There Was No Church in Sodom

In Genesis 19-20 we read, And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous. We know from reading our Bibles that Sodom was a wicked city. But are not all cities wicked? Are you going to try and tell me, friend, that your city isn't as wicked as Sodom? In a lot of respects it is worse, because there are churches on every corner in most cities, but there was no church in Sodom.

And that's the tale of my message this evening, friends. There was no church in Sodom. And my text can be found in the book of Genesis.

You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends. We will be in verses 20 and verse 32. There was a conversation between Abraham and God that concerned the inhabitants of Sodom.

And in this conversation, Abraham is pleading with God not to destroy Sodom if he can find a certain number of righteous persons in that wicked city. And God agrees that He won't let judgment fall upon Sodom, and He won't burn it up if a certain number of righteous individuals are found. We see in verse 26, And the Lord said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes.

Abraham goes a little further and tries God's mercy by continually lowing the number of righteous persons till he gets down to the number ten. We see in verse 32, And he said, Oh, let not the Lord be angry, and I speak it but this once. Peradventure, ten should be found there.

And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. But we know from the biblical record that there was not ten righteous persons in that wicked and evil city, so God had to destroy it and burn up the Sodomites because they burned in their lust for one another. But things could have been different for Sodom and the people there if Lot had been an effectual godly witness to the Sodomites.

But there was no church in Sodom because Lot failed to build one through a godly testimony of authority. Lot's neighbors treated him with indignation as he tried to protect the two angels who stayed with him. The Sodomites ridiculed Lot's authority, telling him to stand back.

We see in verse nine of chapter 19, And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs be a judge. Now we will deal worse with me than with them.

So we see a mob riot gathering outside of Lot's dwelling because he has no influence with his neighbors because of his silent testimony. And today, friends, as we live and as we work in our respective cities, among our respective fellow city dwellers, we are silent for the most part in regard to a testimony for God and the gospel of Jesus Christ. We may point our finger in shame at Lot for not being a better witness for God in Sodom.

Why, he could have saved that entire city from judgment and destruction had he only knocked on a few doors and rang a few doorbells to share his faith in God with his wicked neighbors. All he had to do was bring 10 lost people in and get them faith, get them saved. But he did not.

And he witnessed not for God to them. So God had to destroy them. And friends, that is what is taking place in every city across this land tonight.

There's great wickedness and sin being committed that should bring the very judgment of God down upon not only your evil city, but this entire nation. Even though there is church on every corner, pretty much in every city, there's little witness to the lost in the communities this evening. Most Christians don't give a hell's hoot for the lost and perishing, just like old Lot, who was content to dwell there among them so long as he could enjoy his family and enjoy his life and be left alone and unmolested.

But there used to be a time in this country, France, when church folks gathered each week to pray, and they had prayer means to pray for the lost in their community. Why, they would even weep real tears over their souls in anguished intercession for them until they got a breakthrough from God and souls were saved. But most of us are too busy living our lives and getting by to care too much about who goes to heaven or who goes to hell.

And most churches feel the same way, even though they seem busy on Sunday mornings, and they may support a foreign missionary. Very little is accomplished for God in reaching the lost in their city during the week. Most pastors don't care so long as they get a decent crowd of the same faces each Sunday.

Church has evolved into a come-and-hear agenda of preaching to the same people every week, but the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ was a commission by him to his followers to go out to the very ends of the earth and to reach the lost with the words of life. Yes, France, Jesus never intended us to build huge mausoleums to gather each week with the same crowd and deadness in a come-and-hear agenda. The Great Commission was never meant to be a come-and-hear gospel but a go-and-tell one, to take the gospel to the highways and hedges and call the lost in and invite them to the Great Supper of the Lamb.

We have failed miserably to be burning and shining lights to our communities and reach the lost within our cities with the gospel of Jesus Christ. Why, what would happen if we did that? What would happen if we actually rang on some doorbells tonight? Why, it's too much work. It's too much time.

I've spent my time going out and knocking on doors and ringing doorbells, but most folks don't want to do that away no more. It's too much work. Why, going out at night to reach our neighbors with the gospel would cut into our TV watching time, and we couldn't have that.

And we might get someone hungry for Christ, and then they'd want us to sit down with them and spend some time with them and pray with them until they found Christ, and, well, we couldn't have that. But why, if we went out and actually shared our faith with strangers, then those odd-looking strangers might show up at our church dressed in their poor-looking clothes, and we couldn't have that. No, sir, there was no church inside them.

