In this sermon, the speaker discusses the parallels between the biblical story of Lot and the current state of the world. He mentions how in the days of Lot, people were engaged in wickedness and immorality, just like what is happening in the western world today. The speaker also refers to a television program called Wackern's World, which showed the degradation and poverty in certain areas being influenced by homosexuality. He emphasizes the need to remember Lot's wife, who turned into a pillar of salt when she looked back at the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, as a warning against being attached to worldly things. The speaker concludes by highlighting the importance of recognizing the signs of the end times and being prepared for the return of Jesus.

I want to turn, if we may please, if you have your Bible, or maybe you have your Bible and would much rather I just read the text now, but if you have your Bible and care to turn with me, I want to read verses in the 17th chapter of the Gospel of Luke. Luke, chapter 17. I would like to commence reading verse 28. Not wise, said the Lord Jesus, not wise also as it was in the day of Lot. They did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded. But the third day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and slimmed stone upon them 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 house of man, his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away. And he that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember, remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his wife shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his wife shall preserve it. I tell you in that night there shall be two men, one in one bed, one shall be taken and the other shall be left. Two shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the pill, the one shall be taken and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, O Lord? He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered. I think we ought to sing that chorus again, sir. I know you've thought of that noise of piano dance, and I think we ought to sing it. Thank you. You know they go on quite every night, don't they? It'll just about be time, they say. Well, that's it. That's it. I'll reduce their wages, you know. You get nothing now, I don't know what I'll give them then, but there we are. Thank you everyone. A little children's chorus that we sang last evening, and I'd like us to sing it again. A simple chorus. A little children's chorus. We've been singing away in England. We've been singing up here Americans' chorus. Let's sing ours, shall we? If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're fat or lean, God loves you. If you're short, or if you're poor, or if you're in between, God loves you. Come on, let's see how well you remember the words. If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're... I can't hear you. Now, if you look at me now, that'll remind you. Fat or lean, God loves you. If you're, or if you're, or if you're... God loves you. He loves you when you're... He loves you when you're... He loves you when you're feeling... He loves you when you're... No matter what you... No matter what you... God loves you. He really does. It's a pretty simple word. Now, come on. If you don't know the tune, sing la, la, la. If you're black, or if you're what? Away we go. If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're fat or lean, God loves you. If you're short, or if you're poor, or if you're in between... Hands up, those who couldn't have sung a bit better if you tried. You put all one. Oh, my friend's got a gym down there. He mostly sits and doesn't sing at all. You know, Mrs. J, you're improving him. You really? Come on, then. Are you ready? Everywhere. If you're black, or if you're what? On the loud side. If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're fat or lean, God loves you. Are you ready? Yes. If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're fat or lean, God loves you all the time. That's what his technique was, wasn't it? It's true. It's true. So that's what we are. God is strict. He shows his love. Isn't that why we were yet sinners? That's just the word of prayer. He did warn me in prayer. Oh, God and Father, our hearts are moved that we contemplate together as I love. What can you say to me? We only know that you couldn't have loved us more than you did, and you couldn't have spoken in a better way than you did. We are tonight, and once again, we think of that which is reward. But we might realize that you still care for us. You still love us. Amen. As you know, the general theme of these services has been painting the path that Jesus Christ is coming back again. And from many different avenues, and in many different ways, we have considered the great truth that the Bible teaches that Jesus said, if I go, I will come again. Now, of course, immediately people ask this question. It's the question that I'd like to deal with a little last evening. If Jesus Christ is coming back again, when is he coming back again? And I don't believe that that question is just idle curiosity. I believe it's a question that every one of us would like an answer to. So let me say, here and now, tonight, that I don't know when Jesus Christ is coming back again. But I tell you this, I so want to live my life that if he came back at this moment, I would welcome him. I would be pleased to say, Lord, I'm glad to see you. The tragedy is that most of us would have a feeling that we would like to run and hide if we knew that the Lord was coming back. But while I don't know the day, I don't know the hour when Jesus Christ comes back, there are things that are given to us in the Word of God, persons' lives, that are