Does God Know Everything? Is God Just?

Good morning. Good to see you. All right, today we are jumping back into our

series, How It Started. We are now at part 17.

This is a series through the book of Genesis that we have been in for a while now.

Some of you have been here for all or at least most of the parts of this series.

You've heard the sermons and so you're kind of caught up and you're ready for today.

There are some of us in this room, myself included, who have not been here.

And perhaps we need a little bit of a refresher. Anybody need a refresher?

Okay, good. So I'll do this for the seven of you that responded.

So today my plan is to pick up right where our associate pastor,

Doug Davison, left off two weeks ago. Two weeks ago, he was preaching through Genesis.

I came back last week. I did a standalone sermon, and now we're getting right back into Genesis.

So two weeks ago when he left off, he left off in the middle of chapter 18 of Genesis.

Okay, he went halfway through chapter 18. So I thought before we just jump right

into the middle of 18, maybe it would be good to talk about what happened in

the first 17 and a half chapters of Genesis that got us to this point. So here we go.

We began this series on April 27th, right?

And we've been going through the book of Genesis. And on April 27th,

we went through the first chapter, the first page of the Bible, Genesis chapter one.

And in that sermon, I told you that God is the origin of everything and the

owner of everything. Okay? Do you remember that?

That's one of the things we learned from the opening pages of the Bible.

Everything that exists was brought into existence by God, and he is the one that owns all the stuff.

Then in chapter two, we talked about the fact that God made this new piece of

land, if you will, called earth, this new territory that didn't exist before.

And the intention was, this is at least as best as I understand it,

was that it was to be sort of a colony of the kingdom that had already been

established, that God was already king, right?

The kingdom of heaven, in a sense, already existed, but he created this new

piece of land to which the kingdom of heaven was to extend, okay, the earth.

And so he took this new colony, and he did what a lot of kingdoms do with new colonies.

He set people in it in order to settle it according to the ways and the values of the kingdom.

And so he delegated the earth to vice regents. That was the word that I used

because I don't know, I think I've heard theologians use that word or something.

Anyway, the word vice regents, I had to look it up even.

I'd heard people say it. I'm like, I think Adam and Eve were vice regents,

but I need to Google that just to make sure.

So vice regent is a word that means a governor that is underneath a higher governor,

okay? So God is the king over everything.

And then he delegated some of his authority to humanity and then said to them,

I want you to rule over this new land that I made.

I want you to subdue it. I want you to do with it what I would do with it.

I want you to rule it according to my ways and for my glory.

So early on in the Bible, we see the beginning of a whole bunch of things when

it comes to humanity on earth. We see the beginning of marriage,

like on the second page of the Bible.

We see the beginning of work explained. We see the beginning of rest.

We see the beginning of multiplying and self-replication that God made the humans

with special powers to be able to make more humans so that they could fill up

the land and take it over. for him.

We see the beginning of morality and obedience, that God told them to do things

and told them not to do things, right?

And said, and if you do this, this is what I'm going to do.

And so all of that begins in like the second page of the Bible.

Then we get to Genesis chapter three and we see the beginning of sin.

And we see the beginning of God's reaction to sin in his new colony,

which is condemnation and judgment and a curse on the earth.

Then we get to chapter four and we see the story of Cain and Abel.

Now, at this point, I had gone away and I was out of town.

But Cain and Abel, among other things, we see in that story the beginning of

human discord and violence.

Then in chapters four and five, the Bible gives us the lines of Cain and Seth,

like they were the lineages, the genealogies of Cain and Seth,

which is two of the sons of Adam and Eve.

And we see in these lineages, especially in the, specifically in the genealogy

of Cain, we see the beginning of technology and the beginning of civilization.

Mixed in there with the, this person had this person who had this person,

we see that the descendants of Cain started to do things like build tents and

make tools and make musical instruments.

And so we start to see humanity with the beginning of technology and the beginning of becoming civilized.

