30 Apr Is God Tolerant or Intolerant of Our Sexual Sin? (Genesis 18:1-19:38)
Is God Tolerant or Intolerant of Our Sexual Sin?: Genesis 18:1-19:38 (16)
Disney
– removing boys & girls @ theme parks,
-opposing parental rights for sex education in Florida
-Exec Producer Latoya Raveneau “not at all secret gay agenda” “adding queerness” for kids
-Disney Corporate President Karey Burke says “as the mother [of] one transgender child and one pansexual child” she wants 50% of characters to be LGBTQIA & racial minorities
– Erica Anderson age 71, transgender, transgender psychologist who helped hundreds of teens transition, member of the American Psychological Association committee writing guidelines for transgender health care says it’s “gone too far” and pushing kids because it’s “trendy” esp. during COVID isolation. Hormone treatments for teens w/o meeting with psychologists, and some not even notifying parent
In Genesis we’ve seen God create
- Sex – binary male/female
- Gender – masculine/feminine
- Marriage – 1 man 1 woman
- Sexuality – only for husband & wife
-If everyone did only this we would have 0 out of wedlock childbirths, the end of abortions, far less divorce, no sexual assault victims, significantly less sexual trauma, no human trafficking, no std’s, human flourishing at every level of society
=Further away we get from Divine Design = greater human destruction at every level of society
Genesis 18:1–19:38 (ESV) – takes 10 minutes to read
And the Lord appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat at the door of his tent in the heat of the day. 2 He lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, three men were standing in front of him. When he saw them, he ran from the tent door to meet them and bowed himself to the earth 3 and said, “O Lord, if I have found favor in your sight, do not pass by your servant. 4 Let a little water be brought, and wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree, 5 while I bring a morsel of bread, that you may refresh yourselves, and after that you may pass on—since you have come to your servant.” So they said, “Do as you have said.” 6 And Abraham went quickly into the tent to Sarah and said, “Quick! Three seahs [2 gallons] of fine flour! Knead it, and make cakes.” 7 And Abraham ran to the herd and took a calf, tender and good, and gave it to a young man, who prepared it quickly. 8 Then he took curds and milk and the calf that he had prepared, and set it before them. And he stood by them under the tree while they ate.
9 They said to him, “Where is Sarah your wife?” And he said, “She is in the tent.” 10 The Lordsaid, “I will surely return to you about this time next year, and Sarah your wife shall have a son.” And Sarah was listening at the tent door behind him. 11 Now Abraham and Sarah were old, advanced in years. The way of women had ceased to be with Sarah. 12 So Sarah laughed to herself, saying, “After I am worn out, and my lord is old, shall I have pleasure?” 13 The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ 14 Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” 15 But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
For the reading of the Scripture, from this point on we need to NOT show me (PMD) but instead have the Scripture and the headlines on the screen. Maybe Scripture is lower third or half, and the headlines are the top ? THE HEADLINES NEED TO BE INSERTED FROM THIS POINT THROUGH THE END OF THE READING OF THIS TEXT. HERE ARE SOME EXAMPLES:
https://www.theamericanconservative.com/dreher/disney-queers-children-says-disney-exec/
https://nypost.com/2022/04/15/transitions-have-gone-too-far-trans-psychologist/
https://www.foxnews.com/us/disney-axes-boys-and-girls-park-greetings-promote-inclusivity
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/apr/12/us-sexually-transmitted-infections-record-2020
https://www.newsweek.com/under-threat-woke-curricula-parents-are-fighting-back-opinion-1699080?amp=1
https://www.newsweek.com/under-threat-woke-curricula-parents-are-fighting-back-opinion-1699080
https://www.attacktheback.com/transgender-mma-fighter-fallon-fox-breaks-opponents-skull/
16 Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. 17 The Lord said, “Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, 18 seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? 19 For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.” 20 Then the Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, 21 I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.”
