IMMORALAPHOBIA October 6th,2002
AIM: To encourage the congregation to flee from immorality just as lot did.
OPEN:
a) Welcome and announcements.
b) Directions…compass illusion
c) The world wants us to go one way when God is calling us another way.
d) Today we are going to be looking at another story in the OT
e) I want to talk about this now, because who knows how long it will be before we are not allowed to talk about such things.
f) Today we are going to look at a Christian response to immorality.
g) The title of today’s lesson is IMMORALAPHOBIA
OUTLINE:
1. SODOM AND GOMORRAH REVISITED
2. THE WORLD’S VIEW OF IMMORALITY
3. OUR RESPONSE
1. SODOM AND GOMORRAH REVISITED
a) this has to be one of the worst stories in the whole Bible.
b) I’m not one to preach on hell-fire-and damnation…but today I can’t help but do that.
c) Sodom and Gomorrah serves us a fantastic example of what God will do to those who indulge themselves in immorality.
SCRIPTURES:
a) Genesis 18:20 - 19:29
20 Then the LORD said, "The outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sin so grievous
21 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."
22 The men turned away and went toward Sodom, but Abraham remained standing before the LORD.
23 Then Abraham approached him and said: "Will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked?
24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people in it?
25 Far be it from you to do such a thing -- to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. Far be it from you! Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?"
26 The LORD said, "If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."
27 Then Abraham spoke up again: "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes,
28 what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty? Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?" "If I find forty-five there," he said, "I will not destroy it."
29 Once again he spoke to him, "What if only forty are found there?" He said, "For the sake of forty, I will not do it."
30 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak. What if only thirty can be found there?" He answered, "I will not do it if I find thirty there."
31 Abraham said, "Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, what if only twenty can be found there?" He said, "For the sake of twenty, I will not destroy it."
32 Then he said, "May the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only ten can be found there?" He answered, "For the sake of ten, I will not destroy it."
33 When the LORD had finished speaking with Abraham, he left, and Abraham returned home.
1 The two angels arrived at Sodom in the evening, and Lot was sitting in the gateway of the city. When he saw them, he got up to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground.
2 "My lords," he said, "please turn aside to your servant’s house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning." "No," they answered, "we will spend the night in the square."
3 But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. He prepared a meal for them, baking bread without yeast, and they ate.
4 Before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom -- both young and old -- surrounded the house.
5 They 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."
6 Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him
7 and said, "No, my friends. Don’t do this wicked thing.
8 Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you, and you can do what you like with them. But don’t do anything to these men, for they have come under the protection of my roof."
9 "Get out of our way," they replied. And they said, "This fellow came here as an alien, and now he wants to play the judge! We’ll treat you worse than them." They kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door.
10 But the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door.
11 Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old, with blindness so that they could not find the door.
12 The two men said to Lot, "Do you have anyone else here -- sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the LORD against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it."
14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, "Hurry and get out of this place, because the LORD is about to destroy the city!" But his sons-in-law thought he was joking.
15 With the coming of dawn, the angels urged Lot, saying, "Hurry! Take your wife and your two daughters who are here, or you will be swept away when the city is punished."
16 When he hesitated, the men grasped his hand and the hands of his wife and of his two daughters and led them safely out of the city, for the LORD was merciful to them. 17 As soon as they had brought them out, one of them said, "Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
18 But Lot said to them, "No, my lords, please! 19 Your servant has found favor in your eyes, and you have shown great kindness to me in sparing my life. But I can’t flee to the mountains; this disaster will overtake me, and I’ll die. 20 Look, here is a town near enough to run to, and it is small. Let me flee to it -- it is very small, isn’t it? Then my life will be spared."
21 He said to him, "Very well, I will grant this request too; I will not overthrow the town you speak of. 22 But flee there quickly, because I cannot do anything until you reach it." (That is why the town was called Zoar.)
23 By the time Lot reached Zoar, the sun had risen over the land. 24 Then the LORD rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah -- from the LORD out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities -- and also the vegetation in the land. 26 But Lot’s wife looked back, and she became a pillar of salt.
27 Early the next morning Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the LORD. 28 He looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah, toward all the land of the plain, and he saw dense smoke rising from the land, like smoke from a furnace.
