Just so I can say it, if you get really hot and sleepy, please feel free to get up, get
a drink of water at the water fountain or the pitchers back there.
If you need to move, get up and move to feel the fan, do it now.
Might as well make yourself comfortable.
We'll be here for a while.
No, I'm kidding.
I'm kidding.
We're, um, tonight we're going to continue in our series in the book of Genesis.
If you want to look there, we're in Genesis 18.
Um, so before we look at the passage, I want to ask you a question.
Have you ever run into a situation where you've wondered if God is doing the right thing?
If you wonder if God is right in what he does?
I will share with you the place in my own life where I have wrestled with that the most.
Uh, 16 years ago, uh, 16 years ago, my father, who was a good father, a good provider, and a, uh, church-going man, but one who never professed any faith in Christ or in God at all.
Uh, my father was at home and, uh, my father was at home and, uh, my father was at home and had a heart attack and went into a coma and, uh, died a number of days later.
Um, and I remember sitting by him while he was off any life support.
His body was still, still, still beating.
I remember pleading with God, asking God to revive him and to save him, uh, his life, uh, because I didn't know what God would do with his soul.
There was no hope or no profession of faith for him.
And these questions rose, God, is this right?
God, is this good?
Are you going to be good?
Will you be just?
Will you be, do right by my father?
Maybe you all have, um, wrestled with those questions for various reasons in your own life.
Today, we read in Genesis 18 about a story where God invites us into his inner counsel.
Invites us in as covenant partners with him to understand his inner working a little bit more.
And, uh, remember the context we've seen.
This whole series has been partly about, uh, God establishing his covenant with his people so that he might,
um, so that he might call a people to be his own people.
He called Abraham.
You see it in chapter 12.
You see it again in chapter 15.
You see it again in chapter 17.
This affirmation of, I will be your God.
And I will, will come and I will bless you.
This man, Abraham, I will make you the father of a great nation.
Of many nations, in fact.
And I will bless you so that you can be a blessing to the earth, to the world.
Um, I'm going to give you a land for you to live so that you can display my glory in how you live.
Um, and, uh, as we heard last week from Pastor Nick, as we get to chapter 18,
God comes and visits, uh, Abraham and Sarah after waiting 25 years from the initial encounter with God.
25 years without hearing, without seeing the fruit of a child,
which seems pretty inherent to the, if I'm going to be the father of many nations,
I need to start with one.
And so they've been waiting for 25 years and God finally comes and says,
okay, now I'm going to do this.
Now that you're old and no one, and everyone can see that this had to be miraculous.
That this had to be from God because it wouldn't be natural.
Now I'm going to give you this child so that you'll know that it is I who am doing this.
Um, and it's in the context of this that then we come to our passage.
Um, Genesis chapter 18.
And as we look at, at this, we'll see, um, they're still waiting for the coming child.
That doesn't come till chapter 21, but they've now heard this promise.
It's going to happen.
You're not, you're going to be pregnant now here.
Here, it's going to really happen.
Um, so Genesis 18, we're going to start in verse 16.
This is one of those places where we didn't quite agree with the ESV about how to split
up our sections and that's okay.
So, cause they're not inspired.
Um, so Genesis 18, 16, we're going to read to the end of the chapter.
So let's read together and then pray.
Then the Lord, then the men, these men had come to visit Abraham and bring this message.
And there were actually three of them.
And they came and they visited, uh, they visited Abraham and Sarah and came and brought this
message of, I'm going to fulfill this promise and you're going to be pregnant and have the
child you've been waiting for.
Uh, then the men set out from there and they looked towards Sodom and Abraham went with them
to set them on their way.
And the Lord said, shall I hide from Abraham?
What am I about, what I am about to do?
Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation and all the nations of the
earth shall be blessed in him.
For I've chosen him that he may command his children and his household after him to keep
the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice so that the Lord may bring to Abraham
what he has promised him.
Then the Lord said, because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is
very grave.
I will go down to see what, whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that
has come to me.
And if not, I will know.
So the men turned from there and went to Sodom.
But Abraham stood still, still stood before the Lord.
Then Abraham drew near and said, will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
Suppose there are 50 righteous within the city.
Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous who are in it?
Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked so
that the righteous fare as the wicked.
Far be that from you shall not the judge of all the earth do what is just.
And the Lord said, if I find at Sodom 50 righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for
their sake.
Abraham answered and said, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.
I who am but dust and ashes.
Suppose five of the 50 righteous are lacking.
Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?
And he said, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.
Again, he spoke to him and said, suppose 40 are found there.
He answered, for the sake of 40, I will not do it.
Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak.
Suppose 30 are found there.
He answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there.
He said, behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord.
Suppose 20 are found there.
And he answered, for the sake of 20, I will not destroy it.
Then he said, oh, let not the Lord be angry and I will speak again.
But this once, suppose 10 are found there.
And he answered, for the sake of 10, I will not destroy it.
And the Lord went his way when he had finished speaking to Abraham and Abraham returned to his place.
Let's pray.
Ask the Lord for help as we understand this together.
Lord, we ask for you now by your spirit, Lord, to help us understand this passage rightly.
Lord, help us understand what it is that we are to know about you and ourselves and what it means to be your covenant people.
Lord, help us, we pray, Lord, to learn not only with our heads, but with our hearts and with our hands and feet.
For your glory, we pray in Jesus' name.
Amen.
As we look at this story, I'm going to break it down into two very simple questions.
The first half is, what is God up to?
Which is what we see in the first section.
Then the second half is, what is Abraham up to?
We just want to know, what are they doing?
In this covenant relationship, what are they doing in each of these things?
So the first section, verses 16 through 22, God comes.
And it's fascinating, right?
Because it begins with God talking to himself.
And this is one of the very few places in scripture where we actually see this.
God seems to be thinking, hmm, what do you think, yourself?
You know, he's a trinity, so we can have this conversation.
God, what do we think about this?
Should we let Abraham in or not?
Shall I include him?
And he goes on to rehearse some of the reasons why he might or might not.
He's saying, this is the man who I have chosen.
This is the man who I have called to play this essential role.
He is the beginning of my great redemptive work, whereby through my blessing to him, he will be a blessing to the whole world.
And I've called him to come out from the world, to be set apart, to live for me in a covenant relationship with me that's going to be different from those people around me.
Because he knows me.
These are the basic things that he's saying.
Saying, because this man that I have covenanted with is so essential.
Then it seems God is asking himself the question, should I let him in on what I'm about to do?
And it's very clear as you keep going, Abraham knows exactly what God is going to do.
God knows exactly what God is going to do.
And that is, he is planning to bring judgment on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sinfulness.
Okay?
And so, but it's not clear at this point if Abraham has all this.
These visitors have just come and they've promised this blessing.
And so, so it seems then that God is saying, should I let him in on my counsel or should I not?
And I think the reason why the answer to that question is yes, is because God wants Abraham to be fully confident that the God that he is covenanted with will be just.
That is, what he will do is the right thing in every circumstance.
I believe that as God ponders with himself here and then says, should I let him in on what I'm going to do or not?
The purpose is so that Abraham's faith will be deepened and his confidence will be established that God is a just God.
He's saying, I'm going to demonstrate my justice in judgment against Sodom.
But I want Abraham to know what I'm doing.
And he even says, so I'm going to go and see in person.
It's not like God doesn't know what's going on in Sodom already.
But he's going to send his representatives.
He's going to make sure that what he knows was actually true.
He's going to doubly make sure by actually seeing what's going on in Sodom.
And so that's part of what these men who are with him go and do.
And it's very clear that the outcry is very great, right?
There's a public reputation.
We've already seen it.
If you went back to chapter 13, when Lot chose to go that way, it said, and Sodom was a very wicked city.
We knew that already.
But the outcry, just like as we live in our world today and we hear these stories, we hear stories of famine in East Africa.
We hear stories of genocide in other parts of the world.
We hear stories of totalitarian governments.
And we hear this outcry of the public against that which is wrong in the world.
So similarly, in Sodom, there was that kind of outcry, it seems.
It was publicly known what a wicked place it was.
And God says, Abraham, I want you to know that what I'm doing is right.
He invites him in to be a part of this covenant people and to say, because you're the father of this, I want you to understand what I'm doing.
I want you to be a part of it.