And as humanity went forward with their technology and their civilization and

their reproducing and more and more people and city building and all this,

mankind became exceedingly wicked.

And God judges mankind and restarts the earth with Noah's flood.

And then after the flood, you have Genesis 10 and 11.

And in there, you have the story of the Tower of Babel and the verses that are around it.

And in that story and in the verses around it, we see the origin of languages.

Like how did we end up with all different languages and all different nations

and all different people groups that are scattered all over the earth?

We see all that in Genesis 10 and 11. And then we get to Genesis 12.

And Genesis takes a hard turn at chapter 12.

Genesis takes a very interesting turn that things are going,

things are going, and then when you get to chapter 12 of Genesis,

very interesting turn that's different than the rest of the book.

In fact, if we're going to do a series called How It Started,

which we are, we got to admit the it, like what it stands for,

actually changes when you get to Genesis chapter 12, okay?

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

When we say, what is this series about? It's about how it started. Well, what's the it?

Well, if we're talking about Genesis chapter 1 through 11, the it is the world, okay? Humanity.

Genesis 1 · chapter mention

The first half of Genesis is about how the world started.

Then when you get to chapter 12, it zooms in again, gets far more specific,

and it's not really about all of humanity anymore.

In Genesis chapter 12, going all the way to chapter 50, the it of how it started

Genesis 12 · chapter mention

ends up being God's people. How did God's people get started?

How did God start having a covenant with people?

Not everybody in the whole world, but some specific people, one man and his

descendants, and how is he going to relate to them?

The story of Genesis 12 through 50 becomes a story of actually one particular

nation out of all the different people groups on the earth, Israel.

And so the first half of Genesis, if you remember, the mission is,

in the first half of Genesis, is for God's world to be ruled for his glory.

The second half of Genesis, starting in chapter 12,

focuses on one nation in particular on the earth, Israel, and the origin of

that nation, Abraham and his family,

that they may establish God's kingdom on this earth, among all the other kingdoms,

for his glory, and then be a blessing to all the other nations.

And eventually, they do that through one of their descendants, Jesus.

But that goes beyond the scope of the book of Genesis. So when you get to chapter

12, we see the switch here is to Abraham and his story.

And we are now halfway through chapter 18, and we are in the series.

We are six sermons into Abraham's story.

Two weeks ago, when Doug Davison left off, he preached on the first part of chapter 18.

And in the first part of chapter 18, the Lord and two angels appear to Abraham. Do you remember that?

Okay, the Lord and two angels appear to Abraham in the form of men.

Okay, so Abraham's there, and three guys, who look like three guys,

walk up and start talking to Abraham and Sarah.

And they have a whole conversation. So it's the Lord and two angels,

but the passage refers to them as these three men that walked up and started

talking to Abraham and Sarah.

And they have this conversation about Isaac, and she's going to have Isaac even

in her old age, and she laughs.

Do you guys remember that sermon? Okay, yeah, that was 14 days ago.

So what we're doing now is we are going to pick up where Doug left off.

We are going to learn the second half of that conversation, okay?

Those three men that are talking with Abraham, we're going to jump in and get

the second half of that conversation. It begins Genesis chapter 18,

Genesis 18 · chapter mention

starting in verse 16, and I'm going to read to the end of the chapter, verse 33.

So here's our text for this morning. The men got up from there and looked out

over Sodom, and Abraham was walking with them to see them off. So let me pause.

When it says the men got up from there, who are the men?

Yeah, the Lord and the two angels, right? So they're there, and they have had

this conversation. And now they go, we're going to go check out Sodom.

And Abraham begins to walk along the driveway with them as they leave.

And then the Lord says this, this is verse 17. Then the Lord said.

Should I hide what I'm about to do from Abraham?

Abraham is to become a great and powerful nation. Remember we said that?

This is going to be mostly about one nation.

And all the nations of the earth will be blessed through him,

right? This is going to be a specific a kingdom through one man that I make

a covenant with that then should spread out to the world.

