Watchman Radio Hour

David Scholt: Welcome to the Watchman Radio hour. Coming to you from Portland, Oregon here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Scholt, your announcer. The Watchman Radio hour is a production of Watchman Radio Ministries International, an evangelistic ministry reaching out to the peoples of the world with the gospel of Jesus Christ. And now here's our speaker Alex Dodson to bring you this week's message from God's word.

Alex Dodson: For our scripture reading today, let us turn to the book of Jude and we'll begin reading in verse five. Let us hear the word of God. Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe. And the angels who did not keep their positions of authority, but abandoned their own home, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting chains for judgment on the great day. In a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion.

They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the Bible that you have given to us. We thank you that it's your infallible word and that we can put our full confidence in everything that it says. And now, oh Father, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power in Christ's name we pray. Amen. We're living in a society that has become obsessed with sexual immorality in all its forms. We have allowed pornography to go rampant in the land.

Some cities have nude bars everywhere. The city where I live has sex shops all over. They're not hidden at all. Movies glorify sexual immorality in all its forms. Movie producers and directors intentionally include sexual immorality and nudity in their films to draw bigger audiences. But the sad thing is that the people of the nation pay to be entertained by sexual immorality in our modern day movies. Many expect this entertainment when they go to the movie theater and continually lust for more of the same. Otherwise, the movie makers would not continue to produce what they do.

The acceptance of lifestyles that former generations rejected tells its own story. Same sex marriage is becoming more and more popular and being approved more and more by the populace. The foundation of our society is crumbling when we see so many people living together outside the bounds of marriage or marriage itself becoming less of a norm than previous generation. We go on in our obsession with sexual immorality and think that nothing will happen to us as a result. We have lost the fear of God in our land. When something that is clearly taught against in the Bible becomes the law of the land, then our rebellion against God is openly revealed.

In the past, even the angels have rebelled against God and come under great judgment for it. In Jude verse 6 it says, and the angels who did not keep their possession positions of authority, but abandoned their own home, these he has kept in darkness, bound with everlasting change for judgment on the great day. In 2 Peter 2:4 it says, for if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment. These angels rebelled against God and they fell and will be judged. They sought to go their own way and not God's way.

Jude compares the people of Sodom and Gomorrah to those angels that rebelled against God. Those cities and the others around them rebelled against God and gave themselves up to sexual immorality and sought after things that were unnatural in their rebellion. Jameson, Faucet and Brown comment on Jude 6 and 7 saying, the parallel 2 Peter 2:4 refers to the fall of the apostate angels. And in like manner to these Jude 1:7 the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah. The cities about them sinning in like manner as they did, not that the angels carnally fornicated with the daughters of men, but that their ambition whereby their affections went away from God and they fell is in God's view a sin of like kind spiritually as Sodom's going away from God's order of nature after strange flesh.

The sin of the apostate angels after their kind is analogous to that of the human Sodomites after their kind. Sodom and Gomorrah came under great judgment for their rebellion. Today our nation has descended into the pit of sexual immorality and they're going after of unnatural desires and we will face judgment if we do not repent. Our text is Jude and verse 7 which again says, in a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality and perversion. They serve as an example of those who suffer the punishment of eternal fire.

When a nation gives itself up to sexual immorality, it will face judgment. We think we can do anything and get away with it, but we have forgotten what happened so long ago to Sodom and Gomorrah. They went their own way. They sought after things that were not right in the sight of God and they paid the penalty and we will too if we do not repent. Now let us see in the first place the case of Sodom and Gomorrah. Again verse 7 says, in a similar way, Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns gave themselves up to sexual immorality.

They had given themselves up to sexual immorality and unnatural desires. The English Standard Version says just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire. They were indulging in sexual immorality. It was everywhere. Their society was permeated with it. Not only that, but they were going on in search of ways to have sex in unnatural ways. They were pursuing such things. Two angels in the form of men had come to visit Lot in Sodom. And we read about it in Genesis chapter 19 beginning to read in verse 2.

Lot said, my lords, please turn aside to your servant's house. You can wash your feet and spend the night and then go on your way early in the morning. No, they answered, we will spend the night in the square. But he insisted so strongly that they did go with him and entered his house. And he prepared a meal for them baking bread without yeast and they ate. But before they had gone to bed, all the men from every part of the city of Sodom, both young and old surrounded the house. They called a lot, where are the men who came to you tonight?

Bring them out to us so that we can have sex with them. Lot went outside to meet them and shut the door behind him and said, no, my friends, don't do this wicked thing. Look, I have two daughters who have never slept with a man. Let me bring them out to you and you can do what you like with them. But don't do anything to these men for they have come under the protection of my roof. Get out of the way, they replied. And they said, this fellow came here as an alien and now he wants to play the judge.

We'll treat you worse than them. And they kept bringing pressure on Lot and moved forward to break down the door, but the men inside reached out and pulled Lot back into the house and shut the door. Then they struck the men who were at the door of the house, young and old with blindness so that they could not find the door. Here we have the description of a society that has become obsessed with sexual immorality, both old and young. And not with just sexual immorality, they wanted to go further and further and lusted after what was unnatural.

