When the Sun Set on Sodom

We live in a day, friends, where evil is called good and good is called evil. My city hosted 200,000 homosexuals in a big parade today and flew a rainbow flag atop city hall. And everybody is supposed to be okay with it, or you're considered intolerant.

I want you to know, friends, that we serve an intolerant God who hates sin. He's a God who's so holy he must punish sin. There's enough wickedness going on in most urban centers tonight to bring the wrath of God down on this entire nation.

There's enough booze being drunk in most cities tonight to drown the entire population. There's enough fornication and adultery taking place in your town tonight to turn it into one big brothel. And there's enough sexual perversion marching proudly through our city streets to turn America into smoke and ashes just like Sodom.

The title of my message this evening, friends, is When the Sun Set on Sodom. My text can be found in the book of Genesis in chapters 18 and 19. You can turn in your Bibles there now, friends.

I will begin in verse 20 of chapter 18. Here now is the word of God, and may the Spirit of the Lord attend the reading of His holy word. This passage, friends, we see Abraham standing with two angels and with God Almighty.

And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it which has come unto me. And if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence and went toward Sodom.

But Abraham stood yet before the Lord. I will pause here, friends. We then know what takes place next as Abraham intercedes on behalf of the inhabitants of the cities of the plain by asking God if so many righteous can be found in Sodom within the city wall.

Will God spare it? And the sad reality was, the cities of the plain had become so wicked, they had filled up their cup of iniquity to the brim, and all that was left was for a provoked God to destroy them. The sun would set on Sodom that evening for the last time. We read in verse 23 of the following chapter 19, The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.

Then the Lord reigned upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah, brimstone and fire, from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and that which grew upon the ground. We left Abraham back yonder in chapter 18, standing before God and pleading with God to spare Sodom.

Now we find Abraham once more in verse 27 of chapter 19 as he goes to stand on the exact spot as before. But the problem was, friends, the sun had gone down on Sodom for the last time. Look at the scene.

Abraham beholds in terror. And Abraham get up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord. And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the plain.

And behold, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. Now I don't know about you, friends, if you've ever seen a fire burn in a city, but I've seen a city burn once before in my life. I was in Chicago during the street riots of the 1960s.

And I saw that city burn. My family had to drive out of town because the smoke was rising and it could be seen for miles. Sodom was reduced to ashes by the Lord God Almighty because he is a God who must punish all wickedness and sin.

My Bible declares in 2 Thessalonians about a coming day of judgment when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power. Listen, friends, and listen to me closely. As the nations of our world line up like dominoes ready to fall, I believe a nation can sin so much and provoke a holy God to the point that all that is left for that nation is utter and final destruction.

The cup of iniquity has been filled to the brim. There came a day when the sun set on Sodom for the last time. As a wicked nation that has provoked a holy and righteous God and continues to fill up our cup of iniquity to the brim, I wonder how close America is as a nation of God-hating sinners to seeing the sun set upon us for the last time.

May God have mercy on us all. Let us pray.