Jude 1:7 - Homilies By T. Croskery

Third example of Divine vengeance.

This is the case of the cities of the plain.

I. THE CAUSE OF THEIR PUNISHMENT . "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah, and the cities about them, having in like manner with these given themselves over to fornication, and gone after strange flesh."

1 . God often assigns the most fertile places to the greatest sinners. Sodom is compared to "the garden of the Lord."

2 . Prosperity often becomes an occasion for much wickedness and impiety.

3 . The inhabitants of these cities of the plain were guilty of fornication and unnatural crimes.

4 . The causes of these sins were

II. THE SEVERITY OF THEIR PUNISHMENT . "Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire."

1 . There may be allusion to the rain of fire that destroyed the cities, and to the volcanic nature of the soil which underlies their present site.

2 . But that destruction is only a type of the worse destruction that overtook the guilty inhabitants.

III. THESE SODOMITES WERE PUNISHED AS AN EXAMPLE .

1 . God shows thus his hatred of sin.

2 . His desire to prevent our ruin.

3 . The inexcusableness of those who sin in the face of such examples.

4 . We need under the gospel the restraints of fear as well as the allurements of love.

5 . The same sins recur in every age, and therefore need to be very pointedly condemned.

6 . The sins of the Sodomites are more heinous if committed in this dispensation of light and privilege.

7 . Let us be thankful to God for such warnings against sin.— T.C.