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It is not uncommon to watch a TV show or a movie where a man in a major city is holding up a sign that says, Judgment is coming. This happens in real life too. Someone holds up a sign on a street corner and says, Judgment is coming.
When people look at this either on TV or in real life, their first thought is not to take it seriously. After all, who is this man on the street corner to say that judgment is coming? Is he a reliable source?
Is he crazy? When we hear information on some topic, we think through it in our minds. And at least two things happen as we consider the truth of the claim. Number one is how reliable the source is. And number two is what the source says believable.
If the source is not reliable and the claim they are making does not make sense, we should reject the claim as false. On the other hand, if the source is reliable and the claim is believable, we will be much more likely to believe that what they say is true.
Now what if the source is the one who knows all things and everything he says is 100 the truth? Then this we should listen to every single time. We would be fools not to. There are many people we should not listen to.
Their word is not reliable and what they say is false. Then there are others we should listen to and to take what they say into account. But their word is not without error. They could be wrong. However, God is always reliable and always right.
Everything that he says is the truth, the standard. One aspect of Scripture that is so amazing is that God tells us the future. He tells us what is going to happen long before it comes to pass. The Bible tells us that the Lord will spare the righteous and that dark days are coming upon the ungodly.
We don't have to wonder whether the days of reckoning, of judgment are coming. It is not a matter of if it will come, it is a matter of when it will come. The Lord said he would come and he will come.
He will bring judgment to this earth. He will not be patient forever. He will not let sin go on as it is forever. In our sermon series in Genesis, we are approaching a certain judgment. Today we are going to see the rescue before the destruction falls upon Sodom and the surrounding region.
The judgment on this region is 100 certain. The time when it would take place has almost arrived. Before the destruction would take place, a few of the righteous needed to be rescued. Our text today is Genesis 19, verses 12 -22.
I encourage you to turn there with me. If you are using a red Bible, it is on page 16. This sermon is titled, The Rescue Before the Storm. The Rescue Before the Storm. Our proposition, our big idea, is the two angels from God implement the rescue mission.
The two angels from God implement the rescue mission. We are going to see two results in this text. The first result of the angels implementing the rescue mission is that some refuse, leading to God's judgment.
We will see this in verses 12 -14. Before we jump into the text today, we are going to look at briefly what we saw last week. We saw two different parties show their true colors. They showed who they were by how they treated the angels who visited Sodom.
One showed his righteousness by treating them well. And the others showed their wickedness by sinning against them. Lot showed his righteousness by showing hospitality. And he showed hospitality by welcoming these two angels into his home.
He fed them and he offered them lodging for the night. The men of Sodom showed their wickedness by desiring to have sexual relations with the two angels that Lot was hosting. Last week's sermon was called Separation Day.
Because the righteous were being separated from the unrighteous. The righteous were inside the house while the wicked were outside. Today we are going to see why these angels were sent to Sodom in the first place.
They are on a rescue and destroy mission. The rescue, of course, needs to take place before the place can be destroyed. So we will see that in our sermon today. And we will see the destruction next week.
As we see the rescue in our first week, what we will see is the offer of being rescued is rejected by some. As a reminder of where we are in the narrative, the mob surrounding Lot's house was just blinded by the angels.
And now Lot, the two angels, and his two daughters are inside the house. These angels speak to Lot in verse 12. The angels ask this question, proving that they are not omniscient. And when we say the word omniscient, this applies only to God.
God, what we mean by this, is that he knows everything. He has no limits on his knowledge. However, angels are not omniscient. 1 Peter 1 .12 says that angels long to look into things concerning the salvation of God's people.
This shows that they learn. God never learns. An aspect of God's omniscience is that he knows the future exhaustively. Angels do not know the future, and we see that here. So when we see the angels' ignorance of how many family members Lot has, we should not be surprised.
It would be like us going to a family that we just got to know, and we would ask about their family members, not knowing anything about them. The angels give a list of Lot's family members that could potentially be spared if they cooperated.
This brings to mind the story of Noah. Noah was considered righteous, and his family was spared along with him. In this story, Lot is considered righteous, and the angels are willing to spare his family along with him.
