In this sermon, the speaker discusses the biblical stories of Noah and Lot to emphasize the importance of heeding God's warnings. He highlights how quickly the floodwaters rose during Noah's time, despite a long period of warning, and how the people ignored the signs. The speaker also mentions the story of Lot, who warned his family about the impending destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, but they laughed at him. The sermon emphasizes the consequences of ignoring God's warnings and encourages listeners to prioritize their relationship with God over worldly possessions and the opinions of others.

As we go on our way, we certainly will remember to pray for you. Sometimes when I go to a place, they say, we're glad to see you're back. They don't often say they're glad to see my face, but they're glad to see you're back. But, again, we shall remember to pray for you, and I'm sure you will pray for us. I want to read some verses now from the seventeenth chapter in the gospel as recorded by Luke, and reading from verse twenty. Luke chapter seventeen, reading from verse twenty. And when he was demanded of the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, the kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, lo here, or lo there, for behold, the kingdom of God is within you. He said unto the disciples, the days will come when ye shall desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and ye shall not see it. They shall say to you, see here, or see there, go not after them, nor follow them. For as the lightning that lightneth unto the one part of heaven shineth unto the other part of heaven, so shall also the Son of Man be in his day. But first must ye suffer many things, and be rejected of this generation. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he which shall be upon the housetop, and is stuck in the house, let him not come down and take it away. He that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. The text is just so sweet, very simple, and yet to me very provoking words. Remember Lot's wife. The disciples were watching Jesus, excuse me, disappear. For the second time in less than fifty days, they were losing him. He taught them to pray, thy kingdom come. And there wasn't a sign of it. He finished the first part of his ministry in a circus act. They put a faded, torn robe of a heathen king on him. They put a reed in his hand, and they put a crown of thorns on his head, and they pushed him around. Pilate to Herod, Herod to Pilate, Caiaphas handled him, everybody handled him. And he who said, pray thy kingdom come, ended on a scaffold. Very difficult for you and I to appreciate this. They'd invested all they had on him. They'd given up fishing businesses. One of them gave up a career as a government official. And it all ended in apparent failure. And then suddenly he appeared to them, and now again he's disappearing. He's literally going up in the sky. They're watching him go. They didn't believe him the first time. He said, if I die, I rise again. I have power to lay down my life. I have power to take it up. But they forgot it. And apparently they were going to forget this. They'd forgotten again what he said, because Jesus said, if I go, I will come again. And as he went up, reversing the law of gravity, because he had power, they heard a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son. They heard the voice of the angels saying, this same Jesus shall also come in like manner as you're seeing him go now. So there is the voice of Jesus, I will come again. There is the voice of the angels, he will come again. And then the great apostle Paul said that Jesus would come. And so we have this threefold certainty. You know, tomorrow something like, I think 50 million letters will be crossing America. Mine are always late. But they'll be crossing America, about 50 million. And every one of them bears the mark of the birth of Jesus Christ. He came once and not many people anticipated his coming, and he's coming again. But the two comings are very different. The first time he came, nobody saw him come. The next time, every eye shall see him. The first time, he was escorted with a mere handful of angels. The next time, he's coming with 10,000 of his saints. The first time he came, he came to poverty. The next time, he's coming to pageantry. The first time he came, he came to misery. A house with wall-to-wall dung, and cobwebs for curtains, and animal urine smelling all over the place, and only the heat of the animals to heat the building. The first time he came to misery, the next time he's coming to majesty. The first time he came as a lamb, he was led as a lamb, but not next time. The next time, he's not coming as a lamb, he's coming as a lion of the tribe of Judah. The first time he came, they put on his head a crown of thorns. We sung that majestic hymn of bridges twice this week. We could have sung it tonight, I love it, I never get tired of it. Crown him with many crowns. The lamb upon his throat. The first time he came, he came as the king of the Jews. The next time, he's coming as the king of kings and the lord of lords. The first time he came, he never traveled out of that tiny little country that we call Palestine. The next time he comes, he's coming in the language again of Isaac Watts, that Jesus shall reign wherever the sun does its successive journeys run. The first time he came, he came to die. The next time, he's going to raise the dead. The first time he came, he came to redeem us. The next time he comes, he's going to reign over us. It was Charles Wesley who taught us to sing the hymn, Gentle Jesus, Meek and Mild, and I think we've overdone it a bit. Jesus wasn't always gentle, he wasn't always meek, he wasn't always mild. One day he turned to the Pharisees and he said, in the morning it will be foul weather, you say, and then it will be foul weather today because the sky is red. In the evening, he said, it will be fair weather, the sky is red. Oh, you dumb hypocrites, he said. Can you see, can you read the sky and not read the sign of the times? I think he'd say that very same thing if he came back to us. Sometimes I think the only thing that we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. That's the most prophetic condemnation of humankind. We do not learn from history. I'm getting quite old. This, this week I have a birthday. I was, I was thinking tonight I was in a hot house a few years ago, and it was my birthday, I was forty-six. The man in the house said, well anybody in this house gets a dollar for every year of birthday. And so he gave me a packet with forty-six dollars in it. I thought I might have got a hundred like that this week, I didn't get one. But anyhow, I'm old enough to remember World War I, before it and after it. I'm old enough to remember that that majestic catastrophe ended at eleven o'clock in the morning on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, eleven months from the signing of the armistice with Turkey and eleven months from the time that Allenby entered into Jerusalem. Do you think that God was trying to tell the human race in 1938 that we were entering into the last hour of human destiny? A sequence of five elevens again. The war terminated at eleven o'clock in the morning on the eleventh day of the eleventh month, eleven months from the signing of the armistice with Turkey, and eleven months from when Allenby entered into Jerusalem. People say to me often, as I guess they do to other men, well do you think we're living in the last days? And I say definitely not, we're not living in the last days. Well our pastor says we are, you better give him a nudge, he's been asleep a long while. We're not living in the last days. Don't you realize that this book, the church was born in the last days. The book of the revelations speaks about things which will shortly come to pass, and they were written two thousand years ago. And as it says, John is continually saying, little children, it is the last time. And in the wonderful, fabulous book of Hebrews we studied to some degree this week, it begins, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets, hath in these last days, two thousand years ago, then on God's clock I suggest you tonight, it's not even five minutes to the midnight hour, it's not even one minute to the midnight hour, I believe we're living right on the edge, just before the final stroke of the clock that will bring Jesus Christ back. An event in history that didn't matter too much to us was the war in 1967. One of the signs of the end of the age is when you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, has it ever been more surrounded than it is tonight? When you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, look up! Your redemption draws nigh. 1967, less than three million Jews fought more than thirty million Arabs, and the Jews licked the Arabs. Somebody asked the chief rabbi how it was that they accomplished one of the greatest wars in history, one of the greatest military upsets in history, in six days. The devout old rabbi bowed his head and said, have you forgotten the scripture says, six days shalt thou labour? What does it say? They shall fall by the edge of the sword, 21 verse 24 of Luke, you don't need to look at it. Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. And the Jews, pardon me, the Gentiles have been treading down Jerusalem since Nebuchadnezzar 2,500 years ago. Moshe Dayan is certainly not a devout Jew, he rather makes fun of religion. He's only got one eye but he seems to see quite a bit. And he walked up to the wailing wall, those last stones, the remnants of Herod's temple, and put his finger on one of those stones and said, this is the hour of the Jew, this is our holy of holies, I'm not a religious man, this is the holy of holies. This is where the slaves were, this is where the patriarchs were, this is the most sacred place on earth for the Jews, we've got it and we'll never surrender it again. And I don't believe they ever will. I believe that began the countdown to the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you see Jerusalem trodden down of the Gentiles, until the time of the Gentiles and when it's released, that sets the alarm clock for the end of the age and it started in 1967. There are as many angles to the return of the Lord Jesus Christ, theologically, prophetically, as there are spokes in a wheel, and one can never cover them a night like this. You could spend a whole night about the Antichrist, you could spend a whole night concerning the Jews. Maybe the most dramatic race of people. Remember again, and I remind you of this, that God was married to the Jews and he divorced the Jews and he's going to remarry the Jews. Now I believe, and I think my dear friend David, I noticed that little Texan just came in, and uh, I believe he said, this view, that this is not only the midnight hour for America, it's the midnight hour for the world. There are some frightening days ahead of us. And in the 12th chapter of Hebrews there, that there is coming a period in human history when everything, economically, socially, religiously, morally, everything that can be shaken will be shaken, but the kingdom that cannot be shaken will remain. I said at the Southern Baptist Convention, I got there once, I'm sure the only time I ever will, but somebody has to shake the dry bones. And I said if I gave you a paper and pen and asked you to sign on that piece of paper what or who you think is the greatest enemy to America, you could start with the devil, finish with the Democrats in between, have divorce and drink and dope and I don't know what, and you'd miss it entirely. Because I'm convinced tonight, with all the power of my being, should I die five minutes from when I finish preaching, I'd answer to God with a clear conscience that I believe the greatest threat to America tonight is God. I remind you he divorced the Jews, he's left them alone for two thousand years, five times in the history of the world have almost been annihilated. And God has let them be kicked around like a football, they've been imprisoned and ostracized and penalized and victimized. And God looks on and doesn't bother. You see one day they took the Son of God to the cross, and as he went there he said, please just let me say one thing to you, you're not stealing my life, I have power to lay it down and I have power to take it up. And I want to tell you something, you're not rejecting me, I'm rejecting you, your house is left unto you desolate. For two thousand years God hasn't bothered with the Jews, they may hold their money back to the world, they may control the movie industry, they control banks, they control most of TV and what have you got? But as regards the blessing of God, he's totally ignored them. If God walks out on the nation that he married and then divorced, what makes you think that almighty God, the holy being in eternity, is dependent on America or England tonight? The most frightening scripture almost in the book of the Revelation, it's a terrible book, takes you to the edge of the hell and you see millions there in torment, it takes you to heaven and you see the vastness and wonder of it. But it also says this concerning a church, if you go so far and you don't repent of your sin, I'll remove your candlestick. And I remind you again of one of the most brilliant and modern American writers, Francis Schaeffer. Francis Schaeffer says in his book, Debt in the City, which he says again, dealing with Romans 1, 2, 3, We put in God, as redemptive as it is of America already, they throw their noses at him. We break God's law, does he have to get, we put in God we trust, and legalize abortions. And David, uh, stayed out there, I forget the name for a moment, has legalized prostitution in the so-called Christian country. We're more drug addicts, we're more perverts, we're more divorces, we're more illegitimate children, we're more kids with VD under 16 years of age than any country in the world. I've lived in some of the subculture of New York and walked it at midnight, walked it at midday, been there in the mayor's special research into drug addiction and who controls it in America. And yet when you've done, when you've told me that America has reached the bottom of the pile, when you've told me of the threat of Communist power, and Breed's nephew's laughing on his plane going home tonight, he got everything he wanted. The dollar has never been more fixed, but he managed to pull another one. They still owe America 1.5 billion dollars from the last war, but he said, I want 400 million of credit, we'll pay you in about 30 years. And he got the finest terms, and he sold us some gas. But I noticed the other day, uh, Senator Jackson said, we buy this, whatever it is, a hundred cubic feet, say, per argument, we buy it for 70 cents and they're going to generously sell it from Russia at two dollars to us. The grain bins across the nation are empty tonight according to HHMPY, that's why you pay so much for your steak, we get it all for Russia at a cut price. We have no gas. At the end of the street there is a gas station, no gas, a big sign. We've no meat. We're at the bottom of the pile, lower than we've ever been in the history of America. We've no morality. We haven't much of a government right now according to Watergate either. But when you've told me the worst, and when you've counted the last bomb that Russia has, and the last bullet, and the last menace, and if you like you can steal and cheat on the secret plans they have for destroying America, and when you've said it all I'll tell you there's one thing worse than the whole accumulated threat to America tonight, in my judgment, and that is a sick church in a dying world. I read you this scripture from the 17th chapter, Luke, briefly. Jesus has in front of him his disciples, and immediately behind them are the Pharisees, and under pressure from these men, they're asking, what shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the age? And Jesus says certain things, and then with three words he throws our minds back 3,000 years to three people. Because if you remember Lot's wife, you must remember Lot. If you remember Lot, you must remember Abraham. The story begins in the 11th chapter of Genesis, it goes right through to the 19th chapter of Genesis. In the language of Charles Dickens, it's a tale of two cities. It's a study in two attitudes. It's a man who refused to be mesmerized by the materialism of the world, and it's another man, as we would say, a Christian, and he fell for the whole thing. It's a little fellow that started off in Ur of the Chaldees, and he was nameless and homeless and wifeless and childless, positionless, possessionless, and he got on the Guinness Spiral, you know, rags to riches, one cabin to white house, super edition of it, and he climbed up and up and up until he became the mayor of the city, and a judge, he sat in the gate, and then judgment came, and he ended where he began. He ended nameless, wifeless, almost childless, positionless, possessiveness, he had nothing to cover him. And not only is it