And as far as a witness to the lost in our community, there might as well be no church in town tonight, because we refuse to get up off our easy chairs and sofas and go out into the cold and knock on some doors and ring some doorbells and take the gospel of the Son of God to the lost and perishing, but we couldn't have that. I'm gonna take some time now, friends, to read you a story from the life and ministry of Rolf Barnard, because he was a man who wasn't afraid to go out and knock on some doors and ring some doorbells to take the gospel to folks that needed to hear it. Do you think sinners are just gonna randomly walk into your church each Sunday, brother pastor? Why preach to the same crowd every week? Jesus never did that.

He was always going about into the next town to share the gospel with the masses. Listen to this following story, friends, about how we too should go out into the highways and byways and hedges to bring the lost in. Why they're not just gonna wander in our doors on Sunday morning.

Here now are the words of Rolf Barnard. I'll never forget a poor fallen woman in Canada. I was up there preaching in a church where no one had been converted in nine years.

They were mighty orthodox, mighty separated, and mighty dead. I said to them, you ought to get acquainted with folks, and they took me seriously. So we went out ringing doorbells up there, and we actually knocked on some doors and shared the gospel and invited people to come hear me preach.

It was 20 below zero, and I was going around with a deacon from house to house, and we came to a wicked gate. I unlatched the gate going up to the house and started to go in. The deacon said, Brother Barnard, don't go in there.

I said, why not? The deacon said, I don't want to say, but don't go in there. I said, why not? Oh, I couldn't tell you, but please don't go in there. I said, I'm going.

He said, it will ruin the meeting. I said, why? Well, preacher, that is the most notorious woman in this section of Canada. Oh, if you went in there, it would be terrible.

I said, I'm going. And I went, and I knocked on the door, and a nice-looking woman, not yet betrayed by her sinful life, came to the door and said, Hello, big boy. I said, howdy.

I am a preacher, and I'm holding meetings down here at the church. I have come to invite you to come and hear me preach tonight. She began to laugh, and I said, it's no joke.

She said, are you really a preacher? I said, yes. She said, I believe you are. I said, yes, I'm from the South, and I'm preaching here.

Oh, she said, I heard about that fellow from the South, and you're him? Oh, yes, I am. She said, do you know who I am? I said, yes. I've been told that you're the most notorious woman in this section of Canada.

She said, I guess that's right. Do you mean you want me to come up to that church building tonight? Yes, I want you to come, because I want to preach to you. She said, why? If I come up there, it would shock them to death.

Well, they need a good shock, and I want you to promise me that you will come, and I double-dog dare you to come. Promise me you will. And bless God, she did.

I've never seen the Holy Spirit challenged when he didn't work. I preached that night, and before we could get started singing, here she came, just running down to the front and fell down there, and sobbed and sobbed and sobbed. And after a while, she stood up, tears running down her cheeks.

The glory of God on her countenance, and she witnessed a mighty good confession. The congregation was a singing people, so they began to quietly sing, Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now I'm found, was blind, but now I see.

They had an old 80-year-old woman there, and she was the mother of Israel, of all that section, a fine woman. And I wondered what that nice gang of church members were going to do. There was that ex-prostitute standing there, claiming the grace of God had done its work to Christ in her life, tears streaming down her cheeks.

She just stood there while they were singing. Nobody moved. I looked back and saw that mother of Israel pull her glasses up and wipe her eyes.

Then pretty soon, she pulled them off and took a handkerchief and wiped her eyes. Pretty soon, here she came, down to the front, and put her arms around that ex-magdalena, kissed her on both cheeks, and loud enough for the whole congregation to hear, said, Welcome, sister! Welcome, sister! Praise God! And at the foot of the cross, there were objects of mercy, the best and the worst woman in town in the same crowd, the difference, the mercy of God, which is His blessed Son, hung on a cross. He's able and willing to show mercy, God's sovereign mercy to the worst sinner that ever stayed out of hell a little while.

And when that woman did that, the people's hearts were broken, and sinners all over the congregation began to cry out. And once again, we saw the glory and the wonder of that simple scripture, Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Well, I like that story about Ralph Barnard, friends, because Ralph Barnard was willing to go out after lost sinners and bring them in.

He put shoe leather to his beliefs, practicing what he preached. Oh, what a difference it would make in our communities this evening if we did the same, if we did the same. And what a difference it would have made in Sodom, had there been a church there, where the ten righteous would have saved that city.

Let us go out and actually be witnesses in these last days where people all around us are perishing and going to hell, friends. Let us actually have some prayer meetings where we take our sanctuaries and turn them into wailing walls where we're on our faces before God and crying out for the lost and perishing in our communities and hanging on to God and importunity until he comes through and actually saves some folks. Oh, let us pray.