Watchman Radio Hour

David Schultz: Welcome to the Watchman Radio Hour, coming to you from Portland, Oregon, here in the beautiful Northwest. This is David Schultz, 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 is 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 Jude, and we will begin reading in verse 3. Let us hear the word of God. Dear friends, although I was very eager to write to you about the salvation we share, I felt I had to write and urge you to contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints. For certain men whose condemnation was written about long ago have secretly slipped in among you. They are godless men who change the grace of our God into a license for immorality and deny Jesus Christ, our only sovereign and Lord.

And 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’ve given 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, as we come to study your word today, we pray that you will send forth your Holy Spirit upon us in great convicting power. In Christ’s name we pray, amen.

There is a judgment day coming. We live as though this is not true. Great calamities strike our nation and we go on as before. We defer everything to mother nature or scientific explanations. We do not consider that God sends warnings on nations who sin against him. National calamities should drive us to our knees in mourning and repentance, but such is not the case in our sophisticated society of today. Yet these calamities should bring upon us the fear of God and make us realize that a much greater calamity is yet to come.

There is coming a great judgment day. Our present day calamities will seem small compared to that great judgment that will come at the last day. Our text for today is Jude verses 6 and 7. And again I read, 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.

Present judgments are a warning of a judgment yet to come. A judgment day is coming when we will all have to stand before the judgment seat of God. How many will be able to stand in the presence of a holy God? What preparations are we making now for that great judgment day? Let us be warned by present day calamities to get ready for the future judgment day to come. Now let us see in the first place the fact of a future judgment.

Again verse 6 says, 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. Fallen angels await the judgment day. Even at this present moment, fallen angels await in chains the day of their judgment. Matthew Henry writes, there is undoubtedly, or undoubtedly there is, a judgment to come. The fallen angels are reserved to the judgment of the great day, and shall fallen men escape it? Surely not. Let every reader consider this in due time.

Their chains are called everlasting because it is impossible they should ever break loose from them or make an escape. They are held fast and sure under them. The decree, the justice, the wrath of God are the very chains under which fallen angels are held so fast. Hear and fear, oh sinful mortals of mankind. And John Calvin, the great reformer, wrote, we must also notice the atrocity of the punishment which the apostle mentions. They are not only free spirits, but celestial powers. They are now held bound by perpetual chains.

They not only enjoyed the glorious light of God, but his brightness shone forth in them, so that from them, as by rays, it spread over all parts of the universe. And now they are sunk in darkness. But we are not to imagine a certain place in which the devils are shut up, for the apostle simply intended to teach us how miserable their condition is since the time they apostatized and lost their dignity. For wherever they go, they drag with them their own chains and remain involved in darkness. Their extreme punishment is in the meantime deferred until that great day comes.

Even the demons cried out to Jesus in Matthew 8:29, what do you want with us, son of God? They shouted. Have you come here to torture us before the appointed time? They knew there was a judgment to come and their punishment was set for a future day. The whole world awaits the judgment day. There is a judgment day coming for the whole world. In Acts 17:29 through 31, Paul says, therefore, since we are God’s offspring, we should not think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image made by man’s design and skill.

In the past God overlooked such ignorance, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent. For he has set a day when he will judge the world with justice by the man he has appointed. He has given proof of this to all men by raising him from the dead. And then in Matthew 25 and verse 31, Jesus says, when the son of man comes in his glory and all the angels with him, he will sit on his throne in heavenly glory. And all the nations will be gathered before him. And he will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

And he will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left. And then the king will say to those on his right, come, you who are blessed by my father, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. And then he will say to those on the left, depart from me, you who are cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels. John Gill writes, under the judgment of the great day, that is, the future and last judgment of men and devils, which is certain and will be universal and executed with the strictest justice that is called a day, which is fixed by God though unknown to men and angels.

And because of the evidence and quick dispatch of things, the matters judged will be as clear as the day and finished at once, and a great one, for the judge will appear in great glory. Great things will be done, the dead will be raised and all nations will be gathered together, and the process will be with great solemnity. The thrones will be set, the books opened, the several sentences pronounced and all punctually executed. The judgment of the great day is the same the Jews call the day of the great judgment.

This account shows the imprisoned state of the devils, that they are not their own lords and cannot do as they would. They are under restraints and in chains and not to be feared, which must be a great mortification to their proud and malicious spirits. And since this is the case of fallen angels, what severity may be expected from God against the opposers of the truth of the gospel? Yes, a judgment day is coming and we will all be there. Are you ready to meet your judge?

