Last time we saw in 18:1-16
that God had visited Abraham in the
form of His pre-incarnate Son, the Lord Jesus, in the company of two
angels. The first purpose of that visit
was to announce the birth of a son to Abraham and Sarah. The second purpose was
to announce the destruction of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, for we are
told that their sin was very grave (18:20).
In 18: 22-33 we find Abraham
interceding with the LORD for the people of these cities, presuming that there
might be innocent people among them. For Abraham, who knows the character of
God very well, it is unthinkable that God should destroy the righteous
alongside the wicked (18:25). In
keeping with His character God promises Abraham that He will not destroy the
city, should He find 10 righteous people in it.
Today we come to that text in which the two angels who we
find initially in the company of the LORD in Chapter 18, will now enter Sodom and
there experience first-hand the wickedness of the entire city. And we
shall see that they will not find 10 righteous persons in that city. The exception will
be Lot and his two daughters. We note that even Lot’s wife and his future sons-
in law will perish in this terrible judgement on the cities of Sodom and
Gomorrah.
I have entitled this message, “Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God”, with apologies to Jonathan Edwards who
preached a sermon with that title based on
a text from Deut. 32:35, on July 8, 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut, with
great effect. This church had been
largely unaffected during the Great Awakening of New England. Edwards was
invited by the pastor of the church to preach to them. Edwards's aim was to
teach his listeners about the horrors of hell, the dangers of sin and the
terrors of being lost. Edwards described the shaky position of those who do not
follow Christ's urgent call to receive His forgiveness. During his preaching
Edwards was interrupted many times by people moaning, even fainting and crying
out, "What shall I do to be
saved?" In fact, God used that sermon on a number of occasions to awaken
the New England community in the American colonies.
We observe then that the two angels appear in Sodom. Lot, sitting in the city gate, invites them
to spend the night in his home, and like Abraham he offers them good hospitality.
They wanted to stay in the town square, presumably to see what was going on in
the city at night. But Lot pressed them
strongly, and we have every reason to believe that Lot knew what might happen to them, if they should stay in
the town square that night. The angels
in the form of men, at his insistence went home with Lot. Then , we read,
that the
men of the city, the men of Sodom,
both young and old, all the people to the last man, surrounded
the house” and they called out to Lot, “Where
are the men… bring them out so that we
may know them…” . That they might know them …intimately. The intention here is clear. These men of
the city wanted to sexually violate these messengers from God. They wanted to ‘sodomize’ them. This
text forces us to
deal with the issue of homosexuality, which together with the entire LGBT movement
has become a critical
concern for many
thoughtful Christians.
Is Homosexuality a sin?
There are a number of biblical texts [1] which
teach plainly that homosexuality
is a sin, along with a string of other moral sins. We will restrict ourselves to one
major OT and one major NT text. In the OT, Leviticus 18:22-24 & 29 deals with a
number of unlawful sexual relations (e.g.
sexual relations with close
relatives, adultery, bestiality) and among them gives a clear warning against homosexual behaviour. "You shall not lie with a male as one
lies with a woman. It is an abomination.” (Lev.18: 22).
In the NT, in Romans 1:18-32,
the apostle Paul speaks about
the fact that fallen mankind is on a constant drive to exchange God
the Creator for created things, ‘exchanging the glory of the
immortal God for images …’ (Rom 1:23). As a result we read that God
gave
mankind up (Rom. 1: 24,26,28) in the lusts of their heart to impurity, and what follows is a long
list of
these impurities, which includes
homosexual acts: “ 26 For this reason God
gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural
relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave
up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another,
men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due
penalty for their error.” (Rom. 1:26,27)
Sexual immorality is one of the chief expressions of man’s
rebellion against God and His design for mankind. Homosexuality is the so called 'cherry on the top' of it all. Homosexuality goes even further against
God’s created order. Robert Gagnon, a leading scholar on
sexuality in Scripture, says that idolatry
and same-sex intercourse equally oppose the designs of the Creator. He sees
several strong connections that link Romans 1 to the creation account in
Genesis 1–2. In his book ‘The Bible and
Homosexual Practice’, Gagnon writes, "Idolatry
and homosexual behavior are in some measure parallel (not just successive)
phenomena since both are presented as wilful suppression of the obvious truth
about God and God's design in the natural world."[2]
Now in our day there is a concerted effort to get us to
accept that homosexuality is in fact a normal way of life, as was the case in Sodom.
Matthew
Vines for instance, is a so called evangelical gay theologian. In an
article in the New York Times (8th June 2014) he engages
in a debate with Caleb Kaltenbach, pastor of Discovery Church in
California, a man who was raised by gay
parents, but who now is a conservative
pastor.
On the Leviticus text he argues that, “ Christ fulfilled the Old Testament law, and the New Testament teaches
that Christians should live under the new covenant rather than the old one.
Consequently, this verse has never applied to Christians. For a man to lie with
a man “as with a woman” violated the patriarchal gender norms of the ancient
world, which is likely why Leviticus prohibited it. But the New Testament casts
a vision of God’s kingdom in which the hierarchy between men and women is
overcome in Christ. So not only is Leviticus’s prohibition inapplicable to
Christians on its own, the rationale behind it doesn’t extend to Christians,
either.” [3] What Vines is basically doing here is saying
that the OT was simply a cultural phenomenon and has nothing to say to modern
Christianity.
And with respect to the Romans passage, Vines says, “Paul is explicit that the same-sex behavior
in this passage is motivated by lust…. Christians should continue to affirm
with Paul that we shouldn’t engage in sexual behavior out of self-seeking
lustfulness… that’s very different than same-sex marriages that are based on
self-giving love…”[4]
Vines is saying that the issue that Paul is addressing here is
not homosexuality per se,
but lustful relationships. He simply brushes aside God’s creation purposes in creating a man and a woman for marriage and re-interprets the issue
on lustful relationships. How is that?
