Sodom and the Nature of Divine Judgment

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The CEM Network is pleased to present Ronald L. Dart and Born to Win.

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If I only had a short time to tell someone about God, what should I tell him? What is the most important thing to know about God? In a way, we may think that we don’t know much about God, that God is ineffable. He’s this great, mystical, secret being that we only have the faintest idea of. But, you know, I found when I had to answer this question, when I had to choose among the things that I know about God to tell someone about him, I found I know a great deal about God that is really quite important to know. Now, if you think very long about this, you’re liable to find that some of the things you think you know about God are contradictory. And it’s not long when you’re in a discussion with someone where you start finding some of these things out, that some people think this thing about God, some people think something else about God, and often these things are contradictory. And this suggests that it’s possible that we’ve taken a wrong turn someplace. We’ve developed an idea of God. that is too complex, that allows contradictions to enter in. And that led me, as I was thinking about this, to a very important principle in the Bible. It’s in Deuteronomy 29, verse 29. It says this very simply, “…the secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.” Now, what does that say? It says there are things we can know about God, and there are things that are unknowable for us, secret things that belong to him. It’s only the things that are revealed that belong to us. So, naturally, as human beings with inquiring minds, we busy ourselves about the secret things, And we create dogma around our ideas of the secret things. And based upon our dogma, we decide who is a Christian and who is not. And we’re doing this on the basis of things we cannot possibly know for sure. It was Paul writing to the Romans who said, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the knowledge of God. How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord or who has been his counselor? You know, what all this says to me is that a little humility might be helpful as we try to answer this question. Now, one thing also that’s important to know, there is an answer to this question. Jeremiah, in his ninth chapter, verses 23 and 24, cites straight from the mouth of God this little passage. Thus saith the Lord, quote Jeremiah, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might. Let not the rich man glory in his riches. Let him that glories glory in this. that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, saith the Lord. Now here we have it right from the mouth of God himself. God himself says that the important things to know about him are the things that have to do with his character. His loving kindness, His judgment, His righteousness. God exercises these things. And these are not merely the things that God is. These are the things that God does. Note the word. He exercises loving kindness in the earth. Now, you know, this is really a lot to know about God. Loving kindness? Well, this implies an affectionate person. Judgment? A wise person who is firm. Righteousness, well, that implies a person who’s got standards. And the existence of standards suggests that he’s not whimsical, that he can be depended on to be constant. Now, this is something that’s very important to know about God. And if a person can come to understand and believe these simple things about God, a lot of bad ideas will never gain a foothold with him. If you think about it, here is something you can depend on. Here is something you can take to the bank, as the old saying goes. And once you’ve got this banked, if someone comes along in the area of things that we can’t know for sure, with theories about God, about ideas about the God that we can’t see and can never really know, and there is something different from what you do know, You don’t have to listen to that. You don’t have to be disturbed by it. For example, if someone comes along and argues that God did away with the law, then what he is saying is that, well, yes, God has standards, but he’ll change those standards if it suits him to change them. There are arguments about the covenants of the Bible that suggest that God, having made a deal with you, would go back on the deal. But the fact of the matter is, you have to understand God’s constant. He doesn’t change. Some people believe that God will stop loving them when they’ve made a mistake. And they take it when God chastises them as rejection, not correction. Along comes God, gives you a smack across the backside, and says, square up, fellow. And instead of saying, hey, God loves me, and God’s not stopped loving me because I made this mistake, they think, well, God has rejected me, and there is no hope for me. But you see, that’s because we’re not sticking to the basics of the things we can know about God. But back to my question. If you only had a short time to tell someone about God, of all the things you know about God, what would you tell him? Well, I think Jeremiah has made a real good start. Let him that glories glory in this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord which exercised loving kindness, judgment, and righteousness in the earth, and in these things I delight. God Himself reveals something also very important in here. He reveals that it is possible both to know Him and to understand Him. You know, if it weren’t for this one verse in the Bible, I think in some ways I might despair a little bit about whether or not I could really know God, or whether I could even trust any understanding of God at all. But no, I can. I really can. Because a man can glory in the fact that he understands and knows God. Someone once said, speaking of the Western man compared to Eastern thought, that the Western mind explains everything and understands nothing. And I think there’s a lot of truth in that. We spend way too much time in explaining things, many things that we really don’t know, and much less time than we should in understanding. So God says it’s possible to know him and to understand him, and this in spite of all the mysteries surrounding God, and we all know that those mysteries exist. So a person has to ask himself, what is it you want to know? Do I want to speculate about the unknowable, or am I prepared to understand what can be known? The things that are revealed to us are the fundamentals of the character of God. If you can nail these down, you can safely conclude that anything that seems to contradict these basics has to be a misunderstanding somewhere, something you can resolve later, and that these are the things you can know and you can understand. So since I only have a short time to tell someone about God, I have to decide what is the most important thing. I’ll tell you what I think that is after this message.

