MAR 5 2023 | Genesis: Behind the Curtain S3E6 | Behind The Curtain – Season 4

Sea Change Church · Genesis: Behind the Curtain S4E6 · "Behind The Curtain - Season 4" · March 5, 2023
Automated transcript. Not reviewed for accuracy.

Good morning. My name is Daniel O'Keefe. And I'm part of the worship ministry here. And also Joe's Tuesday 25:35 ish group. And today's scripture reading is from Genesis 18 16 through 33. When the men got up to leave, they looked down towards Sodom and Abraham walked along with them to see them on their way. Then the Lord said shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do.

Abraham will surely become a great and powerful nation and All Nations on Earth will be blessed through him. For I have chosen him so that he will direct his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing what is right and just so that the Lord will bring out for Abraham what he has promised him. Then the Lord said the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is so great and their sins 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 the men turned away and went towards Sodom but Abraham remained. standing before the Lord Then Abraham approached approached him and said, will you sweep away the righteous with the with the wicked? What if there are 50 richest people in the city? Will you really sweep it away and not spare the place for the sake of the 50 righteous people in it?

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. Well, not the judge of all the Earth do right. Then the Lord said if I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their for their sake. 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. What if the number of the righteous is five less than 50. Will you destroy the whole city because of five people?

If I find 45 there, he said I will not destroy it. Once again. He spoke to him. What if only 40 are found there. He said for the sake of 40. I will not do it. Then. He said may the Lord not be angry. But let me speak. What if only 30 can be found there. He said I will not. Do it if I find 30 there Abraham said now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord. What if only 20 can be found there? He said for the sake of 20. I will not destroy it.

Then he said may the Lord not be angry, but let me speak just once more. What if only 10 can be found there? He answered for the sake of 10. I will not destroy it when the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham. He left and Abraham returned home the word of the Lord morning. Again. If you have your Bibles and you don't have the notes turn to Genesis 18 16 through 33 incredible passage. I want to write on the top of your notes the word rescue.

Right on top of your notes the word rescue. It's gonna be really important because it is a theological theme that is Believers as Evangelical Christians, and I don't mean it in the news term but you're evangelizing. We're sharing the good news of Jesus as evil Evangelical Christians. We need to be in the business of rescue now there is a term That is known in military circles. That is not going to be found in any of the manuals.

It's not going to be found in any of the training videos a term is Leave No Man Behind. You could say leave no person behind as we have now have women fighting in our in our military services, but there is this term that is Thoroughly understood. Thoroughly understood and all branches of the military that I've been a part of even though it has never trained. It is never put into a video that I understand that I've read and I researched it this week and spoke to some people there in the military and I know we have a lot of you here. We thank you for serving but there is something that is understood that you leave.

No Man Behind And that means that you put yourself at Great suffrage in order to go bring someone back whether they're alive. Whether they're wounded. And even if they are dead when I'm reading I'm reading a book right now on Vietnam almost had to stop reading it Vietnam was tragic. It was tragic the political things that were happening were tragic if you wanted to understand a lot of what's happening in the world today go read about the Vietnam War and especially in 1967-68 and 69 just tragic almost had to put the book down. It's the political things that were happening and one of the things that I understood as I read it is that the Vietnamese said this They said they had great respect and courage for the American fighter the North Vietnamese.

He said because of their willingness. To go and never leave anyone behind men would run into ambushes men would go into places. They knew that their life was in danger. They were willing to give it all up to go bring a brother home rescue. Now it is a debated tactic. It is debated in the military circles. Why would you go after someone who is believed to be lost who is believed to be above salvation at that point?

But they had something in the back of their mind they knew. We never leave anyone behind when I say that as a Believer, I guess I want to ask the question. Is there any people that you've left behind? Are there any people that are on the battlefield people that have hurt you? Perhaps people that have wounded you and we do need separation. We do need boundaries if it's a safety issue. I understand all that.

But is there anybody that is irredeemable? You've just left them behind they've been so wounded and broken and sometimes the people that we consider enemies ourselves are only enemies if we can understand their Brokenness, we'd have a little more empathy for them. Is there somebody in your family? Is there somebody who is of a political persuasion that is different than you that you just kind of wish them malice at this point?

Jesus Christ came to leave no one behind Charles Spurgeon, you'll see this in your notes had an incredible incredible quote if Sinners be damned. At least let them leap to Hell over our bodies. If they will perish let them perish with our arms about their knees but no one go unwarned and unbraid for now. He's speaking to a culture and a group of people at this time Spurgeon who believed and that if you were saved it was sought God's sovereignty and so you don't really need to go share the message of the Gospel even Puritans in the 1700s many of them are persuasion of them had stops sharing the gospel because they believe it's up to God anyways.

