You may be seated. Please take your copy of the scripture and turn to the book of Genesis chapter number 18. Genesis chapter number 18. Thank you once again for coming to your assigned service. It means a lot to me. Many of you have said I'm working in this ministry at eight o'clock. Can I come to the other one? Of course you can. Thank you for coming. Thank you for serving in one and worshiping in the other. I don't think that when you get to heaven, you're gonna say, I'm so sorry I spent so much time around God's people. I just don't think that'll happen. So I'm grateful. It's good to see some of you back after, I mean, let's be honest. It feels a little strange saying I ain't seen you in months. I mean, doesn't that feel a little strange? And to know that it hasn't been your fault. I love you. I'm grateful you're here. And, uh, so Genesis chapter number 18, can you hear me okay out there? I feel like, I feel like I'm kind of talking through a pipe. Can you hear me okay? Everything good? Okay. Hey, Randy, Pastor Randy, will you come up here a minute, please? Come on up here. Uh, Pastor Randy Swisher, as of, uh, late February, can you hear me? All right. He had been here serving as one of our pastors for one year. And some things happen, right? This strange thing from China came into our country and we've not been able to say thank you. So here's a gift from Sandy Ridge Baptist Church to Pastor Randy on the occasion of one year of serving with us as a pastor here. I love you. Amen. Now go and rub hand sanitizer on your jacket. Sorry about that, lost my mind for a minute. Alright, so Genesis chapter number 18, I want to give you some background on today's, this morning's passage, okay? Genesis chapter number 18. I don't know if you remember this story or not, I don't have a whole lot of time to to circle the bushes on this passage on our way to Luke. So we gotta get at it. Here's a man named Abraham, born approximately 2,000 years before Jesus comes to earth, and he is sitting in his tent. Sounds wonderful, doesn't it? Sitting in a tent. And here comes three men, chapter 18, verse one. One of them is Jehovah God. The other ones are angels. We know they're angels because chapter 19 verse 1 tells us they're angels. We're not guessing. They're called men all through chapter 18, but they are called angels in chapter 19 verse 1. They are coming, we're told in chapter 18, to stir Abraham up to pray for the righteous people in Sodom. We know that because in chapter 18, the Lord looks at the two angels and says, should we tell Abraham what we're planning on doing? In other words, dare me to tell you, right? And so they do. They tell Abraham and Abraham, as you might remember in the last part of the chapter is bargaining with the Lord. You might notice he starts out in verse number 22, the men turned away from there and went towards Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. This is chapter 18 of Genesis, verse 23. Abraham came near and said, would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked? This is a question that should have an obvious answer. The answer is no, God will not destroy the righteous with the wicked. This is much in common, if you could put that first slide up, this happens right outside of Sodom, that little green dot in the lower part of the screen, which is now getting larger, just on the southeast corner of the Dead Sea is where this takes place. And we're about to see, if you could look at the next slide with me, we're about to see the second largest destruction of wicked people in the book of Genesis. And these two, Noah and Lot, are mentioned together in tandem, not only in Jesus' preaching, Matthew, Mark, Luke, or Matthew and Luke, but also in 2 Peter 2 and in the book of Jude. Noah's flood, whereby the whole earth was flooded, and Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain being destroyed have these things in common. And because we have young ears in here, I won't tell you that I was going to add a sixth event Which is, if I could just again say it without saying it, angelic beings and intimate relations are involved in both stories. Or at least attempted in chapter 19 with the city of Sodom. So here's Abraham concerned about his loved ones, probably 10 of them, in Sodom. The hint is that you have him finally ending his bargaining at the end of chapter 18 with the number 10. That would mean that you have Lot and his wife, who is named in other non-biblical sources, but she's not named in the Bible. So you have Lot, his wife, their virgin daughters, that's four, sons-in-law is plural in the book of Genesis chapter 19. And so he has at least two sons-in-law, and since they would both have other daughters of Lot's, that gets us to eight. So all we would need for a lot to have 10 people in his families, for him to have three sons-in-law instead of assuming two, and then you have 10. But anyway, the verse 23 where Abraham says, would you really destroy the wicked with the righteous? And then in chapter number 19, The story begins, or I should say rather continues, in verse number 17. It came to pass, chapter 19, verse 17, when they, the angels, brought them, that's Lot, his wife, and their two virgin daughters, brought them outside, that he said, escape for your life, do not look behind you, nor stay anywhere in the plain, escape to the mountains, lest you be destroyed. Okay, and so all through this passage, we have the wicked people being overthrown and destroyed. And so what happens in between Abraham's prayer and the actual escape from Sodom? Well, something happens between and then something happens after. What happens between is that these two angels come to Lot's house