true that we do not learn from history, we do not learn from the tragedies in the word of God, I don't know, we'd be smarter than we are. Isn't it strange that concerning one of the most fantastic things in history, that Jesus cuts it off by saying, remember Lot's wife. Who in the world is interested in Lot's wife? Why did Jesus say remember Lot's wife? Was she wicked? All women are wicked. I mean, uh, well, sure they are. You say, what about men? Doesn't the Bible say men shall wax worse and worse? Oh yes, evil men are waxing worse and worse. If you knew some of the schemes to rot and destroy the youth of America tonight, you wouldn't sleep for the next four nights and you'd take all the barbiturates you like. They'd never have effect on you. If you knew the cunning of hell to destroy our generation, we'd be scared. Evil men are waxing worse and worse. What about women? Oh, brother. They've been getting worse ever since Adam's rib to women's lids. Put that in your notebook. Right. Oh yes, they're getting worse. Their situation is getting worse and worse. Why remember Lot's wife? No, she wasn't more wicked than anyone else. If Jesus wanted, he could have chosen some other wife. The wife of, maybe, Samson. Maybe the wife of Ahab, Jezebel. He isn't choosing someone who is exceptionally wicked. He's choosing somebody, in the language of the word of God, that he or she who is often reproved and hardened her neck, was cut off suddenly and without remedy. Where did he get his wife? I don't know. Would you like to suggest he got his wife in Ur of the Chaldees? All right, I'll accept that. If he got his wife in Ur of the Chaldees, she was a member of the world's first missionary party, because Abraham was the first missionary in history. And even though she lived against this colossal spiritual figure and was a member of the world's first missionary party, she perished. Maybe he didn't get his wife in Ur of the Chaldees. Maybe like so many men in the Old Testament, he got his wife by the side of a well. And I can see him rushing in one day and saying to his uncle, I want to tell you something. And he said, you told me. Told you what? You've fallen in love. I've seen men like you before. You've just fallen in love. That's all there is to it. Oh, but you've never seen a woman like this. Oh, Uncle Abraham, in fact, she's such a vision. I'm just not sure if she's an angel or a woman. Well, there's one thing for sure. No man goes looking for a witch. He may get one, but boy, he doesn't go looking for one. She's so beautiful. And I can hear the old man saying, wait a minute. Do you remember where she comes from? Remember this. She's one of the lesser breeds without the law. She's heathen, as we would say. This thing won't work. Dirty. Love is not only blind, it's deaf. It doesn't take any heed. And the story goes on. It tells how these men prospered. The hand of God was on them. And one day Abraham calls his nephew Lot, and he says, Lot, look, I want to talk to you a minute. I was looking from the hilltop there, and your herdsman was striving with my herdsman about a piece of territory. Now, this isn't Christian, as we would say. Why don't we settle this thing? If you want to take that side of the valley, I'll take this, and if you'll take that, I'll take that. And he says, oh, Uncle Abraham. You see, there was one thing Uncle Abraham did God didn't want him to do. He went into Egypt. And the young fellow had big eyes, and he saw Egypt and its flesh pots and its prosperity and its gilts and its gold and its glitter. And when Uncle Abraham says, which side of the valley do you, well, who's going to live on that mountain? Pooh. There's no grass there much. And not only this side of the valley has green grass and beautiful water, but there's Sodom. And he pitched his tent towards Sodom, that's all. Oh, he got his eye on the main chant. Boy, I'll make some millions here pretty quick. And Uncle Abraham said, you want that side of the valley? He said, yeah, yeah, I'll take that side of the valley. Uncle Abraham said, well, that's all right. You see, if he'd been a gentleman, he would have said, Uncle Abraham, you're the older person and you should make your choice. It's not my privilege. I would still be in awe of the Chaldees, but for your kindness, you choose that side if you want. Abraham said, so I'll have to go away. And the Lord said, and I like the way the Lord talked to him. He said, Abraham, and he said, here I am. He said, go back and stand on that rock you're at. Look north, south, east, west, all, A-L-L. All the land that thou seest, I'll give it to thee. But my nephew's just taken all this territory. No, no, no, he hasn't. He just borrowed it. I'm going to give you the whole, and he gave him the boundaries of the area where he was to inherit, and they're still going to inherit that, the Jews. And Uncle Abraham went up the mountain. And Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. He did his banking and his business there. He got involved there. He became very important there. And God said, this isn't good. I'll have to upset this business. And so you have a battle of five kings against four. And they came and invaded the city. And they threw a rope around the neck of Lot, and they dragged him out of the city, and they took his cattle, and they took his treasures. And somebody ran after this wonderful man, or ran up the hill and said, Abraham, they've taken your nephew, Lot. Use a phrase David used this morning, old Abraham might have said, let him stew in his own juice. I've been warning him a long time. He's getting backslidden. He's not worshiping God. He never comes up the mountain and offers sacrifice and talks about things spiritual. It'll do him good. Well, instead of that, Uncle Abraham took over 200 servants. He was a rich man. And he went and rescued Lot out of the hands of his enemies. And as Abraham and Lot were coming down the road, they met this mysterious, majestic, marvelous Melchizedek. And immediately Abraham saw him. He fell at his feet, and he worshipped him, and he offered him tithes. The young man didn't. He was in a hurry. Thanks, Uncle Abraham. I've got to get to business again. I lost all my property, and I'll have to get. No, Abraham worshipped, and he offered tithes. But the young man didn't offer any tithes. He was far too busy. Is it true? Far too busy. He went back to business, recovered some of his losses. But he didn't merely go and pitch his tent to old Sodom. He went and lived in Sodom. And as bad as it was that he went and lived in Sodom, the trouble was Sodom got into him. Abraham was on the mountain, communing with God. This man is getting more and more involved, extending his territory, deepening his investment, feeling more success and security. Do you see? Two daughters were born to him, and he married them off to Sodomites. We've changed the word for Sodomy. It's a dirty word, and we try and make it a bit smoother with homosexuality. England has legalized the damnable thing, and America's pushing to legalize it. And I've got news for you teenagers. You'd better live very near to God, because there are days just up the road, and I expect to see them anyhow, that are going to be the most terrible days in history. Because you don't legalize abortion, you don't take living babies out of living women. And what do you do with the living babies? Mind your own business, the government says. If somebody buys them for dog meat, do you wonder your dog licks his lips? You say men wouldn't be as bad as that. If they'll take living babies out of living women, they're bad enough to do anything. And we're a Christian country, we're not a communist country, and we've legalized abortion. Nevada's legalized prostitution. Some of the filthiest films ever shown are being shown now. We've reached an all-time low in morality or immorality. And you don't break God's laws. God watches the divorce courts of America and England every day, and marriages are broken and kids are tossed around. I think there's about 20 million battered between fathers and mothers that are restless. What do you expect to inherit in the next generation? Sodom and Gomorrah, England and America, for they're the modern Sodom and Gomorrah. You see, you can preach your heart out. Kids in America don't care a hill of beans. Those kids may be going to hell, what do they care? They'll laugh at the preacher's talk, nudge each other. I'll tell you one thing going around, if you come into the world, you'll never find heathen children that are rude. They may not be educated like you are. Some