Sodom- The Cesspool of Sin, Part 3

This morning, as we continue our study in Genesis chapter 19, we want to look at the sin of Sodom. We've already contrasted the characters of Abraham and Lot. We've already seen the loss of Lot, but now today we want to look at the sin of Sodom.

And there are six things I want to point out to you this morning. The pursuit, the perversion, the popularity, the placating, the passion, and the punishment. All centered around the sin of Sodom in verses 4 to 11. First of all, the pursuit.

Genesis chapter 19, verse number 4, Before they lay down the men of the city, the men of Sodom surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. And they called to Lot and said to him, Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them. The first thing I want you to notice is their pursuit.

The text says, both young and old, all the people from every quarter. This was not just a few people in the city. This was all the men from every quarter of the city. Their pursuit was one of great aggression. Their pursuit was one that was forceful. Their pursuit was one that was to go after these two men that they did not know were angels, but were to go after them to fulfill their sexual gratifications. To somehow do to them what they have done to themselves many times over. Their pursuit was by all these men to fulfill their polluted appetites.

They came plainly to engage, listen very carefully, in group sex, in gang rape. Listen very carefully to what I'm going to say. That is very common in the homosexual environment. Do you know that the average homosexual has up to 300 partners a year? Did you know that? 300. No matter what they might say about their monogamous partner, they have up to 300 partners a year. And their pursuit is one that is extremely forceful and extremely aggressive. Listen to what Dr. Milton Helburn said in his own book, Where Death Delights.

He is a forensic expert in the city of New York. He does not claim to be a Christian. He avoids making moral judgments about homosexuality. He refrains from all that. Nevertheless, this is what he said in his book, Where Death Delights. He has performed thousands of autopsies. And listen to what he says about those who tend to choose a homosexual lifestyle. He says, when we see brutal multiple wound cases in a single victim, we just automatically assume that we're dealing with a homosexual victim and a homosexual attacker.

I don't know why it is so, but it seems that the violent explosions of jealousy among homosexuals far exceed those of the jealousy of a man for a woman or a woman for a man. The pent-up charges and energy of the homosexual relationship simply cannot be contained. When the explosive point is reached, the result is brutally violent. But this is the normal pattern of these homosexual attacks, the multiple stabbings, the multiple senseless beatings that obviously must continue long after the victim dies, end quote.

Can you imagine that? Here's a man who is not a believer, who doesn't want to pass moral judgments on society, but through just doing autopsies alone, when a victim comes in with multiple wounds, they automatically assume homosexual act, homosexual victim. Because that is the pursuit of these kinds of people. So when you read in Genesis chapter 19, that the whole city comes together to attack these two men, they have in mind something extremely forceful, something extremely explosive. Remember a few weeks ago, I told you that some of the things we're going to say, and we're going to read more about them in a few moments, are not going to be for the stomachs of the weak, or for the minds of those who want to turn off what is very obvious in America.

But if we're going to be true to the Word of God, and we're going to be true to explaining to you what is actually happening in America that we might be able to respond, then we must know the truth. We must know the truth. There aren't enough preachers today, there are not enough churches today that will stand up and stand strong on what is true. They back off. They won't confront sin. They won't deal with sin. That doesn't mean that we are unloving. That does not mean that we are critical. That does not mean that we are judgmental.

It means that we are adherents to the, we want to adhere to the truth of God's Holy Word, no matter what anyone else might say. Because we are concerned about the sin in society, and the people who commit those sins, and that they are turned from darkness to light, that they are delivered from the bondage of sin, that they might serve the true and living God. We therefore must expose sin and all of its ramifications, that we might be equipped to understand what God's Word actually says. These people had a pursuit.

They went after these two men. This was just not a social relationship. They wanted to have sex with these men. The men of the city, the young and the old, came. That's the pursuit. The second thing I want you to notice is the perversion.

They wanted to have relations with these men. That's perverted. These men wanted to have sexual relations with these men. That is not normal. That is abnormal. All you got to do is go back to Genesis chapter 2. When God created Adam and created Eve, He was creating a suitable helper for Adam, and that suitable helper was another woman. It was not another man. God knew that. And you don't have to have a PhD in biology to realize that man and man is not compatible. Only man and woman is compatible.

Woman and woman is not compatible. Just woman and man are compatible. But these men would go after other men in the city. Turn with me to Romans chapter 1.

Some of you have asked me when I'm going to get to Romans chapter 1. Well, turn with me in your Bible to Romans chapter 1.

