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welcome to Sunday school um so for the past two weeks we’ve been looking at this new series Patriarchs of the promise and this is our third lesson of the series and today we’ll be looking at Sodom and gomorra so I’m excited to be teaching today’s lesson and for those who don’t know me my name is Ian and maybe just to start right so when I mentioned the two cities of Sodom and gomorra what is one the first thing that comes to your mind when someone talks about these two cities death yeah wickedness anything else CH salt yeah pillow of salt right so all these things are like connected to judgment by God for sin right and in fact Sodom and gomorra are referen multiple times throughout the Bible uh both in the New Testament and Old Testament so here I included two verses one from the book of Isaiah um so this is from the Old Testament and one verse from the go from the Gospel of Luke that’s from the New Testament but the point is that this are two Infamous cities judged for their wickedness and the Bible referenced them multiple times for that reason right and uh This was meant for the instruction of people from Israel but the passages are also relevant for us as well so let’s pay attention to uh both Genesis 18 and 19 in uh today’s study and before we begin let me pray for us father thank you for your word thank you for um the wisdom that’s found in your word help us to understand more about who you are your character your Justice your mercy your faithfulness as we dive into your word Lord we give us uh illumination through your spirit to understand it correctly and apply it in our own lives so I pray all this in Christ’s name amen all right so uh this will be the outline of today’s lesson first I’ll give some introduction to today’s lesson some background that might be helpful as we look at the two passages today and then I’ll move on to look at the first passage of the day which is Genesis 18: 1-33 uh so there are many events that happen in uh chapter 18 but one main thing that happened was when Abraham pleaded for Sodom so God was intending to destroy Sodom and because his nephew slot was reiding in Sodom Abra Abraham was pleading to God to spare Sodom for uh his sake and then we’ll look at Genesis 19 as well and here we see the account of the angel sent by God to rescue Lord from uh Sodom that was about to be destroyed so when looking at these two passages we hope to follow the inductive Bible study method that was uh done in the previous two lessons as well so we look at some observations and then do interpretation followed by application so first let’s start with the introduction so let’s try to connect what we’re going to look at today with uh what we saw previously so in the past two lessons we saw the life of Abraham and in last week’s lesson hos walked us through the relationship that Abraham had with lot right so we saw how Abraham rescued lot from the Kings when they took him captive and in last week’s lesson we saw how um there was this conflict between the Hersman of Abraham and the Hersman of lot right so they they had hers both in the same land and the land could not sustain both their herds so in order to resolve this conflict what Abraham did was to offer lot The Pick of the territory and as a result lot chose the fertile Valley and travel east towards Sodom whereas Abraham headed west towards Canaan and settled near the land um where there were there were The Oaks of mamre who was an ally of Abraham so here we see Sodom the city of Sodom being referenced and today we will look um more into this particular City and even back then in Genesis 14 the city of Sodom was referred to as a city of wickedness so it was known that the people there practice wickedness and in today’s lesson we’ll see more about um the wickedness that was uh happening there and one other thing is that today’s lesson is slightly out of chronology so last week we ended in Genesis 14 whereas now we’ll be starting off in Genesis 18 and the point is that we want to keep our focus on the relationship between lot and Abraham and yes Abraham not Abram so last week we were talking about this character known as Abram and here in this week’s lesson there is a name change so the character is now referred to as Abraham and this will be discussed in next week’s lesson so in an earlier chapter God changed the name of Abraham to Abraham so just to make it clear whenever we’re talking about Abraham in this week’s lesson we are talking about the same character Abram so a little bit of geography uh we know that Sodom is located somewhere around the region of the Dead Sea so uh in this picture that I have on the on the right the white region is where the Dead Sea is located right and um one interesting question that one could ask is is there evidence for the this historical event and the reason why I asked this question is not to say we that we need external evidence to validate the Bible we do we do not right the Bible is God’s word inspired by the holy spirit so whatever it says is true and we can believe it but it would be interesting to see if there is external evidence that corroborates with what we see in the pages of scripture and so one fun fact is that between the years of 1973 and 19 79 two archaeologist located the remains of five cities in the southeast of the Dead Sea so uh the bottom right of that page right and so the ruins and and the debris of these cities seem to be consistent with what we expect from uh the five cities in Genesis 14 so I guess they are speculating if these could be the five cities of the valley that we read about last week in um gen 14 and more specifically I guess we can ask the question if Sodom has been found so this Infamous City and um the current um understanding from based on archaeology archaeological findings is that there are two competing candidates one on the Northeast region of the Dead Sea and one on the Southeast so these are the two points circled in red on on this map so this is just interesting that there is uh some evidence that corroborates with what we find in in scripture and if we are challenged for what we believe in our faith