Sodom

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Preacher: Ross Macdonald Scripture: Genesis 19:1-13

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Well, it's good to be back among you. I didn't have any bad reports from Brian LaBeaushire last week, so we didn't chase him out, which is always good and In fact,
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I think he was quite charmed with our our little fellowship here. And so now we leave the security and the calmness and the enjoyment of the
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Gospels Matthew 6 last week and return back to Genesis and a really challenging part of the narrative chapter 19
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Not only the depravity of Sodom, but as you just read also the depravity in the caves by Zoar And so this is a difficult passage and we'll be spending several weeks in chapter 19
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This morning we'll focus on verses 1 through 13 We'll pick up next week also with verse 13 and move forward a few verses but this morning we want to begin with Genesis 19 verse 1 and First we consider before we get to Sodom We actually consider lot and we have to keep in mind where we've been in Genesis chapter 18 remember that these three messengers appeared to Abraham by The terebinth trees and of course he rushed around and all this great effort to lay down a feast before them
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It became clear and the dialogue that followed that one was the Lord incarnate in this sort of pre incarnate
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Manifestation of his presence. It was the Son of God and two angels who then go on to Sodom beginning in chapter 19
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As we'll see this morning While Abraham interceded with the Lord and interceded particularly that if there's ten righteous
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Within the confines of the city that it would be spared and the Lord agrees to this
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The Lord agrees to this intercession if I find ten righteous in Sodom I will not destroy it so we begin in 19 verse 1 the two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom When lot saw them he rose to meet them and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground
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The last time we saw a lot He was well, not the last time but I guess the the very first time he settled near Sodom chapter 13 by the end of chapter 13 beginning of 14
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He was living in Sodom now some decades have passed a lot of time has passed
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And we find him sitting at the gate It seems likely that lot over this long period of time that he'd been dwelling near and then in Sodom had gained something of a reputation and Apparently a position of influence.
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This is an idiom in the Hebrew language to sit at the gate Normally meant you had some sort of political function maybe as an elder in the city
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Maybe you were exercising some judicial function. That would be true of a visiting dignitary for instance
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So it seems that lot has he's not just happens to be sitting by the gate But he's here in a position of prominence at this city
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Perhaps some of this was connected to his relationship being the nephew of Abraham After all many sodomites would have remembered that it was
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Abraham who rescued them when there was the war of those kingdoms five against four in the rebellion against Keter Leomer and so perhaps
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Because they recognized that lot himself was rescued by this great warrior
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Abraham Who's actually not all that far away. Perhaps this is why lot has a position of influence
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So we picture lot. He's he's rooted into Sodom as we'll see next week
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Sodom has more of an influence on him and his family than than anything close to Abraham and we see a great contrast between lot and Abraham But we find these visitors approaching these two angelic messengers
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We know from chapter 18 their mission, but lot does not know who they are or why they have come
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So he rises to meet them. We read he bows himself with his face toward the ground now again
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Sometimes bowing to the ground is just bowing to the ground. Sometimes bowing to the ground is worshiping
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It's all depending on context here. It seems to be I think accurately translated bowed to the ground
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He bowed himself with his face toward the ground. This is a way of showing reverent Hospitality though.
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This is very similar to Abraham's response It seems that lot does not yet recognize the true identity of these visitors
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Until they reveal who sent them and why they've came he'll be treating them as visitors foreign visitors that he does not know verse 2
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Here now my lords, please Turn into your servants house and spend the night and wash your feet
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Then you may rise early and go on your way and they said no But we will spend the night in the open square but he insisted strongly so they turned into him and entered his house and he made them a feast and Baked them unleavened bread and they ate
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Now already we should be picking up this parallel between Abraham's hospitality in Genesis 18 and lots
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Hospitality here in chapter 19 like uncle like nephew and this is a very important detail
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We've known very little about the personal character of lot until chapter 19
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We have some estimate of the kind of man He was based on where he chose to dwell based on what we'll see in the following verses next week
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But but here we have a first glimpse into his personal integrity and the generous nature of his character and this is very important because somehow
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Peter in 2nd Peter is picking up on the fact that lot is righteous and lot has a righteous soul a righteous status
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Where does that come from everything we've seen about lot screams just the opposite But 2nd
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Peter says very clearly that righteous man lot Dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day
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Seeing and hearing their lawless deeds So perhaps here we have our first real glimpse of the righteous soul of law
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The angels refused his offer at first. It's nighttime. They're just going to sleep in the square which would have been sort of the marketplace
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Civic gathering space toward the gate but of course, this is a Customary almost polite response to an offer of hospitality in the ancient
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Near East It would be if I ordered a big Basket of french fries and I was like, would you like some?
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Oh, no. No. No those you ordered them You have them and then I go. No. No, I insist. Oh, okay. Maybe I'll have some it's just polite to not say
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Oh great. Thanks and start porting into it. Well, so it is with ancient Near Eastern hospitality
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You first defer a little bit. No, no I couldn't impose and then you wait for the insistence and that seems to be what these angelic visitors are doing
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We find the same thing with the risen Lord. Jesus interestingly in Luke 24 Remember the disciples on the road to Emmaus we read
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Luke 24 beginning in 28 They drew near to the village where they were going and he this is the
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Lord Indicated that he would have gone farther, but they constrained him saying abide with us
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For it is toward evening and the day is far spent and so he went in to stay with them.
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This is just how Hospitality is negotiated unless you are very clearly a royal or divine figure then it's like You just accept whatever is offered to you because you have the authority and the prowess to do so So he insisted strongly the
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Hebrew verb here is really interesting. It appears later in in verse 9 So we have it.
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He insisted strongly Another translation. He he pressed he pressed them It's it's the
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Hebrew verb pats are and it appears again with the sodomites when they're pressing against lot
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It's the same verb. So look at the contrast. It's already being created What is the character of law when he presses it's to welcome these foreigners?
