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00:00 So today we're going to go into Genesis chapter 19 and talk about the most
00:08 difficult time in human history called Sodom outside the uh catastrophic flood.
00:14 This is another day of judgment. Uh we're going to look at three things uh in Sodom. We need to three lessons. One
00:22 of the things is to recognize the sin of Sodom, recognize the struggle in Sodom and recognize salvation from Sodom in
00:30 our lives. So first of all, when we look at the sin of Sodom, when I mention the word Sodom,
00:37 what stop? What comes to your mind? Anybody? Sodom.
00:42 Sodom. What? Sodomy or me? There's somebody sitting below jail now.
00:49 Sodomy. All right. So uh that's what most people um
00:56 identify Sodom with. But there are a couple other things. If you actually take a stroll and look into your Bibles,
01:01 you will find there are many other things Sodom is associated with. Let me
01:06 give you an illustration. Wickedness. Ezekiel chapter 16. Israel was likened
01:13 to be like Sodom. Was not your sister Sodom a by word in your mouth in the
01:19 days of your pride set before your wickedness was uncovered? Sodom is a wicked by word for wickedness
01:28 and evil. And we live in a world where there's so much wickedness. They say the new norm is finding someone strapped to
01:35 a bomb and blowing himself out or taking a gun and shooting innocent people. That is the new norm today. If that's not wickedness, I don't know what is. Uh
01:42 then you look at poison. This is uh Deuteronomy uh 32:32. For their vine
01:48 comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of poison. Their clusters are
01:54 bitter. The wine is a poison of serpents and the cruel venom of ass. Their wickedness is a poison. It poisons the
02:00 individual's life, his family, his community. It spreads. And we have a poison, don't we? Nowadays, it's called
02:07 the internet where you could teach a couple of people how to build a bomb or take an 80 AK-47. You can radicalize
02:14 them. There's no way. And the poison spreads through electronic means. Every corner of this globe, people are
02:20 radicalized. It's poison. We need to recognize the sin. On the
02:26 other hand, they're also very religious. Religiosity will will grow at the same time of
02:32 wickedness. That's amazing, isn't it? Right. Look at Sodom. This is Isaiah
02:38 chapter one. Hear the word of the Lord, you rulers of Sodom. Give ears to the teaching of our God, your people of
02:44 Gomorrah. What to me is the multitude of your sacrifices, said the Lord. I had enough of burnt offerings or rams and
02:50 fat or wellfed beasts. I do not delight in the blood of bulls or lambs or of goats. Plenty of religiosity,
02:58 plenty of sacrifice. They grow at the same rate of wickedness and poison side
03:06 by side. Isn't it strange? This happened to our
03:12 society. Yes, it does happen to our society because we become more religious, larger and bigger churches.
03:18 But the difference is it is people centered religion dedicated to meeting our needs. Not about the truth, it's
03:24 about our needs. And this is the same religiosity where people offer sacrifices, burnt offerings in order to
03:32 get something from God. It's a me centered kind of world, me centered kind of religion that that the church is
03:37 growing. You see a lot of people fill the ranks. They're only there because they want something from God. So they
03:44 give God something. God gives them something back. So when bad things happen to good people as it were, they
03:49 get totally disillusioned. They fall away. Why? Because they're not getting what they're supposed to get. Religion.
03:56 Prosperity. Oh, another by word for Sodom. You never imagined there was prosperity. It says in Ezekiel chapter
04:03 16, "Behold, this was the guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, prosperous ease.
04:11 The people of Sodom were advanced. They had excess food. They had buffets,
04:17 prosperous ease. But they were heartless. It says,
04:23 "Behold, there was guilt of your sister Sodom. She and her daughters had pride, excess of food, prosperous ease, did not
04:30 but did not ate the poor. So they were haughty and did an abomination before
04:35 me. So they were heartless. Although on one hand society progresses along the
04:40 trajectory of more modern inventions and more money in the system. On the other hand as the poor take another trajectory
04:47 towards an abysmal end totally being uh bereft of money. Um this is Sydney
04:53 Morning Herald just two weeks ago. U headlines there came out by consumer
04:59 affairs editor. billionaires will own the same wealth as half the world. In 2010, 388 billionaires will own as much
05:08 money as the entire half the world. By 2016, only fit into one bus. 62 people.
