The Sins of Sodom - Eric Troyer

Well, good morning, and welcome again to each one here,

especially the visitors. I'm glad you're with us here this morning.

And I too went to publicly welcome Delbert and Joanna

to the hall Sea Congregation here. I'm glad that you

are with us and have chosen to join our congregation.

Appreciated the service this morning, and there was different.

Things that.

I felt go along with somewhat with what I have

to share this morning, and I would just ask an

interest in your prayers this morning.

It feels like a big message for me to give,

so to ask an interest in that.

This morning, I went to look at a story from

the Old Testament, and it's a familiar story.

I think it's a story.

That you all know very well, and you could probably

recount most of this story by memory if you were

asked to do so. The story that I want to

talk about took place many many years ago, and I

don't know exactly how many years ago this event took place.

I don't think it is known.

But the story is found in the first Book of

the Bible, and so I think it's fair to say

that it's ancient history. It was a long long time ago.

It's a story of success, and it's a story of wealth.

It's a story of good times, it's a story of

good food. It's a story of righteousness, and yet at

the same time story of godlessness, a story of tremendous

sin and utter depravity. It's a story of justice and

judgment and the fury of God's wrath on a wicked city.

He could turning your bibles to Genesis thirteen, I want

to read a few verses here, and while you're turning there,

for a bit of context. This is the story of

Abraham and Lot.

In these verses that I'm going to read.

And prior to this account, Abram had lived in the

land of Canaan, and because of a severe famine, he

went to Egypt. And I don't know how long he

was in Egypt, but eventually, after some time he came

back to the land of Canaan. And Abraham had a

nephew named Lot, and Lot was was with him. And

the Bible says here that that Abram and Lot were rich.

The Bible says that Abram was very rich in cattle,

in silver, and in gold, and Abram and Lot were

so rich that says the land was not able to

bear them that they might dwell together. They had so

much that there was just not enough resources to go around.

And not only that, or maybe because of that, there

was strife between their herdman. I don't know if they

were they were fighting over pasture or water or what

was going on, but there was there was strife between them,

and so Abram and Lot decided that they should separate

in order to keep the peace. And that is what

brings us to these verses here Genesis thirteen, verses eight

through twelve. And Abram said, unto Lot, let there be

no strife. I pray THEE between me and THEE, between

thy herdmen, and between my herdmen and thy herdmn for

we be brethren. Is not the whole land before THEE.

Separate thyself. I pray THEE from me. If thou wilt

take the left hand, then I will go to the right.

And if thou, or if thou depart to the right hand,

then I will go to the left. And Lot lifted

up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan,

that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed

Sodom and Gomorah, even as the garden of the Lord

like the land of Egypt, as they'll come.

Ust unto Zor.

Then Lot shows him all the plain of Jordan. And

Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves, one from the other.

And Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot

dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his

tent towards Sodom.

And so we see here these two men looking at

the land.

And Abram tells Lot, you go ahead and choose, and

wherever you go, I will go the other way. And

Lot beholds the plane of Jordan, and it says it

was well watered everywhere, and it says even as the

garden of the Lord. And I don't know for sure,

but I'm assuming that means the garden of Eden. It

was a beautiful place. It was a place that was productive,

a place that was bursting with plant life. Were green,

things were growing, There was life there. There was an

abundance of food for Lot's cattle, no doubt, pastures and

pastures of grass, and plenty of water. Plant life needs

needs water to thrive.

And from a.

Business standpoint, it's no mystery why Lot chose this area.

There's plenty of food for his cattle. His cattle we're

going to get fat. There was likely plenty of people

to buy his cattle, likely a good economy and financial security.

We see that Lot pitches his tent towards Sodom, or

pitches his tent near Sodom, as some translations would say,

he moved in close to the city. And I don't

know how long he lived in his tent near Sodom,

but we know that at some point he ended up

inside the city walls.

At some point he bought a house or built.

A house inside the city of Sodom and ended up

living there inside the city. Well, there's one verse that

did not read yet in chapter thirteen, and that is

verse thirteen. It says, but the men of Sodom were

wicked and sinners before the Lord exceedingly and Sodom was

a cesspool of iniquity. It was a wicked, wicked city.

And yet this is where a Lot chose to live.