uh we can look at what people are finding now in with modern science and say that yeah the the Bible can be corroborated and we can have faith in what is mentioned in in scripture okay so that’s just a fun fact but so um when studying scripture um God’s character is often emphasized right and I think in this particular passage um it’s the justice of God being emphasized in our study today and particularly because of how God treats sin his um hatred of sin and his punishment of sin but before we can understand and see the justice of God being played out in our passage today we have to first have a definition of what Justice is right so uh does anyone have an understanding of what Justice is so if someone ask you what is Justice what would you say yeah the punishment of okay so there has be some sort of crime being committed and there’s a corresponding punishment but if I ask you about what perfect Justice is what would you say oh so God is The Giver of right and wrong he is the creator of right and wrong uh the Arbiter of right and wrong so uh he is the executor of that and he is the only one who can execute perfect justice meaning um the the blessing of of the right and the cursing of the wrong I think um in the Old Testament you see righteousness and Justice as practically synonymous so Justice would be the expression of God’s righteousness right GLA and you know um if you ask for really perfect Justice and God give us perfect Justice all of us will go to hell right but he give us Mercy you know to save us from going to hell yeah thank you Authur do you want to say something yeah I think one thing not to forget about Justice is that God cre treats everyone the same way and that’s one of the problems we have in in our world is that um people are not treated equally um I think one way of thinking of Justice when we talk about treating everyone the same way is that um what was already stated that is in spite of the fact that we all deserve to to um I guess to come under God’s Wrath yet God gives us all the opportunity to escape that wrath through his son so it’s you see that that equality especially when you study uh books like the Leviticus Ah that’s a difficult book to go through but you see God’s justice right thank you brother yeah thank you yeah and you all brought up very good points about uh what Justice is and here I include like a working definition of Justice and Justice is the application of the appropriate punishment for crime and this is what God does right so if there is sin to be punished he treats it as Sin and he punishes punishes it appropriately whether or not the one who committed the sin is punished is a is a different matter so if those who of us who are in Christ Christ takes the sin of uh of of his people and here I say appropriate punishment meaning that um for a crime they not ever punish more than uh the crime um than than than a crime it um requires right so yeah that’s perfect Justice and also in today’s passage there are other attributes of God that are being emphasized such as his faithfulness his Mercy as some of you pointed out uh omniscience omnipotence and just to contrast uh justice with Mercy I have here a definition of what Mercy is right so Mercy is when you deserve punishment for your sin but the punishment is withheld as some of you have brought up right rightly brought up right so we’re going to see how these two um attributes of God are being described and explained to us in today’s passage so with that let’s move on to our first passage of the day from Genesis 18 verse 1-33 so as I said there are many things going on in uh this chapter but the one main thing that we will look at is how Abraham pleads for Sodom so following the inductive Bible study method uh we’ll start off with some observations we have of the text so uh I don’t intend to read every single verse in this chapter but as we go along uh I will flash some relevant verses on the slides so uh keep your Bibles open and just track with me as as we go so uh at the beginning of chapter 18 uh we find that there are three men that appears to Abraham who was uh at the tent right and we see um Abraham extending a tremendous hospit Hospitality to this threee men and and I will read starting at verse one of chapter 18 now the Lord appeared to him by The Oaks of mam while he was sitting by at the tent Door In the Heat of the day when he lifted up his eyes and looked behold three men were standing opposite him and when he saw them he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the Earth and said my Lord if now I have found favor in your sight please do not pass your servant by please let a little water be brought and wash your feet and rest yourself under the tree and I will bring a piece of bread that you may refresh yourselves after that you may go on since you have visited your servant and they said so do as you have said so Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah and said quickly prepare three measures of flour knead it and make bread cakes Abraham also ran to the herd and took a tender and choice cough and gave it to the servant and he hurried to prepare it he took currs and milk and the cough which he has prepared and placed it before them and he was standing by them under the tree as they ate so I’ll stop here for now and see we can see the tremendous Hospitality that Abraham extended to these three men we know that people in that culture were tended to be extremely generous to their visitors because of their semi nomadic culture but even then I think what we see in Abraham’s Behavior went above and beyond what was expected of that culture right this man Abraham was 100 years old at the time right and here in the the the start of this chapter we see that he runs towards his visitors and gives them prepares A Feast for them he offers to wash their feet and gives them water to drink so this was extreme hospitality and is expected and it it’s consistent with someone who knew the Lord right so he had change character which was different from what we’re going to see from the people of Sodom in the next chapter and one interesting thing about these three men is that they were not Mere