All the nations of the earth will be blessed through him for I have chosen him

so that he will command his children in his house after him to keep the way

of the Lord by doing what is right and what is just.

When it comes to like kind of cleaning up the mess of this world,

I chose to do it through this man and his descendants.

This is how the Lord will fulfill to Abraham what he promised him

okay so what's happening

here it's interesting that that the

Lord says should I tell Abraham what we're about

to do so here's what I think is going on I could be wrong but what I think is

going on is this I don't think he's saying to the angels what do you guys think

like I'm undecided I don't know if I should tell Abraham or not what do you

guys think remember in the story Abraham is where as this is happening.

He's walking along with them, right? So he's saying, should I tell Abraham what I'm about to do?

And Abraham's there. So I think the point is for Abraham to go,

what, what, what is it that you're about to do? Yes, you should.

You should tell Abraham what you're about to do. I think that God is bringing

this up in order to engage Abraham in conversation, because that's what happens

for the rest of this chapter. He continues this conversation with him about it.

So he says, should I tell Abraham? He's the one that I'm doing this through.

So verse 20, he says, Then the Lord said,

Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the

50 righteous people who are in it?

Well, I'll stop there for now. So he says, should I tell Abraham?

Abraham's like, you know, I want to know. And so then it looks like to me,

the two guys leave and go check out Sodom.

He said, I'm going to check it out and see if Sodom needs to be destroyed.

That's what I've heard. And so they go and check it out.

And then Abraham starts speaking to the Lord. And it says that after the men

turned from there and went towards Sodom.

So it sounds to me like the two angels left and now it's just the Lord and Abraham

standing there at the end of the driveway.

And Abraham says, are you really going to destroy Sodom?

Like what if there's 50 good people there? What if there's 50 people there that are worshiping you?

You're not going to destroy innocent people just because there's bad people there, are you?

And so he keeps going, verse 25. You could not possibly do such a thing to kill

the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike.

You could not possibly do that.

Won't the judge of all the earth do what is just?

So he's saying, if you're the Lord, you're the judge of all the earth.

There's no way that you're gonna punish, you're gonna treat 50 righteous people

the same way you treat the wicked people in the city, right?

You wouldn't do that. And so the Lord says back, verse 26, the Lord said,

if I find 50 righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.

Now, why is Abraham concerned about the city of Sodom?

I know the story doesn't say, but I think we can piece some things together.

There is a person that's a, who, what's the answer?

Lot. Yes. So earlier in the story, we know that he has a relative named Lot,

his nephew, and Lot lives there.

So I think the reason why Abraham has a built-in, like, wait,

who did you say you were going to judge, you were going to destroy the people in Sodom?

Because I think he's thinking about his nephew, but he doesn't say my nephew lives there.

He says, what if there's 50 righteous people there, right? And so the Lord says,

I will not wipe out 50 righteous people.

And then look what happens. Verse 27, then Abraham answered,

since I have ventured to speak to the Lord, even though I am dust and ashes.

That's probably the attitude you should have if you're talking to God, right?

Suppose that no one puts that on the refrigerator. I am dust and ashes.

We need more of that. We need more of that.

Verse 28, suppose the 50 righteous lack five. Will you destroy the whole city for the lack of five?

Now that's interesting to me because it seems like Abraham says,

almost like he assumes there's 50 righteous people in the city.

You would not destroy 50 righteous people, would you?

And God says, if there's 50 righteous people there, I will not.

And then it seems like Abraham immediately goes, whoa, I just used a very specific number.

What if the number of righteous people is actually slightly less than the number?

I said, I would hate for the whole city to be wiped out because I picked 50

when the number's just a little bit less than 50.

So he says, well, what if it, like 45's real close to 50, right?

I mean, what if the 50 lack five? I mean, that's just, what's five? Five's nothing, right?

What about 45? Will you spare the whole city for 45? So the Lord replies back.