And I don't know if he realized the wickedness of

this city before he moved there or not.

I'm sure he probably had some idea, but.

I don't know for sure what all went through his mind.

The title that I've given the message this morning is

the sins of Sodom. The sins of Sodom, and it

would be interesting to open it up and to hear

what you might say if I were to ask you

what the sins of Sodom were, and no doubt there

would be some differing answers, and there's no one right.

Answer, and probably.

Immorality and the homosexuality would would be mentioned.

And those were those were terrible.

Awful sins of sodom. But those are not the sins

that I want to focus on this morning, although they

are they are very wicked. I want to read some

verses from Ezekiel chapter sixteen. He can turn there. Ezekiel

chapter sixteen. This chapter begins with God speaking to Ezekiel here,

and he asks him to make Jerusalem understand the abominations

that they had committed against God, to make them understand.

And so Ezekiel here is writing, and he he uses

different comparisons to try to help Jerusalem understand what they

have done.

And one of.

Those comparisons is that he likens Jerusalem to an unfaithful

wife or to a prostitute. Some of the other comparisons

he use uses as he compares Jerusalem to wicked cities

we that were known to be wicked, and one of

those was Sodom. I'm going to read verses forty four

through fifty one.

Ezekiel sixteen.

Behold, everyone that useth proverbs shall use this proverb saying against.

So use this proverb against thee saying, as is the mother,

so is her daughter. Thou art thy mother's daughter that

loatheth her husband and her children. And thou art the

sister of thy sisters, which loathe their husbands and their children.

Your mother was in.

Hittite, and your father and Amorite. And then elder sister

is Samaria. She and her daughters that dwell at thy

left hand, and the younger sister that dwelleth at their

right hand is Sodom and her daughters. Yet thou yet

hast thou not walked after their ways, nor done after

their abominations. But as if that were a very little thing,

thou wast corrupt more.

Than they in all thy ways.

As I live, saith the Lord God, Sodom, thy sister

hath not done she nor her daughters, as thou hast

done thou and thy daughters. Behold, this was the iniquity

of thy sister, Sodom, pride, fullness of bread, an abundance

of idleness was in her and in her daughters. Neither

did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy.

And they were haughty and committed abomination before me. Therefore

I took them away.

As I saw good.

And so there's four sins of sodom mention here that

I wanted to look at this morning, and the first

the first one is pride, pride, and haughtiness. Pride is

a high or inordinate opinion of one's own dignity, importance, merit,

or superiority, whether as cherished in the mind or as

displayed in bearing or conduct. Pride is a becoming or

dignified sense of what is due to one's self or

one's position or character. It's a puffing up and an

opinion that we are higher than others. Haughtiness is not

a word that we often use today, but a synonym

for haughtiness has a similar meaning is arrogance, and I

think we're a little more familiar with that word. Arrogance

is having or revealing an exaggerated sense of one's own

importance or abilities. Pride was the sin that caused Lucifer

to be cast out of heaven. And I believe that's

where pride began. I believe Satan is the father of pride,

and Lucifer is an interesting being or an interesting individual.

The Bible says that Lucifer was very beautiful, he was

extremely beautiful, and he was wise. Ezekiel twenty eight says there,

and I believe this is talking about Lucifer, says thine

heart was lifted up because of thy beauty. Not only

was Lucifer very beautiful.

He knew he was beautiful. He was aware of it.

And I believe that is what caused him to be proud.

Isaiah fourteen gives some verses there of Lucifer's pride, and

I will read those, and as I read over these,

you can almost imagine Lucifer just puffing himself up and

his pride. Isaiah fourteen, verse thirteen says, for thou hast

said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven. I

will exalt my throne above the stars of God. I

will sit upon the mount of the congregation, in the

sides of the north. I will ascend above the heights

of the clouds. I will be like the most high.

And so we can see Lucifer there puffing himself up,

thinking he is something mighty, thinking that.

He is equal with God.

Proverbs six, verses sixteen through nineteen. These are some familiar verses.

These six things doth the Lord hate yea seven are

an abomination unto him. A proud look, a lying tongue,

and hands that shed innocent blood, and heart that deviseth

wicked man, imaginations, feet that be swift and running to mischief,

a false witness that speaketh lies, and he that soweth

discord among brethren. So why does God hate pride? I

don't claim to know all the reasons, but there were

a few that I thought of. Pride leaves no room

in our hearts for God. God is pushed out our

own selfish desires and.