Men right so one man is identified as the Lord himself or Yahweh and the other two men are angels and let’s look at some relevant passages to basically prove this point so the one of the verses that I listed here is uh Genesis 18:13 um and he says and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah love right so one of the men here is is later on referred to as the Lord or Yahweh so God himself appears to Abraham and the other two men are referred to as angels in the first verse of chapter 19 so we’ll go into that in in next passage but these men were not uh Mere Men so um and the next thing we see in this chapter is the a promise being affirmed to Abraham and I shall read that so this is starting at verse 9 then they said to him where is Sarah your wife and he said there in the tent he said I will surely return to you at this time next year and behold Sarah your wife will have a son and Sarah was listening at the T door which was behind him now Abraham and Sarah were all advanc in age Sarah was past childbearing Sarah laughed to herself saying after I have become old shall I have pleasure my Lord being old also and the Lord said to Abraham why did Sarah laugh saying shall I indeed bear a child when I am so old is anything too difficult for the Lord at the appointed time I will return to you at this time next year and Sarah will have a son Sarah denied it however saying I did not laugh for she was afraid and he said no but you did love so God’s promise was affirmed to Abraham at this time but so what exactly was the promise that was affirmed GL he would have a son right and um so the promise is that Abraham will have son previously This Promise was mentioned to Abraham do do we know which chapter was this promise right so like in chapter 15 in chapter 17 This Promise was U given to Abraham right and now it’s reiterated to Abraham and I think this is a a demonstration of God’s faithfulness he knows that we are weak and by his grace he affirms the pro reaffirms the promises that he has given to us right he doesn’t um he often doesn’t give it to us once even though he has no obligation to to do so right he repeats his promise to Abraham and to basically teach Abraham that he’s a God who keeps his word and whatever he says he will do he will bring to pass eventually if you continue reading in the Book of Genesis Abraham has a son so God is true to his word even though Abraham was of age and Sarah was 90 years old Abraham was 100 but God still did the impossible it was an act of God so here I includeed this verse right to uh verse 10 I will surely return to you at this time next year and behold your Sarah your wife will have a son and Sarah was listening at the T door which was behind him so Sarah wasn’t with the men the three men while they were having this conversation with Abraham she was listening by the T door but she overheard this uh conversation that they had and we see next that Sarah laughs about the promise right so she wasn’t with them she laughed about the promise yet the Lord knew right so this is another sign this evidence that this man one of the men who was with them was not any mere man he wasn’t physically present with Sarah yet he knew so this is a demonstration of the omniscience of God all God being all knowing right he knows everything that happens in the universe and therefore like we talked about in our previous study trusting God therefore we can trust him right so God knows all things God can do all things and he would work all things for our good and for his glory so people like us who are in Christ can have full confidence in our God and act accordingly so right so this this is uh Genesis 18 verse vers 1 to 15 but now let’s look at the second Oher you have let me go back to Genesis 18 mhm um when Abraham saw the men coming did he know exactly who they were or it was after a while he recognized oh God put him in who these men were so but when he saw them coming it was just because of hospitality that they thing that he entertained them so well or when he saw them coming coming to him they looked as just be men MH but is it after a while God reveal to him who they were because you said Yahweh um appeared to him so is it at first sight he knew they were or not or after he keep coming to them God reveal that to him no thank you for your question in fact we’re going to cover that when we go into the interpretation stuff so hold that thought for a bit okay so uh yeah before we go into that step let’s look at the rest of chapter 18 so this is from uh vers 16-33 so uh after the meeting of Abraham with these three men they moved toward Sodom with uh Abraham following behind to send them off and we see this interesting uh conversation that the Lord has with the angels and Abraham was with them so um the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do since Abraham will surely become a great and mighty nation and in him all the nations of the earth will be blessed for I have chosen him so that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and Justice so that the Lord may bring upon Abraham what he has spoken about him and if you look at the text you see that Abraham was with the Lord during this entire time and yet the Lord says spoke in this manner so he clearly did not have the intention to hide what he was going to do from Abraham right in fact in fact in Isaiah 41:8 Abraham is referred to as a friend of God so what God was doing here was to to speak in a way uh that was is instructive for Abraham and also for us right um the Lord does not hide um his will from from his people and in fact we have his perfect Revelation here before us in in written form and yeah so this is one interesting observation and the Lord tells Abraham that he was going to observe Sodom and what he was going to observe was uh due to the outcry of solom Gomorrah that was uh before him so the Lord said in uh from verses 20 21 the outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great and their sin is exceedingly grave I will go down now and see if they have done entirely according to its outcry which has come to me and if not I will know so this is another interesting thing that the Lord