Abraham Intercedes for Sodom
22 So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. 23 Then Abraham drew near and said, “Will you indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will you then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? 25 Far be it from you to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?” 26 And the Lord said, “If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
27 Abraham answered and said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. 28 Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?” And he said, “I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.” 29 Again he spoke to him and said, “Suppose forty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of forty I will not do it.” 30 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.” He answered, “I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” 31 He said, “Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.” 32 Then he said, “Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.” He answered, “For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.” 33 And the Lord went his way, when he had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.
God Rescues Lot
19 The two angels came to Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed himself with his face to the earth 2 and said, “My lords, please turn aside to your servant’s house and spend the night and wash your feet. Then you may rise up early and go on your way.” They said, “No; we will spend the night in the town square.” 3 But he pressed them strongly; so they turned aside to him and entered his house. And he made them a feast and baked unleavened bread, and they ate.
4 But before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house. 5 And they called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us, that we may know them.” 6 Lot went out to the men at the entrance, shut the door after him, 7 and said, “I beg you, my brothers, do not act so wickedly. 8 Behold, I have two daughters who have not known any man. Let me bring them out to you, and do to them as you please. Only do nothing to these men, for they have come under the shelter of my roof.” 9 But they said, “Stand back!” And they said, “This fellow came to sojourn, and he has become the judge! Now we will deal worse with you than with them.” Then they pressed hard against the man Lot, and drew near to break the door down. 10 But the men reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them and shut the door. 11 And they struck with blindness the men who were at the entrance of the house, both small and great, so that they wore themselves out groping for the door.
12 Then the men said to Lot, “Have you anyone else here? Sons-in-law, sons, daughters, or anyone you have in the city, bring them out of the place. 13 For we are about to destroy this place, because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, “Up! Get out of this place, for the Lord is about to destroy the city.” But he seemed to his sons-in-law to be jesting.
15 As morning dawned, the angels urged Lot, saying, “Up! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city.” 16 But he lingered. So the men seized him and his wife and his two daughters by the hand, the Lord being merciful to him, and they brought him out and set him outside the city. 17 And as they brought them out, one said, “Escape for your life. Do not look back or stop anywhere in the valley. Escape to the hills, lest you be swept away.” 18 And Lot said to them, “Oh, no, my lords. 19 Behold, your servant has found favor in your sight, and you have shown me great kindness in saving my life. But I cannot escape to the hills, lest the disaster overtake me and I die. 20 Behold, this city is near enough to flee to, and it is a little one. Let me escape there—is it not a little one?—and my life will be saved!” 21 He said to him, “Behold, I grant you this favor also, that I will not overthrow the city of which you have spoken. 22 Escape there quickly, for I can do nothing till you arrive there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. [meaning “small”]
God Destroys Sodom
23 The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. 24 Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. 25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. 26 But Lot’s wife, behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord. 28 And he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley, and he looked and, behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.
29 So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Lot and His Daughters
30 Now Lot went up out of Zoar and lived in the hills with his two daughters, for he was afraid to live in Zoar. So he lived in a cave with his two daughters. 31 And the firstborn said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is not a man on earth to come in to us after the manner of all the earth. 32 Come, let us make our father drink wine, and we will lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 33 So they made their father drink wine that night. And the firstborn went in and lay with her father. He did not know when she lay down or when she arose.
34 The next day, the firstborn said to the younger, “Behold, I lay last night with my father. Let us make him drink wine tonight also. Then you go in and lie with him, that we may preserve offspring from our father.” 35 So they made their father drink wine that night also. And the younger arose and lay with him, and he did not know when she lay down or when she arose. 36 Thus both the daughters of Lot became pregnant by their father. 37 The firstborn bore a son and called his name Moab. He is the father of the Moabites to this day. 38 The younger also bore a son and called his name Ben-ammi. He is the father of the Ammonites to this day.
