Why did God destroy Sodom and Gomorrah? In Genesis 18:22 through 19, God rains down judgment on the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Dr. Toby Holt examines a sobering account of both God's wrath and His mercy. Before judgment falls, Abraham pleads with God, who agrees to spare the cities for ten righteous people — but not even ten are found. Two angels rescue Lot's family as fire destroys the cities; Lot's wife looks back and becomes a pillar of salt. Jesus warned it will be "more bearable" for Sodom than for those who hear the gospel and reject it.

Questions this study answers:

1. What was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah? Deep and widespread wickedness, including sexual sin but, as Ezekiel says, "all manner" of evil. Their corruption was total.

2. Why would God spare the cities for ten righteous people? Because He is merciful and patient, willing to relent for the sake of His own. Sadly, not even ten could be found.

3. What did Jesus mean when He spoke of Sodom? That it will be more bearable for Sodom than for those who reject the gospel. Greater revelation brings greater accountability. "Then the LORD rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah, from the LORD out of the heavens." — Genesis 19:24 (NKJV)

Dr. Toby Holt is President of New Geneva Theological Seminary, and his sermons have been downloaded more than 1.9 million times on SermonAudio. Find more verse-by-verse Bible teaching at newgeneva.org; support this ministry at newgeneva.org/give.

In Genesis 19, God rained fire and brimstone down upon two particularly wicked cities,

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the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

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In fact, the Bible says that their destruction was so severe that the smoke of the land rose

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up like a furnace.

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With that said, the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is not only about God's wrath, but it's

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also about His mercy.

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In today's study, we'll consider examples of both.

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Sodom and Gomorrah were two incredibly wicked cities. Let's start there.

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Sodom and Gomorrah were incredibly wicked cities.

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Now, this is a planet at this time that had plenty of wicked people.

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This is a planet at this time that had a lot of wicked cities.

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And yet, somehow, amazingly, the wickedness, the iniquity, the transgressions, the sin, the depravity of Sodom and Gomorrah

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sank higher to the nostrils of a holy God than all the other cities on the globe.

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Somehow, the wickedness of their cities was so egregious that destruction was imminent.

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In this text, we're going to see that God has seen enough and judgment is coming.

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With that said, the judgment that's going to come,

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the judgment that would come would be as extreme as the sin that preceded it.

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It will involve fire and brimstone come down to eviscerate these cities.

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When God is done, chapter 19 will say that the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

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that is what befell these cities. Now, before we talk about the why and the what and the how

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and the like, let me offer some modern input for us, looking back at these lenses. You know,

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one of the cool things that we have in today's day and age is we have science. And science is

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not the enemy of Christianity. Science is the friend of Christianity because science is appointed

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by God for the education of his saints. And one of the things that science has helpfully done is

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science has uncovered locations and places that fit the biblical narrative to a T. Scientists,

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archaeologists have found Sodom and Gomorrah. Scientists, archaeologists have found these

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cities. And you know what they found when they explore these cities? What they find is a region

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that somehow, amazingly, was obliterated by great heat. The problem is that the scientists don't

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know what to do with that data, and they don't necessarily ascribe to the biblical explanation.

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the smithsonian magazine a secular source described the archaeological findings in this way

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said this research modern research has concluded that what happened is that warfare or a fire or

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an earthquake were unlikely culprits for the destruction so it wasn't just normal fire wasn't

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earthquake it wasn't warfare that that's not what caused all that they found when they investigated

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and looked at the pot shards and looked at the ash marks and looked at everything else they say

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It wasn't warfare. It's not a fire. It wasn't an earthquake.

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These are unlikely culprits, as these events could not have produced the heat intense enough

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to cause the melting that was found at the scene.

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So that left, scientists say, that left a space rock as the most likely cause.

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But because experts failed to find a crater at the site,

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because they didn't find a crater there,

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they attributed the damage to an airburst created when a meteor or a comet

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traveled through the atmosphere at a high speed.