could hardly say they're ABCs, but they sit up mouth when you tell them the gospel. It runs in your ears now to some of you kids, and you'll land in hell unless you repent anyhow. He not only picked his tent towards Sodom, he went and lived in Sodom. He married his children off to Sodomite. And do you know one reason that God blessed this amazing man Abraham? You'd hardly guess. Because of his tithes and offerings. No, no, no, no. God said this, Abraham, he knows how to take care of his children. Do you know how to take care of yours? I was in a church a few years ago on the west coast, and after the morning service, a man came up to the front with his son, and I was standing here, and I looked straight in his eyes. He was a huge, huge man with a big, big son. They thanked me for the message, and I thanked them. We had a wonderful move that week. They had to take petitions down in the church. God filled the place. People were wonderfully saved. At the end of the week, the man came again, and he said Sunday night, I want to thank you for this week. It's been very wonderful. And I said, well, fine. By the way, I haven't seen your son around. Oh, no, no, he's been very busy this week. Very busy. He's a very gifted boy. He can pilot our family plane. You should see him handle our speedboat. We were on vacation, and he managed the whole business. He's a great boy. Straight-A student. All the girls like him. He's the best boy in the high school. Everybody likes him. But I said, he hasn't been to church one night. No, no, no, he's very busy. I said, why didn't you make him come to church? Make him come to church? Well, I said, what does he weigh? About 200 pounds? Big boy like that? I suppose when he's 19. I didn't know he was still in school. I said, 19? 19? He's only 40. I said, he's a huge fellow. Why didn't you make him come to church? Make him? Do you know what he weighs? I don't care what he weighs. I said, he's got a man's body, and a boy's brain, and a boy's emotions, and a boy's soul. Why don't you make him come to church? Oh, I don't push my ideas on him. Does he go to school? I just told you, he's a straight-A student. He's a wonderful boy. You mean to say you don't have a single problem with that boy? Well, he said, we do have one. You'll be amazed what it is. Do you know he can't get up in the morning? You can't get him out of bed. I said, well, fancy that. An athlete. Too, too big, muscular boy, and he can't get out of bed in the morning. He said, as a matter of fact, the other morning I couldn't get him out. I took a wet sponge and rubbed it on his face. I said, boy, you're cruel. He said, yesterday morning he wouldn't get out. I got out of the bed and I tipped the bed and flopped him on the floor. Oh, I said, what a cruel father. What a cruel father. Well, what do you want me to do? I said, you don't believe in pushing your ideas on him, you're saying? You wouldn't make him come. Why make him go to school? You should go in his room in the morning and say, John, excuse me, but I'm in a business and I know you don't want to go to school and it's all right, my dear boy. I just wonder if you'd like your eggs sunny-side up and how much toast you need and whether you want coffee. And then at eleven o'clock, what would you like, Mountain Dew or Coke or Pepsi? And then at twelve, what would you like, steak or something? He said, are you crazy? I said, no, are you? I think you are. You don't know how. Oh, my boy, his head. I must develop his head and look after him, but his heart. Abraham knew how to take care of his children. There is a law that was mentioned before, it's a moral universe, and God established that law and you can't break it, that whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. If you sow a thought, you reap an act. If you sow an act, you reap a habit. If you sow a habit, you reap a character. If you sow a character, you reap a destiny. You train your children. I made up my mind years ago, asked my sweetheart, that if my boys did not follow the Lord, I would not preach until they did. I'm not going to rescue your kids from hell if mine are going. I'm not going to tell you how to train your family if my children are prodigals and rebels. They're all on distant mission fields tonight, the three of them, thank God. He knoweth how to take care of his children. Do you? Some of you know where your pedigree cat is at ten o'clock at night, but you don't know where your daughter is. You discipline in other areas, but not this area. You'd be amazed if I were to ask you tonight for a show of hands, which I wouldn't, not because I'm afraid that I won't, but if I asked you for a show of hands how many people here have a family altar, that every day the word of God is open and daddy kneels and prays and he protects his family before they go out. With the waking, whatever time I wake, I usually get up early in the morning, before the dawn. The first thing I try to do is like Job, cover my precious boys so they can pray for themselves. And the first thing I do is say, Lord, now, thank you for this day. I worship you. Put your hand on Paul, on David, on Philip. Keep them this day. Yeah, the steps of these men are very interesting. Wasn't it David this morning, was it, talked about a friend, what a friend we have in Jesus. You know, I'm convinced in my heart, as I look at the aggregate reports of iniquity and sin and vileness, and David could tell you quite a lot about the Mafia if he would, but he won't and he's sensible. If you knew the things that are threatening our age beyond just the political and economic things, if you knew what demon power is going to break over America, if you knew what's been designed by communism and otherisms, I tell you again, we'd hardly sleep. And I'm persuaded, I'm persuaded that this is not only a lost generation, it is lost, L-O-S-T, lost, but I'm equally sure it's not only a lost generation, I'm convinced it's the last generation before Jesus comes. God has kept his anger back, but when that dam bursts, there's nothing beautiful to the lamb. There's nothing more angry. Pro rata, a lion can't get as angry as a lamb. And the Word of God speaks about the wrath of the lamb. We do despise, we break his laws, this is the Sabbath day, the holy day, who gives the day? It's fantastic, there are not many churches that get a congregation like this in America, I'll tell you that. Many churches don't even have a Sunday night service. And one condition of revival is if you take your foot from the Sabbath from doing your pleasure on my holy day, but we play our big baseball, and our Christian athletes sanctify the Sabbath before you try and knock a guy's head off, they go and read 1 Corinthians 13 about love and then they punch a fellow to jelly when he's under, one of the fellows playing for the Dolphins says he often prays when he's down in the scrum, boy you need to with six 200 pound guys on top of you, better pray then, might be the last time you pray. But you see we sanctify, it's Sunday, so Christian athletes get together, read a few little texts of Scripture, and then go out and break the Sabbath. One of the Christian athletes said if Jesus was back today he'd be a great competitor. That man doesn't know his ABC, he doesn't know his A, never mind BC. David was going to preach tonight I think on Isaiah's vision, the holy one, and when Isaiah saw him and when John saw him who put his head on the bosom of Jesus and when he saw him resurrected he fell at his feet as dead. Are you suggesting that the Christ holy God is going to be a competitor in sports? Pure insanity. Call your rivals if you like, but don't tell me the Christian athletes. Tell me the good moral nice boys that may teach a Sunday school class, but brother you play the game by that book, they play the game by the rules they get when they play soccer or when they play football or whatever they play, and you play Christianity by this book, not by why somebody thinks about it. The laws are in the book. You know God looked on the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah and he got angry. As I reminded you Wednesday night, God said he's going to give his son the heathen. There's going to be a day when men will cry rocks and hills, fall on us. I talked with a banker quite recently, I asked him about the dollar, is it going to get weaker, he said I can't see it recovering. Never been weaker, never been more sick. Somebody wrote a book twenty years ago and I used to cross the Atlantic, I remember handling it, we're spending ourselves to bankruptcy and they laughed in