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He's never met before total strangers and he's pressing them. Please. Let me prepare for you. Please. Let me host you
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Please come into my house and let me protect you. The sodomites are going to press in the opposite direction
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We're going to assault you. We're going to murder you. That's the kind of insistence or the pressing that they do
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Now lot we've established this parallel Let's break it apart a little bit unlike Abraham lot does not run around to get butter or curds in a fatted calf
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Remember it's evening It's not the heat of the day and he seems to be concerned with getting them at least something to eat something decent to eat
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Even though the day is far spent and that explains why he doesn't have time for a slow cooked feast
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Even though his heart probably would have been there. They didn't have insta pots in the ancient world
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Unfortunately, so he offers them unleavened bread Now this is the first time we read of unleavened bread in Scripture This is the first occurrence of unleavened bread and it seems simply to be
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I don't have enough time to cause the dough to rise And to bake it properly, so we're just gonna make it unleavened
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The next time that it will appear in Scripture is when God is about to send catastrophe upon Egypt the night of the
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Passover and That's when unleavened bread is again With the same context right you're not gonna have time it has to be unleavened so that you have time to leave and rush out
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It's not gonna have time for a slow Ornately prepared feast but notice the similarity of context here judgment is about to come and here
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We have this unleavened bread. It's almost emblematic of the fact that it's coming so rapidly
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Now as we move forward into the next verses, we're going to see three things about Sodom The first thing we'll see is
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Sodom's unashamed demand unashamed demand Secondly, we're going to see
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Sodom's unmoved depravity unmoved depravity and Then third and last we're going to see
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Sodom's unavoidable destruction. So first Sodom's unashamed demand beginning in verse 4
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Now before they lay down 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 said to him
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Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we may know them carnally
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So lot went out to them through the doorway shut the door behind him and said please my brethren
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Do not do so wickedly see now I have two daughters who have not known a man, please
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Let me bring them out to you And you may do to them as you wish only do nothing to these men since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof
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There's a lot to unpack here First it goes without saying The depravity of Sodom is shown not just in a handful not in a gang not in the notorious town drunkard
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But actually in the whole lot of them no pun intended Both young and old alike doesn't that just ring horrifically?
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Young men old men boys elderly men gathering around for this spectacle
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Where are the men that went into you bring them out to us? It's put rather nicely for us in in the gloss
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We know that to know is language of intimacy and Adam knew his wife and she bore
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If that's not clear that we may know them carnally That's meant to emphasize and then if even that's not clear
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We have the the trade -off which will address momentarily, please take my two daughters who have not known men
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It goes without saying that the depravity is Homosexual rape now, of course homosexuality is explicitly condemned in Scripture It's explicitly condemned here
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It's explicitly condemned again in Leviticus 18 and Anywhere else that happens to be referenced there along with bestiality and other forms of sexual perversion
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Now there are still some shock factor in our culture to some forms of deviancy or perversion
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But here's one form an abomination in the sight of God that become rather palatable And so you'll have most preachers
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Good godly gospel preaching preachers as soon as they mention something like homosexuality being abomination
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They'll be like, but it's no worse than than lying or stealing or fornicating Does this seem a little worse to you than lying or stealing?
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surrounding a house With God's messengers inside like a demonic herd of swine squealing to fulfill lust through rape
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Yeah, that sounds a little worse. The scriptures do have levels of gravity with sin It is true that any sin if it is sin is sin enough to condemn
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But to somehow placate to fit the the air of our age is to miss
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What's what's ought to be shocking and striking not just here But whenever this is brought up again and again in Scripture now, this is an important point
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I want to make for where we're going to go There's also something preachers do
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I think negatively on the other side Where Sodom can only be reduced to this sin and that's not how
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Scripture continues to develop and use Sodom and Gomorrah, and so we'll see that But of course at the very least and we have to start here it goes without saying that Scripture uniformly condemns homosexuality as a perversion of what
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God has designed of what God has created as an abomination against God as an expression of human depravity of Sinful lust in the the mutation of desire against God's will
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Paul clearly takes us up in Romans 1 in Verses 26 and 27 some of us can remember a few
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Sunday nights ago The Apostle Paul came to visit us and and happened to be reading from the
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NIV 1984 If you follow Elsie actually still talks about the
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Apostle, I don't think she's quite worked out The chronology on that one Paul picks this up in Romans 1 for this reason
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God gave them over to degrading passions Their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural
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In the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another
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Men with men committing indecent acts receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error
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This is Paul addressing this And we see this the crowd is demanding that lot turn over his guests
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This is an unthinkable violation I hope we've begun to unpack the significance of hospitality to the ancient
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Near Eastern mind that is still true today Though perhaps less so it strikes us as absolutely bizarre that you would sacrifice anything to protect someone who's not related to you
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Not even not even a relative or even a friend, but just a stranger that you've welcomed into your house
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What obligations do you have to them? Well for the ancient Near Eastern mind if you accept someone into your house if you're opening up hospitality
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You would you would sacrifice yourself to protect their honor the crowd has gathered around it's become this mob and There's this unthinkable violation
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They themselves would have been somewhat cordoned off by this ancient Near Eastern mentality
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But the lust has overruled that as lust always does Sin doesn't respect boundaries for long
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We can put on certain conventions and social pressures as we see it around us today that never lasts
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It's like a seawall. They don't last very long. Even the ones that the Romans built inevitably degrade
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Lot of course is aware of what's going on Remember, he's been vexing his righteous soul day by day when he considers their lawless deeds now
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He has this position of influence and honor, but he has to fight against the drunkenness of their lust He closes the door to protect these guests and he goes as a mediator to stand between them
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Please brethren do not do this wicked thing. Notice how he addresses them brethren
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Brethren it's trying to cut through Stop acting like a wild beast
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Brethren neighbors friends We've gone to birthday parties together with we've celebrated things together.
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We've worked alongside. We've helped build and repair Brethren, do not do this wicked thing.
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And then we're just about to applaud his courage. He's closed them in he's going to negotiate We're about to to applaud his courage.
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And then what happens please take my daughters and now we throw our hands up What in the world? What is going on?
