In this sermon, the preacher starts off with a lighthearted and humorous tone, wearing a unique outfit and dancing on the platform. However, he quickly transitions to a serious topic, discussing the state of America and the need to give it to God. He highlights the issues of venereal disease, AIDS, illegitimate babies, drunkards, and drug addiction in the country. The preacher questions whether God waits for a nation to become completely corrupt before bringing judgment, and references the story of Sodom and Gomorrah. He emphasizes the importance of prayer and faithfulness to God, and expresses a desire for revival and a transformation of the community.

Shall we look at the Gospel of Luke? Sorry, the 17th chapter. Luke chapter 17. Let me say, in case I forget, somebody asked me about a meeting. We're having a meeting tomorrow night in the Church of God, which is right down 323 Loop and then across Broadway and up round the bend. And we're going to have a prayer meeting there tomorrow night at 9 o'clock till maybe about 12. And we'll be preaching there Sunday night on vision. On Monday night, the judgment seat of Christ, as far as I know. And Tuesday night on worship. The meetings are at 7. We'd like you to come. Come tomorrow night, bring a friend at 9. Stay and have a heavenly supper with us. There's nothing to eat, but there'll be a lot to listen to and learn. There's also a prayer meeting in the little fellowship we have in Van. Some of you know about that. Van is up the road there. And in the middle of it, you'll see a little church on the right with four little white pillars outside. Not pillows, pillars. And there's a prayer meeting there now on Tuesday night at 7 o'clock. There's also a prayer meeting at the community church that used to be the Agape Force. They have that on Wednesday night. I hear they're getting about 100 people, which is very encouraging. I'm always glad when I hear about prayer meetings. And it seems all over the country now, people are ready to get down to business. If you could have preached revival down, we'd have preached it down 10 years ago. We can't. We can only do it God's way. Oh, we've got to look at this word here. Okay, Luke chapter 17 and verse 32. Not many words, just three. Remember Lot's wife. The preachers will tell you that a text without its context is a pretext. At least that's what I was always taught. And if we deal with a text, we should deal with what surrounds it. That's except you get in the book of Proverbs, you can't do that very well. And you can't do that in the Old Testament. When you get to the begats, it's pretty difficult to do it there. But you can do it here. Verse 32, remember Lot's wife. Go back to verse 28. Here's the framework. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot. 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. Go a bit further back there into verse 26. It says as it was in days of Noah. So shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives and they were given in marriage. I guess the Hebrew there says, if you go back to the Old Testament, they married wives and then they exchanged wives, which is a habit these days. Until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. To identify with this, we need to go back to Genesis chapter 6. As it was in the days of Noah, it says here. What was it like in the days of Noah? Verse 5, in Genesis 6 verse 5 says, God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. Now look at that, break it down here. Every imagination. That's evil without exception. And it says they were evil continually. Well then that's evil without intermission. It was only evil, it's evil without mixture. And Jesus says, as it was in the days of Noah. There was a recklessness, there was a defiance of God. Well then, as it was in the days of Lot. What did they do? Verse 28 again says, As it was in the days of Lot, 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. Come down into Genesis a little bit further. In chapter 17. Maybe a bit further. No, verse 18, chapter 18, I'm sorry. I guess you know the background of this, almost everybody does. Verse 16, the men rose up from Thames and looked towards Sodom and Abraham went to bring them to the way. And the Lord said, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? I think that's a fantastic statement. Remember, Abraham is the only man in Scripture that's called a friend of God. Moses wasn't, David wasn't, Solomon wasn't. Abraham was. In the New Testament, we're called the friends of God, of course. He are my friends, but not in the Old Testament. Here's a man who stands supreme, he's isolated. And yet God says there's something about this one man, shall I hide from him? Not shall I hide from the king of Sodom. Not shall I hide from Lot who's now a multimillionaire, a businessman. Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? Can I violate the laws of friendship? If you have a true friend, well, somewhere along the line you'll exchange secrets. We don't shout secrets from the house, though. You whisper in somebody's ear, or you make a covenant together. The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him. And Abraham feared God exceedingly. And God says, Shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I do? Now look at verse 19, it's important for you young folk with families. For I know that he will command his children after him. They shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. That the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he has spoken. The story of Lot is one of the saddest, I think, in the whole of the world of God. What do you think of when you think of Lot? The scripture that we read there in the 17th of Luke and 18, remember Lot's wife. What do you think of? Usually we think about she escaped by the skin of her teeth. But you know, there are three words, remember Lot's wife. To deal with them would take at least three hours. In fact, it could take three days if you took the whole background, the historic background. Yet Jesus is saying to these people upon whom judgment is going to come very soon, remember Lot's wife. Remember her because she ran away? No, remember her for all her privileges. If you go back into the, where are we, let me see here. Chapter 13 and verse 12. Abraham dwelt in the land of Canaan and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain and he pitched his tent towards Sodom. In the next chapter he gets into Sodom. In the next chapter Sodom's got into him. You know, we talk about this amazing man Abraham as though he was the most immaculate man, faultless, nothing of the kind. God says, I called Abraham alone. Did he go alone? No, he didn't. He took Lot with him. Took another man with him. God called him alone. What happened? He blundered all the way he went. He had trouble with the old man, he wouldn't go and move over Jordan. He had trouble with the young man. He got in bad company. He went down into Egypt