Father, we come to You because we need Your help, not merely because this is what we normally do before the Word is preached. I need your help that I would speak clearly and humbly and boldly from Your Word in a way that people can understand and we all need your help that we would be able to listen and pay attention and not be hearers only, but also doers. So we pray that You would give us grace to listen now and we would be changed, that we may know Your will and walk in Your ways. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
Our text this morning comes from Genesis 18, first book in the Bible as we have been in for many months now, and we come to the second half of chapter 18, beginning at verse 16. Genesis 18:16 through 33, as we have the second half of this story where the Lord and two angels appear to Abraham and Sarah at Mamre, they provide a meal and then they announce that next year Sarah will have a baby, and now we transition with eyes set toward Sodom and the evil that is there.
Verse 16.
“Then the men set out from there, and they looked down toward Sodom. And Abraham went with them to set them on their way. The Lord said, ‘Shall I hide from Abraham what I am about to do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I have chosen him, that he may command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the Lord by doing righteousness and justice, so that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised him.’ Then the Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. And if not, I will know.'”
“So the men turned from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near and said, ‘Will You indeed sweep away the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city. Will You then sweep away the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from You to do such a thing, to put the righteous to death with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do what is just?’ And the Lord said, ‘If I find at Sodom fifty righteous in the city, I will spare the whole place for their sake.'”
“Abraham answered and said, ‘Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord, I who am but dust and ashes. Suppose five of the fifty righteous are lacking. Will you destroy the whole city for lack of five?’ And He said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five there.’ Again he spoke to Him and said, ‘Suppose forty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of forty I will not do it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak. Suppose thirty are found there.’ He answered, ‘I will not do it, if I find thirty there.” He said, ‘Behold, I have undertaken to speak to the Lord. Suppose twenty are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of twenty I will not destroy it.’ Then he said, ‘Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak again but this once. Suppose ten are found there.’ He answered, ‘For the sake of ten I will not destroy it.’ And the Lord went His way, when He had finished speaking to Abraham, and Abraham returned to his place.”
This is one of those texts that can be taken in several different directions. If I were giving a student preaching advice, I would certainly say pick one theme and run with it. Don’t try cover two much. Don’t try to go in several directions. Just pick one big idea, focus on that and stick to it. That would be good advice.