In this segment, I want to have another example of how to do expository preaching by taking a text out of the Old Testament and then looking at the second level, moral lessons for us and the third level. And this one is what I would consider to be, in some respects, the second most disturbing story in the Bible. It's the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis chapter 19. So we're going to pick up right where we left off in the two angels being sent to the city of Sodom.
I'm going to read Genesis chapter 19. I want to look at all three levels of this story to get as much as we can out of it. It's a great example. Genesis chapter 19 starting in verse 1. " Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting at the gate of Sodom. So when he saw them, he rose to meet them, bowed down with his face to the ground. Then he said, " Behold, my lords, turn into your servant's house and rest and wash your feet.
Then you may rise early and go on your way." But they said no, but we'll spend the night in the open square, but he insisted so strongly so they turned into him and entered his house. Then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate. Now before they went to sleep, the men of the city, the sodomites, both old and young, all of the people from every quarter surrounded the house. Thus they called to Lot and said to him, " Where were the men who came to you tonight?
Bring them out to us so we may have relations with them." But Lot went out to them through the doorway, shut the door behind him, and said, " By no means, my brethren, do not act wickedly. I have two daughters who have not known a man. Let me bring them out to you. You may do with them as you wish. Only do nothing to these men since this is the reason they've come under the protection of my roof. But they said, " Stand back. You came to Sojourn among us. Was it to be making judgments?
Now we will deal worse with you than with them. So they pressed hard against the man Lot and came near to break down the door, but the men reached out their hands, pulled Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. Then they struck the men in the doorway with the house with blindness, both small and great, and they became weary trying to find the door. Now the men said to Lot, " Have you anyone else here in the city, sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone?
Then take them out of this place, for we will destroy this place because the outcry has become great before the Lord and the Lord sent us to destroy it." So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who had married his daughters and said, " Get up. Get out of this place. The Lord's about to wipe out this city." But his sons-in-law, to his sons-in-law, he seemed to be joking.
Now when the morning dawn, the angels urge Lot to hurry saying, " Arise, take your wife and the two daughters you have and get out, lest you be destroyed with the transgression of the city." But they were thrown into confusion, the Lord being merciful to him. The angel seized his hand, the hands of his wife and two daughters and brought them outside the city. So it came to pass when they brought them outside. They said, " Escape for your life. Do not look behind nor stay anywhere in the plain.
Escape to the mountains lest you be overtaken. Then Lot said to them, " I pray, O Lord, since your servant has found mercy in your sight, and you magnified your righteousness which you showed me by saving my life. Nevertheless, I cannot escape to the mountains. Lest some evil overtake me and I die. See now this city which is small and near enough to flee to for refuge and I shall escape there. Is it not a little one? And my soul shall live.
And he said to him, " See, I have acquiesced you in this manner also that I will not overthrow this city concerning which you've spoken. Therefore hurry to escape there for I cannot do anything until you arrive there." For this reason, he called the name of that city Zoar. Now the sun rose upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven.
Thus he overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants, the cities, whatever grew on the ground. But his wife looked behind him and she became a pillar of salt.
Then Abraham rose early in the morning and went to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he looked towards Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw, " Behold, a flame was ascending from the land, like the smoke of a furnace." So it came to pass when God wiped out all the cities of the plain that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of destruction when the Lord overthrew the cities where Lot had dwelt.
So this is a very, very disturbing story because not only because of the tremendous destruction involved in the story, but also because of what happens with Lot and his two daughters, where he goes out and he offers his two virgin daughters to the bloodthirsty crowd to be ravaged by the crowd and their decline. But why would he do something like this? This is a profoundly disturbing story, so much so that a lot of people would prefer to ignore it.
But there's some wonderful gems in this story for us to learn from, some tremendous lessons. So, the first question that I would ask is, are there any passages in the New Testament that speak about the story, that speak about Lot, that speak about Sodom, the destruction of Sodom Gomorrah. Are there any stories that Jesus or the Apostles bring to light that rely on this story that we can learn from? Let's turn to Luke chapter 17. Jesus speaks about this himself.
Luke chapter 17, in talking about the end that will come, starting in verse 22, he said to the disciples, " The days will come when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, you will not see it." And they will say to you, " Look here, look there. Do not go after them or follow them. For as lightning flashes out of one part under heaven and shines to the other part of heaven, so all those, the Son of Man will be in his day.
But first he must suffer many things that will be rejected by this generation, as it was in the days of Noah, so it will also be in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage until the day Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, it was also so in the days of Lot. They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built.
