Sodom & Gomorrah

Let's open to Ezekiel chapter 16, and I know that's not what you're expecting based on what's on the screen, but bear with me,

Ezekiel 16. But tonight we're going to be looking at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah.

And I thought about it years ago. This just seems to be, it really is one of those basic Old Testament Bible stories.

I remember when I was young, hearing about it in Sunday school and you would hear sermons about it.

People would reference the story of Sodom and Gomorrah often, but I started thinking it's like in the past 10 years, maybe it's just me, but I haven't really heard anyone preaching on this.

And it just seems like, maybe I'm wrong, but it seems like this is kind of being avoided.

The subject is being avoided. And if that is the case, I could probably guess why.

Um, but the reason why we're looking at Ezekiel 16, because when you think, when people hear

Sodom and Gomorrah, they think of one thing, right? I mean, this God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah for the sin of homosexuality.

I mean, that's, anyone would make that connection. But today there are people that are trying to, uh, reinterpret the text and say that really wasn't the issue, uh, with Sodom and Gomorrah.

The issue is that they didn't take care of the poor, that that was the real sin of Sodom and Gomorrah.

You know, they just didn't have a good enough welfare program or something like that. And I have heard that many times.

Where do people get that idea? Before we get into the whole story, let's just kind of nip that in the bud.

Ezekiel 16, 48 through 50, it says, as I live, says the

Lord, neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done a look.

This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom. She and her daughter had pride, fullness of food and abundance of idleness.

Neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and the needy and they were haughty and committed abomination before me.

Therefore I took them away as I saw fit.

So the first thing I would mention here, uh, is the irony of Ezekiel 16.

So people say, well, you know, it really isn't about homosexuality, Sodom and Gomorrah. It's how they treated the poor.

Well, notice here, the first thing that the Lord brings up is the sin of what pride and just that word, you know, pride like this is significant because of course we're now in the month of June and we know the word pride is sort of that term that they have chosen to represent that whole lifestyle and ideology.

So I don't think Ezekiel actually helps their argument, but yes. Okay. I will admit that the

Bible does say that the people of Sodom, they mistreated the poor. That's what it says.

It also says that they were lazy and they were violent and they were guilty of a lot of things.

So it wasn't just one thing, but you know, more than one thing can be true at the same time. So with that said, uh, now let's turn to Genesis chapter 13 and we'll kind of start at the beginning.

So the whole story of Sodom and Gomorrah, you could say spans from chapter 13 really gets going chapter 18 and 19.

But the reason why we're in 13 is because this is where Abraham and his nephew lot part ways.

Okay. So back in Genesis chapter 12, remember the Lord had called Abram to leave his father's house, go to the land that I will show you.

So this introduces the whole concept of the promise land. So picking up in chapter 13,

Abraham is a wealthy man. A lot is wealthy as well.

They have a lot of livestock and now they're running into some problems. Look at Genesis 13 verse five, it says lot also who went with Abram had flocks and herds and tents.

Now the land was not able to support them. That is both of them that they might dwell together for their possessions were so great that they could not dwell together.

And there was strife between the herdsmen of Abram's livestock and the herdsmen of lots livestock, the

Canaanites and the parasites then dwelt in the land. So Abram said to lot, please let there be no strife between you and me in between my herdsmen and your herdsmen for we are brethren is not the whole land before you.

Please separate from me. If you take the left, then I will go to the right.

Or if you go to the right, then I will go to the left and lot lifted up his eyes and saw all the plain of Jordan and it was well watered everywhere.

This is before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. It was like a garden or like the garden of the

Lord, like the land of Egypt. As you go towards Zohar, then lot shows for himself all the plain of Jordan and lot journeyed east and they separated from each other.

Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan and lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and pitched his tent even as far as Sodom.

Okay, so you see, this is where it begins, where lot decides to go. You know, Abraham goes one way, lot goes the other way and lot is headed towards the city of Sodom in verse 13.

Look at it says, but the men of Sodom were what I've seen.

They weren't just wicked. They were exceedingly wicked and sinful against the

Lord. So how's that? Does that explain exceedingly wicked and sinful against the

Lord? Like they're not just bad, they're really, really bad, which kind of tells you something because I think one of the problems with dealing with this whole subject, you know, today it's so common to hear people say, you know, all sin is the same and okay, yeah, there's people that are doing this, but you know, you struggle with something too and all sin is equal.

