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The Outcry

Genesis 18:20

A Sermon Delivered by Pastor Jim Scott Orrick

January 21, 2001

And the Lord said, ‘Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grave, 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.’

These words were spoken by the Lord, Yahweh, while He was in the presence of Abraham, the great father of faith. One day Abraham saw three men coming toward him. He hurried to make preparation for them so that they would be fed and entertained as best he could. In the course of the conversation it became apparent that these three men were really not men. Two of them were angels, and one of them was an incarnation of God Himself, very likely a pre-incarnate manifestation of Jesus Christ. When I say pre-incarnate, I mean before the time that Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea. Apparently there were times when, before Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea, He would appear on earth, assuming human form when he did. And on one of those occasions, I think, He appeared to Abraham here. He had come to Abraham because He was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah; but before He did He said, “I have heard a tremendous outcry again Sodom and Gomorrah, and now I've come down to see if that outcry is really as bad as I have heard. If it's as bad as I've heard, I'm going to destroy the city of Sodom. If it's not as bad as I've heard, well then I'll know.”

Of course this is poetic language that helps us to understand some things about God. We know that God knows all things. He doesn't have to come into this room to see what you and I look like this morning. God did not have to come down to Sodom to see if things were really as bad in Sodom as He had heard. He knew that things were as bad in Sodom as He had heard, but He came down, and He said this to Abraham, and through His saying it we learn several very comforting things about God.

One thing we learn about God is that He is a God of justice. He is not going to punish anyone on second-hand information. Occasionally, innocent persons are condemned because there were false witnesses who testified against them, and the jury and judge are deceived. Tthat never happens with God. He always knows first-hand how good or how bad each person's case is. So God is not going to condemn Sodom or any other town or any other nation or any person on mere hearsay or second-hand information that might be corrupt. God says, “I'm going to find out for Myself if this is true.” So God is a God of justice.

Then a second comforting fact that we learn about God from this story is that God

is concerned about what happens on earth. Some people imagine God to be some kind of impersonal force who just set things in motion way back somewhere in the past, and the earth is pretty much running itself the way a clock might run itself if you have just wound it up and left it there. These people theorize that God just wound up the earth with all of its natural laws and that now God remains outside of these natural laws. He allows the natural laws to carry on the earth. But this teaches us that is not so. God has established natural laws, but He intervenes sometimes. Sometimes He works through natural means; sometimes He works apart from natural means; sometimes He works in spite of natural means. But God is concerned about what is happening on earth, and He is aware of it, and He does invade the earth. He does so regularly. He does so in every human being. There is no way to explain by merely natural means the fact that human beings are capable of knowing truth. If you would like to read a very thorough expansion of this idea, read C.S. Lewis' book, Miracles. There he proves, in my mind, beyond the shadow of a doubt that the very fact that human beings are capable of knowing and understanding truth makes it impossible that our universe is a closed system in which God never intervenes. God cares about what is going on earth, and He does intervene in what happens on earth.

A third comforting fact that we can learn from this story is that God's ear is attentive to the cries that come from earth. Here the Lord says that He has heard an outcry. It's not the only place that He says it. Look in chapter 19, the very next chapter. Verse 12 says, “Then the men said to Lot, ‘Have you anyone else here? Son-in-law, your sons, your daughters, and whomever you have in the city—take them out of this place! For we will destroy this place because the outcry against them has grown great before the face of the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it.’” So the God of justice, the God who sees what is happening upon the earth, and the God whose ears are attentive to the cries of those who are in anguish over sin, the God whose ears are attentive to the cries of those who are in anguish because of oppression, comes down, and He destroys the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah.

There are three points to the sermon this morning. The first one is who was making the outcry? Who was it that was crying out to God about what was going on in Sodom in Gomorrah? Secondly, what were they saying? What was the content of the outcry? And then finally we will see another outcry that's not found in this text.

First of all then, who was it that was crying out to God? There are a number of possibilities, and it may be that all of them were crying out to God, but the first possibility is that Lot himself was crying out to God. Turn in your Bibles to the book of 2 Peter, chapter 2. If we had only the book of Genesis to tell us about Lot, I'm afraid that Brother Lot would not fare very well in our opinion because, frankly, there is nothing recorded in Genesis that holds him up as an example that we would want to imitate. Most of what Lot does as recorded in Genesis is selfish or lustful or greedy, but Peter, writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, calls Lot “that righteous man.” Look at 2 Peter 2:7: “God delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds).” Well these two verses of Scripture switch my position with Lot. If I read only the book of Genesis, I tend to think I'm better than Lot. I look down on him for being so disrespectful to Abraham and for being so greedy as to choose the well-watered plains, for being so foolish as to pitch his tent towards Sodom, for being so wicked as to continue living in that wicked city all of his life until finally some angels had to come and take him by the hand and almost drag him out of the city of Sodom. I think I'm better than that, but then I come here to 2 Peter 2, and I see that “righteous Lot was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked,” and I have to ask myself, "How oppressed do I feel by the wicked conduct of the wicked people around me? Do I feel oppressed by them? Or am I content to let them do their wicked thing as long as they leave me alone? As long as they don't invade my neighborhood and come into my house, am I vexed? Am I oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked?" Lot was. It says that his righteous soul was tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. Is my soul tormented from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds? Or do I really enjoy watching it on TV? Do I really enjoy hearing about it on the radio and reading about it in the newspaper? Lot was tormented.

