This Sunday evening at the Trinity
Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey. We come this evening in our study
of the Word of God to a third consideration of a series of
studies which I have entitled, Missing Notes in Contemporary
Gospel Preaching. In the light of the Apostle Paul's
statement in Romans 1 and verse 16 in which we are told that
the gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that
believes, it must be of the utmost concern to us to make sure that
we properly understand that gospel which alone is the power of God
unto salvation. We have demonstrated from the
Scriptures that any distortion of that gospel, any additions
to that gospel, any subtractions from that gospel are ruinous
to the souls of men. Now the first of these several
missing notes that eventually we shall consider together, the
note that we have concentrated upon for the past two Lord's
Days and now again this evening, is the somber awesome note of
the wrath of Almighty God. In taking up this awesome theme,
we consider together the prominence of the wrath of God in New Testament
teaching and preaching. And my purpose for taking up
this theme in the New Testament was clearly set before you, and
I'll not go over that ground again. simply to underscore that
we saw in our study of the message of John the Baptist, the message
of our Lord, the message of the apostolic writers, and in the
book of the Revelation, that the note of the wrath of God
is a prominent note throughout the entirety of New Testament
teaching and preaching. Now having established the prominence
of this biblical theme in New Testament teaching and preaching,
the broad area that I wish to set before you tonight is some
powerful illustrations and demonstrations of the wrath of God in Old Testament
history. So you see what we're doing.
We're tying together both Testaments the doctrine established from
the explicit teaching of the New Testament, and now the doctrine
illustrated from some of the vivid demonstrations of the wrath
of God in Old Testament history. Now you may ask the question,
what warrant do I have for taking such a method? And my answer
is, I have the warrant of Scripture itself. For example, our Lord
Jesus Christ, in speaking of the consummate manifestation
of the wrath of God at His own second coming, draws a direct
line from the wrath of God manifested in the second coming of Christ
to the wrath of God manifested in that great Old Testament event
of the flood. And we read in the words of our
Lord Jesus in Matthew 24 in verse 38, For as in the days that were
before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving
in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and
they knew not until the flood came and took them all away,
so shall the coming of the Son of Man be. And here you see our
Lord drawing a line from the consummate manifestation of the
wrath of God at the second coming back to this Old Testament incident. Furthermore, in a parallel passage
in Luke 17, He draws a line from the present to another very significant
manifestation of the wrath of God in the Old Testament when
He says, Remember Lot's wife. and he indicates that the whole
incident in conjunction with the destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah, a singular manifestation of the wrath of God, has current
and present relevance to those addressed by our Lord in the
days of His flesh. Furthermore, we have such explicit
teaching as is given in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. The Apostle is outlined
some specific events of Old Testament history. Events primarily connected
with the wilderness wanderings of the children of Israel. And
then he gives us this very clear statement concerning the purpose
for which that Old Testament history is recorded in Scripture. 1 Corinthians 10 and verse 11.
Now these things happen. In other words, this history
occurred. These things happened unto them
by way of example, now notice, and they were written not for
our information alone, that we might be knowledgeable in the
events of an ancient people wandering in a wilderness. He says, no,
they were written for our admonition. upon whom the ends of the ages
are come." In other words, that history is recorded in order
that it might have practical, moral, and ethical bite upon
us in this present age. And so, having established the
doctrine of the wrath of God from the New Testament, it is
proper to use the Old Testament historical incidents to illustrate
and demonstrate that wrath, because Scripture itself takes this method. Now then, you might ask a second
question, why does Scripture take this method? Is it arbitrary?
