Judgment Day Has Arrived Genesis 19:23-29

Eureka Baptist Church iconEureka Baptist Church

2 views

0 comments

00:13
One emphasis that I've made is we have been going through Genesis is that the
00:19
Bible is real history Every event that the Bible describes took place and these were written down For future generations to learn how
00:29
God interacts with his people and the world The Bible was written for us
00:35
And one question that may arise in our minds is that if these events did indeed take place
00:42
We would expect to see some evidence on planet Earth And we have seen
00:48
Over our sermon series through Genesis a few major world events We've already talked about how the world we live in Evidences that there was a global flood
01:00
One example of this would be that there are billions of dead things below the ground which we would call fossils
01:07
Another major historical event that we looked at was the Tower of Babel There are two documents outside of scripture from the region where this event took place that detail a deity who confused the language and These sources back up the biblical account that at one time the world had one language and God confused the language
01:26
To restrain mankind's sinfulness on earth Today we are going to see another major world event happen.
01:35
And this of course is the destruction of The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding region the text that we are going to look at Detail into detail today.
01:47
Is that fire came down from heaven and that there was a massive earthquake Archaeological archaeologists have found evidence for both of these near the region south of the
01:58
Dead Sea they have found evidence of houses burned and What what's interesting about the evidence of this is that there's actually
02:05
They can tell that the fire started on the robes of these houses Which which which actually points the fact that this fire came down from heaven
02:13
There's also evidence of a massive earthquake That took place in this region and what we'll see in the text today is that it wasn't just fire that came down from heaven
02:21
But it was also an earthquake So we can see the archaeological evidence that supports the reality of this event
02:29
But our confidence that this happened is not in the archaeological evidence
02:35
But rather that the Word of God says it occurred The Bible is trustworthy the
02:42
Bible is inspired by the Holy Spirit and without error and Everything that it says should be trusted
02:49
It has that authority over over the entire earth And this event is not recorded merely to tell us about a major Historical event in world history this is meant to have a tremendous impact on us as we read it
03:04
And so I hope you can feel the impact of this today This is telling us
03:11
That judgment came on this earth And this is one of the examples of the Lord's just judgment on this earth on a godless world
03:19
And as we saw last week this judgment that is coming on our world is certain So I encourage you to turn with me in a
03:27
Bible to Genesis chapter 19 We'll be looking at verses 13 through 29, and if you're using a red
03:33
Bible in the pews. It's on pages 16 and 17 This sermon is titled
03:39
Judgment day has arrived And what we're gonna see in our big idea in our proposition is that God's just judgment is
03:49
Fully felt in the valley region, and we're gonna see three parties that experience three different aspects of God's judgment
03:59
In the first aspect the first party that experiences this aspect of God's judgment is the wicked experience total destruction and We'll see this in verses 23 through 25
04:12
But before we get there and let me give you a little bit of a recap from last week last week
04:17
We looked at the rescue before the storm The angels were going to Sodom and Gomorrah to rescue lot before they brought judgment on this place
04:26
And the angels offered that lot could save his family This included his soon -to -be sons -in -law and when lot told his soon -to -be sons -in -law that the city was going to be destroyed
04:39
They thought he was joking And this was a grave mistake a grave sin
04:45
Because they would be a destroyed along with the wicked and the application that I made is that we see this today people mock the fact
04:56
That Jesus is coming back When Christians tell people Jesus is coming back people mock that but those who mock will be those who are swept away in judgment and Now what we saw with lot was that?
05:10
His response was not spectacular it was far from spectacular, but it was much better than his soon -to -be sons -in -law
05:18
He lingered in fear and even protested the escape route But he did believe the disaster was coming and he did obey by desiring to leave this place and the application for us was that God is
05:34
Merciful to us as he was mercifully committed to lot And as he had the same commitment to lot to spare him so he has the same commitment to spare followers of Jesus Christ and If you belong to him this commitment the
05:49
Lord has for you is forever Now let us focus on our text this morning before we jump in you might say this is really doom and gloom pastor
05:59
Seth Why don't we do something more cheerful today? It's Father's Day, isn't it? Well, we're just going right right along with the text here and it's impossible to preach this text and to be cheerful Okay, so you should not see me smile
06:13
Throughout this sermon. That's hard for me because I like to smile Okay, but this is this is a very gloomy text.
