Several weeks ago we we began chapter 19 and called it The Judgment Of Sodom. We made it through 2 of our 4 points: Hospitality and Hostility. We saw that Lot welcomed the 2 angels to Sodom and after some persistence he persuaded them to come and spend the night at his house. Lot’s hospitality resembled that of is uncle Abraham’s in the chapter before.
Then we saw the hostility as the situation quickly got bad. One by one, and group by group all the men of Sodom gathered outside Lots house. They demanded Lot send out the 2 visitors into their custody so that they could abuse them. Lot stands on his porch and pleads with the men. They grow more hostile and start coming up the porch to hurt him. The 2 angels grab Lot bring him back in the house and strike the men of Sodom outside with blindness.
Today we will finish the last 2 points: Hurry and Heaven’s Hellfire.
HURRY (10-22)
Lot is told to hurry up and get his family together and get out. Don’t pack, just run. A couple things here.
First, Lot goes to get his 2 sons-in-law (verses 12-14). Lot has 2 daughters and they are engaged to two men in the city. Lot slips out and goes to their homes. He wasn’t seen because it was dark and everyone else was blind. Can you imagine the panic and the urgency in Lot’s face when talking to those two young men? Lot could persuade the angels to stay with him but he couldn’t persuade his young sons in law to run with him.
They laughed at him and thought he was joking. And they burned to death for it a few hours later. ***Notice they were judged because they stayed. They could have left. It didn’t matter what they had done. They had the chance to escape. They died because they didn’t avail themselves of the escape God provided. It doesn’t matter what you’ve done. You have an escape from God’s judgment. Jesus
APPLICATION Faith makes you flee. Faith makes you flee God’s judgment and run into the safety God has provided. The sons in law did not believe the message Lot was telling them and that is why they did not flee with him. Had they believed Lot they would have left with Lot. The Gospel message is not simply Jesus died for your sins and rose again. It is definitely that. But the Gospel message is that God is coming to judge sins with such divine savageness that it will make Sodom and Gomorrah look like a match next to a forest fire. And if you want to wisely escape the judgment of God that is coming on this world then you have to flee to the cross. At the cross is where salvation is found. Flee to Jesus because only He can shelter you from the wrath of God that IS coming. You laugh! Ha! You won’t. You laugh now for a little while but you will gnash your teeth in agony and suffering for all eternity. Don’t stay where you are. Get to Jesus.
Second, look at how patiently urgent the angels are in saving Lot. Verses 15-17 Lot is getting on my nerves in this text I can only imagine how the angels felt. It’s like Israel later on leaving Egypt – it’s like “C’mon man just start moving!” They are literally pushing and pulling him out of the city. They bring him and his family (wife and 2 daughters) outside of the city and tell them to flee.
This part is like lightning to me. The angels came to him. The angels announced God’s judgment. The angels gave them time to flee. The angels pushed and pulled and urged and warned them to get going and get out. And here is the thing that stood out to me about this part: Lot was given the chance to be saved but he had to respond the right way. Just like his 2 sons in law. God opened the door but he had to go through it. God threw him a rope but Lot had to grab hold of it. The angels told him to flee to the mountains and gave him the chance to get there but Lot HAD TO GET UP AND GO!
Here is my point: God offers salvation but a man must respond. Noah was told to build and ark to be saved and HE DID! And he was saved. Rahab was told to hang a scarlet sheet out her window and she would be spared – and SHE DID! And she was saved when the Israelites conquered Jericho. Lot was told to get out of the city and get to the mountains and he would be saved. Finally he did and he was saved.
Your salvation depends on two things happening: God giving you a way to be saved and you going THAT way He gives you. God tells you how to be saved and you do it. God HAS given you a way and God HAS told you how to be saved. Now YOU must respond.
Third, Lot stalls. You see him do this twice. First in verse 16, “When Lot hesitated the angels grasped his hand..” Then verses 18-20 Lot starts negotiating a new place to flee to. There they are dragging his family to save them and Lot yanks his hands loose, whirls around and starts getting picky about where to go. “Anywhere is better than Sodom right now Lot!” Unbelievable! The mercy of God. You have to imagine the angels rolling their eyes and mumbling, “Can’t we just leave this guy here?”
