Judgment Is Real
Genesis 19:1-26
June 20, 2021
I expect some of you are wondering where the good news is going to come from this text. There is good news; perhaps not in the way we are normally used to thinking about it.
The Story
Let’s take a few moments to walk through what was going on here. Many people are familiar with the names of these towns – Sodom and Gomorrah – and the familiarity generally has a negative connotation. This is part three of the four-part story that makes up Chapters 18 and 19. The first part of the story was the three visitors to Abraham, the second was Abraham’s intercession with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah; today’s third part is the righteous judgment of God and Lot’s escape, and, in the fourth part, the story wraps up with Lot’s disgrace.
Picking up from last week, while Abraham was conversing with the LORD – “what if there are fifty? Forty-five? Forty?” and so forth; the other two men, now identified as angels, made their way to Sodom. Lot was at the city gate. It is unclear if he was there alone because he had been ostracized by the community or if others were there and he was the only one with the social graces to extend hospitality to these visitors. Either way, it was clear that Lot was an alien to Sodom in both status and character.
Lot invited the men to his home; remarkably, they refused. He insisted; “he urged them strongly.” Why? They had refused his hospitality – he owed them nothing. And yet, Lot insisted and treated them appropriately by offering a meal. He brought them safely into his home to protect them from the men of Sodom. In other words, Lot knew the nature of the men of Sodom.
Sure enough, as the narrator points out, the old and young men came to Lot’s house seeking to do evil to his guests. That they intended to rape the visitors is apparent from Lot’s offer to send out his two virgin daughters. This is a shocking development to us – and to the earliest readers and listeners – however, it is important to remember Lot was seeking to protect his guests. Hospitality was a duty. Lot’s honor and integrity at the cost of his own life were at stake. Hospitality meant ensuring the safety of those who were taken in. Because that protection was the highest priority, Lot was himself outside dealing with the unruly crowd. His outrageous offer of his daughters to appease the mob graphically illustrated the scope of their wickedness.
Lot’s offer did not work.
Not only did the crowd reject Lot’s plea, they mocked him for calling them to do the right thing. “This fellow is an alien, and he would play the judge!” You can almost feel the exasperation Lot was experiencing. “I am not judging; I am merely trying to do the right thing.” But that is precisely the point: in pursuit of depravity, anything right or holy had to be mocked, violated, destroyed, or damaged.
Does that sound a little too familiar? Can we see that at all today? Faith and fidelity are mocked. Our culture celebrates the practice of what is corrupt, forbidden, and taboo. We find virtue in all that pushes the boundaries. To the extent our culture thinks about the church at all, it values it only insofar as it supports what we want. In other words, the church should serve us, not God.
The most recent example I have seen was on Friday this week. Sixty Catholic members of Congress released a “Statement of Principles.”[1] Without mentioning Jesus Christ – not even once – they pivot
From – being “committed to making real the basic principles that are at the
heart of Catholic social teaching,”
To – “In all these issues, we seek the Church's guidance and assistance but believe also in the primacy of conscience. In recognizing the Church's role in providing moral leadership, we acknowledge and accept the tension that comes with being in disagreement with the Church in some areas.”
The problem, from their perspective, is that Catholic bishops are taking steps to withhold communion from those who advocate for abortion. “We believe the separation of church and state allows for our faith to inform our public duties and best serve our constituents. The Sacrament of Holy Communion is central to the life of practicing Catholics, and the weaponization of the Eucharist to Democratic lawmakers for their support of a woman’s safe and legal access to abortion is contradictory.” Don’t get lost in the heat of the issue of abortion here; it was the same thing last year with the “Evangelicals For Trump”[2] idolatry. Pay attention to what is being said, “We want God’s blessing even though we do not recognize God to be Lord. God can be there to guide and assist, but our conscience is primary. We want to do what we want, and we demand God’s blessing for it.”
This is precisely what Jude was describing in our New Testament passage.
But you, beloved, must remember the predictions of the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ; for they said to you, “In the last time there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts.” It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions. But you, beloved, build yourselves up on your most holy faith; pray in the Holy Spirit; keep yourselves in the love of God; look forward to the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ that leads toa eternal life. And have mercy on some who are wavering; save others by snatching them out of the fire; and have mercy on still others with fear, hating even the tunic defiled by their bodies.
Back to our story. The mob began roughing up Lot; the angels revealed their strength, pulled him inside, and blinded the men outside. The last line is interesting – the notion here is that the mob continued to try to find the door even after being blinded, as if that judgment was insufficient to wake them up from their wickedness.
