Latest / Reformed Thinking / At the Gate and at the Door: Depravity in Sodom and the Mercy that Restrains (Genesis 19:1–11)

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At the Gate and at the Door: Depravity in Sodom and the Mercy that Restrains (Genesis 19:1–11) · Reformed Thinking

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  Welcome to Reformed Thinking. I'm your host and I'm really
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  glad you're here with us. It's good to be here.
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  We're back doing what we love to do, which is taking a stack of
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  serious theological sources, sermons, essays, some exegetical
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  notes, and just trying to extract the core doctrines.
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  And not just the doctrines, but the practical applications for
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  the Christian life. We want to get past the surface.
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  Exactly, To really understand the mechanics of the text, and
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  today we are tackling a text that is it's difficult.
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  It's terrifying. I think that's the right word
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  for it. It really is.
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  We're in Genesis 19 looking at verses one through 11.
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  This is the story of Sodom. And I think for a lot of people,
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  even if you didn't grow up in the church, you know the
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  punchline. Fire and brimstone.
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  Right. Or you know this text because
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  it's always getting bogged down in some cultural controversy.
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  But looking at the sources we have today, the goal isn't just
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  to tell a Horror Story. No, not at all.
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  The goal is to view this narrative through the, let's
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  say, the specific lens of Reformed theology.
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  And we have some really detailed analysis here that focus on
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  Lot's position in Sodom and the specific nature of the city's
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  sin. And when you look at it that
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  way, the central tension isn't just a city getting wiped out.
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  What is it then? It's about the contrast between
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  the absolute untouchable holiness of God and the, well,
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  the total depravity of man that. Phrase total depravity.
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  It just kept coming up again and again in my reading.
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  It's not a late topic, so let's lay out our mission for this
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  deep dive. We're looking to examine the
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  danger of spiritual compromise, the reality that divine
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  judgement is a real thing. And the absolute necessity of
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  what theologians call monarchistic rescue.
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  Monarchistic rescue. OK, that's a critical terms.
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  What does I mean? It's the idea that God alone
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  saves. It's a one way action, as we're
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  going to see. I mean, if it were up to the
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  human beings in this story, nobody would get out alive all.
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  Right, so let's get into it. The sources make a really big
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  point that you can't understand Genesis 19 unless you just came
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  from Genesis 18. It's a study in contrasts.
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  A huge visual and spiritual shift happens when you just turn
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  the page. So set the scene for us.
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  What's happening in Genesis 18? OK.
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  So in chapter 18, we're with Abraham, and where is he?
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  He's sitting at the door of his tent.
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  It's the heat of the day, so the lighting is bright.
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  Everything's out in the open. And he has this, this really
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  warm, intimate fellowship with the Lord.
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  Exactly. And our sources point out that
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  the tent itself is a symbol. It's a symbol of the Pilgrim
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  life. Abraham is just passing through.
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  He's holding the world loosely. Right.
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  He's mobile, he's ready to pack up and move if God says move.
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  But then and then we get to chapter 19.
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  And the whole atmosphere just changes.
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  It's like a different movie. Now we're with Lot, Abraham's
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  nephew. And it's not the heat of the day
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  anymore. No, it's evening, it's twilight,
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  the shatters are getting long, and he's not in a tent, the text
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  says. Lot was sitting in the Gate of
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  Sodom now. To a modern reader, sitting in
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  the gate sounds like he's just, you know, hanging out by the
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  front door. Maybe people watching?
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  Right, but our sources are emphatic about this.
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  This detail is crucial. So what does it actually mean in
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  the Ancient Near East? The city gate wasn't just an
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  entryway. It was the center of everything.
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  It was like City Hall, the courthouse, and the Stock
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  Exchange all rolled into one. Wow.
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  It was the center of civic authority, of commerce, of legal
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  judgement. So if you are sitting in the
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  gate, you are not a visitor, you are not just a resident.
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  You're a magistrate, an elder. You have status.
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  That's it. Lot has climbed the social
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  ladder. He's not just a guy living in
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  the city, he's helping to run the city.
