Will Not the Judge of All the Earth Do Right? Genesis 18:22-33

We live in a world that demands justice at every turn. When something horrible happens, people cry out and demand that the wrong be righted. If no justice is found, people continue to cry out until it arrives.

When the world does see justice take place, there is a certain satisfaction when it happens. A certain criminal needed to be punished for his crime and justice finally came. The cry for justice shows that there is a God.

If this world were an accident, there would be no reason to cry for justice. In an accidental world, there is no right or wrong. There is no standard by which to measure morality. Morality comes from God.

Now when sin entered into the world, people's sense of right and wrong was still there. However, it became possible that people would think something is right when in fact it is wrong. A sinner has a conscience, but that conscience is partly out of tune.

Once people come to faith in Christ, they have a better understanding of what is truly right and wrong in the universe because they know God. They have the Holy Spirit. They know the one who determines what is right and wrong and their conscience is corrected by the Spirit.

Abraham Pleads for the Righteous in Sodom

Today in our sermon, we are going to see a conversation between the judge of the world, God, and a believer, Abraham, a man who understands what true justice is. So if you have a Bible, I encourage you to please turn with me to Genesis chapter 18.

We'll be looking at verses 22 through 33. And if you're using a red Bible, it's on page 15. This sermon is titled, Shall Not the Judge of All the Earth Do Right? And our big idea, our proposition is justice is an enormously important reality in the universe.

Justice is an enormously important reality in the universe. And we're going to see two reasons why that is in this text today. The first reason why is the people of God cry out for true justice. We'll see this in verses 22 and 23.

But before we get to that, let me give you a little recap of last week. Last week, we looked at the account where Abraham and the three angels, one of them being the Lord, looked down towards Sodom. Remember, they had that view.

They looked down and they could see these two cities, Sodom and Gomorrah. And the Lord said his thoughts out loud, Should I tell Abraham what I am about to do with Sodom? We saw that the Lord would tell Abraham what he was about to do to Sodom because of his relationship with Abraham.

The Lord knew Abraham and Abraham knew the Lord. And because of this relationship, the Lord revealed secret things that at a time only he knew. What the Lord told Abraham was that he was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because the outcry against them was so great.

These two cities were committing great sins of injustice against the hurting of that community. The Lord would not delay his judgment on them any longer and Abraham knew this. And we can say with confidence that Abraham knew that the Lord was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah because of the conversation that we are going to see today.

What we will see in this sermon is that Abraham pleads with the Lord on behalf of these two cities near the Dead Sea. He specifically pleads for the righteous to be spared. So we will start by looking at verse 22.

So the men turned from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. You can remember last week that the Lord and the two angels were standing together as the Lord indicated to Abraham what he was going to do to these two cities.

In verse 22, we see that the two angels depart for Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to ask the question, why are they going there? We know clearly why they are going there because in chapter 19, verse 13, this is what the angels say.

We are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. Abraham knew this. He knew these angels were being sent away by the Lord to wipe away these cities because of their great wickedness.

After these angels left, it is just Abraham and the Lord standing on this high place. Abraham is concerned about what is about to happen and he pleads to the Lord in verse 23. Then Abraham drew near and said, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

So Abraham poses that question to him. You can see his great concern here. The text says he drew near as if to get up closely to the Lord. You can experience that in your life. You get up closely to someone.

You want to plead with them and he's doing this to the Lord. Will you do this, Lord? Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Abraham has an understanding of righteousness here, of what true justice is.

As I mentioned in the introduction, the desire for justice is in all human hearts. However, a true believer in God is going to have their heart tuned to a point where he or she can discern what true justice is.

In our world today, it's popular for people not to want wicked people to suffer a severe punishment. In fact, there are some people who call themselves Christians who say that there is no hell. That God isn't going to right every wrong.

He's just going to let everybody off. So you see, there's in a sense a demand for justice in this life, but they don't demand for justice in the next life. And so you can see that people's idea of what true justice is, is out of tune.

And it's out of tune because they're out of tune with God. If you're following God, it's going to be right. And Abraham is right here. Abraham knows that Sodom and Gomorrah deserve to be destroyed. He knows this.