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well what he does no commentator will say anything other than what he does is evil and foolish and sinful and I don't want to defend lots action for a moment, but I at least want to help us rationalize it
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Consider lots prominence. He was sitting at the gate He has some position of influence over these sodomites
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Remember this family connection to Abraham who would have been held in wide regard by those in Sodom So he has some clout if anything.
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He has sort of the Abrahamic army backing up anything. He says He must have thought surely
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I'm prominent enough Surely I'm honored and respected enough that if I negotiate if I mediate they will immediately turn back
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They will desist so it seems not that he's saying please just do whatever you want to my daughters so much as he's
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Calculating they would never dare bring shame upon my daughters
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We know that the daughters are Virgins, right? They have not known men and yet he says son -in -laws later on in verse 19
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So it seems that they're betrothed right? The daughters are betrothed To the son and son -in -laws and so even there you have this custom some of these sodomites are actually betrothed
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They're not going to dare go against that This would have been something that brought Due punishment in the civil court.
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And so it's a calculated maneuver Please take my daughters now. They're they're betrothed to fellow sodomites
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And also you would dare not bring shame upon me in my house Knowing who I am and and who my family has been to you.
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It seems to be calculated Does that sound similar to Abraham? Runs in the family, doesn't it?
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Please just tell them I'm your brother Sarah Tell them I'm your brother. I don't know how long this famines gonna last
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But if anyone dares to try to take you and try to propose to you and and buy you with the bride price
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He'll at least have to negotiate with me. I'll be your brother and I'll go. Yeah, let's talk about negotiations We've got plenty of time and once the famines over we'll leave crisis averted
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But that calculation misfires for Abraham, doesn't it? And that calculation misfires for Abraham misfires for lot
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Not only are they unperturbed By bringing shame upon his betrothed daughters.
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They actually turned their vengeful lust upon lot himself
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So though we can rationalize it I think especially given that ancient Near Eastern Sense of hospitality where you were willing to sacrifice anything and everything to protect those you've brought under the coverage of your house
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But but even then even though we can rationalize it we dare not excuse it. What lot did was evil
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It was horrific To present his own daughters in that way to risk it even if it was never meant to be something real
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The awful parallel to this is in Judges 19 When the men of Gibeah surround
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The house and the Levite offers his concubine and no angels are there to pull her back in and protect her
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And so they ravage her all night until the next morning when she collapses dead on the doorstep
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Lot was prepared to do that to his daughters Apart from the mercy of God It's a wicked thing
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The fact that these men have no shame Against this offer is what stands out to me brethren co -workers friends neighbors collaborators people that I've known and we've spent decades together and we've lived side by side and we've wept and we've rejoiced and we
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We've lived our lives together brethren. Don't do this wicked thing. Look, you know my little girls You were there you were there when they were born.
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You were there at the announcement of their engagement. You've been there You've seen them grow. You can have them you can have them just don't do this wicked thing
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Look, look how unashamed How depraved? How hideous these men are?
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Isaiah 3 9 speaks in a similar way of this unashamed nature here speaking of Judah.
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They look on their countenance Witnesses against them. They declare their sin like Sodom.
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They don't hide it. Whoa to their soul They don't hide it their countenance their attitude their behavior they're like beasts
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And so the first thing that we see is Sodom's unashamed demand
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But then secondly we see Sodom's unmoved to depravity They say stand back verse 9
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This one came in to stay here and he keeps acting as a judge He probably legitimately had that function more or less
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Now we'll deal worse with you than with them and so they pressed Hard against the man
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Lot and came near to break down the door Lot Tried to stand as mediator between the depravity of Sodom the outcry has been going up to God Here come these angels lots trying to mediate in the gap.
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The outcry is too fierce. The depravity is too much The men have to pull him back
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Verse 10 the men reached out their hands and pulled Lot into the house with them and shut the door that the mob becomes furious and so now the one who was trying to rescue these men needs to be rescued by these men and Verse 11 they struck the men who are at the doorway of the house with blindness
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Both small and great and they became weary trying to find the door Now perhaps in your mind if you're thinking you're at it you're at lot if you're a sodomite
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Yeah, I'm trying to make you imagine being a sodomite in Genesis 19. Well, anyways, let's go along with it
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You're pressing with lot toward the door almost breaking the door You're struck blind and you honestly don't think you can just oh, here's the door even though I can't see well, it's interesting
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This particular Hebrew verb for blindness here It only appears one other place in Scripture And it seems to be not that it's just all of a sudden your eyes are permanently closed
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But everything else remains the same It only appears also in 2nd Kings 6 and it seems to be the idea is that wherever they go to find something
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It's gone. In other words the very thing they're intent on having they cannot have it And so it's as though the door disappears as far as they're concerned.
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And so they become weary frustrated We know it's here But where did it go? And so there's a supernatural judgment of blindness that God has wrought upon these men so this this aggression this depravity this degradation all of this begins to to boil down into weariness and They go their way.
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So perhaps not Physically blind if they couldn't find the door five feet away from them. How are they going to find their house?
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We're not talking about that kind of blindness If anything, it's a pretty horrific vision of blindness, isn't it?
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In the context of talking about the judgment of God we're saying there's a supernatural blindness that affects men the very thing
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They're intent upon they cannot find That sounds a lot like how God uses Spiritual blindness and hardness of heart to judge those who resist him.
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We've heard about the outcry of Sodom. I Don't know if you got warm fuzzies in your heart when
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Abraham was going If there's just ten righteous and Sodom and maybe you're being moved along with Abraham.
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Yes Lord. Yes Lord spare Sodom Yes, Lord. Yes Lord spare Sodom You heard about the outcry now you see it
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This is what Abraham was praying for This is what we would be interceding for Does anyone want to stop interceding?
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Does he want to say no? No, that's okay. You can go ahead and judge it now That's how we ought to be responding to this
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When God's judgment comes at the end of the chapter, do we not just say?
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The judge of all the earth does right? The judge of all the earth does right?
