I'm glad to be back. I hope you're glad we're back.
It's good to be back with your worshiping with you.
We've missed you all the past couple of weeks and very, very
glad to be here. I'm picking up just where we
left off before I went on vacation.
And and I tell you what, I did a lot of resting and relaxing
these past two weeks. So my brain might be a little
off today. Just going to say that right up
front, you probably noticed that when I used the term
photoelectric cell with the four year olds that perhaps Blevins
is not thinking straight. Today we're picking up back with
the story of Sodom, Sodom and Gomorrah.
But but short, just referencing Sodom to refer to that whole
region. We looked a couple weeks ago and
and we saw. Well, before I get into that,
I'm getting out of order. See my brains off.
Told you my brain is off. Does anyone mind?
I've done math today? Poorly, but I've done math.
Anyone mind if we do a little science today?
Science. OK with everybody.
Where is that? All right and all right.
OK. All right.
We'll wait and see. I understand the attitude there.
Just give it a shot, Blevins. We'll let you know how it goes.
Has anyone ever heard of the Tunguska event?
Anyone ever heard of that? Yes, yes. 50 points for Steven
upfront. You can redeem those later at
the tree trail that allows you to clean up two extra tents at
the end. Absolutely, absolutely.
The Teguska event, for those of you who have not heard of that
before, in 19 O 8, to be precise, at 7:17 AM local time
on June 30th, 19 O 8, near the Tunguska River in Siberia, a
meteor exploded 3 to 6 miles above the earth and it
devastated an area roughly 770 square miles, wiped it out.
By way of reference, Meigs County is about 350 square
miles. So it's maybe.
No, actually, I think Meigs County is about 450 square miles
Because it was. Yeah.
So anyway, bigger than Meigs County, just flattened.
Flattened. Scientists speculate that the
meteor was 100 to 200 feet wide. So big, but not like, you know,
earth shatteringly big. Yeah, we've had some of those
hit in the past, literally that did mass.
And this one didn't even hit the earth.
It exploded 3 to 600 miles above.
It released the destructive force roughly to 500 to 1000
times greater than the atomic bomb dropped on Nagas or on
Hiroshima. People hundreds of miles away
felt the ground shake. People 500 miles away saw the
light flash in the sky. That's like an explosion
happening above Atlanta. That's big enough for us to see
here. Hundreds of miles away, people.
The earth shook so badly, people were knocked off their feet.
Now, because of the remoteness of the area then we don't know
for sure. It wasn't for about another 20
years before scientists actually went to investigate.
There were other things happening in Russia at the time
that people were giving more attention to.
But when they finally did go investigate, what they found was
that the trees in a circular area was all forested, very
remote. They don't think any human lives
were lost because it was so remote.
However, reindeer were killed. So probably a bad year for
Christmas that year. Just saying I thought that was
funnier than that. But you know, been on vacation
for a while. Trees were blown out in straight
lines, like spokes from a wheel. Except for the area right above
the explosion where the trees were still standing but they've
been stripped of their bark and scorched.
There's a massive explosion that wiped out a massive area of land
only by the grace of God that no one was killed as far as we
know. Now here's an interesting thing,
and I've talked several times as we've been doing our walk
through the Bible, starting with very back the creation story in
Genesis one and two, that that sometimes in the Bible, it's OK.
We don't know for sure what's what's history, what's what's
story, what's parable and, and, and, and it's, we don't, it's
not necessary to fight over those things.
You know, if you want to believe things are literal, historical,
if you want to see them more as a parable to teach us lessons
about life, that's great. This story of Sodom and
Gomorrah, interestingly or or maybe terrifyingly, as we think
about the possibility of it being a historical reality and
not simply a story, that there are some scientists, some
archaeologists that believe a similar event may have been what
God used to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and that whole region.
And there's some evidence for that.
