My text tonight is Jude verses
5, 6, and 7. The title of my message is The
Coronavirus, Understanding the Judgments of God. The Coronavirus,
Understanding the Judgments of God. Few people understand the
judgments of God. Few people recognize the judgments
of God when they come. Few people hear the voice of
God in his judgments. But Jude speaks about divine
judgment in verses five, six, and seven. He says, I will therefore
put you in remembrance, though you once knew this, how that
the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward
destroyed them that believed not. and the angels which kept
not their first estate, but left their own habitation he hath
reserved in everlasting chains under darkness, under the judgment
of the great day. Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and
the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over
to fornication and going after strange flesh, are set forth
for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. The
God of heaven is a God of judgment. The God of all grace is a God
of judgment. The God of glory is a God of
judgment. The one true and living God exercises
judgment in the earth, and he will exercise judgment upon all
men in the last day. The current coronavirus pandemic
is God's work. Let no one tell you otherwise.
It is the work of God's judgment upon a reprobate age, judgment
upon a world that has heard and despised his gospel. That's a statement worth remembering. This is God's judgment upon a
reprobate age, judgment upon a world that has heard and despised
his gospel. Will you hear God speak both
by his word, by his spirit, and in his judgment? Some years ago,
I was helping some friends who were farmers butcher some cattle. The last one they were going
to butcher was a bull who they had to butcher for some reason,
I can't remember why they had to butcher him, but he was shot
and wounded and he got out of the pen. and got out in the field,
we had to chase him down, out in the field full of cattle,
100 or more head of cattle in the field. And when we shot the
bull, finally laid him down, every one of the cattle looked
up for just a minute, a little bit unnerving, they could smell
the blood. And then just a minute, maybe
a few minutes, they all went back to grazing, just as though
nothing had happened. And that's pretty much the way
men are when God speaks in judgment. God gets your attention for a
minute, and then you ignore it. Jude has just declared in verse
4 that God will judge the ungodly. And God the Holy Ghost tells
us in Romans 3 that their damnation is just. In our text, Jude gives
us three well-known examples of divine judgment. People who
perished under the wrath of God held forth in scripture as beacons
to warn us, lest we follow them to perdition. In verse five,
he speaks about the murmuring Israelites who came out of Egypt. In verse six, he speaks about
the apostate angels who fell with Satan. And then in verse
seven, he speaks about the beastly sodomites whom God destroyed
with fire and brimstone. He says in verse five, I will
therefore put you in remembrance, though you once knew this. Remember,
Jude is talking to believers, men and women like you and me.
Men and women who believe God, washed in the blood of Christ,
robed in his righteousness, given by the Spirit of God, graced
to believe on the Son of God. And he says, I was constrained
to write to you that you should earnestly contend for the faith.
But in doing so, I'm compelled to put you in remembrance of
things that you once knew. That is, things you already know.
I'm here to put you in remembrance concerning those things. God's
servants, gospel preachers, are being sent of God to put you
in remembrance. Let me put you in remembrance
of something. God's work in this world, by which men are brought
to sickness, and bereavement and death, by which nations are
destroyed, are works of judgment. All the pestilence, disease,
famine, and trouble that men face in the world is God's work. It is not accidental. It is not
Satan's work. It's God's work. As you read
the scriptures, every time you read the words plague and pestilence,
every time you read it, the Lord sent pestilence. The Lord sent
pestilence. The Lord sent pestilence. The
Lord sent pestilence. It's God's work. This is God's
doing. And I'm here to put you in remembrance
of it. Faithful gospel preachers remember the Lord's people to
Him. Moses led the people in the wilderness
and they sinned against God repeatedly. And Moses reminded the Lord that
his people, though sinful, were his people, his covenant people,
his blood-bought people, his people he brought out of the
land for his namesake. Samuel followed Moses' example.
He said, God forbid that I should sin against the Lord and cease
him to pray for you, and reminded them of God and reminded God
that they were his people whom he had redeemed. I want to be
that kind of preacher. I want to be a pastor who remembers
those whom I serve to God. To remember you before the throne
of grace, to the day of my last breath. God's servants are also
remembrances of God to his people. We are sent to remind you of
your Redeemer, of things you know. but easily and quickly
push aside the persons of our triune God, the glory of our
Lord Jesus Christ in redemption, the wonders of redemption and
grace and the cost. Oh, the cost. The son of God
was made sin for us. He bore our sin in his own body
on the tree. He was made a curse for us. And
the fire of heaven fell upon him to consume him in his wrath. And as the fire of heaven consumed
him, he consumed the fire of God's wrath against us and consumed
our sins. I'm here to remind you of the
riches of his mercy flowing to you through the blood of the
cross, of the length and breadth and height and depth of the love
of God in Christ Jesus. to remind you of the wonders
of his salvation, the wonders of providence. These things we
all know, we who are believers, but we're prone to forget, prone
to not think of them. Paul said to Timothy, take heed
to thyself and unto the doctrine, continue in them, for in doing
this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee. Peter
said, I think it meet as long as I'm in this tabernacle to
stir you up by putting you in remembrance. Two of David's Psalms
specifically called Psalms of Remembrance. We need constant
reminders of these things for just the reasons I've stated.