In Romans chapter 1, we have what God does to man who turns his back on him. We see what God does to those who abandon God. Listen very carefully. Those who abandon God, God Himself abandons. God removes His hand from their lives. He takes His hands off and lets them live in their willful rejection of Himself. And what happens when God abandons man? Romans 1 tells us the product of the ugly results that happen in the life of humans. It says, Therefore, God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, that their bodies might be dishonored among them.

That's verse number 24. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. When God abandons man, when God gives man over, He gives him over to his own immorality, to his own impurity, and to his own idolatry. When man is abandoned by God, man goes as far away from God as he possibly can. Read on. For this reason, God gave them over to degrading passions. For their women exchanged a natural function for that which is unnatural.

And in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman, and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts, and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And so what the writer of Romans does, who is the Apostle Paul, names the women first, because that's how far gone society is.

Women being sexually with other women, men being sexually with other men, that is unnatural, that is abnormal, that is what the Bible calls a degrading passion. And then he says, And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, and to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil, full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice, they are gossip, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful.

And although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. Know what the Bible says?

The Bible says they know exactly what the ordinances of God are. They know exactly the penalty due their sin, but they ignore it, they ignore it. And they publicly go before the people and encourage others to be involved in their sins. That's America. That's what's happening in America today. We've seen the pursuit. We've seen the perversion. Thirdly, look with me at the popularity.

What does it say? The old and the young. All, it says, from every quarter, the percentage of people participating in this sexual perversion was as high as it possibly could be. And the scripture helps us understand that this was the characteristic of the men of Sodom. The men of Sodom were this way. That's why the sin is called the sin of sodomy. Sodomites is the biblical term for what happens in Genesis chapter 19. It was the characteristic of these people. They practiced it publicly and they practiced it unashamedly.

It was a popular act in their day. And I want to let you know something. It's popular today. It's very popular today. So much so that what I'm going to read to you, most of you would not even believe it if it came from somebody else other than your pastor. But listen, with all the gay pride parades and celebrations that happen all across our country, the popularity of the sin has grown tremendously. So much so that we have even accepted it and not even known that we've accepted it. Let me give you a few illustrations.

New York City opened the nation's first high school for homosexuals. It's called the Harvey Milk School, named for a murdered San Francisco city supervisor who was also a homosexual activist. Ironically, it meets in the parish of a Methodist church in New York City. Gay advocacy groups abound in our country with names such as Queer Nation, GLAAD, which represents Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, ACT UP, which represents AIDS Coalition to Unleash Power, SQUISH, which stands for Strong Queers United in Stopping Heterosexism, Dykes on Bikes, Fighting Fairies, these groups that go around trying to intimidate people who are heterosexual to get them to believe in their, quote, alternate lifestyle.

That's what's happening in America. Sodom had no Bibles. Sodom had no preachers. Sodom had no Christian radio. Sodom had nothing but what we have. And the question is, what will we do? Where will we stand? Are our students strong enough to stand at the public school and say, that's wrong? To stand up to the teacher and say, that's wrong? To stand up in front of this whole class and say, I take a stand on the truth of Almighty God, and what you are saying is perversion, what you are saying is wrong.

That's the kind of students we need in our public schools. That's the kind of students we need on our college campuses today. And sadly to say, even on the Christian college campuses, because most of the Christian college campuses accept what is happening in America. And we need people who will stand strong against it. The popularity of the sin encompassed the whole city of Sodom. The popularity of the sin is beginning to spread all across America where we as a nation have learned to embrace it and accept it instead of coming out and rebuking the sin of Sodom.

We move fourthly to the placating of the sin. This is important because it tells us how not to deal with the sin of homosexuality. We find this in verse number six. But Lot went out to them at the doorway and shut the door behind him and said, Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man. Please let me bring them out to you and do to them whatever you like, only do nothing to these men as much as they have come under the shelter of my roof.

What Lot does shows us exactly how we are not to respond to those of this lifestyle. He was very appeasing. He was very pacifying. He was very placating in his response instead of being rebuking in his response. The Bible never tells us to get along with evil. The last thing the men of Sodom needed to be called was brothers. They needed to be rebuked. They needed to be confronted on their sin. And the problem is that whenever the church stands up and begins to confront open rebellion, open sin, they are immediately labeled as critical and judgmental and narrow-minded.

But the Bible tells us that we are to pass judgment on sin, not on our standard, but on God's standard. Man is always to meet God's standard. Read Matthew 5, 6, and 7, the first sermon Jesus Christ ever preached.

It is the most condemning, judgmental sermon ever preached. And here he was coming on the scene in Galilee and going to stand up and preach his very first sermon, and he judges all the religious leaders.