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it would have exploded about 2.5 miles above the city with a blast a thousand times more powerful

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than an atomic bomb. Air temperatures would have rose above 3,600 degrees Fahrenheit. Clothing and

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wood would have immediately burst into flames. Swords and spears and mudricks and pottery would

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have begun to melt. Almost immediately, the entire city would have been on fire. So this is the modern

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secular understanding that, yes, indeedy, something happened. It was bad. There was fire. There was

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destruction. And it wasn't normal destruction. It wasn't someone lit a match somewhere. It wasn't

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arson. It was far worse than that. So, they speculated. They said, well, something had to

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fall from heaven. It had to be. This wasn't an earthly causation. It had to be something came

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from heaven. So, they said, aha, aha, it was a comet or a meteor or a space rock, right? But

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then they had a problem. What was the problem? Well, there's no crater. They say the destruction

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probably came from something hurtling from space at an incredible speed that just eviscerated

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everything it touched, but they didn't find a crater. So, what did they do? They said, as we

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just read, they said that this space rock, such as it was, that what had happened is that it didn't

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hit Sodom and Gomorrah per se. It went by at 2.5 miles above Sodom and Gomorrah, and the speed and

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the heat and all the friction caused by it as it flew through the atmosphere was enough that down

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below they all sizzled and burned. That's the explanation. With that said, you know what? They

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didn't find a crater 2.5 miles away or anywhere else away either. If this had happened, there

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would be some Grand Canyon somewhere where this thing ultimately landed, and there is not. The

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explanations. There's a lot of people who have a lot of different explanations, but this is one of

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the most popular ones. And the irony is that we'll use modern science to find the city, modern science

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to see the city, modern science to explore the remnants and determine the heat and the melting

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points and all that, and yet close the eyes to the biblical narrative that we have before us

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that explains what happens and rather come up with space rocks when there is no crater. Whatever the

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case is, Sodom and Gomorrah were clearly destroyed by something. That much everyone agrees upon. That

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much the secular atheist agrees upon. These towns, this area, and this region was eviscerated by

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something at the time the biblical narrative happens to say it happened. It was eviscerated

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by something. And even if we don't understand what in the secular world, in the biblical world,

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we do. In the biblical world, we say this is the hand of God. And maybe, just maybe, it's the fire

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and the brimstone that flew from his hand towards these cities for reasons that we will now explore.

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Let's look at verses 22 through 26.

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Again, I'm going to have to work through selections of this text

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in order for us to do it in effective time.

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But let's start as we try to understand why it went down and what went down.

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Let's start with verses 22 through 26

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when God plans to destroy these cities and Abraham begins to reason with them.

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So verse 22,

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So the men turned away from there, they went towards Sodom,

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but Abraham still stood before the Lord.

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And Abraham came near and said,

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Would you also destroy the righteous with the wicked?

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Suppose there were 50 within the city, 50 righteous,

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would you also destroy the place and not spare it for the 50 righteous that were in it?

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Far be it from you to do such a thing as this, to slay the righteous with the wicked,

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so that the righteous should be as the wicked. Far be it from you. Shall not the judge of all

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the earth do right? So the Lord said, if I find in Sodom 50 righteous within the city,

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then I will spare it for all their sakes. All right, let's stop there. Now, we've already

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established that Sodom and Gomorrah were desperately wicked. And notice that Abraham

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doesn't try to argue that fact. He's not like, why them? He knows exactly why them. Sodom and Gomorrah

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were desperately wicked. Now, we all associate the sins of this region with homosexuality because

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that is the common understanding, and that's certainly accurate. We see within the narrative

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of even today's text that that is one of the sins of which they were guilty, but it's not the only

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one. You read in the book of Ezekiel some of the other things that they were guilty of, and it's

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everything. If you can be guilty of something under the sun, the people of Sodom were guilty

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of it all in spades. In Ezekiel, we see they did all manner of things wrong. Not simply were they

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sexually depraved, but they were depraved in all manner of different ways. So with that said, when

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God says, I'm going to deal with these people, there's a smiting coming. Abraham doesn't argue

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they deserve it. But what he does say is that surely, surely within Sodom and Gomorrah, surely

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there's some righteous. And God, you're not going to destroy both parties when you do this, right?