Now let us see in the second place that present great sins bring present great judgment. Verse 7 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. What were the sins of Sodom and Gomorrah? Sexual immorality and going after strange flesh or perversion. Not only were they committing these particular kinds of sins, but they had given themselves over to these sins.

Today we are surely doing the same thing. We are giving ourselves over to these same sins and we think it’s not that bad. Yet Sodom and Gomorrah came under great judgment for these same sins. Should this not make us fear? John Gill from an earlier day comments, and going after strange flesh or other flesh, meaning not other women besides their own wives, but men and designs that detestable and unnatural sin from which 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.

Today sexual immorality in all its forms pervade the nation. Should we not fear? How can we as a nation condone the very sins that God has judged with great judgment in the past? Judgment came upon them. Fire from heaven fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah and the other cities and they were destroyed. In Genesis 19:24 and 25 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 of the land. God sent judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities because of their great sins. Our nation needs to take heed to this example that has gone before us. Our sins are great and getting greater and God is already sending his warning judgments upon us. They can only get worse unless we repent of our sins.

And then let us see in the third place, present judgments point to a future great judgment. Again the text says, verse 7 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. The judgment of Sodom and Gomorrah is an example and it’s a warning to all of us. That judgment was a message to all who would come afterward, even to us today.

Michael Green writes in his commentary on Jude, but normally in scripture eternal fire means hellfire. And so the meaning probably is that their fiery destruction was a foretaste of that eternal fire which awaits the devil and all his accomplices. It represented a lasting warning to posterity. It was a standing reminder that the triumph of evil is not final. God’s judgment, though it delay, will surely come. Matthew Henry writes, the apostle here calls to our remembrance the destruction of Pentapolis or 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 consumed the sodomites with fire from heaven, and they are now suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. And therefore take heed, imitate not their sins, lest the same plagues overtake you as 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 therefore and sin not. And John Calvin, the great reformer, writes, even as Sodom and Gomorrah, this example is more general, for he testifies that God, accepting none of mankind, punishes without difference all the ungodly. And Jude also mentions in what follows that the fire through which the five cities perished was a type of eternal fire. Then God at that time exhibited a remarkable example in order to keep men in fear till the end of the world.

Hence it is that it is so often mentioned in scripture. Nay, whenever the prophets wish to designate some memorable and dreadful judgment of God, they painted it under the figure of sulfurous fire and alluded to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. It's not therefore without reason that Jude strikes all ages with terror by exhibiting the same view. And then Calvin goes on to write, when he says the cities about them in like manner giving themselves over to fornication, I do not apply these words to the Israelites and the angels, but to Sodom and Gomorrah.

It's no objection that the pronoun toutois is masculine, for Jude refers to the inhabitants and not to the places. To go after strange flesh is the same as to be given up to monstrous lusts. For we know that the sodomites, not content with the common manner of committing fornication, polluted themselves in a way the most filthy and detestable. We ought to observe that he devotes them to eternal fire, for we hence learn that the dreadful spectacle which Moses describes was only an image of a much heavier punishment.

And then John Gill writes, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire, which may be understood of that fire with which those cities and the inhabitants of it were consumed, which Philo the Jew says burnt till his time and must be burning when Jude wrote this epistle, the effects of which still continue, the land being now brimstone, salt and burning, and it's an emblem and representation of hellfire. This great judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah remains an example of God’s judgment that is yet to come.

We have warning judgments today. Calamities strike the nation and we wonder why. Do we might consider that this might be the warning of God on an ungodly nation? A call to repentance. Our pilgrim forefathers when drought struck got on their knees and prayed and confessed their sins and repented and the drought was lifted. In Joel 2:12 and 13 it says, even now, declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning. Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the Lord your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.

However, today we don’t hear the mourning when calamity strike. We don’t hear the weeping over sin. We don’t see people returning to God. Calamities strike and we wonder why. We send aid to the suffering and we rebuild. And yet we do not return to our God. We give all the credit to mother nature and figure out scientific explanations for the calamities, but we do not fear God. The warning judgments are falling and they will continue to do so until we come as a people to fear God once again as our forefathers did.