uh says and here the outcry I think is very similar to what we see in uh Genesis four with Cain and Abel right so Cain and Abel were uh two brothers and Cain murdered Abel and in chapter 4 we see that the Cry of the blood of Abel was going to the Lord right so this in a similar way there’s a cry due to sin being committed and this uh demands God’s justice so that’s what we see here as well we’ll look at more details as we go into the interpretation step as well so the next uh thing we see is that Abraham pleads with God and I think this is very uh interesting part of uh this chapter and in fact this is the the title that we we have here as well so in I’ll read um so this is um starting at verse 23 Abraham came near and said will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city so this is the city of Sodom will you indeed sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous who are in it far be it from you to do such a thing to slay the righteous with the wicked so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike far be it from you shall not the judge of all the Earth deal justly so the Lord said if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city then I will spare the whole place on their account and Abraham replied Now Behold I have ventured to speak to the Lord although I am but dust and Ashes suppose the 50 righteous are lacking five will you destroy the whole city because of five and he said I will not destroy the city if I find 45 there he spoke to him again and said suppose 40 are found there and he said I will not do it on account of 40 and then he said oh may the Lord not be angry and I shall speak suppose 30 are found there and he said I will not do it if I find 30 there and he said behold I have ventured to speak to the Lord suppose 20 are found there and he said I will not destroy it on account of 20 then he said oh may the Lord not be angry and I shall speak only this one suppose 10 are found there and he said I will not destroy it on account of 10 so we see this interesting plee that that Abraham had with with the Lord so he went from which you spare the city for for 50 righteous people and the Lord say yes I would spare it if there are if I can find 50 righteous in Sodom and Abraham keeps going so here I have the verse where he asks if the Lord will spare the city for 20 righteous but the Abraham goes as low as 10 and the Lord say I will spare the city for 10 right so we here here here we see the perfect justice of of God being displayed right the Lord is not someone who destroys the righteous he will not destroy the righteous on behalf together the wicked and this is exactly what Abraham knew we will look more about this in the next slide as well so here you see that Abraham’s petition to the Lord was do this on account of your character right so will you slay the righteous together of the wicked because Abraham knew that the lot would not right he knew the character of God and here is the famous uh statement shall not the judge of all the Earth deal justly and it’s a rhetorical question right because Abraham knew the answer and the the answer is that the Lord will right so this is um Genesis Chapter 18 and we’ve made some interesting observations but I want to pause you at this moment to see if you have any observations that are not listed here on the slide yeah Glenda okay who do you think that the plead Abraham was really pleading for right so uh I think definitely um he knew that lot was residing in in the in the city right so he was pleading for the city of Sodom but mostly because he knew that someone he loved was was there yeah sh cherl so I think that’s an interesting a good question because I mean he could easily have said would you please just spare lot and my family but he didn’t right and I think it’s a good example of um how righteousness um pres not preserves wickedness but righteousness is light and you know it even talks about in uh 1 Corinthians 7 where a uh in a marriage a Godly wife makes her family um Sanctified and and so I just find it like here’s Abraham acting as an intercessor for sinful people it wasn’t just just the ones I love you’re right definitely thank you um a yeah um because we’re because we’re talking about Justice um and we’re talking about Sodom and gomorra this is one area that I always have the view sham on a lot of P PS because they don’t help people to truly understand what’s Happening Here If we go back a few pages and those few pages may end up being 10 15 20 years we have to remember that Abraham rescues lot when um the same time we know that there were several kings that um went against Sodom and took all the captives of of Sodom and ABR Abram at that time he rescues lot and um so all the all the property whatever was taken from Sodom was brought back um I always Tau that that’s an indication that before God passed judgment on Sodom and gomorra he showed the mercy at that point by having that intervention where the um um the the armies overtook them when Abraham delivered lot um God was giving Sodom another chance and then it’s interesting that this time even though Abraham intervened Sodom could not be saved right yeah thank you yeah I think we have one time for one more question yeah one more comment one more um as much as Abram Abraham is interceding for lot and for the people of Sodom I see an aspect of beautiful praise and worship because Abram Abraham is really uh making rhetorical statements or asking rhetorical questions that God will not slay the just with the wicked he knows who God is he knows his truth right yeah thank you right so the first question that glender asked as well right did Abraham know the true identities of this man so what would you say anyone oh I I think the hello oh yeah I I think the verse that reveals Abraham’s posture is that we read um when Abraham saw them he didn’t an interesting thing he bowed down and um even though we know there were two angels the Lord was with them anytime a human being encounters an angel if they show that kind of posture they immediately um correct them because they know only God deserves that type of gesture yeah yeah just good observation I I think Abraham