extremely interesting. Tonight, we have read one of them. The Lord Jesus said that when he returns in great power and glory, and please let me remind you that the rapture will precede that by at least seven years, but when the Lord returns in great power and glory, he will find in this day the very thing he saw in the days of Lot. For we read together from that seventeenth chapter of Luke, likewise, also, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it raised fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all, even Christ. Now please, I did not say this, the Lord Jesus said this, even Christ shall it be in the day when the Son of Man shall be revealed. And so we have, therefore, the tremendous story that links the Old Testament with the New. It links the statement of God to his great friend Abraham, with the statement of God And I have a feeling that all of us find it extremely interesting to ponder again the nineteenth chapter of the book of Genesis, to see how in the day in which we live, the very things that happened then seem to be lifting their head again. Things that have not been prevalent in the world at large, but things which are becoming very prevalent, especially in what we call the land that protects the dead. The Lord Jesus said this, remember whatever else you forget, remember, oh remember Lot twice. It is interesting, is it not, that there are only two women that the Lord Jesus told us to remember. As a matter of fact, he didn't tell us to remember as many men as he told us to remember women, and he only told us to remember two women. He dared to say, I want you to remember Lot twice, but I want you to remember a New Testament woman as well. I want you to remember a sinner, but I want you to remember a saint. And he tells the story, or connects the story to this old, of a woman that came and anointed the Lord with ointment out of her alabaster box. She poured it upon him against the day of his burial. And Jesus said, wherever the gospel is preached, that story must be remembered, that story must be preached. Isn't it significant that God asked us to remember two women of such opposite characters? One who had a link with Jesus Christ, one who had a chance of a link with him, but turned her back on him. Remember, and it is the first one of the Old Testament that I want to talk with you about tonight. I want to say my usual greetings, if I may. As I look at the story of the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, it seems to me, first of all, and you will permit me, please, to use an English colloquialism, and it may sound harsh, but I want to use it because it is harsh. I want to remind you, first of all, of a muted woman. Oh please, I would choose to be courteous, especially to you ladies, but I do not feel I can use any other word but that word tonight. When Jesus Christ said, remember a lost wife, he dared ask us to remember a woman who was a stupid woman when you said all you've got to say. Although the word may seem ugly, the deed that she did was uglier. Then I want you to remember not only the story of a stupid woman, but I want you to remember the story of a sure work. It seemed utterly ridiculous to lock, it seemed utterly ridiculous to lock wife, it was more than ridiculous to lock son, to lock honey lord. I only know this, that God said he was going to pour fire and sandstone out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. And you could almost hear them say in your Americanism, oh yeah, oh yeah, what a thing to say that God was going to do something that no one had ever seen done anywhere else. He was going to pour down upon his feet fire and sandstone. But it was a sure work, and may I please remind you, it was a sure work not only because it happened then, but because in our day and generation it is being proved that it happened. Okay, if archaeologists have never discovered what they have discovered, I want you to understand that I would have believed the story of Sodom and Gomorrah because God said it and the Lord Jesus supported it. But it thrilled my heart, I must admit. When I find that the greatest of modern scientific minds, when I find men like Dr. Wiseman have gone yonder to the great country where this happened and have found abundant proof, as we will see in a moment, that the world was sure that it did happen as the Bible says it would happen. And I want to remind you not only of a stupid woman, I want to remind you not only of a sure work, and I want to remind you of a serious warning that as it was in the days of love, so it shall be. Oh, what a serious warning. First of all then, may I say a word or two about this lady that I have dared to call a stupid woman. There are a number of things that stand out so clearly to any now woman that will read the 19th of Genesis. The first thing that stands out so clearly is this, that here was a woman who heard the word of the Lord. She was without excuse. God spoke to her husband, God spoke to her, God sent into this scene two angelic beings that they might hasten them out of the city. She heard the word of the Lord. The second thing I want to say about her was she not only heard the word of the Lord, but she hearkened to the word of the Lord. Oh no, she was not like her son-in-law. She did not listen to her husband and then it was reported of her that he angered his one-in-law. That's what was said about his son-in-law. They thought that father had gone round the bench, that father somehow or the other had become a little bit deranged. Fancy coming to us in this city and telling us to escape for our life. What a ridiculous thing to say. She was not like that. She heard the word of the Lord and with her husband she actually left the city. She actually fled from the city. And she was a stupid