the face of the man and said you couldn't spend Uncle Sam's interest, never mind his money. We have the biggest national debt we've ever had and there's no way of getting out of it. And if I understand it right, that reserve dollar that you have, it says what on the dollar reserve something has nothing to do with the government, they don't own the money in America, it's owned by about five banks. anyhow. We're in a tight spot. Oh, we're very proud of some things and so we should be. I don't know why, why do you shoot all these rockets up in the sky and give them the name of heathen gods? What is the symbol of America? America's beautiful eagle, England have a boulder. Now you don't have to believe a word I say, go home and recognize, wait up by the word, wait by the fact. Do you know when America started, do you know when England started going down? When she devalued the Bible. Do you know when America started going down? When she put the Bible out of schools. But David reminded us last night, when the Bible went out of schools, these guys were allowed to preach false religion. You can't push it onto the boys in naval academies and naval reserve, but you can teach them transcendental religion and some of the mystic stuff of the east which is devilish. We're very proud of scientific achievement. But do you know, I rubbed up against a text that rather upset me. The eagle is symbolic of America. We're the only nation in the world to put anybody on the moon. Much as the way Obadiah was thinking about this a few thousand years, he says, Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, I will bring thee down, saith the Lord. Only one nation did that. Let me remind you, Sodom and Gomorrah perished. God got angry, pulled a switch if you like, and he burned them up. As my book says, Sodom had no Bible. Sodom had no church. Sodom had no preacher. Sodom had no gospel broadcast. America has more gospel broadcasts in one day than Europe has in six months. We have more Bible schools in one state than the whole of Europe. We're the most privileged nation under heaven. And yet, alas, we have more iniquity. God got angry, what did he do? Well, he had a few friends around, and you know what, he still has a few friends around. You say, you're rough on America. I'm only telling you the truth if I'm not spit it out, rejected. America has given birth to every modern abominable religion. You can start with Jehovah's Witnesses and go to Mormonism and the revival of Spiritism and go down the list and every one of them was hatched. And I use the word by choice, hatched in this country. But then when you've said that, let me balance the scale quickly and I remind you that some of God's greatest praying men are in this country. Not in Sinai's day, not way back there two centuries, but tonight. You won't hear some of you let me remind you. I've got a friend up by Chicago tonight who is eighty-eight years of age and he's more vitality and thin, his cheeks are red, his eyes are bright blue. And at eighty-eight years of age that man will not go to bed tonight and he hasn't been to bed one night for twenty-eight years. Twenty-eight years. He's gone into his private little home at eight, ten o'clock at night and prayed right through till twelve. One, two, three, four, five, six, whenever God lifts the good. He doesn't ask anybody to share it, he won't make you photograph him. I'd like my friend the editor of this season to write his story but he wouldn't tell it, he won't make him photograph it. That man has a relationship with God that I envy. I'm not concerned to call rich men are brilliant men, my friends. Life's too short for me to hang on the tail of any man, though I respect men of all kinds, I mean not inhonorable men. But I like a prayer life like that man has. He's one of the super millionaires. He's the Paul Getty of the spiritual world. He's a multi, multi, multi, multimillionaire, spiritually. I don't think he had a change of clothes. God has some friends. That man is a friend of God, he was praying a while ago and God said to him, there's going to be an outpouring, don't worry. You know that man and his group have been praying for revival north of Chicago, they've been praying for 40 years. And there's one or two little old ladies that don't look perhaps as good as he is. They're seven feet up, they've got a few wrinkles, and they're the brightest, most vivacious, most wonderful people I've ever met in America, I think. And they're the most amazing praying group, and they're fresh and new. And they say, you know, it's 40 years since we started praying for revival and God tells us it's getting nearer and nearer. And God said to this godly man one night, you know what? There's going to be a rending of the heavens. I'm going to fulfill my prophecy. Whatever you think about another prophetic program, God is going to carry this through and the gates of hell will not resist it. And he says that before the end time he's going to pour out his spirit in all things. And I look at these teenagers with envy. If I could have one thing in the world, I wouldn't want Pearl to get his wealth or somebody's genius. I just want to go back, I think, to when I was 20 or 25 and say, Lord, let me relive those years with a bit more sense than I had and put my life on the altar and not take one beat of my heart back again. God told this man in the next outpouring of the Spirit of God that one billion people are going to be saved. Nobody's going to run around with a tent. There are going to be no healing line. He's going to pour out his spirit on all flesh. And I tell you before God, as God's my witness, I've been praying that God will make this Park Avenue Church a shop window. That people will come like they go to the Mayo Clinic. I've met people in other countries, seen them in the airport, shaking and saying, oh, I'm sorry you're sick. Where are you going? I'm going to the Mayo Clinic. The only place in the world they have the answer to my problem. And I want to see God raise up an apostolic church, and I couldn't think of a better place than Park Avenue, where people will come from all over America to see what God is doing. Your sons and your daughters prophesy, your young men see visions, your old men dream dreams, and all your servants and handmaids pour out thy spirit. It's time for God to blast the works of darkness and render the kingdom of the hell of thunder, and to say, I assure you that I am still God. And God is looking for candidates tonight. God has always had friends. He that hath ears, let him hear. Are you listening in to God? God said, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. I've only got one friend on earth. That's our little old man up there, Abraham. Do you hear that? Do you think that when God's going to pull the string and send the Holy Ghost revival, he's going to go to the White House and tell Mr. Nixon, with all due respect, no, he's never done that. He didn't go to Lox, the mayor of the city. He didn't go to Lox, the judge. He went to the praying man, and he said, Abraham. And he said, yes, Lord, here I am. He said, you know, Abraham, I can't hide from you what I'm going to do. I can hide it from that bunch of wicked people. They don't want me in here. But I can't hide it from you. Abraham, I'm going to utterly destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, that man should have fed on the hill. Well, they deserve it, Lord. I had to go down the other day. I saw the divorce list. I saw the immorality. I saw the flesh pot. Lord, it's just an outpost of hell. You know, God didn't destroy Sodom and Gomorrah in anger. He destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah in mercy. If he hadn't have destroyed them, they would have destroyed themselves with an ill disease. Do you know the two signs? He says, as it was in the days of Lot, as it was in the days of Noah. What was the sign just before God poured his anger out? Now, I say this, and I'm going to write it in a letter to the person you know who it is, that I can think nothing more asinine, more idiotic, spiritually, than a bunch of pretty short-skirted girls on TV and what looked like boys, clapping their hands, and saying to this world, which is just one beat from the wrath of God, something good is going to happen to you today. Can you imagine Noah standing on his ark an hour before God just flooded the world, and all the pretty folk on the deck of the ship saying something good is going to happen to you today. That's about as insane as you can get. Something good is still going to happen. God is going