in the city of Sodom. And what takes place in verse number one, Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. What is he doing there? Well, he's kind of one of the bigwigs now in town. He's sitting in the gate of Sodom because that's where important people who led the city sat and heard cases like judges and made decisions like a city council and like a jurisdiction body, if we could. And so here's Lot, he's pretty important now. And he's sitting in the front gate of Sodom. And here come the angels, and it's almost night. You might notice from your first couple chapters of Genesis that a day begins with evening. Therefore, both tonight when the angels got to their town and tomorrow when Lot sees the cities burning, it's one day. That'll matter when we get to Luke. But anyways, it's nearly night, and in verse number two, Lot says to the two angels, here now, my lords, please turn into your servant's house and spend the night. Wash your feet, then you may rise early and go on your way. And they said, no, we will spend the night in the open square. Verse three, Lot insisted strongly. So they turned into him and entered his house. And then he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread and they ate. Now there, before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, get this, young men and old men. This is in your Bible. Young men and old men. All the people from every quarter surrounded the house. Sodom is mobbing around Lot's home now. And it says in verse number four, verse number five, they called to Lot. They're beating through the door and they're saying, Lot, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them to us so we may know them. The new King James adds a word so that you may know what's actually being said, so that we may know them carnally. I don't think I need to tell you, although these are biblical realities, that I hope that you will teach your children from the same Bible that these people exist in our world, that they are not interested in the chastity of your children. They are interested in doing whatever they want to with your children. These people exist in today's world as well. This is a sick world being described in Sodom. around the year 1900 BC. This is a disgusting world. And here they are wanting to mob and take these two men, yes, men gathered around the house and wanting to take these two men. It's terrible, isn't it? And they want to have them to do with them unspeakable things. Don't worry parents, I'm, I'm easing up a bit. So Lot went out to them through the doorway and shut the door behind him and said, please, my brethren, do not do so wickedly. And then Lot does something here that leads us to believe that he has been far more affected by the culture of Sodom than he should have been. He says, I have, verse eight, two daughters who have not known a man. Now, if you want to know what no there means, you just see what the word no means at the end of verse five. There you have it. They've not known a man carnally. Please let me bring them out to you and you may do to them as you wish. What is wrong with Lot? Only do nothing to these men since this is the reason they have come under the shadow of my roof. And they said, stand back. Then they said, this one came in to stay here and he keeps acting as a judge. Now we'll 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 and pulled lot into the house with them and shut the door. Look what they did. These two men, the angels, verse 11, they struck the men who are at the doorway of the house with blindness. both small and great. So think about a 10-year-old and a 50-year-old trying to break into Lot's house to get to these male visitors, these angels. Now if we, I wish, if we were in a men's meeting or if I could say things where I knew that little ears weren't gonna ask you questions over lunch that would terribly embarrass you, I would say exactly in bold language what they are trying to do, and the angels blinded them. And what did this do to them? Did they sit back and irrationally consider that they have been blinded by angels that they wanted to be with? Was there any rational thinking whatsoever? No. At the end of verse 11, they became weary trying to find the door. These same people that were blinded by the angels that they sought to be with, these same people are reaching for the doorknob. I think we have two dynamics in play here that I hope everyone will keep learning from. One, there's a solid chance, there's a very good chance that you will do things with a mob that you would never do by yourself. And two, Once you start letting your desire for intimacy steer your life, you rarely start thinking with the brain that's in your head. You justify it by God wants me happy. We justify it in a number of different ways, and yet, it seems as though we are being taught here some anthropology. Mankind hasn't changed that much. And so, What do you think would happen here? Mrs. Lott is sitting in the house. She is watching what has just happened. She has seen the change in her husband. He used to be fine just sitting in the gate. Then he got invited to all the feasts and happy times. He started taking part as if he himself were a Sodomite, a man from Sodom. She gets used to her husband being a big wig. He's a judge sitting in the gates. She likes the way her husband is important because it makes her feel important too. She's fallen in love with Sodom because her husband fell in love with Sodom. And for the second time in the book of Genesis, at least, we have the downfall of a lady because a husband has capitulated his role at protecting the heart and mind of his wife. How do I know that? Well, because they're