And so what we see is God having deliberated then in the verses 20 through 22.
He goes and explains to Abraham, this is what I'm going to do.
I'm going to go down and I'm going to do this, right?
And so this is what God is up to, trying to build Abraham's confidence.
All right?
So it's an interesting question for us.
How do we build confidence in God's character?
How do we know that God is truly good?
How do we, in circumstances like what I described in the beginning,
how do we begin to wrap our minds around,
will God do right in this circumstance?
You know, it's not always an easy thing to do.
And God doesn't always let us in on all the specifics of what we're facing.
But there are some very clear places where we see that God,
as he invites us in to be his covenant people,
he wants us to know his character.
So you go to places like Ephesians 2, 1 through 8,
where if you've been here all year, you remember when we preached through this.
Ephesians 2, 1 through 8, it talks about all of us being under sin,
that we are dead in our sins and transgressions,
that all of us deserve, are actually enemies of God,
and deserving of his wrath.
Then it goes on and it says,
But God, who is rich in mercy,
with the great love with which he has loved us,
raised us up and made us alive with Christ,
and seated us with him.
And so Paul, in Ephesians 2, 1 through 8,
reminds us that this is the kind of God we have,
that when we deserve judgment,
when we deserved something terrible,
what God brought to us was mercy and grace
through the work of Jesus Christ.
And he reminds us this is the kind of God that we serve,
that at the cross we see it is a place where sinners like us
are pardoned and redeemed
at the very same time that our sin is judged and taken away
and bears our wrath.
And this is the thing about it, right?
That we think God who is rich in mercy,
who loved us with this great love,
and yet did he do that by overlooking our sin?
No, he did that by bearing our sin.
And so if we want to know whether God is just,
we look at the cross.
And if we want to know whether God is merciful,
we look at the cross,
and we see both of them married together
in this one amazing act
that only God could imagine
and only God could carry out for us.
The other thing that Abraham learns
and that we can learn about this
is that we recognize,
it's fascinating,
when you look in verses,
verse 19 in particular,
part of what you see is that
as God is calling Abraham
into this covenant relationship,
he's saying,
I want you to live differently, right?
What are the words he says?
To keep the way of the Lord
by doing righteousness and justice
so that the Lord may bring the covenant promises.
And friends,
is this not true for us as well?
Again, in the book of Ephesians,
there's this beautiful move
where the first three chapters
talk about what God has done for us to save us,
and then he starts with chapter four.
Do you remember the words in chapter four?
He says,
brothers and sisters,
I urge you by the mercies
to live a life worthy of the calling
that you have received.
Now that I have called you
to be in this covenant relationship
where you have received salvation for me,
now I call you to live that out,
live a life worthy
of what you have received for me.
And then he spends the next three chapters
living that out.
That has to be with unity.
It has to do with worship.
It has to do with love.
It has to do with humility.
It has to do with words that don't hurt,
but that build up.
It has to do with anger
that doesn't consume us.
It has to do with not being lazy,
but working hard.
It has to do with all sorts of ways
that we live lives
that are in the way of the Lord.
Lord,
it's not self-righteous living
so that God will be pleased with us
and think greatly of us,
but it's God-centered living
that we would live for him
so that he would be pleased with us,
not for our favor,
but because we so desire
to bless him with a life
that is worthy of the calling
that we have received from him.
So what God is up to
is reminding Abraham
and bringing him in
and helping him
to begin to wrestle
with this question of
can you trust me
as my covenant partner?
And as we on this side of the cross
have even more greater confidence
to be brought into that relationship
and to see the confidence we can have,
then we come to the second half
of the passage,
starting in verse 21.
21, right?
22 is a,
or 22.
It's a fascinating,
in case you wondered this,
and Nick mentioned this last time,
but these three men showed up
at Abraham's tent
at the beginning of chapter 18,
right?
And he just,
and somehow Abraham knew
from the very start
these were not normal men,
right?
He ran out to them,
he like rushed into the kitchen
and said,
pull out the best food,
we've got to honor
these very special gifts.
He knew that they were from God
in a very unique way.
But here we see in verse 22
something fascinating.
There were three of them,
two of the men,
then went down to the city of Sodom,
went on to do the exploration,
and next week we'll see
what happens to them,
right?