So one thing isn't really any worse than the other. Well, that's not the way God looks at it. I mean, Sodom, they were again, exceedingly wicked and sinful against the

Lord. So they were worse than everybody else. I mean, that's what the Bible is saying. All right, now let's flip ahead to Genesis chapter 18.

Here in this chapter, the Lord has just visited Abraham and Sarah.

He's told them about the birth of Isaac, the son of promise. So if you remember that story, three men show up and who are these three men?

Well, two of them are angels and one of them is the Lord himself.

So we would call this a Christophany, right? God visits earth,

God visits Abraham in a human body. So we would say that Abraham is talking to the pre -incarnate

Christ who then tells Abraham that he's planning on destroying these cities where Abraham knows, hey, my nephew

Lot, who I care about, is living here. So look at Genesis 18 .22, says, then the men, that is the two angels, turned away after this conversation from there and they went toward Sodom because they're going to try to rescue

Lot, take him out of the city. But Abraham stood before who? The Lord.

The Lord, okay. So he's talking to a man and this man is the Lord in all capital letters.

He's talking to Jehovah in human form. Verse 23, and Abraham came near and said, would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

So he hears that the cities are going to be destroyed. He knows Lot is there and he is now interceding, trying to get, you know,

God to change his mind. So would you really destroy the righteous with the wicked?

Who are the righteous in the city? Well, at least Lot. Lot is righteous.

New Testament calls him righteous. We're going to see that. Verse 24, Abraham says, suppose there were 50 righteous within the city.

Would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it?

And he says to the Lord, far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous should be as the wicked.

Far be it from you shall not the judge of all the earth do right. So you're seeing what

Abraham's doing. He's Lord, you know, you're so good. You're so just. If there's 50 righteous people that you wouldn't destroy the city, would you,

God? Like, it's not really a question is that he's kind of telling God, trying to appeal to the

Lord's good nature or to his grace. So look at verse 26. So the

Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous people within the city, then

I will spare all the place for their sakes. So why is

Abraham trying to get God to change his mind? Is it because here?

Let me ask this. Is it because Abraham cares so much about the men of Sodom?

That's not really his motivation. He cares about his nephew and his family.

OK, so you probably know the story. Abraham kind of whittles

God down to, OK, 45. How about 40? How about 30? You know, and he keeps getting lower because I think

Abraham knows that you probably can't find 50 righteous people within the city.

So look at chapter. Let's flip ahead to chapter 19. But God, they finally agree on 10.

If I can find 10 righteous people, then I'll spare the city. I look at Genesis 19, verse one says, now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening.

And Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. And when

Lot saw them, he rose to meet them. And he bowed himself with his face toward the ground.

OK, so the fact that Lot is sitting at the city gate, what does that tell us?

Does anyone know? He's a leader. OK, he's a leader. Sometimes they would be called a judge.

OK, so the prominent men would sit or stand at the city gate.

And that was their way of showing they were the ones in charge here. And they would monitor who comes in and who goes out.

So we see that Lot is acting as one of the city elders. So he's, you might say, he's kind of a high ranking man in the city of Sodom.

Now, should Lot be living in Sodom? I don't know that the

Bible says explicitly one way or another. But the impression you get is, now, he never really should have been there to begin with.

So I think it's safe to say that Lot is not living a set apart life.

OK, he's kind of up to here in all the filth. Now, Lot is not like the man of Sodom.

He is a believer in the Lord. He's called righteous. But he is there and he is involved.

I try to put things in modern terms so we can maybe understand what it's like.

It's not as if Lot is living in Northampton. OK, let's use Northampton as an example.

It's a good comparison, I think. But it's not like he's living in Northampton. But he's on the outskirts of town.

He has a farm at the edge of town. And he kind of keeps to himself. And he fellowships with other believers.

And he goes to church. And he's kind of set apart from the people in town. Now, that's not the way

Lot is living. It's like he's one of the select men, or he's on the town council of Northampton.

He's involved in all the goings on. So he can't really claim to live, hey,

I'm set apart from all this. No, he's in the middle of all of it. So the term we would use for Lot, I should have checked in the library.

We have a book in there. And it's either called Lot, the worldly Christian, or Lot, the picture of a backslidden

Christian, something like that. There's a book in there I remember seeing. But today, we would call

Lot maybe a carnal Christian. At the very least, he is worldly.

Lot is worldly. So he's at the gate. And the angels arrive.

And remember, the word angel means messenger. So as we saw in our Revelation series, an angel could just be a human messenger.

But these truly were like angels as you typically think of them. They were spiritual beings from heaven.