06:19
And so I just want to set the stage for that Nothing's beautiful about destruction But we can rejoice
06:26
That God everything that God does is right and so in that sense we can we can see the good in it
06:33
But this is a very serious text So as we as we jump in here to remind you where we are in the narrative
06:42
Lot and his family were outside the city and the angels agreed to give him time to get to the small town of Zor The town of Zor actually means small and once they arrived at Zor the angels would pour out destruction on Sodom and the
06:58
Surrounding region. So that's what we are here in verse 23 and we will see that lot has reached his destination
07:08
The Sun had risen on the earth when lot came to Zor And we'll stop right there
07:17
So a lot arrived in the small town in the valley and as a reminder this town called
07:22
Zor Was scheduled to be destroyed until a lot pleaded to the angels that they let them go there instead of the hills
07:30
Now this place destined to be destroyed came to be a safe zone And verse 23 tells us the time of day the
07:39
Sun had risen. So we know that this was the beginning of the day Genesis 19 one says that the angels had come to Sodom in the evening
07:49
It was the next morning that the urgently commanded lot to take his family and leave the region and it took a lot in his family a full day to reach
07:58
Zor and we know this because it was not until this morning described in verse 23 that destruction was coming upon this region and Now that lot and his family the righteous made it to Zor There was no reason for God to hold back his wrath on this place
08:20
And as we look at our world The Lord has withheld his wrath on planet earth for several reasons 2nd
08:29
Peter 3 9 tells us that the Lord is slow to pour out his just wrath
08:34
Because he is waiting for people to repent He's patient He's saying
08:40
I Will judge you. I It says the Lord is gracious and merciful abounding in steadfast love
08:48
But he will by no means clear the guilty to let the guilty go free would make
08:54
God unholy But we know that God is holy Act 1730 says that God calls all people everywhere to repent
09:05
When people wake up today they need to realize if I don't know Jesus I need to repent because this horror this destruction is coming upon me
09:14
And once the Lord is done saving the full number of people he plans to save then there will be no reason
09:20
To keep this world going as it is We have to remember that God Has this master plan for this world?
09:31
Once Adam and Eve fell into sin Long ago and the entire human race plunged into sin people needed to be saved in order to be reconciled to God and this plan of reconciliation between God and men took place when the
09:46
God -man Jesus Christ died as a substitute for sinners and God keeps this world going until the full number of the saved reaches its limit and Once that happens the end will come
10:02
God is not going to keep this sinful world going on forever And you might you might look
10:09
And see all the horrible things happening on this world. Like where is the Lord? Why is he not stepping in?
10:15
He's patient He's waiting for people to repent He's waiting and if you read the end of Revelation what you will see is
10:27
That it's a there's a place where people will be perfect The dwelling place of God will once again be with mankind
10:34
Revelation 21 3 describes it and the Holy God will be with his holy people
10:42
Now in Sodom and the surrounding region there was no one righteous there So the angels would now pour out the just judgment of God upon this place and we see this in verse 24
10:55
Then the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah Sulfur and fire from the
11:02
Lord out of heaven So the Lord destroys Sodom and Gomorrah by means of fire and sulfur
11:09
Coming from the heavens and this verse says that the fire came from the
11:15
Lord in our previous passage The two angels were sent by God to bring judgment on this place
11:21
So as God's agents it could be said that the Lord himself Destroyed this place by sending fire on it to burn it to a crisp and we see the extent of the destruction in verse 25 and He Overthrew those cities in all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground
11:46
We can see that this was a complete annihilation the mention of the overthrow of the cities highlights the massive earthquake that hit this place as I mentioned in the introduction and we see how
11:58
Devastating the destruction was the city of Sodom was destroyed. This is where a lot used to live
12:05
We see that the neighboring town of Gomorrah was annihilated the surrounding valley was destroyed
12:13
There may have been other small towns like Xor that met their end as well in verse 25 makes it clear
12:19
That every person in this region died Might say well,
12:26
I thought isn't God a loving God Yes, he is a loving God, but he's also a just God And we see that here
12:37
We know why these people met their end. These people had a reputation of being an especially wicked people
12:44
Genesis 13 13 says that the men of Sodom were wicked great sinners against the Lord Genesis 18 20 says that the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave
12:56
And the sins that were specifically highlighted in the last two chapters were sins of injustice
13:01
Against the weak there people were preying on the weak the sins of homosexuality and pedophilia and What Genesis makes clear is that these sins were against God?