And so in a countercultural Christian narrative speaking to people who believe that it was really up to God where you got saved or not. And what was the purpose of going after people in an Evangelical manner? He says this let me read it again. if Sinners be damned, I love if when it comes to a lot of polity in the Bible. Like things that aren't to the level of Jesus death on the cross risen on the third day the blood of Jesus.

There's a lot of polity issues. Gifts of the Spirit rolls in Ministry things. These are polity issues that don't raise to the to the same standard of some of those issues. So he says if and I love that if we need to have a lot of ifs in our faith, right we need to only have very few Black and Whites like I'll die on that hill but he says if Sinners be damned at least let them leap over leap to Hell over our bodies if they will perish let them perish with our arms about their knees let no one go their unworned and unprayed for Charles Spurgeon.

I was I've saved five people from drowning in my history as surfing around the world, especially in Indonesia and you get a lot of European tourists and there's a lot of you know. Riptides and one thing I've known about saving people three were on one day and they were all together and I brought them all in. Is you know if you were going to try to?

Rescue someone who's drowning you put yourself at risk because it is a well known fact, we have a rescue swimmer that's here today with us. It's in the military as a well-known fact that that person might take you down with them in their own Panic. They might drown you along the way. Still should we go or should we got now? Should we not go now if you haven't written rescue right rescue and then the other thing is I want to think about who have you left behind who is no longer redeemable. Who's that person in politics that if they were gone, it would probably be better. Anyways, who's That person who is against the church, who is that person? It is against you that is sued you that is against your family who has brought abuse. You've just left behind you would rather have them perhaps disappear.

That go out and try to leave and try to make a difference and see rescue in their life. Once again in the context of safety and making sure that we do things correctly not putting ourselves at an understanding that sometimes we can put ourselves at harm. We're gonna move into the historical context of this. Okay. This is a incredible story Abraham puts himself at risk once before this happened, but then also here he begins to plead with God to save the lost and it's a very evil Society Sodom as you look into it. What's going to verse 17 Then the Lord said great question. We'll talk about it. Shall I hide from Abraham what I'm about to do?

Why would he do that? Abraham will surely become a great and powerful Nation. And All Nations on the earth will be blessed through him. First thing we see in this passage is that God is in charge of raising up Nations. God has sovereignty over Nations. He raises up Nations for purposes and he allows Nations to fall for different purposes. I read the the rise at the fall of the Roman Empire recently. I read William shears the rise and fall of the Third Reich. It's about 1800 pages that I read as we were traveling through Germany and I just listen to it again on the audiobook. I'm listening to what has happened to the the end of you know, the British Monarchy and as they were the greatest Empire on Earth and now they've shrunk down God raises Nations up and Nations fall.

One of the things I find is I've read through the scripture in these passages. There's a key word. And once again, it's one that Charles Spurgeon uses if you know the scripture that says if my people will what if my people the focus is on God's people will humble themselves and do what and pray. What will God do says God will be salvific and he will raise that people up. It says he will heal their land. How often do we look at those that are broken that are wounded on the battlefield are people that are enemies and say if they can just change.

If they will just make a difference then God can heal our nation, but that's not how scripture works. Nations raise up Nations raise up because of the values that they follow and we see that Sodom here was not following any sort of Godly value. We'll talk about that in just a moment. And so you see these rise up in the question is if so, the first thing I want to say in as we look at this passage is where are you on the if where do you stand on the if does your voice ring out in prayer for our nation?

Does your voice ring out and worship to God does your voice humble yourself before God saying? I don't know everything God. But God will you save these people does your voice is it part of the choir that prays out to God? It says in Revelations at every single prayer Burns in a bowl before God it burns there and they are Eternal and it says it in the end times as we learned in the last Revelation series that God will take that bull and he will dump that bowl of prayers out upon the Earth. Have you stopped interceding have you stopped trying to intercede? And so this is interesting because God says in verse 17 B go to verse 17 Again.

Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do. Why would God hide that? Because he knew something about Abraham and Abraham had already proven it once before was Sodom when he went to rescue them when they were attacked by five kingdoms. He knew that Abraham was an intercessor. He knew that Abraham was a person of Mercy. He knew that Abraham was a person would try to talk God out of it.