already outside the city, and now here is Lot and his family. They are leaving, verse number 16, while he lingered, the men took hold of his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being merciful to them, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. A note of application, if you feel like God is making you do things that you don't want to do, it could be that he is saving you from something. God is being merciful to Lot and his family, the ones that would come with him, the ones that were still under his care, and God is removing him from a place he would rather be, and it is to save him. Don't turn everything into a conversation about heaven and hell, not yet. Saving him from a destroyed Sodom. This is a lot like the story of the Garden of Eden. Again, we make reflections back to the story of the Garden of Eden, where God puts a flaming sword on the way to the Tree of Life. That's an act of mercy. If Adam and Eve can get to the Tree of Life, they are forever preserved, so long as they have access to that tree. in their fallen state away from God. It was an act of mercy for God to put Adam and Eve outside the garden. It's an act of mercy for God to move Lot and his family outside of Sodom. But wait, there's not 10 of them. What happened? Well, somewhere along the line, this Lot who fell in love with Sodom, and remember the Sodom that you and I would describe this morning is awful. Every male that you know is surrounding the visitors and their host. Every man, old and young, from every quarter of the city, it says, is surrounding this household to have these male angels. To have them. That's the Sodom you and I would be describing, and it is a Sodom that Lot has fallen in love with. It's a Sodom that he has become a leader in. It's a Sodom that he has become such a lover of, that he had to be drug out of there. And can we just say that he tries to get his sons-in-law, verse 14, Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law who had married his daughters and said, get up, get out of this place for the Lord will destroy the city. But to his sons-in-law, he seemed to be joking. I know I'm way up here on this three or four foot platform. I feel a great distance from so many of you, but I wish I could come and sit next to you and just tell you that you are training your children by what you take seriously when life is normal. And the reason that Lot's sons-in-law thought he was mocking is because Lot never acted serious about anything like this before. I would hate to think that my Leah and Jacob and Bethany and my grandchildren will look at me one day and seem like one that just jokes about religion. Just kind of does it for fun. It's kind of my fire insurance. Here it costs potentially, and we could get in discussions all you want about free will. Well, his sons-in-law had a free will, his daughters had a free will. But just pause on that for a second and consider how much responsibility Lot will have at the judgment for his sons-in-law and his daughters. I'm concerned about that. And I'm concerned also, if I could just speak as your pastor for a minute, I'm concerned that I'm doing the right thing. I'm always convicted about how I talk about you around my wife. Because it's really important when you see in verse number 30, you see that Lot goes up out of Zoar and dwelt in the mountains and his two daughters were with him. Well, where is wifey? Where is Mrs. Lot? And you see what happens is in verse 23, the sun had risen upon the earth when Lot entered Zoar and the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of heaven. Next slide, please. So he overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities. What grew on the ground, look here, verse 26, but his wife looked back behind him and she became a pillar of salt. This really makes me as a leader in my home, as a leader in this church, as a leader in my community, as a leader in the military, it makes me really, really watch myself. Boy, I hope it continues to increase the sobriety wherewith I walk in my daily life to think that yes, my decisions actually affect my wife. How she sees the Lord, how she sees warnings about the Lord, My children will react, my children-in-law will react based on how serious I take these things when normal life is going on. And remember, I'm trying to take us and slap us with the text and get us good and close. I'm trying to smooth out the bumps between 1900 BC, 1850 BC, maybe 1820 BC. I'm trying to smooth the bumps out between that and 2020 hickory. because it's really important that you feel the connection with the passage. You see, if I take two mirrors and I put them face to face with each other, they are so smooth you have to slide them apart or you'll break one of them because the bumps are gone. There's so much connection at the molecular level that you don't have to apply glue or epoxy or paste. You just put them together and they stay. And so what I'm trying to do is take these ancient words and smooth them out and just say normal, everyday, Sodom. he got used to it and before you knew it, he fit in just fine. It wasn't, it wasn't that hard for a lot to fit in. So now let's take that and let's look at Luke 17. Hey listen, I fit this in in the early service, don't worry. I know your pot roast is cooking, I'm just, I had to set the groundwork. Let's get to Luke 17. I'm watching the clock. I don't like long-winded preachers any more than you do. Luke 17. But this is so important. We do this every Sunday morning because our souls need it. Tonight at six o'clock, I'll be bringing a message. What's the difference between Daniel one and Daniel six? That's be very important for your theology of civil