Judgment and Mercy
Notes
Transcript
Mercy
Mercy
No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you.
For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.”
No formal education recorded in Israel before 400BC.
v.20 wrongdoing cries out to the Lord - Gen. 4:10
And the Lord said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground.
“The LORD remained standing before Abraham” v.22
Scribes changed it and left a footnote due to the thought that God’s condescension seemed too blasphemous.
But so begins an intimate time of intercession between Abraham and the LORD. He knew Him and spoke to Him in light of His righteousness and grace.
Judgment
Judgment
The men desire homosexual gang rape
Lot seeks to appease their lust by giving up his own family. This creates a sexual ethic that will come in to play later.
For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
Now I want to remind you, although you once fully knew it, that Jesus, who saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day— just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.
Mercy
Mercy
Even in the face of hesitancy and unbelief
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.
Judgment
Judgment
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building,
but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
Lot’s wife longs for a city of wickedness left behind
Remember Lot’s wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it.
People have a hard time living in dependance on God and trusting His provision and promise is better
and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”
In case we think that the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah are worse than what we have done, look at the words of Jesus
And if anyone will not receive you or listen to your words, shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town. Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.
All sin originates in unbelief. Who will remain in unbelief and who will be saved by mercy?
Rom. 8-10 is an amazing section in regards to the theology of salvation, the sovereignty of God, and our response. Paul understands that judgment is sure due to unbelief and mercy and grace granted as God decides. What is his response to these realities?
“To isolate God’s sovereign choice from the believer’s personal faith is to foolishly and presumptuously separate what God has inextricably united. A theology that does not reflect genuine, heartfelt compassion for the lost and a deep desire for their salvation is a theology that is unbiblical.” - John MacArthur
Brothers, my heart’s desire and prayer to God for them is that they may be saved.