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Johannes Voss Says God is both sovereign and righteous
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He possesses the unquestionable right to destroy all evil in his universe If it is right for God to plan and affect this destruction
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It is right also for the Saints to pray for the same Now we're going to qualify this in a lot of ways, but just let that stand in sync
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Instead of being influenced by the sickly sentimentalism of the present day Christians should realize that the glory of God Demands the destruction of evil and if you don't think that statement is true, you can never make sense of the cross
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The glory of God Demands the destruction of evil. The last thing we see is
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Sodom's unavoidable destruction We're going to rehearse this again next week, but just to point something out and then we'll move to some application
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Genesis 19 beginning in verse 12 Sodom's unavoidable destruction and the men said to Lot Have you anyone else here?
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Son -in -law your sons your daughters and whomever you have in this city. Take them out of this place For we will destroy this place
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Because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord and the Lord has sent us to destroy it
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Notice the angelic message is judgment Here we see that The punishments and judgments that God reaps upon the earth are not necessarily through demonic agency
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We have to have a separate category. Are there afflictions that God permits the enemy to bring toward Job?
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Yes, are there afflictions devastations? That are brought about by the righteous angels of God.
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Yes, we must say both And Yet it's revealed to us to God's people
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The author and the design and the rationale for such judgment here. We have it in Genesis 19
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Here you have the angels who have been sent by God Have been with the incarnate Lord the pre -incarnate
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Lord and they've been sent to destroy this wicked wicked city There was an old
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TV show in the 90s. I wonder if anyone else It Used to be on when
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I got home from school it was called touched by an angel like a CBS show and there was
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Like this Irish actress who was like the junior angel and then there was this like old soulful woman
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That was the senior angel and the whole it was all the angels going around to give these little you know
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No one knew that they were angels, of course So here's this little Irish stranger and you know
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Oh well the good Lord above and just gives these little Encouragements and guidances and and then the people work things out and they're like so moved and they put their faith in God Okay.
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Well, here's a different type of being touched by an angel Judgment is coming
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Judgment is coming judgment is coming because the outcry has gone up Now again
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When you just hear outcry and we don't have details You think
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Oh Lord show mercy wouldn't it be great if you show mercy When you actually read the details you begin to reconsider
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Now think about how many other judgments of God where we just don't know the details then you think These are just the details that are reported at a glance across a paragraph if we could really know
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What God knows if we could really see? What God sees if we could see the intent and the motives of the heart judgment is an act of mercy
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That this cancer of Sodom won't spread to her neighbors and to the neighboring cities and the victims within her
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So in one sense God's judgment is always an act of mercy For those who are being torn asunder and caused to to groan
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With no pity in the face of such torment God's judgment It's always an act of mercy or at least by cutting off the impact of that evil
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But second it's a warning to the ungodly It's a warning to the ungodly
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God judges Sodom Not just because Sodom is so unique in its depravity compared to any other nation or person on the face of the earth
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But rather because in his will he has chosen to make Sodom an example now scripture itself bears this out
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When we go to Jude in the New Testament Jude beginning in verse 5 we read. I want to remind you
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Though you once knew this that the Lord Having saved the people out of the land of Egypt afterward destroyed those who did not believe
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So this is Jude speaking to the church and he's saying I want to remind you brethren Though God led his people out of Egypt those that he let out were destroyed in the desert.
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I want to remind you brethren To work out your salvation in the fear and trembling of God I want to remind you brethren to conduct yourself with all holiness and reverence fearing the name of the
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Lord I Want to remind you brethren to be sober Not drunk in this flood of dissipation, but sober minded in this present evil godless age
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I want to remind you brethren verse 6 in Jude The angels who did not keep their proper place, but left it he's reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of that day notice verse 7 as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner having given themselves over to sexual immorality
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Are set forth as an example Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire
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So this is Jude and Jude is saying Church be reminded be reminded
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Church of Sodom in Genesis 19 Which is an example of the kind of suffering that will come when
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God unleashes eternal vengeance Peter says the same thing in 2nd
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Peter 2 beginning in verse 6 Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes.
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He condemned them to destruction Making them as an example to those who would live
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Example we learn from this that God's judgment is is never capricious
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It's always just it's never arbitrary You could never dare say it's not
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Abounding in all sorts of long -suffering and undeserved mercy Every second that Sodom was spared was an undeserved mercy
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No one could ever say that Sodom got anything less than what it deserved And one of the most terrifying prospects held out in Scripture is
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That some people will get what they deserve Throughout Scripture Sodom bears this example of God's condemnation upon the wicked in Matthew chapter 11
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Jesus is defending John the Baptist you remember John the Baptist has he's in prison
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John the Baptist the one who's preparing the way for the Messiah John the Baptist who who knew that he was not worthy to unstrap the sandal of this one
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I need to be baptized by you You would be baptized by me He knows who
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Jesus is. He knows that he's the promised one They've been waiting for but he's beginning to have doubt and despair as the
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Messiah is not doing what? Everyone including John thought the Messiah would come to do kick the
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Romans out establish the kingdom now glory glory glory Triumph triumph triumph.
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So why am I in a Herodian dungeon? So he sends his messenger Are you the one we've been waiting for Or are we to look for another now anyone who knew the character and integrity of John might begin to say
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John the Baptist we don't doubt you Jesus John the Baptist is doubting and so Jesus defends
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John What did you come out in the deserts to see a reed shaking in a wind?
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No, you came out to see a lion you came out to see a brave heart That's why you came out
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And of course he goes into talking about how John is the greatest man born among women but in the kingdom of God He's the least so significant is the coming of Christ in terms of redemptive history
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But then he turns his aim to the people to the generation and it's fascinating where he goes
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This is Matthew 11 beginning in verse 16 But to what shall
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I like in this generation? In other words, he's defending John now leave John alone go tell
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John this let me address you To what shall I like in this generation?
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It's like children sitting in the marketplaces calling to their companions
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Saying we played the flute for you. You did not dance. We mourned to you.
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You did not lament John came neither eating nor drinking and they say he has a demon
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The son of man came eating and drinking and they say look a glutton a wine -bibber a friend of tax collectors and sinners
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But wisdom is justified by her children. So just notice what Jesus is doing He's turning his aim upon the generation and and notice this language here.