29 So when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham, and he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived.
b) Wow…Sodom and Gomorrah…what a sinful place is this.
c) What a community, completely given over to the fleshly nature.
d) Doing everything within their power to please the flesh.
e) A city where homosexuality ran rampant, and all kinds of immorality prevailed.
f) Drunkenness, Orgies, and the like.
g) These people where grotesquely given to every kind of sensual indulgence. They didn’t care about God or spirituality.
h) I’ve heard it said, that a sin is a sin regardless of the nature of that sin.
i) That every sin is equal…yes, that is true, but sin upon sin upon sin blots out any kind of righteousness as was the case here in these towns
j) There was only one who was considered to be righteous, Lot.
k) But even he was immersed in the world around him.
l) He was willing to give his two young daughters to these sick men.
m) But Lot was still at least, trying to do the will of God when none else were.
n) The men of the community were so perverse that they wanted these other men…the angels.
o) They weren’t interested in Lot’s daughters, they were immersed in Homosexuality.
p) This is all that God’s angels needed to see, They were going to destroy the place, but The angels of the Lord first told Lot and his family to tuck tail and run.
q) And again we see that Lot was not quite convinced. He tells his son-in-law’s to be to run, but they just laugh.
r) Doubt fills his mind, and when the angels tell him to take his wife and daughters out of town, he hesitates. But the angels took them out of the city.
s) When they were outside they all fled to a distant village that wasn’t yet corrupted by these other towns.
t) But, Lot’s wife, with here desire to cling to her old life, looks back at the destruction behind her, and was destroyed along with the city because of it.
u) What a horrible story.
APPLICATION:
Here we have a lesson of complete hell, fire, and damnation. We see a people who had no righteousness among them…who indulged themselves in the acts of the sinful nature…who were given over to every kind of immorality…who were perverted into homosexuality, and drunkenness and orgies. Whose whole life consisted of physical pleasure. A people whom God despised…not unlike the world around us today…That is why it is important to talk about…
2. THE WORLD’S VIEW OF IMMORALITY:
a) We live in a world where pre-marital sex is not just accepted, but also recommended.
b) A place where it is assumed that you must sleep and live with your partner before you get married to make sure that you are compatible in bed.
c) A world that condones homosexuality, and condemns Christianity.
d) We live in a place that will not tolerate intolerance.
e) That forces people to give in to the lie of immorality.
f) People around us try to lighten things up…they try to make these horrific sins not sins at all.
g) When a spouse has sex with someone other than his or her spouse they call this an affair…
h) When a man decides that he is attracted to another man, or a woman to another woman, they call this an alternate lifestyle.
i) When someone sleeps with another person in an pre-marital relationship people are praised.
j) Why not call things as they are???
k) Why not call an affair…ADULTERY…like it really is
l) Why not call an alternate lifestyle…HOMOSEXUALITY…like it really is?
m) Why not call pre-marital sex…FORNICATION…like it really is?
n) Why does the world insist on lightening up things that are obviously wrong?
o) Why not call all of these thing what they really are? IMMORALITY!!!
p) You see, this is the nature of the flesh, to justify sin where no justification can be found.
q) This wasn’t just Sodom and Gomorrah that were like this, it was the whole world.
SCRIPTURES:
a) Deut 32:
28 They are a nation without sense,
there is no discernment in them.
29 If only they were wise and would understand this
and discern what their end will be!
32 Their vine comes from the vine of Sodom
and from the fields of Gomorrah.
Their grapes are filled with poison,
and their clusters with bitterness.
33 Their wine is the venom of serpents,
the deadly poison of cobras.
b) Moses is telling of another people who are following in the footsteps of these people.
c) This is a generation later. Drinking from the same place.
d) Luke 17:
28 "It was the same in the days of Lot. People were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. 29 But the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all.
30 "It will be just like this on the day the Son of Man is revealed. 31 On that day no one who is on the roof of his house, with his goods inside, should go down to get them. Likewise, no one in the field should go back for anything. 32 Remember Lot’s wife! 33 Whoever tries to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it.
e) Luke is talking about people of his day
f) 2 Peter 2:
6 if he 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; 7 and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the filthy lives of lawless men 8 (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard) -- 9 if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials and to hold the unrighteous for the day of judgment, while continuing their punishment. 10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority.
Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings; 11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord. 12 But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you. 14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed -- an accursed brood! 15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness. 16 But he was rebuked for his wrongdoing by a donkey -- a beast without speech -- who spoke with a man’s voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.
17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them. 18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity -- for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him. 20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning. 21 It would have been better for them not to have known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and then to turn their backs on the sacred command that was passed on to them. 22 Of them the proverbs are true: "A dog returns to its vomit," and, "A sow that is washed goes back to her wallowing in the mud."
g) Peter tells of the people of his day that were like this,
h) And we can easily see, from our world around us that we are amidst the same kind of people today.