Carnal knowledge, carnal things, we remember it seems forever. I can remember dirty jokes I
heard before I started school when I was six years old. I remember
them right now. I can't remember scripture I
read this morning. How sad. What a commentary upon me. That's our nature. Carnal things. Evil things. Things that don't
matter. Temporary things. Matters of
lust, matters of greed, matters of pride, we remember forever
the things of God we forget so quickly. You have forgotten the
exhortation, Paul said, which speaketh to you as unto children. How quickly we forget God's words.
The best preachers are those who tells the old, old story
again and again and again, constantly feeding our souls with heavenly
manner. Here is one of the great needs
and blessings of the preaching of the gospel. One of the great
advantages you have of availing yourself of it. Faithful gospel
preaching keeps gospel truth fresh in your mind and revives
your soul day by day, arming you for the conflicts you have
to face day after day. Conflicts within and conflicts
without. Now, having said that, let me
talk to you about the subject of our text, God's judgments. That's the subject Jude speaks
of in this first chapter, in these three verses of Jude. God's
judgment. The Holy Spirit reminds us over
and over again of God's judgment. God's judgment of sin in Christ
and God's judgment of the world for unbelief. God's judgment
of our sin in Christ and God's judgment of the world for refusing
his word and his revelation. He speaks by creation, but men
hear him not. He speaks by providence, but
men hear him not. He spoke by his son, but men
heard him not. He speaks by his word, but men
hear him not. These things bring judgment. This generation has had the privilege
of hearing the word of God preached. I took time today to look up
all of the nations that had been affected with coronavirus. all
of them that are known. And then I looked at some email,
and I looked at some records. Every place, every place, every
place in the world where this virus is known to have had effect,
men have heard this man preach the gospel. Every place. Every place. By means of the
internet ministry God's given us. Every place. Not just me. Many, many of our brethren preach
the gospel of His grace. And men hear and say no. Men
hear and say that's ridiculous. Men hear and say we will not
bow. We will not believe. We will
not have this God to reign over us. These things wicked and unbelieving
men simply cannot understand and will not acknowledge. Man's
rebellion and unbelief brings the judgment of God. Who is wise,
he will understand these things. Prudent, he shall know them. Evil men understand not judgment,
but they that seek the Lord understand all things. The natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. They're foolishness to
him. Neither can he know them. They're
spiritually discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth
all things. That is, he discerns all things.
You who are born of God and taught of God, when you hear these reports
and you see these things happening, you say, this is God's hand.
This is the finger of God. This is God's doing. The natural
man discerns nothing. The believer discerns all things. He has the mind of Christ. Now
let me tell you four things briefly concerning God's judgment. First,
the judgment of God in ancient times, particularly those recorded
in the pages of Holy Scripture, are intended by God to be warnings
to us. The Apostle Paul tells us, these
things were our examples to the intent that we should not lust
after evil things as they also lusted. All these things happened
unto them for examples, and they're written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the world are come. When we read in the book
of God about the destruction of the wicked, We ought to pay
attention to what we read. The fallen Israelites in the
wilderness, the fallen angels reserved in chains of darkness,
the sodomites who were cast into hell are not fairy tales. They're
records of facts. They're not ghost stories. They
are verified facts. They tell us that the way of
the wicked, God turneth upside down. God has not changed. His justice is the same today
as it was of old. His power is the same. His truth
is the same. In all the changes of the world,
God changes not. He's exactly the same. In wrath
and in mercy, in judgment and in grace, in terror and in judgment,
God is the same. He who struck Ananias and Sapphira
dead for lying to the Holy Ghost. He who struck Zacharias dumb
for unbelief. He who killed Moses because he
sanctified him not before the people. He who turned Lot's wife
to a pillar of salt for looking back has not changed. His judgments
are sure. His judgments are terrible. You
and I must all soon die. We must all soon meet God in
judgment. We must spend eternity somewhere,
either in the everlasting bliss of heavenly glory or the everlasting
darkness, confusion, chaos, and torments of hell's blackness
and damnation. When the ungodly flourish in
this world, we should never envy them. and we should never be
disheartened by them. Turn back to Psalm 92. I want
you to read this Psalm with me. David said in Psalm 73, surely
thou did set them in slippery places. Thou castest them down
into destruction. How are they brought down into
desolation? As in a moment, they're utterly
consumed with terror. As a dream when one waketh, O
soul, O Lord, when thou awakest, thou shalt despise their image.