This is the last quote at the end of the Scripture reading:
“If God doesn’t punish America, He’ll have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah.” – Billy Graham’s wife Ruth
Case Study in 2 believing families
Abraham’s brother died, so he took his nephew Lot with him to follow God’s call
- Both families visited by angels who appear to be men. Likely 2 angels (2-3 witnesses)
And Jesus 18:1,3 “Lord”; 3 “men” 18:2 but 19:1 “2 angels”
Hebrews 13:2 Do not forget to entertain strangers, for by so doing some people have entertained angels without knowing it.
- Both families practice hospitality (ancient world dangerous for travelers, no hotels or motels)
#1. Abraham & Sarah –
- Active faith – build altars, hear from the Lord, speak to the Lord
- Passive faith – 20 miles away from Sodom, waits, prays, watches
- Covenant of circumcision to train the men to live within God-given sexual boundaries
- Son Isaac is coming – raise your kids to have wisdom sex/gender/sexuality/marriage
#2. Lot & wife –
- (Gen. 13) chose land by sight (fertile), moved next to Sodom, moved in, raised daughters
- (Gen 14) were delivered 1x already by Abraham in war
- Passive??? 2 Ptr. 2:7-8 Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked(for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard)
- bothered but did nothing
- Heard of judgment, stays the night & has to be drug out the next morning by God’s angels
- Like days of Noah, everyone was wicked – culture total gone forever
Is there any evidence Sodom & Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone?
- Scientific Reports first reported on the findings from archaeologists including Professor James Kennett, University of California at Santa Barbara.
- Same time as biblical report 2. Same region 3. Same devastation
= likely the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (dig is called Tall el-Hamman) on the top
I need Figure 1 a Middle East on the top 2/3 https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-021-97778-3/figures/1 along with the figure of professor Kennett in the dig from here: https://www.news.ucsb.edu/2021/020400/ancient-disaster
and the following text on the lower third that I will read:
The biblical “sin cities” of Sodom and Gomorrah could have been destroyed by a meteor “cloudburst” that incinerated all 8,000 inhabitants…The giant space rock exploded over the town…creating a fireball… Now there seems to be hard evidence that a “heavenly event” really did happen around that time. The cosmic calamity laid waste to the Jordan River Valley’s northern shore, razing a huge 100-acre city to the ground. It also exterminated other cities and multiple small villages. There would have been no survivors… Detonation occurred about 2.5 miles above the ground. Even at that distance, the blast created a 740 mph shock wave… Human remains suggested they had been blown up or incinerated, with extreme disarticulation and fragmentation of bones. “We saw evidence for temperatures greater than 2,000 degrees Celsius,” says study lead author Professor James Kennett of the University of California at Santa Barbara… An international team also found building materials and pottery shards melted into glass. Mud bricks had heat bubbles. These are all indications of unusually high temperatures, which would have occurred during the biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. There was no man-made technology at the time that could have produced such astonishing damage… “There is evidence of a large cosmic fireball, close to Tall el-Hammam,” says Prof. Kennett. He likens the extraordinary event to the 1908 Tunguska Event when a 12 megaton meteor destroyed 80 million trees across 830 square miles of eastern Siberia…”
What were the sins in Sodom that brought God’s wrath?
- Multiple sins
Ezekiel 16:49–50 Behold, this was the guilt of…Sodom…pride, excess of food, and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor and needy. They were haughty and did an abomination before me. So I removed them, when I saw it.
= pride, perversion, inhospitality, abuse of children etc.
=Robert Gagnon – The Bible and Homosexual Practice 500 pgs,
- The sexual sin of Sodom and Gomorrah has long been held to be homosexuality as our English word sodomy indicates
- God warned earlier in Genesis 13:12-13, “Abram lived in the land of Canaan, while Lot lived among the cities of the plain and pitched his tents near Sodom. Now the men of Sodom were wicked and were sinning greatly against the LORD.”
- Genesis 18:20-21 reports, “Then the LORD said, “The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous that I will go down and see if what they have done is as bad as the outcry that has reached me. If not, I will know.”