eventually knew that it was a lot that he was talking to especially with the uh reaffirmation of the promise because clearly only the LW knew about the promise that he made with Abraham besides those who were in Abraham’s household right but I don’t think there is a clear indication that uh from the very start Abraham knew who he was actually talking to he showed extreme respect to his distinguished guests and show extreme Hospitality as well but I don’t think there is a clear indication that he necessarily knew that it was God himself that he was speaking to but eventually I would say so because uh the promise that the Lord made earlier to Abraham was reaffirmed to him and the way he spoke about Sarah laughing as well it showed the omniscience of God all right so then then the followup question would be we know that Abraham seen the Lord right and in other parts of scripture we see that God saying that you cannot see my face for no man can see me and live right so how did Abraham how could Abraham see God and yet live not as came as a man cuz that theophany you know form of a man so that’s why he could see God unless you know yeah I think in and in like Gospel of John for example gives us a clue as as to what was happening here right so no one has seen God at any time only the begotten God who is in the bosom of the father he has explained him right so this is Jesus Christ who we are talking about and as glender mentioned a theophany or specifically in this case this is what theologians refer to as a christophany right so it’s a preincarnate appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ and yeah he appeared as as a man to Abraham and therefore he could see him we know in other parts of scripture when people see manifestations of God like Moses at a burning bush yeah he he fell down right and when people see Angels they fall down as well but here um the yeah Jesus Christ appeared in his PR incarnate form to Abraham in in this uh part so yeah um next so we saw Sarah laughing when she heard about the she overheard the promise made to Abraham and so why did she laugh about this promise I think it’s it’s pretty obvious right because she clearly did not believe what was said or even reiterated to Abraham she didn’t think that it would come to pass but to be fair to her she was 90 years old right so way past her childbearing age but and I guess this helps us to reflect on our own faith in God as well um do we doubt God for more so-called more ordinary provision like when the Lord promises to uh Supply our daily needs to to ask us to seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you do we doubt even these simple Provisions or when the Lord promises that he works all things for our good and for his glory do we doubt there as well so I think is something that we should we should think about right not necessarily these like extravagant promises but also the simple promises that that he makes to us so the next question that I thought of was um so the lot spoke about how um he was going to investigate the wickedness of Sodom for himself right but yet we know that the Lord is completely omniscient he knows everything so why did the Lord speak in this manner to to Abraham oh Cheryl I think I think that it’s just reaffirming the justice of God and it kind of um accentuates all the times in the Bible when they say if you’re going to bring a charge against someone you know you have to have two or three Witnesses so I just think it’s an affirmation that even God himself holds himself to the same standards yes yeah yeah thank you chery yeah that that’s a very good point right so we know that God is omniscient he he knew the wickedness the accent of the wickedness that was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah yet he spoke in this particular way and cherl pointed out that this was because of God’s character this is the way God acts this is the way he commands the judges to to act right in full integrity and in not out of ignorance not recklessly but carefully and the and the Lord holds himself to the same standard right so um God does not act out of ignorance and he spoke in this way for the benefit of Abraham to so that Abraham understood his character and for our benefit as well right we know that we do not have a God that acts re recklessly but judges perfectly so we can trust how God carries out his dealings with sin in in our world today as well so the next question is uh what does the Lord’s respond to Abraham’s question say about his character right and I think um first we look at how Abraham spoke to God right so he like we mentioned previously he referenced God’s justice he said he asked rhetorical questions um shall not the judge of all the Earth deal justly because he clearly knew who God was and how God would act and this motivated his uh list of pleas and petitions before the Lord and and the way the Lord responded to Abraham saying that I will not I I will spare the city if there were 50 or if there were 10 showed that God will deal with sin appropriately right so he will deal with sin and um so he he’ll punish the wicked but he will spare the righteous and that’s what we see in the next chapter as well as we go into chapter 19 but before we do that I have a couple of application questions we might not have time to answer all all of them but yeah just some things to to take note or to uh keep in mind and uh think about as we go into the next week based on what we’ve learned uh in today’s lesson as well so first is that Abraham and Sarah both laughed at the idea of having a child in their o age despite God’s clear promise to them so when we think about this um how does knowing that God was faithful to This Promise So eventually Abraham and Sarah had a son Isaac right how does this encourage you in your walk before God if you as you recall um God being faithful to you in your own lives this should encourage you in your walk so like take take the time to to think about it to reflect about how you ought to be encouraged in your own walk as you as you remember the great faithfulness of God in scripture and also in your own life and as I asked before uh mark appreciate you