13:15
We need to remember that every sin that you commit every sin that I commit every sin that everyone in this world commits is ultimately against a holy
13:24
God and Therefore God is going to judge each sin It's become popular in recent years to psych up to psychologize sins what this means is that sin is seen as a personal defeat where one does not reach his or her full potential and as a victim people people kind of victimize themselves and personal suffering and it is true that sin is a personal defeat and Keeps one from reaching their potential and sin does does lead to personal suffering
13:57
But what makes sin so horrible is that every sin is an offense against a holy
14:04
God? And what a holy God does is he brings just judgment upon the offenders?
14:11
So we need to remember that No one should look at Sodom and Gomorrah and say what the
14:18
Lord did was excessive The Lord was right and he is 100 % right in all of his judgments
14:25
Abraham said in Genesis 18 25 will not the judge of all the earth do right and the answer is yes
14:32
He will do right always does and the people in our world will experience the
14:38
Lord's judgment if repentance does not take place And there's so many people who have no idea the danger.
14:44
They're in as they wake up today The Lord's not going to keep this world going on forever
14:51
And the Bible makes it clear that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is intended as a warning for our world
14:59
And I say that on the authority of Scripture 2nd Peter 2 6 says that God By turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction
15:11
Making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly The Bible talks about several ways that God is going to show his judgment towards sinful humanity
15:24
And by the way This is besides the general judgment that that he delivers right now the world really is under judgment right now
15:30
But but here's some specific examples in the end in chapter 6 through 19 of Revelation. God's just wrath
15:36
Is being poured out on the ungodly of this earth and that's mentioned. That's a future event That's going to happen during the great final seven -year tribulation right before Jesus Christ returns
15:49
Another way that God is going to show his judgment towards sinful humanity is by destroying this present world 2nd
15:55
Peter 3 10 says that the day of the Lord will come like a thief and then the heavens will pass away with the Roar and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved and the earth and the works done on it will be exposed in Some ancient manuscripts actually say that the earth and the works done on it will be burned up So this place is going to be burned one day and The Lord is going to burn up this present world because of the wickedness done on it
16:20
What the Lord will do is create a new universe with a new earth that is holy clean and pure That's what we're working towards right now.
16:31
That's what history is working towards If you look at world history, it's just one tragedy after another
16:39
But those days will be in the past when the Lord sets everything right and What 2nd
16:45
Peter 2 6 has specifically in mind when it says that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is an example
16:50
It's a warning of what is going to happen to the ungodly what it specifically has in mind is the final judgment
16:57
The judgment that people will experience when they die in their sin 2nd
17:03
Peter 2 9 says that the Lord keeps the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment
17:09
And you might look at this verse and say well aren't unbelievers enjoying their life right now
17:16
And the answer is the answer is well Yeah, they are. I mean they are enjoying their life and God is gracious by the way in that sense
17:23
It's called God's common grace where he he lets you know The rain falls on people to see who causes the
17:29
Sun to rise He feeds people and all those things happen But it doesn't change the fact that he's he's going to judge those who reject him
17:38
He's going to judge those who stay in their sin And when 2nd Peter 2 9 says that they are being kept under punishment
17:44
What this means is that punishment has not yet been poured out, but it hangs over them
17:51
John 3 36 says that the wrath of God hangs over unbelievers The wrath of God the unbelievers will face the final judgment is to be thrown into the lake of fire forever
18:03
Forever We're a church that believes that hell is real
18:09
The Bible's never been wrong and the Bible makes it crystal clear that hell is real and there's people out there today
18:17
Who are false teachers who who say that it's not a real place There's people this very day who are dying and going to this place this place of torment
18:27
And we need to understand that Revelation 2015 says that if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life.