The angels revealed to Lot their purpose and plan in coming to Sodom. They encouraged Lot to make an appeal to his sons-in law, those who were betrothed to the daughters. When Lot went to them to say, “Let’s go, let’s get out of here;” they laughed. They thought he was joking. Even the testimony of someone they knew was insufficient for the men of Sodom to wake up to the reality of coming judgment.
Let me stop here and digress for a moment: many of you have heard me urging you to share your story of faith. The fear I often hear is, “What if they do not believe me? What if they reject me? I do not want to fail God.” You are not failing God. Your testimony is an invitation – others are able to hear and accept or scoff and reject. Lot’s sons-in-law scoffed and rejected him. In the New Testament, people scoffed and rejected Jesus. Again, after Jesus’ resurrection, as the writer of Jude pointed out while talking about people even in the church, “there will be scoffers, indulging their own ungodly lusts. It is these worldly people, devoid of the Spirit, who are causing divisions [in the church].” Rejection does not mean you have failed. Lot’s sons-in-law knew him – they should have seen he was not kidding.
In the morning the angels urged Lot – using the same word for “urge” as had been used when Lot insisted they come to his home – they urged Lot to go, now. Lot did not go, he lingered as if torn between going to safety and staying put for sure destruction. Finally, the angels took Lot by the hand and left him outside the city. Still, Lot was not anxious to get moving. He objected to running for the hills, not trusting that God had a handle on the judgment and feared that he would be collateral damage. The angels relented and allowed him to head for the small town a shorter distance away.
The end of this section of the story recounted how “the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven.” Here and in Psalm 11:6 and Ezekiel 38:22 are the sources of our understanding of the meaning of “fire and brimstone.” It is an expression of God’s judgment raining down from heaven on the unrighteous. Lot’s wife had looked back – expressing her solidarity with the people of Sodom – and was turned into a pillar of salt. (No, I do not have a good explanation for why a pillar of salt was chosen; but often stories were told to explain the existence of things observable around the community. There were salt stacks all around an area that had been decimated and smelled like sulfur – this was how things got that way.)
That is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. What are we to make of it?
The Judgment
Judgment is real. Make no mistake; judgment is real. God cares what we do. God cares how we treat one another. God cares about how we live the lives he has given us.
God is holy and perfect. God will always be holy and perfect. God will not allow anything that is unholy and imperfect to continue to exist. God’s judgment on that imperfection looks awful to the imperfect.
For those who say, “I can’t believe in a loving God who would send people to Hell,” Sodom and Gomorrah are the case-in-point illustration of the judgment of God being expressed towards those who refuse to acknowledge God’s sovereignty. The depth of depravity described here is complete – they rejected every opportunity to repent. They were absolutely captive as slaves to their sinful desires.
Sodom stands for intentional and willful rejection of God’s holiness. We should not be comforted as if the judgment rained down as a result of one episode of mob sexual aggression – regardless of whether it was heterosexual or homosexual. The point was that men of Sodom were wicked to the core. Lot’s admonishment, “Do not do this evil thing,” was not a deterrent; instead, it highlighted how different he was than they were. For the listener and the reader, it becomes clear that even Abraham would have agreed that not one righteous man was remaining in Sodom.
Judgment is a scary thing for us to contemplate – and it should be. It is terrible and awful to experience. Without Jesus, we would be hopeless. We literally would have no hope. The preacher of Hebrews states starkly, “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Scripture is correct in saying, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom” and “a fool says in his heart, there is no God.” Judgment is an expression of God’s sovereign right and responsibility to perfect his good creation.
What do you think about God’s judgment? In my experience, people are more than willing to have God’s judgment fall on someone they do not like or do not know. Osama bin Laden? Good. The Taliban? Yes, them, too. How about one of the Kardashians? Well, sure; they seem a little harmless, but ok. But what about the people close to us? That is not quite so clear. What about our friends who do not believe? God, can you overlook some of that? I do not want them to suffer. What about our relatives who never give God a second thought; God, can’t you do something to wake them up? I do not want them to be counted among the lost. And, what about us? I am trying my best – isn’t that good enough?
Even as I walk through all of those examples, you know. You know that good enough is not good enough. You know your own sin, I know my own sin, and we know the sins of our community. God being just and righteous, we know that we have earned by our choices and behavior the same judgment as befell Sodom and Gomorrah.
The Good News
Well, happy Father’s Day to you, too, Pastor Bob. Thanks for that uplifting and encouraging message. Seriously, what’s the good news in all of this? If God’s judgment rains down on all unrighteousness – including our sin – where is the good news in that?