He does not say, don't wipe out anyone, whether the righteous or the wicked. Rather, he says, wipe out the wicked. Just don't wipe out the righteous with them. So when he says, wipe out the wicked, or when he says, yeah, this is implied, right?

He doesn't defend them. He's defending the righteous in these cities. Now, remember, the Lord gives Abraham this unique opportunity to know what is about to happen because of his special relationship with the Lord.

In Genesis 12, 3, God told Abraham that all the nations of the earth would be blessed through him. Sodom and Gomorrah represented the nations. The Lord kindly blesses Abraham with the opportunity to intercede on behalf of the nations.

And we will see that there will be a small remnant, a very small remnant that would be spared. In this instance, the nations represented by Sodom and Gomorrah would be blessed and that not everyone would be, not everyone would be destroyed by this judgment.

The Lord could have destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah without even consulting Abraham, but he graciously does. It is important to note that in the history of the world, the nations are primarily blessed through Abraham because Jesus comes through his line.

Jesus Christ is the savior of the world. He is the only hope. And anyone who is sincerely trusting Christ for the forgiveness of their sins will be forgiven and have eternal life. Here in Eureka, we are the nations.

We have been blessed through Abraham. We have salvation through his offspring, Jesus Christ. In this account, the Lord allowing Abraham to intercede is a precursor to the blessing he would be to the nations through his offspring.

Now, what we see here is that Abraham is deeply concerned about justice. He believes that the wicked in Sodom and Gomorrah should be wiped out, but he is concerned that the righteous will be wiped out with them.

And what makes his concern even greater is that someone he loves lives there. Do you remember where Lot lived? Abraham's nephew, Lot. A few months back, we saw the account where Abraham offered his nephew, Lot, the north or the south of the land of Canaan.

Lot foolishly took neither. Instead, he went southeast. Genesis 13, 12 says, Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom. Lot was living in Sodom. And he actually lived there when the powerful kings of the north came through.

You can remember that when they came through in chapter 14. And Lot and his family and all that he had were taken captive by these kings. But Abraham came to the rescue by defeating these kings. Even after Abraham rescued Lot, Lot still lived in Sodom.

So he lives in Sodom right in this story. Abraham's concern deepened about what was going to happen to these two cities because of the love that he had for his nephew. And Abraham was rightly concerned for Lot's well-being.

And so are we when our family is in danger. I have some relatives who live in Florida. And Florida is a place where all these hurricanes come through and they live on the coast. And so whenever there's this big hurricane that appears to be heading towards them, we get very concerned and we pray on their behalf.

That just happened this past year, actually. Abraham is concerned that Lot and all that he has will be destroyed because they live in a wicked place. As Abraham tells the Lord, will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?

In verse 23, this statement shows that Abraham believes that Lot is righteous. You might wonder, how could this be? Did not Lot foolishly refuse Abraham's offer to live in Canaan, yet instead he chose to live in a wicked place?

He did not show righteous character in that instance. We don't get a super in-depth look at Lot's life as we do of Abraham, so that makes it more difficult to trace evidence of faithfulness. But what we will see next week is that Lot treats the two angels who come to his door with hospitality.

So we saw Abraham do that two weeks ago, and we will see Lot's hospitality next week. But we know for certain that Lot is righteous, because the Bible actually says he's righteous, in 2 Peter 2, 7, and 8.

Those verses say, The Lord rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked. For as that righteous man lived among them day by day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard.

So Lot was righteous. He's not only Abraham's nephew, the Bible calls him a righteous man. And so Abraham is pleading on his behalf. And Lot, as he's in Sodom and Gomorrah, was troubled by what he saw.

And he was troubled because he knew the Lord. He knew what holy living was. And he knew that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah were wicked people. He had difficulty living among them. And it makes you wonder, did he regret living in these cities?

I think he did. A number of years ago, I told you guys before that I used to be a sales representative for the running shoe company, Brooks. And I enjoyed this job to a certain extent because my territory was Minnesota, North Dakota, and South Dakota.

And I would work with all these stories of people who lived more in small towns, rural areas. And they were people like the people in Eureka, very nice and enjoyable to work with. But the people at the headquarters in Seattle were a completely different story.

I mean, these were worldly people. I didn't want to be around these people. I had a hard time spending one day with them because all they did was party. And they just wanted to drink. They just wanted to have a good time.