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  And this is where that trajectory you mentioned comes
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  in. Yes, if we trace his movement,
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  remember back in Genesis 13, he just looked at the plains of
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  Jordan because they looked fertile.
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  He saw an opportunity. Then, the text says, he pitched
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  his tent towards Sodom. He was getting closer.
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  He was leaning in. And now, here in Genesis 19,
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  he's sitting in the gate. He went from looking to leaning
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  to leading. It was a slow fade.
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  That's a perfect way to put it, and the sources argue that this
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  is a picture of the illusion of influence.
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  Lot is the prototype of the compromise believer.
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  He probably. Thought he was doing a good
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  thing. I think he absolutely convinced
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  himself of that. He thought he could engage the
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  culture, maybe influence it from the inside.
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  If I just get a seat at the table, you know, I can curb some
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  of the wickedness. He likely told himself he was
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  there to redeem the city. But the reality was the complete
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  opposite. Completely.
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  The sources are pretty blunt here.
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  They say that instead of Lot redeeming the city, the city
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  absorbed him. He traded the pilgrims tent for
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  the citizen seat. And we'll see later that when he
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  actually tries to use that supposed influence, it just
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  blows up in his face. They mock him for it.
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  He has 0 moral authority left. It's a sobering thought for
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  anyone, really, who thinks they can get cozy the world to change
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  it. So Lot is at the gate, it's
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  twilight, and these two visitors arise.
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  They're angels, but they look like men.
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  And Lot's reaction is fascinating.
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  The notes we have really dig into the specific Hebrew verbs
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  used. Here, what does the text say?
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  It says he rose, he bowed, and he pressed them to come with
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  them. Physically, it looks a lot like
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  Abraham's welcome back in Chapter 18.
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  But the motivation is different. Totally different spiritually.
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  Abraham's welcome was driven by joy and open fellowship.
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  Lot's welcome is driven by fear. It's pure anxiety.
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  He knows what the city is capable.
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  Of he knows exactly what it is and there's a little test here
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  lot invites them to his house, but the angels say no we'll
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  spend the night in the town square, which.
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  In a normal healthy city would be fine, safe even.
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  Right. The town square is supposed to
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  be the center of community life, but Lot knows that in Sodom, the
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  town square is a hunting ground. It's a place of extreme peril.
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  That's why he insists. That's why the text says he
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  pressed them strongly. The Hebrew word there is patsar
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  and implies force. He is practically dragging them
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  to his house. Because he knows if they stay
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  out there, they won't make it through the night.
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  He knows it, and this brings up a really sharp theological point
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  from our sources. Lot has built what they call a
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  bunker of private morality. A.
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  Bunker. I like that he has his house and
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  he keeps it up tight. He thinks he can have this
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  little island of righteousness inside this this battlefield of
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  public depravity. He's deluding himself.
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  He really thinks he can keep the two separate.
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  He thinks he can be a leader in the gate during the day, lock
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  his door at night and everything will be fine.
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  That's the compromise. But as we're about to see, you
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  can't keep the city out forever. The walls are always thinner
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  than you think. So let's get to that
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  confrontation. The visitors are in the house.
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  What has made them a meal? He shut the door and then verse
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  4, this is the scene that really defines the city.
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  The text says the men of the city, the men of Sodom, both
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  young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the
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  house. The language there is so
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  intentional, Moses. The author is just piling phrase
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  upon phrase to make sure we do not miss the scope of this.
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  Men of the city, then men of Sodom, young and old, from every
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  quarter to the last man. It's suffocating.
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  It feels like a horror movie where the zombies are
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  surrounding the last safe house. It is suffocating and it
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  completely refutes the idea that this was just a rogue gang.
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  You know a few bad guys. No, this is the entire society.
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  This is where that doctrine of total depravity comes right into
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  focus. The corruption had metastasized.
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  It crossed generations, young and old.
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  It crossed geography from every quarter.
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  The sing was communal. And it was celebrated.
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  Yes, they're not hiding. They are surrounding the house.
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  Evil doesn't just exist in Sodom.