He condemns them for their hypocritical lifestyle and passes judgment upon those who live one way while speaking another way. If God indwells you, you have a passion for purity because God himself is pure. So you want those around you who name the name of Christ to live a pure life. You want those around you who don't name the name of Christ to come into a relationship with the living God that they too might experience the purity that you've experienced through the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ our Lord.

And therefore, you want to align yourself with what God says in His Word and speak out against the sin of those who blatantly rebel against God.

The pursuit, the perversion, the popularity, the placating, fifthly, the passion. It says in verse number 9, but they said, "'Stand aside.' Furthermore, they said, "'This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge. Now we will treat you worse than them.' So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door." See the passion? Don't come to tell us you're an alien. You're a stranger. You're not one of us. I mean to say that he wasn't given over to the sin of homosexuality.

He was a foreigner to them. You're not one of us. But you know what? You'll pay for not being one of us. And they pressed hard against him. And in verse number 10, we'll read, "'The angels reached out, and they grabbed him and brought him in, and shut the door to protect him.'" Because God will protect his own. But do you see their passion, their anger, their violence? Because listen very carefully. That is the characteristic of the homosexual. That is their desire. That is their passion. That they will rule and they will get what they want no matter what it costs them.

And no matter what it costs their victims. Who are you to come in and judge us? And you'll hear that a lot. Who are you to judge us? Who are you to be a holier than thou judge? To stand before us and say what is right and what is wrong. And that's what you say. It's not me who's passing judgment. It's God who passes judgment. It's God who has spoken in his word. It's God who speaks the truth. I just relay that truth to you. So that you know that you are accountable. And you know we read it in Romans 1.

They know the law of God. They know the ordinances of God. And they know the just punishment for their rebellion. Romans 1 says so. Don't let them fool you. They know exactly what God says.

And they have suppressed the truth. Because they love their sin more than they love God. Even if it costs them their life. In Genesis 19, it will cost them their life. Which leads us to our last point, the punishment. It says in verse number 10, but the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. And they struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great. So that they wearied themselves trying to find the way. The doorway.

You see that? These men were so bent on the error of their way. That even when they were struck blind, they wearied themselves. They continued to labor. They did all they could to try to get into Lot's house. They wanted to sin so bad. That when they were struck blind, they continued to do their sin. Instead of falling down on their knees and repenting from their wrong, crying out for mercy to God. No, they went after these men with a more furious passion. And the punishment they received, the blindness they received was just a precursor to what was going to happen in just a few short hours.

It was another warning from God. I love the words of 1 Peter 2. And he himself bore our sins in his body on the cross. Isn't that good? He bore your sin. No matter what that sin is, he bore your sin in his own body on the cross. You wanna know why? Listen very carefully. The Bible tells you why Jesus did that. He didn't do it. So you could continue in your sin. He didn't do that. He didn't do it. So you'd have your fire escape from hell. Do you know why Jesus bore your sin? Homosexuality, adultery, theft, murder, lying, cheating, you name it.

Do you know why he bore your sin in his own body? For one reason, the Bible tells you. That we might die to sin. Die to sin and live to righteousness. Isn't that good? That is so good. That's what God does. That's what God wants to do. He wants to transform the life of people who are sinners and make them saints. I think we got a lot of people today in churches who go around saying they're Christians, but they're really not. I really believe that. I believe we have them in this church. They're going around saying, I love God.

I believe in Jesus and I worship God and serve God, but they're not living righteously. They haven't died to sin. They're still hanging on to all their past sins. And they're trying to convince everybody that, you know what? They're a Christian. But the Bible's very clear. The Bible's not gray on who's a Christian and who's not a Christian. Only the evangelical church in America is gray on that. God's Word is not gray on that. Very black and white. And that's what God wants to do with you and me.

And if you're a believer today, that's what God did. It doesn't mean you're not going to sin. It doesn't mean you're sinless. It means that the habitual pattern of your life is to live as He lived, a righteous, holy life because you've died to sin. That's the mercy of God. That's the grace of God. That's the work of God. And we, as God's people, should say, hallelujah, praise be to God who saved my wretched soul and that I might live for Him and honor Him and glorify His name. And so when I leave this place, I go to tell a lost world, the homosexual world, the fornicating world, the world of thievery, the world of war, that Jesus Christ has died for your sins.

He took your sin in His body that you might die to your sin and live a righteous, holy life. The problem is there's most people who don't want to live that way. They just want to keep living in their sin. And yet that's what God wants to do for them, transform them. Has God transformed your life? Has He changed you? I trust that He has. If He hasn't, when our service is over, you come down to our front and talk to somebody about what it means to die to sin and live to righteousness. Let's pray.