And the answer is no. The reason why Scripture takes
this method is simply this. The God of the Old Testament
is the God of the New, and the God of the New is the God of
the Old. God can say of Himself, I am
the Lord, I change not. And as the moral governor of
His universe, the foundations of whose throne are justice and
holiness, This God does not change in the administration of His
justice. Because He is the one changeless
God in both Testaments, it is right that the manifestation
of this attribute of His wrath should not only be clearly established
in the Old and New Testaments, but vividly illustrated as well. Now, with that brief introduction
to what I propose to do and why I have chosen this method, as
time permits, I want to direct your attention to four singular
manifestations of the wrath of God in Old Testament history. And I have chosen these four
because in two critical passages in the New Testament, these four
events are underscored as constituting singular and striking manifestations
of the wrath of God. Now, the two key passages to
which I make reference are 2 Peter chapter 2 and the some of the
introductory words or first verses of the book of Jude, 2 Peter
chapter 2. The apostle begins this chapter
by announcing that false teachers shall arise, teaching destructive
things, But he wants to encourage the people of God that God will
deal with these false teachers in judgment while preserving
his own people in the midst of their evil influence. And so
he reaches back into Old Testament history to demonstrate the truth
that he articulates in verse 9, the Lord knows how to deliver
the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under
punishment unto the day of judgment. Now in the conclusion of verse
9, the apostle has been building up his case starting with verse
4. If God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down
to hell, and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah, and
turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemn
them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those
that should live ungodly and delivered righteous lot, the
Lord knows how to deliver the godly and punish the ungodly. So here are three singular manifestations
of the wrath of God. Sparing not the angels, sparing
not the ancient world in the days of the flood, and bringing
judgment upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Now in a parallel
passage in Jude, we find one of these items omitted, but another
one included. Jude and verse 5. Now I desire
to put you in remembrance, though ye know all things once for all,
that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward
destroyed them that believe not. And then in verse 6 he mentions
the angels who came under the judgment and wrath of God. Verse
7 he mentions Sodom and Gomorrah. So putting together then the
data of 2 Peter 2 and these few verses in Jude, we have these
four singular manifestations of the wrath of God in Old Testament
history, the first one, in a sense, being pre-Old Testament history. Consider them with me in their
chronological order. First of all, then, God's wrath
upon fallen angels. Now you may have a hundred questions
about where did Peter and Jude get their information? How can
angels be said to be kept in chains and yet be active as evil
spirits? Well, I too could ask probably
a hundred and three questions. But enough information is given
by the inspiration of the Spirit to underscore the great intention
of Peter and of Jude. And that great intention is to
illustrate the certainty of the wrath of God. And the first great
illustration of that wrath is the wrath that fell upon fallen
angels. Now what are we told about the
activity of these angels? Peter tells us in 2 Peter chapter
2, that God spared not angels when they sinned. And that's all Peter tells us,
that there are angels who sinned. They missed the mark of the revealed
will of God for them. Jude gives us information that
points in the direction of the nature of their sin. I ask you
to turn with me now to Jude, verse 6. and angels that kept
not their own principality or their own appointed rank, but
left their proper habitation, he hath kept in everlasting bonds."
Two things are told us about the angels. Peter tells us they
sinned. Jude says they kept not their
own principality, but left their proper habitation. Now in response
to their activity of sinning and keeping not their own appointed
rank, what did God do? Peter tells us God did not spare
them. Jude and Peter tell us that God
cast them into a state of bondage and finally that God is preserving
them for the day of judgment. Now, what are the great principles
concerning the wrath of God as illustrated in this inspired
account of God's wrath upon fallen angels? Well, surely there are
two great principles of the wrath of God vividly illustrated in
the case of these angels. The first principle is this.
