(Sermon by Pastor Michael D. Schultz 08/05/07)

INTRODUCTION:

Long before the Civil War, Phenix City, Ala.—its name was Lively in those days—was known as the Sodom of the South.  By 1941 it had grown into a “Sin City” of more than 15,000 permanent residents, almost all of them employed in the vice factories—gambling dens, brothels, dope parlors—that lined Phenix City’s 14th and Dillingham Streets.  By night the population doubled, and most of the steady customers came from Fort Benning, the U.S. Army’s training camp across the Chattahoochee.  When the boys didn’t come to Sin City, the city went to the boys—in “mattress vans” that parked along the roads near camp.   Whew!

So what is Sin City?  Phenix City, AL?  Certain sections of San Francisco?  Las Vegas, NV?  Certainly not Lawrenceville, Snellville, Lilburn, Buford or Duluth!  But more importantly, what are church people supposed to think or talk about when they hear that notoriously infamous name of Sodom?  We come here to get a stronger faith, to honor the Lord and to encourage each other – as Peter wrote, to grow in grace.  Today, that is to happen as we revisit what most people regard as a very sick place – Sodom.  With some more of the Holy Spirit’s fascinating skill, it will happen that we will be -

Growing In Grace By Examining Sin City

Sodom was a cesspool, a sewer of immorality, and God knew it.  He didn’t have to go on a fact-finding tour – that’s just the way he spoke to Abraham to indicate that he never acts without a full knowledge of the facts.  The outcry against that city was accurate and God’s judgment was fully justified. 

In your NIV Bible, the name Sodom appears 47 times.  A sentence from Peter’s second letter explains why: [God] condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.   Wicked people will pay, especially the especially sinful ones, like those warped you-know-what’s in Sodom.  Oh, yeah, wicked people will pay.   

It sounds almost pleasingly fitting, till the outcry against us reaches the ears of God.  My opinion is mine – don’t lecture me on doctrine.  My money is mine – don’t lecture me on offerings.  My off-hours are mine – don’t lecture me on drinking.  My weekends are mine – don’t lecture me on worship.  My leisure time is mine – don’t lecture me on service.  My body is mine – don’t lecture me on purity.  The tables are turned and the address for sin city is looking perilously like our own as Paul writes to the Romans: “It is just as Isaiah said previously: Unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom, we would have been like Gomorrah.”

It is a shocking comparison.  We are equated with Sodom.  For our sin we would have been destroyed just like Sodom, unless the Lord had intervened.  Because of the presence of young ears, I cannot detail the wickedness of the place where Lot lived, but I do hear God saying that whatever our sins have been, they have been as grievous as those of sin city.  Glory be to God on high that he intervened!  Could it be that God the Father made Jesus the pure one guilty of the sins of Sodom and of us, had Jesus pay for the sins of Sodom and of us, rained down the burning sulfur of hellfire on Jesus as a substitute for the people of Sodom and people like us?  Yes, he did.

Grow in the grace and knowledge of your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as you see Jesus willingly letting himself be crushed for the sin of the world, the sin of Sodom and the sin of all of us.

Then be sure to take hold of some accurate information about the God who has rescued you through Christ.  In 1945, when 70,000 residents of Nagasaki died as an atomic bomb detonated, was it because there were not ten righteous in the city?  When a tsunami devastated South East Asia and a quarter million people lost their lives, was it because there were not ten believers in the region?  Doesn’t Abraham’s question still give us pause today when we see catastrophes take place: [Does God] sweep away the righteous with the wicked?  Will not the judge of all the earth do right?  He always will.  We’re growing in grace when we hold to the conviction that we have an unimpeachable God. 

Except in a case like Sodom where God obviously indicated that there were less than ten, when catastrophes strike, we don’t know the ratio of believers to unbelievers among the victims, but we are to know that God never acts arbitrarily or ignorantly.  Believers are never an unfortunate part of collateral damage.  In his judgments, God has never erred and he never will.  If his judgments are always right and he is filled to overflowing with mercy, then hold onto his mercy in Jesus and bring your family, friends and neighbors with you beneath his mercy.  As he does what is undeniably right, his huge love for you through Jesus will keep you safe and well.

That’s what Abraham had been brought to know and trust and that’s what led him to pray as he did.  We’re staring into the face of sin city, Sodom, an infamously depraved place, but we’re hearing an outstanding prayer.  50-45-40-30-20-10 – it sounds like a running back breaking through the secondary heading for a touchdown, but this isn’t yard markers; it’s souls.  Lord, spare the whole city, if only for a few who trust you.

What a humble, bold prayer!  I am nothing but dust and ashes, Lord.  I shouldn’t even dare to speak to you like this.  Don’t get angry, Lord.  I’m not trying to test your patience.  But lives are in the balance.  Souls are in the balance.  This lesson opens a whole world of people to pray for – one believer in a family of unbelievers, a handful of Christians in a country of non-Christians, places like India and China, people known as insurgents or Al-Quaeda, Muslims in Palestine and Mormons in Utah, prostitutes in Vegas and homosexuals in San Francisco, sin cities everywhere and unbelievers next door or in our homes, we most assuredly as undeserving of God’s grace as they, and they most assuredly as bought and paid for by the blood of Jesus as we – Lord, I know your grace in Christ because you’ve shown it to me and rescued me and I couldn’t live without it.  Show it to everyone.  Hold back your hand and rescue them, because they won’t live without it.

Grow in grace by knowing what God’s grace means for you and by praying for people accordingly.  God lets the prayers of his people shape history as he answers them by withholding judgment or leaving more time for repentance.

Sodom burned, but God did more than Abraham asked.  There weren’t ten and still God saved some.  A smoldering Sodom does serve as a stinging example of what will happen to the ungodly, but let it also open your eyes wider to the grace of the Lord Jesus.  Unless the Lord rescued us, we would have been like Sodom.  Growing in grace through this lesson translates into praising Jesus for forgiveness he shouldn’t have granted us, but has; 2) proclaiming the truth that, even if we can’t discern it, all his ways are right; and 3) praying, perhaps like never before, that he’ll be very patient and merciful toward everyone.  Grow in grace.

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