And in their exploration
of the wickedness of the city.
But the third person,
who was it?
Well, interestingly,
it was the Lord himself,
right?
Because suddenly,
the two men go off
and Abraham's there,
and who does he have next to him?
The Lord himself.
And he has this conversation
with them,
right?
The men depart,
and God,
in 23 through 25,
he asks the question
that I think is at the heart
of this passage.
Verse 25 is this,
shall not the judge
of all the earth
do what is just?
And he's basically saying,
you've called me
to be your covenant partner
and to be a blessing
to this world,
right?
And by the way,
my cousin,
no, my nephew,
my nephew Lot,
he lives there.
He lives in that city.
And there's got to be
some other people
in that city.
Can it really be
that wicked?
What if there are
some righteous there?
Can you really punish
the righteous
with the wicked?
Is that really
what you're going to do?
And remember
that Abraham
was already invested.
Abraham had already
blessed Lot
by giving him
the preference
of the land.
And Abraham
had already rescued Lot
in chapter 14
when other kings
had come
and tried to take
over the land.
So he was,
so Abraham
was already positioned
to be a channel
of blessing
and in particular
with Lot
and with his family
although it was
a greater scope
of the question.
And so he comes
with this question,
God,
are you really
going to do this?
But I want you
to see the tone
that he asks
because I think
it's very important
because we often
come to God
in these moments
of questioning
and moments
of doubting
and we come
to him and say,
I don't agree
with you, God.
I think I know
better than you.
How could you do this?
That's not how
Abraham comes.
Do you see
how he comes?
Look at the words
that he uses.
verse 25.
Far be it from you
to do such a thing
to put the righteous
to death
with the wicked
so that the righteous
fare as the wicked.
It's basically saying,
God,
you're the one
who said
justice is so important.
You're the one
who defines
what justice is.
How could you?
So on the basis
of what you say
you are,
don't do this.
How could you do this?
What if there are 50?
Right?
And then he bargains
and it's a fascinating
back and forth
and again,
you see Abraham's humility.
Far be it from me, Lord.
Please don't be angry with me
but can I press you
just a little bit more
on this?
How many righteous people
will it take for you
to withhold your judgment
from the city?
And he gets all the way
down to 10
and then the conversation's over.
Right?
This appeal
is based in God's character.
It's not based
on what we think is right,
what we think is good
but it's based on
what God has already
said about himself.
And fascinatingly,
we see this
throughout scripture.
This is exactly
what Moses did
in Exodus 32
is after the golden calf incident,
God says,
all right,
I'm done with you.
You obviously didn't get this.
I'm up on the mountain
giving you my law
and you're down at the bottom
worshiping an idol?
Forget it.
I'm going to wipe you all out.
I'm going to start again.
Moses,
I'm going to give you a new wife
and we're going to start over.
And Moses says,
Lord,
how can you do this
to your people
whom you have brought
out of the land of Egypt
with great power
and with a mighty hand?
Why should the Egyptians say
with evil intent
did he,
that is God,
bring them out
to kill them on the mountain
and consume them
in the face of the earth?
Turn from your burning anger
and relent from this disaster
against your people.
And then listen to this.
Remember Abraham
and Isaac
and Israel,
your servants
to whom you swore
by your own self
and said to them,
I will multiply your offspring
as the stars of heaven
and all this land
I've promised
I will give to your offspring
and they shall inherit it forever.
Moses appealed to God
on the basis
of what God had already said
and what God had already done.
And we see it all over.
If you read the Psalms,
this spring,
my small group
did a section,
did book three
of the Psalms,
which kind of takes you
through like the 70s
to the 90s,
something like that.
I can't remember
exactly the scope.
But it's fascinating
how many times
we saw this.
It was in the midst of,
God,
your hand of judgment
is heavy on your people.
But here's Psalm 79, 8.
Do not remember against,
do not remember against us
our former iniquities.
Let your compassion
come speedily to meet us,
for we are brought very low.
Help us,
O God of our salvation,
for the glory of your name.
Deliver us
and atone for our sins.
For your name's sake,
why should the nation say,
where is their God?