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  It encircles. It actively targets any boundary
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  of righteousness. Yeah, we have to talk about the
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  demand they make verse 5. Bring them out to us that we may
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  know them, right. I know there are some modern
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  interpretations that try to soften this.
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  They'll say Sodom's sin was just, you know, being
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  inhospitable. They just didn't like strangers.
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  Our sources take a very, very firm stand against that
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  revisionist reading, they argue. You just have to look at the
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  text honestly. So let's do that.
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  What does the language tell? Us the Hebrew word is yada to
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  know. And yes, in some contexts that
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  can mean intellectual knowledge, but in this context.
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  A mob at night surrounding a house.
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  And then you couple that with lots later horrific offer of his
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  own daughters who have not known a man.
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  The linguistic evidence is overwhelming.
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  It clearly points to sexual violence.
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  It's predatory. It is predatory, it's coercive,
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  and it's public. The source links this to Judges
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  19, that awful story of the outrage at Gibeah where the
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  exact same phrasing is used to describe a violent assault.
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  So this. Is not just private desire
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  happening behind closed doors? No, this is a mob demanding to
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  violate the sacred boundary of the home.
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  That's a critical distinction. It's not just that they are
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  sinners, it's that they are forcing their sin on others.
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  They demand participation. Bring them out to us.
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  It's a demand for access. That's the terrifying nature of
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  a culture that's been completely given over to its depravity.
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  So Lot is trapped. He has the angels inside, the
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  mob outside, and this leads us to what our outline calls the
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  failed mediator. It's just tragic to watch
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  unfold. Lot steps out.
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  He shuts the door behind him, which is a key detail.
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  He puts himself in between. He does in a way that's brave,
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  but then he opens his mouth and the first thing he does is call
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  the mob my brother. My brother.
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  Oof, that stings. It reveals everything, doesn't
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  it? It shows his entanglement.
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  He thinks he has a relationship with them, that he's one of
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  them. He tries to use appeasement to
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  calm them down. And then he makes the offer that
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  just makes every reader of the Bible cringe.
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  Verse 8, he offers his two virgin daughters to the crowd.
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  It's horrifying. And the sources are clear on
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  this, right? The Bible's reporting this, not
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  endorsing. It Yeah, absolutely.
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  This is described as the ethical nadir, the absolute lowest point
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  of the compromised believer. What could possibly lead him to
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  do that? It illustrates the total
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  bankruptcy of pragmatism. Pragmatism is the philosophy
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  that says the N justifies the means.
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  Lott thinks, OK, my primary duty is to protect my guests, and
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  that's true. That's part of ancient
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  hospitality. But his method is just.
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  It's abominable. He tries to fulfill that duty by
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  sacrificing the weaker his own children to appease the
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  stronger, which is the mob. He's throwing his daughters to
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  the wolves to try and buy himself some peace.
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  Wow. And the source makes a really
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  sharp application here for us today.
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  It does. It's a very stinging question.
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  It asks how often do modern believers sacrifice their
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  children's spiritual purity for the sake of social acceptance?
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  That's a heavy question. It is.
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  We might not be pushing them out the physical door to a mob, but
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  are we sacrificing them on the altar of social adjustment in a
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  culture that is hostile to God? And what's so tragic is that
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  lots offer. It doesn't even work.
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  The mob doesn't take the deal. No, they rejected instantly and
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  their response just strips away all of Lot's illusions about his
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  status in the city. Verse 9.
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  This fellow came to Sojourn and he has become the judge.
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  So they throw his history right back in his face.
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  The irony is just devastating. Lot sat in the gate.
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  He thought he was a judge, an insider.
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  But the moment he tries to draw even a warped moral line, the
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  world reminds him, You don't belong here.
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  You're an outsider and you have no authority.
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  Our sources has a line. The world despises the
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  compromised Christian. That's a deep insight and it's
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  true the world doesn't respect lot for meeting them halfway.
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  They see the hypocrisy and they hate him for it, and look how it
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  escalates. They turn on him.
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  They say now we will deal worse with you than with them.
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  Appeasement always fails. It just invites more aggression.