woman. Not because she heard the word of the Lord and not because she hearkened to the word of the Lord, but she was a stupid woman because she hesitated at the word of the Lord. And she looked back. I will say she was turned into a pillar of gold. First of all, she heard the word of the Lord. Now my friends, I don't want to spend time because I do not find it pleasant at all. I do not want to spend time in reminding you of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah. I am speaking to an absorbed audience, but there are boys and girls here and so I must watch what I say. I only remind you that the city of Sodom has given to our modern language the vilest, filthiest, wickedest word that is possible for a human being to take a body with. So wicked and vile was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah that one shudders even to mention that my heart is moved. I am not an emotional man, as all of you know, but I confess this to you, that when I read the nineteenth chapter of Genesis and I look around this world of ours today, a great love comes into my throat. I wouldn't stay here as an Englishman. I never thought in my own country that the day would ever dawn when an act of Parliament would be passed that legalised homosexuality. And I come to your country and I find exactly the same has happened here. We had a programme on our television at home just three months ago. I don't look at the television very much, I don't have time. And when I look at it I get a bit disgusted and want to turn it off anyway. But this programme was what we called Wacker's World. We have a man by the name of Wacker who tours the world and gives us something of what he finds in different parts of the world. And he was giving us a description of plants and fish. And there upon the very film, upon the very television of our screens, it showed us the wickedness of action. It showed areas that once had been poverty areas, once had been dark areas, once had been absolutely run-down profit areas that were being bought up. And they were being bought up by those that were practising homosexuality. They were being bought up by men like living pigs. And the whole area, there we saw our own television screens as you saw those actions. And I suddenly remember this God said that as in the days of Lot, as in the days of Lot, as men stood outside of Lot's house and tried to pick down the doors and tried to lock Give us those men that we may do what we will with them. So today, O Daniel, forgive me. I'm sorry that Paul's writing is too ugly. But you know and I know that this is what is happening in our Western world today. God cares to say in words of judgement that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah will happen to this world one day. But he gives the word of warning. He dares tend to angelic beings to laugh and say to Lot, Lot, a stake for thy life. Look not behind thee, carry not in the plain, a stake for the mountain that thou might not be consumed. And here is a woman that plans to listen for the message that these men brought to her husband and to her. A stake for the mountain. Oh please, I'm not going to allow my imagination to wander things. I'm not going to suggest to you that that mountain speaks of Calvary Hill. I'm not going to suggest to you that there is another mountain where God in his stake gave his son to die for our sins. And I am going to ask you this, if it doesn't speak of that what does it speak of? For my fellow travellers to eternity. Isn't it wonderful that while God has issued a word of warning against that which is biometric, he offers also a word of counsel to every one of us. He dares to say, whoever we may be, there is a way back to God from the dark paths of sin. There is a door that is open and all may go in. But Calvary, off this way it begins. When your humble energies tell us that there is mercy with the Lord, that he might be heard. He heard the word of the Lord. Have you heard the word of the Lord? If there is one thing I am fully persuaded of, it is this, that during the past seasons the people I have been speaking to are people who mainly go to a church. They mainly go away to a church building and listen to the word of God. And you are familiar with these things. You know that God has said to you, escape for thy life. I said she not only heard the word, she parted with the word. In fellowship with her husband. She left trouble. She left your home. She left part of her family, for they only had two daughters with them. I only know this. But as they went their way out of Sodom and Gomorrah, she was hearkening, she was saying, Lord, you said I'm going. How many men and women have I met like that, even in these last verses? Men and women have taken the first steps as it were. You said to yourselves, I ought to trust Christ. I ought to yield my life to Him. I'm coming back again. I'm going to hear the word of God. I'm going to listen to what God has to say. You hearken to the word. But oh my friend, just hearkening isn't enough. Just hearkening isn't enough. God wants you and I to completely obey Him. For this I do the word again, but I must use it. This muted woman, she heard. She hearkened. But oh, she hesitated. She hesitated. Though angelic beings came in the form of men and took her by the hand to lead her out. Tell me, my friend, how many angels have come to you? Oh, I know this. That if suddenly there appeared to you an angel like the picture we often see of angels, you would be like me. You would be most surprised. Oh, if I was to see an angel like that, my knees would knock. I shall appear and I say, oh mercy. Oh dear. Oh, I think I would. But I want to say this to you. I've had many an angel lay his hand on me. Many an angel. Dare I suggest it. Some of you were here on