Walid Bitar emphasizes the critical warning from Jesus to 'Remember Lot's wife,' illustrating the dangers of worldliness and the futility of relying on religious privileges for salvation. He recounts the story of Lot's wife, who, despite her privileged position, disobeyed God's command and looked back at Sodom, resulting in her destruction. Bitar urges the congregation to reflect on their own spiritual readiness and the importance of genuine faith over mere religious affiliation. He challenges young people to consider what they are doing for eternity, rather than just for their temporal lives. The sermon serves as a call to repentance and a reminder of the urgency of being prepared for Christ's return.

And now I'm going to speak to you as a church. Luke chapter 17. Luke chapter 17, and I'm going to start with verse 20. The more I take, the more you will be hungry, and you will eat more. So you will enjoy your food. Verse 20. Being asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God will come, he answered them, The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, Look, here it is, or there. For behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you. And he said to the disciples, The days are coming when you will desire to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it. And they will say to you, Look there, or look here. Do not go out or follow them. For as the lightning flashes and lights up the sky from one side to the other, so will the Son of Man be in his day. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so will it be in the days of the Son of Man. They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage until the day when Noah entered the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise, just as it was in the days of Lot, they were eating, drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. But on the day when Lot went out from Sodom, fire and sulfur rained from heaven and destroyed them all. So will it be on the day when the Son of Man is revealed. On that day, let the one who is on the housetop with his goods in the house not come down to take them away. And likewise, let the one who is in the field not turn back. And then he gave a warning, remember Lot's wife. Whoever seeks to preserve his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will keep it. May God bless to us the reading of his word. I would like to have a word of prayer. Let's bow down as God have mercy on us that we may bless his holy name, understand the word that he gave us and the warning that he wants us to understand. Father, I beg you to help me. As I know, Lord, I am helpless. And I know, Lord, without you I can do nothing. So I pray that whoever here, Lord, does not know you, you will open their eyes to the warning that Luke gave us. The Spirit of God spoke through him. Bless, Lord, the time we are spending together and give peace and joy to your people. And I thank you for it in Jesus' name. Amen. If you don't know the story of Lot, it's found in Genesis 19. I'll give you a few lines. Two angels went to Sodom. Lot took them to his house. The men of Sodom came after them. They warned them to sleep with them. Lot offered his daughters instead. Men did not accept. And angels came and struck the people with blindness. Angels told Lot to leave the city with his family. But he lingered, Scripture tells us. Angels took him, his wife, his daughters by the hand. And they said, Escape with your life. Do not look behind, nor stay anywhere in the plains. Escape to the mountains. And Lot lingered. Then the Lord rained brimstone and fire on Sodom and Gomorrah out of heaven. And Lot's wife looked behind him, and she became a pillar of salt. And Luke tells us that the Lord gave a warning to the people around him. And the warning says, Remember Lot's wife. Now before God and you, I have to give an attribute to the points of my sermon taken from the book of J.C. Ryle on holiness. If you like that book, go read the sermon. He has done a better job than me, but... Remember Lot's wife. He tells us that Lot's wife was a professor of religion. Her husband was a righteous man, as you know. She left Sodom with Lot and her daughters. On the day Sodom was destroyed. And then all of a sudden, he says, she looked back towards the city against the command of God. She was struck dead at once. And turned into a pillar of salt. And this is a warning to the church today. It's a warning to you. Look at the thought over here. He did not say, remember Isaac, or Jacob, or any of those Sarah. He singled out one whose soul was lost forever. He says, remember Lot's wife. It's a great warning if we consider the subject that he was talking about in the beginning. He was talking about his second coming to judge the world. He is describing the terrible state of unreadiness in which many will be found in. Are you ready? He says, remember Lot's wife. The last days were on his mind when he cried out. This is the last days. Remember Lot's wife. It is a warning for us as if we are in danger of forgetting the subject. And what is the subject? Jesus Christ is coming. Are you ready? Are you ready? Many of you are not ready. Let me give you some of the lessons that I learned from this. First lesson, and this is for you young people. The first lesson for young people, you, the religious privileges that Lot's wife enjoyed, do not save. I repeat, religious privileges that you have, do not save. I'll explain. You see in the days of Abraham and Lot, true saving faith or knowledge of the true and living God was scarce on earth. Why? There was no Bibles, no pastors, no church, no tracts, no missionaries. The knowledge of God was confined to a few favored families. That's it. The great part of the world was living in sin and darkness. Ignorance. And so are many of you. Compared to the millions of people that lived around her, Lot's wife, I say, she was a favored woman. She had Abraham and Lot, and both