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You've got to at least spare the city if there's, you know, 50.

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That's what God says, sure enough.

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Abraham intercedes with God, which God must have loved.

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God loves intercession.

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God really loves it when we intercede for one another.

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God loves it when we pray for one another.

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God loves it when we step in and advocate for one another.

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That's why some of the greatest heroes in the biblical narrative were intercessors.

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Moses is an example.

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David, Paul, and certainly Abraham were intercessors before God.

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All the prophets were intercessors.

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Whatever the case is, Abraham says we can't do it, right, if there's at least 50.

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And God says, you got it. You got it. God responds to that intercession, which is just wonderful,

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just fascinating. Imagine how many times you could intercede for your loved ones, for people in your

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life, for things going on in your circumstances. And God will say, all right, I hear you. In this

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case, he says, I hear you. If there's 45, if there's 40, if there's 30, if there's 20, remember

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they go back and forth. I won't destroy it. And the boldness of Abraham, he knows who this is. He

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knows this is Yahweh. This is the Lord. This is Adonai. He's called earlier in the text. He knows

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who this is. And so he says, please don't be upset. Please don't be angry with me. But I got to say,

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Sodom and Gomorrah, it's got to have at least 20, right? It's got to have at least 10. And look at

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the mercy of God. You read about Sodom and Gomorrah, and what you think is you think of the wrath of

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God. And you're right. There is wrath here, but there's also this incredible mercy. Number one,

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there's mercy because it took this long for God to come around and do anything with him.

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He was patient and forbearing as their sin and stink was rising up to his nostrils. He was patient

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and merciful with him. He's patient and merciful here with Abraham as Abraham's interceding.

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And God even says, all right, even if there's just 10, even if there's just 10, we'll withhold.

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In this text, we not only see the wrath of God, but we see the grace and the mercy

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of God. It's throughout chapters 18 and chapter 19. However, what's interesting,

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what's interesting is that Abraham, when he gets to 10, he stops. Now, why did he stop? Well,

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it's possible that he was scratching his head and going, you know, that family, I know,

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he's probably doing, you know, carry the one. He's adding up all the people in his mind. There's

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got to be, let's see, Bob and Frank and Stu and Fred. Oh, how many? In his mind's eye, he probably

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had at least 10 that he thought were semi-righteous, right? Pseudo-righteous, sort of righteous.

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So at 10, he goes, we got to have enough. There's got to be at least 10 there. Scholars, theologians

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debate, what if he had said five? We really don't know. He didn't. He brought it down to a number

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that he felt comfortable with.

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When Abraham left the scene,

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what do you think his expectation was for Sodom and Gomorrah?

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That they'd be just fine, right?

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He walked away from that going,

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oh my goodness, I interceded on their behalf.

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They owe me one, you know.

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I've turned to God and said, oh, don't do this.

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Even if there's 10, surely they've got to have 10.

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He probably felt reasonably comfortable or confident

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that they had to have at least 10 people in the city.

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Now, he knew their reputation.

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He knew this was a nasty, naughty bunch,

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but he figured there's got to be at least 10.

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Whatever the case is, he stopped at 10, and he departs from the scene.

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Let's look at the start of chapter 19 now, though, to see what happens.

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Now, the two angels, the two angels who were with Yahweh, with Adonai there,

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the two angels then came to Sodom in the evening.

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So the pre-incarnate Christ has departed.

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The two angels are sent on their mission.

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Verse 1, they go to Sodom in the evening, and Lot, Lot is sitting in the gate of Sodom.

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Why was Lot sitting in the gate of Sodom?