It's by no means conclusive and it's by no means true that all
or even most biblical scholars believe it, that this is how it
happened. But the Tal Al Haman air burst
there was a region we should. I should also say that nobody
knows for sure where Sodom and Gomorrah were.
There is no conclusive evidence as to exactly where they were.
But there is a place in the Jordan Valley near the Dead Sea
called Tal Al Haman and around 16150 BC there was apparently a
high temperature air burst from a meteor that exploded above
that area. Some of the evidence that exists
is shocked quartz and melted pottery that were indicate
extreme heat. High levels of platinum and
Iridium elements commonly found in meteorites.
A sudden layer of destruction across the wide area.
Mud brick walls blown outward, buildings leveled, high salinity
and chemical changes in the soil, possibly explaining the
barren area near the Dead Sea. An explosion which may have
reached temperatures over 2000°C.
For those of you who are like me, and that doesn't mean
anything, 3600°F. That's a lot of heat.
A city sized firestorm. A region sized firestorm that
people observing from afterwards might legitimately describe as
fire and brimstone raining from heaven.
Massive death, massive destruction, all in an instant.
And whether you know, God did that as some sort of miraculous
thing in terms of just creating fire and brimstone out of thin
air like Jesus turned water into wine, or or or multiplied loaves
and fishes. Or whether God directed a meteor
of just the right size to that time and place.
Massive destruction, changing the landscape, obliterating life
so thoroughly that no one even knows for sure where the city of
Sodom and Gomorrah was. This is what was coming.
And this is what God told Abraham was coming to Sodom.
He said, I'm going to tell Abraham.
Abraham's descendants are going to be a great nation, and
through them all the earth will be blessed.
But God wanted Abraham to know and God was, was pretty clear in
that statement that that Abraham and his descendants will be a
great nation through whom all the world is blessed to the
extent that they are following God's way.
And God was giving them a picture of what can happen when
we don't follow God's way. Now, let's be clear.
And I got to say this again, said this three weeks ago.
I'm just going to say it today. I'm not going to spend the whole
sermon on it like I did then. What exactly the sin of Sodom
was how they got off track to such a degree that God LED them
to be destroyed. The Bible says very clearly and
very explicitly in the book of Ezekiel, this was the guilt of
your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride,
excessive food and prosperous ease, but did not aid the poor
and the needy. They were haughty and did
abominable things before me. Therefore I removed them when I
saw it. The real sin of Sodom was that
they were prosperous and arrogantly cold hearted.
They had drifted out of God's way of love and compassion and
justice and concern for the poor and the vulnerable in the world
around them so thoroughly that God wiped them out.
What was Abraham's response to this?
God told Abraham in advance, this is what going down, going
to look for my for myself, going to check things out on the
ground before before issuing the final judgment and the final
punishment. And and Abraham's response I
find fascinating. It it is perfect.
We don't know for sure, but it's perfectly reasonable to assume
that Abraham knew what life was like in Sodom and in that region
down there. If you remember, his nephew Lot
had moved down there and and Sodom and a few other kingdoms
in the area had rebelled against a larger king that ruled over
them. And the larger king crushed the
rebellion and took a lot and all of the other people and the
wealth of Sodom and Gomorrah away.
And Abram went and defeated that other king and brought back the
people and the wealth. And when the king of Sodom tried
to give that wealth to Abraham, or a portion of it, Abraham
said, no one's ever going to say that you made me rich.
Abraham knew what they were. Abraham knew what was happening
down there. And Abraham did not want to be
in debt to Sodom. It's reasonable to know, a
reasonable to believe that Abraham knew what life was like
down there, of how bad things were and how bad things had
gotten. Almost certainly he had ongoing
contact with his nephew, Lot and their family.
He knew, he knew what was going on.