We heard the news this week—it was tragic news—that a nationally known figure who has the title 'Reverend' prefaced to his name, fell into a grievous sin and fathered a child without being married to the child's mother, and don't some of us have to confess that we were glad to hear it? Far from being pleased with such news about this man, we ought instead to have prayed, “God, please protect Your name. This man may not be a legitimate Reverend, but most of the country doesn't know that. Most of the country is going to think, 'Here goes another preacher, not able to control himself.'” Have any of us prayed, “Lord, protect Your name from the slander that the enemy will surely try to heap upon Your church because of this?” I believe Lot would have because his righteous soul was tormented day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds. He is described twice in these two verses as righteous: righteous Lot and he had a righteous soul. If he was a righteous man, then he was a praying man, wasn't he? And what do you think he prayed? Well, he prayed about what was tormenting him. That is exactly what you'll pray about. If you're tormented about something, you'll pray about it. And Lot was lifting up cries to heaven, “Lord, my neighbors are wicked. Lord, my neighbors have done this to me, and they've done that to me.” And God, the God of justice, whose ears are attuned to the cries of the oppressed on earth said, “I'm going to do something about it.” And God came down to see if the outcry that had been raised by righteous Lot was really as bad as Lot was saying, and it was. It was as bad. So it may have been righteous Lot who had raised this outcry to heaven.

Or further, it may have been the justice of God that was crying out to God saying, “You can't allow these men and women to go on unpunished.” And God's justice would say to God, “Look at the way they are perverting the good gift that You have given, a gift that You have given for procreation of the human race. They're abusing that good gift, and they're using it for their own selfish lusts, a gift that you have given to a man and a wife that they might become one flesh. And God, they are abusing that gift, and men are inflamed with lusts for other men. And women are inflamed with lusts for other women. And you can't allow it to go on. You're a God of justice, and you must punish what is wrong.”

The sin of homosexuality is a foul sin. Romans chapter 1 uses several words to describe the sin of homosexuality that do not leave us the option of saying that it's just another lifestyle choice. Romans 1, notice verse 24: “Therefore God gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their hearts, to dishonor their bodies among themselves, who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.” Now that's not talking about homosexuality. That's talking about heterosexuality out of the bounds of marriage. And it is described as uncleanness, as lust, and as dishonorable. It is described as an act of idolatry, exchanging the truth of God for the lie. That's a good word for it: the lie. The lie is that somehow all of this intimate behavior that ought not to be going on except between a man and his wife – that all this intimate behavior is going to give us satisfaction, but it's a lie. But the next step is described in verse 26: “For this reason God gave them up to vile passions.” Now he's starting to talk about homosexuality, and notice that the first word that he uses is vile, or shameful. “For even their women exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.” There's the second description. It's against nature. Now verse 27: “Likewise also the men leaving the natural use of the woman burned in their lusts for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.” It's a vile passion. It's unnatural. It is shameful, and it is an error. The New International Version puts it this way: “They received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.” For a man to be physically intimate with a man is a perversion. It's unnatural. It's shameful. It is a sin of judgment. It is not only a sin that God will judge. He will judge the sin, but it is a sin of judgment. Notice here in Romans 1 that it's because of rejecting God and not holding dear the knowledge of the truth of God that God has given these people over to these shameful lusts and these perverted acts. Some people say, “Do you think God is going to judge America because of homosexuality?” Yes, but my first response to that is, homosexuality is a judgment from God. Persons who do not repent of homosexuality cannot be saved. Persons who do not repent of homosexuality will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Turn in your Bibles to 1 Corinthians 6:9: “Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, not adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortionists will inherit the kingdom of God.” So you see there are more people than just homosexuals and sodomites who are mentioned here in this passage of Scripture that will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Thieves, covetous, drunkards, anyone who persists in these sins without repenting of them will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now that is contrary to what a lot of people are saying today. Many denominations are discussing whether or not homosexuals can serve as priests or as pastors in their congregations. There ought to be no discussion of that at all. The Bible is plain that anyone who practices homosexuality will not enter the kingdom of heaven. Can homosexuals be saved? Yes, if they repent. Look at 1 Corinthians 6:11: “And such were some of you, but you were washed, you were sanctified, and you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of our God.” Yes, homosexuals can be saved if they will repent of their sin and put their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Then they will be washed. They will be sanctified. They will be justified by the grace of God through our Lord Jesus Christ. But homosexuality is a sin for which God's justice calls for retribution, for punishment, and we didn't read it in Genesis 19, but if you want to read the first few verses of Genesis 19, then you will see that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah were indeed guilty of this heinous, deplorable, unnatural sin of homosexuality. They even wanted to attack the angels that were in Lot's house. And when the angels saw that wicked behavior, I daresay they grimly nodded their heads and said, “Yes, the outcry against Sodom is great, but it was accurate. It is as bad as we have heard.”