No creature However, high in created dignity, privilege, and
glory is exempt from the wrath of God if that creature rebels
against God. What creatures could be higher
in created dignity, privilege, and glory than angels? Angels
who are created directly by God who stand in the immediate presence
of God, who are able to bear the sight of the undimmed manifestation
of the glory of God, what could be a position of greater glory,
of greater privilege and greater dignity? And yet the text says,
the angels that sinned, God cast them down. God is preserving
them until the day of judgment. Here are created beings who did
not share in the sin of the first man, Adam. Created beings that
knew nothing of inbred sin from the moment of their being brought
into existence, and yet when they sin, The Scripture says
that the wrath of Almighty God, burned against them by an immediate
act of casting them down into chains of darkness and a prospective
act, He is preserving them until the day of judgment. And surely
the great principle of the wrath of God in its operation that
is manifested in this wrath directed to fallen angels is that no creature,
however high in created dignity, privilege, and glory, is exempt
from the wrath of God if that creature rebels against the God
that made him. But then there is a second and
even more sobering principle in the administration of divine
wrath, illustrated in the case of the fallen angels, and it
is this. Any creature that sins against
God, forfeits all claims to anything from God but the pure, unmixed
wrath of God. Do you see the principle? Any
creature that sins against God forfeits any claim to anything
from God but the wrath of God. These passages clearly indicate
that the angels that sinned are being preserved unto the judgment
of the great day. That's the language of Jews.
They are reserved not unto a period of forbearance, in which a provision
and a bona fide offer of mercy will be made to them, as is the
case with mankind. The scripture says that the long
suffering of God is salvation for mankind. The time that waits
until the consummation when our Lord will return, that is a period
of divine forbearance. A period that Peter says is stamped
with the offers of mercy to sinful men, but no provision nor offer
of mercy is made for fallen angels. And whatever may be the manifold
purposes of God in this, surely this is stamped upon the face
of it. If angels who stand nearest to God and see most of the glory
of God and enter into the privileges of that relationship, if once
they sin, they come under the wrath of God in a fixed state
where no provision or offer of mercy is made, who among all
the other creatures of God can say, God owes me something once
I have sinned against My friend, God owes nothing to you or to
me but everlasting perdition and damnation. God does not owe
the world a Savior. God does not owe the world an
offer of mercy. There is one thing He owes the
world, and that's judgment and perdition, even as in His dealing
with the fallen angels. I am absolutely convinced that
one of the reasons why there is so little real awesome appreciation
of the grace and mercy of God is the subtle, often unspoken
conviction amongst many, even of God's people, that somehow,
since we were not there to cast a vote in Eden, and we didn't
get ourselves in this mess in the first place, but Adam did,
God's got to do something in the way of a provision and an
offer of mercy to get Himself off the hook. My friend, God
need do nothing to get Himself off the hook. God could have
consigned the entire rebel human race to hell and vindicated his
pure and righteous judgment, and no finger of accusation could
be raised against him. You and I should learn from this
incident of the wrath of God upon the fallen angels those
two great principles. Do you have the silly notion,
since we're God's special creatures made in the image of God, we
have a dignity and a privilege and a glory above the beast of
the earth? Surely God would never consign
any such creature of such dignity and glory to a place of everlasting
perdition. Is that so? If he takes angels
and cast them down to chains of darkness and reserves them
until the judgment of the great day. Almighty God can justly
do the same with any of his other creatures. But now I hasten on
to take the second profound illustration of the wrath of God in the Old
Testament, and it's the wrath of God upon the ancient world,
to use the language of Scripture. Notice 2 Peter 2 and verse 5. God spared not the ancient world,
but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness,
when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Now
I want you to notice the emphasis in the contrast. God spared not
the ancient world, the inhabited earth, preserved only Noah and
seven others. The entire human race, minus
eight, came under the wrath of Almighty God when God brought
a flood upon the world of the ungodly. Turning to 1 Peter chapter
3 and verse 20, there is this additional information given
to us. and breaking into the flow of
thought, because it is not important for us to catch it for our purposes,
that aforetime were disobedient, referring to a certain people,
when the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while
the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls, were
saved through water. Now you see the emphasis falls
again upon the fact that of the entirety of the human race in
the days of Noah, only eight of the multitudes living in that
generation were spared the wrath of God that utterly inundated