Now look at Psalm 92. This is a psalm or a song for
the Sabbath day, a psalm for the day of rest. It is a good
thing to give thanks unto the Lord and to sing praises unto
thy name, O Most High, to show forth thy lovingkindness in the
morning, and thy faithfulness every night, upon the instrument
of ten strings and upon the psaltery, upon the harp with a solemn sound.
For thou, Lord, hast made me glad through thy work. I will
triumph in the works of thy hands. O Lord, how great are thy works,
and thy thoughts are very deep. A brutish man, a beastly man,
knoweth not. Neither doth the fool understand
this. When the wicked spring as the grass, and when all the
workers of iniquity do flourish, it is that they shall be destroyed
forever. The beastly man doesn't know
this. The proud man doesn't know this. The wicked man doesn't
know this. The believing man knows this.
When the wicked spring up as the grass, when all the workers
of iniquity flourish, So say, God's been so good. God's been
so merciful. Oh, look how God's blessed him.
Not necessarily, not necessarily. It matters not what God heaps
upon a man. If he heaps upon you all the
gold of the world and all the silver of the world, all the
riches of the world and all the fame of the world and gives you
not the grace to believe on his son. All that he heaps upon you
are but weights to drag down your soul into hell forever. It is that they may perish, but
thou, Lord, art most high forevermore. Often God's judgments are more
spiritual than the more obvious physical judgments we've seen.
But they're horribly severe. In ancient times, they dab in
a bayou, were slain in the house of God. Many today just are left
to sit in the house of God in darkness, year after year after
year. But they're just as dead. In
ancient times, God sent bears to destroy young children who
mocked his prophets. Today, many are left to themselves
sitting within Zion's gates. They mock God's prophets and
are devoured in their souls and will soon be devoured in hell
forever. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram had the earth open up and swallow
them into hell. Today their followers are swallowed
up into hell while they walk upon the earth. Lot's wife was
turned to a pillar of salt because she looked back. Multitudes today
who profess to follow Christ while looking back have Lot's
wife to remind them that their damnation is just. A second thing
about God's judgments. God's judgments are always impartial. We pretend that justice is blind
in our courts. We who have lived long enough
to understand what goes on a little bit recognize that justice is
never blind. Not in our courts. Not as long
as men have something to do with it. But justice is blind. God's justice is blind. Blind
to those things that impress men. God is no respecter of persons. Remember again the Israelites
who perished in the wilderness and know that a mere profession
of religion is no security from the wrath of God. As their circumcision
was turned into uncircumcision. So many being baptized, if they're
baptized in water but not baptized into Christ, their baptism is
turned into blasphemy. Remember the angels that fell.
If their privileges did not save them, the highest privileges
men and women have today without grace will never do them any
good. Remember again the Sodomites.
If the riches of their land, the envy of the world, Sodom
was, did not save them, the wealth and high honor of the world will
do you no good. how fragile everything here is. How fragile everything on this
earth is. Brother Lindsey, everybody's
health today is in jeopardy. The reason we're banned from
meeting publicly, everybody's health is in jeopardy. The economies
of the world, men who understand those things are fearful may
crash. Like that. Like that. Many jobs
will be lost. Many businesses will shut their
doors. Many people will be brought to utter financial ruin. God's
judgments are impartial. How fragile this world is. It takes just, what's this been
going on now, a month? A little more than a month? that
suddenly the whole world seemed to be teetering on destruction.
Understand this thirdly. In all the judgments mentioned
in Jude, there was one common thing for which they suffered
greater wrath and judgment than might have been otherwise. Mercy given was despised. The angels were created in righteousness,
in holiness. They had no evil about them,
no evil in them, no inclination to evil. But they, being tempted
of Satan, were led away to destruction, despising their first estate. The Israelites were redeemed
by blood out of Egypt. brought by power across the Red
Sea, fed by men from heaven every day. Their shoes did not wear
out, their clothes never got molded. For 40 years, God provided
for them. And they perished in the wilderness
under the wrath of God because they despised God's revelation
of himself in his goodness. God gave them his law. God gave
them the tabernacle. God gave them his prophets. And
they despised it all. The Sodomites had angels sent
down. And when God sent his angels
to deliver Lot and his daughters from the city, Lot went and preached. He preached, and his sons-in-law
looked at him as one who mocked, despising the message of God's
free grace that Lot preached. Their ruin is sad, but well deserved. So it is with this generation. We labor to preach the word. We labor to preach the gospel.