APPLICATION: The patience of God with sinners. “The Lord is not slow in keeping his promises as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.” Notice that time was given to Lot to get out. He had all night to go. The angels got there in the evening and by morning the city was burning. But Lot didn’t have forever. He had to move! Verse 15, “Hurry, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished.” Lot was given time but if he didn’t move in time he would perish. Its the same thing again in verse 17, “Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away.” Yet Lot
HEAVEN’S HELLFIRE (23-29)
Finally Lot makes it to Zoar and hellfire rains down from heaven. By the time Abraham wakes up – and I’m sure it was early – the land was gone. Read v 23-29….
When God judges its lights out. He comes in with a consuming holy vengeance. Go read Joshua where God had the Israelites wipe out the Canaanites. Go read 1 Samuel where King Saul was instructed to wipe out the Amalekites. Go read Revelation!
God is merciful for a long, long time with sinner but when mercy is over God is justly merciless in His judgment. This is a God to fear. This is a God to tremble at. This is a God to hide from. This God is holy and just in His judgments. Someone turned Revelation 15:3-4 into a poem:
Great and marvelous your deeds
Just and true are your ways
Great are you God Almighty
Eternal King of every age.
Who, O Lord, will not fear you
And bring glory to your name?
You alone are holy and true
Forever and ever you are the same.
Every nation will come with honor
And assemble before your throne
Ascribing majesty and splendor
For the righteousness you’ve shown
Jude 7 says, “Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
Turn to 2 Peter 2:6-8 with me… “They serve as examples…”
Turn to Ezekiel 16:44-52 with me… especially “Therefore I did away with them as you have seen.”
Here we see that God does what He says. He said He would judge and He does. He then continues throughout history to point back to Sodom to remind wicked people of what He does to wicked people. God follows through on everything He promises: whether promises of blessing or promises of judgment. So what are you going to do with God now that He said a judgment is yet coming?
Lots wife looks back. And turns to a pile of salt. She was told not to look back and she looked back and she did. Why did she look back? Was it because she loved Sodom?
APPLICATION: Do not look back when you follow God. “Whoever puts his hand to the plow and looks back” Luke 9 says, is not fit for service in the kingdom of God.” Turn to Numbers 11:4-6….That rabble looked back on the land God saved them from. They thought it was better back there and it made them bitter about where they were. They became ungrateful for what God had done for them. They didn’t have faith that God was bringing them to someplace far better. Here’s the point: it was the wickedness of unbelief that made them look back at Egypt with fondness. How screwed up is that? The place where they were oppressed and enslaved was better than where they were!? They should’ve been looking ahead!
APPLICATION: Keep looking forward! That’s the life of faith – looking ahead! “For Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.” (Heb 11:10). Turn there with me and loo at 11:13-16. Then that absolutely glorious verses 12:1-2…
That’s what the whole point is behind Matt 6:20 where Jesus told us “Do not store up treasures on earth but store up your treasures in heaven”. Nobody is storing up treasures in heaven unless they are looking forward to heaven! We don’t live for here and now as if here and now will be here later. It won’t. Heaven is coming. We live for what is coming.
FINAL THOUGHTS
- What is there for us who have loved ones living in Sodom?
- Like Abraham we pray for those who are in Sodom. We pray God would lead them out like He led Lot. We live righteously ourselves – otherwise God will hate our prayers (Isa 58:4b; 59:2)
- Like Abraham we pray for those who are in Sodom. We pray God would lead them out like He led Lot. We live righteously ourselves – otherwise God will hate our prayers (Isa 58:4b; 59:2)
- Believe and Flee! Get out of Sodom so you don’t perish like Sodom. The sons in law stayed. If you are living like Sodom you must turn from Sodom and flee. You must believe that anyone who lives like Sodom will become like Sodom. Stay there and you will burn. Flee and you will be saved. Repent! Flee to Jesus Christ! I and others are like God’s angels grasping your hand and pulling you out from under God’s wrath and dragging you to safety. Don’t laugh like Lot’s sons in law. Don’t hate and try to abuse righteousness like the men of Sodom. But believe and flee. Believe and flee!
- Do you know what kind of sinful person God won’t Judge? The one who turns and trusts in Jesus. The one who is washed clean and made new by Jesus . 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 says…