the world. Now obviously this is a reference
to the details given to us in the book of Genesis, and I want
you to turn to that section for just a few moments, Genesis chapter
6, and a few verses out of Genesis chapter 7. What was it that drew
forth such a frightening judgment from God? A judgment that brought
down upon the heads of all living creatures but eight, and then
those animals in the ark, this frightening manifestation of
divine wrath? Well, we get some of the answer
beginning with verse 5 of Genesis chapter 6. And the Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that
he had made man in the earth, and it grieved him at his heart,
And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from
the face of the ground, both man and beast and creeping things
and birds of the heaven, for it repenteth me that I have made
them. But Noah found favor in the eyes
of the Lord. Now verses 11 through 13. And the earth was corrupt before
God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the
earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their
way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end
of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is filled with
violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the
earth." Now you see the gathering bits of information. Verse 5
says, the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great. And then, as
it were, God goes into the microcosm of each heart and says that wickedness
was to be found in this. The first springs of the thoughts
of the heart, the imagination of the thoughts. was only evil,
and that continually. He saw men's hearts given over
totally to evil intentions and evil imaginations and purposes,
so much so that God is pained as he sees, as it were, nothing
left of his image in man. Much of that image preserved
in common grace has even been defaced, and men upon the earth
become, as it were, living embodiments of the devil himself. evil continually
from the very springs of the first motions of their hearts. Then outwardly, the emphasis
falls upon the fact that this manifested itself in man turning
against man. And you see, those two things
always go together, because man is made in the image of God.
When man turns away from God and from any desire to reflect
that image, he will manifest it in violence to his fellow
man who are made in God's image. And so it is not surprising to
read that violence was the crowning sin that is underscored in the
verses that I read in your hearing until God says, I will blot out
that entire generation, man and beast and birds as well. And
then God followed through on that intention in chapter 7,
beginning with verse 17. We have the sobering account
of what God did. And the flood was forty days
upon the earth, and the waters increased and bare up the ark,
and it was lifted above the earth. And the waters prevailed and
increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark went upon the face
of the waters. The waters prevailed exceedingly
upon the earth, and all the high mountains that were under the
whole heaven were covered. Then there is a description of
the height, verse 21, in all flesh died that moved upon the
earth. both birds and cattle and beasts
and every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth, and every
man, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the Spirit of Life,
of all that was on the dry land died, and every living thing
was destroyed that was upon the face of the ground, both man
and cattle and creeping things and birds of the heavens, and
they were destroyed from the earth. And Noah only was left
and they that were with him in the ark. Eight people spared. Amongst what was probably millions
of people upon the face of the earth, God blotted them all out. The creatures concerning whom
the biblical writer tells us God beheld the work of His hands,
and behold, it was all good. Now God takes that entire creation
and, as it were, obliterates it under the waters of the flood. He does so with a generation
given over to all the forms of inward and outward sin and violence. And then our Lord adds a master
stroke describing that generation, something that we would not gather
explicitly from the narrative in Genesis. And he says this,
as in the days of Noah, they were eating, drinking, marrying,
giving, giving in marriage, and knew not until the flood came.
In the midst of this abounding wickedness, there was an attitude
of business as usual, eating and drinking legitimate necessary
physical activities, marrying and giving in marriage, legitimate
expressions of the social order instituted by God. But surely,
looking on every hand at the disintegration of society, man
turning against his brother, surely it should have been a
call at least to reflect upon that which God had revealed to
Noah, that his spirit would not always strive with man. And the
intimation of 1 Peter 3.20 is that this was a period of appointed
long-suffering given to that very generation while Noah prepares
the ark. Though we dare not let our imaginations
run away and draw out pictures as evangelists have often done,
describing how people may have mocked and taunted Noah, this
much is clear. They could have cared less. about
the gross manifestations of their sin that were paining God's heart
and provoking His wrath, and gathering up, as it were, the
billows and clouds of that wrath that would burst from above,
break up from beneath, until every living thing was destroyed
except Noah, his family, and the animals within the ark. Now, I have not used imagination.