Our image become our main focus.

Pride lifts us up and makes us think that we

are better than others. Pride feels good because we elevate

ourselves above those around us. In contrast, humbleness or humility

does not always feel good because we're putting ourselves down

as a servant to be the lowest person on the

totem pole. You could say, when we are proud, we

are blinded to the hurting and needy people around us.

And so why is pride such a serious sin? Because

it puts self, it puts me, and it puts you

on the throne of our hearts. And we worship ourselves

instead of Almighty God. And we end up serving and

feeding our flesh, and we feed our pride, and we

feed our image instead of serving God and the people

around us. James four, verses six through ten, breaking in here,

But it says, but he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith.

God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble.

Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he

will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he

will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners,

Purify your hearts. He double minded, be afflicted and mourn

and weep. Let your laughter be turned to mourning, and

your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of

the Lord, and he shall lift you up. God has

no place in his kingdom for proud people. And I

believe that pride goes against the very nature of God,

and pride can be very subtle. It seems that it

can come in forms that are almost undetectable at times,

and we don't always realize that there is pride there.

And sometimes pride even presents itself as humility. It's false humility.

God cannot use us the way he wants to when

we are proud. So it says in James, we must

humble ourselves before him and submit to him, resist the devil,

and draw near to God. If we humble ourselves before him,

he will lift us up, and he will give us grace.

And if it were not for the grace of God,

where would you and where would I be today? And

I appreciated the devotional this morning about grace. Where would

we be today without grace? Philippians two, verses three through eight.

I would like to look at these verses, and I

like to think of these verses as Jesus setting the

standard or setting the bar for humility. What ultimate humility

looks like? It says, Let noting be done sir, strife

or vain glory, but in lowliness of mind, let each

esteem other better than themselves. Look not every man on

his own things, but every man also on the things

of others. Let this mind be in you, which was

also in Christ. Jesus, who being in the form of God,

thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but

made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the

form of a servant, and was made in the likeness

of men, And being found in fashion as a man,

he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the

death of the Cross. And I don't know if you've

ever stopped in thought about this, about the amount of

humility that this must have taken. For the Son of

God to come to earth as a baby in human form,

and to be born in a barn of all places,

does not seem fitting for the son of God. And

then to be confined to the limitations of a human

body for thirty some years, and then to be betrayed

by a close friend, to be humiliated, to be beaten,

and to be crucified a shameful death by the very

people he created and loved. And he willingly gave up

his life so that we could be saved from our sins,

and that we could be forgiven. And I don't know

if there is a greater example of humility than what

Jesus did for us in that way. And the apostle

Paul is saying here to let this mind be in you.

Let this same mind of humility that Jesus had to

be able to do this, Let this be in.

You, which was also in Christ Jesus.

And to me, it seems it seems that that would

be humanly impossible, and it likely is humanly impossible on

our own strength. I don't think we can have that

kind of humility on our own strength. But if we

sincerely desire and strive for this humility, I believe God

will give us grace. The next sin of sodom. I'd

like to look at.

This fullness of bread, fullness of bread, an abundance of food, gluttony.

And I feel like I do need to give a

bit of a disclaimer here because I realized that my

business does not lend itself well to this subject. But anyway,

and I meant to say at the beginning as well,

I do not come to you as someone who has

all the answers here.

I see these as needs in my.

Own life, and so I'm not coming here as someone

who has all the answers. But I do want to

be clear that I don't feel that eating is wrong,

and I don't think that making or creating or enjoying

good food is wrong. God has given us a sense

of taste, and he's given us good things to eat,

and He's given us many ingredients that we can use

to make pleasant and delicious food, and I don't think

it is a sin to enjoy that. However, an inordinate

affection for food and consuming much more food than is

needed is not right. And in case someone does not

know exactly what gluttony is, gluttony is a greedy or

excessive indulgence.

As pertains to food and drink. And I think that.

Gluttony applies a lot to food and drink, but I

think there are probably other areas as well that it

could be applied to greedy and excessive indulgence.

In the story of Lot.

