Genesis 19:16–19:38 | Countdown to Calamity

You have a Bible, go and grab it and turn it to the book of Genesis. We’re continuing our series in the book of Genesis. If you don't have a Bible, you can use a pew Bible in front of you. If you don't own a Bible, we're so glad that you're here. We would love for you to just be able to keep that Bible. Consider that our gift to you. We would love for you to have a copy of God's word that you could keep for yourself, that you could read and see what God has to say to you.

We'll be looking at the very first book of the Bible, Genesis. And we're going to be looking at the second half of chapter 18 and all of chapter 19 today as we look at Sodom and Gomorrah. And I am reading a part of it to start. So we're going to be looking at chapter 18, starting with verse 25 to the end of that chapter. Genesis 18, verse 25 to the end of the chapter. This is Abraham speaking to God. I'll actually read from verse 23.

The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham answered, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord—even though I am dust and ashes— suppose the fifty righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Then he spoke to him again, “Suppose forty are found there?”He answered, “I will not do it on account of forty.” Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?”He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord, suppose twenty are found there?”He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of twenty.” Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose ten are found there?”He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of ten.” When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he departed, and Abraham returned to his place. — Genesis 18:22-33 (CSB)

Let's pray again. We pray this morning, even as we come to you, we recognize that we are dust and ashes. So we ask, Lord, even as you speak to us this morning, that we would have a high view of your holiness and that it would reflect in our seriousness about our sin. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.

Growing up as a kid, if you were to ask me what my favorite TV channel was, it was an unequivocal, universal answer. It was always the Food Network. I love the Food Network: Alton Brown, Emeril, Iron Chef America, it didn't matter what it was, I would binge-watch it all. And lately, there has been a reality competition show on Netflix that has been dominating my attention. It's called "Culinary Class Wars." It's a Korean cooking competition and is the greatest cooking show I've ever seen in my life.

You get to see 100 Korean chefs duke it out to try to see who is the best. They got the most prestigious judges, they got the Julia Child's equivalent in the nation of Korea, and the only three Michelin-starred chef in Korea judging all the dishes that these cooks are competing in. And every single episode, every single round, they whittle down until they figure out who actually is the best. They go from 100, whittle it down to 40, bring it down to 20, and on and on until there is one man standing. Competent judges, one competition, one winner.

What we see in our passage this morning is a similar event that's trying to answer a different question. Sodom and Gomorrah places God as the judge over humanity. And God as the judge is trying to answer one question: Is anyone righteous? Welcome to Carnality Class Wars in three phases, starting with phase one: Are there 50 righteous?

God's Mercy and Abraham's Intercession

The men got up from there and looked out over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off. Then the Lord said, “Should I hide what I am about to do from Abraham? Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation, and all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will command his children and his house after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just. This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what he promised him.” Then the Lord said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense, and their sin is extremely serious. I will go down to see if what they have done justifies the cry that has come up to me. If not, I will find out.” — Genesis 18:16-21 (CSB)

This is just after our passage last week. After God calls out Sarah for laughing, he begins to wonder. He begins to speak out loud. We see passages throughout the Old Testament just like this where God wonders, "Should I do this? I'm going to go there and figure out whether or not I should do something." And when you read words like this, it can seem as though God is unsure of the future. Like he's shrugging in front of Abraham like, "I don't know how bad Sodom is. I'm going to go in and find out."

Does this mean that God is unsure of the future? I don't think so. Mainly because God is not an external processor like I am. He doesn't just talk his way into his own answers. He's not trying to work out what he should or should not be doing. He's not speaking out loud for his own sake; he's speaking out loud for our sake.

You know, one theologian described the way that God speaks to us here on earth as baby talk. Or we see a parent talk to a child and they go, "Gooo gaga," or they'll say things in a really cutesy, sing-songy kind of way, playfully with a silly tone. God does the same thing to us when he speaks to us. That the incomprehensible, the all-knowing, all-powerful God, with his depths of knowledge that we will never be able to plumb the depths of, we'll never scrape the bottom of that barrel, still speaks to us truthfully, but limitedly, because you and I can't know everything. So he talks to us in a way that we can understand.

And God is seeing the exact same thing here. What does God want us to understand? He wants us to understand that Abraham has a great promise. He is to be great and the nations are to be blessed through him. And the reason why Abraham is chosen is so that he commands his children to keep the way of the Lord, to do what's right, and to do what's just. That's how God fulfills what he promised in Abraham. He chose Abraham for good works, for righteousness. That's the same that the Lord has done for us.