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Just how great is God? Really? How much power is controlled by the creator of the universe? And what does he plan to do with it? To find out, request your free CD titled, How Great Thou Art. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. Here is what God says is important to know. I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness.

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Which raises a question. Is there a difference between kindness and loving kindness? The New International Version and the King James Translator struggled with the Hebrew word that comes out loving kindness. The NIV translates the word in some places as love and in other places as kindness. The King James Version translates the word mercy in some places and loving kindness in others. But the fact is, the Hebrew word means not just kindness, it means loving kindness. And I think that’s an important thing to know about God. I suppose it’s the difference between the kind of kindness you might show to a stranger and the kindness you would show to someone you really cared for. In history, there have been men who encountered God, men who knew Him, men who interacted with Him, men who understood Him. And they’ve told us their story in numerous places in a book we call the Bible. One of these was a man named Lot. Lot had the misfortune or the lack of judgment, we’ll leave it to God to say which, to live in a city called Sodom. And after he escaped the city, he describes the actions of God in getting him out of Sodom as loving kindness. King James Version translates it mercy, but it’s the same word. It was God’s loving kindness toward Lot that got him and his kids out of there. Now, the story about this is so revealing about the loving kindness of God that it really deserves special attention. Lot’s uncle was a wealthy man named Abraham. And if you’re a reader of the Bible, that name resonates immediately. He’s one of the great characters of the Bible and a man who is called the friend of God. Now, that’s fascinating all by itself because it reveals the simple fact that God has friends. Now, I know in a way that sounds silly to say that that’s important, but I dare say there are an awful lot of people who would never think of themselves as a friend of God or a God as a friend of theirs. God’s up there. I’m down here. God’s awesome. He’s great. He’s all-powerful. Or they believe He’s everywhere in every blade of grass. And to think in terms of God… As a friend, as somebody who might come by your house and sit down and have a cup of coffee and talk things over with you, never crosses most people’s mind. Now, you can pick up this story in the 18th chapter of the book of Genesis. The Lord appeared to Abraham in the plains where he lived, and Abraham was sitting in the door of his tent in the heat of the day. And he lifted up his eyes and he looked, and there were three men standing opposite. When he saw them, he ran over to meet them from the tent door and bowed himself to the ground. Now, it will turn out in the story that these three men are actually two of what we would call angels and a third who just happened to be God himself. It’s a truly strange encounter until you begin to understand that there was a relationship that existed here. God and Abraham were friends. And God, on his way to do and to look into a most distasteful circumstance, said to the two angels, I want to stop off and speak to Abraham on the way. Well, Abraham went out to them and he said to them, I pray let water be fetched and wash your feet and rest yourselves under the tree. I’ll fetch a morsel of bread and we can have a meal and after that you can pass on because I have a feeling that’s why you’ve come here. And they said, you go ahead and do as you have said. So here Abraham goes and gets his wife, sends a man out into the herds and prepares a meal with butter and milk and veal and and sets it before these three men who happen to be angels and God himself. And it’s a little hard to get your mind around it, but God ate a meal, he enjoyed it, washed his feet, all those good things. Now, there are a lot of things, a lot of byplays in this passage, all of which are very revealing as to the kind of person we’re talking about. And that’s why I’m taking the time to develop this, because after all, I don’t have a lot of time, and I want you to understand and know something very important about God. One of them is that God enjoys eating with his friends. Well, while he’s there, he says to Abraham, where’s Sarah? He said, well, she’s back in the tent. He says, you know, I’m surely going to come back to you again according to the time of life. And Sarah, your wife, when I come back, we’ll have a son. Now, Sarah was standing in the tent door behind him, and they were both old and well-stricken, to use the Bible terms, in age. She was an old woman and had ceased to be with Sarah after the manner of women. She was way past childbearing age. And Sarah, when she heard this, laughed within herself, not out loud, just quietly laughed and says, Oh, big deal. After I’m waxed old, I’m going to have pleasure. My Lord being old also, apparently they had stopped having sex, and she’s going to have a baby soon. And the Lord said to Abraham, what does Sarah laugh for, saying, surely shall I bear a child when I’m old? Why did Sarah laugh? Do you think anything’s too hard for the Lord? At the time I appointed, I will return. According to the time of life, Sarah will have a boy. And Sarah then denied it, saying, I didn’t