So it may have been Lot who raised this outcry to God. It may have been God's justice that raised this outcry to God.

Or it may have been those who were suffering and dying because of the sinful lives that were lived in Sodom. God's ears are especially attuned to the widow and to the fatherless and to those who are helpless, so that when a little child is misused, and that little child cries out to God, God hears. And when someone's blood is shed, when a little child is murdered, even if that little child is still in its mother's womb, and that child's blood is shed, God hears the outcry.

Do you know that innocent blood cries out to God? Turn in your Bibles to Genesis 4. In Genesis 4 we read that Cain killed his brother Abel. Verse 8 says, “Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I do not know. Am I my brother's keeper?' And He said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.'” He knew. God knew that a murder had been committed. The blood of the innocent man cried out to God. Now I wonder what it said. Well, that's the second point of my message.

Before I go there, let's spend just another moment here. If it is true that the blood of innocent victims cries out to God, then what sort of a grisly chorus must be raised from the land of America where the blood of 40 million babies has been shed in less than 30 years? What kind of a wailing outcry must there be raised up from the alleys and the dumps and the dumpsters of America where the blood of innocent babies has been ruthlessly scattered? What kind of a cry must be raised from the abortion clinics and from the hospitals around America, where the blood of more than 40 million babies is crying out to God? Do you know how many a million are? I have little idea, but do you remember two or three years ago when the Promise Keepers had a march on Washington D.C., and there were supposed to have been a million men there? Well, I saw the news report of that, and there were a lot of people there. They said there were a million men there. They filled up the square in front of the Washington Monument, and they spilled over out into the streets, and it was just a vast sea of people—a million people. The population of Kansas City is about half a million, Kansas City, Missouri, but I suppose that the entire Metropolitan area including Gladstone and all the other little towns would probably be a little over a million. Now you just think about all the cars you see sometimes in a traffic jam. Maybe you're going out of town when all the traffic is coming into town at night, and for miles and miles you see hundreds and hundreds of lights and you think, "Man! There are a lot of people who live here." It's about a million. You multiply that picture that you have in your mind and that of the Promise Keepers million man march on Washington. You multiply that 40 times. And then imagine that you're looking down on this vast throng, and as you look closer, it's not men that you see, it's little babies, and they're all crying out to God. Abandoned by parents, tossed onto garbage heaps by abortionists, sacrificed on alters to the gods of convenience and prosperity, this vast throng of poor mutilated babies is crying out to God Almighty. Now do you think that's an awful outcry in the ears of God? I assure you it is. The God who cares about human beings and the God who cares about those who have been created in His image, hears, and God is judging.

Secondly, what are they saying? What is the outcry? What's the content of the outcry? We've seen that it may have been Lot who was crying. It may have been the justice of God who was crying. It may have been the blood of innocent victims of the sinful life of Sodom that were crying out. What were they saying? Well, I think if you'll turn in your Bibles to Revelation 6, you'll see one possibility of what the blood says when it cries from the ground to God. Revelation 6:9: “When He opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of those who had been slain for the word of God and for the testimony which they held. And they cried with a loud voice saying, 'How long, O Lord, holy and true, until You judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?' Then a white robe was given to each of them; and it was said to them that they should rest a little while longer, until both the number of their fellow servants and their brethren, who would be killed as they were, was completed.” Now I know that this verse of Scripture is talking about martyrs. It's talking about people who have been slain for the word of God and for the testimony that they held. But just as they cried out for justice, I believe that also the blood of the millions of infants that have been killed in abortuaries in America cry out to God for justice, and they say, “How long, O Lord, how long, until you avenge our blood?” So one thing that the blood cries out is “Avenge us, O great God of justice.” And then a second thing that the blood cries out is it cries out the name of the person who shed the blood. Remember back in Genesis 4. God said to Cain, “What have you done? Your brother's blood cries out to Me from the ground.” He knew that Cain had done it. I think that the blood of his brother cried out and said, “Cain did this to me.” And what does the blood of all the little aborted babies in America say? Well, in many cases, almost too horrible to imagine it, the blood of those little babies has to say, “Daddy did this to me. Mommy did this to me. Grandma did this. Doctor So-And-So did this to me. Senator So-And-So, who didn't have the courage to vote against what was so obviously wrong, did this to me. President So-And-So did this to me. The voters who put those men in office did this to me. The citizens who are unconcerned about it all did this to me.” Their blood cries out.