asking that one of the things I noticed um there’s a verse in Psalm 118 that talks about um his his promises that he that he says you have made me wait on them and that’s really a beautiful thing because it draws us closer to him in the waiting I’m very impatient I don’t like that I’m sure I’m not alone in that but yet in God’s Providence I think he uses these delayed promises that we might learn more about him and draw close to him thanks Mar yeah so and and something else to consider is that uh Abraham interceded for Sodom as uh glender and sherro man talked about as well asking God to spare it for the sake of the righteous so do we pray in similar ways as well right so um do we pray for others even those you might disagree with or find undeserving do we have that kind of righteousness that that and the kind of heart that Abraham had so yeah it’s something for us to to think about as well because it’s not always easy to pray for people whom we don’t necessarily uh like but we have been shown so much grace ourselves right we have been saved even we we were chosen even before we were we knew we knew God right so I pray that we will have this heart of compassion for those who don’t know Christ and for those who are in Christ who we do not necessarily get along with well we should still think of them as Brothers and Sisters in Christ to care for them and not always be looking for the for our own needs but for the needs of others as well and then the second question is does rightly know God’s knowing God’s character affect the way we pray right so I asked this question because of the way Abraham prayed for Sodom he said will not the judge of all the Earth deal rightly right deal justly so I think the way we if we know right know God’s character correctly biblically so like for example if we know that he works all things for our good and for his glory then we can play pray with full confidence knowing that whatever outcome that the Lord brings to pass is going to conform us to the image of Christ right and that’s the the main thing that we need in in our Liv to be conformed to Christ likeness so this is like one example but there are many other things that you can you can think about where knowing God’s character biblically and and based on the truth that is mentioned in Scripture it should really shape the way we pray the the things we pray about and also the manner in which we we pray all right so uh we have like about 15 more minutes but uh let’s quickly move on to the next passage to Genesis 19 so here we read about the account where uh the Angels move into the city of Sodom to rescue lot from Sodom that was about to be destroyed so the first thing that we see is the two men who were previously with Abraham appearing before lot so that’s the the start of uh chapter 19 so here um it says now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as the Lord as lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom when lot saw them he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground and so here is it’s interesting to see lot sitting at the at the Gate of Sodom because uh some commentators say that uh the gate is serves as the administrative and judicial City uh center of the city so in previous chapters in Genesis we see that lot was moving towards Sodom and then he pitched his hand close to Sodom now his residing in Sodom and not only that there is perhaps he might be uh he might even have um prominent role within Sodom in um it like as administrator or something of the sort right so we see the slow progression of um lot in his uh dealings with Sodom and he seemed to be becoming a lot more comfortable living in Sodom despite the tremendous wickedness that was going on right there so this is something that was uh interesting to observe and similar to Abraham uh lot shows um extreme Hospitality to his visitors these two angels and he could also ask the question of whether he knew that they were angels we will look at that later and he said now behold my lords please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet that then you may rise early and go on your way they said however no we shall spend the night in the Square yet he urged them strongly so they turned aside to him and entered his house and he prepared A Feast for them and Bak un 11av bread and they ate so here we see that Lord prepares A Feast for them he insisted that they stayed in his house and not in the Square even though the Angels first wanted to to stay in the Square he probably knew of the extreme wickedness of Sodom at this point in time and therefore it wasn’t safe for the visitors to be in the Square but regardless he was extremely hospitable to his guest and the next thing that unfolded in this in this passage is that the men of Sodom and they really a mob right they surrounded L’s house as uh shown in this verse here right so before they lay down and they referring to the angels the men of the city of Sodom surrounded the house both young and old all the people from every quarter so this is Extreme right so this shows the extent of the depravity all the people from every quarter were surrounding this one particular house that was in the city and they were making uh sinful demands right so if you keep on reading is and they called to Lord and said to him where are the men that came to you tonight bring them out to us so that we may have relations to them and if you know this relations refer to homosexual relation between men right so this was a clear evidence of the extreme depravity sinfulness that was part of the outcry that was rising to the Lord and so instead of surrendering his guest to the man who was out outside the door what lot did was to offer his daughters instead so this was uh very uh troubling um offer that lot presented in our read Now Behold I have two daughters that have not had relations with men please let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like only do nothing to this man in as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof so Lord was was unwilling to let uh the man defile the visitors that was in his house but he was making a counter offer that was sinful as well so