to pour out his wrath upon us. And Abraham wanted to tell you something, I'm going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. What did Abraham do? Broke his heart, that's what he did. I can't hide it from Abraham. No, he didn't go down to the mayor, he didn't go down to the judges, he didn't go down to the intellectuals. They couldn't hear it. Wasn't it Ruskin that was going down the street one day with a friend and he said, excuse me a minute. The man said, what's wrong? Didn't you hear that little thing down there chirping? Chirping? I couldn't hear anything in the traffic of London. Oh, there's a little creak. There it is, look, it's just calling. He got a bit further down the street and somebody dropped a coin. The businessman said, did you hear that? He said, no, I didn't hear a thing. He said, somebody just, somebody just dropped a penny. Depends what your ears tune in to. Mrs. Lott says to her husband, you know, dear, I think it would be nice if you went to see Uncle Abraham. I've just been thinking about seeing him for over a year. And you know, except for his kindness, you'd still be in, you'd still be in order of the Cowleys, you'd still be a cowboy, you wouldn't have anything. And look at your ranch and look at the home and we just put another big swimming pool in and you know, I mean, we've got it made. Isn't everything lovely? All right, dear, if you feel like that. She says, wait till I get on my Christian Dior dress and some weights in my ears and rings on my fingers and a few things. Abraham lived on the mountain. Abraham built his altar. Abraham said his prayers. This man had forgotten all about that. He got so prosperous he hadn't time to thank God even. And as they went up the mountain, suddenly she grabs him and she says, did you hear that? Hear what? You didn't hear it. Hear what? I heard Uncle Abraham crying. Oh, sweetie, come on, you're getting nervous. That wasn't Uncle Abraham. I knew Uncle Abraham's voice and he was crying. All right, darling, let's sit down on this bank and listen. And suddenly they heard something that God only heard once. They heard a praying man. A man who had received a forward notice that God was going to destroy his father and he says, I'm going to make a last ditch stand. And Abraham is there behind the glass and he lifts up his voice and he says, my God, peradventure they lack 10 of the 50. What's he praying about? Let's wait a bit longer. Peradventure they lack 10 of the 40. Look out for the lack of 10. Destroy the city. Destroy. Now, what's going to happen if not one piece of the city was destroyed? Darling, I don't know what he's saying. Wait a minute. Peradventure they lack 10 of the 40 and he goes down and finally he says, Lord, will you please be patient just once. Oh, this is praying. This is praying. He's the only man to stand in the gap. And you know what he says? Then the fire of the Lord fell away when Abraham stopped making intercessions. Because you see, while Lot was in Sodom, God had not represented him before then and while Abraham was on the mountain, then I was represented with God. But as soon as Abraham quit praying, the fire fell. And Abraham stood there sweating and agonizing with a broken heart. Oh, God, he said, if I just find 10 righteous, that's not many is it? Five in Sodom and five in Gomorrah, that's all. And if he was saved and his wife was saved, that was two, and his two daughters were four, and if his son-in-law had been saved, that would be six. God was only asking for four others. In the 20 years he'd lived in Sodom, God is only asking for two people out of Sodom and two out of Gomorrah. And here's a man sweating his way in and out of the commercial life of the city and the social life. And at the end of those years, he couldn't find 10. Do you know what I think the most amazing thing is in this present point of history? And it will be interesting to talk about some of the countries that we want, not a situation. I think the most interesting thing to me at this moment is the mercy of God, that we're not burning like Sodom and Gomorrah in England and America. We have launched more revivals, we have given more to the Jews, we've established more missionaries and missionary societies, and yet we're both at the bottom of a scrapheap tonight. The British Empire has dissolved in the last 50 years. America's name is more dishonorable tonight than ever, partly through Watergate, partly through the dollar going down, through a hundred things. And of course, these dear teenagers don't know a thing about depression. They live like kings. The last depression, you got a new dress once in three years if you were fortunate, or you got one cut down from the neighbors. I've stood in bread lines at 5 o'clock, 4 o'clock in the morning as a kid in England for bread. The mercy of God. Loth is busy in his house, there's a knock at the door. Goes to the door, hear a true angel. He's startled. The angel says, hurry up, get out of the city. The Lord's going to pull the switch and destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And he says, well, could you hold it a minute? Well, not much longer, what do you want? I want to run over the street there and go to my son's in-law. And he went and knocked at their door and they said, oh, hello daddy, how are you? And he said, I want to tell you something, hurry up and get out of here. God is going to destroy it. And they laughed him to scorn. His children laughed him to scorn. Sir, lose your job, lose your health, lose your money, lose your home, lose anything. Don't lose the respect of your family, you're sunk. His children laughed him to scorn. These men said, oh, you've got two men there. And do you know, they even wanted sex relations with angels, the filthy creatures they were. And he said, look, you'd better get your wife out of this because you don't have much time. As soon as you put your foot over the boundary line of the city, you're going to trigger God's judgment and the heavens will open and fire will destroy the city. And he said to his wife, come on. And his wife wouldn't come and that merciful God who already had sent the angels, he sent another angel who grabbed her by the wrist and dragged her out of the city. And as she was going out, he said, well, this dumb angel doesn't know what I'm doing and I want to take one look at the country club and one look at the place where I bought my nice thing. She was outwardly, she was following, but inwardly, she was fretting. Where your treasure is there, your heart will be. And she looked back. She didn't go back, she looked back. And dear Billy Graham often says, when he's preaching, remember tonight you're listening to a man with lips of clay. Well, tonight you're not listening to a man with lips of clay, you're listening to a woman with lips of salt. This woman is maybe your last stop before you go to a lost eternity. But before you say a final goodbye to God, I'm going to run my own. Remember Lot's wife. She was warm, she was often reproved, she hardly meek and suddenly, I see, dead on the boundary line, she was destroyed. How merciful God is. The last brief thing. And I mean brief. What were the two signs in the days of Lot? Number one, violence covered the earth. Number two, corruption. You can't find a government in the world tonight that isn't corruption. You can't find a nation on the heaven that isn't plagued with violence in one shape or another. And I can tell you something I learned today which I will not because it would give me incongruence that would scare maybe the daylights out of most of us if we knew it. Sin is the power of working and living. I'm not a racist. But I want to remind you something tonight, ladies and gentlemen, that no new white nations are being born. Every new nation that's born is a black nation. I used to go in the United Nations to borrow material when I was editing a magazine in New York for David Wilkerson and I was always amazed it was a constant throng of confronting people you very seldom saw a white person. You get a picture of the United Nations when they're assembled and instead of somebody having teeth and one or two missing it looked as though, well, you've just got one or two white people there and all the rest of the colored nations. I'm not arguing the pro and con. I'm reminding you that our day is nearly out. I'm reminding you that the white nations have had the greatest privilege in history. Why? Because we built our jurisprudence. We built our nation on the word of God. Until very recently Shepard, wasn't it Shepard the puritan who