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because that's where all the powerful people sat if you were a person of visibility you wanted

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people to see you and you wanted to see others and like you sat in the gate that's sort of like

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rotary club would meet in the gate here this was the civic leaders would sit in the gate so there

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we have verse one that lots sitting in the gate of song when he saw the two angels he rose to meet

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them and he bowed himself with his face towards the ground and he said here now my lords please

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turn into your servant's house and spend the night and wash your feet that you may rise early and get

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on your way let me stop there for a moment these two guys come in they're angels there's no sense

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he knows they're angels just yet and yet he sees these strangers coming into town these you know

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guys are kind of walking into town and he figures oh no they don't know where they've come they don't

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know what's in store here come here come here so he takes him aside he says come on i'll take you

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home i'll take you to my house we'll settle you down you know no one will see and we'll get you

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on in there and in the morning before it's light we'll let you go there's a sense in which lot

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knows these men are in danger. The minute he sees them, he understands this is not going to go well

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because he knows his community. And he knows what his community has historically done to people who

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just wander into the city. There's no sense this is the first time they acted this depraved.

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He knew what awaited these individuals. And so he says, come with me into your servant's house,

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spend the night, wash your feet that you may rise early and go on your way. You got to get out of

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here. And they answered there in verse two, no, no, but we will spend the night in the open square.

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oh my goodness. Lot, his eyes must have gone, oh, you're boying. He must have gone, no. Of all the

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things you can't do, of all the things you can't do, I mean, you'd be better off just hiding under

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the broom, the tent, anywhere. Just go somewhere. You go to the town square, it's over. It's over.

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So they tell him, no, I think we're planning to go to the town square. But verse 3, he insisted

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so strongly, you can imagine he did, he insisted so strongly that they turned into him and entered

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his house. He was Adam. He says, you cannot do what you're thinking of doing. It is not going

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to go well. You've got to come with me. So they went and entered his house. Then he made them a

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feast and he baked unleavened bread and they ate. This is the second time in one and a half chapters

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that angels eat. Interesting. I think there's going to be food in heaven is one takeaway from

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this. Verse four. Now, before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, notice that

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this is repeated, before they lay down. So it's like dusk. The night has fallen. It's getting dark

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when all the creepy weirdos of Sodom would come out. And that's exactly what happened. And it

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says this. It says, now that the men of the city, the men of Sodom, it repeats it twice so you don't

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lose track of the pronouns. The men of the city, the men of Sodom, both old and young, all the men

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from every quarter surrounded the house. And they called to Lot and said to him, where are the men

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who came to you tonight. Bring them out to us so that we may know them carnally. All right, let me

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just stop here. Irrespective of what you think of the underlying sin itself, what we see here is

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that literally every man in the city showed up to partake in it. It's not like this was just the one

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guy, you know, that guy's always, you know, leering at people. It's like it's the one person or the two

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were the five. All the men of the city showed up. The young men, the old men, they all showed up here

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in verse four. And they go to Lot's house. They go, we know they're in there. We know they're in

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there. You let them out because we want to know them carnally. It means what it says. Now, let me

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step back for a moment. One of the things that goes through my mind here is you think about Lot

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and you say to yourself, what in Sam Hill is Lot doing in this place? Lot is not the most

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righteous person on the globe, but he's pretty righteous. I mean, he's certainly above their

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standing. He knows the difference between himself and them. What is he doing here? Why is he in this

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city? Well, he got there over a number of different steps back in Genesis 13. Him and Abraham were

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looking at different regions. Well, Lot looked towards Sodom. He chose this general area. In

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Genesis 14, he moved to Sodom, and by the time we get to Genesis 19, he's a civic leader

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in Sodom. Now, didn't he know it was bad? Well, of course he knew it was bad. We know that from

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the text here, but also if you were to look at 1 Peter chapter 2, it says, looking back from the

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New Testament to the Old Testament, it talks about Lot, and it says that Lot's soul was tormented

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by living in Sodom. Lot's soul was tormented. Lot knew the culture, he knew the people, he knew the

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sins. He knew it. He knew it. He knew it. So the question is, what was he doing there?