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  The mob presses against Lot himself to break the door down.
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  So he's done. He's exhausted, his arguments
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  have failed, his horrific bribe was rejected and now he is
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  physically about to be crushed. And that brings us to the pivot
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  point of the whole story, Section 4, Divine intervention.
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  Verse 10 The men reached out their hands and brought Lot into
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  the house with them and shut the door.
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  I love that image. It's so active.
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  They don't just open the door for him, they reach out and
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  pluck him out of the chaos. This is that term you used
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  earlier, monergistic salvation. This is the definition of it.
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  Mono one ergon work, a one way work.
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  Lot did not save himself. He didn't even have the strength
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  to open the door to safety. He was failing.
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  He was being crushed. So salvation was entirely an act
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  of God's grace. Pulling him in against the
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  chaos, against his own failure. He was literally pulled through
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  the door. And then they shut the door.
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  And that's another key phrase. The sources connect this right
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  back to Noah's ark, where the text says God shut him in.
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  It's a divine boundary. God is the one who draws the
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  line between judgement and mercy.
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  South Lot is safe inside, but the action outside is just as
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  intense. Verse 11 says the Angel struck
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  the men with blindness. But it's not just ordinary
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  blindness. The Hebrew word is sanvrim.
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  It implies A dazzling confusion, a complete disorientation.
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  It's the same rare word used when the Prophet Elisha strikes
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  the entire Syrian Army blind. So this is a supernatural event.
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  Oh yes, and it serves a dual purpose.
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  On one hand, it's a defensive measure.
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  It protects lot and the occupants of the house.
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  But it's also a judicial. Act.
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  It's a judgement, it's a punishment.
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  And this is where the story gets really, really strange.
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  Because you would think if a whole mob of people suddenly
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  went blind, they'd panic, they'd scream, they'd run away, they'd
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  scatter, right? But that's not what they do, the
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  text says. They wearied themselves to find
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  the door. That is maybe the most chilling
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  detail in the entire chapter. I think it is they are blind.
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  They have been supernaturally judged and yet they don't stop.
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  They don't repent, they don't flee.
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  They continue groping for the door to commit the very sin they
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  came to commit. They're like zombies, just
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  mindlessly pursuing the object of their desire.
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  It's a perfect picture of what theologians call judicial
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  hardening or reprobation. It shows us that sin is a form
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  of bondage. And enslavement.
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  Yes, even when judged, even when blinded, the unregenerate heart
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  is so enslaved that it cannot stop sinning.
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  They are exhausted not by repentance, but by their furious
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  pursuit of evil. They literally wear themselves
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  out trying to break into a house they can no longer even see.
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  That is a terrifying picture of the human condition apart from
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  grace. It is, and it just demolishes
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  the idea that people just need a sign from God and then they'll
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  repent. These men got a sign, instant
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  supernatural blindness and they just kept on sinning.
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  So we've walked through the narrative.
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  Let's do what we promised at the start and synthesize this.
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  How do we connect this to the bigger picture, specifically to
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  Christ? Because lot, I mean, he's not
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  exactly a hero in this story. No, not at all.
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  The New Testament in second Peter calls him a righteous man,
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  but in this text he's presented as a failed mediator.
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  Just think about it. He pleads, he bargains, he
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  compromises. And he saves no one.
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  He can't even save himself, he has to be physically rescued.
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  So lot represents the absolute failure of any human mediation.
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  Which points us toward. Christ, the true Mediator.
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  Jesus doesn't offer a sinful bargain to the mob.
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  He doesn't offer his children. He offers himself.
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  He offers his own perfect righteousness.
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  And that door imagery is so strong here too.
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  It's unavoidable, Jesus says in John 10.
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  I am the door for the believer. For the sheep, the door is open
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  for pasture and safety. But there's another side to.
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  That there is. We also have that warning in
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  Luke 13 where the master of the house gets up and shuts the door
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  and those outside are left knocking in vain.
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  So shut door means safety for the one who was pulled in, but
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  it means judgement for the one who was locked out.
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  And we just have to say it again, Salvation is of the Lord.