There was nothing in Abraham that he did before God called him that made Abraham appealing to the Lord. And yet after his call, he is chosen so that he can command and do what is right and just. The same is true for us. For those of us who have turned from our sin and turned to Christ, Ephesians 1 says that he predestined us before the foundation of the world. He didn't see anything good in us that made him pick us. We are convicted of our sin, we see Christ crucified for us, and we choose to follow him.

And in light of that, God in Ephesians 2:10 says that we are created in Christ Jesus for good works, which he prepared ahead of time for us to do. That everything good that you did last week, everything good that you will do this week, every single good work that you do as a Christian matters to God. It matters to him. Not only does it matter to him, it is meticulously planned by him. Every good work that you do this week is providentially placed by our God to give glory to his name. The same was true for Abraham. That's how the Lord fulfills his promise, a blessing to Abraham.

That the blessing that follows righteousness isn't just the result of God kind of doing everything around you while you sit back and watch. But it's the consequence of a holy God blessing his people as they pursue holiness, that as you seek to honor the Lord, the Lord in turn blesses that effort. In fact, he planned that effort. And God loves to do this, to bless obedience. That's all throughout Scripture. But God doesn't just bless obedience; he also curses disobedience.

The sin of Sodom and Gomorrah God describes here as extremely serious. And this cry, this outcry against them, is immense. Whether it's the cry of their evil itself or the victims of their evil, you can picture what they do as you read in the story, the Lord has heard it. And he says that he will go himself to investigate in light of these people's cries to him. So, is God discovering something here? Is it like he doesn't know about Sodom and Gomorrah until this human audible alarm clock goes off where he turns around and then swoops in to see what's happening? I don't think so.

I think God is using baby talk here on purpose because even though these three men are talking amongst themselves, he is speaking within earshot of Abraham and that's no mystery to him. And Abraham, hearing this conversation, can't help but talk about it.

The men turned from there and went toward Sodom while Abraham remained standing before the Lord. Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.” Then Abraham answered, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord—even though I am dust and ashes— suppose the fifty righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?”He replied, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” Then he spoke to him again, “Suppose forty are found there?”He answered, “I will not do it on account of forty.” Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak further. Suppose thirty are found there?”He answered, “I will not do it if I find thirty there.” Then he said, “Since I have ventured to speak to my lord, suppose twenty are found there?”He replied, “I will not destroy it on account of twenty.” Then he said, “Let my lord not be angry, and I will speak one more time. Suppose ten are found there?”He answered, “I will not destroy it on account of ten.” When the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he departed, and Abraham returned to his place. — Genesis 18:22-33 (CSB)

Abraham, overhearing this conversation that God has, feels the weight of God's judgment and he is compelled to say something, to speak on behalf of the city. But notice what Abraham doesn't do here. He doesn't question the judgment of the wicked. He never asks God whether it's right for God to punish bad people. And neither do we.

None of us question whether we should really punish the wicked, I mean, like the really bad people. Like none of us think that Hitler didn't receive every punishment that he deserved. When we see horrific documentaries of most wicked people on the planet, we judge them and then none of us question whether or not they deserve the judgment that they received for their actions. Because all of us have an internal sense of what's right and what's wrong. And Abraham has that same moral compass. He doesn't question whether or not God should judge the wicked.

His question is whether or not God is willing to judge the righteous. "Can a good God really kill people that aren't that bad?" That's a common question. "How can a good God allow bad things to happen to good people?" Or worse, "How can a good God pour out his judgment on good people?" We believe in hell. We believe that people that don't believe in Jesus are going to suffer eternally under God's judgment. Can you really stomach that for people that you know treated their neighbors better than you, their spouses better than you, were more faithful in their jobs than you? Can a really good God be willing to pour out unconscionable amounts of punishment on people that you would generally consider to be good?

So he asks God, "Will you destroy the city if there were 50 righteous people?" Abraham is viewing God's judgment here of Sodom and Gomorrah on a scale. You have wicked people on this side, you have righteous people on this side. And would the righteousness of these 50 people outweigh the wickedness of the rest of the city? Can a good God really wipe out the wicked at the expense of the righteous? And God's answer is he wouldn't.