05:15 62 people can fill that one bus that will own half of the world's wealth. And
05:21 as you go down in the next few years, it'll be far worse. So therefore, there's a redistribution of wealth along
05:27 this direction. the the top 99% of the world will get poorer and poorer and the
05:32 1% will get richer and richer and this is where it's happening and the consumer is being squeezed in left right and
05:39 center I think in this country we know in 2016 every person I meet in my clinic
05:44 who runs a business tells me it's bad it's down there it's squeezing from every end the tax man is coming after
05:49 you and by May 2nd even you pump air which used to be free is also going to be charged May 2nd so quickly go and
05:57 fill your tires before we second whenever this happens you know and it's very amazing if you look at this
06:05 whenever the oil price went up when I remember US dollar went up to $120 right the bowl of meat from $4 goes to $5 $6
06:14 but the oil down goes down to $30 and the price goes even further up why is it
06:19 price go up you know prices always go up regardless of the price of oil so whatever it is we are moving in a
06:25 trajectory where the poor in the end will get squeezed. Uh you can give them
06:30 brim 1,000 a year but that's not going to to cope. Look at the migrants in our midst. This is the Nepali workers. They
06:37 get about a,100 and they send most of the money back and the ringit has depreciated by 20%. Versus the Nepali
06:46 dollar how are they going to survive? It's been estimated the nine Nepali die every week in this country. They
06:52 commission high comm. Why? Sudden death. very healthy people then perhaps they're not worth uh used work to working in the
06:58 sun or working very hard but they die um they are the most oppressed people in
07:04 the face of our country here sexual immorality look at Jude chapter 7 uh verse 7 just as Sodom and Gomorrah and
07:11 the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as example by
07:17 undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. So another reason why we have a by word
07:24 Sodom is sexual immorality. See the biblical norm is one man, one woman. God
07:30 made Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve. All right? So Adam and Eve glorifies
07:35 God. And God says it is good. All right? Adam and Steve doesn't. So any sexual
07:42 sin is a deviation from the biblical norm where there is a male and there's a female in a committed relationship. And
07:48 Genesis chapter 2 highlights this. Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, not hold fast to the mistress, and
07:56 they shall become one flesh, not two flesh. And a man and his wife were both naked and not ashamed. This is the
08:01 biblical norm. So all sexual immorality, whether it be homosexuality or premarital sex or adultery of any sort,
08:09 basically is a deviation from norm. Very simple. Okay. Um, no, here is a new for
08:16 sex. And they came to Lot the people of the towns and he says where are the men
08:22 who came to know us tonight bring them out that we may know them. No he's not shake hands you know no is in euphemism
08:29 from sex because you look at Genesis chapter 4 Adam knew Eve and his wife and
08:35 she conceived and bo shake her hand and she got a baby. No she knew sexually no.
08:42 Okay. So the use of the word no is a euphemism for sex is in every country
08:48 around that particular area. Egyptian, Aadian, Ugorithic, Syriak, Arabian, Ethiopian and even Greek. The word no is
08:55 an euphemism for sex. Vers 69. Lord went out to the man at the
09:00 entrance and shut the door after him and said, "I beg you, my brother, do not act so wickedly." If if no, as some people
09:06 argue, he's just shaking hands. Then why would it be so wicked to shake hands, right? So no is a new information for
09:12 sex. And lastly, Sodom is associated with a loss of shame. Look at the verse
09:18 in Isaiah 3. For Jerusalem has stumbled, Judah has fallen because their speech and their deeds are against the Lord,
09:24 defying his glorious presence. For they look on their faces, bear witness against them. They proclaim their sin
09:30 like Sodom. They do not hide it. Society has moved to such a state of sinfulness
09:36 that people are not ashamed of their sin anymore. There's a loss of shame.
09:42 There's a loss of spiritual sensitivity. And this actually epitomizes our society. Look at iTunes. Whatever you
09:48 sing is whatever you believe in. iTunes top download from a week in 2011. Look f
09:54 word in perfect pink. Born This Way is Lady Gaga singing of lesbians and gays.
10:00 F U C Low Green tonight. Enrique Glaciius talks about promiscuity. Hey
10:06 Baby talks about promiscuity. SNM. Anybody know what SNM meant? This is not some some makato
10:13 masochism. This is what we listen to. This is what our young people listen to. This is what is things that we we would
10:20 be 50 years ago ashamed to mention. Now we proudly sing all walking around and
10:25 singing about SNM. Can you imagine what kind of society it is? Exactly like Sodom. Uh this is a interview of Lance
10:32 Armstrong, the chap who won the Tour Def France cycling competition seven times in a row. Found out he cheated. He took
10:40 drugs. So Oprah actually interviewed him. He asked, "Was it a big deal? Did
10:45 you feel it wrong?" Lance said, "No." Scary. Oprah said, "It did not even feel
10:51 wrong." Lance said no. Even scarier. Did you not feel bad about it? No. the
10:58 scariest. You see, he is not ashamed. He is not afraid. Sin has
11:06 become a mistake. It's not something he has done wrong. National bowler Norah
11:12 Fizal raped a night 13year-old girl. Statutory rape. Gets off $25,000 fine on
11:20 a bond. No jail term. Why? National bowler. There's no shame. Our society
11:26 has changed. Words dropped from the Oxford Junior dictionary. Abby, altar,
11:32 bishop, chapel, Christian, disciple, monk, saint, and sin. There ain't no
11:38 more sin. Young people grow up. And sin is an anacronism. It's something that
11:43 happened many years ago. It doesn't happen now. If you look in Sodom before they lay down, the men of the
11:50 city, men of Sodom, both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded the house, and they called to
11:56 Lord, where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may know them. Here you look, both young
12:03 and old, all the people to the last man. Young and old,
12:09 all the people to the last man. Very democratic. It becomes sody becomes a
12:15 cultural norm. Sexual homosexuality is a cultural norm. In fact, 14 out of 15
12:22 Roman emperors were homosexuals or bisexuals. Uh you look in ancient art, it is
12:28 replete with homosexual acts including today. We are no longer ashamed to show
12:34 pictures of this. We are proud of our shame. And the worst thing is in the United States last year Supreme Court
12:41 declared the samesex marriage is legal. Something that we are now should be
12:46 ashamed of now has become legal. China accepted this first case of same-sex
12:52 marriage in court. All right. And this is going to be a step for gay rights. Uh
12:58 Greek Parliament approved civil union. A Victoria in Australia recognizes
13:03 same-sex marriage registered overseas. It is coming. It's even infested the
13:08 church. Gene Robinson, the first Episcopalian church bishop who is openly gay with his partner. Five denominations
13:15 in the United States was also accepted gay pastors. The homosexual arguments
13:21 against uh God's norm is three ways. One, some people are genetically predetermined and hence not sinning.
