Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit · Sermon No. 2944
“When the morning arose, then the angels urged Lot” Genesis 19:15.
[This sermon was originally titled “Hastening Lot.”]
I WILL not spend even a minute in considering whether these were Divine persons veiled in angelic form, or whether they were actually angels. In either case, I would make the same remark and lead to the same practical result. Let us learn from these angels how to do our work. “Unto the angels has He not put in subjection the world to come, whereof we speak?” As a rule, they are not sent to be the means of saving men. They are not called to be teachers, or preachers, or pastors, but, on this occasion, they were sent to bring Lot out of Sodom—and we may take them as exemplars in our endeavors to win souls for Christ.
How did these angels do their work? Well, first, they went to Lot’s house. They got at Lot himself—and if we want to be the means of saving men, we must, somehow or other, get at them. I have seen the fishermen, in the Scot rivers, stand right down in the water while they are fishing and I believe that is the best way to fish—if we stand right down among you and come to you in your homes—we shall likely be the means of blessing to your souls.
The angels told Lot very distinctly what was going to happen in Sodom. They did not mince the matter, but revealed what its doom was to be. The city was to be destroyed and he must get out of it, or else he also would be destroyed. In like manner, we too must warn men of their danger and we must not at all flinch even if we have to utter words that have a very harsh sound about them, for love does not manifest itself by lying and smooth utterances, but by speaking the truth—even most threatening words, yet mixing sobs with them, predicting most sorrowful judgments in a most sorrowful tone.
After these angels had told Lot the truth about his peril, they were not content with doing that, but began pressing and urging him to flee out of the doomed city—“The angels urged Lot”—and when that urging did not seem to be sufficient to convince him, they laid hands upon him, his wife and his daughters. And if, my Brother, you and I, ourselves saved, wish to be the means of saving others, we must not merely tell them the old, old story, however simply, earnestly and as often we tell it—but we must come to wrestling with them! We must plead with them, we must weep over them and we must make up our minds that if we cannot break their hearts, we will break our own. And if we cannot get them to flee out of Sodom, at any rate it shall not be because we did not labor with all our might to bring them out! Oh, that we might be as clear of the blood of all men as these angels were clear concerning the fate of Lot’s wife! We shall not be able to rescue them all—even the angels did not do that. Lot’s wife was a signal example of a person perishing after the best possible instruction—and Lot’s sons-in-law were examples of how, with some men, the most earnest pleading may only end in mockery! Yes, dear Friend, we cannot wonder if some reject our message when so many rejected the teaching of the Master, Himself! But we must so deliver it that, at any rate, if they do refuse it, the blame shall lie entirely at their own door.
The special point in the angelic ministry, to which I desire to call your attention on this occasion, is the fact that they urged Lot. And I am going to use that fact in two ways. First, I will try to show you, that the righteous need to be urged, for Lot was a righteous man, notwithstanding his imperfections. And, secondly, that sinners—of whom, being in
Sodom, Lot had become a type—sinners especially need earnest urging. We must try not only to preach about these two things, but to do them as the Holy Spirit shall help us.
I. So my first remark is, that EVEN THE RIGHTEOUS NEED TO BE URGED. In what?Well, in almost everything good, for Dr. Watts well said—
“Look how we grovel here below,
Fond of these trifling toys.
Our souls can neither fly nor go
To reach eternal joys.” And old Francis Quarles, in one of his poems, writes—
“When our dull souls direct our thoughts to Thee,
As slow as snails are we!
But at the earth we dart our winged desire—
We burn, we burn like fire.”
Some Christians need quickening even concerning common matters of Christian duty. I used to know a man—he is dead now—who professed to have been converted for 40 years, yet he had never made a profession of his faith in Baptism, though he believed it to be his duty to do so. When I stirred him up a little concerning his neglect, he said to me, “He that believes shall not make haste.” And I replied, “That is a shameful perversion of Scripture! You profess to have been converted for 40 years, yet you have not obeyed your Savior’s command.” I explained to him the meaning of the text which he had so wickedly perverted and then I said to him, “David said, ‘I made haste, and delayed not to keep Your commandments.’ That is a more suitable text for you.” Why, if that good Brother had been baptized that very day on the next morning before breakfast, I do not think he could have been considered guilty of any haste after the long time that he had waited! Some people, when they are young, know that they ought to unite themselves with the Church of God, but they put it off. And when they grow older, they seem confirmed in continuing in a condition which is not a right one for a Christian.