Do we all agree with that? But they did take the form of men.

So anyone who saw them, including the men of Sodom, they would have just seen two men, right?

So two guys show up to Sodom. Now, what are they doing there? We know why they're there.

They're there to rescue Lot. But to the men of Sodom, two strangers come.

They're visiting the city of Sodom. Sodom has a reputation. It's not like people don't know what the town is all about.

So if two men come to visit Sodom, what would the people in the city think?

I mean, yeah, you might think, they might think that these are two guys here, like people visit

Las Vegas. They're here for a good time. Yeah, it's not unreasonable to think that the men of the city would have thought that.

Either way, they show up. And Lot, I think he's going to realize at some point who they are, if he doesn't know initially.

But look at verse 2. And he, Lot, said, here now, my lords, please turn into your servants' house and spend the night and wash your feet.

Then you may rise early and go on your way. So Lot, you see, puts them up for the night.

And what do they say? They say, no, but we will spend the night in the open square.

And that's when panic strikes Lot's heart. Because Lot now feels responsible.

Back in ancient times, if visitors were traveling and they come, they show up at your doorstep, or if you talk to them, you're responsible.

Lot felt responsible. Hospitality was a big deal. So he felt like it was up to him to protect these men.

So when they say, we're going to just sleep out in the town square, he knows this is not a good idea.

So when they say that, he, Lot, says, insisted strongly. So they turned in to him and entered his house.

Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Now, verse 4.

Before they lay down, so nighttime has come, it says, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the people from every quarter surrounded the house.

And they called to Lot, and they said to him, where are the men who came to you tonight?

Bring them out to us that we may know them carnally. OK. Now, does anyone have a different translation that says something different than know them carnally?

Have sex with them. OK. Right. So if you have the NIV or some other modern translation, it's just like blunt to the point.

Where's the two guys? Bring them out so we can have sex with them. OK. So this verse tells us clearly what's going on.

So the men of Sodom, I'm going to refer to them as Sodomites, right?

So like Canaan, if a man lived or was from Canaan, he'd be called a Canaanite, right?

So the men of Sodom are Sodomites. Later, the Bible uses that term

Sodomite to refer to people who are attracted to the same sex.

Even here in the United States, most states had laws on the books against sodomy.

So that specific word, that term was used even in this country in modern times.

And everyone understood what that meant. So if someone was called a Sodomite, everyone knows what you're talking about.

However, if you look at it, most modern Bible translations, I think every single one except the

King James version and the New King James, every single Bible translation now has changed the word

Sodomite going forward from Genesis. They've changed that word to say something like temple prostitute or cult prostitute.

In other words, this sort of gives modern scholars an excuse to say, see, sodomy was not, homosexuality is not the problem here.

So when the Bible speaks against Sodomites, that's not the issue. It's that they were part of this other religion or that they were prostitutes.

So it's kind of a way of, in my opinion, it's a way of kind of watering down this sin and say, actually, they were something else.

That homosexuality is not the problem. This is just yet another reason why I prefer and would recommend the

King James version and New King James version, because the King James and the

New King James are the only terms or the only Bible translation that use either

Sodomite or, as the New King James puts it, a perverted person. So all other translations will say something like temple prostitute, which totally separates it from the sin of homosexuality.

So again, that's why I stick to these translations. But back to the text.

One thing nobody can deny, the men of Sodom are asking to have relations with the two angels.

OK. And of course, what's Lot's response? Remember, he feels responsible.

So if anything happens to his visitors, anything under his watch, I mean, that's on him.

So Lot, naturally, as a believer in Jehovah God, Lot tries to prevent this.

He tries to stop it. So he tries to reason with them. Look at verse 6. He says to the

Sodomites, he says, please, my brethren. It's not that they're his, I mean, they're certainly not his literal brothers, like physically.

And they're not brothers like in Christ or anything like that. I mean, they're just his townspeople, OK? But he says, please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly.

Like, don't do this. Please do not do this. And then next, I mean, this is a potential area where we could get sidetracked in the story.

But what does Lot do to try to? Yeah, he offers his daughters to the men of Sodom to try to get them to back off, insisting on having relations with the two angels, which,

I mean, let's face it. I mean, it's a pretty disturbing story all the way around. And this part of it, it makes it a lot worse.

Why do you think Lot would do that? He knew they weren't attracted to women.

OK, maybe he thought they wouldn't take them up on the offer. I mean, I guess that's a possibility. You know, nothing really helps.