The nation as a whole has sinned and warning judgments are falling in many places because of our great sins as a people. Those who are struck down have not sinned more than we who continue to stand and observe. The warning is for all of us to repent and return to the Lord. We need to take heed to the present warnings. Samuel Holiday and DS Gregory gave an account of the great revival of 1858 here in America. They recount the testimony of a certain businessman who traveled in the West and had seen the outpouring of God’s spirit.

The man said in a neighborhood where there was a large population but no church, the people built a large schoolhouse and when it was finished they resolved to hold in it union meetings for prayer. They were commenced, were largely attended and when all who came could not get in, they would crowd around the windows to hear. And the Lord poured out his spirit in great power and many were converted. Living in the neighborhood of that schoolhouse was a very wealthy and a proud infidel. Some of his family were inclined to go to the prayer meeting.

He called his family together and said that if any of them went to that prayer meeting and got religion, as he called it, they were to be disinherited and banished from his house. His wife was included with the children. She had attended and so had his oldest daughter, which put him in a rage. The daughter continued to go to the prayer meetings and soon found peace in believing in Jesus. And when an opportunity was given for those who had a hope in Christ to make it known, she meekly arose and spoke of the great change in her heart and her humble hopes of salvation through the crucified savior.

There were those standing at the window outside who immediately went and told the father of the young lady this profession she had made. When she went home that night she met her father standing in the doorway with a heavy quarto family Bible in his arms. Maria, said he, I have been told that you have publicly professed tonight that you have got religion. Is that so? Father, said the girl, I love you and I think I love the savior too. And so he opened his Bible to a blank leaf and pointing with his finger he said, Maria, whose name is that?

It's my name, sir. Did I not tell you that I would disinherit you if you got religion? Yes, sir. Well I must do it. You cannot come into this house. And tearing the leaf of the family Bible, there, said he, do I blot out your name from among my children. You can go. And so she went to the house of a pious widow lady in the neighborhood and heard no more from her father for three weeks. And one morning she saw her father’s carriage driving up to the door and she ran out and she said to the driver, what’s the matter, James?

Your father is very sick and thinks he’s going to die and he’s afraid he shall go to hell for his wickedness and for the grievous wrong he has done you in disinheriting you and turning you from his house. He wants you to jump into the carriage and come home as quickly as possible. And so she found her father sick indeed on going home. But she soon saw that he was only sin-sick. She talked with him, she prayed with him, she endeavored to lead him to Christ. In three days the father, mother, two brothers and a sister were all rejoicing in hope.

The whole family together made heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ to the heavenly inheritance. How faithful God is to them that put their trust in him. This man did a great sin and God struck him down. But he recognized the warning. He recognized the wrath of God upon him and he repented. Today God warns us and he is striking us down through calamities of different sorts because of our great sins as a people. And yet we have not heeded the warning. We have not repented as a people and the judgments will continue.

Do you see the warnings of God upon us? Have you looked into your own heart? Have you seen your own sins? And are you mourning over the sins of the nation and over your own sins? God calls you to repentance today and he calls the nation to repentance, and he calls you to return to him. Jesus came that sinners might be saved. He didn't come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. And he calls you today and he calls others today to come to him, to turn to him in repentance and faith. Take heed to the warnings that are coming upon us and turn to the Lord while there is still time.

Our father in heaven, we recognize that even now you are sending forth your warning judgments upon this nation and this people. And we know that we have sinned as a people and we know that our sins are piled up to heaven. We pray, oh Lord, that in the midst of your wrath that you would have mercy and that you would send forth your Holy Spirit in great convicting power all over this nation. And we pray that a great mourning will begin to go up in the nation. We pray that people all over this nation will begin to mourn over their sins and that they will recognize your warnings and your judgments that are coming upon us. Oh father in heaven, please pour out your spirit in the midst of your wrath, we pray that you would pour out your spirit upon us that we might be changed, that our hearts might be changed and that we as a people might return to you. And we ask these things in Christ’s name, amen.

Before our announcer closes the broadcast, I would like to bring to your attention our children’s fund. We are helping children in Nepal, India, and Kenya. We need your help with this ongoing project. Would you prayerfully consider giving to our children’s fund? You may give online through our website at watchmanradio.org. You may also text us at 503-841-9643. That’s 503-841-9643 and indicate your desire to give to our children’s fund. Also our announcer will give you our mailing address at the close of the program. We can help one child with just $35 per month. Your gift of any amount is appreciated. Thank you.

David Schultz: 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-A-N-radio.org. www.watchmanradio.org.