He says, I will not destroy it if I find 45 there.

And then he spoke to him again. Suppose 40 are found there.

40 is only five less than 45. And 45 was only less than 50. and that five was enough.

So would another five be enough? What if it's 40?

And what does the Lord say back? Verse 30, it says, then he said,

oh, sorry, he answered, I will not do it on account of 40.

And then he said, let the Lord not be angry and I will speak further.

Suppose 30 are found there. He just starts jumping by tens at this point.

And then he said, he answered, I will not do it if I find 30 there.

And then he said, since I have ventured to speak to the Lord,

suppose 20 are found there.

He replied, "'I will not destroy it on account of 20.'" Isn't this interesting

how Abraham is negotiating? Well, 50, do 20 people matter to you?

And so then the Lord says, "'I will not destroy it on account of 20.'" And then

verse 32, "'Then he said, let the Lord not be angry. "'I will speak one more

time.'" Suppose 10 are found there. What if it's just 10 people?

And he answered, I will not destroy it on a count of 10. Now,

I don't know how low he would have gone because that's where Abraham stopped, okay?

He talks him all the way down to 10 and then that's where the conversation is.

And the Lord says, I will not destroy it on a count of 10. If there's 10 righteous

people there, I will not wipe out that city.

Verse 33, when the Lord had finished speaking with Abraham, he departed and

Abraham returned to his place. So it looks like the two angels go off to Sodom.

The Lord departs to wherever he went next. And then Abraham walks back up the

driveway and goes back home.

And so that's where our story ends today if the lord wills my plan is to get

to the sodom and gomorrah story next sunday in fact i think the next two sundays

i think there's enough in there for the sodom and gomorrah story that we can

actually talk about it for two sundays i know there's probably several of you

that were hoping oh i hope we get two sundays on sodom and gomorrah.

Your your dreams may very well come true i'm gonna try i think we're gonna talk

about it for two weeks but i'm saving that for next week for today what i want

to do is i want to stop at this preamble, okay?

This is the story before the story, okay?

And when we look at the story before the story, I wanted to point out a couple

of things that jumped out to me when I was looking at this story.

Like, as I was studying it and preparing for this, as I'm reading commentaries

and I'm reading this and I'm thinking it through,

there was, particularly, there was one verse that, like, really jumped out to

me, and I don't know if it did to you, but have you, are you ever reading the

Bible and there's, like, a verse that's like, wah, wah, what are you gonna do with this, right?

And you're like, I don't know what I'm going to do with it. Okay,

so this was what it was for me.

Verses, I'm going to read 20 and 21, but it's really verse 21 that was like,

what? Okay, so look at verse 20.

The Lord said, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is immense,

and their sin is extremely serious.

I would imagine a holy God would say something like that, no questions yet.

But then look, God says, I will go down to see if what they have done justifies

is the outcry that has come up to me, and if not, I will find out.

What? Doesn't God know everything? Did you think that that seemed weird too?

He's saying, I'm going to go down and check it out and see. Like I heard that

they're bad, but now I'm going to go check out and see if they are or if they're not.

If God knows everything, why in the world does he need to go check and see?

Okay, this passage makes it look like he doesn't know and he's going to have to go check.

Okay, and not only just this verse, but really verses 24 through 32 that come

right after it kind of all fit with that, right?

That as Abraham is doing 50, 45, 40, 30, like there's no point at which God

says to Abraham, Abraham, listen, there's not 30. There's not 30 righteous people there, okay?

Like you are, I'm going to be just, but you are way overestimating the amount

of righteous people that are in this city.

The number is much smaller than the numbers you are using. God doesn't do that.

He just keeps saying, if, then, if, then.

What is going on here? Isn't God all-knowing? So here's my answer to that question.

Yes, God is all-knowing. I think the Bible is very clear on that.

I'm gonna show you that later on in this sermon.

But if it's true that God is all-knowing, what is going on here?