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He gives us a little proverb It's like children sitting in the marketplaces calling to their companions
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So who are the children in the proverb the children would be John and Jesus? Sitting in the commonplace calling to the generation the companions
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We played the flute for you you did not dance another word a message of great joy a message of great joy such that Jesus is the glutton and the wine -bibber the friend of tax collectors
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We mourned to you John the Baptist preparing the way We're wearing this this strange garb calling people to repentance we mourned we mourned to you you didn't lament
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In other words whether the kingdom has come with great joy And the great hope of the promise or whether it's come in the great call to repentance and the need for self -despair and humility
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Either way you've been unmoved You didn't dance you didn't mourn
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And so he begins to rebuke the cities now look verse 20 Then he began to rebuke the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done because they did not repent
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Woe to you Chorazin woe to you Bethsaida if the mighty works Which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes
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But I say to you It will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you and you
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Capernaum Who are exalted to heaven you'll be brought down to hell for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom It would have remained until this day and I say to you
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It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you.
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Do you think? There were any Israelites living in Capernaum Waking up reciting
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Deuteronomy 6 Binding their arms in their foreheads listening to the
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Council of the Pharisees Taking their ritual mikvah baths Ritually giving alms.
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Do you think any one of them thought? That it would be possible for Sodom to be more tolerable than they on the day of judgment
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And that's what Jesus says We came We played the flute we danced
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We gave you the good news. We gave you the hard truth. You weren't moved.
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I did works I opened eyes. I opened ears I brought back to life if these things had been done in Sodom it would have been here today
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And so if those dwelling in Capernaum are a direct parallel to Sodom Not the contrast of being so much better actually of being so much worse
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How then does the judgment of God Come to us we turn to I'm actually gonna have you turn to Zephaniah.
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I say that only for this reason. I know what it is you get that new study Bible has that beautiful gold gilt and The binding and the fingernail marks are always, you know
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Genesis through Psalms And then Gospels to Revelation, but those minor prophets, they're very hard to find aren't they so we don't bother really reading them much
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So turn to Zephaniah. I'll give you five minutes to find it. It's interesting
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We you know Greg in his prayer mentioned Josiah and Zephaniah was roughly a contemporary to Josiah ministering at this time apparently before Nineveh fell so Zephaniah beginning in verse 12
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Just want you to see again How this judgment language and indictment comes across Okay, we're gonna look at this and we'll look at a few more places, but but keep in mind where we're going
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I hope I haven't paid too short attention To the very real hatred of God for the abomination of homosexuality.
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I hope that no one here leaves today Precluding that or thinking otherwise.
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It's abominable It's inviting God's judgment upon our society upon our land, please have that established
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But once you have that established Don't then think of the oracles of judgments in the warnings of Jude and 2nd
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Peter as though it applies to everyone out there Everyone but the church everyone but Christians.
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We're all safe Israelite fishermen here in Capernaum. We're doing fine
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That's not the right way to approach the judgment of God Zephaniah 1 Beginning in verse 12 it shall come to pass at that time that I will search
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Jerusalem with lamps Do you see this theme again whenever God comes to search in judgment? It's always being established.
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It's being reckoned. He's a just judge So here's the imagery the Prophet gives
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God's inspecting God is weighing God is reckoning the judge comes to search
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Jerusalem with lamps and punish the men Notice who are settled in complacency Who say in their heart the
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Lord will not do good nor will he do evil Things happen, you know, there's good times and bad times
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Settled in complacency The Lord will neither do good nor will he do evil things will always balance out and this is when the judge is coming
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This is when the angels are coming to the gate And therefore their goods shall become booty
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Their houses a desolation They shall build houses but not inhabit them they shall plant vineyards but not drink their wine
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That's that's lots life story. Everything he had built in 20 years is taken from him and God's saying, you know, you think
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You think you're safe in your complacency. You think Capernaum safe everything you're building is going to be taken
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The great day of the Lord is near verse 14 the day of the Lord Is symbolic language of a great day of judgment a cataclysmic day or it could be a great day of blessing
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Some some great reversal where God breaks through in triumph either way scripture uses this phrase the day of the
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Lord And so here this judgment is coming. It's impending It is near it hastens quickly the noise of the day of the
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Lord is bitter there the mighty men shall cry out that day is a day of wrath a day of trouble and distress a day of Devastation and desolation a day of darkness and gloominess a day of clouds and thick darkness
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Does this sound a lot like the men being struck with blindness a? day of trumpets and alarm against the fortified cities against the high towers
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Notice verse 17 even more clear. I will bring distress upon men. They shall walk like blind men
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Because they've sinned against the Lord their blood will be poured out like dust their flesh like refuse
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Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's wrath The whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy
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And I've turned over to chapter 2 looking at verse 1 Gather yourselves together.
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Yes gather together Oh undesirable nation Before the decree is issued or the day passes like chaff
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Before the Lord's fierce anger comes upon you before the day of the Lord's anger comes upon you seek the
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Lord all you meek of the earth Who have upheld his justice seek righteousness? Seek humility it may be that you will be hidden in the day of the
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Lord's anger Boy, that sounds a lot like a lot doesn't it? It may be it may be that you will be spared though everything else is consumed
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And so the judgment is not well, I know where I am. I know I'm safe. I know I'm here in Capernaum I'm nothing like those sodomites
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You know that judgment language comes that fear and trembling comes and we what do we do?