18:33
He was thrown into the lake of fire and you can tell a
18:38
Good way to tell if you're going to a true church or a false church is do they preach on hell? If you go to a church and they never talk about hell you have to wonder
18:47
Is this really biblical Christianity? Is this really a true church? You can tell
18:53
I'm passionate about that because there's a lot of churches out there that don't preach the truth So you can see the seriousness of this the
19:01
Lord judged Sodom and Gomorrah and he will do the same To anyone who remains an unbeliever to the end of their life
19:09
Let everyone in this room heed this warning You will stand before the Lord one day and if you die apart from Christ You will face the
19:16
Lord's just wrath much like Sodom and Gomorrah did But the beautiful reality thankfully we don't have to stop there
19:23
The beautiful reality is that anyone can be spared from this if they find their refuge in Jesus Christ And we will talk about the good news and the position of the righteous in our third point
19:34
But before we get that we'll go to the second point But to wrap up the first point here God's just judgment is fully felt in the valley region and the first aspect of God's just judgment is the wicked experience total destruction
19:48
The second aspect of God's just judgment is That one still in love with the world experiences doom one still in love with the world experiences doom in verse 26 but lots wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt
20:11
Okay, so we just saw Every inhabitant in this region perished when the Lord through the two angels sent fire from heaven to destroy this region for their wickedness now
20:22
We are going to see here the party that escaped to Zohar And of course that party that escaped to Zohar was lot his wife
20:32
His his two daughters and what we just read here is that lots wife looked back toward Sodom and Gomorrah toward the valley region and she turned in to a pillar of salt and The text says when it says that she turned into a pillar of salt
20:51
This means that her body became a statue of salt This was fitting because this was near the salt sea
20:59
So the Lord used a natural resource in this area to bring judgment upon lots wife the statue of this woman's body would be there to remind people of the great sin that lots wife committed and The people who passed by would be warned not to do the same one of the reasons lots wife look looking back is significant is because the angels told lot and his family not to look back as They ran away from the coming destruction
21:27
They were to keep their eyes on the goal and not to be distracted by looking back The text
21:33
I read this morning from Proverbs 4 remember it said don't look to the right or to the left Keep your eyes forward.
21:39
There's so many ways we can be distracted. Keep your eyes looking forward And she looked back
21:46
But why the severe punishment of being turned into a pillar of salt Disobeying the word of the
21:52
Lord was bad enough But there seems to be more going on than that and we see two clues in this verse that reveal lots wife's heart number one is that she legged behind and number two is that she looked back at the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah that were be destroyed by fire and Looking back is more than just disobeying the angels command of verse 17
22:17
The author Moses included these details in this narrative for a reason You don't get the impression that lots wife leg behind because she was slower than the rest
22:27
That may have been true, but it's not why it's included here The author
22:33
Moses inspired by the Holy Spirit includes these details to show us that lots wife was still in love
22:40
With Sodom and Gomorrah. She was still in love with these sinful worldly cities in The Gospels Jesus told us of lots wife as a negative example in Luke 17
22:53
Jesus talks about his return to the earth and what he says in Luke 17 32 is to remember lots wife
23:01
He tells us to remember lots wife's poor example because those who love the world will meet
23:07
God's judgment And I say that because in the following verse in Luke 1733
23:13
Jesus said that whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it But whoever loses his life will keep it and what
23:20
Jesus means by that is that those who seek to? Preserve their life in this world
23:27
So holy on to the things of this world Those are the people who are gonna lose it and those who give their lives fully to him are those who are the ones who?