That the sons-in-law are mentioned first by the angels catches many by surprise. The fact that they are willing to spare Lot's wife is assumed, so that is why she is not mentioned in this list. The sons-in-law are mentioned first because the angels knew the two daughters of Lot.
Remember, the night before, they were all in the same house. These angels are asking, are these women betrothed to be married? Or in our modern context, are they engaged to be married? In verse 8, when Lot foolishly offered his daughters to the wicked mob outside his house, he told them that his daughters were virgins.
Verse 14 tells us that these sons-in-law were going to marry Lot's two daughters. The offer is for the soon-to-be sons-in-law, sons, daughters, and anyone else associated with Lot in the city. And the offer is for them to be spared from the coming destruction.
And after giving Lot this offer to spare his family, they inform him why they came to Sodom in the first place. In verse 13, this is what they 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.
So these two angels were sent by God to destroy Sodom. Remember, up to this point, Lot thinks these are two men who are just merely traveling through. He does not know them to be the supernatural beings that they are.
Now he finds out that these are not your ordinary visitors. And by the way, before they even said this, he would have known that they weren't ordinary visitors, because of course they blinded the people.
We saw that last week. And now he finds out even more. These are not your ordinary visitors. These are angels. And what we know about angels from scripture, and in this narrative too, is that they have enormous power that we cannot imagine.
They have the power to destroy an entire region. And we're going to see this destruction next week. But that's incredible when you think about it. In verse 13, the angels give the reason why they are going to destroy Sodom.
The reason is the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord. We saw this four weeks ago in Genesis 18 -20. The Lord said, The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and their sin is very grave.
The Lord and his omniscience knew the sin of Sodom was very great, and the sin had reached its limit. He reached a point where he was not going to tolerate their wickedness anymore. Judgment was going to come on this region.
In verse 14, Lot listened to what the angels told him by going out to his soon-to-be family to inform them of what was coming on this place. We'll see this in the first half of verse 14. So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law who were to marry his daughters, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.
When it says that they thought Lot, going out to the sons-in-law, his daughters were in the house, and Lot went to find these two men who were going to marry his daughters. And Lot gives them a command.
He tells them, he says, Up, get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city. This shows that Lot believed what the angels told him. Lot was one who had faith, even if it was a small faith.
You do not get the sense that Lot was a mature believer in the Lord, but this narrative in 2 Peter 2 .8 that says that he was righteous makes clear that he is a believer. On the other hand, Lot's soon-to-be sons-in-law are not believers.
We can see this by their response at the end of verse 14. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting. When it says that they thought Lot was jesting, what this means is that they thought Lot was joking.
They thought he was making it up. In the little bit we have seen about Lot, he has shown himself to be kind of an oddball. And we will see that more later on in this narrative. And it seems that Lot lacks wisdom and is kind of a strange fellow.
And when he tells his soon-to-be sons-in-law this news of the coming destruction, they don't believe him. It might be that they do not respect Lot enough to believe him. And as we think of our lives, we can think of people that we are slow to believe when they tell us something.
And then there are those we are quick to believe because they are very trustworthy and we have much respect. And Lot appears to be one of those people you may question a bit. That being said, Lot is right.
There is a coming destruction on this place. And his soon-to-be sons-in-law are foolishly not heeding his warnings. They should have believed. And they are showing themselves to be much like the wicked people of Sodom and Gomorrah.
And as we think about the coming judgment on Sodom, we need to think of where we find ourselves in the present world that we live in. People in our day laugh at the prospect that judgment is coming. A few years back, my sister was telling me that in California there was actually a billboard that mocked the fact that Christians believe that Jesus is coming back.
Secular people think that time is going to go on and on until the sun runs out of juice billions of years from now unless an asteroid destroys us first. What we need to understand is that we have no reason to fear the world ending in such a way.
There is no reason to fear that. And if the Lord wasn't watching over this world, the world would have been gone a long time ago. The Lord is keeping this world going for His purposes. And as Christians, we know how the world is going to end.
The Bible tells us how the story is going to be finished. Around the time that Christ returns, God is going to bring great judgment on this earth. The book of Revelation describes the destruction in graphic detail.