God would be merciful to the 50, even if it meant allowing the wicked to run free. And that should be enough for Abraham, except he really knows Sodom and Gomorrah. And so he dares to ask again, "What about 45?" And God says he will not judge the city for 45. So 50 turns to 45, to 40, to 30, to 20, to 10. And God repeats for the 50, the 45, the 40, the 30, the 20, and even the 10 that he would be a merciful God.

See, the God that you and I believe in, he is not a stingy God when it comes to his mercy. He would not destroy the righteous for the sake of the wicked. God has established just how merciful he is, just how good he is. It's not like he's gritting his teeth, excited at the thought of judging the wicked. He is eager to pour out his mercy on undeserving sinners. And yet, Exodus 34 tells us that "he will not let the guilty go unpunished."

The question that God establishes here isn't whether or not he is good, just, or merciful. That is not the question when it comes to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. The answer is he absolutely is. If there were 10 beating hearts that loved him, that sought to serve him, God would have spared thousands of wicked, evil people. The question isn't whether or not God is good. The question is, are we? Are there 10 righteous people?

Sodom's Sin and Lot's Compromise

Which brings us to phase two: Are there 10 righteous? Look at chapter 19, verse 1.

The two angels entered Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in Sodom’s gateway. When Lot saw them, he got up to meet them. He bowed with his face to the ground and said, “My lords, turn aside to your servant’s house, wash your feet, and spend the night. Then you can get up early and go on your way.”“No,” they said. “We would rather spend the night in the square.” But he urged them so strongly that they followed him and went into his house. He prepared a feast and baked unleavened bread for them, and they ate. — Genesis 19:1-3 (CSB)

The camera cuts to Lot. And this parallels God's introduction to Abraham last week. Lot's sitting in the entrance of his hometown. He sees the angels arrive and he gets up to meet them. He bows and he asks them to spend the night. It's the exact same thing that Abraham did in the beginning of chapter 18, except instead of saying yes, the angels say no. Because Lot is no Abraham. He doesn't have the promises that Abraham received from the Lord. He's not a recipient of the covenant or this promise of a people, a place, and power. And so despite bowing before these angels and asking them to stay with him, they reject his offer.

They reject him so hard that they say that they would rather spend the night in the square than in Lot's own house. I mean, imagine that. Imagine seeing guests and you say, "Hey, come stay at my place." They go, "No, I'd rather sleep in Skid Row than be at your place." But Lot insists that they stay with him. They come over. Instead of a delicious steak dinner like last week, they get a bunch of cracker unleavened bread. Turns out Lot is no Abraham. And not only is Lot no Abraham, Sodom is no Mamre. And this city is nothing like Abraham's camp.

You get to see that in verse 4.

Before they went to bed, the men of the city of Sodom, both young and old, the whole population, surrounded the house. They called out to Lot and said, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Send them out to us so we can have sex with them!” Lot went out to them at the entrance and shut the door behind him. He said, “Don’t do this evil, my brothers. Look, I’ve got two daughters who haven’t been intimate with a man. I’ll bring them out to you, and you can do whatever you want to them. However, don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the protection of my roof.” “Get out of the way!” they said, adding, “This one came here as an alien, but he’s acting like a judge! Now we’ll do more harm to you than to them.” They put pressure on Lot and came up to break down the door. — Genesis 19:4-9 (CSB)

Doesn't take long for Sodom to show their true colors. The men of Sodom come out to take advantage of their guests. I mean, picture this: if Abraham sprinted out to serve his guests, the men of Sodom, all of them, sprint out of their homes to abuse them. This is not a slow slide into wickedness. This is immediate and it's aggressive. They tell Lot, "Give us these men."

And Lot, as a mediator, stands between these men of Sodom and these angels that have come to stay with him. And his response starts out great: "Don't do this." That's a pretty good way to start. "Please don't do this." But then he tells them, "Don't take advantage of them. Take advantage of my daughters." I don't know about you, that's bad mediation. He said, "These guys came under the protection of my roof." So he takes the two most precious things that he has under his roof and he offers them right back out.

