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[0:00] The following message is given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee.! For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at TrinityGraceAthens.com.

[0:15] Genesis 19, verse 1. The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom.

[0:28] When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face on the earth and said, My lords, please turn aside to your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet.

[0:44] Then you may rise early and go on your way. They said, No, we will spend the night in the town square. But he pressed them strongly.

[0:58] So they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man surrounded the house.

[1:18] And they called to Lot, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.

[1:30] Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, and said, I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man.

[1:45] Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.

[1:59] But they said, Stand back. And they said, This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge. Now we will deal worse with you than with them.

[2:12] Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. But the men reached out their hands, and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door.

[2:25] And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out, groping for the door.

[2:35] Then the men said to Lot, Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-laws, sons, daughters, anyone you have in the city, bring them out of this place.

[2:50] For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it. So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, Up!

[3:07] Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy this city. But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.

[3:18] As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.

[3:33] But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him.

[3:46] And they brought him out and set him outside the city. And they brought them out. As they brought them out, one said, Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley.

[3:59] Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away. And Lot said to them, Oh no, my lords. Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life.

[4:13] But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one.

[4:23] Let me escape there. Is it not a little one? And my life will be saved. And he said to him, Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken.

[4:39] Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. The sun had risen, verse 23, the sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar.

[4:54] Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. He overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.

[5:09] But Lot's wife behind him looked back. She became a pillar of salt. And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord.

[5:28] And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the valley. And he looked, and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace. So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham.

[5:48] And sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.

[6:00] May God bless the hearing and the preaching of his word. There are two young fish swimming along, and they come upon an older fish.

[6:17] The older fish says, Morning, boys. How's the water? The young fish swim on a bit further, and then one turns to the other and says, What is water?

[6:30] What is water? Now, quite obviously, fish live in water. Fish swim in water.

[6:41] Fish eat in water. Fish rest in water. Fish continually need to absorb water to live. Fish are always surrounded by water. Is there anything that should be more obvious to a fish than water?

[6:54] Fish are always surrounded by water. And yet, the parable, so to speak, is appropriate, because it's the things that should be most obvious that we tend to forget and fail to realize the effect upon us.

[7:11] This morning, we come to the story of the judgment of God on Sodom and Gomorrah, but the Lord rains down judgment on the wicked sinners who live there. But threading through chapters 13 through 19 is a gradual drifting of Lot.

[7:29] The Lord calls Abraham and his nephew Lot, if you remember, a couple weeks ago, out of the land of Mesopotamia to the land that he will show them. But when Abraham and Lot spread out, so to speak, Lot journeys to the east.

[7:45] And we know the east is a bad direction in Genesis. Look in verse 13. We have it for you. Chapter 13, 11 through 13. Lot chose for himself all the Jordan Valley, and Lot journeyed east.

[8:01] Now, the author of Genesis, Moses, is telling us something here. Thus, they separated from each other. That is, Abram and Lot. Abram settled in the land of Canaan, while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom.

[8:22] Now, the men of Sodom were wicked, great sinners against the Lord. So, Lot journeys to the east. Lot journeys to the city.

[8:34] Now, God's not against cities, but he's against people that unite in ungodliness. And Lot settles as far as Sodom.

[8:46] What is alerted already and what continues to be alerted in chapters 13 through 19 is Lot is drifting, so much so that when we find Lot in our text, he's no longer living in a tent.

[8:57] He has a house. He's laid down roots like a fish surrounded by water without realizing it. Lot has drifted to the point that he's surrounded by the wickedness of Sodom with little sense that anything is wrong.

[9:14] The story alerts us to the reality of the wrath of God that will be poured out on unrighteousness and godliness of men. But more importantly, I think for us, it alerts us to the ever-present danger of drifting.

[9:29] Sinclair Ferguson says there's nothing so easy as drifting. What do you need to do to slow down and go backwards in the Christian life?

[9:41] Nothing. Drifting is the easiest thing in the world. It's swimming against the tide that requires effort.

[9:51] And the Christian life is against the tide all the way. All you have to do to get slower and to go backwards in the Christian life is to begin to drift.