are believers. She heard them pray and study. She heard them talk about the living God and their experiences. She was a favored woman. It is impossible for her to live in the tents of Lot and hear him worship. Religion with Abraham was not a business like it is with us. It was the rule principle of his life. Christianity is not a culture. All of these things, Lot's wife must have seen and heard from Abraham. When Lot was taken captive and Abraham went out and he brought him back, she was there. When God gave the promises to Abraham, Lot's wife was there. When Melchizedek, king of Salem, came forth to meet Abraham, she was there. When the angels came to Sodom and talked to the family, she was there. Once more I say to you, Lot's wife was a favored woman. Yet what good effect has all these privileges done to her heart? What good effect? Nothing. With all the opportunities and means of grace, with all the special warning and messages that she heard, she lived and died graceless, godless, and not believing. Amazing. The eyes of her understanding were not opened. She did not understand. Her conscience was not quickened. Her will never was in obedience to the will of God. Her affections were not set on the things above. The world was in her heart and her heart was in the world. I see a lesson here for us, people sitting here in this church. I see a very important lesson. Many of you will come to church, you will see godly people, you will speak with them, you will eat with them, and yet you still are like Lot's wife, not saved. You still are like Lot's wife. You need to learn that only having religious privileges will not save your life. You may go to church. Sisters, brothers, you may get married to a leader, and many do. You may teach Sunday school. You may live in the midst of life, and yet you could not be saved. Read that book, The Almost Christian Something, found or discovered by Matthew Mead. Great book. When you first read it, it will scare you. Am I a Christian? It takes more than privileges to save your life. Joab was David's captain. He died in his sin. Judas was Christ's disciple. If you have religious privileges, make sure that they produce fruit in your heart. These privileges, if they do not do you good, they will most probably do you harm. You will hate God. I know many of pastor's children that hate Christianity and hate God because daddy is not there for them. Daddy is there for everybody else, but not for me. Once again, I tell you, privileges do not make people Christians. It's only the grace of the living God. You are an amazing people because God chose to save many in this country. Let me tell you something, young people. If your mommy and daddy are Christians, if your sister or brother is a Christian, you will not make it to heaven on their account. You will not. You stand alone. And the judge will be there waiting for you. You need a sugar daddy, like the guy told me. Now I tell you, you need a sugar daddy. Remember Lot's wife. Remember Lot's wife. She had many privileges. Many people at her time did not have those privileges. Many people in the Middle East don't have your privileges. You will be more accountable for the life that God has given you through this man or other man. Without saving faith in Jesus, you will never, never, ever, never make it to heaven. Let's look at the sin that Lot's wife committed that is given to us by the Holy Spirit in Scripture. And it's very short, few words that the Bible mentions. The Bible says, she looked from behind her husband and she became a pillar of salt. Listen to me. Does this sin, she looked back, seems very small in your eyes? Does it? Allow me to reason with you about the look. Let me tell you about looks. Women knows a lot about looks. They have these sweet eyes that they make. If they look little, but they are not. It reveals the true character of Lot's wife. Let me remind you of Adam and Eve. You think that eating of that fruit, why? I mean, what did she do? She ate of the fruit? Look at the result. Look at what happens. Look around you in the world. Every other country there is war. The look of Lot's wife seems little, but it speaks of her great disobedience. The command of God through the angel, do not look behind you was very clear. She refused to obey. You understand what the Bible says about obedience? We sing in church, obedience, O, B, I, whatever, D, this song. And many of you don't know what it means. To obey is better than sacrifice. Don't bring us your dollar, put it in the basket. Read your Bibles and obey the principles that God gave us. Also, he says, rebellion is a sin of witchcraft. Man's duty is to obey God's word. The look seems very little, but it speaks of a proud unbelief in Lot's wife. She seems to doubt that God will do, destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. And many of us have this in our lives. I mean, praise God, you're great Christians, great church. You believe the doctrines of grace and this and that, but when little trouble comes into your life, all your theology goes out of the door. Fear comes in and grabs your heart. The look, she looked back to the place where her treasures are. Do you not know that the friendship with the world is enmity against God? If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. You know, I want you to understand the point over here. What is the point that Jesus wants to emphasize? What is the point? I mean, if you don't understand anything of what I said, remember this. Remember Lot's wife in her worldliness. In her worldliness. Now, our churches in the Middle East look like the world. You go in, there is no difference between the Christian and the heathen. And I hope you're not the same. If you come to Jesus, you need to forget about the world and its lusts. All the world and its pleasures. This disease that the church has in it today is called worldliness. We look like the world in our actions. Remember Lot's wife. Our