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Why did he remain in this place if he knew the nature of the place? And he knew that the nature

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of the place was bound to infiltrate and affect his own family, which it did, which it did. And

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we can explain that perhaps on another avenue. I'll explain it a little bit here today. But the

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point is, why did he stay? Well, I don't know, but I'll speculate. I'll speculate, and I think

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reasonable speculation. We would speculate that he stayed for pragmatic reasons. He had some money,

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some power. He was a civic leader there. He had political, practical considerations. His family

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line was raised there. It's hard to leave a place where everyone's familiar with, everyone's

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comfortable. His wife certainly appreciated the area more than perhaps he did. And we know this

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because even though the angels would explicitly say, don't look back when you depart, she just

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couldn't help herself. Some affinity that his wife had, and it was probably true of the rest

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of his family for this area. God knows why. Whatever the case is, it might have been too

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hard to start over elsewhere. There was probably practical reasons. Every time he said to himself,

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I got to leave this place. This is just sin city. I got to leave this place. Every time he thought

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that, he didn't do it, and it was probably for practical reasons. The lesson from that is don't

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rely on pragmatism to make your life's choices. Do what's right. Look after yourself and your

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family by doing what's right in whatever environment or circumstance it might be appropriate

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for you. Whatever the case is, he stood there, which was a bad idea. And in due time, this region

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is so bad that we see in verses 1 through 5 that two angels show up with the intention of destroying

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them. And of course, the angels, when they show up, they're treated poorly by the people of the

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community. There once was a time when if you showed up in a town, I'll date myself, but probably more

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so some older than me. Does anyone remember what a welcome wagon is? You move to town and some nice

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old ladies show up and they got a basket of coupons and such and say, welcome to town,

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have a muffin, right? The welcome wagon. Well, the welcome wagon is not what these two angels got.

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Rather, they immediately were pursued with the desire of these individuals to have carnal

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relations with them. All right, so let's skip ahead to verses 15 through 17. Now, when morning

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dawned. Overnight, the angels had protected the family. They kept them safe. They blinded all the

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perverts outside the doors. So when morning dawns, the angels urged Lot to hurry. So they said to

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hurry. So now they're the ones being insistent to Lot. And they said, arise, take your wife and two

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daughters who are here, lest you be consumed in the punishment of this city. And while he lingered,

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the men took hold of his hand and his wife's hand and the hands of his two daughters, the Lord being

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merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. He lingered a little bit. He

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didn't move with the speed that he needed to move. Maybe even for Lot, it was hard to let go. For

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everyone, it's hard to let go, and the angels say, no, give me your hand. We are getting out of here.

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So that's what happens in verse 16. In verse 17, it came to pass, and when they brought them outside,

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the angel said, escape for your life. Do not look behind you. Do not stay in the plain. Escape to

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the mountains, lest you be destroyed. So during the night, the angels had protected themselves

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and the family. They had the power and the inclination to do that. They were angels.

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So they protected them. And as soon as we see morning light here, the angels escort them out

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with speed. They say, it's time to go. Leave your stuff. We're getting out of here. And when we get

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out of here, we're not looking back. You're not to look back. You're not to look back at the city.

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You're not to pine for the city. You're not to hang out close to the city. You get to the mountain,

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you get far away because what's going down here is going to be widespread destruction.

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With that said, and we don't have time to linger on it too much, but Lot's wife evidently does not

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heed this instruction. She perhaps identifies too much with the city and she ends up turning back

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and turning into a pillar of salt. Let's look at what happened there and let's also look at

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the balance of destruction briefly. Let's look at verses 24 through 28. Verse 24,

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Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire down upon Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the

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heavens. Not just some space rock that incidentally went by, but from the Lord, Lord rained down. He

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takes ownership of it twice in verse 24. The Lord rained down fire and brimstone on Sodom and Gomorrah

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from the Lord out of the heavens. And so he overthrew those cities. Again, ownership, this is

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God's doing. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the city, and what

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grew on the ground. But his wife looked back behind him and she became a pillar of salt.