[10:05] No one sets out to neglect prayer. No one decides to neglect fellowship. No one decides to disregard their heart or their conscience.

[10:16] They drift there gradually. They gradually neglect the best things with little compromises and little accommodations with little sense that anything is wrong until it is almost too late.

[10:34] So these verses alert us to the ever-present danger and call us to living faith in Jesus Christ. In a word where we're going, the only way to escape the wrath that come is by living faith in Jesus Christ.

[10:46] So we're going to break this out as the narrative does. The first is the Lord warns judgment is coming. The Lord warns judgment is coming.

[10:58] This text kind of breaks into three scenes. And the first one is the angels coming to Sodom to warn that judgment is coming. Now if we were to look back at Genesis 18, the Lord and these two angels appeared to Abraham.

[11:13] And the Lord tells them that they've come down to go to Sodom to destroy it because of the outcry of wickedness. And so the two angels are going into Sodom and they go in a pair because two witnesses are acquired by the law.

[11:30] So they're going to confirm, is it really as bad as the outcry says? Now obviously God does not need to read a newspaper.

[11:41] He does not need to do background work. But God sends these two witnesses to show that he is the innocent and the righteous judge. When they arrive in Sodom, Lot greets them and welcomes them.

[11:55] You see that in verse 19. 19, the two angels came, Lot's waiting at the city gates. And Lot saw them. He rose to meet them, bowed his face to the ground and said, Come to my house.

[12:08] Lot seems to be a great host. If you look back in Genesis 18, Abraham was a great host to the Lord and these two angels as well, welcoming the strangers in the house.

[12:20] So it seems he's a great host. And yet his repeated insistence. Look there, he says in verse 2, please turn aside. They said, No, we're going to stay in the town square.

[12:35] Which is not uncommon in those days. But look at verse 3. But he pressed them strongly. These insistence languages should leave us wondering whether trouble is on the horizon.

[12:49] And we don't have to wait long. Before they lay down to sleep at Lot's house, trouble arise. The men of the city. Look at verse 4. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house and said, Where are these men?

[13:08] Bring them out so that we might know them. Now, this is one of the hardest texts in Scripture to read in a public setting.

[13:26] Because of how wicked Sodom is and how heinous sin is. But all the men of the city, Genesis is underlining, Moses is underlining, young and old to the last man is alerting us to what's going on, to the great sin in this city.

[13:48] They sin, firstly, by failing to show proper hospitality. You know, sometimes we can think of hospitality as an option, an optional extra for the Christian life.

[14:01] But for the Christian, again and again and again, God commands us to bring in the stranger, to welcome the poor and the needy.

[14:13] It's a massive category in Scripture. And so they fail to do it. They fail to welcome the stranger, the poor and the needy, and it's a sin. Ezekiel 16, reviewing the sin of Sodom, look at what it says.

[14:29] Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy.

[14:43] The only thing the angels had to eat was some unleavened bread. It's so different. Genesis 18, what Abraham provided for them.

[14:58] They failed to show proper hospitality, but they also sinned by seeking unnatural sexual relations with the two male strangers. They're seeking to commit the sin of homosexuality.

[15:13] Now, some have tried to minimize what's going on in this passage and say the problem was just that they were not hospitable, not kind, not welcoming. But is that what Lot is pleading about when he says, don't act so wickedly, don't do this thing?

[15:30] I don't think this is about merely a lack of hospitality. Others have tried to explain the problem of their sexual sin was that they were pursuing unwanted sexual relations with these men, as if to say the homosexual relations are fine if wanted and consensual, but that doesn't hold up.

[15:52] The New Testament confirms in Jude 7 that the sin was the habitual pattern of unnatural sexual relations.

[16:02] Look in Jude 7, we have this for you, just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire.

[16:20] Not merely saying homosexuality is wrong and sinful, but will require the judgment of God like all sin.

[16:32] The Bible repeatedly declares all forms of homosexuality is unnatural and sinful. 1 Corinthians 6, 9, and 10 says, Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?