Sunday when I gave my testimony. Dare I suggest it when first I heard the gospel and saw a little salvation army lad standing in front of a crowd of drinking men in a pub singing the old bloody chorus. Dare I suggest to you that an angel came that day and said to me, escape for thy life. Tomorrow evening. Would you like to know how many hours? Or why should I live? Oh, I sometimes thought her an angel. But you know, they're all sorts of angels. But there we are. I know this. That when that girl stopped me in the road and gave me a crack and stopped me from going to the tent where I was converted. An angel came and laid his hand on me. I'm speaking to men and women here tonight. Maybe a godly mother. Maybe a godly wife. Maybe a godly husband who came in and said, mom, I trusted the Lord. But I give to my own mother. An angel came. And said to you, hasten out of the city. Escape for thy life. The judgment of God is real. Some of you heard a song. Some of you heard a song. Some of you heard a prayer. And your heart was touched. And you couldn't give a reason for it. You couldn't stand in front of me and give me a good reason why you knew that was an angel speaking to you. Somehow or the other, God spoke to you like that. Maybe through a song. Maybe through a sermon. Maybe through a prayer. You heard God say escape for thy life. The tragedy was this. The woman that heard and the woman that heartened was the woman that hesitated. She turned back. Oh, I can understand her. Please, I can understand her. I don't want to stand here and just be critical of her. Her home was there. She had children there. But she thought more of her home and more of her children and more of the streets in which she'd lived and more of the shops in which she had traded. And she called for the dog and said, escape for thy life. I wonder how many of us are like that. Is the Bible just an old-fashioned story? Or is it not true that there are men and women today who think more of their home than of God? More of their business than of God. Times of pleasure, times of sickness. Much has Christ crucified. Not a place that he can enter in the heart for which he died. Oh, my fellows, travel into eternity. This is the story of the 19th of Genesis. But Jesus said, it's the story of our days. As in the days of Lot, so, so shall it be. We think together. Oh, holy are you, Jesus Christ. Oh, Jesus. Holy Spirit. in the Great British Museum. One year, the child went away with a party of archaeologists to examine what they viewed to be the area where Sodom and Gomorrah would land. He came back with evidence that every university in the world existed. They do not come to the same conclusions necessarily that he came to, but they accept his evidence because they can do nothing but. But with a party of British and American archaeologists, they search the area which we know as Sodom and Gomorrah. And suddenly he finds that Sodom and Gomorrah have been built over an oil well. Now there's no need for me to remind you that that is the very centre of the oil fields of the world, and most of the economic trouble today arises from those oil fields, not yesterday but today. But not only did he find that Sodom and Gomorrah have been built over an oil well, but he found that the oil well had been completely burned out, completely burned out. And there was the evidence not only of oil being there, but burnt oil being there. He not only found that Sodom and Gomorrah had been built over a burnt oil well, but they found that in that area there was indeed a platter of soil, of earth, of stone, where they were put. In other words, there was abundant evidence that there had been, and there could yet be, an earthquake in that particular part of the world. And then they found something more. They found that in that area, all around the area for some hundred miles, there lies indeed a layer of salt rock. Now please, I am not suggesting this is what happened. This is the conclusion that Dr. Weizmann came to, the head of his department in the British Museum, the greatest man in his field in the British Empire. He came to the conclusion that there was an earthquake. That earthquake engulfed the cities of the plague. They were engulfed, they were swallowed up, the Bible says. That earthquake engulfed the cities of the plague. The outcome of the earthquake was somewhat similar to what you have seen and read of in your own country in the last few days, a few weeks to be exact. The outcome of that earthquake was, first of all, that the pressure of the earthquake reacted upon the oil fields. The oil fields toasted, the pressure in the soil as though a drill had gone through to pump oil or to make oil, and up from the earth that came the oil was ignited. The Bible says God's fire sent down iron brimstone upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Dr. Weizmann came to the conclusion that just as in your eruption on the West Coast took days to die, so there came out of the earth this charter of four o'clock, and being four o'clock it would immediately break into dust. And just as houses and people have been covered in dust during these past days in the West Coast, so the woman that refused to run to the place of faith was covered with thorns, and she became a pillar of thorns. Please, those are the conclusions of one of the leading scientists in the world today. I have not the academic knowledge to come to those conclusions. This is the conclusion I've come to, that God rained upon Sodom and Gomorrah iron brimstone out of heaven, that Locke's voice turned and became a pillar of thorns, and do you old fag remember Locke's voice? I only know that that which in my youth was laughed upon as being utterly ridiculous. Is that technique, and every type of learning today, a sure