Like I said, it's troubling. Nothing I say is going to really help that. But what I've read, this is just something about ancient times, hospitality.

Men were probably valued more than women. I mean, that's part of it. But if anything happened to the two angels,

Lot would have been guilty. So in that culture, it was the highest priority to protect your guests.

They were under his roof. He was responsible. So the last thing in the world he could do is put them at risk.

I mean, that's what commentators say. So like I said, that doesn't really make us feel much better.

Whatever is going on in Lot's mind, you can see that he is not thinking clearly.

I mean, Lot is, he may be a believer in the Lord, but spending this much time in the city of Sodom has sort of warped his thinking.

I think that's a safe thing to say. So either way, the men of the city refused that offer because they're set on relations with the two visitors.

Marcus. He certainly cared more about himself than his daughters. I think that's safe to say as well, right?

He cares about himself. So anything that'll get me or them, but me, out of this jam.

Any other comments on this? And this is one of those things. There's a lot of stories in the

Bible that are, you know, people read through the Bible. They're like, I can't believe this is in the

Bible. Well, it's not that this is good. It's just the Bible. Part of what the scripture teaches is the sinfulness of mankind.

So this is part of what we're seeing, the depravity of man. And this is just another passage that kind of proves that.

Now, what does Lot do? He kind of, so he's saying, no, please don't do this.

This is wicked. And they accuse Lot of being basically a judgmental bigot.

That's what they say to Lot. Who made you a judge over us? Who's this Lot guy think he is?

Yeah, he's a judgmental, you know, homophobic bigot. He won't let us do what we want to do.

So Lot is trying to interfere and put a stop to this. Look at verse 9.

And that's when they turn on him. Verse 9, and they said, stand back. And they said, this one, referring to Lot, came in here to stay here in our city.

And he keeps acting as a judge. Now we will deal worse with you,

Lot, than with them. So they pressed hard against the man, Lot, and came near to break down the door.

Now, if you want to disagree with me on this, that's fine. But the way I read this passage, the

Sodomites are now looking to do harm to Lot. The way

I've heard this explained is that the Sodomites are just trying to force their way into the house to essentially rape the angels.

Is that how you've heard it described? I've heard that my whole life. Again, I could be wrong.

I think that's an assumption, though. What they're doing, again, the way I read this, what they're doing is they're trying to get into the house to drag

Lot out to give him, at the very least, a beating. If not, they would kill

Lot. I think that's why they're trying to get in, so they can, again, very least beat

Lot up for being so judgmental. Either way, whether they're trying to commit assault and battery, rape, or even murder, the men of Sodom were both guilty of homosexuality, yes, those desires, and they are guilty of violence.

So can we agree on that, that the men of Sodom were also violent? Yeah, okay, verse 10.

But the men, that is the two angels at this point, it says, they reached out their hands and pulled

Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they became weary of trying to find the door.

Then the men said to Lot, have you anyone else here? Son -in -law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city, take them out of this place, for we will destroy this place, because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the

Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and spoke to his sons -in -law, who married his daughters, and he said, get up, get out of this place, for the

Lord will destroy the city. And what does it say about his son -in -laws? They thought he was joking.

I don't know why he would joke about that, but they're not taking it seriously.

So verse 15, when the morning dawned, the angels urged Lot to hurry, saying, arise, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of the city.

And while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the

Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside of the city.

So you can sort of see that, you know, they weren't exactly, you know, rushing to get out. The angels kind of had to drag them out of the city.

So it came to pass, verse 17, when they had brought them outside, that he said, escape for your life.

Do not look behind you. Remember this command, do not look back, do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain.

Escape to the mountains, or else you will be destroyed. And then for the sake of time, jump down to 23.

The sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zor. Then the Lord rained brimstone in fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the

Lord out of the heavens. Yes, Marcus.

And don't you think that this is another, perhaps, picture of the pre -tribulational rapture, that God takes his righteous ones out before he pours out his wrath?

Yeah, yeah, we're gonna get to that once Lot's wife is turned into a pillar of salt.

Jesus will actually make reference to this in the context of the end times.

But first, this verse 24, interesting how it's put here.

Then the Lord rained fire and brimstone from the Lord out of the heavens. Well, how can the Lord rain fire and brimstone from the

Lord? Well, how does that work? Put it another way, basically,

God the Son, the Lord on earth, rained down fire, he called down the fire and brimstone from God the

Father in heaven. So the Son was on earth, he calls down the judgment from the

Father in heaven, and that's what that is all about. So, verse 25, he, the

Lord, overthrew those cities, all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground.

