The last days #7: Lessons from Sodom Luke 17:28-29
Again we go a long way back in human history to learn lessons for the last days and specially for the period preceding the Saviour’s return. God has written key truths into Bible history that are to be remembered, v32. Bible history is prophecy. God has revealed the end from the beginning. Cp Is 46:10.
I THE LAST DAYS WILL BE DAYS OF GROSS SEXUAL PERVERSION AND IMMORALITY.
The Divine standard. Cp Matt 19:4-6. Any departure from this model is defiance of God. We live in a time when to insist exclusively on the Divine model of marriage and human relationships is to be in defiance of human law. Many Christians have learned to accommodate the wicked views of the age—as Lot did.
The sins of Sodom are clearly identified in Scripture. In referencing the sins of Sodom being a primary marker of the last days and the return of Christ, the Saviour does not leave us in the dark!
Genesis 19:5-8. The desires of the men of Sodom were clearly sexual. They were primarily, but not limited to, same-sex desires. Such desire and such relationships are termed abominable by God. In the theocracy of OT Israel those who engaged in this activity were to be put to death. Cp Lev 18:22, 20:13. It is the activity of those whom God has given up, Rom 1:24ff. The presence of desire is the same as committing the act, Matt 5:28.
Ezekiel 16:49-50. It is often objected that there is no specific reference to the sexual sin connected to Sodom in this list—yet it is included in the expression committed abomination, v50. This is an additional catalog!
Jude 1:7. The alien sexual desires and practices of Sodom and the cities of the plain are referenced again. In the context of Jude’s epistle, it is clear that such views will be perpetrated in the church in the last days.
The sins of Sodom will be widespread. Society in the last days will be like main street Sodom in the days of Lot. The sins of the cities of the plain will be mainstream—public, paraded and institutionalized.
II MEN IN SUCH A DEBAUCHED SOCIETY ARE UNAWARE OF LOOMING WRATH.
- The perversion of Sodom calls down the wrath of God. This is the chief lesson to be drawn from the history of the days of Lot. Cp Jude 1:7.
- Judgement is not always executed speedily. Cp Ecc 8:11, 2Pet 3:3-7. Even against sins of aggravated offence to God.
- Men live as if there is no wrath. Cp v28. Those from whom God withdraws become entirely insensitive to His working and purpose. They did exactly the same in Lot’s day! Cp 2Pet 2:6. In spite of the lessons of history and the example…the vengeance of eternal fire.
III THE DELIVERANCE OF LOT.
Lot, and his deliverance from Sodom, is specially drawn to our attention by the Saviour’s words.
- The righteous are spared in the day of wrath. Those who are genuinely the Lord’s will be spared even when found among the wicked and hardly identifiable to the human eye.
- The cause of God will be very small and feeble in the days of Sodom. When Abraham prayer he evidently had some confidence that there would be ten righteous. Clearly there were not! The cause of God was represented by Lot. What a poor example of the Christian he really was.
- How much is lost when God’s people compromise with the spirit of the age. This man lost his family and every material thing he had laboured for.