laugh because she was afraid. And he said, oh, no, you did laugh. And God was going to have the last laugh. because she was going to have a child in her old age. I don’t know. I read this story, and I think God enjoyed the little encounter. Instead of getting mad because he made a pronouncement or gave a prophecy about what was going to happen to Sarah, and she laughed at it, why, a petty tyrant would have punished her for that. Well, you laughed. Okay, you’re not going to have a kid. But no, I think God thought it was funny, too. He said, oh, yeah, you laughed. You’ll see. I’ll have the last laugh. I’ll be back here a year from now, and you are going to have a boy. Well, they got up there, and they looked toward Sodom, and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And the Lord said, I guess to himself, Shall I hide from Abraham what I’m about to do? Now, this is very interesting because we’re not talking about someone here who doesn’t need anybody’s advice, doesn’t want anybody else’s involvement, have his mind made up about whatever it is he’s going to have happen, and just goes on and does it. No, no. He said, should I hide from Abraham that which I’m going to do? After all, he’s my friend. And then he says this. Seeing that Abraham is going to become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him, should I hide this from a man like that? I know him. He’s going to command his children, he’s going to tell his household, and they’re going to keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment, so I can bring upon Abraham all I have spoken. I know what kind of man he is, and I want posterity to know what happened here. So I’m going to tell him. And the Lord said to Abraham, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Their sin is very grievous. And I think, you know, it’s hard to interpret just how grievous the sin of Sodom was. I’m going to go down there and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it. And if not, I will know. Now, this is interesting. What on earth did the God of all the heavens and the earth need to go down to Sodom to see for himself for? I mean, couldn’t he sit in heaven and see it? Couldn’t he have sent angels down there to see it? No. If you’ll recall, one of the things he said that’s important to know about him was not just loving kindness, but judgment. Good, sound judgment. And you know, a leader doesn’t pronounce sentence from afar. A good judge doesn’t pronounce sentence from over the hill somewhere without all the facts. In this case, God felt it was important that he go to the city himself. to listen to the sounds, to smell the smells, to see the sweat on men’s bodies, to actually see what kind of people they were, that it was not right for him to destroy the city of Sodom until he had actually gone there himself. So the men with him, they turned their faces and they went on toward Sodom. But Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham knew that that his nephew, Lot, lived in that town. And he knew that when God got down and looked at the town, that what he had heard about it, the worst that he had heard about it was going to be true, and that God was going to destroy it. Abraham drew near to God, and he said, Will you destroy the righteous with the wicked? What if there are 50 righteous people in that city? Will you destroy? Will you not spare the place for the 50 righteous that are therein? That’s not like you to slay the righteous with the wicked, and that the righteous should just be like the wicked. That’s not like you. Shall not the judge of all the earth do right? Now remember, what we’re talking about here is what it’s important to know about God. For he said that he has lovingkindness, but he also has judgment and that he is righteous. And Abraham very boldly comes to him and says, look, can’t I depend on you to do right? And it’s not right for you to destroy righteous people right alongside wicked people. And the Lord said, well, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous people, I’ll spare the place for their sakes. And Abraham answered and said, look, I’ve taken it upon myself to speak. I’m only dust and ashes, and I’m speaking to God. For adventure, what if there’s only five missing of that 50? Will you destroy the city for the lack of five? And God said, if I find 45 there, I won’t destroy it. And Abraham tried a little harder. He said, maybe if there’s 40. And God said, no, I won’t destroy it if I find 40. And he said, now, don’t get mad at me. Maybe there’ll be 30. God says, I won’t do it if I find 30. And finally, he said, maybe there’s only 20 or perhaps if there are only 10. And God said, if I find 10 people there, I won’t destroy it for the sake of 10. Now, why am I telling you all this? Well, I’m telling you all this because when you want to understand God, you have to understand he is someone you can talk to. You don’t just have to roll over because God’s headed in one direction. You can ask him about it. A New Testament writer, James, describes this kind of character, and he says this. It’s in James 3, 17. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy. When we are dealing with God, we are not dealing with some petty oriental tyrant who would just as soon take your head off as listen to you. God will listen to entreaties from ordinary men. He is a kind person, peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated. And that’s something I want everyone to know about God. Now, I have to acknowledge there is another side to this coin. That other side is a city called Sodom.