authority and how we ought to obey it and how long we ought to obey it. And we're going to have a discussion. It will not be didactic. It will not be one way. I hope you'll come. And so in verse number 24 from last Sunday night, verse 26, you know that we finished our passage on Noah as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the son of man. They ate, drank, married wives, were given in marriage until the day that the Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Verse 28, likewise as it was also in the days of Lot. So here we are. The question was asked to me during small group, how in the world do you understand what you understand if you're just coming at the text? That's why we need teachers and pastors to help us. Because sometimes when we look at the days of Lot, there are so many people who are sitting in here this morning, you probably have not read Genesis 19, and I don't dislike you for it, but that's why we took the time to do it. You are now aware of the days of Lot. Ask yourself, would you have finished this verse the way that Luke did? All right, days of Lot. Okay, I know how I would describe it. They were so filthy, they did this and this and this and this. Let's see how the Lord describes it. Luke 17. So likewise, was it also in the days of Lot, verse 28, they ate, they drank. Okay. All right. They bought. They sold. Huh. All right. I'm looking for the angels. I'm looking for the gang you know what, the attempted gang thing. I'm looking for that. I'm looking for the filthy Sodom stuff that we usually think about. And so far, I'm thoroughly disappointed. I'm not finding the smut in the verse that I was hoping for to legitimize my myopic view of how awful the world is. How they get caught up in nasty junk. They. Right? And Jesus is about to turn the tables here. so that the mirror is brought to the mirror, so that we're brought in close connection with the passage. How is he going to do that? They planted and they built. They were being very productive, good citizens. It almost sounds like American suburbia all over again. They trimmed the hedge. They went to Walmart. They were in real estate. They worked at a factory. It's like, okay. That's what you would say about the days of Lot? I can do way better than that, Jesus. What is going on here? I mean, you read Genesis 19. Is this how you would describe the days of Lot and Sodom? They were just, you know, good, responsible people. They just did stuff, you know, day after day. Bought and sold, ate and drank, planted and built. They had gardens. They had, you know, brick ovens in the backyard. They were just happy people. Oh, man, okay. But on the day, verse 29, that Lot went out of Sodom. It rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Well, that is a strange turn if you don't know the story of Lot. All of a sudden, the city park is burning. So is my house. Everything that I hold dear is burning up. Everything that I count as normal, everyday living is gone. All right? In verse 30, even so will it be in the days when the Son of Man is revealed. That word revealed there is where we get our word apocalypse. Apocalypse is not an English word, it's a Greek word turned English, we call it transliteration. So this is an apocalypse. And by the way, this is, Jesus is about to say something here that hopefully you'll get. I would need help. He says, in that day, he who is on the housetop and his goods are in his house, let him not come down to take them away. And likewise, the one who's in the field, let him not turn back. And then, goodness, three words. Remember Lot's wife. My goodness, I mean, remember Lot's wife? You'll notice the slide behind me. Jesus expects the reader, the listener, his listener, Luke expects his reader to flash back to Genesis 19 and to grab hold of what happened to Lot's wife. We have three remembers in the book of Luke. We have Abraham telling the rich man in hell, remember your good life. We have the thief on the cross saying to Jesus, remember me when you come as king. Here's right in the middle, remember Lot's wife. What? The only time Jesus tells us to remember anything in the gospel of Luke. Think about this. You're supposed to put a handle on something to remember from Luke's gospel. What should it be? What should a gospel-loving, soul-saved, blood-bought, born-again, spirit-filled disciple of Jesus, what should he grab out of the Gospel of Luke at the end of the study and run away with? Remember Lot's wife. Why should we remember Lot's wife? Because she is the one who almost got saved. She didn't turn into a pillar of salt in Sodom. She didn't even turn into a pillar of salt because she was from Sodom. She turned into a pillar of salt outside of Sodom because she looked back with affection to Sodom. And we are supposed to remember Lot's wife. And then we're told in verse 33, look what Jesus does. This is very important. This is why the words that God picked to put on the page are very important. Watch what Jesus does. We're landing this thing. Are you paying attention? Do I still have you? Good, look at verse 33. Whoever seeks to save, look at this. I mean, if I was telling a story about a woman, what word would I use? If I really wanted to drive it home and make you think that I'm just misogynistic, chauvinistic, what word would I use here? Whoever seeks to save her life, something like that, right? Woman, Nikki Stern, pay attention. Are you paying attention? Don't try to save your life, you'll lose it, sister. It doesn't say that. Whoever seeks to save his life will lose it. Now, come on here a minute. Jesus is right here now turning the attention back to the disciples. The disciples, they remember Lot's