there seem to be some sort of um dis distinguishing of sins in L’s mind for whatever reason uh and yeah we will we talk more about this as well and the next thing that happens is that the angels protect lot and his household from this mob that was outside the house and also with from the uh eventual destruction of Sodom so here um in verses 10 and 11 it says but the men reached out their hands and brought lot into the house with them and shut the door they struck the men who were at the doorway with of the house with blindness both small and great so that they weared themselves trying to find the door here’s very interesting that um the angels with their Supernatural strength brought lot back into the house because lot was outside the house with this mob and they blinded the man who was who at the door but even in their blindness this man was still still trying to grope for the door so this is really really shows the extreme um desperation to to commit these uh despicable acts and uh next we see um how the Angels protected lot and his household as they were escaping from the city of Sodom before his destruction so but he hesitated he being lot uh so the man seized his hand and the Hand of his wife and the Hand of his two daughters for the compassion of the Lord was upon him and they brought him out and put him outside the city so here we see that the initiative was taken on beh uh on behalf of L and his household lot hesitated he didn’t immediately leave the city but the Angels basically dragged him and his household out of the city before the City was destroyed and next thing was uh Sodom and gomorra destroyed by God because of their sin the sun had risen over the earth when lot came to zoah then the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah Brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven and he overthrew the cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the city and what grew on the ground so we here we read of a complete obliteration of these Wicked cities but uh Lord Lord and his household and L his wife and his and his two daughters were able to escape from from the city but and so so this was not the end right so after L and his wife and his two daughters left the city Lot’s wife is turned into a pillar of salt right so here we read that his wife who was now outside the city uh looked back at the city of Sodom and she became a pillar of salt you so these are some observations that we see from uh chapter 19 so let’s uh move into interpretation did not know that the two men who were visiting him were angels I think uh similar to Abraham I don’t think that he immediately knew that these were Angels but still at Abraham he treated them as distinguished guests right with extreme Hospitality uh Arthur yeah what I was going to say that if you go back to chapter 18 when Abraham sees the men and um when I mentioned that he bowed down to the ground right after he does that notice that um it’s singular he says he um he said to them he says my Lord MH so even though there were three men he says my Lord but in chapter 19 when lot bows down um before the two men he doesn’t he says my lords and then if you have the King James if you know the King James versions they capitalized the L in chapter 18 and they use a small letter so that may be a bias but but um we can’t forget that um we’re told in Hebrews that um about entertaining strangers that some may be Angels right it’s interesting that I believe the writer was Paul but people argue over that um that in Hebrews where the writer tells us about when we entertain strangers that some unawares entertain Angels so that’s something to think about right yeah thank you Steve Jude says in Jude it says that the people of Sodom went after quote strange flesh MH yeah so so that’s a hard question to answer mhm because that obviously there’s some something that was strange about them right so um it I I I I would take a neutral position no justly right okay oh eron um I guess like the the fact that he kind of tries to take matters into his own hands and say like no here’s here’s my daughters instead like I feel like if he knew that they were angels of the Lord then I don’t I don’t know if he would have had that same response I don’t know yeah know interesting observations thank you um but I think for the sake of time let’s keep going um so one other thing is um the men of Sodom while they were gathering out Gathering outside L’s house said that Lord was acting as a judge right so what does this suggest about lot’s character so he knew something was different about L but glender I I think I think I think lot was sort of compromising then saw something good about him but then not coming out of Sodom he move it moved closer and he was classed as a judge you know because judges sit at the gate so I don’t think his his life was well if you go back to in in the New Testament we say he was a righteous man so I don’t know exactly what was his character there why these men had him as a judge yeah but yet still they’re going to punish him because he’s not allowing them to get to the angels right right yeah yeah thanks slender right so yeah as you pointed out in the New Testament lot was referred to as as a righteous man right so here I I included a verse from second Peter um and yeah so and and the way the man were referring to him as acting as a judge was basically mockery right and but this also probably suggests that he had some form of Confrontation or pointed out the sin in the past but yet his life was not uh completely consistent with the the things that he was he was saying right so like we we’re going to look at how he offered his daughters to the man instead of allowing the man to defile his visitors so this was clearly something that was not a righteous act right um and we also know that the people of Sodom did not take lot very seriously uh for example the son-in-laws of of of lot that we that we read about right so basically when lot was asked to call his household out of Sodom lot went out and spoke to his son-in-laws who were to marry his daughters and said up get out of this place for the Lord would destroy the city but he appeared to his