They would swear. They had filthy mouths. The joking was crude. This was not rich fellowship at all. It was an uncomfortable environment to be in. And I remember getting on the plane on the way home, and I grabbed my Bible.

All I wanted to do was read my Bible. And I opened up the Bible, and I just started to read. And I felt like water was coming over me. And it was like Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot experienced this around these people.

It's like Sodom and Gomorrah. It was Sodom and Gomorrah in his case, but maybe you experienced it in your life. If you're in an ungodly environment, you just want to get out. Godly people do not enjoy worldliness that is opposed to God.

And that's one of the ways you can tell whether you are a true follower of Christ. Do you feel right at home with the world? Or do you have a difficult time even being around it? Ask yourself that question.

The Lord is close to those righteous people who are surrounded by the wicked. He spares them. He does not recognize them with the wicked. He preserves the righteous. Sparing them is a remnant. So as a man of God, Abraham is deeply concerned about justice.

He is very concerned that the righteous might be wiped away with the wicked. He agrees that Sodom and Gomorrah should be wiped out. He doesn't protest that. That's not his concern. His concern is that the righteous may be wiped out with the wicked.

So this is the first reason why justice is an enormously important reality in the universe. The people of God cry out for true justice. And as Abraham cries out for this justice, that the wicked are destroyed and the righteous are spared, the good news for Abraham is that he is talking to the right person.

He's talking to God. He's talking to the perfect judge of all the earth. So this is the second reason in your outline why justice is an important reality in the universe that we see in this text. And that is God rules the world perfectly in justice.

The Judge of All the Earth Does What Is Just

God rules the world perfectly in justice. We're going to see this in verses 24 through 33. So now we get to Abraham's pleading for Sodom and Gomorrah and specifically his nephew Lot. What we will see is that he pleads to the perfect judge in verses 24 through 26.

This is what Abraham says to the Lord. Suppose there are 50 righteous within this city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked.

Far be that from you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? And the Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. What we see in these verses here is that Abraham starts putting a number on how many righteous people need to be in these cities for the Lord to spare it.

We don't know how many people lived in Sodom and Gomorrah when it was destroyed. Abraham does not start with a very high number, but a fairly modest one. He starts with 50. He says, if there are 50 righteous people, will you spare these cities?

You can see that Abraham really gets in it with the Lord. He's very adamant about this. And going back to our first point about his strong conviction, that true justice must take place. He's very adamant about this.

And you will notice in verse 25, he says, far be it from you to do such a thing. In other words, Abraham is saying, you're not really going to do this, Lord, to put the righteous to death with the wicked.

Then Abraham says the all-important words at the end of verse 25, shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? Shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just? We live in a world where we do not always see judges who deliver true justice like the Lord does.

This week, I was researching examples of a bad judge, and I came across this one in Reader's Digest. I'm going to read this account to you of an example of an unrighteous judge. In November 2011, the Connecticut Department of Children and Families came to a judge with a standard petition asking her to hear and decide the case of a mistreated boy named Brandon.

The Department of Children and Families wanted to terminate parental rights, get him out of foster care, and find him a good permanent home. To keep children from stress, the state law in Connecticut requires that the judge must find a home for the child in 120 days.

However, it took five months for this judge to even hear Brandon's case, and afterward, this judge did not issue a decision. Nine months went by with no word from the judge as the boy remained in foster care.

By this point, the Department of Children and Families did some investigating on this judge. This unrighteous judge had delayed on nine other child welfare cases, so the state attorney general intervened.

It was not until the Connecticut Supreme Court put more pressure on that this judge finally made a decision on Brandon's case. Sixteen months after the petition was filed, after an investigation was performed, this judge was suspended for 30 days with pay —I don't know how that happened— for neglectfully and incompetently performing duties as a judge.

All right, so I think the crime, that was a pretty weak punishment in my opinion there at the end. But the point is, this judge is an unrighteous judge, a bad judge. And there's lots of bad judges in this world.

There's lots of good judges too, but there are bad judges out there too. But we should be so grateful. The Lord is a good judge. The Lord is the perfect judge. The Lord always does what is right. And Abraham asks this question, will not the judge of all the earth do what is right, knowing who the Lord is?