Let the avenging
of the outpoured blood
of your servants
be known among the nations
before our eyes.
So the Psalmist is saying,
God, redeem us,
not because we deserve it,
we know we've sinned,
but do this for your name's sake.
Do this for your glory.
So we see this appeal
and God agrees.
God relents.
He says,
yes,
if there are only 10,
I will save them.
Now,
you've got to come back next week
to find out what happens.
Spoiler alert.
Sodom and Gomorrah,
well,
everyone knows what happened to it,
right?
God brought judgment on it.
You know why?
There are only three.
There are only three
who were saved.
Only three who came out
of the city.
And it's not good.
So what do we make of this?
What does this have to teach us?
Do we get to bargain with God
about who gets to be saved
and who doesn't
or that sort of thing?
No,
I don't think so.
Don't think that's the point.
I think instead
it's the point
that Abraham is pushing God
so that he would have
greater confidence
that God would be
unjust,
that God would not
do wrong
in his act of judgment
against sin.
Abraham isn't questioning
whether God
would really do something
unjust,
but he's pressing,
he's exploring
what is the extent,
what is the commitment
that you have,
God,
to your justice.
And the commitment
is great.
It's so amazing.
So what are some
of the things we see from
one of the things
that we do see
is that it seems
that the presence
of righteous people
are a blessing
to a fallen world.
Because here
in this passage
the presence
of ten righteous people
would have withhold
at least for a time
the judgment.
And we see this
as a greater theme
throughout scripture
that the presence
of righteous people
brings good
even in evil circumstances.
There's a great,
great story,
a guy named
Ernest Gordon
who was,
who was a World War II
Brit
who was captured
and was in a
internment camp
in Southeast Asia,
one of the Japanese-run
internment camps.
And he knew the Lord.
And when he showed up
he was praying,
God,
will you help me
in the midst of this
completely,
unbelievably horrific situation?
Will you help me
to bring light
and life to this?
And you know what?
He did.
By his kindness,
by his faithfulness,
and not him alone,
there were others
that he found,
other followers of Jesus
in this camp
that he found
and by their faith in God
and by their clinging to him,
they practiced
basic Christian character
of kindness
and goodness
and not selfishness.
And it transformed
first the prisoners
and then some of the guards
and the whole way the camp,
the camp was known
by the end of the war
as one of the least
violent camps.
Now,
don't get me wrong,
it was still horrific.
It was still terrible.
But there was an impact
that happened
because of that.
And I think that God
can do that.
And I think we need to see
that this is part of what,
this is part of why
even when God
sends his people
into exile,
in Jeremiah 29, 7,
he says,
go and live in the place
that I'm planting you
and seek the welfare
of the city
that you're living in.
Because I have an intention
for my covenant people
to be a blessing
where they are.
And where they are,
they will bring good
into it.
not in a righteousness
that lords it over
and looks down
on all those terrible people
and thinks,
gosh,
if we only could get rid
of all those sinful people
in the world,
we'd be doing so much better.
No,
that's not the attitude at all.
But it truly
to be a blessing.
God has blessed me
and I want to bless you
with the blessing
that God has given me.
The second thing
that we see
in application
is that Abraham
does,
in a sense,
intercede
for the people
of Sodom and Gomorrah.
He is standing
between them
and as God invited him
into the council,
he's saying,
God,
would you be clear?
Will you rescue
the righteous ones
who are amongst them?
Will you do this?
And God said,
yes,
I will.
Even if that means
I withhold my judgment,
I will rescue
the righteous ones.
Now,
we know
as we look
into the New Testament
that there is no one
righteous,
not one.
And so,
we can't plead
for God's,
on the behalf
of sinners
that God would simply
treat them
as righteous people.
But what we can do
is we can plead
that God would save them,
that God would be
merciful to them
in the same way
that he has been
merciful to us.
And so,
we are called
to a life of prayer,
not only to a life
of doing good
and blessing to others,
but a life of prayer
that God might do
his saving work
in the life of others
as well.
But friends,
I tell you this,
we will only live
these lives
if we have worked
through the question
that Abraham
had to work through
in this,
which is,
God,
can I really trust you?
Can I trust
your justice?