13:28 Two, the animals do it, so why don't we do it? Three, marriage is a uh between
13:35 two consenting adults. So what's wrong? Why is the church so bigoted? Let me just take some time and go through these
13:41 three reasons. The genetic argument. They looked at genes in chromosome 8,
13:46 chromosome X, and found these genes to be associated in 10% of gay men versus
13:52 3% in general population. A very thin margin if you can imagine 10% gay people
13:58 and three. And from that they say it's genetically predetermined. However, and
14:03 then Peter Gomez, Baptist minister said that they bouch pagan expression of homosexuality which you've seen in Sodom
14:09 is not what gay marriage about. Go gay marriage is about a monogous
14:15 relationship with fully committed man and man or woman and woman. That's what
14:21 he argues. And if you look in Romans chapter one, the chief passage against
14:26 homosexual sex, for this reason, God gave them up to dishonorable passions. for the women exchange natural relations
14:33 with those that are contrary to nature. So the translation of contrary to nature means naturally uh interpreted as
14:39 genetic. So if you are genetically predisposed to homosexuality then this
14:44 doesn't really apply. But the problem is few homosexual relationships are ever
14:50 monogamous. 8% of males 7% of homosexual females have a relationship lasting more
14:57 than 3 years. Most homosexuals have at least 20 partners a year. So this
15:02 argument seems to be uh very frivolous. And the other thing is that we've got genetics versus choices. You could be
15:10 genetically predisposed for alcoholism, sociopathic behavior or crime. But we
15:16 are always judged on our choice. So you can't take a gun and shoot Kunguan and
15:21 tell him, "Oh, my gene said to shoot Kunguan." You still have to have a choice. You're born in a whole array of
15:29 brokenness in our lives. You can find genes for alcoholism, you know, uh wife bashing, whatever it is, but you still
15:37 have a choice. And we always judge by choice. Romans chapter uh one looks at
15:44 men committing shameless acts with men. Paul is interested in men on men. A
15:50 homosexual sex against is not is against the gender which God has assigned them. Not about the genetics. It's about the
15:57 gender. Here is Leviticus 20:13. If a man lies with a male as with a woman,
16:04 both of them committed an abomination, they shall surely put put to death, their blood is upon them. 1 Corinthians
16:10 6:9-10. Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do you not be deceived, neither the
16:16 sexually immoral, idolattors, adulterers, nor men who
16:21 practice homosexuality, nor thieves, nor greedy, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
16:28 swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. Two points. Homosexuality is wrong and it will not inherit the kingdom of
16:34 God. But so is it if you eat too much at lunch afterwards, the greedy, the immoral, all put on the same page. And
16:42 so we in the church should not single out homosexuality is the worst sin in the world. Because if you cheat on your
16:48 taxes, if you are greedy and rapacious and a ruthless business tactics, you are in the same boat. Why should you
16:56 penalize them? There's a difference between homosexual orientation and homosexual lifestyle.
17:03 It's a homosexual orientation is not wrong, but what is sinful is a homosexual lifestyle. Look at Jude. Jude
17:11 says just as Sodom and Gomorrah and surrounding cities which likewise indulge in sexual immorality and pursued
17:17 unnatural desire which means there are people who have a homosexual
17:22 orientation. They may have 15 sisters and they grow up like Hawkins say very they like their own race their own
17:29 gender right but that's an unnatural desire. The issue is pursuing it. You
17:35 may look at another woman who comes to church who is not your wife and you can have lust. You can have a desire, sexual
17:42 desire because you're a man, but you don't pursue it. You don't go after her. You don't practice it. That's the
17:49 difference between So, so all human beings, all of us, whether we're homosexual, heterosexual, we are broken.