But on the day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so it will be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. So Jesus points to this as he said it's going to be like it was in Sodom and Gomorrah when the Day of Judgment when the Son of Man is finally revealed in the end. And verse 31, he says, " In that day, he who is on the house top and his goods are in the house, let him not come down and take them away.
And likewise, the one who is in the field, let him not turn back." Verse 32, " Remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it and whoever loses his life will preserve it." So this is, Jesus says it's gonna be like the days of Lot. People are gonna be taken completely by surprise when he comes back and remember Lot's wife. That's an entire message in and of itself. Is there something in the story of Lot's wife that Jesus wants us to focus on and learn from?
Peter talks about this also in 2 Peter chapter 2. Let's read that. This is what we want to do. Whenever we read an Old Testament story to say, did Jesus of the Apostles say anything about this at all that we should learn from? Second Peter, chapter 2. Peter talks about the terrible times that are going to happen in the last days. Starting in verse 4, " If God did not spare the angels who sinned but cast them down into hell and delivered them in chains of darkness to be reserved for judgment.
And he did not spare the ancient world but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemning them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly, and delivered righteous Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless
deeds then God knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment.
So Peter says here that God destroyed the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah turning them into ashes to make them an example of what would happen to the ungodly. So that's a very sobering reminder. This is to us. This is a warm up. This is a preview of what's going to happen. It says that God knows how to deliver the righteous few out of a world that's headed for destruction. He points to Lot as being a righteous man. And he uses the word here.
He says God delivered righteous Lot who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked for that righteous man dwelling among them tormented in his righteous soul from day to day. So he talks about Lot using the word " righteous" three times. The whole idea that the Calvinists teach that we're all totally depraved. Peter says that Lot was a righteous man.
And this is also an example of judgment that will come by fire, as Peter explains further on in chapter 3, that while God destroyed the earth by water, the next time it's going to be by fire. This is another example pointing to Sodom and Gomorrah. In Jude, verses 5 through 7 also talks about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah as a lesson for us. I want to remind you, 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.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain but left their own abode. He is reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day. As Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.
This is a very disturbing passage here about Sodom and Gomorrah, about the sexual immorality and perversion that they'd gotten involved with and the consequence of the destruction of fire which came upon them is a foreshadowing what's going to happen to us as well for the wicked. Another passage in the Old Testament that talks about this is Ezekiel chapter 16. Let's take a look there. Gives us more insight into what was going on in Sodom before it was destroyed.
Ezekiel chapter 16 starting verse 40, " As I live," says the Lord, " Surely your sister Sodom and her daughters have carried on in the manner you and your daughters have done." So he's talking about Israel at the time of the Babylonian captivity when they're getting defeated by the Babylonians. Surely this was the lawless action of your sister Sodom, namely arrogance. For in fullness of bread and abundance of wine, she and her daughter lived in self-indulgence.
This belonged to her and her daughters, but they did not give a helping hand to the poor and needy. So they were haughty and committed acts of lawlessness before me. Therefore, I removed them as I saw fit. So here we get a different picture of Sodom is it says that the underlying sin was arrogance, living for pleasure, no concern for the poor, and a life of self-indulgence, which ultimately led to sexual excess and sexual depravity.
So these are the passages in the New Testament, and here's one in the Old Testament that talk about the lessons that we should be learning from this story here. So first, we read the story itself. Next, we read the other passages in the Bible that make points from this story. And then let's step back and take a look at the basic storyline here. So, Sodom, the outcry has come up to the Lord. Two angels go to Sodom to check it out. They're waiting in the square.
Lot is concerned for the safety of these men who are in the square. He invites them in and insists that they come in. They come into the protection of his home. They have a meal there. There's an immoral crowd which is demanding that Lot turn over these two men so they have sex with them. Instead, Lot offers his two daughters and says, " Do with them as you wish, but don't do anything to these men." This is a very disturbing, very disturbing passage. The angels then pull Lot in. The men want to destroy Lot.
The angels pull him in and they strike the wicked men with blindness. They issue a warning. The sons-in-law of Lot think this is a joke that the city is going to be destroyed. They don't take it seriously. Only Lot's wife and his two daughters take it seriously. The angels escort Lot and his wife and his two daughters out of the city by hand. Lot doesn't think he can make it to the countryside, so he asks for an intermediate place to stay. The angels grant him that.
And then the Lord rains down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah. The angels say, " Don't look back when they're fleeing the city." Lot's wife looks back and she turns into a pillar of salt. And Jesus refers to this saying there's a lesson for us. So that's the basic storyline. That's level one of the story. Let's ask some tough questions now of the text. The tough question, the question that I have here is why why is Lot held up as a righteous man?