It appears that on the plane of Jordan, where Sodom was,

that there was no problem growing and producing food. And

I don't think that that was necessarily a bad thing,

but it seems that the people there did not use

that abundance or that fruitfulness in a right way. They

used it in a way that was a detriment to

their lives. There's a lot of studies that have been

done on eating and overeating and eating orders, and I

found out that it doesn't take much searching in Google

to be overwhelmed with all the studies and information that

therey is on this. But I read a couple of articles,

and I just I want to share a couple of

paragraphs out of these articles. They're they're pretty similar in

what they have to say in what these studies found.

And these paragraphs pertain particularly to what I would consider

junk food, so things like ice cream and pizza and chips, cheeseburgers, fries,

and yes, donuts.

Mumm.

The first one I want to read here says this,

and I quote. It has also been found that the

intake of processed foods with high levels of refined carbohydrates

or added fats, such as sweets and salty snacks, are addicted.

These types of foods are most strongly implicated in behaviors

of addictions, such as excessive intake, loss of control over consumption,

intense cravings, and continued use despite negative consequences. It has

been found that refined carbohydrates or fats cause similar levels

of dopamine in the brain as measured with additive substances

such as nicotine and alcohol.

And if you do not know what dopamine is, dopamine

is a.

Hormone and it's called the feel good hormone, and dopamine

can act as a reward system for the body, and

dopamine is released when your brain anticipates or is experiencing pleasure,

such as eating. It might be something like winning a

game or using substances, and it encourages you to repeat

those behaviors. Another paragraph that I found that wanted to

share here, and I quote the word addiction may seem

strong when it comes to food, but research has shown

that our brains respond as strongly to highly processed foods,

especially those highest and sugar, simple starches, and fat, as

they do to tobacco, alcohol, and other addictive substances. So

I'm not saying this morning that you can never enjoy

a bowl of ice cream or a slice of pizza,

or a bag of chips and so on.

I'm not saying that at all. But I think we.

Do well to realize that these things are not a

positive thing for our overall health, and that they do

have tendencies to draw us into overeating and addictions. Our

eating habits can negatively affect us. Overeating and the addictiveness

of some of these foods that I mentioned can cause

us to be driven and controlled by these things. Eating

and especially overeating, seems to have a way of dulling

our senses and making us sleepy. And you probably know

the feeling, at.

Least I do.

After you eat a big, delicious feast of some kind,

maybe Thanksgiving or Christmas, and you get finished.

With that, and you've probably eaten too much, and you get.

Up from the table and you just feel tired, and

you just want to go take a nap. And I

believe that's the effects of overeating. It dulls our senses,

and it makes us tired. And just as substances can

be abused, I believe that food and eating can also

be abused. Galatians five twenty three. This says the tail

end of the fruits of the spirit at list temperance, temperances,

self control. This is one of the fruits of the spirit.

And as I mentioned earlier, believe simply that gluttony is a.

Lack of self control.

One Corinthians six nineteen through twenty says, what know ye

not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost,

which is in you, which you have of God. And

you are not your own, for you were bought with

a price. Therefore, glorify God in your bodies and in

your spirit, which are Gods. Our bodies are the temple

of God. And just as we as Christians have taken

a stand to abstain from things like tobacco and alcohol

and drugs, I think we should also take into consideration

overeating and remember that our bodies are the temple of God.

The third sin of sodom is abundance of idleness. And

you may have heard the saying before that idle hands

are the devil's workshop.

And I don't know.

For sure how accurate that saying is, but I think

that there is some truth there. Idle hands are the

devil's workshop. God has designed man in such a way

that he needs to work, and he needs to stay busy.

And I think for the most part, man enjoys that.

He may not think he does at times, but I

think that man overall does enjoy being busy and being

productive in some way and keeping the mind engaged in

a profitable way. It gives us a sense of accomplishment

that we are doing something good for our good and

for the good of others. Our bodies and our minds

are not designed to be idle and to stay in

an idol or a neutral state. The mind and the body,

if left to idleness, can become the workshop of the devil,

and sooner or later, an idle mind and an idle

hands are going to find something to do. If they're

not given something to do, they will find something to do.