And so he says shall I hide from Abraham what I'm going to do? Why because he didn't want Abraham to have any emotional stress and be triggered by the fact that something bad was gonna happen to these people that were unrighteous and even Wicked the scripture says no, I believe it's because he knew that Abraham would intercede for these people and God says the land has cried out so grievously against me because he says that in a moment here. It says the lands crying out we'll talk about who was crying out. He said there's this great outcry that comes from the city I can hear it.

And he goes according to that outcry I that city deserves to be destroyed. But shall I bring it up to Abraham? Because if I do he'll intercede and I'm not sure I want any intercession on this particular City. Are you the type of person who intercedes on a regular basis for the lost and the broken? Are you the person that God might say I got the thing that I want to do and they deserve it.

It actually because they are actually doing things that are unrighteous that are broken. They're hurting people. I mean, the culture of Sodom was just was just decadent in so many ways. Are you the kind of person that God would say I have a feeling that if I share what I'm going to do with them, they might intercede they might try to bend my ear in a different direction.

They might want to try to partner with me in the thing that Jesus did which is setting them free from their Brokenness and their unrighteousness. I think that's a powerful word. Right? Is that not a powerful word? Does that not convict you in regard to is your voice crying out for those that are broken and those that are lost we see this outcry verse 20 go to verse 20 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 reach me.

Sodom has mentioned in the bible 47 times. interesting Just a little town in the Old Testament, but for some reason it has a representation and it gets a lot of play in the Bible. Now if you were to look Jericho is mentioned Jericho is a big city. The walls have fallen Jericho. It's 59 times Jerusalem 8001 times. So just incredible how many times Jerusalem Babylon 315 times Zion 168 times so it doesn't go up to that to that place of those other places, but it does show that this is an important city and it's one that Jesus even spoke about to mentioned in Genesis. 13:13 says now the people of Sodom were what it says. They were Wicked means they were Wicked. I mean they were bent towards wickedness. Remember when God destroyed the Earth with Noah. What did he say? He said every thought everything they think about is about wickedness. I'm going to destroy it.

I want to say when it comes to judging people. Why should we never judge people? The reason is because God's already judged you cannot add anything to God's judgment. You cannot add anything to God's anger. God has put us into the position. of reconciliation and intercession and trying to help heal the broken. And so that does not mean that we don't understand God's judgments Understanding God's judgments is not mean that you put yourself in the place of the judge. And so we see that Abraham here is acting as an intercessor that we will see it says that they were Wicked and in verse 13 Genesis 13:13. They were sinning greatly against the Lord. Let's go to Isaiah. Here's a few things that I went up and I looked at these 39 eight times that it was mentioned. Excuse me, the 47 times it was mentioned and this is what I found out about them throughout the Bible. They're mentioned throughout the Bible.

In Isaiah 3:9 says the look on their faces testifies against them. They parade their sin. Like Sodom so he was speaking about another Nation, but he was saying that there was a pridefulness on their face and not only that they put their pride on Parade. It said that they just they were so prideful they were so arrogant. They would parade about with the look on their faces. They were just arrogant God hates arrogance. That's just one thing God hates arrogance. He loves humility and He will draw close to the meek. He will draw close to the humble.

I want to ask you something in your opinions against the people you disagree with who you might see is wicked. Okay. Are you arrogant in your opinions? Are you hateful in your opinions? Are you discouraging in your opinions? Are you despairing in your opinions? Or are you in the place of Abraham where God might say? I'm not sure. I want to tell that person.

Because they might intercede now. We know what Jesus the the story has changed. Jesus has interceded says that everyone can know Jesus and can bend their need to Jesus. But we see the first thing that they was arrogant. I want to use this as a mirror for ourselves. Not like oh Sodom Sodom Sodom. Is this horrible thing. Are we arrogant? God hates arrogance. He loves you humility. God. Allow me to be humble.

God make me a humble person pray that sit and meditate on the word humility. God make me humble make me humble in my marriage make me humble with my children. Allow me to be humble and gentle I want to be humble and gentle the next day. We're unless they were gluttonous and uncharitable Ezekiel 16:49. Now this was a sin of your sister Sodom.

Showing it as a woman, which is really interesting. Sodom she and her daughters were arrogant over fed and unconcerned and they did not help the poor in the needy. They were gluttonous and they were uncharitable. Now, if you know the daughters of lot who grew up in the town of Sodom they end up committing incest with their father. Okay.

So this is probably one of the worst stories in the Bible that is a little bit further on and I probably wouldn't bring kids to the sermon over the next couple weeks because this is the Bible was an adult book and there's some difficult themes but we see that they were gluttonous and uncharitable. We have society that is becoming gluttonous and not just in regard to our appetites our Summits, but it's our appetites for everything. We want we're constantly thinking about the next good thing that we want.

