Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #14 of Genesis, chapter 19. I am going to read Genesis 19:6-11:

And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof. And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge: now will we deal worse with thee, than with them. And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But the men put forth their hand, and pulled Lot into the house to them, and shut to the door. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great: so that they wearied themselves to find the door.

I will stop reading there. We have been going very slowly and carefully, verse by verse, through this famous and well-known historical passage in which God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. He came to the city in the form of two men and he entered Lot’s house. Lot was entertaining Him and then the wicked men of Sodom compassed the house round and demanded of Lot that he bring out the two strangers that they might know them.

We have discussed the spiritual implications of all this. Then Lot went out of the house and attempted to reason with the men of Sodom. He even offered his two daughters in place of the two guests in his home. They did not want any part of that and they continued to demand that he bring out the two men. And those two men were God Himself.

It goes on to say in Genesis 19:9:

And they said, Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge…

Of course, Lot is a representative of God’s elect in the world and in the churches, as Sodom typified the corporate church; God’s elect were in the churches and in the world and we are typified as “sojourners” in this world. There are many passages we could turn to where God emphasizes this point, like Hebrews 11:8-10:

By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

God’s people have been sojourners throughout the history of the world. We are pilgrims traveling through this wicked world. It is not our home. We have a home that is promised to us in the new heaven and new earth, an eternal habitation where we will live forever. God has assured us and guaranteed us through the promise of His Word that we will receive it.

The people of Sodom recognized that Lot was a sojourner. He was not one of them. We went through the history regarding this a few chapters earlier when Lot and Abraham separated and went their ways; they had previously been sojourning together as a family, but Lot went toward Sodom and Abraham went in another direction. This was pointed out as the men of Sodom were offended by Lot daring to say to them, “Do not so wickedly.” As soon as we say that something is wicked or evil, what have we done? We have indicated that God’s Law has been broken. What they are doing will result in the transgression of God’s Law and evil is the transgression of God’s Law. But at the time of the end, the churches cast off the Law of God. And, of course, the world has always cast off God’s Law, but God has said that the Law of God is written upon man’s heart and God’s Spirit had been holding back or restraining sin, to some extent, for the unsaved people of the earth. He caused them to have at least some semblance of morality by actively working in their consciences so they did not get to carried away in breaking the Laws of God in various ugly ways. And, yet, at the time of the end, the Spirit is no longer restraining sin in the hearts of wicked men to a large degree, and they are doing as they please. We see evidence of that across the face of the earth.

So, it was offensive that Lot would remind them that they were doing wickedly. Again, they said, “Stand back. And they said again, This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will needs be a judge…” The word translated as “needs” is the same word translated as “judge,” so they are literally saying, “This one fellow came in to sojourn, and he will, judging, be a judge.” You see, they feel judged, even though no specific law was mentioned, but just the way Lot said, “Do not so wickedly,” indicated that their desire to “know” these men was evil.

We have looked at the spiritual meaning of their wanting to “know” these men, but, historically, they desired sexual relations with the two men; that is, they were pursuing the sin of homosexuality in the city of Sodom. That idea is referred to a few times in the Bible. For example, in the one-chapter epistle of Jude, God mentioned Sodom and Gomorrah in Jude 1:7:

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Yes, spiritually, it refers to spiritual fornication and going after spiritual “strange flesh,” but, historically, they were involved in sexual fornication outside of marriage, especially regarding men having sexual relations with other men. We see that in Genesis 19, as the men of Sodom desired to “know” these men and that is one of the reasons it was so reprehensible and such an abomination. That is the language of the Bible. The Bible speaks of several sins as an abomination and homosexuality is one of them. It was just so impossible to Lot to imagine and he would rather bring out his daughters to be abused than that the men of Sodom abuse the two men, because at least it would have been “man with woman” in the natural realm and not “men with men.” Historically, that is more than likely one of the reasons Lot might offer up his daughters in place of the two men.

When Lot said, “I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly,” it would be like any child of God saying this to people in the world today. And it is interesting and extremely significant that, without question, it is absolute evidence when we look at the world (and even the churches) that we can see that this sin of homosexuality has just “exploded” and it has been brought “out of the closet” and proudly displayed to the world. The language of “coming out of the closet” was an expression used in the world as this specific sin was once kept secret and shamefully hidden from the rest of the world for practically all of history. What happened in Sodom was an aberration – it was not what was happening in all the cities. Sodom had a reputation for doing more wickedness at that time, even though all unsaved people are wicked because it is the nature of people in rebellion against God. However, Sodom had an extreme reputation for wickedness and, certainly, one of the reasons was that they were openly involved in homosexuality. All the men of the city came round about Lot’s house and demanded to “know” the two men and, yet, that was not all that common as history unfolded. You can find this sin in some evidence at times in history, like in Rome or, perhaps, some other places. Was it also going on behind closed doors? Yes – but it has never been brought forth to the light of day and exposed to the entire world like it is today. It has become “popular” and part of the “new morality” of man, as our fellow man demand support for the rights of lesbians and gays. There are parades, TV shows, movies and books. The news media has supported and promoted this specific sin over the last few decades, to the point where we have gay marriage in dozens of countries in the world. In the United States, there is gay marriage and “men with men” and “women with women,” like never before in history. Never. The history of the world is just over 13,000 years and you can go back and look at any period of time. Get out the history books and look at the history of any country you choose. You will never find these kinds of things happening regarding this sin of homosexuality. They have never happened before.