17:58 We are broken because we are born in all sorts of desires. We were born to be rapacious, to be liars. to want
18:05 everything for ourselves, to live for ourselves. We're all born like that. And homosexual tendency is no different from
18:11 a tendency to want to have sex with women other than your wife. It's a fact. We are broken. But there's a difference.
18:17 You can make a choice either to take your brokenness and you give into it and sin or you take your brokenness and and
18:24 actually give it to God and say, "This is my brokenness. This is my desire. This is unnatural and I'm going to give
18:30 it to you and I'm going to abstain. I'm going to glorify your name. That's an opportunity. All of us are born with a
18:38 different kind of brokenness. Some are born from a family when you exposed to gambling and your brokenness is that
18:45 every time you see the wheel go around, you also want to go around. Some of you are born in a situation where you
18:50 actually have very difficult sexual desires. Some of you are born with a homosexual kind of desire. But it's all
18:56 brokenness, isn't it? And what we do is we take that brokenness and say Lord I'm going to turn this and I give it to you
19:03 and submit this in holiness to you. That is a challenge for the church. The other
19:09 argument is from animals have sex. So therefore but the trouble is animals have no sexual identity. They have no
19:15 concept of fidelity. You think in marriage a male cow female cow get married together and no male bull sorry
19:22 one bull to 20 cows you know. I mean how can you argue from animals and animals?
19:27 How do you take the examination? You look at the how do you take example? I mean a dog every time he goes the fire hydrant lift his leg and right don't
19:34 tell me you also go every fire hydrant all of us to lift up our legs. It's a very stupid argument. All right. The
19:40 third argument is marriage between two consenting adults. It's a private matter. Harms nobody. It's a civil
19:46 rights issue. If your male and female can get married, male and male can get married because they're both humans,
19:52 right? It's a civil rights matter. But it's not. Uh this Japan Supreme Court
19:57 ruling very dangerous ruling just two weeks ago. Marriage is a legally binding
20:02 union between two people. You know the problem with that people what you say
20:08 people could be male and male female and female
20:14 2001 Germany this chap on the right am
20:19 put up an ad in social media saying well-built 18 to 30 year old to be
20:25 slaughtered and then consumed. Can you imagine you put up ad all those who want
20:30 to be slaughtered and consumed but must be within age of 18 to 30 otherwise too tough okay it must be slaughtered and
20:36 eaten and this idiot answered the ad he's not the only idiot you know whole bunch of people answered the ad but
20:42 didn't turn up but this guy actually turned up two consenting adults went there and what he did was slice off
20:50 his penis and then they both ate it but they couldn't eat it because it was too
20:55 chewy so is sliced off some of his fat, met him in the oil and then fried it. By the time they fry it, became too black
21:01 like charcoal. They couldn't eat it. So he took the knife and stabbed him in the throat and killed him, hung him up like
21:07 a side of beef for 8 months and consumed 40 lbs of meat just like proh whatever
21:14 over the next two consenting adults. They did that. Nothing wrong, right? He
21:20 agreed. German court put him in jail for murder. Just because you're two consenting
21:26 adults doesn't mean you can do what you like. Because if that's the case, then you might as well have mothers having
21:33 sex with their sons or daughters with their fathers and incest. And then you can have the next thing you're going to
21:38 have is sex with animals. You see, there has got to be a divine standard. If
21:44 there is no divine standard, then incest, animal sex, anything will go. U
21:50 this is foundation society's foundation society is civil rights. Then you look at Sodom before they lay down the men of
21:56 the city, men of Sodom, both young and old, people to the last man, all the people, that's civil rights. If all the
22:03 people suddenly desire sex with a cow is okay, then sex with a cow is okay. What is to stop them? There must be a divine
22:11 standard. If we let go a divine standard, we go down the rabbit hole and up to destruction of our society.
22:18 Marriage is made by God. This is Jesus. Jesus said, "From the beginning of creation, God made them male and female.
22:24 Therefore, a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh, but they are no longer two, but
22:31 one. What there? One flesh. What therefore God has joined together. Let not men separate."
22:39 Bible's very clear. Jesus very clear. Marriage is made where? By God in
22:45 heaven. So if your son comes back say dad I'm getting married to Steve
22:51 would you attend? You can't. You know why? Because it is not a marriage. A marriage is made by
22:58 God. You can have the whole country vote for it but it doesn't make it anymore a
23:04 marriage. The most I give you is a civil union but is not a marriage. It's defined by the Bible.
23:10 So we live unfortunately our skyline is dotted with Sodom. Heartlessness,
23:17 wickedness, prosperity, immorality, shamelessness, religiousness and poison.
