Note: I am especially indebted to Man of Faith, a commentary by the late Dr. Ray Stedman, for a portion of the flow of this sermon.

       In 1958, America’s first commercial jet air service began with the Boeing 707.  A month after the first flight, a traveler on a piston-engine, propeller-driven DC-6 struck up a conversation with a fellow passenger.  The passenger happened to be a Boeing engineer.  The traveler asked the engineer about the new jet aircraft.  The engineer began to talk at length about the extensive testing Boeing had done on the jet before bringing it into commercial service.  He recounted Boeing’s experience with engines, from the incredible B-17 to the B-52.  But when his travel companion asked him if he himself had yet flown on the new 707, the engineer replied, “I think I’ll wait until it’s been in service awhile.”

       Believing something doesn’t mean much if we aren’t also willing to do something with it.

       We see this in the story of Abraham’s nephew Lot.  In 2 Peter 2: 7-8, Peter writes about Lot, “Righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked – for by what he saw and heard, that righteous man was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds.”

       I’m sure that what Peter says is true.  It’s in the Bible.  But it is also true that Lot somehow manages to live with his agony of soul – up until the day the angels come to town.

       The two angels that accompany the Lord on his visit to Abraham go on to enter the city.  We pick up the story as they come into Sodom in the evening.  They look like ordinary men – no wings or halos or other identifying angel marks.

       They are met by Abraham’s nephew, Lot.

       What is he doing here?

       Remember how Lot had traveled with Abraham until they separated.  Then we see his progressive involvement in the city of Sodom.

       The first step is found in Genesis 13 where we are told that Lot “looked” toward Sodom.  Now this was no casual glance.  He looked with longing.  Lot was not content with the life God had given him with Abraham.  He wanted the more exciting life of the city.  And besides, the city was situated near the best land, and he wanted the best land for himself.  So we are told that he “pitched his tents near Sodom.”
       If we had asked him at this time why he was living near Sodom and not in it, Lot would have explained that Sodom was a very wicked city and he did not want to get too involved in its life.

       But by Chapter 14, Lot is living in Sodom.  There is no explanation of this change, but the fact is ominous.  Like a moth attracted to a flame, Lot is unable to keep his distance.  He is now living in the place God will destroy

       Now, in Chapter 19, we find that Lot has attained a place of recognized leadership in the city.  This is what “sitting in the gateway” means.  The gate is the place where the elders or principal men sit.  It is where justice is administered.  Lot has come a long way – from traveling with Abraham to the gate of Sodom.  He has reason to feel proud.   As Frank Sinatra later sang of New York,  “If he can make it there, he’ll make it anywhere.”  And Lot has it made.

       Now I want to be fair with Lot.  I believe he meant to do the right thing.  Yes, he wanted to get something out of Sodom.  But he also expected to put something into Sodom.  He probably thought to himself, “I can do these people good.  I may be able to win some of them from evil.  Yes, I can make money faster here than anywhere else.  That’s true.  But I also can help clean up the city.”

       When Lot moved into Sodom, this is undoubtedly what he had in mind.  And he becomes a leader in civic life.  He has a place in the gate.  This is where the angels find him.

       He stands to meet them, bows, and says, “My Lords, turn aside, I pray you, 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 say, “No, we’ll spend the night in the city square.”  But he urges them strongly; so they go with him to his house.

       Why is Lot so urgent in inviting these visitors to his house?  It’s because he knows his town.  He knows that it’s dangerous for angelic looking strangers to sleep in the public park.

       Yes, Lot is an elder in Sodom.  But that doesn’t mean that he’s changed the city.  He knows it, too.  Sodom is still Sodom.  And Lot wants to shield his visitors from the worst aspects of nightlife in the city by taking them to his home.  He won’t detain them in the morning.  He wants them out of town on the first stage before trouble starts.  And Lot knows it will start.  Because what happens that night is not an isolated instance.  It is just a common, ordinary event in Sodom.

       Verses 4 and 5 tell us that all of the men of the city both young and old surround the house.  They call out to Lot, “Where are the men who came to you tonight?  Bring them out to us so that we can know them.  As we will see, this “know” is meant in a sexual  sense.

