Genesis 18:23-32
God’s Secret
God has a secret. It’s not a very well kept secret but it is a
secret, and with this secret, you can turn a quick and easy profit.
If I were to tell you that I knew someone, someone in a position to
know what a stock or option was going to do in the next few weeks,
and that someone told me a secret about the market, you would
probably think that to be a good thing. Knowing such a secret could
make a quick and easy profit. Now imagine what you could do with
God’s secret!
So what is God’s secret?
I. God’s secret is that He does not want to harm to any human being.
A. Hear this well.
1. God is a God of love and mercy.
2. It is that truth that I wish to present to you today; yea,
even to prove to you today.
B. Some what ask, "Is there evidence that God is a loving and
merciful God?" The answer is there is.
1. Notice the hesitance of God to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah.
a. Abraham knew God’s secret.
b. \\#23\\ The entire conversation he has with God on
that day hangs on the fact that God does not want to
harm people.
(1) It is NOT like God to destroy the righteous with
the wicked.
(2) By the way, it is the very truth that Abraham
spoke of that makes me believe that Christians
will not go through the tribulation.
c. Notice how "easy" it was for Abraham to talk God down
on destroying ANYBODY.
(1) Abraham started asking if God would spare the
righteous then moved to a smaller and smaller
number of righteous!
(2) 50, 45, 40, 30, 20, 10?
(3) This was in a city that was given to wicked sin,
homosexuality, a sin that God calls abominable.
(4) This was in a city where decency and perhaps
human life were of little value \\#Ge 19:8\\.
(5) This was in a city where God’s Word and thoughts
were apparently unwelcome \\#Ge 19:9\\.
(6) This was in a city where men were so given over
to their evil pleasures that they would not be
stopped no matter what \\#Ge 19:11\\.
(7) Judgment was God’s last resort in dealing with
this city because He is so merciful!
(8) I am not certain we understand the spirit of God
any better than James and John did.
Luke 9:51 And it came to pass, when the time
was come that he should be received up, he
stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem,
52 And sent messengers before his face: and they
went, and entered into a village of the
Samaritans, to make ready for him.
53 And they did not receive him, because his
face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.
54 And when his disciples James and John saw
this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command
fire to come down from heaven, and consume them,
even as Elias did?
55 But he turned, and rebuked them, and said,
Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.
56 For the Son of man is not come to destroy
men’s lives, but to save them. And they went
to another village.
(a) God is not interested in destroying the
homosexuals but in saving them!
(b) Perhaps if the church (and I mean to include
myself in that number) had understood that
truth, we would have had a better
opportunity to win them to Christ.
2. \\#Ge 19:16\\ To see other evidence of God’s mercy, notice
that even though the Lord could not find 10 righteous in
Sodom, He was still merciful to the righteous He found!
a. I use that term "righteous" in its loosest terms.
b. Lot and his family, although saved, had moved into the
town of Sodom.
c. I don’t think Lot ever approved of that lifestyle for
the town was quick to judge him, but I think he was
slow to condemn the lifestyle for his family followed
the town into a compromising life.
d. Yet, God spared all who would leave the time in
obedience.
e. Why? Because God does not want to judge!
3. Yet again, look at why Jonah refused to go to Nineveh.
Jonah 3:10 And God saw their works, that they
turned from their evil way; and God repented of
the evil, that he had said that he would do unto
them; and he did it not.
Jonah 4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly,
and he was very angry.
2 And he prayed unto the LORD, and said, I pray
thee, O LORD, was not this my saying, when I was
yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto
Tarshish: for I knew that thou art a gracious
God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great
kindness, and repentest thee of the evil.
a. Jonah made it clear. He did not want to go to Nineveh
because He knew God in His mercy would forgive them!
b. Jonah was a righteous prophet with a history of
serving God.
(1) Jonah did know God’s mercy for he had seen it
given to Israel, time and again.
(2) Jonah also knew that God would punish willful
disobedience for he had also seen that.