This will be God's judgment on this world for the ungodliness that takes place here. The final destruction of the ungodliness on this earth will take place at the very end, after the millennium, when God establishes a new earth.
And what God did to Sodom and Gomorrah is small in comparison to what is coming. Yet people scoff at the inevitability of judgment on this earth like a lot soon-to-be sons-in-law scoffed at it. Let me read a passage from the New Testament in 2 Peter 3, verses 3 -7.
What this passage is going to tell us is about the scoffing unbelievers as they hear about a coming judgment. Knowing this, first of all, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own sinful desires.
They will say, where is the promise of His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things are continuing as they were from the beginning of creation. For they deliberately overlook this fact that the heavens existed long ago, and the earth was formed out of water and through water by the word of God.
And that by means of these, the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished. But by the same word, the heavens and earth that now exist are stored up for fire, being kept until the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly.
So the Lord at one time destroyed the world by a flood because of the wickedness that was present. The people today who do not believe that a flood happened are the same ones who do not believe that Christ is going to come back and that the Lord is going to judge the earth like He did before.
Do not be one who scoffs at this, like Lot's soon-to-be sons-in-law. And don't let people scoff. Tell them, this is true, and you need to believe. You need to find your refuge in Jesus Christ. And just in a little bit, we're going to see the destiny of Lot's soon-to-be sons-in-law, and we're going to see the destiny, of course, of anybody who rejects the news of finding refuge in Christ and listening to the word of God.
We will see that Lot's soon-to-be sons-in-law are not the ones who are brought to rescue out of the city. They laughed at the prospect of coming judgment, and they were among the number who would be swept away.
So the first result of the two angels implementing the rescue mission is that some refuse, leading to God's judgment. The second result of two angels implementing the rescue mission is that one slowly responds to experience God's mercy.
And we will see this in verses 15 through 22. So Lot went out of his house to persuade his sons-in-law to leave the city. They thought he was joking and laughed at him. Then Lot returned to the house where his two daughters, the two angels, and his wife were.
And in verse 15, as they are in the house, this is what the angels say to Lot. As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.
The angels tell him to leave the city. They do not give him specific instructions as to where to go, but simply tell him to leave the city with his wife and his two daughters. And if they stay, they will be swept up in the destruction that is coming.
Do you notice who is not mentioned in verse 15? Lot's soon-to-be sons-in-law are not mentioned. This shows that they were going to be destroyed along with the wicked because they turned down their future father-in-law's offer to be spared.
They loved what Sodom and Gomorrah had to offer more than the opportunity it took to follow Lot out and to be considered righteous. And what we are going to see in this point is that Lot's response, while not spectacular, is still obedient to the command of the angels, and he will be spared.
Now in verse 16, we are shown Lot's initial response to the upcoming destruction.
But he lingered.
We do not know exactly why Lot lingered, but I think a good guess, based on the news he just heard, is that he was overtaken with fear. I think pretty much probably all of you at this point have heard my story that I finally saw my first bear.
I've been here for about 16 months, and it finally happened. I was sitting in my office, and I looked out the window, and a bear was getting into our garbage. And I ran outside, got it on tape a little bit, and then ran inside to tell Brianna, and Brianna got a sight of the bear as well.
And I felt like a kid in the candy store. And I was so excited that I went over to my neighbor, Mickey. Some of you know who Mickey is. And I told him that I saw a bear. And he told me some of his bear stories.
And one in particular stuck in my mind, and that is this. One time he went out on River Road, where he used to live, and he crossed the road, and he picked up his mail. And he turned around, and 20 feet away from him is this big black bear, standing up with his paws up, just staring at him.
And Mickey found himself just staring back at the bear. And so there's this awkwardness as he stares at the bear, and the bear stares at him. And they're both frozen with fear. It kind of reminded me of that, when he was telling me that story of Santa Claus and the M &M guys in that old commercial, where they both faint because they didn't think the other one was real.
They were so in shock. And so Mickey and this bear are in shock, and they're frozen with fear. And so Mickey slips away and runs up to his deck, and he looks back, thinking, did the bear follow me? And he looks back, and he sees that the bear is still standing there, frozen.