- Genesis 19:5 says, “They [the men of Sodom] called to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them.”
- This world is translated “sex” (e.g. 4:1, 4:17, 4:25, 24:16).
- Same word 19:8 Lot’s daughter’s had not had “sex” with any men
- The parallel account of Genesis 19 in Judges 19 likewise speaks of homosexual gang rape which is likewise condemned there also.
- Jude 7 says, “In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.”
3 Options for Interpreting Genesis 18-19
- It’s not been interpreted correctly
- It’s repressive and we have progressed beyond this intolerant bigotry
- It is true and unchanging as a warning to us and for our children
Genesis 17 = primary goal of parenting? raise kids walk in covenant relationship w/God
- Sodom was in Lot – 19:1 he sat at city gate/leader (Prov. 31 husband), daughters engaged to godless men who did not follow him like Noah’s sons. Was going to give his daughters to a mob of men to be sexually assaulted Got drunk 2x w/daughters not alert to protect them (like Noah)
- Sodom was in Lot’s wife – looked back in remorse for leaving
- Sodom was in Lot’s daughters – engaged? lost guys God killed, slept w/drunk dad
Moabites & Ammonites = benemies God’s people (e.g. Num 23-25; II Ki 3). !Ruth was Moabite!
VS Isaac & Israel that brought Jesus (and had sexual sin as well, just not as completely gone)
Why does sexual sin seem so “normal” to us today?
Romans 1:18–17 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them…they are without excuse. For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools…Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error.
February 2022 Gallup Poll
5.6% of US adults are not “heterosexual or straight”
16.7% of Americans ages 18-23 are gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender
- 1960 birth control (& pill) legalized US
- 1960’s values clarification curriculum public schools
No external/objective authority for right/wrong – your own feelings, ideas, beliefs, views
- Sexual revolution 60’s 70’s
- 1973 abortion legalized
- 1974 American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders stopped listing homosexuality as a mental disorder
- Pornography
- Dictionary changed tolerance definition from disagreeing to supporting
- Sexual abuse, trauma, addiction
- Woke corporate agendas
- Social media throttling & cancel culture
- Sex is a religion w/evangelists, preachers & flocks, sacraments (coming out & acts), discipleship, kids min
- Apostasy Vogue – Newsweek George Barna 30% Millenial XN identify LGBTQ (not practice)
- People change, but demons don’t
Large $ management firms (e.g. your retirement) e.g. BlackRock, Vanguard Group, & State Street = woke & own 20% in every Fortune 500 Company (Disney’s largest shareholder 15.3%)
- Shareholders – goal is increased wealth
- Stakeholders – goal is increased social & climate justice (e.g. BLM)
What does Jesus say about Sodom and Gomorrah?
Luke 17:26–32 26 Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. 27 They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. 28 Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot—they were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building, 29 but on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all— 30 so will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day, let the one who is on the housetop, with his goods in the house, not come down to take them away, and likewise let the one who is in the field not turn back. 32 Remember Lot’s wife.
- God judged the wicked by water w/Noah & promised no Flood
- God judged wicked by water w/Abraham
CLOSE
- Jesus came to judge & punish Sodom & Gomorrah in Genesis
- Jesus came to be judged for sinners
- Jesus is coming to judge everyone else
We all disagree with something in the Bible and want to edit it
If everyone got to take 1 thing out of the Bible there’d be nothing left
We all begin by disagreeing with what God says about sex (more conservative – religious, trauma; more liberal – ???
We all struggle with sexual temptation of some sort (the heart & pornea)
We all know and love someone who lives contrary to Biblical demands
God gives us forgiveness, new desires, and the Holy Spirit for self-control (Jesus virgin)
We are to be salt that preserves & light that exposes – here it’s all dark & decayed
My story with Grace
Reason I’m not live is I’m out of state preaching a marriage event for the nations largest marriage ministry about what the Bible says about sex as we near 30 years of faithful marriage & finishing our next book Real Romance on sex in the SOS.