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Verse 27, and Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he'd stood before the Lord. So

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Abraham got up, probably heard some rumbles overnight or there in the morning, and he says,

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all right, what's going on? So verse 29, he looks towards Sodom and Gomorrah, towards all the land

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of the plain, and he saw and behold the smoke of the land, which went up like the smoke from a

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furnace. Abraham gets up, and there's a sense he probably knew what he was about to see, and what

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he saw was widespread destruction. The smoke that he saw billowing up, not from a single smokestack,

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not from a single fire, but the smoke of the entire region was so great, so tremendous,

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it rose up into the heavens like the smoke from a furnace. As we look to wrap up this survey of

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this particular section, I think about the Sodomites and people from Gomorrah for a bit.

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You know, these individuals, the Sodomites had, they had ethics. You know that? Even pagans have

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ethics. Idolatrous cultures have had ethics. The most nasty, depraved people on the face of the

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earth, they still have ethics. The problem is what? Their ethic is the antithesis of that of God.

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God says, I have formed you in the womb.

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God says, you're made in my image.

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God says that every man, woman, or child, or infant

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is created in my image for my purpose.

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Mankind looks at that and says, not so much.

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Mankind looks at that same situation, a child in a womb,

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and sees it as having no worth.

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That's how we have such things as abortion mills and the like.

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I'm picking one sin, but I'm picking one to make a point.

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The people who support such a thing have an ethic.

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They think what they're doing is good.

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They think what they're doing is noble.

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They think what they're doing is right.

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In fact, they use the word rights, rights, rights, rights to promote it,

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despite it being one of the greatest, most egregious evils

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that's ever taken place under the sun.

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As widespread as any atrocity that's ever been committed on this globe

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is the sin of abortion.

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With that said, the people who pursue it have an ethic

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just as the people in Sodom had an ethic.

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People in Sodom thought that the sort of things they were doing were acceptable.

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Why? Because they said so.

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They said that the things we're pursuing are good and right and appropriate.

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Why? Because they're what we want to do.

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And depraved cultures always define the rules and their legislations based on their wants,

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not based on the will of a transcendent God.

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In fact, what they do is they take the will of a transcendent God

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and they hide it and they bury it.

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They say, we want no part of that.

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They put it in the shelves, the dustbins of history,

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And they march forth, thinking they're progressive, even as they embrace the very things that God hates.

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People of Sodom and Gomorrah had an ethic.

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This wasn't just a bunch of Rikers Island creepy people just doing every sinful impulse that they had.

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They codified their sins.

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You don't think they did?

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We codify ours.

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We legislate ours.

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Historically, we have.

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Whatever the case is here, they had an ethic.

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But it was an ethic that God hated.

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And it was the antithesis of what he told them they should do.

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Now, with that said, was God patient with Sodom and Gomorrah?

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Oh, absolutely.

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Absolutely.

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They 1,000% deserved his shiny boot from heaven to come down and squash him.

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Undoubtedly.

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And yet, and yet, he was patient.

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He was merciful and forbearing.

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And even for the sake of even if there was 10 righteous people, he was willing to stay his judgment.

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That's mercy.

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Again, you read the book story of Sodom and Gomorrah and you think the wrath of God.

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Well, yeah, the wrath of God's there.

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But so is the mercy of God, this kindness by which God would allow or at least willingly endure

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the sort of nonsense that we're enduring in that culture or ours for that matter.

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God is patient, but he's also persistent and he calls a culture out of sin.

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He calls a culture out of iniquity.

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He calls a culture out of sodomy.

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He calls a culture out of abortion.

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He calls cultures out of these things.

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He sends his word as a principal means to instruct us on how to live right.

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And what cultures ultimately say, not for me, not so much, he deals with them.

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There's no empire, no empire across the sands of time going back 6,000 years

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that has lasted terribly long.

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They've all been overthrown in what is reasonably short order

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in the overall scheme of things.

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And when it has happened, historically, it's often been decreed

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as the will of God and judgment upon them.

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We saw this when we looked at Noah and the flood not that long ago.

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The Tower of Babel, we're only just far into Genesis

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and it happens multiple times.