[16:45] Do not be deceived, neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.

[17:00] Now, obviously, it's very clear, homosexuality, men who practice homosexuality is on that list, but there's also a lot of other things on that list. But this morning, for our purposes, homosexual desires, homosexual relations are dishonorable, unnatural, and sinful.

[17:16] Now, we live in a culture that is constantly seeking to persuade us that homosexual desires are fixed and unchanging, that they are something that someone cannot control, that we must learn to accept them as they are.

[17:33] After all, how can you tell someone who they must love? Did God really say who we must love? And this aggressive agenda is everywhere.

[17:48] Now, we can affirm, of all people, that these things feel very natural because sin warps us down to our heart, not merely to our behavior. But we see this aggressive agenda everywhere.

[18:01] The San Francisco Gay Men's Chorale sings, We're coming for your children. If we can't convert them, we'll convert you. Businesses join the cause and fly pride flags.

[18:13] Even TV shows like Blue's Clues have pride parades. Church leaders encouraging parents to affirm their children's homosexual desires and relations to affirm and support parents and their LGBTQ plus children.

[18:28] Now, this is such a complex issue, and we have a lot of compassion, but we must oppose the lie. But Lot goes outside to appeal to them.

[18:42] You remember that? In verse 7, he goes out to them, and he says, I beg you, don't do this wicked thing. Behold, I have two daughters.

[18:53] Do to them as you please. He knew the great evil of homosexuality, but he failed to see the evil and given up his daughters.

[19:08] What a hypocrite. Sadly, one of the challenges that have come from those who practice homosexuality to the conservative church's position has been hypocrisy.

[19:20] How can you, who support no-fault divorce and indulge in pornography rail against committed homosexual relationships? In the church, we must oppose sexual immorality in all its forms.

[19:34] This is not pleasing to God, what Lot does here. This is despicable. Lot steps out to rescue the strangers, but the strangers end up rescuing him.

[19:53] They strike the men with blindness, pull him back inside, and warn him that judgment is coming. What we're supposed to see here is they came, they saw, they confirmed that the sins of Sodom are great, and so they warn him.

[20:09] Look in verse 12. Have you, anyone else, sons-in-laws, sons, daughters, anyone else in the city, bring them out of the place. For we're about to destroy this place because the outcry against his people has become great for the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.

[20:26] This word for destroy is the same word used in Genesis 6, 13 in reference to the worldwide flood. The Lord is warning. Sin demands a judgment, and the angels are warning judgment is coming.

[20:43] And then this scene concludes this first scene. Look in verse 14. Lot went out, and he said to his sons-in-law, Up! Get out of this place! And they thought he was just joking.

[20:58] Like a crazed man downtown saying the end is at hand, Lot's warning appears to be little more than a joke. What happened to Lot?

[21:13] Look how he drifted, trying to warn these friends. They just think, Ah! Lot's no religious man. Point two, the Lord urges, escape the judgment now.

[21:26] escape the judgment now. The next scene is defined by the angels urging Lot and his family to escape the coming judgment while there is still time.

[21:41] Look in verse 15. As morning dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, Up! Take your wife, your two daughters, who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.

[21:52] The night of darkness and sin is over. The morning is dawning. The angels are urging Lot to get out, lest he and his wife and his two daughters be swept away.

[22:05] But look at what it says next. These three agonizing words. Verse 16, But he lingered. Lot heard that the judgment was coming.

[22:20] Lot believed the judgment was coming. Lot even warned others that the judgment was coming, but he lingered. When did he linger? The morning of the judgment.

[22:32] Where did he linger? Inside the city gates. Why did he linger? Perhaps like an elderly person visiting the sea for what might be the last time.

[22:45] They're just taking it in one last time. Maybe that's what it is. He wanted to look around at his home one last time. Is that why he lingered? I don't think so.

[22:56] He lingered because he didn't want to leave. Perhaps he's an unbeliever wrestling with whether to leave everything to follow the Lord.