So my answer is, I do not know for sure. But as I was thinking through this

passage, like I just wanna tell you what came to my mind.

As I read it, I thought to myself, what God is doing here is consistent with

the rest of the book of Genesis and other things in the Bible for that matter.

That this is not like a typo, like, whoa, the person who wrote this story didn't

realize that God knows everything. No, this is consistent with the rest of the book of Genesis.

One of the things that I thought of, at least in principle, was the first couple

of pages of the book of Genesis. So let me point this out to you in case you didn't remember it.

When you go back to the creation story, Apparently, in the creation story,

we can see that God is able to create things from a distance.

But he also can show up and do things with his own hands, personally.

Do you remember that from the creation story? Think about this.

In the creation story, God is able to create things from a distance.

That's how the story begins, right? The creation story begins with, let there be light.

He's just there, presumably in his throne room, and he says,

light, you need to start existing, and it does.

And he does that with all the stuff on the first page of the Bible.

Animals, start existing, right? Let there be sun and moon and stars.

Let there be land. And it just starts existing.

It doesn't describe him as showing up and grabbing lunar material and shaping the moon.

The first page of the Bible is he's just saying, do this, do that,

and everything's obeying him. God can create from a distance.

And then he goes to make Adam. And what happens?

He doesn't say, let there be Adam, does he? He takes the dust of the ground

and forms it into a man and then breathes the breath of life into him.

Isn't that interesting?

And then later on when he makes Eve, he does not say, let there be female, right?

He literally goes over to Adam and performs a surgery and pulls out a rib and

closes the place with flesh and then fashions the rib into a woman.

So when God creates the world, It's interesting in some cases,

just from far away, he's just able to create.

And then sometimes he shows up personally and does it with his own hands.

And so when it comes to God's knowledge, I think it's the same thing.

Yes, God knows from a distance everything.

And sometimes he also comes down and checks with his own two eyes.

And so I wrote this in my notes. In my notes, I wrote, he knows, he checks.

And then I wrote some verses next to each one. I wrote some verses next to he

knows, and I wrote some verses next to he checks. So I'm just gonna give them to you right now.

Under he knows, and these are the verses that I think you need to take seriously

as far as understanding the Bible teaches that God knows everything.

So we'll start with Psalm 139, verse two.

Psalm 139, verse two says, you know when I sit down and when I stand up,

you understand my thoughts from far away. Now, this is a Psalm of David.

So he's talking to God. The you is God, the I is David. You know when I sit down and when I stand up.

You understand my thoughts from far away. That's what he says about God.

How does God know all this? Well, because he knows everything.

I mean, I guess you could argue that maybe God could come down like he did with

Sodom and Gomorrah and actually see when David sits down and when he stands

up and that's how he would know.

But then the second half doesn't fit that, does it?

You understand my thoughts from far away.

It's not because you come down and you watch my facial expressions and you can

figure out what I'm thinking when from far away, you know everything I'm thinking.

How in the world does God know everything he's thinking? Because he knows everything.

Look at this from Revelation chapter two, starting in verse 22.

I'm not going to do the whole context. You just know this is about a woman that's

immoral and he's warning them against sin, but it's mostly the last part of

this verse I want to read to you. So I'm going to start with verse 22.

Revelation 2, 22 says, look, I will throw her into a sickbed and those who commit

adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her practices.

I will kill her children and the plague. And this is the part I want you to notice.

And then all the churches will know that I am the one who examines minds and

hearts, and I will give to each of you according to your works?

How do I know? How am I going to judge rightly?

Because I am the one who examines hearts and minds. This is Jesus speaking here, by the way.

He says, I can judge rightly, not just because I see what you're doing.

I know everything you're thinking.

How is that possible? Well, because he knows everything. One more place I want

to show you, this is Luke chapter 12.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

This one might in some ways be the best one because the Psalm and Revelation

are both written a little bit poetically, but this is just straightforward.

Jesus was talking about how God is in Luke chapter 12, starting in verse 6, and this is what he says.