First, it is good news that God is holy, pure, and perfect. It is good news that God demands holiness, purity, and perfection. The promise of the fulfillment of the kingdom of God means that there will be no more sin, no more tears, no more brokenness and shame. We are coming ever closer to the time when the perfect, unbroken, eternal kingdom of God will be revealed; and when it is, all that would rebel against God will be burned away.
Second, and perhaps more comforting, the good news is that God had mercy on Lot. Lot is not portrayed as a righteous man. He hesitated and resisted God’s leading. He was aghast by the wickedness of his community but was reluctant to leave its material comforts. He understood the right thing to do and even tried to do it but was not strong enough on his own.
Lot describes many Christians – a Lot of Christians (get it?). They want to believe but are afraid to stand out too much from their culture. They do not want to be seen as religious freaks and want to fit in. They hear God’s call to righteousness but hesitate and resist if it means being critical of those around or even being seen as different. They are aghast by the wickedness and unrighteousness of their culture and community. Yet they tolerate it because tolerance seems nicer. Does that sound familiar?
It does to me.
When I was younger, I imagined this God-stuff to be about getting into heaven after I died. I thought the whole point of faith was to get through the pearly gates. I wanted to do just enough to be good enough. It is not like I wanted to be bad per se; I just wanted to have the freedom to be bad on occasion. I wanted to be able to do what I wanted even when I knew it was wrong. I did not want to be too good because, I thought, I would miss out on all the fun in life.
I was the center of my own world. I wanted God in my life only to the extent that He would benefit me, give me what I want, and save me when things went wrong. Oh, I would go to church, and I would serve on committees and I would try to be a nice guy; but stand up for faith? Rejoice in the right? Desire justice and mercy? Yes, but to a point. Everything to a point; faith in moderation is good, right?
God does not ask for moderation. God demands perfection – complete and total obedience. I know that. You know that. Anything less than perfect is imperfect. And we’re all imperfect, right? We know that we fail. The Bible tells us that we all fail. Paul would say this in Romans, “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.”
And yet God was merciful to Lot. It is amazing. It was good news for Lot and it is good news for you and me.
The angels set Lot outside the city. They sent him on the way. Though his wife looked back – indicating her desire to return, indicating her rejection of the salvation that had been offered (and even imposed) on Lot – Lot was faithful to the extent of obeying the command to get to the safe city. Lot believed the word of the LORD to the level that he was willing to act upon it. It was not perfect obedience, it was “perfecting” obedience. Lot was saved.
Likewise, the judgment is coming. There is no point in detailing the litany of depravity that we see all around. You could recite the “parade of horribles” just as easily as I can. But just as surely as the judgment is coming, look at what God has done. He has had mercy on those who will trust and obey him. “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) “Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 16:31). “If you confess with your lips Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.” (Romans 10:10).
Just as the angels set Lot outside the city as judgment was coming, Jesus sets us outside the consequence of judgment. He took our sin upon himself. He incurred the judgment we deserve in his own body. When we put our trust in him, receive him as Lord and Savior – even with faulty and halting obedience – we are saved. We do not earn it, we receive it as a gift.
That is good news. It is the good news. It is my testimony and witness. Can you hear it? It is the testimony and witness of this congregation. Do you see it? Friends, believe the good news: in Jesus Christ, we are forgiven.
If this is new to you or if you have heard it for the first time, I am going to invite you to come up and pray after the service. If you have questions about it, come see me.
Conclusion
So, yes, there is good news in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. God is sovereign and his judgment real. Yet God is merciful and extends the invitation to all to believe. We are saved because Jesus is righteous, not us. While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Even in our halting and sporadic obedience, God has claimed us as his own and is perfecting us for his kingdom.
When you go out from here today, go and share the good news with someone you know. Go and share this message of hope. Yours may be the invitation they need to escape the coming judgment.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
Questions:
- How do you see God’s judgment: is it unreasonably harsh or is it good? How would you explain it to someone else?
- Are there areas in your life that you excuse from God’s sovereignty; that you hold onto even though you know that God has declared them to be wrong? What would it take for you to surrender to God?
- How do you deal with being “an alien, and yet he would play the judge”; or, in our day, “Who are you to judge me?”
[1] https://delauro.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/catholic-members-congress-release-statement-principles
[2] Note: When I preached this on June 20, 2021, the manuscript incorrectly read, “Evangelicals for Christ.” I spoke it “Evangelicals for Trump,” which was the correct illustration from January 2020.