This congregation gives generously for the preaching of the gospel
around the world. We support missionaries and works
in this country and around the world as we have opportunity.
But we recognize that many women who refuse to hear deserve to
die and die forever in hell under the wrath of God. One last thing. I hate to talk about wrath and
judgment. So let me give you some good
news. In all these illustrations that Jude uses of God's fierce
anger, poured out in wrath upon countless multitudes who deserve
it. The Lord God always had a remnant,
according to the election of grace, to whom he was merciful. Thank God, judgment is his work,
but it is his strange work. He delighteth in mercy. Oh, what
sweet words. God delights in mercy. God delights in mercy. There were some Israelites who
did not perish in the wilderness. They didn't turn back to Egypt.
The Lord God kept their hearts upon a better land and they kept
their hearts upon that better land. There were some elect angels
who left not their first estate. They were saved by God's election.
Lot did not perish with Sodom. God spared him, saved him, put
him in Zohar, and destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, but not until Lot
had escaped. Why? Because God chose him. God redeemed him. God made him
righteous. God delivered him. Now hear this,
and go home singing the high praises of our God. My tempted,
tried brothers and sisters, my tempest-tossed brothers and sisters,
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation and
to preserve the unjust under the day of judgment to be punished. So gracious, so wise, so good
is our God that even the ungodly and the judgments he brings upon
them are designed of God and brought to pass by his hand for
the saving of his elect. Oh, the wonder of providence!
Oh, the depth of the riches! Both of the wisdom and knowledge
of God! How unsearchable are His judgments
and His ways past finding out! For who hath known the mind of
the Lord? Or who hath been His counselor? Or who hath first
given to Him, and it shall be recompensed unto Him again? For
of Him and through Him and to him are all things, to him be
glory forever. Amen. God's judgments will never
injure, will never harm in any way any of God's elects. God's promise is there shall
no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy
dwelling. What does that mean? I have some
friends who died this week from sickness, from disease, from
plague that God put on them. Oh no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
no. They didn't die. They didn't die. They didn't
die. They live. Live as they never
lived before. Their bodies were consumed with
the plague. This tent was taken down with
the plague, but they live forever on high. So it is, the plague
shall not connive thy dwelling. Hear this and hope you who are
yet under the wrath of God. Even so, then at this time, there
is a remnant according to the election of grace. If there is
a remnant who must be saved, why not me? Why not you? Hear this again and patiently
serve him, you who seek the salvation of God's elect. Even so, then,
at this present time, there is a remnant, according to the election
of grace. There are yet some who must and
shall be saved. Pray on, God will save his elect. Preach on, Christ will save his
redeemed. Labor on, children of God. The
Holy Ghost will yet call out lost sinners. Then cometh the
end. when Christ shall present all
his elect, all his ransomed before the throne of his glory, and
say, lo, I and the children which thou hast given me. Let me wrap
this up by reading something to you. I got this out of Brother
Paul Mahan's bulletin for this coming Sunday, I believe it was.
Paul wrote, in the 17th century of England, the Church of England
issued an order to all churches called the Act of Uniformity
of 1662. All the churches were required
to sign an agreement stating that they would abide by the
prescribed orders of worship handed down by the government,
including prayers, sacraments, and other things. Many, many
preachers refused to abide by such an order, faithfully serving
God, and they were thrown out of their churches. Three years
later, In 1665, the Bubonic Plague, the Black Plague hit London.
Over 100,000 people in that city. At that time, a city of 480,000.
Over 100,000 died of the plague. It went on until the year 1666. And then
the Great Fire of London hit. The fire destroyed nearly every public building
and most of the homes in London. Hundreds of thousands of people
were homeless. But in God's mercy, only six
people died of the fire. But the fire destroyed the plague. Our God is a consuming fire. And there is a plague in the
heart of man called sin. And God made his son to be sin
for sinners. And he destroys the plague of
man's heart by the sacrifice of his darling son, by the blood
of Jesus Christ, his dear son. Oh, let us rejoice and give thanks
to him who's washed us in his blood, made us righteous, made
us the sons of God. made us heirs of God and joint
heirs with himself forever. Come, my people. Enter into thy
chambers. Shut thy doors about thee. Hide
thyself, as it were, for a little moment until the indignation
be overpassed. That's my final word to you.
God says, come, my people. Enter into your chambers. Enter
into the secret place of worship with your God. And shut the doors
behind you. Shut out the world. Just shut
it out. Hide yourself, as it were, for
a little moment. Until the indignation be overpassed.
And it will be overpassed soon. And Christ will show himself
glorious in the saving of his people. and in the judgment of
those who despise him. Amen.