Luke 12 · chapter mention

He says, aren't five sparrows sold for two pennies?

Yet not one of them is forgotten in God's sight.

Indeed, the hairs of your head are all counted.

Don't be afraid. You are worth more than many sparrows.

As Jesus is teaching about God to his followers, he says to them,

okay, hey, you matter to God.

God knows how many sparrows there are, and you're more important than sparrows.

So you matter to him. But in saying that, he makes the point,

God knows how many sparrows there are.

And he goes farther than that and says, actually, all the hairs on everybody's

head are all counted. God knows the number of all of them.

How is that possible? Does God come down, like the Sodom and Gomorrah story,

and count all the sparrows every morning? Is that how he knows?

And count every hair on our head? Is he coming down and literally counting every

hair on our head and then goes to the shower, sees what you lost,

and then does the subtraction, and he's got an accurate tally?

No, he knows how many hairs are on everybody's head at every moment because

he knows everything, okay?

So he knows everything, and yet he checks.

And the Sodom and Gomorrah story is not like this one unique time where he checks, okay?

It actually happened earlier in the book of Genesis already,

okay? So before you even get to Genesis 18, you come to Genesis 11, okay?

Chapter 11 comes before chapter 18 in almost every book, okay?

And in Genesis chapter 11, we have the story of the Tower of Babel.

Genesis 11 · chapter mention

Remember that? Several sermons ago. And I don't know if, I can't remember if

this was pointed out or not at the time, but God does something here that's really interesting.

The people are all there and they say, hey, let's make a name for ourselves.

Let's build this awesome city with this huge tower, okay?

And then God responds to humans choosing to do that.

And look what he does. This is Genesis 11, verse five, right in the middle of

the Tower of Babel story.

It says, then the Lord came down to look over the city and the tower that the

men were building, right?

The people said, hey, we're gonna build this city and we're gonna build this tower.

And then it says, the next thing that happened is the Lord, and this is interesting,

it doesn't say the Lord looked down and saw the tower.

It says the Lord came down and looked at the tower, apparently from the perspective of earth.

So I guess I'm pointing this out to say this is not a typo. It's not like you

get to Genesis 18 and the author like, oops, we made it sound like God,

you know, comes down and looks at stuff.

No, God comes down and looks at stuff. He comes down and creates Adam and Eve personally.

He comes down and looks at this tower with his own two eyes.

And then he shows up with Sodom and Gomorrah and says, I'm going to check out Sodom and Gomorrah.

So Genesis 18 verse 21, he says, I will go down to see if what they have done

Genesis 18:21

justifies the cry that has come to me. And if not, I will find out.

And it's even interesting how he phrases that way because if you read the next

story, it actually looks like he sends the angels to go see.

But he has already come down and he's talking to Abraham personally when he has this conversation.

Matthew Henry is a, well, he was

a pastor and author and commentator and theologian hundreds of years ago.

And I was looking at his commentary and it was interesting when you come to

this part, Matthew Henry says in his commentary that one of the reasons why

God did this was to be an example to governing authorities, okay?

That when governing authorities on this earth hear about something,

they're not supposed to just, the outcry happens and then it go,

well, let's go and punish, right?

That what governing authorities are supposed to do when they hear an outcry

is go look into it and make sure that you're making the proper judgment.

And so it's interesting, Matthew Henry said that he thinks that God was setting

an example to governing authorities.

Now, I do not know if that's why God did it this way because the text doesn't say that.

But I will say this, if that's true, it does match with other passages.

There are times that God does something as setting an example.

You see that in Genesis chapter two, okay?

Genesis chapter two begins with God resting. Do you remember that, with creation?

He created in six days, and then it says, on the seventh day, he rested.

Why did he rest on the seventh day? He wasn't tired, he was setting an example.

He was role modeling a rhythm of work and rest for his people.

So it could be that that's what's happening here. I don't know for sure.