23:35
are going to live forever with him and Lots wife met God's judgment by being turned into a pillar of salt in Anyone who loves this world more than God shows themselves to be an unbeliever and they will meet
23:48
God's eternal punishment Now one question we need to ask is can believers be those who love the world more than God a?
24:00
true believer Cannot be characterized this way Ultimately they love the
24:06
Lord more than they love the world But can believers love the world more than they love
24:12
God at times Can believers wrestle with worldliness with the sin of the world and the answer is yes
24:21
They can yes, we can I Think that lots wife is an actual believer who showed herself to love the world at times and it showed here
24:32
Part of her heart struggle was shown here The sinfulness of the world had a pull on her
24:39
But she appears to be one who loved the Lord more than the world since she was counted among the righteous
24:47
But because the strong pull the world had on her lots wife experienced
24:52
God's judgment in a temporal sense But not an eternal sense.
24:58
Okay, so my so she was Frozen into a pillar of salt here a layer of salt a statue of salt over her
25:06
But she would have passed into the presence of God safely. That's my interpretation of this and the
25:13
Lord's goal in your life is to sanctify you to pull you from the world and to make you into a holier -godlier person
25:22
Loving the world is a major problem among Christians today And I see
25:27
I see this I see this in my own heart and I see this in other believers I think there are many
25:33
Christians out there who genuinely are saved But the world still has a strong pull on them and what
25:39
Scripture means by the world is the sinfulness of it The temptations that are out there to be drawn away from God the sinful things that our world loves, but God hates
25:49
And one question we need to ask ourselves is does the world have a pull on us? Ask yourself this question today first John 2 15 says do not love the world or the things in the world if Anyone loves the world the love of the
26:04
Father is not in him for all that is in the world The desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and the pride of life is not from the father
26:12
But it's from the world in verse 17 tells us that it is so Dangerous to fall in love with the world as it says the world is passing away
26:22
Along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides Forever.
26:28
So what should be happening in your life as a Christian? Is that you should be gradually pulled further and further from the world?
26:35
You should feel like an alien here. You should be like a stranger. You should feel like I don't fit in And though and you should feel like the people
26:42
I fit in with are those who are also be pulled away That's that's one thing. I enjoy about spending time with Christians is that we you you get it
26:50
You're not in love with the world and you and it's awkward when you're in a worldly environment So what are some worldly temptations that we might have?
27:00
Do you love your property more than God? Do you love your home more than God? Do you love money more than God?
27:07
Do you love? Your favorite drink more than God. Do you love your job and more than God? Do you love your hobbies more than God?
27:15
Are you in love with worldly music that dishonors Christ? Are you in love with a worldly TV show that dishonors the
27:20
Lord or a worldly movie that dishonors the Lord? And I need to stress this we know that property is good in itself
27:29
But treasuring above God is worldliness. We know that a home is good But treasuring that more than God is worldliness.
27:37
We know that food is good But finding joy in that more than God is sin We know that enjoyable drinks are good, but treasuring it more than God is sin.
27:46
We know that work is good But living for your job is sin. We know that hobbies are good, but living for those is sin
27:52
We know that music is good. We sing them every Sunday morning, but there's music we should avoid that Very much dishonors the
28:00
Lord And we know that movies and TV shows are not bad in themselves or there had there have been it might be hard to remember this
28:10
But there's been times where there's actually some good TV shows out there that we okay to watch and some movies And today it's very very hard to find one.