Now we can't excuse Lot for offering his daughters to those men. Maybe he was just too frightened and not in his right mind. But the fact is that the inhabitants of Sodom were so obsessed with sex that they wanted to break down Lot's door to have sex with these strangers who must have looked attractive to them. The great sins of the men of Sodom was their obsession with the sex of any kind and especially unnatural sex. They desired it and they went after it with at all costs. Jameson, Faucet and Brown comment going after strange flesh means departing from the course of nature and going after that which is unnatural.

In later times, the most enlightened heathen nations indulged in the sin of Sodom without compunction or shame. Sodom pursued sexual immorality in all its forms without shame and called Lot judgmental for exposing their sin. And then let us see that Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them were judged for their sexual sins. Fire fell from heaven upon them and their inhabitants suffered the punishment of eternal fire. In Genesis 19 verse 24 and following it says, then the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah from the Lord out of the heavens. And thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, including all those living in the cities and also the vegetation in the land.

But Lot's wife looked back and she became a pillar of salt. Early the next morning, Abraham got up and returned to the place where he had stood before the Lord. And he looked down towards Sodom and Gomorrah toward all the land of the plain. And he saw dense smoke rising from the land like smoke from a furnace. And so when God destroyed the cities of the plain, he remembered Abraham. And he brought Lot out of the catastrophe that overthrew the cities where Lot had lived. Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities no longer exist. They were destroyed by God with fire from heaven because of their sexual immorality.

Matthew Henry writes, the apostle here calls to our remembrance the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah even as it is an illusion to the destruction of the five cities that the miseries of the damned are set forth by a lake that burneth with fire and brimstone. They were guilty of abominable wickedness, not to be named or thought of, but with the utmost abhorrence and detestation. Their ruin is a particular warning to all people to take heed of and fly from fleshly lusts that war against the soul. These lusts consume the Sodomites with fire from heaven and they are now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.

Therefore, take heed. Imitate not their sins, lest the same plagues overtake you as it did them. God is the same holy, just, pure being now as then. And can the beastly pleasures of a moment make amends for your suffering the vengeance of eternal fire? Then stand in awe and sin not, as it says in Psalm 4:4. Henry Morris in the New Defender's Study Bible comments, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah became obsessed with sexual promiscuity, worst of all, going after strange flesh. Jameson, Faucet and Brown comment, the lasting marks of the fire that consumed the cities irreparably is a type of the eternal fire to which the inhabitants have been consigned.

Bengal translates, as the Greek will admit, suffering the punishment which they endure as an example or sample of eternal fire, namely that which shall consume the wicked. And then let us see that Sodom and Gomorrah are cited as an example throughout scripture. What happened to Sodom and Gomorrah is brought up several times throughout the Bible as a warning to those who rebel against God. In Deuteronomy 29:23 concerning the curse that will fall upon the land if the people rebel against God, it says the whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it.

It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. In Isaiah 1:9 it says, unless the Lord Almighty had left us some survivors, we would have become like Sodom. We would have been like Gomorrah. In Jeremiah 49 in verse 17 it says, Edom will become an object of horror. All who pass by will be appalled and will scoff because of all its wounds. As Sodom and Gomorrah were overthrown along with their neighboring towns, says the Lord, so no one will live there, no man will dwell in it.

In Luke 17:29 it says, but the day Lot left Sodom, fire and sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. In Romans 9:32 it says, it is just as Isaiah said previously, unless the Lord Almighty had left us descendants, we would have become like Sodom and we would have been like Gomorrah. John Gill comments on the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah when he says, being destroyed by fire from heaven and their cities turn into a sulfurous lake which continues to this day as a monument of God's vengeance and an example to all such who commit the same sins and who may expect the same equitable punishment and do all do all that slight and reject the gospel revelation with whom it will be more tolerable for than for Sodom and Gomorrah.

The Spirit of the Reformation Study Bible says the fiery destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding towns in Genesis 19 serves throughout scripture as a paradigm of God's judgment on sin. And then let us see in the second place the case of our own nation. We have given ourselves over to sexual immorality. It's everywhere. It's on the internet, it's on television, it's in the movies, it's in music, it's in advertisements, it's in fashion. It permeates the land. Henry Morris writes, the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah became obsessed with sexual promiscuity. Jameson, Faucet, Brown write giving themselves over to fornication, following fornication extra ordinarily.

That is out of the order of nature. In other words, they had gone to the extremes in sexual immorality. Sex has always been around, but this generation in which we live has taken it to the extremes. We are bombarded with advertisements on sex, drugs just about every day on the internet and on television. You can't watch the news without being enticed to buy sex drug. You can't go to a movie without being exposed to sex in some form, usually in an immoral way. Fashion promotes sex continually. To look sexy is the thing to do. No more is it popular to look modest.