What I do know is, in principle, I see this.

In the Bible, sometimes God creates from a distance, and sometimes he shows

up and he forms Eve with his hands.

And sometimes God acts and knows about things from a distance,

and sometimes he shows up personally and checks things out.

And when you think about the most important story in the whole Bible,

the gospel, what is that an example of?

It's an example of God fixing the problem of sin by showing up personally and

fixing it with his own two hands when he stretched them out and died on the cross.

Isn't that interesting? For those of you that know the gospel,

the gospel is the time where God showed up in person and fixed the problem himself.

Like that's how Mark, I realize we say the Father and the Son and the Trinity

is a difficult thing to understand, but Mark chapter one, which tells the story

of the gospel of Jesus Christ, like it's the gospel of Mark.

And when he tells the story, you read the first few sentences and it's real

obvious, Jesus is the Lord of the Old Testament.

And he comes and then he does the stuff that happened in the book of Mark.

It's God showing up and fixing the problem of sin on this earth,

but not just fixing it, fixing it directly and personally by showing up here and doing it himself.

It is interesting that God, when he sees the problem of sin in his world,

that he didn't simply go, well, here's how we'll fix that.

I'll come up with this system and this is the things that are right and these

are the things that are holy and these are the laws and then this is what you

do to make up for when you do wrong and this is how you get forgiveness and

we'll just take all that and just throw it down to them and see what they do with it.

Like he did more than that. I mean the whole testament is kind of an example

of that and then you get to the New Testament, what happens?

He does not leave it that way.

He comes down and fixes the problem himself.

Why is it this way? that God can know and govern and create and make decisions

from afar and show up and do things personally. I don't know why it's that way,

but I do know that these things are part of God's character, right?

All the stuff I'm describing to you is a part of God's character.

I remember learning in seminary years ago.

This was the seminary that I did not finish, but I definitely listened very well while I was there.

And I remember the seminary professor taught us about how God is transcendent and imminent.

And there was a whole chapter in his book about God's transcendence and his imminence.

And he talked about the fact that theologians have made a big deal about God's

transcendence and his imminence for a long time.

And I thought about it when I was thinking about this passage.

God's transcendence is that quality about him

that is God is way above us

he is transcendent in the sense that he

is not like you he is above you he is above me he is way far away he is way

up there he way outranks us he is holy we are not he is special we are not he

is way above us and way high high above us on the chart He is holy and exalted over everything.

He is transcendent and he is imminent.

He's the God that is near enough that if you reach out to him, you find him.

He's the God who's so far away and near that we can reach out to him and we

can find him, that he is close to the brokenhearted, the Bible says.

That Jesus came down and was personally here among us, God with us,

that God sends, think about this, the Holy Spirit, which is God,

like God's spirit, where?

Inside us, right? Those of us who believe in Jesus, he sends his presence,

his spirit in us so that he is directing us, not from far away,

go this way, not from far away, that he is directing us from the inside out.

That's how near he is, that he's in us.

He's the God who is so far away and so above us and so separate from us and

so much cares about us that he's in our midst and in us.

He is transcendent and imminent. And I think that is beautiful.

I don't know if you've ever thought about those qualities of God,

but they're beautiful and it's beautiful that they come together.

Because if you can imagine what it would be like if just one of those things were true.

I mean, just imagine if we had a God that was only imminent, right?

That there was a God, that there was a lot of involvedness, there was a lot

of presence, but he's not separate

from us and he's not holy and he's not righteous and he's not above us.

He wouldn't even be God.

There'd just be another one of us, right? We already have eminence,

other humans, right? If all he were were eminent, there would be nothing,

we'd be doomed and there'd be nothing special about that.

But then imagine if he were only transcendent. What if he were separate and holy and above us?

And only transcend it, we'd be doomed.

We'd be doomed if he never showed up, if he never got involved, if he never cared.

And so we look at the story and we see this is consistent with God.

Sodom's sin is extremely serious and God is holy and above it all.