EXAMPLE:
Think about all of the movies and sitcoms that come out showing these types of immorality…It’s hard to find a movie today that doesn’t have pre-marital sex in it, or some kind of homosexuality. There are sitcoms on prime time television that promote pre-marital sex, like friends, and that 70’s show. That 70’s show also promotes the use of pot, in scenes where they are all sitting around in a haze of smoke high as kites. There is homosexuality in show like will and grace, friends, ER, Frasier, Spin City, and I’m sure in many if not all of the new sitcoms on TV this season. Even some of the new cartoons that are out for our kids, the movie Ice Age…boasts a homosexual pair of rhino-like creatures. The Simpsons, makes fun of Christianity, and has a subtle gay character named Smithers who’s hopelessly in love with his boss.
Even worse than on TV, laws are being passed for same sex marriages, and anti-tolerance. There is a threat that passages from the scripture will not be allowed use in congregations.
APPLICATION
The world we live in is not unlike Sodom and Gomorrah. And it hates those who are intolerant of it. It was bad in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, it was bad in the days of the first century church, and it is bad today. People all around believe that there is nothing wrong with immorality., and those who say that there are labeled as homophobes, and hateful. But honestly, we are not homophobic, we are not hateful, but we are terrified of immorality, we are immoralaphobes.
3. OUR RESPONSE.
a) God despises this kind of immorality. He hates it, and it will not be tolerated.
b) The world is trying to tell us that we have to tolerate it, that if we don’t we are in the wrong.
c) But if we do tolerate it, that is when we will be in the wrong.
d) God has destroyed in the past for such infidelity, and he will destroy again.
e) But the next judgement by God will be by far worse than that of Sodom and Gomorrah.
f) So our response needs to be swift. Our reaction to this immorality needs to be strong.
g) We need to stand up, tuck tail, and run for our dear lives. We need to flee from it and not look back.
SCRIPTURES:
a) Genesis 19:17 "Flee for your lives! Don’t look back, and don’t stop anywhere in the plain! Flee to the mountains or you will be swept away!"
b) Run Run Run Run Run
c) If there was any better advise I would give it. Don’t give in, don’t hesitate,
d) Tuck tail and run!!!
e) Flee for your lives, don’t look back, don’t stop, run.
f) The world would have us conform and tolerate, it would have us accept and own.
g) But if we do we are in dangers of the fires of hell.
h) If we buy the lies and believe the world we will be guilty of sinning against God, and will accountable to him on the day of Judgement.
i) Romans 13:13-14
13 Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
14 Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.
j) Don’t give in, but behave decently…clothe yourselves with Christ in a naked world…forget about satisfying the sinful nature.
k) Galatians 5
19 The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
20 idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
21 and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.
l) I Corinthians 6
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
m) Ephesians 5:
3 But among you there must not be even a hint of sexual immorality, or of any kind of impurity, or of greed, because these are improper for God’s holy people.
4 Nor should there be obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking, which are out of place, but rather thanksgiving.
5 For of this you can be sure: No immoral, impure or greedy person -- such a man is an idolater -- has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.
6 Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient.
n) Colossians 3:
5 Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.
6 Because of these, the wrath of God is coming.
o) I Thess 4:
3 It is God’s will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality;
4 that each of you should learn to control his own body in a way that is holy and honorable,
5 not in passionate lust like the heathen, who do not know God;
p) The message is obvious, run!
q) Don’t put up with it, because God despises it. RUN.
r) Our lives are not about physical pleasure as the world would have us believe, they are about God…therefore RUN!!!
EXAMPLE: at a retreat when I was at Western a couple of my friends were out doing a scavenger hunt in the trees around the camp sight, when the both stumbled across a black bear on the path they were walking on. Both of them froze in fear. The bear hadn’t spotted them, but if he did these boys may have been in trouble. After a moment of scared stiffness, the two slowly began to back up, then when they were just far enough, they turned and ran for dear life…praying that the bear hadn’t seen them and wasn’t close behind them. They ran in fear, just like we need to run in fear.
APPLICATION:
We can’t be afraid of the world, but we have to be afraid of the results of giving in to the world. It would be like us running into a bear and deciding that we were just going to keep on walking, or even worse, pushing the bear off of the path. If we give in to the world we will be subject to the wrath of God. But instead we need to see the world’s immorality as something that will kill us if we take part. We need to be afraid of immorality. We need to be IMMORALAPHOBES.
INVITATION:
If you are here today and know that you are giving in to the world. This isn’t the end of the road. Take the message that Lot has given us and run…turn around and run and don’t look back…get away from immorality.