churches do look like a social club. We meet here. We have fun. We speak Christianese. We say, praise the Lord. And we act like angels. And then we go during the week, you cheat and lie and steal to your teeth. Many of you will cheat on your taxes. Praise God, we don't have taxes over there. You have to remember one thing from the text. Let me tell you. Lot's wife was not a murderer. She was not an adulterer. She was not a thief. She claimed to be a believer. Many today are baptized, but not saved. Many will come for a reason and then, after a while, they catch this disease, worldliness. They love the world and they leave. Many speak Christianese, but after a while, you will join the world in unbelief. Where are you now, my friends? I leave that to your conscience. Where are you now? What are you doing? You need to wake up. When God says, do not steal, He was not joking. That was not a joke. He was seriously telling you, because it will harm you. And I told this story before to many. You know God made laws throughout the universe. And one of the laws is the law of gravity. You throw something and it will come down. And many of you will respect that law. You don't go on the roof and throw yourself, expecting to fly. You know if you come down, you'll break your neck. So you respect the law. But when God did put spiritual laws, He expects you to obey and respect those laws. And many of you do not respect them, because you do not see the consequences on the penalty of that law immediately. So you don't respect them. You don't believe God is going to charge you for your disobedience. I'm going to close up after I look at the judgment at Lot's wife. The judgment that God gave Lot's wife. The word in the Bible says that God turned her into a pillar of salt. A miracle has to happen over there. Can you see the miracle? God turned her into a pillar of salt. I mean, she was healthy. Suddenly, all of a sudden, something happened. She died. She died in the action of sin. Not having a chance to repent. And those of you young people that think, Well, I still have time. I can still play. There will be a time where you will not repent. And don't have a chance to repent. You might choke on that chewing gum you are chewing on your way to school and die. I like the place where the warm doesn't die. And many other places. It's real. Don't go there. I preached one time a message to pastors. Rotten, corrupt pastors. From 2 Peter. He reminds us in the last days saying that the earth will be destroyed. You know that passage? This passing away of the earth should motivate us, he says, to holiness and godliness. And he says, if you truly believe these things, the destruction of the world is going to happen. If you truly believe, what manner of person ought you to be in holiness and godliness? Now how can you believe this and be corrupt? How can you believe this and not be a good Christian? How can you believe this? You don't believe it. And many pastors do not believe it. Because if you do, you will work on yourself to be holy and godly. Everything is going to perish. Everything is going to perish. According to the promises of God, we are waiting for a new heaven and new earth in which righteousness dwells. No corruption there. So therefore, beloved, since you wait for these things, be zealous to be found without spot, without blemish, and at peace. And if you have this hope, purify yourself, for it is the will of your Father in heaven. Now I'm done. I want to tell you something, young people, because I love you so much. I love young people. This is something that I used to do when I go to universities and talk. Many of you still go to school, and many of you parents pay for them. And I used to tell them, the Bible says that the average life of man, the Bible says, is 70 years. Three scores and one, or three scores and a half. Seventy years, some live more, some live less. You see people living 20 years, and some live 90 or 100. But the average is 70. And I ask you, you're going to school, right? Many of you are going to school. And then when I ask this question, why, people will say, well, for a better future. And rightly so. I don't blame you for going to school, I want you to go to school. And so you labor, and you study, and you take pills to wake up, and you do all these things, and sit on the internet for hours and hours and hours and hours, and your eyes are not taking it, and you live and labor, and all these things for a better future. And then, I want to get married. I want to have a husband, and there comes the bambinos, and I want to teach them how to play basketball, and the girls, the ballerinas that go like this, and all these things I want my children to have. And still, I say, rightly so. And then I say, well, we're getting old, and we have to have this little money that we retire on, and God forbid we need our children, we have our house, we have our dog, and we live happily ever after. And rightly so. Do that. And then, here comes the challenge for you. For you, every single one of you, comes the challenge. God puts this challenge for you. If you do all these things for 70 years, what are you doing for eternity that does not end? What are you doing? You know it is appointed for man to die, and after that, judgment. So you are going to enter eternity. Eternity does not end. You do all these things for 70 years, so what are you doing for the future? What are you doing for eternity? Many of you cannot answer. Many of you cannot answer. You heap up things in your houses. Things upon things. I go to houses like yours, and you have piles of cartons. It says sometimes, I was amazed, 1947. I said, wow, man, I was born in 1947. You have this box since 1497? What does it have in it? Throw it away. This is not Christianity. What you are loving is not Christianity. You need to understand Christianity from the Bible. If Jesus wants you to live with so much abundance and lust, He would have told you that. He came poor. He lived poor. He didn't have money to pay taxes. What is the difference between us Christians here and Christians in Nepal? There are Christians there. They live on $10 a month. But you know, I don't blame you. This is the norm for you. You live like this because it's the norm. But understand, there are people there, that's not the norm for us. They come here and they don't know what's going on. And they may stumble because of the abundance. I mean, they don't have supermarkets like the ones you do. Walmart, Walmart, 24 hours. We go at 2 o'clock in the morning there. It's amazing. 