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We seek righteousness in meekness. We we're seeking to be humble We're praying
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God spare us in that fierce day of your wrath verses 8 and 9
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I Have heard the reproach of Moab you remember Moab at the end of chapter 19 the insult of the people of Ammon Which they have reproached my people and made arrogant threats against their borders therefore as I live says the
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Lord of hosts the God of Israel surely Moab shall be like Sodom and the people of Ammon like Gomorrah overrun with weeds and salt pits a perpetual desolation
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Sodom never recovers Egypt never recovers
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Babylon never recovers Persian never recovers Rome never recovers but notice
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Turning out of Zephaniah 3. He's addressing Jerusalem now Again, if it hasn't broken in that God's metric of what constitute
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Sodomite resistance sodomite guilt that hasn't sunk in look at Zephaniah 3 Woe to her who is rebellious and polluted to the oppressing city
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She has not obeyed his voice. She has not received correction. She has not trusted in the
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Lord She has not drawn near to her God her princes in her midst are roaring lions Her judges are evening wolves that leave not a bone till morning
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Her prophets are insolent treacherous people her priests have polluted the sanctuary
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They've done violence to the law. The Lord is righteous in her midst. He will do no unrighteousness
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Every morning he brings his justice to light, but he never fails the unjust knows no shame.
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I Cannot imagine that Jerusalem had anything close to what we've been reading in Genesis 19
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But when the lamp is coming to Jerusalem This is what God is finding at every level of society
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Those who are seen as the most righteous the most likely to be preserved are actually the very ones that God has come to judge the prophets the priests the judges all those that walk around and they know the law and the
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Testimony and yet God is righteous and every morning. He's bringing his justice to light and what's
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Characteristically true whether you're in Capernaum whether you're here in Jerusalem in the days of Zephaniah In Sodom or in Hubbardston slash
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Barry in 2021 The unjust know no shame There's no shame
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How how are the meek going to plead for mercy in? Humility, there's a shame for the guilt for the complicity for the tentacles for the effects
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I was so moved the other week
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It was this audio clip of an interview with a pastor down in Florida and He was he was talking about this was like from last year was talking about how outraged outraged.
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He was at the state Was telling him how best to care for the con
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This is what you must do to care for the church And if you don't do this, you clearly just don't care about people and you're very selfish or you're worried about And he was saying how how dare you?
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No one cares about the congregation more than I do. He said I've been a pastor for 25 years.
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I've married them. I've buried them No one cares about the congregation more than I do
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And the last people on earth I need telling me how to care for them are the tentacles of a sodomizing baby destroying economy bankrupting behemoth
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It's the last people I need to give me advice It's so easy from that standpoint brothers and sisters when we see the depravity of Sodom around us
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We see that there's no shame to think that it's safe in Capernaum and to not allow that message to come to us
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To stiffen us to widen our eyes and if you're not doing that, then you're not listening.
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You're being complacent Judgment begins at the house of God Does this mean that we're under the threat of judgment in the same way that we relate to God as though we haven't drawn near For refuge in Christ.
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No, we draw to him as a father with the fear we have toward a father And so I have little girls.
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It's very illustrative to me When they do something wrong They do something that they haven't been taught from Scripture And I give them a fierce warning and they sit up straight especially little two -year -old
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Sophia her eyes get dark. Yes, dad. Yes, dad. Is that fear? That's That's what it looks like for a
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Christian. It's a fatherly reverential fear, but it's a fear It's not a dismissal.
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It's not some complacent wave of the hand. It's a fear. Yes Yes, Lord, these tentacles run deep.
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Yes, Lord. I'm complacent in all the wrong ways. I think I'm safe in Capernaum Lord So now we turn to Ezekiel 16 and here's
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I think where the cement hardens Ezekiel 16 beginning in verse 46
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Your elder sister is Samaria Who dwells with her daughters to the north of you your younger sister who dwells to the south of you is
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Sodom and her daughters Sodom's long past in the days of Ezekiel. He's he's now using this as imagery to depict
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God's people You did not walk in their ways Nor act according to their abominations
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Whoo, we didn't walk in their ways, of course not or nothing like those Sodomites whoo judgment averted
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But as If that were too little you became more corrupt than they in all your ways.
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Oh Wasn't going the way I thought it was Verse 48 as I live says the
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Lord God neither your sister Sodom nor her daughters have done as you and your daughters have done
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This is God saying that the God who wiped Sodom off the map is saying to his people
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The Sodomites never did what you've done look
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This was the iniquity of your sister Sodom verse 49. Oh Well, I haven't surrounded a house with foreigners and tried to press my way into some sort of gang rape
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No judgment for me. Wait, what is the sin of Sodom in Ezekiel?
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1649 look This was the iniquity of your sister
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Sodom She and her daughter had fullness of food abundance of idleness
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And she and her daughter had no strength in the hand of the poor and the needy And they were haughty and committed abomination before me
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Therefore I took them away as I saw fit. Do you notice what God is saying? There was a sin.
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There was a root underneath their most depraved Abominable acts and that root is very enlarged in you my people abundance what
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John calls the The pride of the eyes, the pride of life. Look at this, the abundance of idleness, just sloth, and then so selfish in that state of ease that there's no concern for the poor, for the broken, for the needy.
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You know, I spent the past two weeks in a James seminar and working on this sermon just came alive, when all of James 1 and 5 is almost exclusively devoted to the plight of the poor, and the hardened hearts of the rich, and the wealthy, and the abundant, and the church, frankly.
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He's going, you have a defiled religion, James, a defiled religion. It's not pure. You're saying, he's so selfish.
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Your heart doesn't break for the needy, and you've been given everything, and mourn and weep, is what
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James says in chapter 5. Weep. Weep for the destruction that's coming upon you. That's what
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James is saying to Christians. Whoa, I wonder what was going on in the first century in the church of Jerusalem.
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No, he's actually following pretty closely what God's prophets are always charging God's people with.
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So now we realize that Capernaum, Jerusalem, we're all complicit, and we're being searched by the lamp of God, and that this root sin is more abominable, more offensive in God's sight.
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This pride, this abundance, this selfishness, no concern for others, no matter where they are, or what they need.
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If you think that God's a bigger version of you, and the things that you hate in our society right now, and God's judgment is coming, you better fear
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God. God's judgment's coming, and it's always irrespective of you, right? You're just the vessel. God's judgment's coming, and it's in all these things that I hate, since my eyes have been opened.
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God's judgment is coming on all these things out there. You better be slow to hear what the prophets have to say.