One of the commentators
that I read on this
said one of the,
one of the greatest dangers
in the human soul
and in the sinful spirit
is the,
the thought process
that we have
when we say,
well,
if I were God,
dot,
if I were God,
this is how it should work.
If I were God,
this is how it should be.
If I were God,
I would do it this way.
Because when it comes down to it,
we don't tend to trust
God's rightness
in judging people.
We tend to think
well of people
that we don't know.
There are people far away
that we've never met
and we think,
well,
they can't be that bad.
We think of unborn babies
and we think,
well,
God,
you couldn't ever
think about judging them.
That's a complicated
theological question.
Don't get hung up on that.
But it's a question.
We just think,
there are people we don't know
and we think well of them
and we think,
well,
God,
they don't deserve judgment.
And then we think
about our neighbors
and we think,
well,
they don't deserve judgment either.
I mean,
they're not,
they're not the,
they're not the perfect people
but they're pretty good.
Like,
we want to see this.
We have this instinct
to see the good
in others.
And in fact,
it's the same instinct
that we tend to have
with ourselves.
I know I'm bad
but I'm not that bad,
am I?
Like,
do I really deserve judgment?
Do I really deserve condemnation?
Is my sin really worth?
So the cross
comes to us
and it says,
yes,
it is.
Romans 3 says this,
there is no distinction
for all
have sinned
and fall short
of the glory of God.
But then it goes on
to say,
and are justified
by His grace
as a gift
through the redemption
that is in Christ Jesus
who God put forward
as a propitiation.
A propitiation
is something
that is given
to satisfy
or to appease
the wrath,
the right wrath
of an authority.
the propitiation
by His blood
to be received
by faith.
This was to show
God's righteousness
because in His divine
forbearance
He had passed over
former sins.
It was to show
His righteousness
at the present time
so that He might be
just
and the justifier
of the one
who has faith
in Jesus.
I'd love to preach
a whole other sermon
on that verse
but it's really cool.
what He's saying is
in the divine courtroom
in some way
God withheld
His judgment
on any sins
for people
who had lived
before Christ
that God would redeem
because those sins
would be judged
on the cross
in the person of Christ.
Just like all the sins
of all of us
who have lived
after Christ
and have trusted in Him
and have put our faith
in Him
and are brought
to new life in Him
that is where
our sins
deserve
their just justice.
We don't deserve
anything better
than Sodom and Gomorrah do
because of our sinfulness
and yet
God
who is rich in mercy
because of the great love
with which He has loved us
has saved us
because of what God
because He has offered
Jesus in our place.
Jesus takes the sin
and He then gives us
the forgiveness
of that sin
so that God
is both just
in punishing sin
and just
in forgiving us
our sin.
And it's one of the most
amazing things
about the gospel
and it gives us confidence
and this is where I want
to end
because as I wrestled
with God
sitting by the bedside
of my father
as He died
I came to the end
of myself
and I said
God I don't know
how this is going to work out
I don't know
my father's heart
I don't
you are the one
who is the judge
of the earth
but I will trust you
I will trust you
that you will not
do wrong
by my father
but that you will do
right
that you will do
you will do
the right thing
by Him
and I'm going to
leave Him at your feet
and trust that you
who know everything
will judge better
than I who don't.
And that hasn't
always been easy
to hold on to
but I believe
that because of
what God has done
in Christ
I have seen
the foundation
and I have been able
to have that confidence
this is the God
of the Bible
who has done
such an amazing work
to save me
and I can trust Him.
Let's pray together.
Lord we
we are humbled
by this text
but Lord we are
ultimately captivated
by your glory.
Lord that you are God
who is so committed
to righteousness
and justice
and love
and mercy
that you at the cross
would do this
incredible work
of saving us
in a way
that you have
not just
overrun your justice
Lord
but you have satisfied
your justice
and saved
unworthy people
like us.
What an amazing
God you are.
What an amazing
Savior we have
in Jesus.
Lord we pray
that we might be
those
who live
trusting in you
and that out of
that trust in you
we would live
righteous lives
that would seek
to bless others
around us
and Lord that we
would be men
and women of prayer
who would plead
for your gracious
work in the lives
of both
ourselves
and those around us
for your glory.
We pray this
in Jesus name.
Amen.