But his response to what was happening, his response was not
to gloat, was not to celebrate, was not to sit all those dirty,
rotten, awful people. They're finally going to get
their comeuppance. His response was to plead for
the people of Sodom not to celebrate their destruction, but
to plead for them. I have heard it said, and it was
said not unkindly. I think it was said to me by a
Jewish rabbi. It's been a long time since I
heard it, so I could be misremembering it, but this
whole passage of Abraham bargaining with God is, is the
the, the cultural seed from which the, the reputation of
Jewish folks being hard bargainers comes.
That if you're going to bargain with God this hard, then you're
going to bargain with other people this hard as well.
And here's Abraham bargaining with God, bargaining with God
for the lives of a city that he knows is far from God, pleading
for God to have mercy on them. And the strategy that he takes
is to say, well, there's got to be a few righteous people there.
And he starts with 50, and he works it all the way down to 10.
And finally God says, all right, we're done having this
conversation. We'll leave it at 10.
And God leaves and Abraham goes home.
But Abraham, I mean, and again, not just asking once polite over
and over again, God, Abraham, God, you know, if it's, if it's
fifty, Well, if it's what if it's only 45?
I mean, it's five people really make it.
What if it's only 40? What if it's only, what if it's
only 10? God spare these people, spare
these people. Why Abraham stopped at 10, we
don't know for sure, but that's where Abraham stopped.
And we know it was so bad. We talked about that last week
or 2-3 weeks ago. It was so bad that visitors,
given the shelter and protection of an authority figure in the
city, could not escape violent assault from every man who lived
in the city. The city had become an awful
place to live, an awful place to visit, and Abraham was not
celebrating their destruction. Abraham was pleading with God to
have mercy on them, and he got it down to 10.
Are 10 righteous people really enough not to destroy a corrupt
civilization? I mean, when you think about it
from that side, if it's as bad as that, if so much evil is
being done, if so much corruption is there, if it's so
pervasive, covering every man, every woman, every child in the
city, even if you can find 10 righteous people and that entire
civilization, is that really enough reason to spare an entire
civilization? I hope so, and I believe so for
this reason. For this reason, it came a time
when God looked down upon the earth and said there's no one,
no one righteous, not even 1, not even 1.
But for the sake of a single righteous man, and we know is
Jesus, God, spare the world, not just a city, not just a
civilization, but an entire world for the sake of 1
righteous man. Paul says it this way in Romans.
What shall we conclude then? Do we have any advantage?
Not at all, if we have already made the charge that Jews and
Gentiles alike are all under the power of sin.
As it is written, there is no one righteous, not even one.
For the sake of 1 righteous person, God spared a world.
Listen to that whole passage, though that that single verse.
There's none righteous. No, not one gets quoted a lot.
You've probably heard it before, maybe maybe not.
Let me read it's it's the passage itself is a little
longer and it goes on like this. As it is written.
There is no one righteous, not even one.
There is no one who understands. There is no one who seeks God.
All have turned away. They have together become
worthless. There is no one who does good,
not even one. Their throats are open graves.
Their tongues practice deceit. The poison of Vipers is on their
lips. Their mouths are full of cursing
and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed
blood. Ruin and misery mark their ways.
The way of peace they do not know.
There is No Fear of God before their eyes.
Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who
are under the law, so that every mouth may be silenced and the
whole world held accountable to God.
Therefore, no one will be declared righteous in God's
sight by works of the law. Rather, through the law we
become conscious of sin. This was Paul's indictment on
the entire world. Paul, inspired by the Holy
Spirit indictment on the entire world.
Nobody, nobody. They can stand before God and
claim I'm good enough, I'm righteous enough, I'm holy
enough. God destroy the wet rest of the
world. But you owe it to me to save me.
Not a single person. The only person who could do
that was Jesus. And yet Jesus said, God, take my
life and spare them. As Abraham pleaded for the
people of Sodom, Jesus, even hanging on the cross, pleaded
for the people of this world. Forgive them, Father, Jesus
said. They don't know what they're
doing. And God listened to that prayer,
and God has shown his mercy, and God has spared and made for us a
way of salvation. God looked upon us from His
Kingdom, the messes that we had made, and said what he said of
Sodom and Gomorrah. There is no one righteous, not
even one. But instead of destroying us, He
came himself as one of us to save us.