“It is progress,” the world will tell us. “It is just that we had been prudes. The Puritans brought the Law of the Bible and now we are finally progressing and coming out from under those restrictions that have held back man’s expression of love.” Of course, that is not love. When people are involved in sin, it is never about love. When there is adultery in marriage and the husband or wife says that they love someone else. They do not love the other person because you cannot have love if you break the Law of God. Jesus said, “If you love me, keep my commandments.” Love is never found by breaking God’s Law, whether it be adultery between a man and a woman or homosexuality between two people of the same sex. It is never love. It is lust, because man desires or lusts after that which God tells him he cannot have, like when God told Adam that he could eat the fruit of all the trees of the garden, but of the fruit of one tree, man was commanded not to eat because in the day they would eat of that tree, they would surely die. So, Adam and Eve would never have died, and they could have eaten of all the other trees of the earth right up to today and for evermore, because they would never have run out of trees to choose from. But, you see, the Law of God restricted them from one tree and that was immediately where their minds went. Satan saw to that. It was the point of testing for Adam and Eve and Satan entered and deceived them, telling them that it was only because God wanted to hold back knowledge (of evil) from them and if they ate of the tree they could be like God. Seeing that the tree was good to make one wise, they just could not help themselves and then they knew – they did gain knowledge of good and evil. Ever since, man has been involved in the knowing of “evil.”

Again, the Word of God, the Bible, says that in a marriage between a man and a woman is the only place where sexual relations can take place. So, man lusts after sexual relations outside of marriage. It is not love, in that instance. It is always lust. God says that sexual relations is restricted to a man and woman in a marriage relationship. God set a Law against homosexuality, forbidding man to have sexual relationships within the same sex. So, what does man want to do? He wants to do that which he was commanded not to do. It is always how it is with mankind in this world because we are rebels. We want to do whatever God commands us not to do. God suffers a woman not to teach the Bible to men, so what do many women want to do? They want to teach (men) the Bible.

Well, you get the picture. I could go on and on, but by nature man does not want to keep the commandments of God. That is all it is when it comes to this “new morality” and the issue of homosexuality. The same is true of “transgenderism.” God created a man as a man and a woman as a woman, so what does the rebel want to do if he has been created as a man? He looks at that one thing he does not have and what God has held back from him, so he wants to be a woman, in rebellion against God. The same is true when it comes to a woman being created as woman. The Bible is clear that God creates the baby in the womb and knits it together according to His will, so a woman is a woman according the will of God. However, mankind does not want to follow the will of God, even in these most basic ways, so she says, “Let me be a man.” There is really lust behind it, like lusting for the fruit that was off limits. Man is lusting for the things God has said he cannot have.

We find that this was the situation in Sodom several thousand years ago and, yet, the world of that time was not that wicked, and neither was the world after God had destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. They did not go after wickedness to that degree, but God gave them up to their lusts and He limited it to these cities of the plain, especially these two cities. God did that to paint a picture to provide an historical illustration that the world would find itself in at the time of the end.

So, we read that all the men of the city compassed Lot’s house round, wanting to “know” these two men, and we are so accustomed to living in this wicked time in the Day of Judgment that it almost does not register with us how terribly wicked this was. These wicked men desired to have homosexual relations with Lot’s two guests. I am sure that people down through the history of the world were shocked and stunned as they read this account. Then they would look out at their surroundings and they would think, “We do not have anything like this in our town or even in our country.” You see, it was not the time, but once we reached the time of the end the Holy Spirit of God took His hand of restraint off the hearts of unsaved mankind and they began to run after the desires that had always been in their minds. Maybe they had always desired these things or been involved with them in a secret way, but what had been previously shameful was now something they could be proud to do. The world’s morality has shifted, because God is no longer enforcing right and proper morality that was according to the Law of God written upon their hearts. Now the “new morality” is to do whatever you want to do. Man has no real morality. It is all a lie and man deceiving himself into thinking he can live a moral life apart from the Law of God. We cannot set up our own morality. There can be no morality when we cast off God, the Lawgiver.

Lord willing, when we come together for our next Bible study we will see what happens to the “door.” It said in Genesis 19:9:

…And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door.

Then there are more references to the door in the next couple of verses. What is going on with the door? What is the spiritual significance of this? Lord willing, in our next Bible study we will take a closer look.