrah caused Lot and his daughters to think sinfully

We need to get rid of the influences in our lives that cause us to think and act sinfully. For me it was certain types of music, specifically a band I’ve mentioned before called Slipknot. they were not a good influence on me and they caused me to think and act sinfully, so I had to get rid of them. I had a group of friends in high school that caused me to think and act sinfully, so I had to leave that friend group. For me video games were a big source of sinful thinking and acting, they caused me to be extremely lazy, so I had to get rid of a lot of my games. Social media on my phone was another big influence of sinful thinking and acting, so I had to get rid of it.

What are the things in your life that cause sinful thinking and acting? because you need to get rid of them.

We have hope in Christ alone

No one is righteous, no not one (Rom. 3:10)

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God (Rom. 3:23)

The wages of sin is death (Rom. 6:23)

But god shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)

If you confess that Jesus is Lord and believe that God raised him from the dead then you will be saved (Rom. 10:9)