Divine Wrath in the Old Testament

Introduction: The Missing Note of Divine Wrath in Gospel Preaching

0:01 This night on Sunday evening at the Trinity Baptist Church in Montville, New Jersey.

0:14 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.

0:32 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, 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

Scriptural Warrant for Illustrating Wrath from the Old Testament

1:58 of the message of John the Baptist, the message of our Lord, the message of the apostolic writers, and in the book of the Romans, 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,

3:20 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, 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

4:40 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 has 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.

5:18 Now these things happened. 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.

5:53 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?

6:29 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.

Four Singular Manifestations of God's Wrath from 2 Peter and Jude

6:52 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 you, 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 some of the introductory words or first verses of the book of Jude. 2 Peter chapter 2.

8:16 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, verse 5, and spared not the ancient world but preserved Noah, verse 6, and turned 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, the Lord knows how to deliver the godly and punish the ungodly.

9:44 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.

10:14 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?

God's Wrath Upon Fallen Angels: No Creature Exempt from Judgment

11:16 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.

11:43 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.

12:09 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.

12:27 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.

12:56 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?

13:34 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 creative dignity privilege and glory is exempt from the wrath of God if that creature rebels against God. What creatures could be higher in creative dignity privilege and glory than angels?

14:12 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 passed 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 sinned 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

15:40 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 mixed wrath of God. You see the principle?

16:22 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 Jude. 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.

17:01 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.

17:32 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 Him. 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

19:00 in this mess in the first place is that God has given us the power 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.

19:38 If you have the silly notion since we are 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 casts them down to chains of darkness and reserves them until the day of judgment of the grave 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 not 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's Wrath Upon the Ancient World (The Flood): Majority and Indifference No Excuse

20:52 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 3 and verse 20 there is this additional information given to us and breaking into the flow of thought because it's not important for us to catch it for our purposes that aforetime we're 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. The wrath of God that utterly inundated the world. Now obviously this is a reference

22:16 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 heavens of all living creatures but ate 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.

22:55 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.

23:30 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.

24:03 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.

24:43 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.

25:15 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 and the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high mountains that were under the whole heaven were covered. And then there is a description of the height verse 21 and 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

26:42 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

28:09 legitimate necessary physical activities marrying and giving in marriage legitimate expressions of the social order instituted by God and 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 have not drawn out pictures in detail of screaming children and all the rest

29:36 but no doubt all of that detail was present when the flood waters arose and no one could find comfort because a bumper sticker was plastered on the side of the ark small waters come down from above while the great deeds are broken up from beneath while little children cling to mums in the streets smile God Almighty God was incensed His anger and His flood and a generation was obliterated now those are facts and the fossil records bear witness to them 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 number one concerning the principles of the operations of God's wrath understand from this incident of His wrath upon the ancient world

31:01 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 can't all be wrong is that so my friend gaze upon the rising flood water the text of scripture says God destroyed the ancient world the majority more than a majority

32:27 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

33:55 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 tolerance of certain judgment the text indicates that Noah was a preacher 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 to get a hook in the conscience of his generation but the hooks were gone it was a generation of a seed 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

35:22 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 wouldn't give me over to a hardened conscience oh how I tried when I saw my companions in hell 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 in 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

36:49 you remember the flood they ate they drank they married they gave in marriage as usual let Noah do his own thing oh we have no desire to impose our way on him but turn abouts fair play 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

God's Wrath Upon Sodom and Gomorrah: Sensuality Leads to Eternal Fire

38:17 2 Peter chapter 2 verses 6 and 7 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 20th century English total abandonment to 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

39:42 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 sorted detail when he says that they gave themselves over to pornea sexual impurity of every kind and then he adds this master stroke 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

41:11 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 they lust after Lot 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

42:39 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 a brimstone and the scripture tells us God rained down from 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

44:08 into clinkers brimstones fell out of heaven and consumed the cities of the plains 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 bitter 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

45:35 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 of impenitence what can one say in the light of this principle as it 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 upfront with them since they always occurred why brush them under the rug listen

47:03 it is bad enough to sin 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 town this generation someone says oh you've got homophobia you boots I've got homophobia because for those 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

48:31 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 the justification of every form of bait that caused God's reign hell on earth upon Sodom and Gomorrah and every time that he física everyone in his life to which his son and therapor he breathed and doc never nominee for sovereignty that gave rise to the name of the supreme king supreme king king

50:00 king of man 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, gays, homosexuals, philanderers, wife-swappers, living, all such. But is there no hope? Nor thieves, whether blue-collar thieves or white-collar thieves, stealing from the boss, stealing from the production.

51:03 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 extortioners, 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

51:48 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.

52:04 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, the 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 of God. You need to be cleansed by the Holy 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's hope for effeminate and perverts and lesbians and queers and adulterers and thieves and revilers and proud unconverted church members. There's 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's no hope. There is nothing but the wrath of Almighty God. And the great principle of that judgment upon

God's Wrath Upon the Wilderness Generation: Unbelief Under Privilege

53:16 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 and verse 5. Jude and verse 5. He says, I know that I'm not giving you any new information, that the Lord, having saved a people out of the land of Egypt afterward, destroyed them that believed not. And if you will read this in conjunction with Hebrews 3, 7 to 11 and Hebrews 4, 1 through 3, 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.

54:37 Faith 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. Oh, what a picture it is, and this is my closing exhortation.

55:11 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... 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.

Conclusion: Flee to Christ from Coming Wrath

55:41 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.

56:03 Holy Father, seal the Word to our hearts. Oh, grant that we may flee, flee from the coming wrath, and find refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ alone. We ask it for His namesake. Amen.