I've not drawn out pictures in detail of screaming children
and all the rest, but no doubt all of that detail was present
when the floodwaters arose. And no one could find comfort
because a bumper sticker was plastered on the side of the
ark. Smile! God loves you! While the waters
come down from above, While the great deeds are broken up from
beneath? While little children cling to
mums and dads in the screeching and the howling? Smile, God loves
you? No! Almighty God was incensed,
His anger burned, and His flood came, and a generation was obliterated. Now, those are facts. and the
fossil records bear witness to that. Now what are we to learn
about the wrath of God from this? Why does Peter, why does Jude
bring forward this incident as a vivid illustration of divine
wrath? Let me suggest at least two principles
again that are there on the surface of the narrative. Concerning
the principles of the operations of God's wrath, understand from
this incident of His wrath upon the ancient world, no sinful
creature, however much in the majority, will be exempt from
the wrath of God. No sinful creature, no matter
how much in the majority, will be exempt from the wrath of God. Some of you are being lulled
to sleep with the mentality, ah surely, not that many people
can be wrong. Surely those who share my views
about a flexible morality and an equally flexible religion,
a morality in which I need not take seriously the Ten Commandments,
a religion in which I need not take seriously what the Bible
teaches about the necessity of a new birth, the necessity of
being cleansed in the blood of Christ, being given a new record
and a new nature, Surely, since the majority of modern men and
women do not take these things seriously, we cannot all be wrong. Is that so? My friend, gaze upon the rising
floodwaters. The text of Scripture says God
destroyed the ancient world. The majority? More than a majority. It was virtually a destruction
of the entirety of the race, except Noah and seven with him. You kids, when you go to school
and you're the only one in your class that thinks it's not smart
to say dirty words, you're the only one that thinks it's right
to respect the teacher and obey mom and dad. And all the kids
say, ah, don't, you don't believe that old fuddy-duddy stuff that
God hears what you say and God will punish you for bad words
and a dirty mouth and a sassy attitude. Oh, you children remember
the flood? Even children who rebelled against
Almighty God and accepted the majority morals and the majority
the religion of the day, they were inundated in the wrath of
Almighty God, along with hardened adults and old sinners as well. And if you sit here or you're
within the sound of my voice tonight, comfortable and at ease
because you're part of the majority who have flexible morality and
cheap religion, Hear the word of God from God's wrath manifested
in the flood. No sinful creature, however much
in the majority, will be exempt from the wrath of God. But then
the second great principle of the administration of divine
wrath in this incident is this. No sinful creature, however indifferent
to the wrath of God, will be exempt from its reality. No sinful
creature, however indifferent to the wrath of God, will be
exempt from its reality. You see, the mark of that generation
was this. It had conned itself into total
indifference in the face of certain judgment. The text indicates that Noah
was a preacher of righteousness, he is called in another place.
The long suffering of God was waiting in the days of Noah.
Noah is preaching, seeking to get a hook in the conscience
of his generation, but the hooks were gone. It was a generation
of a seared conscience that felt the more smug it became in its
sin, the more certain it was to avoid the judgment of God.