He knows that he is God. He knows that he is the judge. He knows that he is good. He is pleading, knowing full well who he is talking to. He knows that by asking, the Lord will listen and spare the righteous if he determines that there are indeed righteous people worthy of being spared in these two cities.

By the way, it's important to know that one becomes righteous only through faith. In Genesis 15, 6, we saw this with Abraham. Abraham believed in God and it was counted to him as righteousness. Okay, so you might say, well, how does God determine righteousness?

Well, he determines righteousness by faith. If we believe in him, then we're counted righteous through Jesus Christ. The righteousness of Christ is credited to us. And once that happens, when God looks at us and sees his righteousness on us, there is a clear distinction between the righteous and the wicked in God's eyes.

And by the way, the result of that is you have the Holy Spirit in your life at that point is that you're going to start doing righteous things. You're going to start doing good things in your life. All right, so in that way, you're righteous too.

But first and foremost, we must recognize the righteous are only righteous because God counts people righteous. And what we read in verse 26 is that the Lord listens to Abraham's plea and offers him comforting words.

The Lord says, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake. Everything the Lord does is righteous. This is shown in the fact that he will judge those who deserve to be judged and he will spare those who deserve to be spared.

The judge of all the earth indeed does what is right. So Abraham goes a little further with the Lord and the Lord repeats that number back to him. Now, Abraham started with a low number, but still a decent sized group of people, 50.

And I was looking at our church directory this week and we have actually, it's hard to tell this morning because there's not a lot of people here. We actually have 70 people on our directory and a few of those can never make it because they live in a good Samaritan's home.

And Dennis, of course, is another example of that. But we actually have a number of people in our directory. So when we see the number 50, we're not too far from that. And so we have an idea of this number that Abraham is throwing out there.

And what we will see is that Abraham lowers the number even more to see if the Lord will spare Sodom and Gomorrah if there are less righteous people than 50. And you will notice once again, the bold manner with which he speaks to God.

In verses 27 and 28, Abraham answered and said, Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?

And the Lord said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there. So in verse 27, Abraham acknowledges who he is compared to God. He says, I am but dust and ashes. This points us back to Genesis 2 -7, where Moses wrote that God created man from the dust of the ground.

Abraham is well aware of who he is. He is a mere man talking to God. He's talking to God Almighty in order to persuade him to spare these two wicked cities for the sake of the righteous. And what Abraham does here is he goes a tad lower than 50 and says 45.

And the Lord answers him the same way as before. If there are 45 righteous, then I will not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Then in verse 29, Abraham inches even a little bit lower. In 29, he said, again, he spoke to him and said, Suppose 40 are found there.

He, the Lord, answered, for the sake of 40, I will not do it. So Abraham says, there are 40 righteous. If there are 40 righteous, will you spare it? So he goes five lower again. What you will notice in our next verse, verse 30, is that Abraham even gets bolder.

Before Abraham said, I am but dust and ashes. Now Abraham goes even lower. And notice what he says in verse 30. Then he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose 30 are found there.

And he, the Lord, answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there. So when Abraham says, let not the Lord be angry, he is concerned that the Lord is going to get angry because he keeps lowering the number.

But what we have to remember is that the Lord is letting Abraham intercede on behalf of these cities. He holds a special place. He is the man of blessing for the nations. And the Lord enables him to intercede on their behalf.

The Lord has been kind to Abraham by letting him intercede. And he is kind to Sodom and Gomorrah for even giving them an opportunity to be spared. In this verse, we just saw Abraham boldly drop in fives.

You notice here, now he's dropping in tens. He went from 50 to 45 to 40. And now he just dropped it from 40 to 30. He boldly goes down 10. And the Lord once again says he will not destroy the cities for the sake of the righteous there.

So Abraham continues with his boldness in verse 31 as he gets lower. And he drops the number by 10 once again. This is what he says. He said, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose 20 are found there.

And he, the Lord answered, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it. So the Lord says once again, he's not going to destroy these cities for the sake of the righteous if there are 20 there. And now we're going to see him drop it, drop the number one last time.

This is his last request in verse 32. Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry. And I will speak again, but this once suppose 10 are found there. And the Lord answered for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it.

