Can We Even find Ten?

I. Introduction

Would you please open your copy of God’s Word to the book of Genesis and Chapter 18....and this morning we are going to look at verses 16 through 33.

Last week, Brother Aaron chared with you from verses 1-15…and you looked at the promise God made for Sarah to have a child. Sarah, of course laughed at the notion…then as you’ll remember that she denied it. God called her out on that and said, “Oh no, but you DID laugh.” Brother Aaron gave us three outworkings of hope, as you’ll remember.

And that is where we pick it up this week.

a. Scripture: Genesis 18:16-33

I’m going to ask you to stand with me, if you are able, as we read from God’s Holy, Perfect, Sufficient and inerrant Word.

<Pray>

Thank you, and you may be seated.

II. Major Points

God WANTS you to Know Truth

God Will PUnish the Wicked

God is Just

III. Point #1: God WANTS you to Know Truth

Explanation Now what you might not realize, is this is an instance of what we call a Christophany. You might remember that a Christophany is an appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ in the Old Testament before He was ever born. We have already seen Him a time or two....you’ll remember back when we studied the Book of Daniel in Chapter 3 where the evil King Nebuchadnezzar threw Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego into the fiery furnace?

Daniel 3:25 NASB95

He said, “Look! I see four men loosed and walking about in the midst of the fire without harm, and the appearance of the fourth is like a son of the gods!”

In other words…The Lord Jesus, the Son of God, appeared in the fire with the other three men.

Here, we see the Lord Jesus well before even that happened way back in Genesis.

So there were angels here along with the Lord Jesus, and the angels left and went to Sodom, but Christ stayed behind to visit with Abraham.

Genesis 18:1 NASB95

Now the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, while he was sitting at the tent door in the heat of the day.

Genesis 18:2 NASB95

When he lifted up his eyes and looked, behold, three men were standing opposite him; and when he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth,

Why did he bow to the earth? Well It’s not because they were men or looked like men....it’s because they LOOKED like men, but there was CLEARLY something different about them…and that’s because they were angels. It keeps referring to them as “then men,” and then “the Lord,” as it does again in verse 16:

Genesis 18:16 NASB95

Then the men rose up from there, and looked down toward Sodom; and Abraham was walking with them to send them off.

Then, look at verse 17:

Genesis 18:17 NASB95

The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do,

The answer is “No.”…NO. God WANTS Abraham to know the truth about what is coming his way…and then He shares that truth with him beginning in verse 20 as he talks about what is coming to Sodom and Gomorrah.

God, I believe God, the Son, Jesus, wanted his FRIEND Abraham to know his truth.

Illustration

Truth in this world today has become so subjectified that we are unsure of what is what anymore. I heard Dr. Anthony George’s sermon the other night....Anthony is the Pastor at First Baptist Atlanta…He is the man who replaced Dr. Charles Stanley when he retired last year, and he also sits on the board with me at Truett-McConnell University.

Anthony was preaching about truth and our culture today....and he mentioned that what has happened in our culture today is that truth has been diluted. And he’s so right about that.

Have you ever made your own lemonade before? I love lemonade....luckily there is a Crystal Lite version so I can have lemonade without the sugar....but have you ever been making lemonade or sweet tea and messed it up? Like you added too much water or not enough lemon juice? In other words, it become dilluted. There’s a fine line between lemonade and lemon flavored water, amen? Lemon flavored water is dilluted....it’s concentrated.

Dr. Anthony George was talking about how we compromise on what sin is and allow for so many grey areas that it’s becoming impossible to know what is sin anymore....and as a result we justify sin. If you can’t identify it, then you can’t call it out, when you can’t call it out, then you can’t recognize it, when you can’t recognize it, you commit it and then say it’s ok....You dillute it. You dillute the truth.

Application

Folks, just like God wanted his beloved creation Abraham to know the truth, he wants each and every one of us to know the truth. He wants us to know the truth the sin hurts us and is destructive....He wants us to know the truth that Jesus can save us from sin now and give us an eternity with Him in heaven, and he wants us to know that we can have a blessed and fulfilled life by living for HIm.

That’s the truth....and He gave us His Word that we might know that with all our hearts.

So know this: God isn’t trying to hide anything from you. He wants you to know the truth....and we find out that truth by studying His Word.

John 15:14–15 NASB95

“You are My friends if you do what I command you. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

Are you a friend of God? Abraham was, and God did not want to hide the truth from him. The same can be true with you.

IV. Point #2: God Will Punish the Wicked

Explanation I want you to see here, that God has looked down at these cities of Sodom and Gomorrah…and he has seen their wickedness…and God has grown tired of it. And they have undoubtedly been given chance after chance to mend their ways....or else God would have already destroyed them for their wickedness.

And God has pledged to destroy those cities and all in them....and we see here that Abraham tries to intercede for any good people that might still be there.

But we find out that this place has gotten so bad that we can barely find ANY people that might even resemble that category.

Illustration

Years ago in 2005, Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans....a city seething with sinfulness and disregard for the things of God.