when all the while its smugness merely ripened it for the most
frightening manifestation of divine judgment prior to the
second coming of Christ. My friend, my dear young person,
some of you who heard the word and felt the arrows of God this
morning, may I press them deeper into your heart tonight. Don't
pride yourself that you can now listen to searching sermons and
get to sleep in five minutes where once it took you half an
hour. Don't be proud of the fact that you can hear the warnings
about judgment now and pass them off lightly. How I thank God
for the terrors of hell that were held over me all through
my younger years. I can never remember a time when
I did not live in the dread of hell. And I should have, because
I was an unconverted, impenitent sinner until nearly my eighteenth
year. and how I blessed God that He
would not give me over to a hardened conscience, or how I tried when
I saw my companions in sin, sinning with a high hand and with delight
and with great abandonment, being able to drop off to sleep as
though someone had shot them through the head. Why should
I have to toss and turn and struggle with thoughts of eternity and
judgment and hell until at times I felt my mind would burst? How
I thank God he didn't give me up to a hardened conscience. My friend, no sinful creature,
however indifferent to the wrath of God, will be exempt from the
reality of that wrath. And if you think because you
have been able to con yourself into a position where you no
longer fear the wrath of God, therefore your con job has obliterated
the wrath of God, you remember the flood. They ate, they drank,
they married, they gave in marriage, business as usual. Let Noah do
his own thing. Oh, we have no desire to impose
our way on him, but turnabout's fair play. Why should he impose
his way upon us? But you see, the issue was not
Noah's way, it was Almighty God's way. Noah was the mouthpiece
of God. And I preach tonight not to press
you into my way or our way, but into the way of this book, the
way of repentance, the way of faith, the way of giving yourself
up to Jesus Christ and the rule and government of His word and
His crown. My dear friend, the fact that
you don't fear the judgment of God will not exempt you any more
than that generation was exempted, though the flood caught them
unafraid. But now I must hasten on to that
third classic, frightening, awesome, singular manifestation of divine
wrath. It has peculiarities shared by
no other manifestation of the wrath of God in the Old Testament,
and that's the wrath of God upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities
of the plagues. There were two or three others,
four or five cities in all. Now look at the text, 2 Peter
chapter 2. verses 6 and 7. God is the subject of the sentence,
and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned
them with an overthrow, having made them an example unto those
that should live ungodly. and delivered righteous lot,
sore distressed by the lascivious life of the wicked. Now notice
what is said about Sodom. Sodom was a city of ungodly people,
making them an example unto those that should live ungodly They
were marked by a lifestyle described in verse 7 by the word lasciviousness
or lascivious, which means in ordinary twentieth century English,
total abandonment of sensuality and lust. That's a lascivious
person. Now turn over to Jude and notice
what Jude says about Sodom and Gomorrah, verse 7. even as Sodom
and Gomorrah and the cities about them, that's why we say Sodom
and Gomorrah and the cities of the plains, having in like manner
with these given themselves over to fornication and gone after
strange flesh, are set forth as an example, suffering the
punishment of eternal fire. Now, bringing the witness of
Peter and Jude together, what do we have? Peter says that they
are set forth as an example to those that should live ungodly. that is, a life of abandonment
to lust and sensuality, whereas Jude expands and gives us more
sordid detail when he says that they gave themselves over to
pornea, sexual impurity of every kind, and then he adds this masterstroke,
and gone after strange flesh. And here he is summing up what
is recorded in its ugly details in Genesis 18, and I'll not read
it in a public gathering. It's hardly fit consumption for
even the most private reflections. But it's the Word of God dealing
with the realism of human depravity and the wrath of God that comes
upon men in their depravity. And I'll simply summarize the
incidents. When two angels come to the place
of Lot's dwelling, the men of the city see these handsome strangers,
and they burn in their lust towards them. They weren't gays. I'll not use that euphemism.
They were perverts. who, in the language of Romans,
one leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust
one to another, and so burnt out were they in their distorted,
perverted passions, having turned away from the natural use of
the woman in a monogamous one-to-one, man-to-wife relationship, Having
burnt, as it were, all the wires of sensuous pleasure in fornication
and adultery, they sought their new highs in homosexual and lesbian
relationships. And having burnt all their circuits
there, they see two handsome strangers come and say, perhaps
a night with them will give us a new high. That is how beast
they had become. that they lust after angels,
and locked in his weakened spiritual state, does something no father
would do. He would sooner shed his blood
than do it. He offers his two daughters to
be their playthings for the night. And they're so base that they
don't even want the two virgin daughters. And it isn't until
the angels put forth their supernatural power to blind them that the
men are preserved. And for that sin, you know what
God did? God did something He had never done, never did before.
