Sermon #17 Jude Sermons

Title: Sodom and Gomorrha

“Set Forth for an Example”

Text: Jude 7

Subject: The Destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha

Date: Tuesday Evening — February 8, 2005

Tape # Jude #17

Readings: Bobbie Estes and David Burge

Introduction:

My text is Jude 7. The title of my message is, Sodom and Gomorrha — “Set Forth for an Example.” May God the Holy Spirit who here holds before us these twin cities of ungodliness as an example, burn the example into our hearts. Let’s read verse 1-7 together.

(Jude 1:1-7) Jude, the servant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James, to them that are sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ, and called: (2) Mercy unto you, and peace and love, be multiplied. (3) Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints. (4) For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ. (5) I will therefore put you in remembrance, though ye once knew this, how that the Lord, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them that believed not. (6) And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. (7) Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, 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.

In this seventh verse Jude gives us a third glaring example of unbelief and apostasy.

· In verse 5, he tells us that the unbelieving Israelites perished in the wilderness because they turned their backs on that which God had revealed to them. Because they did not believe the gospel, they rebelled against God’s revelation. Therefore, God destroyed them.

· In verse 6, Jude tells us that that sinned, the angels turned their backs upon God, refusing to cherish their first estate and despising the purpose for which they were created. Therefore, God destroyed them.

· Here, in verse 7, he tells us that the Sodomites did the same thing the fallen Israelites and fallen angels did. They turned their backs on God. Therefore, God destroyed them, too.

(Jude 1:7) Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, 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 Connection

We must not forget the context in which these warnings are found and the connection verses 5-7 have with verse 4. In verse 4, Jude warns us about false prophets, men who turn their backs on God, who have crept into the church, and labor in the name of God and of his Son, to persuade us to turn our backs upon God. To follow them is to deny “the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”

(Jude 1:4) For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

Proposition: If we follow them into apostasy, he is telling us that we will follow them into hell, just as the fallen Jews, the fallen angels, and the fallen Sodomites followed Satan’s deception to their utter destruction.

The Cause of Judgment

I. First, let me remind you that the cause of God’s great judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrha was their great sin.

(Jude 1:7) Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh.

You are all familiar with the horribly evil deeds of the Sodomites. Like the children of Israel (Num. 25:1; 1 Cor. 10:8), and like those false teachers mentioned in verse 4, they gave themselves over to fornication, going after strange flesh.

A. Their fornication, of course, refers to the horrible evils of sexual deviancy and perversity. — Adultery — Fornication — and Homosexuality.

(1 Corinthians 6:9) Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind.

Such behavior is, as John Gill wrote, “contrary to the light of nature and law of God, dishonorable to human nature, and scandalous to a nation and people, and commonly prevails where idolatry and infidelity do, as among the Papists and Mahometans; and arose from idleness and fulness of bread in Sodom, and was committed in the sight of God, with great impudence.” Wherever idolatry reigns, moral perversity is the result (Rom. 1:18-25).

· These are personal sins of a heinous character. They were sins against both soul and body. No whoremonger shall enter the kingdom of God (1 Corinthians 6:9). — Fornication is a sin against your own body (1 Corinthians 6:18).

· They are social sins. They affect the family and society.

· They are sins against God.

· They are sins not to be named among saints (Ephesians 5:3).

B. But there is more involved here than sins of the flesh. The fornication of the false prophets, Israel, and the Sodomites was a spiritual thing. It also involved their adoration and worship of strange gods.

C. Sodom and Gomorrah did essentially the same thing the fallen Israelites and the fallen angels did. They turned their backs on God.

You might ask, "But how could Sodom and Gomorrah to become apostate? Did they ever know the truth?" Without question, they did; and they wilfully despised it, turning their backs on it.

Romans 1 tells us that every man has the knowledge of God, though he holds it down and suppresses it in unrighteousness. That means that all are without excuse. Sodom and Gomorrah rejected the truth and gave themselves over to indulging in a gross kind of sexual evil and in going after strange flesh. Genesis 19 records a bizarre story for us

· They rejected the light of nature.

· They rejected the witness of that righteous man, Lot.

· They even rejected the testimony of the angels of God sent among them.

· Even when they were stricken with blindness, in an unmistakable act of divine judgment, they would not abandon their lusts.

D. Therefore God destroyed the cities (Gen. 19:12-13). They brought the judgment of God upon themselves. Judgment is always a matter of just retribution.