23:22 How do we live? We have to recognize that we all live in Sodom today. And
23:27 when we live in Sodom, the struggle that we live in Sodom is that what we need to
23:34 recognize. And this is a struggle that not only afflicted Lot but afflicts all of us. The struggle is a struggle of
23:40 choice. Lot lifted up his eyes when his herdsmen had problems with Abraham's
23:46 herdsmen and they didn't have enough room or land to grow. So Abraham said to him, "You you you choose one direction,
23:51 I'll choose the next." And so what Lord did he he lifted up his eyes and saw the Jordan Valley well watered everywhere
23:58 like the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt in the direction of Zo. He looked up and saw this is a great piece of land. It's got water. It's got soil.
24:05 It's got green. It's it's luscious. Whatever his eyes saw, his nose smelt.
24:11 Yes, that's what I choose. It's based on what he saw. So he chose that. So Lot
24:17 chose for himself all the Jordan Valley and Lot journeyed east and they separated from each other. Abraham set
24:22 settled in the land of Canaan while Lot settled among the cities of the valley and moved his tent as far as Sodom and
24:29 the men of Sodom were wicked great sinners against the Lord. You see why would Moses when he writes Genesis put
24:35 that he moved to Sodom and by the way the men of Sodom were wicked great sinners against the Lord that means he
24:42 moved into a bad neighborhood didn't he chose it why because of prosperity the
24:47 waters will bring much needed nutrition for his cows green for his cows life
24:54 will be good he chose irrespective of the spiritual values chapter 14 they
25:00 took Lot the son of Abraham's brother who was living in Sodom. So after a while instead of living outside in river
25:06 uh Jordan by the valley now he moves into Sodom by the next chapter and by
25:11 the 19th chapter the two angels came to Sodom in the evening and Lot was sitting in the gate of the of Sodom. Sitting in
25:19 the gate is not like our Chinese iron gate and you see I'm talking it is a a city gate is like that. It is
25:26 a central business district. The fact that now not only was a migrant, he came in a migrant, he became somebody in you
25:33 don't sit in the central business district. How many of you have got offices in CBD? Put your hands up.
25:40 See, nobody of any significance in this church. If you tell me I got a office in
25:46 Jalan Pun is or something around there in the CBD, you are somebody, isn't it?
25:51 Oh, use this subang nothing. All right. So therefore, Lot from from a migrant worker has come all
25:58 the way. He's climbed all the way to CBD. He sits there and so therefore the struggle in Sodom is a struggle of
26:05 choice. You lift up your eyes and see and and you think that all this will bring happiness to you. It is convicted
26:12 and and and and you ignore the fact that they're wicked and evil and great sinners. The choices reveal your heart.
26:20 So you choose to put yourself in a situation. It's a struggle of choice. And the struggle of choice is deadly.
26:27 You think I can have God, I can have church, and I can have the world that we can all live happily with each other.
26:35 Really, there's no choice. If you look in the Moscow zoo, there is this
26:40 uh big bear and he happens to sit in the cage with a lamb. So, the lamb and the
26:47 bear are best buddies. In Siberia, there is a lion with a goat. And they're best
26:54 buddies, too. And you look how wonderful a a lion, a a tiger and a goat can
27:01 coexist. Me and the world, we can coexist. The church in the world can coexist. You think, you know, every day
27:09 they put a fresh lamb inside. You think what? The only reason why he
27:15 doesn't eat the lamb because it's a fresh lamb put there every day. You don't put a lamb. What happened to you? you'll be gone. You see, the whole idea
27:23 is that if if Can I have the next slide? Is it's not working now.
27:30 Next slide, please.
27:35 Okay. Okay. The next slide, please. Yep. We have to understand that we struggle
27:42 against our conscience when we live in a situation where we've got the world and Christ in tension. This is this is uh
27:51 Lot and he's saying by turning the cities of God and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction by making
27:57 them example what's going to happen to ungodly. And if he rescued the righteous lot, greatly distressed by the sensual
28:03 conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them, day after day he was tormenting his
28:08 righteous soul over their lawless deeds, what that he saw and he heard. So here
28:13 you have the righteous Lot living in a place full of sin and he's tormenting his soul over their lawless deeds which
28:20 what he saw day by day. tormenting his soul. His soul being buffeted like you get on an airplane and the and the
28:26 turbulence is banging back and forth and you don't know whether you're going to live or die. That's the kind of word
28:31 that's being used. All right. He's put in a situation, an impossible situation. In Sodom, you struggle against your
28:38 conscience. It's like me. My favorite car mean is here.
28:44 Okay. And it's in this shop with Center Point called Champs. Oo, fantastic. You
28:50 go there and you walk past and the smell hits you says, "Oh, I got a bowl of me
28:56 with your name on it, Peter." So you go and you you succumb to temptation. You whack it and after that you go home. Oil
29:02 drips off from your back end. You know, it is that bad and you think you're going to die. But but you the trouble is
29:09 you keep on cruising past champs all the time. Why? You're drawn because it's so
29:14 beautifully wonderful to eat. On the other hand, you're also conflicted because it will kill you sooner than anything else. So, this is what I mean
29:21 by being conflicted. Um, we live in Sodom and suddenly you see poor people
29:28 and you want to help them. You see the suffering poor. On the other hand, you see, oh, I've got a car loan to pay.