founded Harvard? Until recently those were not co-ed schools. They're not co-ed anymore. No, they're not co-ed. They're co-bed. You couldn't get your daughter in some of those schools not long ago. You send your daughter now she may spend the night and the powers that be say, well, of course this is the private life of the students it's not our business this week together. If this happens in Christian countries what do you think happens in heathen countries or communist countries? The final thing God had mercy he sent an angel God had mercy he dragged the woman out of the mess. But he still looked back. I remind you again Sodom had no Bible Sodom had no preacher Sodom had no Bible school Sodom had no broadcast Sodom had no Bible but they cherished. Well, in God's name as I stand before him tonight, what do you think is going to happen to America with churches every corner and Bible schools and all the literature that we have and we're still in this immortal mess rebelling against God. Finally as it was in the days of Noah what did Noah do? He built an ark. And they came up and said what are you doing old boy? And he said I'm building an ark. For what? Have you ever realized it had never rained in the history of the world or had never been rained? God watered the earth with dew. By night and morning there was a heavy dew they'd never seen a shower of rain. And this, I mean you know he's a nice fellow that fellow Noah a very nice man the only thing is he's got just a bit too much religion. He never tells dirty stories he never swears he never has a shady business deal but every time you go he talks about judgment and meditation of God and so forth. And that big crate he's building you know what he says? He says oh they're going to come in the ground holes and water come up and holes in the sky and water come down and the water's above me the water's beneath and God's going to destroy. I mean you know he's a nice fellow but when you get it as bad as that I mean you're in bad shape. He needs a psychiatrist or something a little bit of help would be all right for him poor old guy. They went along one day and Noah after a hundred and twenty years if you'd seen Noah ripping that plank with his saw you would have heard his spirit groaning louder than the old saw. If you'd looked at the saw you'd have seen it was rusty where his tears had fallen because while it was a mark of salvation to him it was a mark of damnation to the rest of mankind. And he knew that God kept his word as fully as you and I know it. And one day they went along and he finished the ark and he says my my this is really something it's a colossal thing what are you going to do and he said well if you come around tomorrow I'm going to put the animals in. Oh they must have laughed when they you know they they clapped their hands the elephants came in just a bit too much for us. Well, bon voyage, have a good trip. And he came back on deck and he said, I just got a telegram from heaven, the Lord just sent me a word, and you know what he said? I've been patient for a hundred and twenty years, it won't do many at me any harm, it might do them a lot of good if I don't send the rain for another seven days, that's one of the most amazing texts, I've never heard a sermon on it in my life. Yet seven days, a hundred and twenty years, seven days, are you going to come in, are you going to get in while there's a chance? You see, he gave dimensions for the length and the breadth and the height and the window and the walls and the animals, but he said, no, there's one thing I'm going to do you can't do, what was it, do you remember? Shut the door. That's my privilege, Mr. Moore, I'll shut that door. And when I shut the door, no man can open, and if I open the door, no man can shut. They said, all right, we'll be back next Wednesday to see you, we'll bring a lunch, it'll be nice to see you, but it's only to see you gone. And when they got there, he was still there. You know what, I bet he comes out again and says, I've got a notice that I'm not going for a month, or maybe a year. See, the door is still open, no holes in the ground, no holes in the head, it's wet stuff that's coming down, it's all ridiculous, it's all silly. I mean, oh, look at that door, the door's shut. Oh, you're getting frightened too, are you? Just an elephant turning round, he didn't have enough room. He'll open it in a minute, you'll see, you'll see he'll open it. Hey, who's spitting, what's happening here? Hey, look at that river there, look at the sky. Did you ever work out how quickly the waters rose up, so that he could get that thing up, up, up, up, up, up, and float it over the mountains? You'd be amazed how quickly that water came. Go home and work it out. A hundred and thirty years of warming, and yet seven days. And they laughed. As soon as that door shut, they were crying, no, no, open to us, but no one could hear them. He was safe in the ark. The rains were beating, he couldn't hear the dreadful confusion, he couldn't hear the screams and the terror of the people. They had been warned, and what you have been warned. You've turned your radio off sometimes when somebody talks about a battle of Armageddon. You switched off when it got uncomfortable. God was warning you, and you just added to your own eternity in death sentence. Remember Lot's wife? She was often warned that she was destroyed. Yes, Jesus is coming. He's coming for a bride. Most girls have an ambition to be a bride, and Jesus is coming for a bride. And I remember in England, and I like to tell this story, nobody else knows it, but I know it, it's not in books. We had a young couple in England, and they were going to get married just prior to the war. And the young man had to unexpectedly go to the war. He had two days with his girlfriend, and he went to town, he bought her a beautiful bridal outfit. Girls in England usually wear mock orange blossom, and all the other beautiful things, he bought them all. And the next day he kissed her goodbye, and he said, one of these days I'll be back. And they wrote letters continually, beautiful, beautiful love letters, and she saved them all and tied them up with a string, you know like they say girls do. And she had an awful lot. She had a great big picture of him on her vanity table, a lovely picture of her handsome boyfriend. And she piled up the letters for three years, and then suddenly they quit, they stopped. And for two years she didn't have a letter. The only thing, the boy's parents got a notice saying that they feared the boy had been killed in action. They weren't quite sure, but he was missing, and they thought killed in action. And the months went on, and the years went on. And a fellow down the street said to the girl, you know George won't come back, you know really he's dead. And I love you, I'd like to marry you, I've got money, I'll never have to go to war, I have a very secure job. Won't you be my wife? And she said no, and he kept asking, and she said no, and he kept asking, and she said no. One night she came home from work, she wasn't feeling good, and she said to her mother, I should go to church tonight, but I won't go, I don't feel, I don't really feel well. I go to my room, and I won't be down till morning. Any phone calls, you could take the number, please don't disturb me at all unless it's very important. I'd rather be left alone. The mother said that's all right. She knew the girl was having turmoil, she'd met this fellow again, she'd seen him down the street talking, and she knew the girl was upset, and the girl wasn't feeling so good, and she'd had some business problems, and here she was slowed under. And so, her mother said all right dear, you go up to your room, I understand. And after she'd been up there for a couple of hours, there was a knock at the front door, and the mother went. There was a tall, handsome soldier, and he was at it. And I said John, we thought you were dead. He came in and he looked, he said Mary, Mary isn't here. She's not dead? No. Is she at church? No. She's not married? No, she's not married. Working in another town? No. Well, where is she? Well George, she's upstairs. She wasn't feeling, feeling too well, and she said like she, she wouldn't want to be disturbed until tomorrow, unless, unless it's really important. He said do you think it's important? And she said yes, but I don't know if she might be in bed, I don't know. Just let me go see. Mother went upstairs, and in these big old houses in England you've got keyholes, they're so big you can not only look through them, you can nearly