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We’ll talk about that after this brief message. For a free copy of this radio program that you can share with friends and others, write or call this week only. And request the program titled, Knowing God, Number One. Write to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. Or call toll free 1-888-BIBLE-44. And tell us the call letters of this radio station.

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Sodom turned out to be every bit as bad as the worst of the stories that had come up about the city, its corruption, and its vice. And so something happened to Sodom not unlike a nuclear weapon. It was showered with burning sulfur and brimstone, and the city was burnt with fire and cauterized from the face of the earth. It was a bad deal. But God rescued righteous Lot out of the city. He was a clean man. He was profoundly disturbed by the unrighteousness of the city. And so God, by a miracle, saved the life of one man in the face of complete and total disaster. Now, it’s important to understand that God had to deal with Sodom. If he’s going to be a God of loving kindness and of judgment, of justice, something has to be done about rottenness like that on the face of the earth. And in the process of doing that justice against that rottenness, Abraham’s question is, well, are you going to wipe out a good man right along with these wicked men? And God says, no, I don’t want to do that. And, you know, in the aftermath of the World Trade Center bombing, there are so many stories that have come out of this that one has to realize that God may well have been in the process of saving some people from what was happening in that building. I know you can ask, why did he allow the whole thing to happen in the first place? And the answer to that is a little tougher. God does allow evil things to happen in this world. There are evil men. They have freedom, and they can hurt people. But I can’t help thinking about the story of the guy who, for a year on end, always made his coffee the night before without fail. He always put the grounds in the pot, always put the water in there, set his timer, and always got up to the smell of fresh coffee, grabbed his cup of coffee and went out the door on his way to work in the World Trade Center on one of the floors that was going to be destroyed that day. But on this day, he went to bed for some reason and didn’t make his coffee. So when he got up in the morning, he had to brew his coffee, and he had to wait for the coffee pot to percolate all the way through before he could grab his cup and run out the door. And because of that, he missed the ferry that he normally took, which threw him even later getting to work. And so he finally got to the World Trade Center, caught the elevator up until about the 70th floor where he had to change elevators to go on up to his soon-to-be-destroyed office. And when he got off the elevator to go to the other elevator, the building shook with a great thunder because the airplane had hit the building. He went down the stairs, barely escaped out of that building with his life by the hair of his chin, as it were. And I saw him interviewed on television, and with misty eyes, he said this, you know, the rest of my life, I’m going to be spending trying to find out what God spared my life for. Because he had no doubt in his mind that God had miraculously spared his life. And who am I to argue with that? His was only one of hundreds of stories of people who, through strange circumstances, strange interventions, running into people that helped them, who managed to save them alive out of that terrible inferno and the final crushing collapse of the building. God, in his justice, does allow freedoms for people to do the things they want to do. But because he is gracious and because he is kind, and he has a kindness toward people he cares about, he saves lives, rescues people, so that they can, in turn, do good to others. That’s the kind of a God I want you to know about. It’s the kind of God that told Lot, look, get your family, get anybody you care about in this city, and get out of here. And Lot fooled around until finally the two angels grabbed him and his wife and his daughters by the hand and drug them out of the city and says, you get out of here and don’t look back. They did. Lot’s wife looked back and was turned to a pillar of salt, and the cities were destroyed. Absolutely. The angels had told Lot, get away from here, get into the mountains, lest you be consumed by the fire. And he says, oh, please, not so, my Lord. Look, I found grace in your sight, and you have magnified your loving kindness, which you have showed me in saving my life. And he made a plea, could he just go over into this city? Look, it’s a small one, he says, so that I can live. And the angel said, Okay. Now I know I haven’t had much time, but this is one thing I wanted you to really understand about God. That he can be entreated. That you can make pleas. That he will let you off the hook if you repent and turn to him. Now I know Paul said the most important thing to know was Christ and him crucified. But I can think of no greater example of the loving kindness of God than giving his own son. Until next time.

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I’m Ronald Dart. The Born to Win radio program with Ronald L. Dart is sponsored by Christian Educational Ministries and made possible by donations from listeners like you. If you can help, please send your donation to Born to Win, Post Office Box 560, White House, Texas 75791. You may call us at 1-888-BIBLE44 and visit us online at borntowin.net.

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