28:18
It's like finding a needle in a haystack Worldliness is a problem among Christians My wife and I have some dear dear friends of ours who got married a number of years ago
28:30
And we went to their wedding and and the ceremony was very honoring to the Lord we we we felt like that the
28:37
Lord is present here and the Lord was honored and it was beautiful and and then
28:43
The ceremony was over and the reception happened and you wouldn't even know you were at a
28:49
Christian wedding The music that was played the amount of alcohol that was drank
28:55
And now it's drinking alcohol in itself is not sin, but drinking too much of it is and this is we were
29:04
I was outraged as I saw it because It did not look like a
29:09
Christian wedding Once once the reception happened and it really undid the ceremony because people are gonna think well, you know what?
29:16
They're just like us. They listen to the same music. We listen to They do the same thing as we do
29:22
They don't have self -control like I don't have self -control And it was troubling to see that people pursue worldly things
29:31
Because it makes them feel good for a time and every one of us has Spent time with worldly things if we're honest and every one of us sins by giving in to worldliness because we find pleasure in it
29:42
But worldly things are passing away the Titanic sink in 1912 and this was a ship that everybody loved it was they called it the unsinkable ship and It hit an iceberg and in this massive
30:00
Titanic ship sank Being in love with the world is like being in love with the
30:06
Titanic you're in love with something that is passing away You're in love with something that is sinking because there's a day coming when all of this will be history
30:16
Do not be like lots wife and dream about the world and be tempted to miss it as you follow Jesus sometimes you hear a testimony of someone who came to Christ and it sounds like they miss their old life
30:27
We should we should we should talk about our old life in Regret I wish
30:33
I didn't do those things not as if those were good times Not to say that everything was bad when you were when you were unbeliever but we should have this regret of the sins that we committed and The path of following Jesus is so much more joyful than following after the world worldly things might satisfy you for a short period
30:50
But at the end of the day, they will leave you feeling empty But following Jesus will satisfy you forever
30:56
Psalm 1611 says that in your presence There's fullness of joy at your right hand or pleasures forevermore.
31:02
You'll see that on the sign when you walk in into the church building That's why we have it there. We want it.
31:08
I want everybody to know that the path of following Jesus is The only joyful path it is the only path that leads to fullness of joy
31:17
So God's just judgment is fully felt in the valley region and the second aspect of God's just judgment was that one still in love?
31:24
of the world experiences doom And the third and final aspect of God's just judgment is that the righteous?
31:33
experienced pardon The righteous experience pardon and this is where the good news comes in We'll see this in verses 27 through 29.
31:42
So we just saw the destruction of the valley region We just saw the judgment that came upon lots wife and now in verses 27 and 28 we'll see the positive here and Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the
31:56
Lord and he looked down Towards Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley and he looked and behold the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace
32:08
About a month ago. We saw Abraham plead with the Lord that the righteous be spared from the coming destruction and they looked out
32:15
From a high place and you can see the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah in the valley region From a distance on a clear day remember that picture
32:23
I gave of driving on High are driving on G and you can see across the valley into,
32:29
Minnesota And so that's where they were looking out from and that's where Abraham is standing here as he looks down Over this valley region and he said he sees the aftermath.
32:37
He sees the smoke going up Imagine people at Mount St. Helens in Washington State when that mountain that volcano blew several decades ago the people who looked on it at a distance could see the smoke and smoke go up and up and And the reason that Abraham is brought into this picture is to remind us of his influence in rescuing lot verse 29 explains this
33:03
So it was so it was that when God Destroyed the cities of the valley God remembered
33:09
Abraham and sent a lot out of the midst of the overthrow When he overthrew the cities in which in which lot had lived
33:17
One of the main reasons why God spared lot in his family is because Abraham interceded for them
33:23
Abraham is influential in the salvation of the nations. Remember Abraham is an Israelite.