And this often happens when something traumatic happens. We hear news, frightening news. It's very easy to be frozen with fear. And sometimes people are so paralyzed with fear that he or she freezes. And this is what I think happened with Lot.
He freezes as he ponders the destruction that is coming on Sodom. And as he freezes, this is what the angels do in the middle of verse 16. So the men, who are the angels, seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand.
So Lot is not leaving on his own because he is paralyzed with fear. So the angels grab him, his wife, and his two daughters. And what the author Moses writes after this is significant, continuing in verse 16.
The Lord being merciful to him. The Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. The angels grab Lot, even as he lingers, because the Lord is being merciful to him.
The Lord did not say, leave him, because Lot failed to respond immediately to the command to leave. Rather, the Lord was committed to rescuing Lot from the coming destruction. And this brings up an important application for us.
The Lord's commitment to a believer is firm. And it is a lasting commitment that he has for his people. And one question people ask is, can someone lose his or her salvation? And there are some Christians who believe that one can lose his or her salvation.
But this is an incorrect view. The correct view is that once one belongs to Christ, he or she is secure to the end. And let me give you a few verses to show you this. Philippians 1 .6 says that he who began a good work in you will carry it to completion at the day of Christ Jesus.
John 10 .27 and 28 says, my sheep hear my voice. I know them and they follow me. I give them eternal life and they will never perish. And no one will snatch them out of my hand. 1 Thessalonians 5 .24 says that he who calls you is faithful.
He will surely do it. God is the one who sustains you. Once the Holy Spirit enters you at conversion, he does not leave you. The mercy that he shows you from the beginning is not revoked, but is rather a continuing mercy to the end.
The Lord planned on rescuing Lot. He counted him righteous and did not change his mind based on Lot's faulty response. And the mercy that he shows is a sustaining mercy. It is meant to be forever. Lot is experiencing this right here.
He sets his mercy on those whom he wills and he does not revoke his mercy. Romans 8 .29 says, those whom he predestined, he also called. Those whom he called, he also justified. And those whom he justified, he also glorified.
You will wake up tomorrow as a Christian because the Lord is committed to you in the same way he was committed to Lot. So be encouraged if you belong to Jesus Christ. And the end of verse 16 told us where they took Lot.
It says that they took him outside of the city. And as they brought them outside the city, Lot and his family were still in the danger zone. What we have to remember is that Sodom is not the only place that is going to be destroyed.
The cities surrounding Sodom were also wicked. The most prominent city next to Sodom was Gomorrah. And that is why the Bible speaks of these two cities together. As the angels dropped them outside the city, this is what they say in verse 17.
And as they brought them out, one said, escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills lest you be swept away. One of the angels essentially says to them to run for your life and do not look back.
The valley region is going to be destroyed. Now I mentioned earlier that Lot is an odd fellow. One of the reasons his soon-to-be sons-in-law did not listen to him is because he might be one of those people that you don't trust at first.
You get the impression that Lot is not a very confident man. Not someone you would look up to. Even though he had some good qualities that show his true faith. As we saw last week with his generous hospitality when the angels came into the city.
And what Lot says in verse 18 -20 is just odd. We're going to see some of his strangeness here. And Lot said to them, the angels, Oh no, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight. And you have shown me great kindness in saving my life.
But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, the city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there. Is it not a little one, and my life will be saved?
Who questions the escape route from a very reliable source? That's what Lot is doing here. That's so strange for him to do. These are angels who are telling him, if you do this, you will be spared. And yet he changes the escape route.
He wants to change the escape route. And what we see is that Lot addressed the angels as lords. So his response wasn't all bad. That's a respectful way to address them. And in verse 19, he is grateful that he has found favor in their sight.
And he acknowledges that they have shown great kindness in saving his life. And all of that is good. But he oddly requests, in verse 19 and 20, to not have to flee to the hills. He requests this because he does not think that he is going to make it to the hills in time before the destruction hits.
So we see some flaws here in Lot. A more faithful man would take the angels at their word and believe that if they follow their instructions to a T, they will be spared. Those instructions, of course, are run for your life, don't look back, and you will make it to the hills in time.
But he does not think he is going to make it. Instead, he requests that they spare one of the towns in the valley. We once again see Lot's fear coming out. He is afraid that he is not going to make it.