The Bible tells us of the imagery of hell, that it is a lake of
fire and of brimstone. And the scripture tells us God
rained down from heaven fire and brimstone. God sent hell
out of heaven upon the cities of the plains. Why? Because they
had utterly abandoned themselves to a lascivious life, they had
abandoned themselves to every base form of sensuality, until
God says, I want them to be a monument of the eternal fire that will
come. To all who think that their sexual
nerve endings are their own property to do with as they please, and
violate the strong dictates of conscience and the clearer dictates
of the Word of God, and think that their bodies are their own
to do with as they please, I'll show them. I'll turn their bodies
into clinkers. I'll turn their bodies into clinkers. Fire and pinstone fell out of
heaven and consumed the cities of the plagues. And again, our
Lord adds a master stroke in Luke 17. And here's the stroke
so similar to that which he did with regard to the days of Noah.
Listen to his words in Luke 17. This, again, is what makes this
incident such a frightening incident. Luke 17 in verse 28. Likewise, even as it came to
pass in the days of Lot, they ate, they drank, they bought,
they sold, they planted, they builded. But in the day that
Lot went out from Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven
and destroyed them all. In the midst of all of that sensuality,
there was no shock. There was no humiliation. There
was no reflection. It was business as usual. Now, do you see the great principle? Do I need to articulate it? What
is God teaching us in a special way through this singular manifestation
of His wrath? Here it is. None who abandon
themselves to sensuality can escape the wrath of God. None who abandon themselves to
sensuality can escape the wrath of God. They are set forth as
a pattern of those who will live ungodly, Peter says. They are
set forth as a pattern of what God will do with lascivious men
and women. They are set forth in the language
of Jude to show the suffering of eternal fire that awaits the
sensuous who give themselves over to continued sensuality
in a state of impenitence. What can one say in the light
of this principle as he reflects upon this generation? A generation
that will be marked as the first one in the so-called civilized
Western world to boast of its basest forms of sensuality. Up until this generation, perverts
and queers were filled with shame. were looked upon with horror
and were even judged by the civil courts. And along comes this
generation and says, look, these things have always occurred.
Let's be up front with them. Since they always occurred, why
brush them under the rug? Listen, it is bad enough to sin,
but to sin without shame is to come under an intensified judgment
of God. God says of Israel in Jeremiah
3, 3, you refuse to be ashamed. You have the forehead of a harlot. And when national athletic figures
can go on national television and look straight into a camera
and admit to being lesbians, and there is no shame. God have
mercy on this generation. And someone says, oh, you've
got homophobia. You bet your boots I've got homophobia,
because for those sins, God's judgment is upon our land, and
I'm a part of this land. The tragedy is enough to make
angels weep, if angels do weep, that we have people who have
the name Christian and Christian teachers and preachers who say
that the reason God judged Sodom was not for the abounding sensuality
expressed in homosexual relationships, but for being inhospitable to
the strangers. Yes, and we are told that nowhere
does the Bible condemn homosexual relationships between two dedicated
Christian consenting adults. So long as the relationship is
not promiscuous, but a relationship of love, you say, Pastor, come
off it. I am not violating the ninth
commandment in what I assert. And if we were not on the airwaves,
I could name names and give quotes. What does Almighty God think? when from that which is to be
the sanctuary of His presence, where His own holy law is upheld
and honored, from the sanctuary pours out the justification of
every form of base filth that caused God to rain hell out of
heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Ah, but someone says, You mean
to tell me there's no hope for the homosexual? For the pervert? Thank God there's hope. But you
know where in the hope lies? Not in having his conscience
stabbed that he's not sinning. No, no. Because 1 Corinthians
6, 9 to 11 are very clear. Listen to the word of God. Don't
tune me out as a raving fanatic. Someone who is not with the day,
with the age, hear the changeless Word of God, 1 Corinthians 6,