Lot who was held up as a righteous man by Peter, why is it that he offered his two daughters to be ravished by the crowd? Is this an indication of oppression of women? Is this an indication of the low position of women in the society or a heartless attitude of a father toward his daughters? Why would he do such a horrible thing? And I want to come back to that because it's such a disturbing question to wrestle with. I'm a father of a daughter and a son.
I can't imagine turning my children over to be ravaged by people like this to be treated in such a horrible manner. So that's a tough question, which I can't answer right now, but let's take a look at that a little further on. So that's the question I was wrestling with to try to find an answer to in this story here, and we'll see how we do with that. Moral lessons in this story, there are so many moral lessons contained in this story just from what we have taken a look at so far in the Scriptures.
I want to give you some examples of the moral lessons from the story. And a very simple one, a very small point. In Hebrews 13 and verse 2, it says, " Don't forget to entertain strangers for by so doing, some have unwittingly entertained angels." So this is, I think, of the story of Lot and Sodom and Gomorrah. He thought they were two men in the square and invited them in his house, and it turned out that they were a powerful angel.
So this is a lesson about hospitality here that I certainly think of him when I read that passage there. That's a small point, but that's something that I wanted to make note of. The other thing is, when Lot's family is issued a warning there are three different responses that take place. The first response is his two sons-in-law. When they hear the warning of the destruction that's coming, they think it's a joke.
They take it as a joke and they don't heed the warning, and they're destroyed with everyone else in the city. Not necessarily that they're involved in the same wickedness of the people in the city, but they don't take the warning seriously. So this is one huge lesson for us is when God is warning us about the destruction to come, we need to take it seriously and be prepared for it. So that's one fate.
The other fate is Lot's wife who becomes a pillar of salt, and then Lot and his two daughters are saved from destruction. Moral lessons from the story continuing here. Take the first lesson we mentioned, take warnings from God seriously. This is not a myth. This is not a joke. In fact, Jesus and the apostles point to this story of saying the day of judgment is going to come. It's going to come all of a sudden.
It's going to come by surprise just like it did in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, just like it did in the days of Noah. And you need to be prepared for it. God provides four stories in the beginning of the Bible about foreshadowing the day of judgment for us. The first one obviously is the story of the flood of Noah. And Peter says that just like in the story of Noah, a few righteous people will be saved in 1 Peter chapter 3. Everyone else is wiped out.
The second one is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, which we have right here. Judgment comes down by fire. Sodom and Gomorrah represents the wickedness of the world. A few are saved. Everyone else is destroyed. The third one I think of is the story of the Passover. The 10th plague in Egypt, death comes to every single family in Egypt except those who are protected by the blood of the Lamb. That those righteous few who will be spared destruction, it's because of the blood of the Lamb pointing to Jesus.
And then the fourth one I think of is the story of Jericho. When the Israelites enter Canaan the Promised Land, led by Joshua and his Greek name is Jesus in the New Testament he's referred to as Jesus in the Greek text that only the household of Rahab is saved and they have the scarlet cord just like the blood of the lamb on the door frame. That's the only house that's saved there. Everyone else is wiped out when Jesus comes for the second time. So the warnings about destruction and judgment. It's not a joke.
Scoffers will come in the last days. As Peter said, it's going to happen as surely as it did on Sodom and Gomorrah. We need to be prepared for it. Another moral lesson. If we see the corruption of the world around us growing worse and worse, we should take comfort that God can deliver the righteous even in the midst of a very wicked world. Lot was a righteous man. Peter refers to him as a righteous man who was tormented in his soul.
And if we're living in parts of the world or in countries where people, there's all kinds of wickedness multiplying all around us, no matter how bad things get. We can have confidence that if we remain righteous and we obey the Lord and heed his warnings that God has the ability to rescue us and pull us out of the world that's about to be destroyed. Jesus said in John chapter 10, " No one can snatch you out of my hands." So there's comfort and encouragement in this story.
The third lesson is one straight from Jesus. Jesus says, " Remember Lot's wife." Now Jesus doesn't tell us specifically all the things that we're supposed to be learning from Lot's wife. But in the story of Lot's wife, they're all warned. When you're fleeing the city that's going to be destroyed, don't look back. And she looked back and turned as a pillar of salt. And this happened as a monument for us, as the memorial that Jesus points to in Luke 17. Jesus says whoever seeks to save his life will lose it.
So I'm reminded of what Jesus said in Luke 9:62. No one having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God. You know, the Israelites after they departed from Egypt, many of the people look back longingly on the old life in Egypt. They look back longing. Let's go back there. We had such good food there. We had such wonderful times there. And Moses said, " Don't ever go back to Egypt." The king in the future in Deuteronomy 17, don't ever go back to Egypt. That's the old land of darkness.