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Throughout Scripture, Sodom is this great example of God's condemnation of the wicked, and you realize it's not just the wickedness of some peculiar sin that has become known as sodomy.
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It's actually the very things that we're complicit in, the very ways that we behave and act and often live.
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God's judgment comes upon that. Now, I realize this is a different tone than I normally preach.
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It's hard to balance these things out, isn't it? The man of God is preached to be ready in season and out of season, and I realize that we live in a time when sermons on judgment are either non -existent or Westboro Baptist sermons.
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We live in a time when we're not being anointed with the oil of the word of the
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Lord, but we're being anointed with maple syrup sentimentality. It's all fuzzy and sweet.
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He's unrelentingly patient, unrelentingly kind. With enough time, if you keep coming, you'll come around, and once you're in and you understand a few things, you're golden, and let's just come around and form a kumbaya circle, and we'll never have to think, speak, read, or hear about the judgment of God ever again.
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That was all back then. That was what we needed before we came to Christ, and now we've all moved on. Funny, that's not how the apostles ever addressed the church.
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We have these unconscious rhythms in our worship and in our Christian life. We gravitate toward things that are un -exhaustively positive and encouraging.
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We move away from those things that are actually fearful and difficult. No one likes the lamp to come into the dark corner of their life.
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Speaking of James, there was a worship song, and this is all, many of you probably sang this in days past, but there was a worship song drawn from James 4 .10,
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right? Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you, right? He'll exalt you higher and higher and higher.
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There's a rhythm to worship where we love things like that. We love the things that are uplifting and encouraging to the soul.
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We all want some life coaching. Life coaching, even in ardent Calvinist circles, standing on the pedigree of a reformed heritage, we still want some break, some relief.
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We don't really want to have to grapple with the judgment of God, especially if it's pointed toward ways and things in our lives.
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So that's why we have a worship song of humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you, rather than verse 8, which is cleanse your hands, you sinners.
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Purify your hearts, you double -minded. We don't sing songs like that. Maybe the
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Welsh do. The Welsh always have mournful hymns. But you see, this is what
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James is addressing the church with. He's saying, but I don't think you get it. Be wretched, mourn, and weep.
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Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. James, what are you talking about? We're not
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Sodom. We don't do anything like that. We hate those who even practice or even tolerate such things.
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But have you not read the scriptures? Are you in the judgment seat of God? Do you declare what is right and worthy of judgment and what is exonerated and what you can wink at?
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Or is God the judge? And this is where, brothers and sisters, we must remember that judgment is unavoidable for unrepentant sinners.
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And we're not talking about sinners who aren't here this morning, out there somewhere in the byways and alleys. We're talking about us.
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This is a truth in Scripture. Judgment is unavoidable for unrepentant sinners, which means there's only one possible response to the horror of God's judgment.
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It's to repent and be meek and be humble and pray that you might be saved from the judgment that is to come.
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Judgment is unavoidable for unrepentant sinners. That's what
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Jesus said. It will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.
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Judgment is unavoidable. So how do we respond? We have this fear of God, this reverential fear.
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We stiffen up, our eyes widen, we examine ourselves. Where is that pride? Where is that love of self?
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Where is that total disregard for anyone other than me and mine? What are those things that God says in our abomination in his sight that he hates?
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How is it that I'm held to a higher account than than those who haven't been given that light? Then how much more accountable am
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I to God's judgment? We have this reverential fear.
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I love what Jonathan Edwards says in his book Religious Affections. He kind of captures that. How does that reverence come in with love?
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It's not a free love as though any way I'm living is going to be acceptable before God. That's not what any of the biblical writers assume when they're writing.
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You can't just live how you want and trust that God's sweeping up and cleaning up after you and smiling the whole time. And any time you're actually feeling convicted, you just go, oh no, no, no, no,
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I don't have to worry about changing that. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus. It's not how this works. It's not how any of this works, to quote the commercial.
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And so there's this reverential fear, but then there's also this joy that when conviction has done its work, when we've been brought to our knees in repentance, when we say, that is me,
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Lord. My life is plagued and leprous with pride. I'm very selfish. I have,
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I have high disregard for those around me. I think myself automatically better of those who are worse off than me.
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I have little concern to intercede for the wicked, even those that are, that I like. Oh Lord, surely, surely
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I am liable to your judgment. And when that conviction begins to work and you move to repentance, create a new spirit within me,
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Lord. Give me a new heart. Cleanse my hands, Lord. I can't cleanse my hands. Cleanse my hands for me, Lord.
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You realize what Edwards is saying? He says a truly Christian love, either to God or to men, is a humble, broken -hearted love.
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It has to be that way, doesn't it? For this very reason, we're liable to the judgment of God. It has to be a broken -hearted love.
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I love you, Lord, but I'm ashamed. I love you, Lord, but I feel ashamed of how
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I often am before you, how I often am around others, and the things that I do, and the things that I don't do, and the ways that I think, and the ways that I don't think, and the ways
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I respond, and the ways I never respond. It's a humble, broken -hearted joy, knowing that justice must come.
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It keeps us humble. It keeps us broken -hearted. But then from that, we look to the cross and we say, yes, even so, my hope is found.
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Even so, there's a refuge for me. And so, unless this judgment comes to us and we work it out in repentance and self -examination, we'll never be able to appropriately approach the cross, and you'll never get to that humble, broken -hearted, fruitful, life -giving stream of true love for God.
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Jesus said, I've not come to call the righteous but sinners to repentance. All the prideful, they go down with Sodom.
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And speaking of John the Baptist, he says, bear fruit worthy of repentance. That's a statement
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James would hop all over, bear fruit worthy of repentance. If repentance is this glib thing that we assume, oh yeah,
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I repented. Yeah, I repented already. I repented when I became a Christian, rather than this ongoing life.
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As Martin Luther said, Christianity is a life of repentance. And part of that repentance is,
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Lord, your ways are not my ways. You are not me, and I am not you. There are things that you hate that I love.
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There are things that you say are abominable that I tolerate. I put all of the things that I think are the most guilty and judgment -worthy outside of me.