You must look sexy, we are told by the fashion experts. We are a society obsessed with sex and we're going after and legitimizing unnatural sex. Whether it's same sex marriage or men dressing like women, we are seeking after and promoting the unnatural. We are doing just like the people in Sodom and Gomorrah. They were in search of strange flesh. They were seeking after the unnatural use of sex and seeking it with a passion. The Bible talks about sinful desires that war against our souls. Every desire we have is not good. There are such things as sinful desires which we need to guard against in our lives.

In 1 Peter 2:11 it says, dear friends, I urge you as aliens and strangers in the world, abstain from sinful desires which war against the soul. There are desires that war against the soul. We are told to abstain from these desires. Every desire is not good. John Gill writes in going after strange flesh or other flesh, meaning not other women beside their own wives, but men and designs that detestable and unnatural sex, which from these people is called sodomy to this day and which is an exceeding great sin 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 and arose from idleness and fullness of bread in Sodom and was committed in the sight of God with great impudence, their punishment following.

Today our society is accepting a lifestyle that former generations condemn because they believe the Bible and accepted it as their standard. Today we have pitched the Bible out the window and lifestyles that former generations would not have accepted are now taking a front seat in our society. Shame on us. And then let us see that we are fastly taking apart the basic institution of society, marriage and family. We're all caught up in sexual immorality as a people and we're losing our basic foundations. A recent newspaper article says according to 2009 data, the Federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention 41% of all births were to unmarried women.

The percentage has risen steadily since at least 1980. The earliest year for which data were provided in the CDC report. In 1980 it stood at 18.4%. By 1990 it was 28% and by 2000 it was 33.2%. It has been increasing over the last 50 years, said Tom Smith, a senior fellow at the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. It's not just the young people who are discarding marriage and family, older ones are too. Another recent newspaper article says over the past 20 years, the divorce rate among baby boomers has surged more than 50%.

Even as divorce rates overall have stabilized nationally, at the same time more adults are remaining single. The shift is changing the traditional portrait of older Americans. About a third of adults aged 46 through 64 were divorced, separated or had never been married in 2010 compared with 13% in 1970 according to an analysis of recently released census data conducted by demographers of Bowling Green State University in Ohio. Sociologists expect those numbers to rise sharply in coming decades as younger people who have far lower rates of marriage than their elders move into middle age. Another recent newspaper article says the proportion of adults who are married has plunged to record lows as more people decide to live together now and wed later, reflecting decades of evolving attitudes about the role of marriage in society.

Just 51% of all adults who are 18 and older are married, placing them on the brink of becoming a minority according to a Pew Research Center analysis of census statistics. Sexual immorality pervades the land and the old ideas of saving oneself for a lifetime of marriage and family are going away. Let us see in the third place that we will face judgment for our sins. Warnings abound. God is already warning us about our national sins. Sexual immorality always brings on increased sexually transmitted diseases in any society. Natural disasters are increasing and we wonder why. School school shootings have occurred in our generation that were unheard of in previous generations and we wonder why.

What's happening to our society? Warnings are out there if we will listen. Warnings and judgments upon our society will continue as long as we continue to rebel against God and his law. We must repent as a people. Just as sure as Sodom and Gomorrah were judged, so will this nation be judged if we do not repent. Our sins are piled up to heaven and are growing higher every day. Yet it's not too late. Jeremiah 18:7 it says, if at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I planned.

We need a national spiritual revival such as has happened in the past when people came under conviction of sin and wept and then repented and turned back to God. And this can happen again and we must pray for it. We must storm the windows of heaven and ask the Lord to visit this nation with a mighty spiritual revival that will turn the nation around. That is our only hope. But what about you today? Have you been caught up in that sexual immorality that is sweeping our land? Maybe you've been living together outside of marriage with someone, but now you realize it's wrong.

Then you must repent at once and turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. Only he can forgive your sin and give you a new life. Turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and follow him. Our Father in heaven, we come before you today confessing our great sins. We come before you today confessing the great sexual immorality that's permeating our nation. Oh Father in heaven, forgive us for our great sins. Oh Father in heaven, we pray that you will have mercy in the midst of your wrath. We know that even now you are pouring forth your warning judgments upon this nation.

We pray for mercy and we pray that as you have in the past that you would send another great revival to this land. That you would send another great awakening. We pray that you will pour out your spirit in great convicting power all over this land. We pray that a great morning will go up. A morning over sin. And we pray that the people of this nation will turn from their sins and turn back to you. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.

David Scholt: We hope this week's broadcast has been a blessing to you. If you have any questions about Mr. Dodson's message, please write us. You may email us at info@watchmanradio.org. Our mailing address is Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251 Portland, Oregon 97213. That's Watchman Radio Ministries International, Post Office Box 13251 Portland, Oregon 97213. You may listen to this broadcast at any time on the internet at www.oneplace.com. In the list of ministries, just select the Watchman Radio hour. This week's program and previous programs are always available there for listening. Our web address is www.watchmanradio.org. That's w a t c h m e n radio.org.

www.watchmanradio.org.