One of the best things you can do is live in Simplicity and want less they have become gluttonous and uncharitable. Once again, how's your charity? How is your charity? And how is how is your stomach desires the things that you want the next is that they were sexually immoral and this is the one that they were most known for and people tend to point at at whether it be the sexual sins of Sodom and as Christians, especially they leave out all the other things like the uncharitanableness The Pride they leave out all these other things all these things are sins before God and as Believers, we need to be really careful not to cherry pick our sins. Oh, these are the really bad ones, but we can leave these aside if you look at the churches in the revelations and the Book of Revelations the seven churches God talks about hey, I don't you're doing this. I don't like this you're holding this Doctrine. I don't like this but they were sexually immoral Jude one seven when it speaks about Autumn says in a similar way.

Sodom and Gomorrah and their surrounding towns gave themselves up. That's Key Circle gave themselves up. That is turned themselves over that it's gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer punishment and eternal fire. The idea of just giving ourselves up. I believe we were in a culture that has given ourselves up to pornography.

I think pornography is rampant. I think it's rampant in the in the church. I know it's rampant in the church. I know it's rampant in the world the if you look at the statistics of what has happened in regard to sexual abuse and things like that since the iPhones and people just have unlimited smut on their phones, you know in their pocket constantly the rates of women that are looking at pornography. We are a society that is just given ourselves over to sexuality and Christians the battle to stay, you know, pure are not having sex until you get married with Christianity is almost lost 50% of Christians 57% of Christians believe that it's okay. If you're going to get married you should be able to sleep together beforehand that is incorrect and out of order and it is a sin and you are giving yourself up and you are giving your body up to things that are not right. Now. This is funny when I preach this to Christians a lot of times they kind of Royal at that idea.

Being pure before you get married. It only having sex in a relationship and in a relationship with man and wife and as a couple is basic Christianity. It's basic. Okay, you can try to talk your way out of it. This is basic and this is where the family stands you might know how much how much I always knew when I had my daughters one day. I knew they were gonna ask me a question.

You know what that question was gonna be. Do you have sex with mom before you were married? I knew it before I met before I met my wife I knew it when I met my wife and I was committed to be able to look them in the eye and say no now if if you did There's Redemption for that. I'm not saying that but for some of you that are still in that place where you have the opportunity, not you I'm speaking to Christians now going just to focus on Solomon right? I'm talking to Christians that we need to get our act together. Stop looking at p***.

Okay that trickles down to human trafficking. Okay, stop doing that. Stop giving your bodies away women dress modestly men dress modestly dress modestly start to stop finding, you know, all this, you know, I would say pride and power with people looking at you. Who cares. Stop spending so much time in the mirror. We need to up our game and not give ourselves away. I'm gonna lose half the crowd next week.

I just want to talk to I mean I can go point at a bunch of non-christians. Bible in certain places don't even concern yourself with non-christians. Do they're not Christians. Let's talk about ourselves. We got to get our act together as a church, you know, it's interesting as you read in some other scriptures and say First Corinthians. It says flee from sexual morality all other sin a person commits are outside of your body, but whoever sins sexually sins against their own body.

You actually destroy your body. I believe it makes you sick. It'll actually affect and destroy your body if you're in a sexual relationship right now, and you're not married tell men. Okay, go to the woman and say this will no longer happen anymore until we get married and I ask forgiveness for taking your body like that and I will never do it again and get some accountability. That's what we need to do as men. And that's how we stand up and you can look your children in the eye with dignity and honor and say hey we might have done something but we stopped or you say I never did that and I never went forward. This is it there was an outcry coming out. What was the outcry that's kind of weird, right? God says that there's this outcry that is coming up from the city Revelations 9 10 talks about this happen. What does it mean that God is hearing an outcry.

The city how can a city crowd where people in the city crying out? Maybe he heard people saying that this is what it says Revelation 6 9 and 10 When he opened the fifth seal I saw under the altar. The Souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God and the testimony they had maintained they called on a loud voice saying how long oh Lord Sovereign Lord how holy and true until you judge the inhabitants of the earth and avenge our blood The Bible doesn't say this, but I believe The Unborn whose lives have been taken.

Are crying out right now to God? I believe we believe we're a church believes in the sanctity of your life. We don't argue about when a baby is a baby. We know that at conception a soul is created and we argue for the soul. I don't argue that and God says I knew you before you were formed in your mother's womb which means we argue not from the point of concession, we argue before conception because he knew that Soul would be created but we argue for the soul.