29:33 This is my BMW, my second one. And I live in Damsara Heights and a condo and then you know your monthly fees is like
29:40 580 ringgit, right? You see, if I help the poor, then I cannot sustain the lifestyle. What about my second home, my
29:45 third home, my investments and all that? Is it the the richer you are, the less you give? Why? Because you are committed
29:52 to a particular lifestyle and you're conflicted. You know, you have to open your heart to the poor, right? But you
29:58 can't because you have a certain lifestyle. You may you must have your 15 houses and 15 factories. It's got to be part of what you are, isn't it? But you
30:05 place yourself there. And then you look at you aspire to ethical business
30:10 practices. You need to hire the Nepali, right? pay them adequate wage but cannot
30:16 you pay them adequate wage then your business is not so competitive anymore right and then you will lose your your
30:22 competitors your profit margin will plummet you cannot survive as a company it's a fact but who put you there you
30:28 put yourself in sodom and you struggle with all this and then you look at injustice and evil in our society and
30:35 you want to speak out but you can't speak out because when you speak out they may take your business license away they may persecute you those of you who
30:43 not invested inside this country you you I mean if you're invested you you can't speak up as this business person they
30:48 will not give you a license next year so therefore we struggle like lot isn't it
30:53 we live in a society we're conflicted because there we're committed to a certain lifestyle committed we're in
30:58 love with the world to a certain extent and yet Christ pulls us in the other direction and we're tormenting our souls
31:05 so if you live in Sodom you struggle with choice you struggle with
31:11 your conscience the Third thing you struggle is against culture. Look at Lot. Lot has a utilitarian outlook in
31:18 life. When they want to take and have sex with the angels, this is what he
31:23 says. I have two daughters who have not known men. They're virgins. Let me bring them out to you and do to them as you
31:30 please. My goodness. Sitting down here, if you're a woman, you're thinking, "My God, what's wrong with him?
31:35 What's wrong with him? This is crazy." But in this culture it was okay because
31:41 a father decides whatever happen who you marry you marry some dead beat it's okay father decides it's a utilitarian
31:49 outlook where the man determines everything he will use his daughter for
31:54 his own end to save his own but he will use his daughter and if you live your
31:59 life like that and struggle against the culture what will happen to the ladies
32:06 later on stuck in a cave alone own. The firstborn said to the younger, "Our
32:11 father is old. There's not a man on earth to come into us after the manner of all the earth. Come, let us make our
32:17 father drink wine, and we will lie with him that we may preserve offspring from our father. As Lot uses his daughters,
32:25 his daughters uses lot." This is a user family.
32:31 Everybody uses everybody. Don't laugh because we live in a society
32:36 where we are networking all the time and some of us come to church. You can't tell the difference between networking and fellowship.
32:41 You know why? Because who are all your friends? Friends in church all same economic level. How many friends you
32:47 have that are actually poor or Indian? You invited to your house. Why? Because
32:53 you ask you for a loan. You you dare not. Isn't it? What is what is fellow? Fellowship is sharing.
33:00 Sharing has to share your wealth at some stage, right? How can you come to my house and I not share your wealth with you at some stage? So therefore you you
33:06 you have networking people higher that your net worth are are the same? That's
33:13 a fact. I challenges why don't you have fellowship with people who are poor and have genuine friendships because then
33:20 you have the opportunity to give to them. Do not be afraid of that. We need to tell the difference between networking and fellowship. We need to
33:26 struggle against our utilitarian culture that looks at everybody as something he can give something to me. If you're
33:33 poor, you got nothing to give someone. You have no worth, no benefit. There's no bottom line with you. Why should I
33:39 know you? And we live in a world that's heartless just like Sodom. And we Christians can get swallowed up like
33:45 that. We struggle and you struggle against our culture. Even society
33:52 recognizes our hypocrisy. Look, Lot went out and said to his son-in-laws were to marry his daughters. Get up out of this
33:58 place for the Lord is about to destroy the city. But he seemed to his son-in-laws to be justesting, joking.
34:04 He was just such a fine witness. He lives in this place, works side by side in a central business district when he
34:09 warns them, "Hey, God's going to punish the world. God's going to destroy you." They say, "Joking this fellow Christian.
34:15 Are you sure you drink? You know, we get drunk together. We sleep with women together. you you know are you going to tell us that God's going to punish us?
34:23 Lord has got no credibility. It's a loss of testimony in his life. Finally is a
34:29 struggle to let go. If you live in this situation, you have a struggle of choice, struggle against your conscience, struggle against your
34:35 culture. And the final struggle is a struggle to let go. You cannot let go.