33:28
He's the first Israelite but God said in Genesis 12 3 that through this man all the nations of the earth will be blessed
33:37
And that includes Sodom and Gomorrah Sodom and Gomorrah represent the nations and so Abraham was allowed to intercede on behalf of the nations and The Lord's way of saving the righteous lot in his family was through granting
33:51
Abraham's intercession as he pleaded on their behalf And they were spared from the coming destruction
33:58
And I mentioned at the end of point one that the beautiful realities of the Lord does spare the righteous from his just wrath
34:05
He spares those who find refuge in him The Lord is willing and ready to forgive those who repent and believe in Jesus Christ And the most important thing you can do in your life is to ally yourself with Jesus Because when you ally yourself with Jesus God is for you
34:25
He is for you and we all know That life goes by fast
34:31
It's a small window and I know some of you are Further along in life than I am and you can tell me and another other of us who aren't as old how fast life goes by It's a small window and when you go to a graveyard, it's always sobering because they were just like us they lived their lives just like we did and now they're gone and One thing we you must do in this window of time that you live in is
34:57
Make sure that you know, Jesus Christ is your Lord Savior and treasure And I know that many of you in this room have trusted in Christ And the beautiful reality of is that you will never experience
35:09
God's just judgment But you will only experience the joy of being in a forever relationship with God The one for whom you were created you were created to know
35:21
God you were created to be in that intimate relationship with him And my prayer is that this very day you would believe in Christ For those who do not know
35:29
Christ here that you would believe in Christ for the forgiveness of your sins that you would believe That he paid the just judgment for you so that you will never have to And if you're listening and I know we're on Facebook live if you can hear us on Facebook live
35:43
Believe in Christ and be saved So God's just judgment is fully felt in the
35:48
Valley region and the third aspect of God's just judgment is the righteous experience
35:54
Pardon, and so to summarize we've seen three parties today We've seen three parties
36:00
God's just judgment was fully felt by each of them some of them in a bad way
36:05
Some of them in a good way one the wicked experience total destruction one still in love with the world experienced temporal judgment as As she was turned into a pillar of salt and the righteous experienced pardon
36:18
At Eureka, we teach these two realities that God will judge the wicked and spare the righteous
36:24
God upholds his righteous character in doing both. He's glorified in both In Exodus 34 6 & 7
36:34
God says this of themselves is the Lord the Lord a God merciful and gracious slow to anger and abounding and steadfast love and faithfulness keeping steadfast love for thousands forgiving iniquity and Transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty
36:50
We should rejoice that we worship such an amazing God a God who always does everything, right?
37:00
And he does us right by sending Jesus to die in our place to consider that a just payment
37:08
So that we don't have to we don't have to pay the penalty for all the sins We have ever committed at one point.
37:15
I want to save is it before we I close right here is When God judges the wicked it's not as though He's throwing a party like he like he he doesn't take pleasure in doing it
37:29
But he doesn't regret doing it either He's right in doing it. There's a passage in the
37:34
Old Testament It's not coming to my mind right now, but it says he takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked
37:39
I think it's an Ezekiel Someone can look that up later, but it takes no pleasure in the destruction of the wicked
37:45
He he passes over these people in sorrow when he destroys them Okay, so we must remember that and one of these we do is we need to understand who the
37:56
Lord is so important So let us praise the Lord for his greatness and be forever grateful that in Christ We are graciously spared and brought near to him now next week
38:07
We will leave the story of Sodom and Gomorrah behind we spent several weeks on this and next week We will look at the bizarre story of lot and his daughters.
38:16
And so I hope to see you back next week. Let's pray father in heaven we do praise you for your just judgment
38:27
Lord we should not look at this and say that your judgment was excessive. You are a just God Lord and You show your justice in two ways the cross of Jesus Christ you poured out your holy wrath upon your son so that we don't have to and you show your justice in in Examples like Sodom and Gomorrah and by there being a hell
38:50
Everybody's sins need to be paid for in one of two places either at the cross or in hell You are a just God you are a holy
38:58
God and everything you do is right And I pray that people would understand that Lord. This is what the
39:04
Bible says about you The Bible says that this is who you are and you are the greatest being there is and so we worship you
39:13
For that and thank you Lord that you loved us enough to send Jesus to die in our place so that we can forever
39:22
Have a relationship with you in a perfect place that you are preparing for your people in Jesus name.