I personally believe this is a personal belief. The Bible does not say this. I personally believe that The Unborn the millions of unborn that have been killed in our country are crying out underneath the altar of God crying out for him. How long Lord how long until you judge At the same time God's looking for somebody to say.

Hey like Abraham will somebody intercede? Will somebody stand up and stand in the capital? Somebody become a rescuer? Let's bring it back to that part of the message again. Who is going to stand up and be an intercessor who is going to stand up and make a difference? Remember in Genesis? 4:10? The Lord said what have you done? Listen, your brother's blood cries out from the ground. The ground cries out. We were created from dust creation cries out.

There was a connection there. I want to hear another crazy conspiracy theory. I know but too bad. I believe that a lot of things that are happening in the climate are because of human sin. I totally I believe you can I believe you can also poison the Earth we've seen that you can poison the earth into story and change all that. I believe that when we sin the Earth vomits us out. It says that in the scripture and that there was a connection between our sin and the earth going.

I just don't want any more to do with it that just my little take. We'll see maybe I'm wrong. My little take let me just finish with this. one Sodom irredeemable I feel like John MacArthur today 11, Matthew 11:23. And you Capernaum was sodomy redeemable was sodomy redeemable. Matthew 11:23 and you Capernaum you will be lifted up to the heavens.

No, you will go down to Hades. For if the if all if the Miracles that were performed and you had been performed and Sodom it would have remained to this day. Boom, have you seen that? if Jesus this Jesus How many people have you said we're not going there anymore? We're not going to try to rescue those people. We're Not Gonna reach out. We're not Building Bridges. We're building walls.

Jesus said if the Miracles that I did hear in Capernaum would have happened in Sodom. This is a rebuke would have happened in that place. It would still be here to day. Be a rescuer. Stop building walls between us and other people. It doesn't mean that you don't know what God's word says tell people what God's word says but be the person that God might have said back then should I go tell Brian about this?

Should I tell them because I know that they will intercede is your voice even in the choir or have we build a wall? We live in a walled Society right now. We need to open the doors. Role of intercessor two things that happen here. We'll close up. Verse 22 the men turned away. These are the two angels that were with God talking.

And went towards Sodom but Abraham remained standing before the Lord. He remained he remained he remained he remained. Circle remained he giving up. Gone to your lounge chair walked out the back door. He remained petitioning for these people. About that in marriages, I think about it with families. I think about with co-workers I think about it over and over again. There's very few people in our society today that remain Remains a big word for God but he remained standing before the Lord standing before the Lord. Then the Lord approached him and said well then Abraham approached him Abraham approached God.

as before Jesus for Hebrews, it says you can boldly approach the throne of God. He approached him. You know what? He's thinking you don't approach God and remember Abraham wasn't even a Jew yet. You know that he hadn't been circumcised. Abraham was not even a Jew. He was on his way to becoming the first Jew but he was not he was just a Wanderer in the desert and it says that Abraham approached him it says will you sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Once again, it is the righteous that saved the wicked.

You see he says because of the righteous save the wicked same thing. Like I said If my people you see it starts with the righteous Abraham had rescued Sodom once before Genesis 14:17 when the kingdoms had come Abraham had put himself at risk and gone and and after they had been attacked. He got all the women back. He got lot back. He got all the possessions back and he had risked his life that no one would be left behind.

In this passage, we see the right of the the fate of the wick and wicked often hinges upon the acts of the righteous my brother I have another brother. Not Alby. I have a brother who's 70 years old. Went to Vietnam. And on the first day, he was in Vietnam. He got scared in a firefight and he stood up he started running towards the enemy.

And he got shot twice in the head with by an AK-47 James Jerry you can find him online. If Jerry stat Miller's his name is easy to find. He sustained the worst head injuries ever sustained where someone lived he lost an eye. He lost a third of his tongue lost all of his teeth his Cranium went forward. His entire brain was exposed and he was laying on the battlefield.

In that moment 1968. You have to know what's happening in our country in 1968. A young black soldier 18 years old got out of his Foxhole. And he went he grabbed my brother. Picked him up in his arms. And he brought him home. If you know what's happening in 1968 when Martin Luther King Jr. Was killed. There would have been a lot of reason for a young black man to say just let that brother.

It's all good with him. To not go out and risk his life. That he went out there and he picked my brother up in his arms. And he brought him back. my brother survived he's ended up being a counselor. He's ended up having this incredible career. He went back to Vietnam and rode through Vietnam with other Viet Cong on a bike thing. He's been here once his name is Jerry. You can look him up.

Just one black young 18 year old kid probably from the south probably working class. That said no one gets left behind. Because every once in a while they live. Let's pray.