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And so help me by your Spirit, Lord, to see that which is judge -worthy within me. If there's such a thing as cheap grace, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer would call it, there's certainly such a thing as cheap repentance.
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And my fear is that there's many Christians who live a life of cheap repentance. They don't bear fruit worthy of repentance.
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They don't even have the buds on the branches. It's a token. It's a formula. It's a ritual for them.
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Oh yeah, I've repented of that long ago. Oh, oh really? So now you've seen the Lord work that out in your life, yeah?
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You've repented, so you've turned around, and the Spirit's giving you victory. Not perfectly, but you see some real changes in some of the real progress, and there's an impact and effect.
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There's been a 180 in your life. Oh no, no, no, no. I just mean I said sorry a long time ago. It's cheap.
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And those who exercise and live the Christian life by cheap repentance are those the prophets would say they're totally complacent.
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God will not do good. God will not do evil. Everything evens out in the end. The apostles know what we must know.
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It is good, it is good, it is good for God's people to stiffen up and widen their eyes and tremble before the fear of the
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Lord. He is a consuming fire. Unless you're walking in true repentance this morning, there is nothing left for you, but what
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Hebrews says, a certain, certain, fearful expectation of judgment.
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That word expectation, it's a participle, a looking for. Like what are you looking forward to?
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Judgment. It's certain for me because I'm not repentant, because I only have cheap repentance.
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I'm looking for, like those men in Sodom were weary, looking for the door to fulfill their lust.
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I'm looking for that judgment, that doom to come. That's what Hebrews is saying. It's certain, it's coming, just you wait.
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But as we come to a close, that image is so striking to me. And the very place where Jesus is addressing the cities being like Sodom and Gomorrah, the next paragraph in chapter 11, some of you ladies have been studying until the summer break in this book,
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Gentle and Lowly, that's Matthew 11. And you remember that, I hope by now, all ye who are weary, which we tend to think of as, oh, they're weary, trying so hard to be good.
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I really do want to be a Christian. I'm trying so hard. I know I wasn't really as patient as I should have been.
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I'll try harder, Jesus. Oh, are you weary? Come to me. I will give you rest. That's really not the image coming off the heels of Sodom, is it?
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Are you weary in your hardened blindness, searching intently to fulfill your lust, being discouraged and worn out in your resistance against God?
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Come to me, Jesus is saying. Come to me if you're weary like that. Come to me if you're hardened and blind. Come to me if you don't know how to repent.
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Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? First Corinthians 6, do not be deceived.
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Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites.
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It's right there in the text. Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, manipulators will inherit the kingdom of God.
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Don't be deceived. I want to remind you, brethren, don't be deceived. A man reaps what he sows.
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But you were washed. You were sanctified. You were justified in the name of the
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Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God. So outside of Christ, all there is,
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Hebrews 10, a certain fearful looking for judgment and fiery indignation.
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But in Christ, there's washing, there's cleansing, there is
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Colossians 1, hope of glory in Christ. And these are the two ways to live.
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Cheap repentance, self -delusion, complacency, on this path headlong, looking for a certain destruction, or living a life by faith in the
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Son of God, a life meekly in humility, working out salvation in fear and trembling as the
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Spirit convicts of those things which are truly hateful in God's sight. Not the things in Sodom, but the things in Capernaum.
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Not the things in New York City Square in a pride parade, but the things here on a Sunday morning and a
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Sunday afternoon. I close with these words from Jeff Thomas.
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I just love my favorite preacher, Jeff Thomas, and I can't resist just reading this as we close.
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We were Sodom. Thanks be to God, we found a righteous man, righteous in God's sight, as righteous as God Himself, and He will plead for us and represent us before God.
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He came to our Sodom and lived where sexual sin, violence, and pride is everywhere.
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That's where He came. He came to live the life we could not live and to bear the judgment that sinners must bear.
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God could not find ten righteous men among us, only one, but what a one.
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He came and stood before God as one of us. He gave His righteous life as the Lamb of God to take away our sin.
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He gives us His righteousness as a free gift. Its spotless robe covers all of our stains.
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God looks at those now joined by faith to Him, and He does not see us as citizens of Sodom, nor as residents of a groaning, fallen, rebellious world system that hates
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Him, but rather as citizens of heaven, as ones seated with Christ in the heavenly places, not clothed in the righteousness of Lot, stained, threadbare, not even in the righteousness of Abraham, our father in faith, who loved
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God and believed His Word, but in the righteousness of Jesus Christ, the one of whom the
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Father says, this is my beloved Son in whom I'm well pleased. Come away, you
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Sodomites, from your sins. That's so James -like. Come away from your sins, pent of your pride, your selfishness, being aloof and unconcerned for those around you.
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Come away from your self -delusion and your complacency. Come away from cheap repentance with no fruit and no change.
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Come away, you Sodomites, to this welcoming Savior who bids you to come, who calls you to come, who welcomes you to come, who pleads with you to come and trust in Him today.
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His blood can make the foulest clean. Come, you proud, self -righteous, cowardly religionists whose doom is certain, more certain than Sodom, more certain than Capernaum.
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Run from your good deeds. They're all mixed with sin. Find your only hope in Christ.
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Amen. Let's pray. I'm going to close us in prayer with a valley of vision prayer from Matthew Henry.
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Father, I need to repent of my repentance. I need my tears to be washed.
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I have no robe to bring to cover my sins, no loom to weave my own righteousness. I'm always standing clothed in filthy garments, but by grace
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I'm always receiving a change, for you always justify the ungodly.
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I always go into the far country. I always return as a prodigal, always saying,
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Father, forgive me. I've sinned against you. And yet you always come running, bringing forth the best robe.
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Every morning, let me wear it. Every evening, return in it. Let me go out in the day's work in it.
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Be married in it. In my death, be wound in it. Stand before the great white throne in it.
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Enter heaven in it, shining as the sun. Grant me never to lose the sight of the exceeding sinfulness of sin, the exceeding righteousness of salvation, the exceeding glory of Christ, the exceeding beauty of holiness, the exceeding wonder of grace.