But, verse 26, Lot's wife looked back behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.

This has to be one of the most unique judgments in all of the Bible.

But, speaking about the day of the Lord in Luke chapter 17, verse 32,

Jesus makes the comment, again, in the context of the end times, he says, remember

Lot's wife. In other words, when the time comes during the great tribulation, when the time comes to flee

Jerusalem, flee Judea, Jesus says, don't go back, don't go back and get your coat, don't do any of that, just go straight out, head straight out, flee the city.

Basically, anyone who hesitates or looks back, they're gonna lose their life.

Why did Lot's wife look back? She wanted to leave. Yeah, I don't think she wanted to leave.

She looks back because her heart is with the world, you would say, rather than God.

In the book, the Wisdom of Solomon, which this is part of the Apocrypha, so we don't believe the

Apocrypha is inspired scripture, but it's interesting that in the

Wisdom of Solomon, chapter 10, verse seven, it says that a pillar of salt is a monument of an unbelieving soul.

In other words, Lot was saved, but his wife was not saved. And because she was not saved, her heart was still in Sodom.

So because she didn't wanna leave Sodom, as the song goes, she left her heart back in San Francisco.

Because of that, God actually, because she loved that place, God actually made her part of the landscape.

She literally became part of the landscape because that region near the Dead Sea, there's pillars of salt, and it's not uncommon to see them, so she's now part of the land.

Another instance in scripture where fire is brought down was when Elijah and the prophets of Baal had that contest up on the mountain.

Right, right. So Lot's wife dies. Lot, on the other hand, is spared.

Why? Because of God's grace. Did Lot deserve to be spared? Not really, based on his choices, his actions, but God's grace,

Lot was spared, right. It's Luke chapter 17, verse 32.

Yeah, Jesus says, remember Lot's wife. Now how do we know that Lot, because I've made reference a few times now that Lot was righteous or that he was a believer, a carnal

Christian or something like that? Well, we know that because 2 Peter 2, seven and eight says that God delivered righteous

Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked. It says, for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds.

So when you, it's interesting because when you read the story of Lot, it doesn't really strike you as a righteous man, right.

That's not the picture you get. Was Lot, just the way he lived, was he really righteous?

Well, he was positionally righteous because he had faith. Right, this is what the apostle

Paul in teaching about the gospel in Romans chapter four, remember Abraham believed

God and it was accounted to him for righteousness. So Abraham and Lot were righteous because they had faith in the

Lord. So this is a salvation by faith. You see the Trinity here, the son of God, the

Lord rained down fire from the Lord in heaven. You see that, you see some sort of concept of salvation by faith and not works here because Lot really didn't have the works, although he did leave.

When the angel said, leave, he did, took a little doing, but he did leave and he didn't look back like his wife did.

So Lot did a lot of things wrong, but that is why just his behavior, it's why that throughout church history,

Lot has been seen or used as sort of the perfect picture of a backslidden believer.

You know, he trusted the Lord, loved the Lord, but then he moved to Sodom and things kind of went downhill.

He got backslidden, he was carnal, he was worldly. And that's really the application

I want to leave you on there. But before we do that, just wanna touch on one more thing because Wednesday nights we've touched on, what, the age of the earth, right?

Old earth, young earth, Noah's Ark. We've touched on a lot of stories where people are now starting to deny these things or try to reinterpret some of these stories.

So what about Sodom and Gomorrah? Do you think most modern scholars, modern seminaries, modern churches, if you were to visit churches in New England, how many actually think this happened?

You know, when I say church, I mean a white building with a steeple on it. Yeah, and when you say scholars, what do you mean?

People went to school, you know, they got a degree. Most people today don't think that this ever happened.

I mean, they set fire and brimstone from heaven. Come on, this never took place. So do you know there's actually physical evidence that demonstrates that, yes, this did happen?

So the first thing I did, I went to Wikipedia, not because they're a reliable source, but because they always take the opposite position.

So if there's something to do with Christianity, they always say the opposite, right?

So here's what Wikipedia says about Sodom and Gomorrah, because they quote some of these liberal scholars, or whatever

Marcus wants to call them. Here's what Wikipedia says. It has been suggested that if the story does have a historical basis, the cities may have been destroyed by a natural disaster.

One such idea is that the Dead Sea was devastated by an earthquake between 2100

BC and 1900 BC. This might have unleashed showers of steaming tar.