And usually when that happens, it's not usually beneficial to

us or to the people around us. Also are if

our physical bodies, if left to idleness for too long,

will grow weak, and we become out of shape, and

we're no longer as productive and as useful.

As we once were.

And just for a bit of an illustration on thing

that came to my mind, you as parents can probably

identify with this, and maybe school teachers as well.

I don't know, but.

I've observed some of the effects of idleness in children,

especially in my children, and some of the things that

I've observed when my children have too much idle time,

and I know my children are young, but still.

Some of these things are noticeable. They start to pick on.

Each other, and they start meddling in each other's play

or whatever they're doing, meddling in the other's business. They

start just being irritating to each other, and those things

can end up turning into fights and turn into squabbles.

They start pushing boundaries and seeing how far they can

push you. They do things that are just a little

out of character, and you wonder what's going on. And

they're generally more unhappy and discontent when they don't have

enough to do, and often.

They don't even realize it.

And so I've learned that a good cure for this

is to give children something to do, make them go

feed the dogs and gather the eggs and sweep the

floor and do something productive to keep them busy. It

helps cure a lot of these problems. So what does

the Bible say about idleness? Well, fair amount of what

the Bible has to say is found in the Book

of Proverbs, which is not surprising. But I want to

just focus a little more on a few times that

idleness is referred to in the New Testament.

And I believe these are instances where Paul is writing here.

And when I was growing up, I think my siblings

and I used to quote one of Paul's thoughts here

on idleness, and we probably probably I.

Don't know, didn't use it in the way it should

be used.

But anyway, we used to tell each other that if

a man does not work, neither should he eat. And

we used to tell that to each other, and we

thought someone was being lazy. But Paul talks about individuals.

Who are idle.

And how individuals who are idle have a tendency to

become more of a bother than a blessing. And he

talks about people that are idle, how that they can

fall into the temptation and becoming busy bodies. And if

you don't know what a busybody is, a busy body,

from what I found, is simply someone who goes around

meddling in the affairs of others. And I think some

of these things that we can observe in children and

how idleness affects them can also be applied.

To our lives.

When we are idle, we can tend to pick on

each other and to be critical. We can be an

irritation and become irritated. You can push the boundaries of

the church and push the boundaries outside the church. We

become discontented, become unhappy. We meddle in the affairs of others,

and you could say we stick our nose in where

it doesn't belong. Can be someone who has all the

answers for what should be done and exactly how to

do it, but we're not willing.

To jump in and lend a hand. I think slothsfulness

is part of this. And I think another temptation of the.

Idle person is gossip and spreading of misinformation. And so

I'd ask you, what do you do with your free time?

Do you engage your mind in your body and things

that are upbuilding and profitable, and things that bring glory

to God? Or do you let your mind slide into idleness,

slide down the slippery slope of idleness. And maybe you,

if you have spare time, scroll your phone for hours.

I don't know.

I don't think that's the best use of our time.

I would also ask are you Are you and I

idle spiritually? Are we productive in God's work and in

his kingdom? Or are we a slothful irritation. We should

not sit idly waiting, doing nothing, waiting for the Lord's return.

We should be busy doing his work and there's many

ways that we can do that that we can stay

busy doing the work of God until he comes back.

But one way that we can stay busy for God

is the last sin of Sodom that I want to

look at, and that was neglecting to care for the

poor and the needy. The people of Sodom seem to

have plenty of earthly possessions. They had plenty of provisions,

plenty of food and all appearances, had plenty of extra time,

and yet says they were guilty of not caring for

the poor and needy. I went to read from Matthew

twenty five Matthew twenty five Versus thirty four to the

end of the chapter, and this is Jesus talking here

about the final judgment. But I think he's also giving

us some directions here on what we can do to

care for the poor and the needy. Matthew twenty five,

verse thirty four. Then shall the King say unto them

on his right hand, come you, blessed of my father

inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of

the world. For I wasn't hungered, and you gave me meat.

I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was

a stranger, and you took me in naked, and you

clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I

was in prison, and you came unto me. Then shall

the Righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee

in hungered and fed thee or thirsty, and.

Gave thee drink?

When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in

or naked and clothed thee, Or when saw we thee

sick or in prison, and came unto thee. And the

King shall answer and say unto them, verily, I say

unto you, inasmuch as ye have done it unto one

of the least of these my brethren, you have done

it unto me. Then shall he say also unto them

on the left hand. Apart from me, you cursed into

everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

For I wasn't.