How is this kind of thinking remotely possible? You might read stories like this and just be like, "I cannot even fathom the kind of mental leaps that it would take for you to be able to take your two daughters and offer them to be taken advantage of for the whole evening." This kind of thinking is only possible if sin corrupts you from being able to see what's right. We know from months ago that this isn't how Lot started, right? He begins a simple delusion all the way back in Genesis 13 when Lot splits from Abraham. He looks out over all the land of Canaan and he saw the entire plain of the Jordan as far as Zoar was "well watered everywhere like the Lord's garden and the land of Egypt." He couldn't tell the difference between Eden and Egypt because all he could see was that they were doing really well; they were balling. He didn't move into the city; he lived close to them. But by the time Genesis 14 rolls around, Lot moves into the city. He's in there. He's a resident of Sodom. Except in the battle, he ends up as a prisoner of war. Abraham comes and rescues him. And what you find out four chapters later is that Lot, despite going from riches to a jail cell and getting saved from that jail cell, still ends up back in that city.

Lot's problem is that he thought he could coexist with sin. And while you may not be offering up your daughters, you and I do that all the time: negotiating, justifying, sometimes even coming on the brink of destruction, getting safe from it, only to find yourself moving back in. He got comfortable cohabitating with carnality. We could think about all the different excuses for why he's content living within these boundaries of sin, how he's trying to be a good influence to them, or how everyone has their own stories for how they ended up where they are. And all those factors may be true, and yet these people, on a moment that he finally stands up to them, turn on him in an instant.

These men of Sodom... Lot spent his whole life acting like he could blend in. The moment that he stands up for his own beliefs, they treat him like an immigrant and they become a judge. Do you think that you can cohabitate with sin? You might think that things are really peaceful with your life with sin. The only reason why it is is because you're not fighting it. John Owen once said, "Be killing sin or sin will be killing you." The best that Lot could possibly offer in the face of this battalion of frenzied men is to offer a different victim for their wicked sin. In other words, Lot is a terrible mediator.

You cannot mediate sin by rationalizing it. That's exactly why we have to take sin seriously. It's part of the reason why we as a church care so much about this boundary between right Christian living and those who are not living rightly as a Christian. I'm not talking about sinning—all of us sin all the time. I'm talking about an unrepentant, serious cohabitating with sin. For those of us who profess to follow him in the church, who publicly commit to follow Jesus through church membership, we have committed to not live with sin. That the sin that we once loved becomes a sin that we hate. And we take that sin so seriously that if anyone ever gets seduced by that sin, we will take drastic steps, even removing someone from our church as a way of telling them directly upfront that sin matters, that grace matters.

The way that you and I protect each other, the way you and I administer real grace to each other isn't by compromising on the word of God, but by being clear on what the word of God says, by warning people of the judgment that is to come and pointing them to the grace that's offered with repentance and faith. That's exactly what these angels came to do with Lot. Because it turns out that the angels aren't the ones that need protecting. And you see that in verse 10.

But the angels reached out, brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the entrance of the house, both young and old, with blindness so that they were unable to find the entrance. Then the angels said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here: a son-in-law, your sons and daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of this place, for we are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people is so great before the Lord, that the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were going to marry his daughters. “Get up,” he said. “Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. — Genesis 19:10-14 (CSB)

Angels warn Lot. Lot goes to find his soon-to-be sons-in-law. He exhorts them, "Get out of the city!" And they all think that he's joking. And the reason why they think he's joking is because Lot's life was a joke. To suddenly sober up at the thought of judgment coming, he lived his whole life content with sin. Why in the world would his sons pay attention now? He lived his entire life thinking as though sin were not a big deal. And when you cohabitate with carnality, you weaken your witness just like that. You can sober up at the end of your life; you can have a dramatic shift. Unless people see that you mean it, your words will fall flat.

The Calamity and Lot's Hesitation

It's not just the sons who hesitate. It's actually Lot himself. You see that in verse 15.

At daybreak the angels urged Lot on: “Get up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away in the punishment of the city.” But he hesitated. Because of the Lord’s compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and the hands of his two daughters. They brought him out and left him outside the city. As soon as the angels got them outside, one of them said, “Run for your lives! Don’t look back and don’t stop anywhere on the plain! Run to the mountains, or you will be swept away!” But Lot said to them, “No, my lords—please. Your servant has indeed found favor with you, and you have shown me great kindness by saving my life. But I can’t run to the mountains; the disaster will overtake me, and I will die. Look, this town is close enough for me to flee to. It is a small place. Please let me run to it—it’s only a small place, isn’t it?—so that I can survive.” And he said to him, “All right, I’ll grant your request about this matter too and will not demolish the town you mentioned. Hurry up! Run to it, for I cannot do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city is Zoar. — Genesis 19:15-22 (CSB)

Dawn breaks. It was a long night. Angels exhort Lot to run, and he hesitates. This moment where every single second counts, he pauses. And God loves him too much to let him flinch his way into death. So he grabs him, brings him out of the city. The angels tell him to run, and Lot begins to negotiate. He has to talk to them because Lot has too much to lose. So he begs to keep something. He says, "Let me go to this small place. Let me go to Zoar."