(3) Yet, he chose the wrath of God upon himself, even
death, rather than to even go to Nineveh to
preach.
(4) Why?
(a) Because Jonah knew just how merciful God
was.
(b) He knew if only a few of Ninevites made an
honest effort to turn to God, God was
likely to forgive the whole city!
(c) And he was right! God TOLD Jonah that He
wanted to be merciful to Nineveh.
Jonah 4:9 And God said to Jonah, Doest thou well
to be angry for the gourd? And he said, I do well
to be angry, even unto death.
10 Then said the LORD, Thou hast had pity on the
gourd, for the which thou hast not laboured,
neither madest it grow; which came up in a night,
and perished in a night:
11 And should not I spare Nineveh, that great
city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand
persons that cannot discern between their right
hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?
4. Need more evidence. Look at Peter’s understanding of
God’s mercy.
2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his
promise, as some men count slackness; but is
longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any
should perish, but that all should come to
repentance.
a. Peter confirms my opinion (or rather, I am agreeing
with him!)
b. Peter is discussing the very reason why the Lord does
not fulfill His promise to come and to judge.
c. And Peter nailed it. God is just too mercy to come
to quickly. He does not want to perish. God wants
everyone to come to Him!
II. Understanding this characteristic of God explains God’s
hesitance to keep His promises.
A. We have many, many promises of Jesus return.
Joh 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again, and receive you unto myself;
that where I am, there ye may be also.
1Th 4:16 For the Lord himself shall descend from
heaven with a shout, with the voice of the
archangel, and with the trump of God: and the
dead in Christ shall rise first:
1Th 5:2 For yourselves know perfectly that the
day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the
night.
3 For when they shall say, Peace and safety;
then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as
travail upon a woman with child; and they shall
not escape.
1. But He has not come! Now why is that?
2. The answer is God’s secret. When Jesus comes, it will
seal the fate of the whole world!
B. Again, there are so many promises from God that He will judge
sin.
Eze 18:20 The soul that sinneth, it shall die.
Ecc 12:14 For God shall bring every work into
judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be
good, or whether it be evil.
Mt 25:41 Then shall he say also unto them on the
left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into
everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his
angels:
Ac 17:31 Because he hath appointed a day, in the
which he will judge the world in righteousness by
that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath
given assurance unto all men, in that he hath
raised him from the dead.
1. Why hasn’t God executed His judgment, especially with all
of the evil that is going on today?
2. Again, I believe the answer is because God does not want
to harm any human being!
C. All of this is called MERCY.
1. Mercy is God delaying, for as long as possible, the
judgments due to sinners.
2. From the first, God has delayed.
a. It started in the Garden of Eden. God knew Adam and
Eve sinned as they were doing it, but He delayed
coming until after they had time to sew themselves
some clothes! Hours must have passed!
b. When the world was so evil that God knew the whole
thing would have to be destroyed, He delayed 120
years so Noah could preach a message of salvation.
c. God knew that the children of Israel would have to be
judged but He waited hundreds of years before He
turned them over to their enemies.
d. And Jesus has been wanting to collect His bride for
2,000 years yet the Father still says, "Wait."
3. Why? MERCY! God does not want to harm any human being.
D. Don’t misunderstand.
1. God being a merciful God will not stop Him from keeping
His promise to come and to judge.
a. He will.
b. \\#Ge 19:24\\ It rained fire out of heaven!
2. God being a merciful God will not stop him from keeping
His promise to damn the lost.
3. God is just giving as many as possible as many
opportunities as possible.
III. So what does this mean? If God does not want to judge, what
should we do?
A. We know God’s secret. He does not want to harm any human.
1. I think we should exploit it.
2. I am serious. God is a merciful God and you should take
advantage of it.
3. The Bible tells us some of the areas that we might
exploit God’s grace.
B. Man ought to exploit God’s mercy in the area of salvation.
Psalm 85:7 Shew us thy mercy, O LORD, and grant
us thy salvation.