When various preachers were asked if they felt like that hurricane was God’s judgment on the sinfulness of New Orleans, most of them stopped short of being yes, but I do recall one preacher in particular who responded to the reporter with the question “well sir, what if it was?” The reporter, taken aback, asked the preacher “Pastor, are you inferring that you believe God hates gay people?” The preacher said “no, but just remember when you print this article, it was YOU that threw homosexuality out when we mentioned sin, not me.”

Application

The fact of the matter is, whether God was punishing the sinfulness of New Orleans with that hurricane or not is debatable. New Orleans is basically in a bowl below sea level…it is on the Golf Coast, a place very succeptible to hurricanes, particularly during hurricane season....it’s a terrible place for a large city.

But ALL that aside: It doesn’t really matter....because the ultimate judgment won’t take place here anyway. Sin WILL be punished…and ultimately it will be punished in eternity. That is why it is so important that we call sin what it is....that is why it is so important that we implore people to come to Jesus Christ for forgiveness and repentance. All sin does is decieve, break down all that is good, and destroy everything around it.

God looked down on ALL the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah and His wrath burned against them. This is foreshadowing for the fact that God will punish ALL sin eventually. Sin is missing the mark....it’s failure to meet God’s standards.

And folks, I’m here to tell you, whether you are guilty of sins of unbiblical sex, or stealing, or a lying tongue, if you don’t have the blood of Christ covering your sin and cleansing your soul, you’ll face punishment far worse than Sodom and Gomorrah faced because your punishment will be eternal.

God WILL punish sin out of Christ, or He will have already punished sin through Christ.

V. Point #3: God is Just

Explanation So Abraham has this discussion with who believe to be the Lord Jesus....and he pleads with the Lord....He says “Lord…surely…SURELY if there a few that are righteous good people there....SURELY if a few people love You there....in fact, SURELY, if you can find say…50 people there....surely you will spare the city of Sodom from destruction?”

Appealing to God’s sense of justice....NOT his sense of love or mercy....look at verse 25 again:

Genesis 18:25 NASB95

“Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”

You see Abraham KNEW that the punishment of destruction was just…so He wasn’t appealing to God’s sense of mercy or love to spare them....He was appealing to His sense of Justice....

He was saying “God....I know you are a just God…far be it from you to kill 50 righteous people along with the wicked....”

God says OK…lets see…Abraham puches it…He says “what about 45?”.....God says “OK…I’ll save the city if I can find 45”....Then “how about 40”....”how about 30”....”how about 20”....

And see here’s the deal: God KNEW there weren’t 20 righteous people there…He didn’t have to go look....but God was showing Abraham just how few people there really were there that loved the Lord.

So many discussions are had about the nature of who God is and what He is. God has many attributes…His sense of love for instance. Some people seem to be under the impression that’s all God is is love....and they wrongly would draw the conclusion that a loving God would not judge a person harshly for their sins....well that’s just wrong. In addition to being love, God is also defined by His sense of being a Just God.

Isaiah 30:18 NASB95

Therefore the Lord longs to be gracious to you, And therefore He waits on high to have compassion on you. For the Lord is a God of justice; How blessed are all those who long for Him.

That means that no matter what else defines God, there is none of it that can be allowed to divorce Him from His sense of justice.

Yes He IS love…Yes He loves you....but His loving nature can never ever be divorced from HIs sense of justice....That means He can be lovingly just; but He WON’T EVER be loving without being just.

God is gracious…that means He bestows favor on those who do not deserve it…His grace is called His unmerited favor. God bestows Grace on us by way of saving us from our sin through Jesus Christ’s atoning death....God IS gracious....but He is also graciously Just.

That means that sin must be paid for....period. This means that something must die…blood must be spilt for the payment of sin....A God who was simply gracious and loving might have said “OK, you sinned, but I’m going ignore it this time.”…but God also happens to be just....and a just God is consistent.

So instead of doing that, He still required payment for that sin…and to pay it....he paid it Himself through His Son Jesus.

Illustration There is a great show about traffic court in Providence Rhode Island…the star is Judge Frabk Caprio. He is an older man who has been a judge there for many years. He hears people out and is famous for giving second chances, but very often holding multiple offenders accountable for breaking the law.

One case in particular had a woman come before the judge who had run a redlight to get to the hospital because her mother was in intensive care. The judge sentenced her to pay $100 for speeding and running a redlight…then, he proceeded to take $100 out of his own wallet, and paid her debt for her.

Application

You see, the fine was still demanded because of justice.....just like sin demands payment. Because of the Judge’s grace for this girl, he paid it himself…and you see the Lord has done the same for us. He didn’t really cancel our debt....he just took it on Himself and paid it Himself.

And you see…in Abraham’s case, He got it down to TEN....TEN....can we even find TEN righteous men, to clear the sin debt of this city....The fact is, Chapter 19 indicates that Lot had at least two married daughters (v. 14) and two single daughters (v. 30ff), so, with his wife and sons-in-law, there were eight in the family. If Lot had won his own family, plus only two neighbors, God would have spared a whole city! But he failed to meet even those conditions.

They could not even find ten righteous men....to meet God’s demand of justice and righteousness.

VI. Conclusion

a. Let me ask you this morning: I wonder, if the Lord Jesus came back today just to judge YOUR family…would he find ten righteous people? Just ten?

Let us make sure we are living for that righteousness…and sharing the Gospel with our own, as well as others.

b. Let’s Pray