If you remember in Genesis 13, that's the same place that he first went to when he separated from Abraham; he headed towards Zoar, not the mountains. See, this place wasn't as bad. It wasn't as wicked. It was just close to wickedness. He wanted to stay around there. See what Lot's doing? He's rationalizing it by minimizing the evil of that area. And by doing so, he's rationalizing and minimizing the evil in his own heart. It's a sad day when we'd rather hide in a shack next to hell than find refuge in heaven.

But despite the repeated warnings of the impending judgment, Lot is still negotiating, trying to carve out a portion of this world of sin for himself. Is that you? Does your heart want to try to negotiate to keep some sin in your life, to carve out a shed of sin in your heart? There is no part of wickedness that is worth keeping. To know that you don't have to look further than this coming judgment.

The calamity starts, verse 23.

The sun had risen over the land when Lot reached Zoar. Then out of the sky the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah burning sulfur from the Lord. He demolished these cities, the entire plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and whatever grew on the ground. But Lot’s wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. Early in the morning Abraham went to the place where he had stood before the Lord. He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and all the land of the plain, and he saw that smoke was going up from the land like the smoke of a furnace. So it was, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham and brought Lot out of the middle of the upheaval when he demolished the cities where Lot had lived. — Genesis 19:23-29 (CSB)

God rains down sulfuric judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah, and they are completely demolished. In Genesis 13, this land was described like the Garden of Eden. And in a single instant, the judgment of God turned it into a lake of fire, a tower of smoke billowing into the air. Lot's wife looks back at the calamity, and the sight alone is enough to turn her into a pillar of salt. All the hope for offspring, for seed from Lot, is calcified immediately at Lot's wife's death because she turned around. Not even participating in the calamity, just to look at it.

Are you tempted towards calamity? Even a glance could be the end of you. Jesus warns precisely of this in the day of judgment in Luke 17. He says:

It will be the same as it was in the days of Lot: People went on eating, drinking, buying, selling, planting, building. But on the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be like that on the day the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, a man on the housetop, whose belongings are in the house, must not come down to get them. Likewise the man who is in the field must not turn back. Remember Lot’s wife! Whoever tries to make his life secure will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it. — Luke 17:28-33 (CSB)

Do you pay attention to the words of Jesus when he says, "Remember Lot's wife?" Remember her turning, her draw towards sin. Remember her turning, her anchored hopes in this world. Remember her turning, her love for the things of this life. Remember Lot's wife. And do not turn. There's nothing in this world that is worth keeping. All of it will burn away.

As it turns out, there weren't 10 righteous people in Sodom. Only Lot and his daughters remain. But you can take the man out of Sodom, you can't take Sodom out of the man. 50, 45, 30, 20, 10, zero. Phase three: Is there anyone righteous?

The Persistence of Sin and Universal Guilt

Is there anyone righteous? Look at verse 30, chapter 19.

Lot departed from Zoar and lived in the mountains along with his two daughters, because he was afraid to live in Zoar. Instead, he and his two daughters lived in a cave. Then the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man in the land to sleep with us as is the custom of all the land. Come, let’s get our father to drink wine so that we can sleep with him and preserve our father’s line.” So they got their father to drink wine that night, and the firstborn came and slept with her father; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up. The next day the firstborn said to the younger, “Look, I slept with my father last night. Let’s get him to drink wine again tonight so you can go sleep with him and we can preserve our father’s line.” That night they again got their father to drink wine, and the younger went and slept with him; he did not know when she lay down or when she got up. So both of Lot’s daughters became pregnant by their father. The firstborn gave birth to a son and named him Moab. He is the father of the Moabites of today. The younger also gave birth to a son, and she named him Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites of today. — Genesis 19:30-38 (CSB)

Sin still reigns. In case you're wondering, the disgust you feel right now was just as disgusting back then. Lot's daughters, the ones who Lot would have let the men take advantage of, turn around and take advantage of their father. This is the opposite of Noah's sons who see Noah in a drunken state, Shem and Japheth enter the tent backwards to protect their father's dignity and cover his shame. In this case, it's Lot's daughters who deliberately get him drunk and desecrate him all for the sake of having kids. And those kids become the very tribes that Israel is going to contend with and seek to destroy.

