Tuesday after the Seventh Sunday after Trinity, 8/8/00

Genesis 18: 20-24, 32 And the Lord said, "Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry against it that has come to Me; and if not, I will know." Then the men turned away from there and went toward Sodom, but Abraham still stood before the Lord. And Abraham came near and said, "Would You also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there were fifty righteous within the city; would You also destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous that were in it?"…And he said, "Let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak but once more: Suppose ten should be found there?"" And He said, "I will not destroy it for the sake of ten." --NKJV

In the name of the One Who spares the world for the sake of the righteous, amen.

The true story of Sodom and Gomorrah is very pathetic. In the end, not even ten righteous people were found in the city. In fact, only four individuals were lead out of the city by the hand, and one was so attached to her life there that she turned back and became a pillar of salt. I dare say that for the most part we are in better shape than that today, but perhaps not much better in some places.

The evil of man knows no limit. The men of Sodom and Gomorrah preferred to rape a man than to have a woman. Our society is fast approaching that level of perversion. A person only needs to turn on the TV-that magic oracle which reveals the innermost yearnings of our hearts-to see how far we have fallen. Not only is homosexuality touted as acceptable, normal, perhaps even preferred; not only is it difficult to find proper roles for men and women; but now animals are beginning to be portrayed as possible sex partners for humans. When the Son of Man returns, will He find anyone who is righteous?

The fact of the matter is that He will find some who are righteous. And He preserves the earth because of those righteous ones. Christ Jesus doesn't preserve the earth because of the people who reject Him and are lost, but because of the ones that He chose to be His own. And He will keep them in The Faith despite the moral decay around them. This is the sure promise we have from our God. Amen.

Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, the world is very evil and getting more evil by the day. Preserve our nation and our world because of the righteous people that are still here. Give us the Holy Spirit to make us strong in the True Faith. Help us to live our faith and reach out to others so that they too will be saved from the destruction that will come to the wicked, amen.

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