[23:06] Surely that's it. Surely that's what kept him standing in the city gates of Sodom. But the New Testament tells us that's not it at all. New Testament tells us that Lot is a righteous, sincere believer.

[23:21] The New Testament tells us that Lot is not unlike you or me. He's a sincere believer. He's a child of the promise. He is among the people of God. But he lingers.

[23:31] Why does he linger? Perhaps he wanted to hold on to the possessions he had gained, the house he owned, not wandering around with the people of God.

[23:43] Perhaps he wanted the security he achieved in his settled life, not waiting on the people of God. Perhaps he wanted the status he attained, being known in the city, not forgotten among the nameless people of God.

[23:59] We don't know all of why he lingered. But we must wrestle with the question, do we linger? We must remember that we have less reasons to linger than Lot.

[24:18] Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 11. He says, Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day.

[24:32] But I tell you, it will be more tolerable on the day of judgment for the land of Sodom than for you. What's he saying?

[24:44] Chorazin! Bethsaida! You have much more reasons to listen and to turn than them. And because of that, the stricter judgment.

[24:56] What would the Sodomites come and say to us? Oh, you have the scriptures.

[25:09] Like, you have the scriptures. You have the rest of the Old Testament. You have the story of the burning bush. You have the story of the plagues coming down on Egypt.

[25:21] You have the Red Sea. You have the man on the mountain who reveals himself as the Lord, the Lord of God, merciful and gracious, slow to anger and steadfast love. Oh, you have the New Testament as well.

[25:36] You have not merely the promise. You have the fulfillment. You have Jesus Christ. You have the cross. You have the towering figures of the faith as well.

[25:48] Augustine, Luther, Calvin, Owen, Edwards, Packer, and others. You have the hymns. My hope is built on nothing. Unless you have that.

[26:00] You have the catechism. We have every reason not to linger. But do we? Do we return to the bottle when we know there'll be no help for us there?

[26:18] Do we return to the mirror to obsess over our appearance? Do we indulge in gossip and slander when our conscience is opposing us?

[26:31] Do we stay up late when we know we'll be alone in the house and temptation will be waiting for us? Do we still return to the same friends, the same situations, the same late night indulgences of games or whatever?

[26:47] are we sitting in Sodom? Like, did we throw the camping chair down in Sodom?

[27:03] Expecting our lives to change. The urging of this verse is do not linger. Do not linger. J.C. Ryle famously says, would you be ready for Christ at his second appearing?

[27:18] Your lamp burning, yourself bold and prepared to meet him? Then do not linger. Would you enjoy much sensible comfort in your religion?

[27:29] Feel the witness of the spirit within you? Know whom you have believed and not be a gloom and melancholy Christian? I want that. Then do not linger.

[27:41] Would you enjoy strong assurance of your own salvation in the day of sickness and on the bed of death? Would you see with the eye of faith heaven opening and Jesus rising to receive you?

[27:54] Then, beloved, do not linger. Would you leave broad evidences behind you when you are gone? Isn't that what you want? Do you want broad evidences of you when you are gone?

[28:06] Would you like us to lay you in the grave with comfortable hope and talk of your state after death without a doubt? Then do not linger.

[28:17] Would you be useful to the world in your day and generation? Would you draw men from sin to Christ and make your masters called beautiful in their eyes? Then, beloved, do not linger.

[28:28] Oh, let not one of us linger. Time does not linger. Death does not linger. Judgment does not linger. The devil does not linger. The world does not linger. Neither let the children of God linger.

[28:46] Today can be the day of salvation. Today can rewrite the script. One of my favorite conversion stories in the whole New Testament is the thief on the cross because that day he went from being the thief on the cross to the one who said today, the one of whom he said, today you'll be in paradise.

[29:04] You can change your life, your legacy, everything right now by faith in Jesus Christ. And look what happens next. So Lot lingers but then, verse 16b, the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city.

[29:27] Oh my, my, what a merciful God. What a gracious God. He seizes him by the hand, drags him out. The spirit is willing as the Lord said.

[29:40] But the flesh is so weak. This verse should give us so much hope. Is there hope for the men of Sodom? Hope for the sexual immoral?