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  Why was Lot saved? Was it because he was so bold?
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  Well, was it because he was so clever?
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  And why? Definitely not.
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  He was saved because, as the text says later, God remembered
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  Abraham and because of God's own sovereign choice to wrestle
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  rescue him. The angels were sent on a
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  mission of destruction, yet their first word is escape.
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  That command is empowered by grace.
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  This brings us to the So what section the application.
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  Our sources break this down into head, heart and hands.
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  A great framework. Let's start with the head, what
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  we need to believe coming out of this text. 1st we have to accept
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  the twin doctrines of God's absolute holiness and man's
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  total depravity. We have to reject the modern
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  sentimental idea that God just kind of tolerates sin, or that
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  sin is just a mistake. Genesis 19 shows us that sin is
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  predatory and God's response to it is holy judgement.
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  And second, for the head, we have to believe that salvation
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  is God's grip on us, not our grip on Him.
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  Amen to that. If it depended on our grip, we'd
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  all be like Lot, just lingering in the gate.
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  We would OK moving to the heart, our affections.
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  The source material references to Peter again.
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  It says that Lot was vexed or tormented day after day by the
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  lawless deeds he saw around him. And that's really the diagnostic
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  question for our own hearts, isn't it?
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  Are we vexed? Does the wickedness of our
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  culture, the depravity we see, does it actually grieve us?
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  Or have we become desensitized? Exactly.
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  Have we sat in the gate so long that we just shrug at it?
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  We need to cultivate a holy grief over the state of our
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  culture, rather than just a comfortable assimilation into
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  it. That's tough because we all want
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  to fit in. We don't want to be the weirdos.
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  But the cost of fitting in, as Lot shows us so clearly, is the
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  loss of your soul's peace and eventually, all of your moral
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  authority. So finally, the hands action.
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  What do we do? The source gives 3 really punchy
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  commands here. Flee the gate, fortify the
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  house, and stop negotiating. Flee the gate.
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  That means we have to identify the areas in our own lives where
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  we are seeking status or influence or comfort in a system
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  that is fundamentally hostile to God.
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  Where are we trying to be magistrates and Sodom?
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  We need to step back from that. And fortify the house.
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  That means protecting the home from cultural invasion.
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  This goes right back to that parenting point.
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  We cannot sacrifice our children to social adjustment.
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  We have to have real solid boundaries.
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  And the last one, stop negotiating.
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  There is no middle ground between the fire of judgement
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  and the safety of the mountain. Lot tried to find a middle
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  ground. He tried to be a brother to the
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  mob and a host to the angels at the same time.
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  And it was a disaster it. Can't be done.
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  We have to stop trying to negotiate a peace treaty with
• 18:27
  sin, both in our culture and in our own hearts.
• 18:30
  It's a call to be distinct, a call to be separate.
• 18:32
  It's a. Call to be holy because he is
• 18:35
  holy. This has been a heavy deep dive,
• 18:37
  but a really necessary one. As we wrap up, I just want to go
• 18:40
  back to that central image of the shut door.
• 18:42
  It really is the final word of this passage.
• 18:44
  Safety for the one who was was pulled in, Judgement for the one
• 18:47
  who was locked out. And here's the final provocative
• 18:50
  thought our sources leave us with.
• 18:52
  It's a bit haunting. We are all naturally like lot.
• 18:56
  We linger. We like the gate.
• 18:57
  We like the status and the comfort of the well water plane.
• 19:00
  We would, if salvation depended on our own initiative to get up
• 19:04
  and leave Sodom. We would all burn.
• 19:06
  Every one of us. So the question for you,
• 19:08
  listener, is this. Are you wearying yourself,
• 19:12
  groping for a door that leads to nothing like the men of Sodom?
• 19:16
  Or have you been pulled through the one true door of mercy by a
• 19:20
  hand that is not your own? That.
• 19:22
  Is the only question that finally matters.
• 19:24
  Thank you for joining us on Reformed Thinking.
• 19:26
  We will see you on the next deep dive.
• 19:28
  Grace and peace.