We cannot be fearful people like Lot. Fear is a problem that even Christians face. It can be a daily battle. And I think a lot of the anxiety issues that we hear about today, a lot of it is just fear.
People are afraid of their circumstances. It's possible that there could be some chemical issues going on, but I think a lot of it is just fear.
People are afraid.
People are overtaken by their anxiety. And the best antidote to fear is trusting the Lord. Did you know that the Bible says 365 times, do not fear? There is one verse about not fearing for every day of the year.
And what we should do instead of fearing is trust the Lord. I'll read a couple of verses to you here, or quote a couple of verses to you. Isaiah 41 .10, the Lord says, Fear not, and do not be dismayed, for I will help you.
I will strengthen you. I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. In Proverbs 3, 5, and 6, some of you may be able to quote this with me. We must trust the Lord and not fear as Lot did. Remember, the Lord planned to spare Lot, and the angels gave him the instructions of how he was going to be spared.
It was run to the hills and do not look back. This was plan A. Yet since God was committed to being merciful to Lot, not because of Lot's actions, but because the Lord set his heart to be committed to this man, the Lord allowed there to be a plan B.
We see the Lord is very gracious in this passage. Not only by sparing Lot from the destruction, but also by letting him negotiate the escape route. Lot's request in verse 20 is to let him stay in a small town in the valley that was initially planned to be destroyed.
He desires for the angels to let him stay in this one town and to destroy the rest so that he and his family can be safe there. The Lord is so committed to sparing Lot that he allows the angels to graciously say this in verses 21 and 22.
The angel said, Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing until you arrive there. Therefore, the name of the city was called Zor.
The angel enables Lot to escape to a nearby town in this valley near the Dead Sea. Every city in this region was going to be destroyed, the most prominent being Sodom and Gomorrah, but this one small town was going to be spared.
The name of this town is Zor, and in the Hebrew language, Zor literally means small. One commentator, Ken Matthews, said that by leaving Zor, people from the surrounding region would have been able to see God's justice and patience.
His justice in destroying all the cities, and his patience in working with the difficult Lot to get him out of the path of destruction. This would have been a reminder of the people in this region, because everybody, of course, would have known about what happened there.
The same author said, The divine timetable for destruction is temporarily suspended for the outworking of divine grace. We see the Lord's grace tremendously here. We should be grateful that God does this for everyone who belongs to Jesus.
He is patient with those who are his, and he spares them forever. It is so much better to be on the side of God's grace, and not on the side of experiencing his just wrath. As we will see next week, everyone in this world will experience one of the two.
The second result of the angels implementing their rescue mission is that one slowly responds to experience God's mercy. So to summarize, the two angels from God implement their rescue mission, and we have seen two results to their efforts.
The first result was that some refused, leading to God's judgment. The second result was that one responded slowly to experience God's mercy. Lot responded, yet his response was shaky, as it so often is with us when it comes to our relationship with the Lord.
We have faith, and yet as we go through the life of faith, we have missteps. We don't always do what we are supposed to do according to God's will for our lives. But the one constant is that God stands with us.
He sustains his people through thick and thin. And if he did not do this, then we would fall completely. We would no longer be walking with him. Let us thank God that he graciously keeps us as he kept Lot.
And if you belong to Christ, the Lord has the same unshakable commitment to you. And now that we have seen today that the few righteous have been removed from the city, the floodgates of God's just wrath are about to be let loose on these cities in the valley near the Dead Sea.
And we will look at that next week. Let's pray. Father in Heaven, I thank you, Lord, that you do spare the righteous. I thank you that all who belong to Jesus are spared in him. And I thank you for your patience, Lord, with us.
You wait many, many years, in some cases, for people to come to know Christ as Lord, Savior, and Treasure. And even when we are saved, the only reason we remain in the faith is because you sustain us.
And you are patient with us. And you keep us. And you have the big picture in mind. And I just want to say thank you for that. And may we understand this as a church. May we understand, Lord, that we're going to wake up tomorrow as Christians, not because we decide to follow you, but it's because you sustain us, and therefore we will follow.
In Jesus' name, Amen.