9. Know ye not that the unrighteous
shall not inherit the kingdom of God? And it's as though someone
said, Well, Paul, who are the unrighteous? He says, I'll tell
you. Be not deceived. Be not deceived. Neither fornicators
nor idolaters nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of
themselves with men, queers, gays, homosexuals, philanderers,
bedhoppers, wife-swappers, live-in agreements, all such shall not
inherit the kingdom of God. But is there no hope? whether blue-collar thieves or
white-collar thieves, stealing from the boss, stealing from
the production line, or stealing from the government by dishonesty
in your taxes, nor thieves, nor covetous, whether you're coveting
a bike you've got no business to covet, or a mansion, nor covetous,
nor drunkards, nor revilers. Those who smart mouth God and
His servants and His truth and His people, nor extortioner,
shall inherit the kingdom of God. Face it, in this category
God puts those sins that are described as the crowning sins
of Sodom, and He says, all who give themselves to such sins
are barred from the kingdom of God. But here's the ray of hope,
and such were some of you. He doesn't say such are some
of you. Such were some of you, but you were washed. That speaks
of the cleansing. You were sanctified, set apart
unto the service of God, even where it touches your sexual
passions and appetites and practices. And you were justified in the
name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.
What do you need? You need the objective legal
provisions that are found in Jesus Christ. His perfect keeping
of the law, even unto death, yea, to death of the cross. You
need to have put to your account the perfect righteousness of
His obedience. You need to be washed and cleansed
in the virtue of His blood. You need to be renewed by the
Spirit so that a heart that has conceived every base form of
expression of your sinful passions will be a heart that seeks to
love and obey the living God and His holy law. There is hope
for effeminate and perverts. and lesbians and queers and adulterers
and thieves and revilers and proud unconverted church members,
there is hope for all in the virtue of Christ's righteousness
and in the power of the Holy Ghost. But if you miss those
commodities, my friend, there is no hope. There is nothing
but the wrath of Almighty God and the great principle of that
judgment upon Sodom and the cities of the plains. is that none who
abandon themselves to sensuality can escape the judgment of God. Well, then I touch just briefly
in closing and leave you to work out the details of it. Jude mentions
as the first example of the wrath of God. God's wrath upon the
wilderness generation of Israelites. Notice the language of Jude in
verse five. Jude and verse five. He says, I know that I'm not
giving any new information that the Lord, having saved the people
out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that believed
not. And if you will read this in
conjunction with Hebrews three, seven to eleven and Hebrews four,
one through three, you will see that the peculiarity of this
judgment was simply this. A nation that had all the external
privileges of special revelation, in close proximity to God's redemptive
activity, who had light and truth and privilege. Yet, despising
that privilege by unbelief and disobedience, fell under the
wrath of God. And this is what was unique about
that wrath. It didn't come all at once. There
were occasions when it came upon a few thousand at a time. Those
who fornicated, God destroyed several thousands on one occasion.
When he sent the fiery serpents, destroyed several thousands.
But by and large, they came under the wrath of God one by one,
their carcasses rotted in the wilderness. And God says, I swore
in my wrath they shall not enter my rest. And oh, what a picture
it is, and this is my closing exhortation, what a picture,
a frightening picture it is, of all who live under the privileges
of the preaching of the Word, the heralding of the Gospel,
and even the felt presence of God in the midst of His people. But unless you turn in true repentance
and faith, and mark out by the grace of God a life of obedience
and cleave thereto unto the end, the wrath of God will surely
fall upon your head. Oh, may God grant that these
sobering illustrations of the wrath of God will bring many
to soberness and cause you to flee to Him who bore the wrath
of God for sinners, that you may never bear that frightening
wrath. Let us pray. Holy Father, seal the word to
our hearts. Oh, grant that we may flee from
the coming wrath and find refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We ask it for his name's sake. Amen.