Gen 18:23-32
For Ten’s Sake
In \\#32\\, Abraham moved God to spare the city of Sodom if there
were but 10 righteous people living in it. Abraham is not bartering
with God. He is pleading for the mercy of God.
There were many citizens in Sodom when the angels came. No doubt that
among the many, there were some who would claim to be religious. Yet,
based on the end results, there were not ten whom God called
righteous!
There is a lesson there. It really does not matter what man thinks of
his relationship with God. It only matters what God thinks of man’s
relationship with Him.
I. Why weren’t there at least ten righteous people in Sodom?
A. Because Men failed.
1. When destruction is imminent, there is little time for
blame fixing, but, for the record, God always places the
responsibility of leadership upon the men.
2. If there is a failure, the men are responsible.
a. Lot failed.
2Peter 2:7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the
filthy conversation of the wicked:
8 (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in
seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from
day to day with their unlawful deeds;)
(1) The Bible says Lot was a just, righteous, vexed
man.
(2) That makes Lot a compromising man.
(a) Lot was either living in the wrong place or
in the wrong way.
i. Righteous Lot had no business living in
wicked Sodom—at least not like he was
living.
ii. God does not call His people to be
tourists, sight seekers, thrill
seekers, or opportunists.
iii. Christians, there are some places you
just shouldn’t be unless it is to be
a witness.
Mt 5:13 Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the
salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be
salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but
to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of
men.
Mt 6:24 No man can serve two masters: for either
he will hate the one, and love the other; or else
he will hold to the one, and despise the other.
Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
Jas 4:17 Therefore to him that knoweth to do
good, and doeth it not, to him it is sin.
Lu 10:27 And he answering said, Thou shalt love
the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all
thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.
iii. If you are, you have compromised.
iv. Compromise is a serious business.
aa. A Christian has compromised when
they conform Bible beliefs or
behaviors to be acceptable to
the world.
bb. This defeats the whole purpose of
the Christian being on the earth.
(b) Lot was living in silence.
i. You can tell by the anger of these
sinful people that were not used to
being corrected.
Ge 19:6 And Lot went out at the door unto them,
and shut the door after him,
7 And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so
wickedly.
8 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.
9 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.
ii. They were unfamiliar with rebuke
because Lot, who was a leader among
them, never gave any out!
iii. It is strange how sinners like to call
the saints intolerant. Our words
aren’t nearly as intolerant as their
actions!
(3) If Lot had been more concerned with the city
accepting God than accepting him, he might have
saved the whole city.
(4) If Lot had been more concerned with his children
believing than belonging, he might have, at
least, saved them.
b. But it wasn’t just Lot who failed. Every other man
(every husband, every father, and every son) also
failed.
(1) No person’s heart is naturally as dark as those
of Sodom.
(2) And no city can be so devoid of a witness from
God.
(3) A person must push himself toward evil to so
despise the natural understanding of God and
mankind.
B. Not only did the men failed, but the woman did as well.
1. God gave men the authority of the home, but God gave women
the heart of the home.
2. The only thing sadder than men who won’t lead in the right
direction is women who won’t love in the right direction!
3. We don’t have one single word recorded in the Scripture by
Lot’s wife, but we know from her two actions what kind of
heart she had.
a. Action #1 - How her children turned out.
(1) Children reflect the image of their parents and
there had to be a lot of mom in those kids,
especially the girls.
(2) \\#Gen 19:30-38\\ I won’t read the verses but you
can read them.
(3) Her daughters were immoral and manipulative.
(4) That is, they had no concept of right and wrong
and they would do anything to get what they
wanted.
b. Action #2 - She looked back to Sodom.
Genesis 19:26 But his wife looked back from
behind him, and she became a pillar of salt.
(1) Her sin was not so much with her eyes but with
her heart.
(2) Mrs. Lot loved Sodom.
(3) I don’t think it bothered her that it was a
wicked place.
(4) She must have enjoyed some kind of prestige
there.
(5) I have often thought that it was Mrs. Lot who
wanted to live in Sodom since the Bible tell us
that Lot was vexed over it.
4. Here was a woman who loved possession and position more
than she loved God or her family.
a. A righteous woman wouldn’t have pushed her husband
into Sodom but out of Sodom.
b. If they were going to live in Sodom, a righteous
woman would have loved her children and brought them
to Jesus.
c. And a righteous woman would have done her best to
change the wickedness of her city by seeing souls
brought to the Light.
d. Do you realize, that if Lot, his wife, at least their
2 sons-in-laws and 4 daughters \\#Gen 19:14\\ had
been righteous, that would have been 8 righteous
people in the city?
e. The Bible alludes to those. I wonder if there weren’t
at least two more children or servants or friends or
close neighbors or co-workers that Lot and his wife
could have influenced?!
f. If so, they could have saved the city from
annihilation!
II. What happens when there are not even ten righteous people?
A. Sin spreads.
1. There are several amazing aspects of this story. One is
how far the sin of Sodom had spread.
Ge 19:4 But before they lay down, the men of the
city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house
round, both old and young, all the people from
every quarter:
2. The Bible says BOTH OLD AND YOUNG, ALL THE
PEOPLE FROM EVERY QUARTER!
3. Where was the counter-trend? Where were the godly? Where
were the wives? Where were the decent? Where were the
officials?
4. I would have to conclude that there was not even one
person left in the whole of the city who, if they had not
practiced the sin, at least had given mental assent to
it!