34:41 Genesis 19, as the morning dawns, the angels urged Lord saying, "Take up your
34:46 wife and your two daughters who are here. lest you be swept away in the punishment of the city. But he lingered.
34:52 The two men s he lingered. Go away. He's busy packing his underwear, saying
34:58 goodbye to the koiish, isn't it? Watching the last and then checking the the weather, you know, and then
35:04 polishing his BMW for the last time. Won't get the chance to drive it anymore. Right. Look, look, look. Touch,
35:10 touch, touch. He won't go. And then the in the man seized him, grabbed him and
35:16 his wife, violently grabbed him, pulled them out of the city. Can you imagine? They don't want to be saved. They're
35:22 forcibly saved. And that testifies to the mercy of God. Okay? Bring him out to
35:28 be merciful to him. So sin always takes us further than we intend
35:35 to go, longer than we intend to stay, and cost us more than we intend to pay.
35:42 A beautiful saying we struggle if we in live in Sodom and we're so imshed.
35:48 That's why the church of Jesus Christ is lethargic because we struggle because the choices
35:53 that we make reflect our heart and our heart is just not in Jesus Christ. Our heart is in the world. We struggle
35:60 against our culture. Our culture becomes part of the way we do things and it and it's justified. We struggle against uh
36:08 uh letting go. And uh lastly is the salvation from how do we get saved from
36:14 Sodom. This is a quote from a I don't usually quote this preacher because I don't often believe I agree with him but
36:20 he says when you think of Sodom and Gomorrah what comes to your mind? God's wrath and fiery judgment. The truth is
36:27 that God was not at all out to judge the people of Sodom and Gomorrah. He was not on a sin hunt. He was in fact on a
36:33 righteousness hunt. This is totally wrong. He doesn't like to mention Sodom and Gomorrah because nobody likes to
36:40 talk about sin and judgment is so icky. You have a horrible God who has a big
36:45 sword, bad tempered want to wall up you all the time and all the Christians are like that and he's pandering to the view
36:51 of the world. You know CS Lewis when he write the children's books Nana and they
36:57 talk about Alan the the lion who is who is like Christ and as they discuss
37:02 Christ uh the two beavers say safe Mr. said Mr. Beaver don't you hear what Mrs.
37:09 Beaver tells you, who said anything about safe? Of course, he isn't safe,
37:14 but he's good. He's the king. I tell you, God isn't safe. God isn't your body
37:20 where you could have cidle up to him and do as you like. God is not safe. God is the same God. He punished entire Sodom
37:27 and Gomorra with salt and and fire and destroyed entire towns. God is not safe.
37:33 Um but why did God punish them? Here is
37:38 chapter 18. We'll tell you exactly why God punished them. Chapter 18, God
37:44 shares with Abraham. Because Abraham's friend is God. And God tells him,
37:49 "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great. Their sin is very
37:54 grave. I will go down and see what they've done altogether according to the outcry that's come to me. And if not, I
37:59 will know." The outcry, the word outcry in in Hebrew, sa means a cry of the
38:05 innocent, oppressed, and brutalized. You know why God judges it? Because the people who are being brutalized every
38:10 day, who are dying, who are being robbed, who are being raped, they are saying God,
38:17 God. And God hear you don't hear their their
38:22 sounds after a while. You read so many refugees crying out in pain in Iraq, in in in Syria. After a while, you don't
38:29 you just skip that part of the newspaper, right? You don't read it. It's too troubling. But do you know God
38:35 hears every single cry of the oppressed? When he hears every single cry, he will
38:41 answer. And the answer has to be judgment. If there's no judgment, what kind of God do you have? You have a
38:47 useless God. There has to be judgment. And God is good. He's not safe, says the beaver.
38:55 But he's a good God and he's a king. deep down in our hearts we all want
39:01 justice because without justice there is no meaning in this world. Friend of mine was uh was telling me he's going through
39:08 the the toll the driving toll and toll operators are normal people like you and me and this toll operator had on a on
39:15 his window uh 2.6B. Wonder why
39:21 would a toll point you to drive past what's how much to pay? 2.6B. My god, I
39:26 didn't bring enough change. Why would I put 2.6b? Why? Because even down to the toll operator, people want
39:34 justice. And therefore, God has to judge. And
39:39 therefore, the Lord reigned on Sodom and Gomorrah, sulfur and fire of the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those
39:46 cities and all the valleys and all the inhabitants of cities and what grew on the ground. But Lot's wife looked behind
39:52 looked behind him, looked back, and she became a pillar. So, not only was there judgment,
39:57 problem is with Lot's wife. Jesus shortest biography in the New Testament,
40:03 shortest biography. You if you going to be remembered for something, I hope you're not remembered for this. Remember
40:10 Lot's wife. She's standing behind God saves forcibly two of them, you know,
40:16 brings them out, forced them to go out. You know what happened? She looks back.