[29:51] Is there hope for the repeat offenders? There is. One of my favorite conversion stories, besides the thief on the cross I guess, is the story of Augustine.

[30:03] The 4th century African, Augustine, tells of his sexual immorality and his debauchery in his little book, Confessions. It's a fabulous book. Talk to me and I'll tell you the best translation because there's like 50.

[30:18] Gradually, the Lord brought him to an end of himself. He began to see that his main problem was not intellectual. Now he was an intellectual man in all sorts of philosophies of the day.

[30:29] But he began to see that his main problem is that he needed his affections to change. He needed a new heart. That's the story of the Bible. While living in Milan, he went into a garden alone with the Lord and was tortured by a barrage of questions.

[30:48] Will you ever be content? How long will you continue to say, tomorrow I'll do it, tomorrow I'll do it, tomorrow I'll do it. How many times have you said that? Tomorrow I'll do it, tomorrow I'll do it. This will change. Why not make an end to those ugly sins now?

[31:03] Suddenly he tells us in Augustine's, in the Confessions, he overheard a group of children playing, saying, tolelege, tolelege, tolelege. Translation, take and read, take and read, take and read.

[31:19] He took it as a word from the Lord, flopped open the scriptures, read the first passage on which his eyes fell. Romans 13, let us walk properly as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual morality or sensuality, not in quarreling or jealousy, but put on the Lord Jesus Christ.

[31:42] Make no provision for the flesh to gratify its desires. He commented, I had no wish to read more and no need to do so.

[31:57] For in an instance, as I came to the end of that sentence, the sentence, it was as though the light of confidence flooded into my heart and all the darkness of doubt was dispel.

[32:10] where else is the Lord going to find the children of God but by plundering the ranks of Satan?

[32:25] Is there hope? Yeah, there's hope. They bring him out. It's amazing. Escape for your life.

[32:37] Don't look back. Escape to the hills. But Lot says, I want to go to another city. What's going on?

[32:54] It's underlining God's mercy to just a hapless, double-minded, doubting fellow. Somebody we can relate to. You can take the man out of Sodom but you can't take Sodom out of the man.

[33:05] He wants to go back to a city. It's a sad ending. Point three, the Lord brings judgment. The Lord brings judgment.

[33:19] The third scene describes the judgment of God. The sun is now fully risen. As Jesus promised, all that is hidden will be revealed at the judgment.

[33:32] So the judgment does not fall in the night where some things are concealed. The judgment comes in the morning when all is brought to light. Look at verse 19, 24. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven and he overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground.

[33:56] Scientists argue that this is an earthquake causing sulfur and fire to rain down. That may indeed be so but the text makes it clear it was the Lord.

[34:09] The Lord rained down. Sulfur and fire was from the Lord. The text couldn't be more clear. But even though Lot's wife makes it out of the city, look what happens to her.

[34:24] Verse 26, but Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Sodom was reduced to ruin. Lot's wife became a monument of disobedience.

[34:39] Though her body was outside Sodom, her heart was still there. Let me remind you the Israelites longed to be back in Egypt where they ate fish while they were slaves.

[34:57] Jesus said, remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it. Whoever loses his life for my sake will keep it. Be careful what you hold on to.

[35:09] The rest of the scriptures tell us that the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is an example to us. This example is telling us about the holiness of God, the seriousness of sin, and the inevitability of judgment.

[35:25] It's written for our instructions, Romans 15, 4 says, written for encouragement and endurance. It's written to help us persevere. It's helping to prepare us for the final judgment.

[35:39] Several weeks ago, our family played one of our favorite board games, Ticket to Ride. If you ever played this game, it unfolds a map of the United States.

[35:55] Each of the players draws a different color, a different color token and a different color train, and the purpose of the game is to connect as many cities with your train in the time allotted.

[36:07] But there are only a limited number of trains that can pass through each city, and all the train routes overlap one another, and so it is a race.