word? Friends, if that word was sure and seemed to be true, does it not add certainty to the word that Jesus used? As in the days of last, so it shall be. I see indeed the post-war happening in the days of last. We read and hear what people that ate, that drank, that fought, that trolled, that taunted, that killed it, in other words, they did detract from the kind of men and women are doing today, the ordinary things of life. But with them there was a dark tragedy of vile things. And I look around the world today and thank God it's not everyone that's living in vile things. Thank God that's true. But let's remember there are some who are. But Jesus says it's not everyone who's going to be like that. It's going to be as in the days of last when there are those that do the ordinary things. They eat and they drink, they lie and they tell, they kill and they plot. In other words, they expect everything to carry on just the same as it was yesterday. Isn't that what people are doing today? And Jesus said that's the start of my return. And if there was a stupid woman, and if there was a sore worry, please, there's a serious one. Remember what happened to the woman who heard and hearkened but who hesitated. Remember lot twice. Isn't it wonderful that Jesus says that? Sir, I could understand if Jesus had said remember lot. Remember lot? Remember the man who didn't escape despite his sins? I could understand that. But he didn't say that. He said you remember the person that could have escaped but didn't. Don't you be like her. Then please, if I'm going to listen to this serious wife, if I'm going to remember her, then surely, surely the very use of the word tells me that I ought to do so. Remembering lot twice doesn't just make me bow my head and say, oh what a foolish woman. What a stupid woman. Remembering what lot twice to me makes me say this, I don't want to do the thing she did. I don't want to be found like she was found at the end, away from the presence of God. So what should I do? Well, there's no doubt in that. Let me read it to you again. A test for thy life. Look not behind thee. Neither stay thou in awe of a plague. A plague for the mountain. Lest thou be consumed. Oh friends, and I say it again, there is a mountain. I would not suggest, please, I would not suggest that there in the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, God is pointing on to Calvary. But he is pointing on to something. He's pointing on to the fact that he is willing to be merciful. He is willing to be gracious. He is willing to be loving. He is willing to be kind. He's pointing on to the fact that there is mercy with the Lord, that he might lead thee. O thou center of all time and space. Thou throne of God. Thou fount of grace. Thou meeting place quicker than heaven. Thou lightning rod near God's love. Thou altar where Christ died for me. I call to thee, Albert, Albert. Friends, ye have come by faith to Calvary. The wrath of God will not fall upon that place again. For God will not quite demand. Won't let my bleeding Lord be canned and metastasized. When I'll come to Christ, I will find a place of detention. May I borrow, please, one of Mr. Moody's stories that all of you have heard, I'm sure. Mr. Moody, in one of his great sermons, told of an occasion away in Canada, in the open of the year, when the harvest had been gathered in, the work completed. So they're gathered in a home, away on the back of the prairie, a crowd of friends and their wives. Farmers from the distance. The men were going hunting. The women, well, with their children, enjoying company one with another. The loneliness of the past must pass. But suddenly, as these men went out to hunt, they looked. And they saw, sweeping towards them at 40 miles an hour, a prairie fire. I've never seen a prairie fire. I've seen a forest fire. I was away in the Blue Mountains in Australia when they caught the light. And I tell you, I don't know if I'd ever been more frightened than I was then. But I've never seen a prairie fire. I only know this, that those farmers gazed at that prairie fire, sweeping towards them at 40 miles an hour, knowing that their horses could not run far enough, or fast enough, to keep out of it. But they knew what to do. They took from their horses' backs. They covered their horses' heads with sacks. And then they themselves went ahead and set the prairie alight. And the wind that brought the fire towards them at 40 miles an hour, it took the fire away from them, eventually at that speed. And when the ground, the prairie that they had burned themselves, had cooled, they led their horses onto the ground that was burnt. And they stood and waited. The fire swept down on them. No chance for any of them to live. Suddenly, as the fire came to the ground that they had burned, there was nothing else to burn. And the fire went out! Those farmers standing on ground that was burnt already. Praise God! Repent! He admonished me to that matter. Where the fire of God's wrath dealt with sin, as it dealt with Jesus Christ, he who put my sin in his own body to the grave. There I said, the fire of the wrath of God will never fall there again. There's nothing else to burn. Hallelujah! There's nothing else to burn. There's safety at the cross. My friends, won't you come to that place of safety tonight? The Lord said, as in the days of Noah, oh, but we might find safety by coming into the presence of God. For his name's sake. Amen. I wonder if in closing, please, we could sing together. Bless my ears. Number 148. 148. We sang it 20 times during the week. I felt that God was speaking to some harm as we sang it. I would like you to see it tonight. No, it's not 148. Let's just see. What number was it, sir? 158. I say, isn't it awful when you can't read your own figure? One time.