That's the land of enslavement. That's the world that's headed for destruction. Do not look back to the old world. Run and don't look back. Escape it. Don't look back longingly on the old world that you left. Another lesson, don't fall into the specific sins of Sodom. I was reading the passage in Jude. I was teaching about ten years ago, 10 or 12 years ago. I was teaching in Boston to a large group of Christian students from mixed campuses from all over the Boston area.
And we read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah, and I asked the people the question. I asked the students the question, " What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah that led to their destruction?" And the room became eerily quiet. No one wanted to raise their hand. Everybody was thinking the same thing, but no one wanted to say anything. And this is over ten years ago. Imagine what it's like today. Okay?
No one wanted to say anything because they're thinking the sin was homosexual lust and men wanting to rape other men and things like that. And they were afraid that this would be considered hate speech or looked down on or other people would be thinking ill of them that that was showing a lack of compassion towards homosexuals. But let's go back and see what it says in Jude. Let's read what it says again. This is extremely politically incorrect, especially in Boston. This is what the Word of God says.
As Sodom and Verse 7, Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them in a similar manner to these having given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone after strange flesh are set forth as an example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. So this is a serious sin and Paul warned us, he told Timothy, " You need to preach the Word at all times in season and out of season." And teaching this passage in Boston is way out of season right now.
To teach that people are going to be destroyed as a result of homosexual sexual immorality. Peter warned us, he said, " Just as there were false prophets among the people, there will be false teachers among you who will bring in destructive heresies in 2 Peter chapter 2." And he said, " Many will follow their destructive ways." I mean, most of the churches in the Boston area have let go of this idea of the two kingdoms of God and are trying to blend in with the world and gain the approval of the world.
And particularly in the more liberal churches, they completely dropped this teaching about the dangers of homosexual sin and sexual immorality. Now, I don't want to just pick on one particular type of sexual sin, but that's what we're warned about the consequences. This is one of the lessons of Sodom and Gomorrah. What's going to happen? Jesus also warns us about heterosexual sin, about adultery, about fornication.
We're warned, " Don't you can't covet your neighbor's wife." We're warned about getting married to somebody who's been married before in the Sermon on the Mount about the permanence of marriage. So sexual immorality was rampant in the ancient world, and it's a serious problem today, but we can't blend in with the world around us anymore than Lot could blend in with the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. We are called to be living a holy life.
Peter said, " Be holy in all your conduct because we worship a God who says, " Be holy because I am holy." I'm reminded of a quote from Bardaisan, who was an early Christian writer. He lived 154 to 222 AD. And he was talking about the Christians wherever they were in the world, that there were all kinds of different practices of sexual mores and ethics. But wherever the Christians were, they followed the teachings of Jesus, not the local customs. And so I'm going to read from that.
This is from Ante-Nicene Fathers Volume 8, page 733. It's a work called The Book of the Laws of the Various Countries. So his Bardaisan was very familiar with the ancient world. This is surprisingly reminiscent of the world today. He says, " What shall we say of the new race of Christians whom Christ at His advent planted in every country and every region? For lo, wherever we are, we are called after the one name of Christ Christians.
On one day, the first day of the week, we assemble ourselves together, and on the days of the readings we abstain from taking sustenance. The brethren who were in Gaul, that is modern-day France, do not take males as wives. Nor do those who in Parthia take two wives. Nor do those who are in Judea circumcised themselves. Nor do our sisters who are among the Gelli consort with strangers. Nor do those who are in Persia take their daughters for wives.
Nor do those who are in Media abandon the dead or bury them alive or give them as food for the dogs. Nor do those who are in Edessa kill their wives and their sisters when they commit impurity. But they withdraw from them and give them over to the judgment of God. Nor those in Hatra stoned thieves to death.
But wherever they are, in whatever place they are found, the laws of the several countries do not hinder them from obeying the law of their sovereign Christ, nor does fate and the celestial governor compel them to make use of things which they regard as impure. So this is a beautiful picture in the ancient world that homosexual marriage, polygamy, incest in the various countries of the world, these things were all practiced and tolerated and thought to be perfectly normal.
In the Roman Empire being divorced and married and divorced again and married again multiple times all of these practices Bardaisan explains were that's how the world lived in all the various countries. But the Christians, wherever we live, we follow the teachings of our Savior, which means basically we have one wife or none at all until death to you part.
So this is the wonderful we need to hold to, just like the Christians understood in the beginning, no matter where we are, no matter what the laws are, we follow the laws of our sovereign Jesus Christ. So the sin of Sodom, this is one of the serious sins of Sodom was sexual immorality. As Ezekiel points out, those who don't struggle with sexual immorality, maybe you have some of the other problems of Sodom.