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So is God patient?

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Is God merciful?

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Yes, yes, and yes.

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But he's also just.

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He's also holy.

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And if he is just and he is holy,

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then he has to deal with evil.

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So don't be surprised when he does so.

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In God's time,

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he will deal with every ounce of wickedness.

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And for those of us who look back

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in the sands of time

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and say what he did there was pretty bad.

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It can't get much worse than that.

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You think so?

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Wrong.

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Let me close this morning

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with a passage from Matthew 10.

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Matthew 10.

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Jesus is talking to his disciples, and he's sending his disciples out with the gospel

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into a fallen world, and then the towns are going to reject them.

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And what does he tell them?

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He says this.

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He says, if anyone in these towns, in these hamlets in Israel, if anyone will not receive

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you, then shake off the dust from your feet when you leave that house or town.

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Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment

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for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah than for that town.

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Sodom and Gomorrah didn't have one-tenth, one-one-hundredth the light that you and I and

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our culture has with regards to the gospel. Sodom and Gomorrah were Sodom and Gomorrah,

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and they were sinful and gross and heinous and depraved and all that. All that's true, and yet

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they didn't have one ounce of the degree of revelation that our culture has or the cultures

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in Israel had or Jesus himself had set foot. The cultures, the nations, the places that have had

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the greatest revelation of who God is, what the gospel is, and the personal work of Jesus Christ,

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they will be held more accountable, not less, more accountable for their sins in the day of judgment.

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So what does that mean for us? Well, for one thing, come out from them. Stop accommodating to the

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world. Stop accommodating to evil. The things that are going on in our culture and our time,

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stop locking arms with depravity. Come out from them. It doesn't necessarily mean you have to

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leave South Mississippi and flee somewhere else because everywhere is pretty gross right now.

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But there are settings and circumstances and relationships and places where we can be like

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Lot sitting there just accommodating, you know, making all the relationships, which was not to

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his credit, by the way. Or we can say, it's time for me to part this circumstance or this relationship

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or this vocation or what have you, if it is contributing to the greater sins which God hates.

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All of us have decision points, if not now, at some point,

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where we are compelled by our circumstances to choose to do that which is right

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and that which God loves, or to make peace with a fallen world.

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You know what to do.

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The question is, in our hour of choice, will we do it?

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Well, that's partly why we study chapters like this,

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which are undoubtedly difficult chapters in Scripture, hard chapters.

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That's why we study it, so we can understand God's hatred for sin,

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and we can say, I will have no part of it. Now, I said I would close with this thought.

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The good news for Sodom and Gomorrah, Gulfport, Las Vegas, everywhere on the globe today,

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the good news is this, that God is still merciful. Now, whatever future judgment may befall isn't

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happened as of 1104 on Sunday morning. God is still being merciful right now to our nation,

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to our culture, to our community, to our world. He's still being merciful right now.

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He's still sending out his word. He's still sending out his gospel. He's still in the

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business of saving people. He's still in the business of sending an ark. An ark that was

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fulfilled in the personal work of Jesus Christ, sending an ark saying, come aboard and be spared

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from the wrath that will be poured out. He's still in the saving business. If we look at this text

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and we see his wrath, good, it's there. But also so is his grace, so is his mercy, and so is the

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promise of this, that we who have sinned, even if we've sinned egregiously, even if we've done

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all manner of things wrong and very few things right, even if we have just the most broken track

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record behind us. If we choose this day faith in Jesus Christ and who he is and what he accomplished

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on Calvary, that is the singular means that forever separates us from all that, from all that we've

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done and from the wrath of God that is due to it. This morning, if we feel the conviction, the weight

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of sin upon us, good, it's in the text. There should be a sense in which we are convicted and yet

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there is also the good news of this, that God's hand is even right now extended to you and to I

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and to this whole fallen globe saying, come to me and you will find forgiveness, you'll find rest,

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and you'll find peace with the one who you offended.

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The gospel is God's life raft.

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Choose this day to climb aboard.

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Let's pray.