son-in-laws to be Justin just merely joking about the impending destruction of Sodom so I think when thinking about this we should consider our own testimony to people around us uh who may not know Christ are we serious about Sin such that they understand the severity of sin and the impending Judgment of God for sin we may think that we live uh Christian lives around unbelievers but we should also consider and examine our own life to see if uh people take the lot seriously on account of the testimony that that we have uh right so uh why did Lord protect why did the angels protect Lord and his family uh so here we see that reference back to chapter 18 right so God will not slay the righteous together with the wicked and we saw from the New Testament that L was referred to as a righteous man yet we know that the righteousness is not from himself right it’s not because of the right uh that lot was a perfect person we see that he was just about to offer his daughters to this mob right and you see in um verse 16 that the compassion of the Lord was upon him so Lord was someone who was chosen by God and God himself chose to rescue Lord not in the Merit of of L but because of the compassion of God so here we see the mercy of God on display right so it’s not because of what we’ve ever done not we what what what we do not about our our skills the things that we’ve accomplished in life but it’s all on the basis of God’s mercy that we as Christians are Sav and the reason why Lord was Sav in in this uh instance as well uh and the last question is why did Lot’s wife turned into a pillar of salord so we know that she looked back and turned into a pillar of sord but is there more to it is it just simply the the act of looking back that turn her into a pillar of salt glender I think they said that she she they said that she looked back MH but and then too sometimes she’s thinking about what am I missing there what I had where am I going what I’m going to get but we have to go with the Bible say she looked back she looked back yeah yeah so she received explicit command from from God not to look behind so if you look at this verse do not look behind you right so it was clear that uh the God turned her into a pillar of salt because she disobeyed simply disobeyed God’s command but we also can think about um why she might have looked back we could this is not explicitly mentioned in scripture yet the act of turning back might suggest that she had some sort of attachment to the city of Sodom she didn’t necessarily want to escape she had some uh reason why she wanted to maybe even turn back to the S to Sodom that was being destroyed yeah right right so now let’s look at some application so uh it’s clear in Scripture that uh homosexuality is a sin so this is one of the sins that is clearly brought up in In this passage chapter 19 and this is a topic that can spark passions in our culture today right so if you were sharing a gospel the gospel with someone who claims to be homosexual how can you use 1 Corinthians 6 9-11 to to minimize some of the strong emotional responses that come with this is issue and here I’m not saying that we should always seek to minimize the the negative responses that we get from people because we know the gospel is an offense to to people who do not know God people who are enemies of God yet we should try to communicate these things uh in a Biblical way so here we I include the the verses on on the slide so or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God do not be deceived neither fornicators nor idolators nor adulterers nor Infinate nor homosexuals nor thieves nor the Covetous nor drunkers nor revilers nor swindlers who inherit the kingdom of God such were some of you but you washed but you were Sanctified you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and in the spirit of our God so how would you um answer this question uh Mike uh simply by saying all men have sin right um homosexuality is one of many sins and it’s always a conversation between me and the other person I’m not lifting myself up against that person I’m saying hey I’m just like you and it’s only by the grace of God that he saved me yeah thanks all these conversations are meant to be have had in love right thank you I have a question um and uh one of the things that I’ve seen in recent years um among some professing Christians is that the condemnation was not for homosexuality but for a lack of hospitality I know to us that sounds silly to be quite honest but um this is something that’s gained traction among to Mike’s Point um I think it’s hard for parent parents and friends to to have these conversations with their homosexual friends in love um and so the response of some professing Christians is to say well the Bible doesn’t really say that and they use this passage not necessarily the First Corinthians one but the Sodom gomorah one to justify that yeah and I don’t want to derail you but what would you say to that yeah right so I mean if if if they Genesis 19 for themselves I don’t think there’s like a way around the fact that homosexuality is pointed out clearly as a sin right so um yeah I I don’t think there’s a way around it if you just read the text of scripture oh yeah uh I I I think yeah maybe we’re running out of time so I’m sorry oh okay uh right so I just want to leave one more application question right up here because we out of time but something else to consider is uh we often identify certain sins as more significant than others like how L was willing to give up his daughters to the Mob but not willing to allow the mob to defile the visitors that were in his house right so do we do the same in in slightly different ways but similar in many ways as well yeah so let’s consider that but I think time is up so I’ll close us in prayer father thank you thank you for your word allowing us to see the severity of sin and your hatred of sin Lord we see your perfect Justice being on display in these two passages and we also see your mercy being uh given to Lord and given to us who are in Christ as well help us to um continue to be transformed by your word and to love you more each day in Christ’s name I pray amen