50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10, zero. Turns out that the judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah didn't stop with the cities, but needs to continue with the judgment of the Moabites and the Ammonites. And Israel takes the Promised Land and conquers these nations. But Israel doesn't do that, do they? They don't complete their quest. In fact, they end up behaving like the wickedness that they were tasked with conquering. They don't conquer Sodom; they become Sodom.

Go to Judges 19. You get to see a stranger who comes into a city in Israel. He stays in an Israelite's house and the Israelites come around the door demanding that he come out so that they can abuse him. The exact same language that you see in Genesis. And the host begs them not to take advantage of his guest. And he offers his daughter. Sound familiar? And unlike Sodom, the Israelites take her and end up killing her through the abuse.

Question isn't just whether or not Lot's righteous. Question isn't just whether or not Israel's righteous. The question is, is there anyone righteous? No, not one. Not even Israel. Everyone is wicked. And that includes you and me. It's no wonder that Romans 3 says that:

There is no one righteous, not even one. There is no one who understands; there is no one who seeks God. All have turned away; all alike have become worthless. There is no one who does what is good, not even one. Their throat is an open grave; they deceive with their tongues. Vipers’ venom is under their lips. Their mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood; ruin and wretchedness are in their paths, and the path of peace they have not known. There is no fear of God before their eyes. — Romans 3:10-18 (CSB)

The issue for all of us is not that we live in Sodom. The issue is that you and I are Sodom. It's who we are. There is no one righteous. No, not one. All of us deserve to suffer in hell forever for our sin. And yet Lot was saved. Why would God bother to save anyone, let alone Lot? Because God is a merciful God. Because God remembered not Lot, but a righteous one.

Look at chapter 19, verse 29. It says that God remembered Abraham and brought Lot out. Lot was rejected. Abraham was accepted. And the Lord had compassion on Lot on account of Abraham. But who would save Abraham? I mean, he's no saint either. We read earlier several chapters back about how he gave his wife to Pharaoh and lied and said that he was his sister. You know what happens in the next chapter in Genesis 20? Abraham does the exact same thing with a different king. Abraham is no saint.

The Righteousness of Christ and True Mercy

But God doesn't just remember Abraham. He remembers the Son of Abraham. There is no one righteous except one: Jesus Christ. The one who lived the perfect life that none of us could live. And Jesus on the cross suffered the penalty of sin that you and I deserved. Abraham asks the question in Genesis 18, verse 25. He says, "You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike."

And God says, "Watch me." He treats the only righteous one as wicked so that he could treat wicked ones like you and I as though we were righteous. On the cross, God pours out the punishment that you and I deserve onto him. The sulfur of Sodom and Gomorrah are poured out on Jesus, and he bears that punishment in full. And he dies and he rose from the dead three days later, showing that that penalty is completely paid, victorious over sin and death, so that you and I don't have to suffer that punishment.

The good news for you and I is that if you turn from your sin, if you flee like Lot did and you trust in Christ, God will show you that he is a merciful God. He'll give you real mercy. Not mercy that leaves you in your sin, but that pulls you out of this fading, wicked world and places us safe with him. That doesn't just take us out of a wicked world, but takes out the wickedness that's inside of us, that makes us righteous before a holy God, a real mercy that is both just and justifying, that takes sin seriously and says grace is so much bigger.

Paul doesn't just say that all of us are not righteous in Romans 3. He also says that:

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus. — Romans 3:23-26 (CSB)

That's who God is. That's what Jesus does. He is just and the justifier. He is meticulous and he is merciful. He is godly and he is gracious. There is only one hope. There is only one man who is righteous. His name is Jesus. Will you trust in him? Will you turn from your sin and trust in this God who gives enough grace to save wicked sinners like you and I from the flaming judgment of a holy God?

Because if you do, even with all the sins of Sodom that stain your soul, with Jesus's blood, he can demonstrate his righteousness and make you clean, forgive your sins completely, and take you out of this world that is going to burn and bring you safely into the celestial city that is to come. Was ever a gift like the Savior given? No. Not one. Will he refuse us a home in heaven? No. Not one. Let's pray. We pray that you would help us to see this calamity of Sodom and Gomorrah. Help us to repent of our sin and help us to trust in this grace that's found in Christ. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.