I wonder how many murders would be committed if we could hear blood the way that God hears blood. I wonder if the abortion industry would go on if every time a little baby was aborted, a wailing were raised from the blood of that little infant. I wonder how many people could go on and do it. If you say not many, then your heart is probably as soft as we wish the hearts of all men were. The fact is, in America compassion is lying wounded in the streets, having been shot through the head by convenience and ease and prosperity. In the overwhelming majority of cases when a little baby is killed, it's not because the life of anybody is in danger. It's because having that baby would be inconvenient for someone. It's because having that baby would be a financial burden. It's because having that baby would mean that we couldn't buy the car or we couldn't buy the house or we wouldn't be able to maintain the lifestyle that we've come to expect as our right. Yes, compassion lies wounded in the streets of America, having been shot through the head by ease and convenience and prosperity. But God hears. God hears the outcry.

Now as I've spoken these words this morning, it is not at all unlikely that some of you have had some kind of participation in an abortion. Or maybe some of you have been guilty of acts of homosexuality. Or it may be that something else that I have said this morning is causing you to cry out in your heart now, “O God, have mercy upon me. What am I going to do about the blood that I've shed? What am I going to do about the lives that I have corrupted? What am I going to do about my sin?" Well, if that's what you're saying, then my third point is for you.

Turn in your Bibles to Hebrews 12. In Hebrews 12 we will find yet another outcry, and this one is a cry to bring comfort. Let's begin reading with verse 22. Hebrews 12:22 says, “But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel.” There are a couple of ways of looking at the blood of Abel. It may be that the blood of Able just refers to that sacrifice that Abel shed and that while God was pleased with Abel's sacrifice, God is much more pleased with the sacrifice that Jesus has offered. But another way of looking at it is that the blood of Abel is not the blood of the sacrifice that he offered, but the blood of Abel himself that was shed upon the ground that cried out to God for justice and vengeance. But in contrast to that blood of Abel’s that cried out for vengeance, we have come to a different blood, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ that cries out for forgiveness. And you've come to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things that than of Abel. The blood of Jesus Christ says to God, “This one belongs to Me, Father. I shed this blood. This one has been sprinkled with blood. I shed My blood because He is in my new covenant. I know that his sins are many, but I have taken all his sins upon Me, and I bore them on the cross.” The devil pipes up and says, “What about the sin of homosexuality?” Jesus says, “I died for the sin of homosexuality.” “What about the sin of someone who has committed a murder by aborting little babies?” The blood of Jesus Christ says, “I paid for that sin.” And so now, Satan has to shut his mouth because the blood of Christ is speaking to God for us. With the blood of Jesus Christ sprinkled upon us, who will lay any charge to God's elect? Will the great God of justice? No, He is the God who now is just and yet the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus Christ because God presented Jesus Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through faith in His blood. Well, Jesus Christ who is pure and spotless, can He lay any charge to the elect? Why no, it's Jesus Christ who died, yea more, who is risen, and who is even now seated at the right hand of God the Father. What about the Holy Spirit? Will the Holy Spirit lay any accusation against God's elect? No, it's the Spirit who intercedes for us with groanings that words cannot express.

The blood of Jesus Christ has obtained our redemption. May that fountain of blood be blessed. Blessed be the fountain of blood to a world of sinners revealed. Blessed be that fountain of blood that flows from Emmanuel's veins. Sinners plunged beneath that flood lose all their guilty stains. So if you're burdened with the sin of abortion or with the sin of homosexuality or some other sin that is weighing you down, I point you to Jesus Christ and to His precious blood. It speaks better things than the blood of accusation that may be crying out against you. It can speak louder and more effectively in the ears of God, and if you'll come to Jesus Christ trusting in Him and receiving Him, you will be forgiven.

Other uses require written permission. Contact jimorrick@hotmail.com

Scripture from The Holy Bible, New King James Version. Copyright 1982 by
Thomas Nelson, Inc.