(Genesis 19:12-13) And the men said unto Lot, Hast thou here any besides? son in law, and thy sons, and thy daughters, and whatsoever thou hast in the city, bring them out of this place: (13) For we will destroy this place, because the cry of them is waxen great before the face of the LORD; and the LORD hath sent us to destroy it.

Ezekiel (Ezek. 16:49) tells us that the root of their sin was pride (swelling arrogance and a sense of majesty and superiority), fulness of bread (satisfaction), and idleness (undisturbed peace and tranquility). God often give the most fertile places to the ungodly. Sodom is compared to “the garden of the Lord.” And prosperity often becomes manure to grow wickedness and infidelity.

Their Punishment

II. Second, Jude describes their punishment.

Because of their willful sin, rebellion, and unbelief, the Sodomites are held before us as people “suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.” — No dogs shall be admitted into the New Jerusalem (Rev. 22:15).

God sent a rain of fire and brimstone that destroyed the cities of the plain. But that destruction was only a type of the worse destruction that overtook the guilty inhabitants. It was typical of the everlasting fire of God’s holy wrath upon eternally damned souls in hell. — “Our God is a consuming fire” (Heb. 12:29).

Great as their sin was, and great as their punishment is, the rejection of the gospel and the consequences of it are worse. It will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrha in the day of judgment than for Capernaum and Bethsaida (Matthew 10:15).

Their Example

III. Third, Jude specifically calls our attention to the fact that Sodom and Gomorrha are held forth before us as an example.

What are we to learn from their example?

· Sodom and Gomorrha show us that God hates sin and will punish it. — “The soul that sinneth, it shall die!”

· Sodom and Gomorrha tell us that all are without excuse before God.

· Sodom and Gomorrha tell us that mercy despised will bring everlasting wrath.

· Sodom and Gomorrha tell us that it takes more than great privileges and even great preaching to save our souls. — It takes the grace and power and operation of God himself to deliver us from our obstinate rebellion, spiritual death, and sin.

But I cannot send you home thinking only about sin and judgment and hell.

Zoar Spared

IV. Fourth, I want you to turn with me to Genesis 19. And I will show you one more blessed thing. Zoar was spared.

It is written, with regard to Lot and his deliverance out of Sodom and the destruction of the cities of the plain, “The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished” (2 Pet. 2:9).

Remember, there were five cities in the plains of Sodom. God destroyed them all, all but one that is. He spared Zoar.

(Genesis 19:17-29) And it came to pass, when they had brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed. (18) And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: (19) Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: (20) Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. (21) And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. (22) Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar. (23) The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. (24) Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; (25) And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. (26) But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. (27) And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: (28) And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. (29) And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.

Zoar was, until the time that God made it a place of refuge for Lot, called Bela (Gen. 14:2). The name Bela means “destruction.” But Lot renamed the city of destruction “Zoar,” which means “Little, insignificant, brought low, or made small.” Zoar and the fact that God both preserved it and delivered Lot into it stands before us as a great display and monument of God’s free and sovereign grace to sinners in Christ. Is not Zoar held before us as a type and picture of Christ our Savior, our City of Refuge?

· Christ crucified is little and insignificant in the eyes of men; but he is the only Refuge for our souls.

· He was brought low, that he might lift us high.

· He was made little, that he might become our great Redeemer.

· Before Lot came to Zoar, everything was dark. — What weakness he felt! — What unbelief shrouded his soul! — What fear he felt!

· But, “The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar.”

· When he was in Zoar, he looked back upon Sodom and Gomorrha, and was in complete agreement with God’s justice (Gen. 19:28; Rev. 19:1-6).

(Genesis 19:28) And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace.

(Revelation 19:1-6) And after these things I heard a great voice of much people in heaven, saying, Alleluia; Salvation, and glory, and honour, and power, unto the Lord our God: (2) For true and righteous are his judgments: for he hath judged the great whore, which did corrupt the earth with her fornication, and hath avenged the blood of his servants at her hand. (3) And again they said, Alleluia. And her smoke rose up for ever and ever. (4) And the four and twenty elders and the four beasts fell down and worshipped God that sat on the throne, saying, Amen; Alleluia. (5) And a voice came out of the throne, saying, Praise our God, all ye his servants, and ye that fear him, both small and great. (6) And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thunderings, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.

· Lot entered into Zoar because he was righteous in the sight of God — Made Righteous by Divine Imputation — (Abraham’s Prayer Gen. 1822-33; 19:29).

(Genesis 19:29) And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.

“Thanks be unto God for his unspeakable gift!”

Amen.