And he needs to do something about it because he's the judge of the earth.

And then he also is someone who shows up and talks to Abraham about it face to face. Wow.

The other thing I wanted to point out in this story is that I want you to also

notice God's justice in this story.

In fact, God's justice, I think, is probably the main point.

Eminence and transcendence is just kind of what jumped out to me.

So I shared it with you. But I think if you're actually looking at this story,

I think the big point of this story is that God is just.

Look at verse 25 again. This is Abraham talking.

And he says, you could not possibly do such a thing to kill the righteous with

the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that.

Won't the judge of all the earth do what is just?

And I think Abraham is right. Of course God is going to do what is just.

He's saying, you're gonna be fair, right? Of course he's gonna be fair.

And so the story ends with, if you look at verse 32, the last thing that God

says to him is, I will not destroy it on a count of 10.

Right? You're gonna be fair, right?

Yeah, oh yeah, I will not wipe away 10 innocent people. I won't do it.

God is just. I think the narrator of this story is prepping us for the next story.

The next story is the story of Sodom and Gomorrah and God wipes out Sodom and

Gomorrah. Sorry, spoiler, okay?

But this happened over 3,000 years ago. You could have heard it by now, okay?

God wipes out Sodom and Gomorrah. And the story before he wipes out Sodom and

Gomorrah because of his wickedness is a story that it seems to me that goes

to great lengths to point out that God is fair.

He doesn't punish anyone unfairly. Do you realize that?

God never punishes anyone unfairly. The only exception I can think of was the

one time that he punished Jesus Christ in our place.

The only time that a person who didn't deserve it got punished.

The only time where someone who was a sinner, and in that sense,

I still don't even think it was unfair because Jesus signed up for it and said, I will do that.

But in a sense, you could say like God was sort of unfair to Jesus so that he

could be more than fair to people like me and you, so that he could be merciful

to us. he punished someone who had no sin so that he could withhold punishment

of people who certainly have sin.

So, why does it matter that we learned this? You go, okay, God is transcendent,

God is imminent, God is just.

He is transcendent over Sodom and must judge it. He is imminent and like literally

comes down and is involved in humanity in this story.

And he is just and he will not wipe out 10 innocent people.

Why is it important that we know that? And I would say this,

I think it's important that you know those things because this will affect your entire worldview. you.

You need to know that God is transcendent and imminent and just because that

will affect every Bible passage you read and how you interpret them.

It will even affect the way that you interpret the events of your life.

A.W. Tozer was a pastor and writer back, I don't know, about 70 years ago in

Chicago area and Canada. And he wrote several books that people still read nowadays.

There's one quote that I've heard a lot from him. This might be the thing he's

most famous for. I'm going to read it to you.

A.W. Tozer said, what comes into our minds when we think about God is the most

important thing about us.

I once heard it put this way, the most important thing that you think about,

is what you think about when you think about God.

That is the rudder on the ship of your life that will determine the direction you go.

That is why it matters that you know that God is transcendent and imminent and just.

Let's pray.

Lord, we praise you because you are separate and other and holy and above us.

And we praise you that you would care and come down and have anything to do with us.

So I pray that we would, as we scatter today and as we think about it this week,

I pray that we would live a life of worship to you because of that.

We also acknowledge that you are just. In fact, you are just and compassionate.

You are just in that you punish sin and you are compassionate in that you extend

mercy to people, particularly through Jesus Christ on the cross.

We thank you, Jesus, for dying on the cross for our sins. We thank you for your mercy.

We love you.

I pray that you would help us as we live to live out of our love for you and our worship for you.

Thank you that you are worthy of it all. In Jesus' name we pray, amen.

Let me end with these good words from God's word. This is one of the last things Jesus said.

And at the end of Matthew 28, he says, then Jesus came near and he said to them,

all authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of

the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything I've commanded you.

And remember, I am with you.

Always, to the end of the age. That is good news.