40:22 Why did she look back? Because all her life she grown up in Sodom. She based
40:28 her life on all that she could see, she could touch, she could smell. And that her whole life is in Sodom. He just
40:35 could not let go. You see, she was convinced but not converted. If you look
40:42 at what Jesus said, whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. And
40:50 so there Jesus reminds us remember Lord's wife. When she looked back she
40:57 was seeking to preserve her life. The action reveals her heart. She cannot let go. She turned into the very thing which
41:04 she actually worshiped. She looked back all the places that she go shopping
41:10 pyramid mega mall all chichai all the places which that's all she known all
41:16 her life. And you can't let go. You can't look forward. You know the Bible says Abraham looked forward to the city
41:22 which foundations are made by God. Can you see it? You can't. She looked
41:27 forward to something that's invisible. The woman can't. She has to look back to what she can touch, she can feel, she
41:32 can experience all her life. And that's a warning to all of us. If you live a
41:38 life that's only based on what you can see and touch and feel with your life, then it will you will become what will
41:45 become of Koala Lumpo in 200 years from now. You'll be exactly what you worship.
41:52 Brothers and sisters, we need to look beyond that. We need to look to be like Abraham, to look forward, not no not not
41:59 look back to a city that will be destroyed. 100 years from now, KL won't be like that. 100 years from now, things will be
42:05 different. A thousand years from now, things will be different. You need to look forward to a city a million years from now whose foundations have been
42:13 built eternal by our Lord Jesus Christ. And
42:19 in that passage, Jesus said these words. I tell you on that night there will be
42:24 two in one bed. One will be taken, the other left behind. There will be two
42:30 women grinding together. One will be taken and the other left. He's saying
42:36 this word to tell you that husband and wife will sit on the same bed or hopefully two in one bed. You shouldn't be in bed with anybody else. One will be
42:43 taken and one will be left behind. Two women will be grinding which means they'll be doing normal jobs. You could
42:49 be an executive, you could be an architect, you could be a doctor, you could be a nurse, you could be a teacher. Side by side, you'll be doing
42:55 the same job. He's not asking you to get out of Sodom and so much so that you will abandon all jobs. You work side by
43:02 side. But one will be taken and one will not be taken. And the difference is your heart. If
43:10 your heart is based on what you can see, you will always be looking back. If your heart is based on the city which God has
43:16 built and the foundations built by God and your priorities are priorities of the kingdom, there radical disciplehip.
43:22 You have to get out move against all that you can touch and feel it. It takes
43:28 a supreme act of faith only if given by our Lord Jesus Christ. So remember Lot's wife. There's a
43:36 destruction of Sodom. You know in the previous conversation with Abraham had
43:41 with God, you have a idea of collective guilt. If someone in the Old Testament
43:47 sins sometimes in Joshua 7, the entire family is killed off. Why? Because they
43:53 all share collective guilt. And now in Abraham's conversation with God, it's the other way around. If all have sinned
43:60 and yet there are couple of righteous person, maybe God will spare the whole city for that. And go and Abraham asked
44:06 God, "What if there were 50 people righteous in Sodom? Would you spare the place?" God said, "Yeah, why not?" And
44:11 it shows you how much he loves to save people rather than condemn people. What
44:17 about 30? What about 10? Goes all the way down to 10. And God is still willing to save Sodom if there are 10 righteous
44:23 people. What kind of God is this? He's a wonderful God. He's not a tyrant. God is waiting to kill you. God is waiting for
44:31 an opportunity to give you mercy. But there was not a single person in
44:37 Sodom. Even God Lot was not fully righteous
44:42 and Sodom was destroyed. But thousands of years later on the
44:48 principle of imputed righteousness are reset. that God will give righteousness from someone and it sets the scene later
44:56 on for Jesus Christ because of one righteous man only one righteous man not
45:04 in the city of Sodom but on the face of the earth there only one righteous man who walks on the face of the earth who
45:10 fully satisfied all the demands of the law who s fully satisfied the love of God's heart that one righteous man
45:17 because of that one righteous man God will save the world. His righteousness
45:23 will be imputed to the people of the world who will join this righteous man who will come under his covering who
45:29 will be seen as Jesus. So therefore, brothers and sisters in Christ this morning when God
45:36 looks at us, the fire and brimstone has been rained upon his son.
45:43 And if we give our lives to Jesus Christ and live with the kingdom view in mind and aim for that city whose foundations
45:49 are not built with hands, we will be saved simply because the punishment has
45:55 been born by our Lord Jesus Christ. We no longer have to bear that punishment.
46:00 But let me end. God is not fooled. Jesus says remember Lot's wife. The word
46:09 remember is not mental a sententinel mental remembering. Remember in such a
46:14 way that it moves your hands and legs and bodies. Remember means to act.
46:20 Remember Lot's wife. Every day you sit up and reexamine your life. Remember
46:25 Lot's wife.