Hungered, and you gave me no me. I was thirsty,

and you gave me no drink. I was a stranger,

and you took me not in naked, and you clothed me,

not sick, and in present prison, and you visited me not,

Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw

we thee in hungered or a thirst, or a stranger,

or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not

minister unto thee, then shall he answer them, saying, verily,

I say unto you. Inasmuch as he did it not

to one of the least of these, he did it

not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment,

but the righteous into life eternal. And so I think

Jesus here is teaching us ways, and that we can

care for the poor needy, And that how when we

do that, we are doing His work here on earth.

That if we have the love of Jesus in our hearts,

if we love him as we ought, and if we

love our fellow men as we ought, when we see

someone in need, we should be prompted to action out

of compassion because of His love in us. One John

three fourteenth or seventeen says, But whoso hath this world's

good and see if his brother have need and shutteth

up his bowels of compassion from him? How dwelleth the

love of God in him? My little children, Let us

not love in word, neither in tongue, but indeed and

in truth. And here the writers saying, if we have

the resources, if we have the time and the things

to help those in need, and do not do so,

how can we have the love of God in our hearts?

And I think that we as Americans, we are very

richly blessed, and we have more than we need, and

we have more.

Than a lot of the world does.

And I think it is pleasing to God when we

share our abundance with the needs of those around us. Now,

I want to go back to the story that I

started at the beginning.

We know.

That the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorah was exceedingly great,

and that God decided that he was going to destroy

those cities. And we know that God told Abram what

he was about to do, and how Abram bargained with

God to not destroy the city, and he kept asking God,

if you can find this many righteous people, will you

not destroy the city. And he finally bargains with God

all the way down to ten people. If you find

ten righteous God said he will not destroy the city.

But God did not even find ten righteous people there,

and so he sent his angels to destroy the city

and to rescue Lot and his family, and the angels

when they were there in Lot's house. If you remember that,

the angels asked Lot if there was anyone else, any

family there in the city, that if there was someone there,

that he should bring them to his house so that

they could escape. And we know that Lot's daughters were betrothed,

and Lot went to his son in laws and he

told them of the coming destruction. And it says Lot

was to them as one who mocked. And so Lot

came back empty handed. And we know that as the

sun came up it rose on that city that the

angels urgently said, it's time to go. It's time to go.

We need to get out of here. But it says

Lot lingered, he just wasn't quite ready to leave. He

wasn't quite ready to leave the good life, the good food,

the prosperous ease. And so the angels, says the lord,

being merciful to him, the angels took him and his

family by the hand and took them outside the city

and told them to flee and run to the mountains.

And we see how Lot there bargains with the angels

to let him go to the town of Zor there

and to not go to the mountains, and they granted

that request, but they told him, as soon as you

get there, the city is going to be destroyed.

And we know.

That that is exactly what happened. As soon as they

came into that city and they were safely there, that

fire and brimstone rained down from heaven and God destroyed

the wickedness of that city.

And we also remember.

Lot's wife.

She was safe.

She was in the city that they had agreed, the

angels had agreed to let them go too. She was safe,

she was saved from destruction.

And yet I don't know if it's just a moment of.

Weakness or what it was, but she looked back to

gaze at Sodom, and we know that she became a

pillar of salt in an instant. And I believe that

the destruction of Sodom was a foreshadowing of the coming

judgment of God on a wicked world. And in closing,

I want to read from Luke seventeen, verses twenty six

through thirty says this, and as it was in the

days of no or Noah, so shall it be also

in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat,

they drank, they married wives they were given in marriage,

until the day that no entered into the ark, and

the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, also as

it was in the days of Lot, they did eat,

they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded.

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom,

it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

Even thus shall it be in the day when the

Son of Man is revealed. The Lord is coming back

some day soon, and he has promised to destroy the

earth with fire, just as he destroyed Sodom. And so

I want to encourage each one to remain faithful and

to guard against the sins of Sodom. And if there

are sins of Sodom in your life, I beg you

to humble yourself before God and ask for forgiveness and

make those things right. God is faithful and he will

give you grace. Y