Psalm 109:26 Help me, O LORD my God: O save me
according to thy mercy:
1. In 1741, Jonathan Edwards preached a sermon, "Sinners in
the Hands of Angry God."
2. In that message, the preacher used… as his text.
Deut 32:35 …their foot shall slide in due time:
for the day of their calamity is at hand….
a. We are always exposed to destruction, like a foot on
an icy surface.
b. That destruction will come suddenly, without
expectation.
c. That destruction will come of itself. God does not
need to aid it or hasten it. We are sinners
condemned already.
d. The only things which holds the destruction back is
God’s mercy.
3. Understand, God’s mercy is the only thing that is keeping
the wages of sin off of us.
a. If you are lost, you are hanging by the thread of
God’s mercy.
b. It is a solid as iron for as long as God let’s it
abide, but you have no promise of it abiding for
even a second more.
c. WHEN (not if) God withdraws His mercy, you will fall
headlong into the cauldron of His wrath and justice.
C. We ought to exploit God’s mercy in the area of revival.
Ezra 9:9 For we were bondmen; yet our God hath
not forsaken us in our bondage, but hath extended
mercy unto us in the sight of the kings of
Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the
house of our God, and to repair the desolations
thereof, and to give us a wall in Judah and in
Jerusalem.
1. Consider this. There is almost nothing that God will not
do to keep from having to judge a Christian!
2. Backslidden Christian, what might God do?
a. He might forgive any sin in your past.
(1) God would forgive any failure.
(2) God would restore any quitter.
(3) God would remove any past.
(4) These are just some of the extremes God would go
through to keep from having to judge us.
b. He might lend you His power to overcome any sinful
behavior.
3. Armed with this truth, we begin to see the reasoning
behind many of God’s most amazing Bible verses.
Ps 103:3 Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who
healeth all thy diseases;
Eze 18:22 All his transgressions that he hath
committed, they shall not be mentioned unto him:
in his righteousness that he hath done he shall
live.
Mr 3:28 Verily I say unto you, All sins shall
be forgiven unto the sons of men, and blasphemies
wherewith soever they shall blaspheme:
D. We ought to exploit God’s mercy in the area of help in
trouble.
Psalm 25:16 Turn thee unto me, and have mercy
upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted.
17 The troubles of my heart are enlarged: O
bring thou me out of my distresses.
1. Problems tend to lead to bad behavior, that is sin.
a. When we have problems, humans tend to behave in sinful
ways.
b. Hence, it stands to reason that God would want to help
us with any problems we have rather than leave us in
trouble—even a problem we created for ourselves.
Ps 91:15 He shall call upon me, and I will
answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will
deliver him, and honour him.
Ps 138:7 Though I walk in the midst of trouble,
thou wilt revive me: thou shalt stretch forth
thine hand against the wrath of mine enemies, and
thy right hand shall save me.
Isa 41:10 Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be
not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen
thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold
thee with the right hand of my righteousness.
c. I am not saying that we will have no problems.
d. But I am saying, if God does not want to judge us,
then He does not want us to fail and He will do what-
ever is necessary to see that we do not.
2. Again, that explains God’s willingness to lend us His
great power to help us in our temptations.
1Cor 10:13 There hath no temptation taken you
but such as is common to man: but God is
faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted
above that ye are able; but will with the
temptation also make a way to escape, that ye
may be able to bear it.
Luke 22:31 And the Lord said, Simon, Simon,
behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that
he may sift you as wheat:
32 But I have prayed for thee, that thy faith
fail not: and when thou art converted,
strengthen thy brethren.
I do not want to be carnal in my presentation this morning, but I do
want to point out that God’s dislike for judging us is a great
benefit to everyone of us! It guarantees us help, forgiveness,
restoration, solace, acceptance—in short, MERCY.
A person would be foolish not to avail himself of the benefits of
this secret. It all hinges on you knowing the truth and then taking
advantage of it. This morning, come to mercy of God.
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