6 o'clock in Bangladesh or wherever. In Lebanon, 6 o'clock, there is no light on the streets because we lost our electricity during the war. Many places have no electricity. You have to understand, the world is not it like this. And life does not rotate around you. It does not. I, myself, and me, that's the attitude we live in. Change your lives. Live a Christian life. What you have is not yours, it's for God. Give it to Him. I mean, I tell you these things because I'm not your pastor. Your money is not yours, it is for God. Use it for the glory of God. Help people. I mean, we are helpless, we need teachers. But we don't want hypocrites. Send us teachers. Send us people of knowledge to teach us. We are poor. And yet you have the abundance that God has given you. Be good stewards of it. Understand what God wants you to do with it. You know, no one left this world and took his money with him. And yet you strive and strive. You want to do something? Send your money before you. How do you do that? Use it for the glory of God. Then you are in good hands. I pray that your life will change. And you will be one happy family. Be a true church of the living God. Think of the things above. Not on worldly things. I mean, I've been to churches when we left the church. Everybody is talking business. What did you understand? I spoke for two hours up here. Nothing came to your heart and mine. God did not speak to you. I must be an idiot. God should speak. He loves you. He really loves you. He wants your attention. He wants you to come to him. You bow down your knee now to God or you bow down in the future. You choose. Every knee shall bow. Every knee. I don't know what to tell you anymore. God is on the throne. And you know, God is on the throne and he laughs. You don't laugh, he laughs. He knows everything. He's in control of everything. He laughs. He looks at your, our feeble attempts to deceive one another. Please, come to Jesus. Surrender all to him. I surrender all. You know, the Bible says that those who has done much, sinned much, loved much. I destroyed my life and many others. And I love God so much now. I have seen his love towards me. I love him because he first loved me. He looked at me and he saw nothing good in me. And he says, I want you. I want you. And I came. And I want you to come. Whoever does not know Jesus, you are in a pathetic situation. You're religious and many will say, I'm a Christian. We are all born to worship. You will worship either the true and living God or you will worship anything else. I worship many idols. Drugs, alcohol, everything you want. I did that. But I'm ashamed. And I don't want you to go through that in order to come. God loves you so much. He wants you to come. You who do not know God, come. Come. Jesus wants you to come. There is room for you. I'm done. God bless you. I am so grateful that you took the time to hear me. I am so humbled because I could speak over here. It was not in my wildest imagination that I could become a preacher and come speak to you. But I do thank you. And I do thank the Lord for helping me to do His will. God bless you. Have a great day. Amen. I've been amazed again recently by these verses. It says, Then He began to reproach the cities in which most of His miracles were done, because they did not repent. Woe to you, Chorus, and woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the miracles had occurred in Tyre and Sidon, which occurred in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. Nevertheless, I say to you, it shall be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, will not be exalted to heaven, will you? You shall descend to Hades. For if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which occurred in you, now this is an amazing statement, it would have remained to this day. Nevertheless, I say to you, that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you. I was thinking about this while Brother Waleed was speaking, and that is, I think it's true to say, every person in this room has had more light than Sodom did. And he says, if these things had happened in Sodom, if the miracles had occurred in Sodom, which have occurred in you, it would have remained. I mean, Sodom would have repented, apparently, something, enough of a repentance that God wouldn't have destroyed them. And so he says, woe, woe to you. Well, let's pray. Father, we thank You today for how You reached down and saw fit to set Your mercy on a lost, hell-bound sinner named Waleed that was without hope and without You, dead in trespasses and sins, lost with no reason to live, and You set Your love upon him. Lord, we thank You for every person here who knows You. We thank You for the love that You set upon us when we didn't care about You, we weren't seeking You. You were not in our thoughts. We were ignorant of You, and You had mercy upon us. Thank You for this faithful word today. We pray for those who have heard it, those that are still in blindness, darkness, we pray that You would, by Your mercy, quicken them, not let them find any rest until they find rest in You. Pray for this fellowship time together here in the meal. We pray that You direct our conversation, cause Your face to shine upon us today. Pray for those that will be driving, traveling today, that You'd keep them safe. In Jesus' name, amen. Amen.