wife. Good thing we're not like her. And then Jesus, by changing the pronoun to male, reminds them he's actually talking about them. Now, how do I know that? Because verse 22, it says he is speaking to his disciples. And so it is male disciples in the context that are supposed to be paying attention to what happened to a female in the Old Testament when she couldn't let go of good old-fashioned suburbia. No, no, no. She couldn't let go of that nasty, sex-crazed Sodom. That's not how Jesus describes it. He describes it as eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. So we're tempted in this passage to put space between us and that nasty world that we should remember by, Jesus does it by putting the disciples on the spot and then all of us who claim to be followers of Jesus are thereby included because he is now, verse 22, speaking to his disciples. And that is everyone in the room who says that they love Jesus and are saved by the blood. All of a sudden, verse 34, Jesus then says, I tell you, in that night there will be two men in one bed. One will be taken, the other left. You shouldn't see that as some kind of reference to, well, that means that in the last days there will be lots of homosexuality. It's not intended on being quite that specific. Two men will be sleeping because they work together. They'll be sleeping around the same time. If you've ever been in the military, you get this. Verse 35, two women will be grinding together. Again, nothing crazy going on there. Don't look for euphemisms. It's talking about they work together. One will be taken the other left. Verse 36, two men will be in the field. The one be taken and the other left. In other words, it will be night at some parts of the world, day in some parts of the world. Some will be in bed, some will be working, some will be sleeping, some will be working hard, some will be toiling in the hot sun. And at a moment's notice, one will be removed, the other left. Some have said there's a reference to the rapture. Maybe, but contextually I don't think so. Because we've already been told in Genesis that God sweeps away the wicked and that he would not sweep away the righteous with the wicked. So although I do believe in a rapture, I do not believe that is what is being discussed here. I think that in these three couplets, these three verses, you actually want to be not the person taken in a rapture, you want to be the person left after the judgment passes through and sweeps away the wicked. But that is a note of interpretation that's probably not nearly as important as you understanding that the Lord said, there'll be so many dead people, you just follow the birds. Verse 37, they said to him, where, Lord? He said, wherever the body is, there the eagles will be gathered together. And so, no kidding, I just want to remind you, it's not just the disciples of Jesus in A.D. 30 who are expecting the return or the apocalypse of the Son of Man, verse number 30. It is also you and I. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 1 verse 8, he will confirm you to the end as you wait for the apocalypse of the Lord Jesus Christ. Christians in Corinth were told that they would be waiting and are waiting for the same apocalypse of Jesus Christ, the unveiling and the revealing. Need more? 1 Peter chapter 1 verse 14, Peter says, as obedient children, gird up the loins of your mind and hope to the end for the grace that we've brought to you at the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ. Jesus says his disciples are waiting for the Apocalypse. Paul says his disciples are waiting for the Apocalypse. Peter says the disciples are waiting for the Apocalypse. The only people who aren't sure whether they're waiting for the Apocalypse are Christians today. When in reality, the scripture's very clear. At least, if we're not going to major on absolute nastiness of Genesis 19, maybe we can talk about the news, and we could say, filthy America, as they await the coming of Jesus, as they riot in the streets. No, I don't wanna make much of the sin of our land, because for every city that you heard about in the news, there are a hundred that didn't riot last night. Thank God. For every exploited, botched up arrest, there were hundreds of good police officers that made clean arrests just last night. Thousands. And for everything that we want to say about high school dropouts or drug use, you and I have been attending high school graduations for weeks now, virtually perhaps, where good young people who love Jesus have graduated And so we are left with boring, beautiful realities. We have to assume, as we did in this chapter, that Jesus' indictment was on simple amusement, comfortable people, and everyone in here can identify with that. Brothers and sisters, friends of Jesus, disciples of the Most High, disciples, children of the Most High, disciples of our great God and King Jesus Christ, can I just remind all of us, as delicately as a pastor can, that Jesus does not expect us to be covered up with sins of immorality when he returns. He knows that his disciples are gonna be tempted with over-obsession. with eating and drinking, building and planting, buying and selling. And so this is nothing but a Lord's Day reminder that it isn't the big sins that trips up most Christians. It is being good little boys and girls that will trip up many of us in the wake of the Lord's return. May God help us to focus more on being good Americans and good little boys and girls. May God help us to remember that our Lord is returning and he will punish the wicked. So maybe today, maybe there's someone on your heart that you need to be praying for because the son of man is returning.