So Abraham starts with 50 and he drops the number all the way down to 10. In each case, the Lord said he would not destroy Sodom and Gomorrah for the sake of the righteous. And what we will see in next week's text is the Lord does indeed keep his word by sparing the righteous.

We worship a God who rightly brings judgment upon the wicked and spares those whom he has set apart to be righteous. And as you're here today, I mean, be grateful that the Lord does this. He will spare the righteous.

My guess is most, if not all of you in this room know Jesus Christ and he spares the righteous. Judgment is coming on this world. Now, you could go to another church today and you might not hear that, but I'm here to tell you the truth.

Judgment is coming upon this world. And I say that on the authority of Scripture. That's not my opinion. I say that on the authority of Scripture. And because you belong to Jesus Christ, you are secure in him.

He is your refuge. We saw the Noah's flood story. The ark was their refuge as God brought that judgment upon the world. And Jesus in church history, people called him the ark. He is that ark that rescues you from the judgment that is coming.

And the Lord does indeed spare the righteous. We worship a God who is just. Every judgment he makes is right with no errors. We need to make the important connection of how this justice relates to us too.

I've already alluded to every sin in the history of the world will be accounted for. Every sin is paid for either in hell or at the cross of Jesus Christ. God's justice is shown in both places. His holy wrath is shown in hell and at the cross when Jesus bore his wrath.

And if you are a true follower of Christ here today, then Jesus paid for your sin. So you will never have to experience God's wrath. And we should say, praise God that we do not have to face it. The Lord determines who the wicked are and who the just are.

And if anybody who can hear my voice right now that does not know Christ, the only way you'll be considered righteous and be spared from his judgment is by believing in Jesus. Then the Lord looks at you and considers you righteous as you are counted with the righteousness of Christ.

Now, so that wraps up the narrative. And in verse 33, what we're going to see here in this last verse of our text is the conversation ends. It says, and the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place.

So remember, they left Hebron, they're looking out over Sodom and Gomorrah, and now the conversation's ended. Now Abraham's gone back home to Hebron. So this is the second reason, the Lord, this is the second reason that justice is an enormously important reality in the universe.

God rules the world perfectly in justice. So justice is so important. God is just, and we need to be people who understand what true justice is. And as we are saturated with the Word of God, as we live by the Word of God, you're going to be more and more in tune with the way that God sees the world.

And I can't stress that enough. I think every week I say we need to be in the Bible. Scripture says we die for lack of knowledge. We need to be in the Word of God. And so the two reasons justice is an important reality in the universe that we've seen in this text is the people of God cry out for true justice and God rules the world perfectly in justice.

Everyone cries out for justice in the world, and the justice that the world cries out for is right on some things, but wrong on others. The believer's understanding is fine-tuned and conforms to God's view of true justice, and we just saw Abraham's accurate assessment of what is right.

God and God's people, because they are aligned with Him, understand that justice is required for the ungodly. Abraham knew what God was going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, and he knew that these cities deserved to be destroyed.

But he also knew that if there were any righteous, the Lord would be sympathetic toward them as he cares deeply about their preservation. And if you're a Christian here today, this should fill you with great comfort, knowing that God preserves you.

As we'll see next week, he's going to preserve, to give you a little preview, he's going to preserve the very few righteous who are there. I won't give it away. You can read ahead, but I won't give it away.

He will always spare you as a follower of Jesus Christ. So next week, we're going to see the two angels who were just with the Lord, and they're going to go to Sodom and Gomorrah, and they're going to meet Abraham's nephew a lot.

And what we will see is why they were sent there, to these two cities. And we'll see the two reasons why they were sent there next week. Let's pray. Father in heaven, as I said earlier in the service, Paul told Timothy, I charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus to preach the word.

And Lord, the word was preached. And I pray that, as it says in Isaiah 55, that your word, as it goes out, it does not come back void. It accomplishes the purpose for which it was sent out. And so I pray that that would happen here today, that it would accomplish its purpose in people's hearts, that in some way with the people here today, that they would move closer to you, closer in holiness to become more like you and to be more equipped to live in this world.

And Lord, help us to prepare us to be equipped to live in this world and to fight the good fight as we follow you. In Jesus name. Amen.