And for the sake of that one righteous person, God has spared
the world. Our hope is not in our own
righteousness. Our hope is in Jesus.
None of us can ever be good enough.
None of us on our own can ever be good enough to avoid the fate
of Sodom and Gomorrah. Not a single one of us.
Our hope is entirely in Jesus Himself and His pleading with
God to have mercy on us. I left a slide in here.
I'm just now realizing that was old, so I'm going to have to
skip over it. Our lives are fragile.
Our righteousness is not our own.
So we have this choice in front of us.
We have this choice in front of us to strive, to choose, to
strive, to follow Jesus faithfully and to plead for
God's mercy for the world because that's what Jesus did
and that's what Abraham did. So our first response as the
church, when we encounter evil in the world, should not be to
call upon God's destruction, not to be to plead with God to bring
fire and brimstone down upon our enemies like his disciples did
when they asked Jesus, hey, you know that city over there
rejected you, wouldn't even let you in.
Should we call down fire and brimstone and Jesus?
Jesus was so ticked he didn't even respond to him, other than
we know that he rebuked them. We don't know what he said.
Maybe it was unprintable. The response of God's people
when we encounter sin in the world is not to call for
judgment, not to call for condemnation, not to call for
God's righteous, angry vengeance, but to plead for
God's mercy. This was the call that God put
out through his prophet Jeremiah as well, when God's own people
had to descended to the point of being as bad as Sodom.
And so God sent destruction into Jerusalem, sent destruction into
Israel. And before he did that, God
through his prophet Jeremiah, he said, he said, is there anyone
who will stand in the gap? The walls of your city are
broken. Evil comes and goes at its
pleasure, but now God is outside your walls and ready to bring in
righteous wrath. Is there anyone who will stand
in the gap and plead for God's people before God himself?
Well, is there anyone who will be like Abraham?
Is there anyone who will be like Jesus himself hanging on the
cross? We can't be as good as Jesus.
We, you know, we can't. We can't.
But we can pray like Jesus. Pray.
We can do that. We can plead for God's mercy.
We can plead for God's salvation.
We can plead for God's compassion upon not just our
family, not just our friends, not just our allies, but even
those who are our enemies. Plead for God's mercy, plead for
God's compassion on our enemies around the world and our enemies
close to home. And by definition, these are
people, these are cultures, these are civilizations that are
at odds with and even at times at war with our own.
But will we plead like Jesus pleads?
Will we plead like Abraham pled for the people of Sodom?
Our lives are fragile. One rock hurtling through space,
exploding in the right place, could wipe out gallium eggs.
Athens, Mason County, we could all be gone.
It happened so fast we wouldn't even know.
People in Atlanta would see the flash.
People in Charleston will go. What would made the ground shake
like that? Columbus, too.
Our lives are so fragile and our hope is not in our strength,
whether it's the strength of arms or the strength of legs and
backs, the strength of our mind to the strength of our will.
Our hope is not in the strength of our righteousness, the
strength of our morality, the strength of our political
philosophies and ideologies. Our only hope is in Jesus, the
one who pled for us as He died on the cross, and the One who
calls for us to plead for others that God would be merciful for
them as well. Pleading for Sodom.
I have heard too much. I'm not saying it about this
church, but in the course of my 50 plus years of life and 30
plus years of pastoring, I have had heard too much of churches
calling for God's wrath and celebrating God's destruction,
and not nearly enough of the people of God calling for God's
mercy for their enemies as well as their friends.
Let's choose to follow Abraham's example.
Let's especially choose to follow Jesus's lead and plead
for Sodom wherever we may find it.
In Jesus name, Amen. Amen.