(Disclaimer: This transcript is auto-generated and may contain mistakes.)

And I think there's not enough reading of these chapters going on these days as is evidenced by what's going on in politics and just in the world in general and how crazy things have gotten. We need this good reminder. We see what happens here. Obviously a real famous story of Sodom and what happened to Sodom. How God feels about the men of Sodom and the people of Sodom and everything that was going on in that place to the point to where they were beyond redemption. He didn't send his angels into Sodom to save the people. He sent his angels in to bring out Lot who was already saved. The Bible says that he was just, that he was righteous. And he brought him out of that city before he poured out his wrath and rained fire and brimstone utterly destroying and annihilating the city. And that is how God feels about Sodom. And I'll tell you what, God's view of Sodom hasn't changed. Just because we live in a day now that's thousands of years past that event, all of a sudden God doesn't just have this soft spot now in his heart and say, you know what, I actually shouldn't have done that to Sodom. I mean he recorded it in his word. This is how he feels about it. It's very strong. But it hasn't changed. And when you look throughout the Old Testament and the Old Testament laws, many people don't even realize this, but the sin of sodomy, the sin of homosexuality was punishable by the death penalty. That is how egregious, that is how abominable, that is how wicked of a sin that is. Now we live in a day today and you know what, when preachers preach like this they get a lot of hate back for it. Why? One of the reasons is because, even from other Christians. And the reason is because so many people these days now know someone who's a sodomite. Because it's like a cancer that is spread through our society. And people have been so deceived and the devil's been hard at work to get Christians to be tolerant. Let's just tolerate it. Let's just tolerate it. And then it's going to go from tolerance to acceptance. Well now let's just accept this. Let's embrace this. Let's just allow the filth and wickedness and sin into our church and let's just say, you know what, everyone just needs love and there is no judgment of God and everything's just fine. And you know what, just keep on sinning, keep on living a life of wickedness and God's not going to do anything about it. Well you know what, my friends, that's not the God of the Bible. Because God brings judgment. God is a God of love and I'm all for that. And I thank God for His mercies and His long suffering and His kindness and the fact that He loves us so much that He gave His only begotten son to die on the cross and pay for all of our sins. Amen and amen to that. However, that is not the only side of God. God is not one-sided. He is not only a God of love. He has to be and is inherently a God of justice and judgment. There is both. Without, you know, there could be no heaven without hell. You know, there's no, there's no payment for our sins without sin. You know, the law is not just completely dead. Now if you're saved you are not cursed. You're not bound by the curse of the law. You don't have to to worry about the punishment of hell because Christ has paid for your sins. However, that doesn't just give you just permission to go out and just sin willfully. God still wants us to obey His commandments. Now in this story here I want to focus in on the one part here that we see in verse 26 where it says, "...but his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt." As, you know, the angels came into Sodom and they, they, they're pleading with Lot like, look, get your things in order. Get your family together. Get out of here. God is going to destroy this place. And it got to the point to where they're just, they're just not willing to leave. They're just, they're just dragging their feet. They're not, they're not, you know, the angels literally had to take hold on their hands. It says, you know, that they took hold of Lot and his wife and his two daughters and, and had to practically drag them out of the city when it was time to go. They said, no, it's time. God is going to rain fire and brimstone down. You have to go right now. And even when it got to the point to where he's like, you know, you're gonna go into the mountains. You need to go way away from here. He, and he's just like, oh, you know, come on, just let me go here. I'm gonna die if I go there. And this is, you know, well, Lot was a real weak Christian. He was, he was weak in the faith. He was a real worldly Christian, but he was still saved nonetheless. And that's why God still extended his mercy upon him and thanked the Lord for that. But one of the things that they told them as they were leaving the city in verse 17, it says, and it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, escape for thy life, look not behind thee. Neither stay thou in all the plain. Escape to the mountain lest thou be consumed. So one of the commands of the angels, when they bring them out, said, don't look back. That's the title of my sermon this morning, is no turning back. Okay, we need to, we need to take heed to this story. Obviously, you've got the overall aspect of just Sodom and the filth and the wickedness that goes on in Sodom, and that is something that needs to be preached today anyways. But I want to focus more on the people who were delivered, the people who were saved from that physical destruction, and still turned back and still looked back and still had, you know, left their heart in San Francisco, as it were, because that's what happened with Lot's wife. And look what happened to her, dire consequences for her, it says. But his wife looked back from behind him and she became a pillar of salt. She died just instantly. She looked back from behind her to see, just to see, oh man, what's going on in Sodom? Oh, poor Sodom, that city or whatever it is, you know, whatever she was thinking, we don't know what she was thinking, but she was thinking enough to be mindful of what's going on in Sodom.