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.