There are many such attempts to confuse Christians who are not used
to careful thinking upon these matters. The
fact is that when homosexuality becomes normative in our society, a profound shift
will have occurred, for it not only challenges the biblical meaning and purpose of marriage, but
it challenges biblical morality altogether. The plain meaning of Scripture in this matter will be questioned. The biblical pulpit will become a
dangerous place , as pastors will be
framed for hate speech, when they in
fact stand up for what God says is right.
The story of
Sodom shows us that such a conditioning of society had
taken place in ancient times. According to the
text all of the men had begun to
endorse this behaviour, and it did not end
with private homosexual relationships, but in a public and very aggressive way. The homosexual agenda progressively conditions society to accept gayness as normative, but few are able to see that this
system will in fact become aggressive (we see this happening in modern societies) and perhaps the most repressive opponent of the Christian faith.
And so we see that the men of Sodom were aggressively prepared
to break the door down to Lot’s house.
However they did not know with whom they had to do. The messengers of God
struck them with blindness (19:11), and that was the beginning of the
judgment on Sodom.
But before they
would destroy that city they needed to evacuate Lot’s family … sons-in law, daughters, and
anyone belonging to Lot’s family in the
city (19:12) ….”Get them out of
here, because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry against this
people has become so great before the
LORD, that he has sent us to destroy it” (vv. 12&13).
Lot’s
behaviour in v. 8 by the way with respect to offering his daughters to the mob, is inexcusable. It
is clear that Lot lived in compromise. He was spiritually asleep. His surroundings had corrupted and confused him. Bad company corrupts good character,
though we have reason to believe that Lot did essentially cling to God’s Word. Weak believers are found at all times in the
world. They know what is right, but they are too weak in their knowledge and
therefore in their willpower to effectively resist what is coming at them. There
is a difference between an Abraham and
Lot. Abraham had to carry Lot many
times!
Sinners in the Hands of
an Angry God
So the wickedness of these cities on the plains from the perspective of where
Abraham lived was well known. There were righteous people that had prayed
concerning this, and their outcry had
come to the Lord’s attention (18:20;
19:13). And God was not reacting in a knee-jerk fashion. God had been
patient with this people for a long time.
We may safely assume that they
had been warned.
We may be certain that Lot would have warned these people, for
how else could Peter write these things
about him in 2 Peter 2:7,8 concerning,
“righteous Lot, greatly distressed
by the sensual conduct of the wicked (for as a righteous man he lived
among them day after day, he was
tormenting his righteous soul over their
lawless deeds that he saw and heard)”.
The two earlier judgments in Genesis were preceded by warnings. Adam
and Eve were warned by God not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and
evil. The people in Noah’s generation
were warned by Noah.[5]
God has given everyone in Sodom a conscience, just like everyone in Windhoek.
The law of God is written upon the hearts of every man and woman and child in
this world (Rom. 2:14,15).
“So Lot went out…” (19:14). Thank God for His Messengers! Without their message of
warning Lot would have perished with the rest. He warned his extended family,
including his prospective sons-in-law, who thought that this is a joke (19:14). And as morning dawns the angels urge Lot, his
wife and 2 daughters (by now the prospective sons- in law are not listening) to hurry out of the city of destruction (19:15).
“But he lingered” (19:16a)! It’s hard to leave people behind that won’t
listen … particularly the members of your own family! “So the men seized him and his wife and his
two daughters by the hand, the LORD being merciful to him, and they brought him
out and set him outside the city “(19:16b).
SINNERS IN THE HANDS OF
A MERCIFUL GOD
The LORD Jesus Christ came to live in this world – our Sodom.
He came to see how men and women behave. The place was so bad that He wept over
it. “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem!” This
world hated him so much that it killed him. But God, who is rich in mercy had designed
that his death was not going to be simply a murder by evil men. God turned this
death into an atoning sacrifice, along with an invitation to pardon the sins of
all who look to Him and believe in Him (Jn.
3:16). The lesson is plain. Flee
from your Sodom. Like Christian in Pilgrim’s Progress, flee from the city of
destruction.
Where do you flee to?
Flee to Jesus.
He is your Way, your Truth,
your Life (Jn. 14:6). By Him alone
you will escape the coming wrath. Remember, that Jesus has warned you about the
coming Judgement (Matt. 24,25). And
remember that the Judgement will be sudden and unexpected.
Many think that this
is a joke! Flee to Jesus! He is the
narrow gate (Matt. 7:13,14), the
door (Jn. 10:7) to your Father who
is in Heaven. Do not hesitate! Do not linger! Do not say, ‘Tomorrow’, because
that day never comes. Today if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
(Hebr. 3:7,15; 4:7).
Otherwise you will be a sinner in the hand of
an angry God.
[1] Key Texts in the Old Testament: Lev. 18:22, 29; 20:13; Gen.19 ; Key
Texts in the New Testament: Rom. 1:26-27;
1 Cor. 6:9; 1 Tim.1:10; Jude 7.
[4]
ibid
[5] Genesis 2:16,17 ; 2 Peter 2:5 tells us Noah was a
preacher of righteousness: “…and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a
preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the
world of the ungodly; Knowing that
Noah was a preacher proclaiming God's truth in some form to the people of his
day and given his godly character, we can assume Noah preached about the
approaching flood and the need to repent. Offering the world such a warning
would be in keeping with God's character, since God typically gives opportunity
for repentance prior to His judgments.
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