So Wikipedia says that, you know, if this really has some basis in history, the one thing we know for sure is that the

Bible can't be true. I mean, that's really what they're saying. And that's the way a lot of seminaries will take this.

They'll say the same thing. However, the reason why they bring up some historical basis or may have been this or may have been that is because they know there's evidence.

So I saw another website. One group of scientists from the University of California in Santa Barbara, they say that based on the evidence that they have examined, they have found proof.

They believe of what they call a cosmic air burst. Has anyone ever heard of that?

Maybe they made this term up just for this one thing. I don't know. But they say we have found evidence that something back this area, around this time, they say they found evidence of a quote unquote cosmic air burst.

And they say they have found pottery shards with outer surfaces melted into glass.

They have found bubbled mud brick and partially melted building materials. All indications, they say, not us, they say of an anomaly.

Okay, what's an anomaly? Yeah, something happened and we just can't figure it out.

We can't explain it. There is no explanation for this. They said what we know is that there was a high temperature event in this region around that time that was much hotter than anything the technology of the time could produce.

So they actually found the site of ancient Sodom and Gomorrah. They know where it is.

But what was their conclusion? After finding all of that, they said our conclusion of the one thing we know for sure, essentially we know the

Bible, that didn't happen. But they say it's a cosmic air burst. They say it could have been a volcano that erupted.

And they have a few different theories. But again, one thing we know didn't happen, the story of Sodom, it can be fire and brimstone from God.

Why do they have that conclusion already baked in? No pun intended. They say it can be

God. It can be God because they don't want it to be God. That's the one thing they cannot allow for.

Oh, the magic dragon. The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is mentioned all throughout the

Bible, including in the New Testament. The book of Jude chapter seven says that Sodom and Gomorrah are set forth as an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

So this kind of shows you how God feels about the whole thing. And it's not just, well, that's how

God was back then. That's how he felt about it back then. But now that Jesus came, God feels differently.

No, it's set forth as a permanent example, and really is a picture of, yeah, eternal fire.

So it, in a sense, is a picture of hell. But the takeaway, like I said, the takeaway for the believer,

Lot is that perfect example of the worldly Christian, or the carnal

Christian. You know, you could say the takeaway for an unbeliever is, hey, this is proof

God has wrath, and you need to repent and place your faith in the Lord. But as far as us, yeah, we don't want to be like Lot.

Here's a man, he made bad choices, went to live in a place where he is just surrounded by ungodly people all day, every day.

And let's face it, after a while, that starts to rub off on you. And the problem we have is we are living in a culture where this stuff is just all around us all day, every day.

And you say, well, you know, that's Massachusetts. I don't know where I would go to, you know, run away from it.

Where would you go? Anywhere. I mean, I suppose there's some states where it's not as bad, but this stuff really is everywhere.

So we have this challenge to be in the world, but not to be of the world.

So we need to make sure that the surrounding area, the ideology, all this stuff just doesn't slowly over time change our thinking.

Because to a faithful Christian, when we read the story of Lot, he kind of looks pathetic.

I mean, like, what is this guy thinking? Why is he doing this? He looks pathetic. To the unbelievers in Sodom, they viewed

Lot as a judgmental hypocrite. Like he says he believes in the Lord, and yet he's in the middle of all this other stuff.

So Lot is kind of stuck in the middle. And if we're worldly, that's the way we're gonna be. You know, to faithful people, we're not being faithful.

But to unbelievers, you know, we still side with God. So we don't really have any allies on either side if we choose to be worldly.

So we can't be like Lot. We need to learn from this example. So in conclusion, this is basically a lesson of what not to do.

This is what happens when a believer is worldly and resists sanctification. One commentator puts it this way.

He says, Lot was converted, but carnal. He was a man of weak faith.

His hopes and dreams were in the world. And his interest was in the things of this world.

Lot had the same vision as Abraham, but by choice, he was firmly anchored in the world.

All of Lot's goodness was virtually wasted because his spiritual life was going nowhere.

2 Peter 2 says that Lot vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds.

So by choosing to live there, he was not at peace. Day after day, he was just always troubled, never at peace.

And we can start to feel that way, you know, especially in the month of June, like we're just not at peace with everything that's happening.

This is why we need to find Christian friends, a Christian community where we can have fellowship with people who will encourage us and not discourage us.

People who will, you know, have a positive influence on us and not kind of lead us in the other direction because I'll just close with this.

1 Corinthians 15, 33 says, do not be deceived. Evil company corrupts good habits.