[36:21] It is a fight. Every man for himself, every player for himself, there are no participation trophies in our house, no breaks, no gimmies, no mercy.

[36:32] It's a fight to the end. After a few hours, which takes us a few hours, the game ends when someone runs out of train because they've used up all the allotted trains to connect their city.

[36:48] Someone wins! And we try to apply rejoice with those who rejoice, but it's a work in progress.

[37:02] But you know what happens after someone wins? everything on the board goes back in the box. There's no train routes left on the board.

[37:20] No trains left on the board. No players, no points, no successes remembered.

[37:32] It all goes back in the box. the Bible is warning us here and again and again in Scripture that one day everything that you call life is going back in the box.

[37:50] When Lot came to warn them about the judgment is coming, they said, who is this guy that came to sojourn us? And now he's the judge? judge. Our culture says pretty much the same thing.

[38:05] Who are you to judge me? No one can judge me. Judge not. The most famous verse in the Bible stripped out of context, Matthew 7 2. But the Bible warns us here and many other places that the judge of all the earth, the righteous judge with plenty of witnesses will judge everyone.

[38:28] And we will stand before him. You will stand before him alone. All the possessions, all the train routes, all the successes, all the money, all the prominence, all the relationship, all that you have gained in this short life will not be there.

[38:48] As straight said, ain't never seen a hearse with a luggage rack. Some of you had to get that later. And you'll be judged.

[39:01] You'll give an account. Everything that's hidden will be exposed. This is the one who does not see as men see. He doesn't look on the outward appearance, he looks on the heart. It won't merely be an exposure of what we've done with our bodies.

[39:14] It'll be an exposure of what we've done with our heart, what we've loved, what we trusted, what we feared, what we longed for, what we live for. And you will give an account for your life and only living faith in Jesus Christ will be enough to escape the wrath you deserve.

[39:34] So today, I give you the word of the gospel. God's will be saved. save you from wrath. If you believe in your heart, believe that God raised Jesus Christ from the dead, you will be saved.

[39:47] The sentence that you will hear on that final day is a sentence you can hear today by being justified by faith in the blood of Jesus Christ, and then on that day being saved from the wrath of God.

[40:00] the final scene of our text returns to Abraham. It says Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord, and he oversaw.

[40:20] He saw the valley. He saw Sodom and Gomorrah going up with smoke like smoke out of a furnace. If you remember chapter 18, Abraham pleased with the Lord not to take out Sodom and Gomorrah.

[40:39] He said, if there's 50 righteous in there, then don't take them out. If there's 45 righteous in there, then don't take them out. If there's 40 righteous, if there's 30 righteous, if there's 20 righteous, if there's only 10 righteous, then don't take them out.

[40:53] So why is it saying, giving us this little picture? It's because there's not even 10 righteous in Sodom. Abraham knows for sure as he watches the smoke of the land go up.

[41:07] Look in verse 29. So it was that when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out.

[41:23] Just like God remembered Noah, God remembers Abraham. When we remember something, we call it to mind, think back, take a trip down memory lane, but when God remembers, he acts.

[41:35] So when God remembered Abraham, he saves Lot. And the wonder the gospel is, when God remembers Jesus, he saves us. Titus 2, 3 actually, he says, but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ, our Savior.

[42:08] Let us escape the wrath to come by living faith in this Savior. Father in heaven, we hide ourselves in you under the shelter of your wings.

[42:22] We come to you by faith, not having a righteousness of our own that comes from the law, but a righteousness from God that depends on faith, faith in Jesus Christ, faith that protects us from the wrath to come.

[42:39] Lord, I pray for every individual in this room, I pray for each of us that we would have a living faith, that we would not linger in Sodom, not make a home and house of ungodliness.

[42:57] Lord, help us. We don't just go there with our bodies, Lord, we don't want to go there with our hearts. Lord, help us, have mercy, keep us, we pray in Jesus' name.

[43:08] Amen. You've been listening to a message given by Walt Alexander, lead pastor of Trinity Grace Church in Athens, Tennessee. For more information about Trinity Grace, please visit us at trinitygraceathens.com.

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