walk through the things, they're so big. And you know that girl had gone under the weather, and she said to herself, I'm not going to have John down the street. I still feel that, of course I know he didn't show me much about it, but I still feel George will come back. I'm going to get out of this. Under the weather I feel so bad. She went to the drawer and took out her beautiful bridal outfit, that white bible she was going to carry, the juiciest love letter she could find. And she began to look at herself, spotless in her gorgeous wedding attire. And she sat by the vanity table and she got his picture in her arm, and she cradled his picture like this, and she read part of the letter, and the tears were coming, and she kissed the letter, and then she kissed the picture, and she was having a great time. And her mother looked through the keyhole, and thought she was in bed sick. She tiptoed downstairs, and George says, is it alright? Yeah. No, she's not in bed. George, when you go up, go up quietly, and turn the knob very quietly. I think you'll have a surprise. So George went up, and he turned the knob very quietly, and when he opened the door, she had a big smile, she was just looking at his picture and this love letter, and he saw her in the mirror. And in excitement, he let go of the knob, you know, and he went, ah, like that. And she turned round, and she saw her handsome boyfriend, and she looked at him, and she said, I, I. Do you think she did? Oh, she said. She was airborne, a helicopter could have got her off the ground quicker. She made one leap, and she was in his arms. She said, I was just looking at your picture, and at the bottom of the letter you said, one of these days I'll, I'll come unexpectedly. He said, sweetheart, I got a letter of yours here. I, I, I've read it all over the place. I've read it at night, struck a match, and lit it. See how dog-eared it is? And I've read that letter, how much you love me. And, and, let me see, here it is, here it is. And it says here, George, I don't care how long it is, I don't care where you are, I want to tell you this, that when you come home, I'll be ready. But he said, I didn't think you'd be so ready. I've been in some dirty halls in the world, I've seen some dirty things. I married a young lady, I went to a wedding recently, and married the daughter of a multi-millionaire. She had a fantastic wedding, and a fantastic wedding dress. I said to her mother, please don't send me the bill for that dress. I'm a preacher. It was gorgeous. I've been to weddings where the girl didn't have more than ten dollars, in poverty-stricken areas of England. I've seen many brides, rich, poor, brilliant, pretty dumb. But I'll tell you one thing, I've never seen a dirty bride. I've never seen a dirty bride. She may be very poor, but her garments were beautiful and white. She wouldn't like to go to that altar, and say just before, ma'am, I've got to go through the traffic, and it's going to take ten minutes to church. You just give me a hot dog in one hand, and a cup of coffee in the other. And going down the street, the car stops, and she puts coffee down here, and tomato juice down here, and a bit of mustard on the front, and she rubs it out, and holds the flowers like that. And then she forgets, and he looks, and says, ugh. There's one recorded prayer of the Holy Spirit in the Bible. Do you know what it is? I'll tell you. The last chapter of the Bible, verse 17, the Spirit and the Bride say come. The Spirit and the Bride say come. Elsewhere it says the Bride hath made herself ready. Now let me ask you a very simple, simple question tonight. You say you're part of the Bride? If Jesus comes tonight, are you white? Are you pure? He's coming for a pure Bride. He's not coming for an old crippled woman. He's coming for a Bride, young, bright, dressed in white, dressed in holiness. The only preparation for the coming of Jesus is holiness. Without holiness, Hebrews 12, 14, no man shall see the Lord. One sentence. As the lightning lights us out of the one part of the heaven and shines us to the other, I understand it takes lightning a fifth of a second to cross the world. And as quick as that, Jesus is going to come. Remember what's right? She's walking down here laughing, and suddenly she becomes a pillar of fire. As quick as that! God, isn't there a slip of notice under your door, my friend, that within so many days or so many hours, and you pick it up and say, my, for the Lord's good, he sent Gabriel with a note to me. No, sir, you've received all the signs. Every light is flashing, the Jews, distress of nations, immoral condition, rebelling against God, impurity, sensuality, debauchery, sodomy, it's all there tonight. And when you see Jerusalem surrounded with armies, look up, and Jerusalem is surrounded tonight. The Jews, that Jerusalem is going to be trodden down by the Gentiles, and she's not trodden down, the Gentiles are in for the first time in 2,500 years. And I wouldn't hesitate to say for several of you, this is God's last call tonight. The King is coming! We used to finish in our little church in England, singing John Ellington's hymn every Sunday night when I was a teenage boy. You're an old preacher, I hope you'll finish with John Ellington's hymn. It's a lovely hymn, it's a bit sleepy at the beginning. The day thou gavest, Lord, is ended, the darkness falls at thy behest, to thee our morning hymn ascended, thy praise shall sanctify our rest. And the last verse I remember when I was about seventeen, raising up my shoulders back, and I said I could define a world of flesh, and the devil, Ellington says, so be it, Lord. Thy throne shall never like earth's proud empires pass away, thy kingdom stands and grows forever, till all thy creatures are my slaves. And I'm glad I have a king that will never abdicate, I'm glad I have a king that can never be defeated. I have a Christ who's celebrated victory on the cross, but he's going to come to this world, sir, and every island and every place in the world is going to become the habitation of Jesus Christ. And Jesus shall reign wherever sun-defeated, successive journeys run, his kingdom stretched from shore to shore, till moons shall wax and wane no more. I'm glad I've got my name in the book of life tonight. Are you ready for his coming? No more warning. If he comes tonight, will he find you with your lamp trimmed and burning? Will he find you with your prayer lights right in order? Will he find you, as I said this morning, each day worshiping him, rehearsing, practicing for that day when he's in eternal presence, we're going to worship him in all his majesty and all his glory. Look at the world tonight, look at it politically, look at it morally, look at it spiritually, look at it anyway economically. And outside, just as I look through those windows, the darkness has come upon us. It's dark outside. In any area you like to look, the outlook is dark, but the outlook is glorious. The king is coming. Are you ready for his coming? Shall we pray? The coming of Jesus is going to be quick in a moment. There's no decision, no chance to change anything. I'm going to ask you all quietly, in the presence of God, with heads bowed, eyes closed, let's all stand please. I'm going to ask you to do another thing, be honest, you'll have to be honest when Jesus comes. There'll be no tricks, Paul. You'll either be ready or you're not ready. And you know in your heart tonight whether you're ready or not. Do this for me while nobody looks. God is looking from heaven on this meeting, he's taking a toll, he knows the name and address of every person who's here, he knows how spiritual or unspiritual you are, he knows if you're a sex pervert, a drug addict, a liar, he knows if you're an empty Christian professing something you don't have, he knows if you're living right in the sense of God, he knows it all. I'm going to ask you to do a simple thing, and remember I'm not taking the count of this meeting, God is. Do this simple thing for me. I do this the last night, I don't do it the first, people might get scared. It's the only time I'll do it. I won't do it if I come back and preach anytime, but I'll do it tonight. Listen, if you say to Dr. Ravenhill, I'm ready for his coming. If he comes five minutes from now, I'm ready. Before God, be honest, if you're ready for his coming, take your seat, and if you're not, keep standing. Will you be as honest as that? Well, thank God there are some people who are still honest. You say, Mr. Ravenhill, I want to get ready for his coming. Will you come to this altar tonight?