B. Sin grows.
1. The predominant sin in Sodom was homosexuality.
a. If Sodomy was there, certainly there were other sins.
b. Homosexuality seems to be a pinnacle sin.
(1) God’s opinion of it seems obvious in this Bible
passage.
(2) It is listed as a major step in the decline of
man’s ability to comprehend and worship God
\\#Romans 1:24\\.
(3) In our nation, it acceptance has demonstrated a
public denial of God’s existence and rule over
us.
(4) It would seem that such is always the case.
c. That would mean most all sins would be accepted and
practiced.
(1) Theirs was a perverted sex appetite.
(2) They would surely be practicing multiple
partners, transsexual relationships, bestiality,
relations with children, violent relationships,
and on the list goes.
(3) Likewise, unbridled anger, blasphemy, pride,
thief, and any and every other sinful habit.
d. Consider the offer even righteous Lot made of
sacrificing his daughters to this wicked and perverse
crowd \\#Ge 19:8\\.
(1) As a younger Christian, I read and heard
preachers try to give some justification to
Lot’s actions.
(2) They used the culture of those ancient people to
explain how responsible a host was to his
guests.
(3) No culture in any time period would ever expect
or accept what Lot did!
2. When there are no righteous people in an area, there is no
conscience, no checks and balances, no dam to hold back
the floods of wickedness and perversion.
C. God knows.
1. There is nothing done in secret.
Luke 12:2 For there is nothing covered, that
shall not be revealed; neither hid, that shall
not be known.
2. There is nothing done that is unimportant.
Luke 12:6 Are not five sparrows sold for two
farthings, and not one of them is forgotten
before God?
7 But even the very hairs of your head are
all numbered. Fear not therefore: ye are of
more value than many sparrows.
3. There is nothing that shall be overlooked. Every word,
every action, every thought.
Matthew 12:36 But I say unto you, That every
idle word that men shall speak, they shall
give account thereof in the day of judgment.
D. Judgment comes.
1. God is a righteous Judge who will not let sin go
unpunished.
Ge 19:24 Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and
upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD
out of heaven;
25 And he overthrew those cities, and all the
plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and
that which grew upon the ground.
2. There is judgment in this life and in the life to come.
III. Can we make ten righteous people?
A. I don’t mean, "Can we build them." I mean, "Can we win them?"
1. Sodom became the wicked place that it was for a lack of
righteous people.
2. In the end, Sodom was destroyed for lack of righteous
people.
3. You may think me a defeatist but I believe America is
on the same path!
B. Most discerning Christians know that America is headed in
the wrong direction.
C. Three barometers of America’s walk with God have been alcohol,
sex, and drugs. How are we doing?
1. In 2013, 47% of high school students reported having
sexual intercourse. 15% of high school students
reported having already had four or more sexual partners.
http://recapp.etr.org/recapp/index.cfm?fuseaction=pages.
StatisticsDetail&PageID=555
2. It is estimated that there are nearly 125 million
abortions every year.
http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/fb_induced_abortion.html
3. The 2013 Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that among
high school students, during the past 30 days:
a. 35% drank some amount of alcohol.
b. 21% binge drank.
c. 10% drove after drinking alcohol.
d. 22% rode with a driver who had been drinking
alcohol.
http://www.cdc.gov/alcohol/fact-sheets/underage-drinking.htm
4. In terms of illicit drugs, teens use marijuana the most.
More high school seniors smoke pot than smoke
cigarettes. As of 2015, high school seniors are about
as likely to smoke weed as they are to drink.
https://www.teenrehabcenter.org/resources/high-school-drug-use/
D. Since 9/11, we can add false worship to it.
1. This past week, in a 6 to 5 vote, Baltimore County voted
NOT to let school out for Muslim holidays.
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/education/bs-md-co-school-
board-muslim-20160823-story.html
2. New York was going to build an arch to Baal!
http://www.charismanews.com/opinion/56398-temple-of-baal-arch-
canceled-for-new-york-city
a. Baal worship today is just as alive as it ever was.
b. Baal was a sex god. The worshipers would drink
themselves into a stupor, fulfill their sexual
fantasies then kill the children produced by them
on their altars.
3. Prayer and the Bible have been removed from almost every
government organization, as well as, many private
institutions while paganism, atheism, and humanism been
elevated and encouraged.
4. On May 6, 2016, for the second time, Judge Roy Moore was
removed as Alabama’s Chief Justice (the first time being
November 13, 2003). This time for refusing to allow
illegal and sinful same-sex marriage from being forced on
Alabamians.
5. Nudity, profanity, gambling, drunkenness, and perversion of
every kind is advertised and encouraged as a legitimate.
money-making, economy building enterprise.
6. Our economy is as fragile as a house of cards, built on
policies of credit, a dependency on foreign supply, and
payments for work NOT rendered.
a. As of 8/27/16, the national debt was
$19,437,565,000,000.
b. That is an individual debt of $59,943 per citizen, but
a debt of $162,433 per tax payer.
http://www.brillig.com/debt_clock/
E. These and the many other problems plaguing our country which
will not be fixed by elections, or education, or Euros.
F. What we need are 10 righteous people! 10 over here and 10
more over there and 10 more over yonder until we have turned
this country back to the God who gave it to us.
Remember Abraham’s plea: "Peradventure ten shall be found there?"
Remember God’s answer: "I will not destroy it for ten’s sake."
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