       Now the prophets tell us that attempted homosexual rape is not the only sin of Sodom.   Let’s be clear.  Isaiah identifies a lack of justice.  Jeremiah points to adultery, lying, supporting the work of evil people, and failing to call into question gross forms of immorality.  Ezekiel records God’s view of these cities:  “Sodom and her daughters had arrogance, abundant food, and careless ease, but she did not help the poor and needy.  They were haughty and committed abominations before me.  Therefore I removed them when I saw it.”

      What happens in Sodom in chapter 19 is both bizarre and extreme, by anyone’s standards.  The huge majority of homosexuals would never act as the men of Sodom did – just as the huge majority of heterosexuals would not commit rape. 

       Homosexual rape is far from the only sin of Sodom.  But it is a part of the mix.

       There have been attempts to explain away this passage and others in the Bible that deal with homosexual practice.  It is necessary to deal briefly with these attempts.  The main source is the gay liberation movement, particularly the branch that wants the church to validate and even celebrate its lifestyle.

       For thousands of years it has been recognized that the Bible clearly condemns homosexual behavior as sin.  It is a particularly offensive sin, meriting death under the Old Testament law of Leviticus 20:13.  Romans 1 cites homosexuality as evidence of a culture’s well-advanced corruption.

       But you cannot be a self affirmed, practicing homosexual and live with that biblical outlook.  If you care about the Bible at all, you need to change the biblical witness so you can see your orientation as God’s gift and something to be celebrated.  So in recent years there have been many attempts to reinterpret the biblical witness.

       In regards to our passage today, one way is to claim that the men of Sodom did not intend homosexual rape – that the real sin of Sodom was its violation of the duty of hospitality of strangers.  But passages such as Jude 6 and 7, which speak of the men of Sodom “committing fornication and going after strange flesh,” are problematic for this interpretation.  And a simple reading of the story buries the claim that inhospitality was the major sin of the Sodomites.  Lot’s offer of his daughters as sexual substitutes shows clearly that he knows that the men of Sodom do not merely want conversation.

       This passage is one of those in which yadha, “to know,” is used with the meaning of sexual knowledge.  In scripture, Sodom is connected with a number of other sins such as lying, adultery, pride, and neglect of the poor.  But all these references display the same spectrum of sin that Romans 1 describes, in which sexual sins are part of a larger pattern of corruption in the fallen world.  Sodom was not destroyed just because it specialized in especially perverse homosexuality.  It was a plague center of every kind of depravity.  Nevertheless the Hebrew reader would recognize homosexual practice as a key aspect of this depravity.

       The Bible doesn’t condemn homosexuality out of a lack of knowledge.  When Paul wrote of homosexuality, it was with a full awareness of its scope and its impact.  He saw all kinds of homosexual relationships.  Paul wrote the letter to the Romans from Corinth, the sin capital of Greece.  Greek culture taught that homosexual love was the purest and highest of loves.  Many highborn Greeks maintained male lovers along with their wives.  It was no different in Rome.  Fourteen of the first fifteen emperors of Rome were homosexual or bi-sexual.  It seemed to be an “army thing.”

       Paul was very aware of the full spectrum of homosexual behavior.  And he calls it sin.  Now that’s good news.  Because God has given us a remedy for sin.

       I picture Lot in this passage as somewhat like an old west sheriff.  The “lynch mob” surrounds the house.  Lot steps out on the front porch to calm the mob.  And here’s where he finds out what the people of Sodom really think of him.

       Lot thought that he’d been accepted – even honored.  But when he finally goes beyond merely being “tormented in his righteous soul” and actually speaks up in however gentle terms (“no, my brother.  Do not do this wicked thing.”), he is bitterly attached and threatened as an outsider.   Maybe Lot was honored because he was Abraham’s nephew – and, as we saw in chapter 14,  Abraham was good to have around for battles.

       In any case, Lot learns that he was never respected for himself.  He has no moral authority.  When push comes to shove, Lot doesn’t count for much.

       It’s not hard to see why.  Lot actually offers to give his two unmarried daughters to the men, if they will leave the visitors alone.  “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.”  And just whose roof were Lot’s daughters under?