As Ezekiel pointed out, the root problem in Sodom, the fruit of it was homosexual sin, but the root problem, he says, is arrogance, living a life of self-indulgence, no concern for the poor needy. Basically, they're living a life devoted to maximizing pleasure. Food, drink, luxury, personal comfort, vacations, retirement, you name it. They're living for pleasure.
And what I see around me is many Christians, while they may not be struggling with homosexuality, are living for pleasure, and they have zero concern for the poor. So there's a moral lesson for us from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah as well, courtesy of Ezekiel 16. Another lesson for us is don't mess with angels, is that angels are powerful.
Jesus said that he said when Jesus was attacked in the Garden of Gethsemane, he said, " All I have to do is ask my father and he'll send twelve legion of angels." A Roman legion had about 5,000 soldiers in it. I don't know what a legion of angels is, but it's a lot of them. And if you look at two angels obliterating Sodom and Gomorrah, so Abraham's looking out and he just sees like smoke coming up from a furnace. There's nothing left. The place has been completely devastated. This is just two angels.
Imagine what all the other angels can do. So we need to, in the spiritual battle that we are involved in, to realize that the angels are involved and they are extremely powerful. Some more lessons here from the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. And this is what I alluded to before, is this question, how do we explain the horrible thing that Lot did in putting his daughters out and offering the crowd.
Perhaps this will give us an insight into this is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah foreshadowed not only the day of judgment, but I think it also foreshadowed the destruction of Jerusalem, which happened in AD 70. Jesus prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem in Luke 21 and Matthew 21. And he talked about this. He said, " When you see the city surrounded, escape. Run for your lives. Run to the mountains." And this is basically what Lot was told to run for his life, to run for the mountains to get out.
Prophecy in Daniel chapter 9 verses 24 and 27. Daniel is instructed that Jerusalem, which at that time was devastated, Jerusalem would be rebuilt, would be rebuilt, then Christ the prince would come, then the Christ would be put to death, and then after that the city and the temple would be destroyed by the prince who was yet to come.
And Eusebius points out in his history, he tells the tremendous devastation that happened to Jerusalem under Titus in AD 70, that the city was obliterated, that there were just thousands of people were butchered, and Jerusalem was completely destroyed by the Romans in AD 70. And the Christians saw this as a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus for the wickedness that they had done in rejecting and torturing and killing the Christ.
Justin Martyr writing to the Romans in his first apology, he said that the destruction of the Jerusalem, which they recently seen, was the fulfillment of the prophecy of Jesus. And he said that even in his time, the Romans had not only completely devastated it, but they said any Jew caught entering the city would be put to death after that.
So if the story here, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is the destruction that is a foreshadowing of the final destruction of Jerusalem in AD-70, and is also foreshadowing the last, the final coming of Christ and the destruction of the world. Let's take another look at the details of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. It starts off with the angels that are invited to an evening meal in a home where there's washing of feet and eating unleavened bread that takes place.
Then a wicked mob seeks to do violence to someone who is righteous, two were offered to the crowd, and then ultimately the city where the crime was committed ends up being completely destroyed. And the righteous few who are remaining there in the city are told to escape and flee to the hills before the city is destroyed. And scoffers rejected the warning, but the righteous few heeded it and escaped.
And ultimately, the city was destroyed as a result of the horrible crime that was perpetrated by the wicked crowd on the righteous. So does this remind you of anything in the New Testament? It reminds me of the story of Jesus. There's the Last Supper. There's the washing of the feet of the guests in John 13. There's the eating the unleavened bread. Then there's the wicked mob ultimately who wants to have Jesus killed. The two are offered to the crowd. So why did Lot offer his two daughters to the crowd?
I don't know, but perhaps. If this story is a foreshadowing of what would ultimately be fulfilled in the time of Jesus, that the righteous few would escape, the entire city would be devastated as a result of the crime, and the two offered to the crowd. Of course, this is Jesus and Barabbas being offered to the crowd. That perhaps doing this was to in some way fulfill a foreshadowing of what would happen at the time of the Passion of Jesus. That's just a possibility.
And you can decide for yourself whether this is the man in the mountain or whether this is the Mount Rushmore. I'll leave that one in your court. But in any event, I think we can look at the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and by asking questions and looking at all three levels and by looking at the other passages in the New Testament that talk about this, we can learn tremendous, we can mine this for tremendous lessons that can save our lives and save the lives of thousands of others.
So we'll look, after this, we'll look at perhaps an even more disturbing story in the Bible. It's another example of expository teaching.