Let us first read a verse: "How Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, who in like manner with these gave themselves over to fornication and went after different flesh, are set forth as an example, undergoing the penalty of eternal fire" (Jude 7). Here we see a group of people suffering the penalty of eternal fire. They suffered this penalty because of fornication. Those who fornicate will go to hell. This means that the penalty of eternal fire is the penalty of hell because the fire in hell burns eternally. If a man wants to go to hell, he can commit adultery. Hell does not reject adulterers for being too lewd and shameful. Hell welcomes adulterers. If you do not want to go to hell, you have to remove adultery.
How common is the sin of adultery? Today the worldly trend slides ever downward. "Moral obligations," values of honor and shame, and chastity found in bygone moral standards have gradually been broken down. One can turn to the newspaper and write down with a pen the incidents of adultery that occur within a day. Look at the public notice board in the courthouse and count how many cases of adultery there are in a month. Pornographic pictures and magazines, once banished and publicly forbidden, are now published and sold in broad daylight without interference. I do not know how many here have committed adultery. I do not know how many unmarried men and women here are still virgins. You can answer this yourselves. You know the sins that you have committed. God knows them also! Do not think that adultery is a pleasant thing. There is only one end for adulterers: hell. Do not think that this is an inconsequential thing. Let me tell you, adulterers will go to hell. Let me repeat, those who commit adultery will surely go down to hell.
The men and women who stand in the way between husbands and wives are the most detestable people on earth! Why do you have to rob another's husband and make the wife weep, mourn, and go without comfort at home? Why do you have to rob another's wife and cause her to have a different heart and be unfaithful to her own husband? Adultery has destroyed the peace in too many homes. Too many mothers, husbands, wives, and children have separated, being left with no comfort and with their hearts broken because of adultery! You who are sitting here, have you done any such thing? You should turn back today. If not, you will go to hell.
If we go on further and judge according to the Lord Jesus' definition of adultery, I am afraid that there will be few in the world who have not committed this sin. "But I say to you that every one who looks at a woman in order to lust after her has already committed adultery with her in his heart" (Matt. 5:28). Numerous people have committed adultery in their mind! Numerous people have committed adultery in their imagination and pictures in their mind! Why do you harbor a thought to sin against a chaste woman? She has nothing to do with you, so why do you have to have such filthy thoughts concerning her? You have indeed sinned against her. If she consents to your sin, nothing can be said. But if she is not an accomplice to your sin, why do you impose such filth on her? Women should not think that only men commit this sin. Why would men have adulterous thoughts when they see you? If they are punished because they have adulterous thoughts when they see you, should you not be punished for giving rise to their adulterous thoughts? If your dress, attire, attitude, and smile stir men up to have adulterous thoughts, and they are punished for their adulterous thoughts, will you, who have initiated their adulterous thoughts, be exempt from punishment?
The world is full of adultery! But do not think that this place is worse than others. No place on earth can match hell in the number of adulterous men and women! If you go to hell, you will find it full of adulterous men and women. Hell is the collective detention center for all adulterers throughout the centuries! I am a preacher, and I am not afraid of criticism. Let me speak an honest word to you. If you are an adulterous person, your end is hell. But the Lord Jesus has prepared a salvation! He has died for all our sins. All those who are willing to receive Him as the Savior will not perish, but will have eternal life. Adultery will bring you to hell. But you do not go to hell because of adultery itself. Many adulterers are saved and cannot go to hell anymore. Adultery can send you to hell, but you do not go to hell because of adultery itself. What does this mean? The Lord Jesus' death was for sins. He died for all sins, including the sin of adultery. The punishment for adultery has been borne by Him. For this reason, we cannot go to hell for the sin of adultery. In order to be saved, one has to believe in the Lord Jesus. Although He died for us, we will still perish unless we receive Him as our Savior. Although we cannot go to hell for adultery, adultery has the power to stop us from receiving the Lord Jesus as our Savior. Many people are perishing today because their love for sin and their own soul is stronger than their love for heaven, not because of the severity of their sins or the inability of the Lord to save them! They are hindered from coming to the Lord for life. Many women and men love their adulterous lovers. They are not willing to part from each other and are not willing to cut off their lewd passions. As a result they are unwilling to believe in the Lord Jesus and are bound for perdition. Let me speak an honest word. Either you declare a break with your adulterous lover to believe in the Lord and be saved, or you will go down with him or her to hell and live affectionately in hell eternally! Today two things are presented before you to choose: God's salvation or adulterous men and women. Will you choose heaven or will you choose those with whom you commit adultery? Either you cut off your lover or you will be barred from heaven. Those who want heaven must forsake their sin of adultery today. Otherwise, your sin of adultery will stop you from gaining heaven.
Once I met a very rich man. He was a renowned person in his own place and was very powerful. He was good in many things, but he was a very adulterous person. He had corrupted the chastity of at least a few dozen upper-class women. He was even a deacon in a church! After he heard the gospel and realized the reality of the coming age, he had to make a choice between eternal life and the many adulterous women. Thank God that he made the right choice that day. He cut off all ties with the adulterous women and received eternal life and the eternal blessing of heaven. My friends, I do not know your past history. I do not know what you have done privately in the past or what kind of sins you have committed. But I believe that inevitably some who have committed adultery are here. I would like you to make a choice now: is eternal life better or is adultery better? I beg you not to commit this sin anymore.