Judgment and Mercy: God's Rescue from Sodom

the surprise of Genesis 19 isn't that God judges sin. That's not really what should surprise us. The surprise is that he would save any of us at all in his mercy, such as the love of our heavenly father for us and his son, Jesus. Amen. [00:29:17] (22 seconds)  #SurprisingMercy

It is true. Where there has been sin, there has always been judgment. But where there has been judgment, there has also been God's mercy. And God is still merciful today. God doesn't just turn a blind eye to sin and say, we'll deal with that later. He deals with it on the cross. Judgment still falls. But instead of falling on you and me, it falls on Jesus Christ, our savior. [00:26:19] (33 seconds)  #MercyOnTheCross

In verses 15 through 16, we mentioned Lot's hesitation in leaving Sodom. But in verse 15, it says, at daybreak, the angels urged Lot on. Get up, take your wife and your two daughters who are here. You will be swept away in the punishment of the city. Verse 16, but he hesitated. Now this is important. Because of the Lord's compassion for him, the men grabbed his hand, his wife's hand, and the hands of his two daughters, they brought him out and left him outside the city. [00:24:42] (37 seconds)  #RescuedByCompassion

Scripture says one sin is enough to doom us. Scripture doesn't teach that the wages of a lot of sin leads to death or the wages of many sins lead to death. It says the wages of sin is death. And so this is our problem too. Jeremiah chapter 17 verse nine says, the heart is deceitful, and we cannot even trust our own hearts. And so this isn't just a message of them and those people. We see it's our hearts too that can deceive us. [00:21:32] (40 seconds)  #WagesOfSin

I want you to imagine a judge who never judges, a judge who never issues a a guilty verdict. Now on the one hand, if your life was such that you had to appear before a judge for some wrong you may have committed or have been accused of, you'd probably feel pretty good. You think, wow. I have a pretty good chance of getting off. But in the grand scheme of things, we would not celebrate that judge. [00:00:06] (30 seconds)  #JusticeMatters

We would not log that judge and say, wow. This judge is so great at what he does. We'd really say the opposite. We'd say, well, this judge is guilty of dereliction of duty because he's not upholding the law. He's not upholding justice. Innocent people, innocent victims would receive no justice in a system like that. Criminals would be emboldened to continue in their criminal behavior because they feel like, well, this judge is is will never issue a guilty verdict. There'll never be consequences, so I can just continue on on that happy way. [00:00:36] (37 seconds)  #UpholdJustice

If all judges were like this, so society would collapse. There'd be no rule of law. There'd be no thing that we could appeal to, no sense of justice. A judge who never judges would not be loving or merciful. And so we know instinctually that wrong needs to be dealt with. For me, personally, I think that's one of the greatest indicators that that there has to be a god. [00:01:14] (33 seconds)  #MoralLawPointsToGod

That sense of morality, that sense of right and wrong, that instinctual knowledge that, yes, there's right and wrong, that, yes, wrong should be dealt with. I think that all points to a moral creator, a moral God. And so as we turn our attention to Genesis 19, we see that God's judgment in Genesis 19, it's not just simply cruelty. Oftentimes, people look to the God of the Old Testament, especially maybe the God we read about in Genesis 19 and simply see a wrathful God that's just wiping people out. [00:01:46] (37 seconds)  #MoralCreator