       I said that Lot reminds me of a western sheriff -- but not like one I ever saw in the movies. I can’t imagine Gary Cooper offering Grace Kelly to a mob.  Matt Dillon wouldn’t do this with Miss Kitty.  Roy Rogers would not do this with Dale Evans.  But this is what Lot does.

      The angels evidently think Lot is going overboard on the laws of hospitality.  They strike the door-pounders blind.  Even blindness doesn’t stop the attack.  The keep trying to get in until they wear themselves out.

       The angels have come to the city as divine assessors.  They need no further evidence.  Guilt is established.  They have the mandate to destroy Sodom.  We’ll continue with this next week.

       But for now, I’d like to ask Lot two question.

       “Lot, you made a great success out of your life.  You won your way from a nobody to a leader in the city.  You entered as an unknown, a foreigner, and you achieved both wealth and position in Sodom.  My first question is this: “How has life in Sodom affected your own inner life?”

       Remember what Peter writes, how “righteous Lot was greatly vexed in his righteous soul day after day.”  Lot in Sodom is a picture of discontent, bafflement, and frustration.  He has tasted the higher things of fellowship with God while he was with Abraham.  And this means that he can never finally accept the sordid, ugly, and obscene things of Sodom.  He’s in turmoil.

       Where are rest and peace and quietness of heart?  They are with Abraham in his tent under the oak tree.  Lot is in Sodom.  That’s where the money is.  But what good is it to have luxuries and wealth and material gain if your heart is poisoned?  Lot has been deadened by Sodom.  He has contracted leprosy of the spirit.

       Dr. Paul Brand was the first medical authority to observe that the loss of fingers and toes from leprosy is due mainly to infection and injury.  For years, it was assumed that some kind of decaying process caused these appendages to drop off.  But Dr. Brand showed that tissue damage occurs because the patient loses the warnings of pain.  Leprosy attacks the central nervous system and acts like a shot of Novocain.

       Of course, you’re thankful for the deadening effect of such a drug while the dentist drills on your tooth.  But when you walk out of her office with your mouth all numb, and you bite a chunk off the inside of your cheek without feeling anything, you know in a small way what a leper is up against.  He is injured and doesn’t even know it.

       Pain is an expression of the grace and mercy of God.  Sin is not to be hated primarily for the agony it brings into our lives, although that’s part of it.  More important, it is to be hated because, like leprosy, it has a numbing effect.  It deadens our sense of touch with God and lets us live like Lot, without awareness of the progressive “injury and infection” that poisons our soul.

       How about a second question.  “Lot, what did you do for Sodom?  When you moved into the city, you intended to influence the city for good.  You became a leader.  Now Lot, in that place of real political influence, how many did you win?  How many did you turn from evil to faith?  How effective have you been in touching people’s lives?

       We read: “Then the angels said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here?  Sons-in-law, sons- daughters, or anyone else you have in the city.  Bring them out of the place; for we are about to destroy this place.’  So Lot went out and said to his sons-in-law, who were to marry his daughters, ‘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.”

       Even with his own prospective sons-in-law, Lot has no influence, whatsoever.  Lot’s political power seemed great.  But his spiritual influence is absolutely zero.  Lot’s silence has compromised his witness.  His sons-in-law to be think he’s joking about the coming destruction; he’s never talked this way before.  And anyway, why should they believe a man who just offered their fiancées to the lust of a mob?

       I’ve asked Lot two question.  Now, let me ask you some questions that grow out of this story, questions I have also had to ask myself.

       Are you trying to play it both ways as Lot did?  Are you using the wrong measure for success?  Does this lead you to cut corners on the truth, in business or in your personal relationships?

       Do you sometimes live as believer and sometimes as a non-believer, depending who you’re with?  Are you teenagers trying to have it both ways, wanting to be both “good enough to be okay and bad enough to be interesting?”

       Does what you say match what you believe? Would your own family, the people who know you best, believe you if you spoke God’s word? Or have you compromised your witness by your behavior or by your previous silence.

        Those are hard questions.  But honestly facing them also opens us to receiving the grace, restoration and renewal God offers in Jesus Christ.  This renewal is so powerful that it can touch Lots, it can touch the people of Sodom in their most entrenched sins, and it can touch us.