where God never took him. And when he got down into Egypt he had young Lot with him. And young Lot's eyes were open, bulging wide. Look at the women. Do you know there's a record they were topless in those days? Sin was a sport. Sex was a sport. Drinking was a sport. Violence was a sport. And young Lot goes and he feasts on it. So what happens when he gets a choice? He pitches his tent towards Sodom because he says it's like going to Egypt. I can get in here and it's like that wicked country I was in. So be careful what your children see on the TV. Don't say we're buying the youngster a TV for Christmas on his own. Send you to hell as quick as you can. He pitches his tent towards Sodom. Now come down to chapter 19 and verse 1. They came to Sodom at evening and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom. What's he doing in the gate? I used to wonder why in the world the scripture says the gates of hell won't prevail against the church. I thought what, does the devil carry gates around pushing people away? The gate was a place of government. All the elders of government sat in the gate. People had their passports checked as they went in. They had their credentials. They had to prove many things. All the authority was in those people at the gate. And now this man is a man of authority. One of the most puzzling things about this man in 2 Peter is it says that Lot vexed his righteous soul every day. I don't see much righteous about him. I think he was righteous until he got involved in all the commercial life and the social life of Sodom. He sat in the gate. He was accepted. I think again here he lost his righteousness. You see we have identical situations in history. I guess you've heard me say this before and I hope I'll live to say it again. I think the one thing we learn from history is that we don't learn from history. I think at this point America is in the lowest point of degeneracy she's ever been in. It's true that she was pretty low when Jonathan Edwards and those Puritans came along. There's no way we're going to legislate righteousness. You stick notices up the road 55 miles an hour. Some of you guys broke it coming to church tonight maybe. You can repent right there but anyhow. We'll leave that to you for a bit later. Do people keep 55? I go down 55 and a thing goes roaring past me. I say to my sweetheart, to my wife, that Mack truck. Is it a Mack or what in the world is it? It's doing 75 miles an hour. I don't know much about motors but I know that that big thing that's roaring down the road at 75 has not got a Volkswagen motor in it. Isn't that wisdom? But you've got guys running big churches on a Volkswagen prayer meeting. I go to churches sometimes with 150-200 people in the choir. If only 10% of them came to the choir practice the choir master would resign the first week. But if the preacher got 10% of his congregation I was in a church a while ago with 12,000 members. They had 53 deacons. I asked the pastor, I said, tell me... Oh, I nearly said his name. I won't tell you his name. I won't let you guess even. You're 53 deacons. How many can you see? Eight? Nine? Isn't that marvelous? What do you do with the other 50? Fire them. They're supposed to be full of faith in the Holy Ghost. They got elected because they own two Texaco stations on a hot dog stand. Apparently no deacons here tonight. I'd be buried in hymn books, if you... Oh, there's so many things in this story we could take. I'm not going to take them. Chapter 19, verse 1, I read it again. There came two angels to Sodom at evening, and Lot sat in the gate. And seeing them, he rose up and bowed himself with his face to the earth and said, Behold now, turn in with me, so forth and so on. Verse 3 says, He pressed upon them greatly, and they turned into his house. Verse 4, But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, come past the house round about, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot, Where are the men which came into your house? Bring them out to us, that we may know them. They were Sodomites. Lot went out of the door and said unto them, And he shut the door after him, and he said, No, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man. Why haven't they known man? They were married. Read in the chapter, they were married. But the marriage was never consummated. This righteous man had married his sons off to some wealthy homosexuals, wherein God's name was his righteousness. Excuse me a minute. Let me say the point of identification here I wanted to read to you from. I don't usually use translations, as you know, but Philip's translation. Jesus says, As it was in the days of Noah, or as it was in the days of Lot, so shall it be when he comes. Come on now, tell me you theologians. Has God set a clock, and when that clock goes off, he's going to pour judgment on us? Is it a case of time or temperature? Does it not automatically kick over, like when you have your air conditioner on, and you set it at a certain thing and it's cold outside, you open the door and immediately that thing kicks on, it fights back against the cold. Does God wait until a country, a nation gets so rotten, that the only thing he can do in mercy, a judgment on Sodom and Gomorrah was not a judgment of madness, it was a judgment of love. He did in a few hours what it would have taken them to do, rot in their sin for a number of years. Here's Romans 1 in a modern translation. The holy anger of God is disclosed from heaven against all godlessness and evil of men who render truth dumb and inoperative by their wickedness. It is not that they do not know the truth about God, indeed he has made it quite plain to them, for since the beginning of the world, the invisible attributes of God, his eternal power and divinity have been plainly discernible through the things which he has made and which are commonly seen and known, thus leaving these men without a rag of excuse to cover them. They knew all the time that there is a God, yet they refused to acknowledge this God, or to thank him for what he does. They became fatuous in their argumentations and plunged their silly little minds further into the dark. Behind a facade of wisdom they became such fools, fools who could exchange the glory of the immortal God for an imitation God, like mortal men of things that fly and crawl. Therefore God gave them up to be playthings of their own foul desires and dishonor their bodies. Moreover, since they considered themselves too high and mighty to acknowledge God, he allowed them to become the slaves of their degenerate minds to perform unmentionable deeds. They became filled with wickedness, rottenness, greed, malice. Their minds were steeped in envy, murder, quarrelsomeness, deceitfulness and spite. They became whispers behind doors, stabbers in the back, God-haters. They overflowed with insolent pride and faithfulness. Their minds teemed with diabolical invention. They scoffed at duty to parents. They mocked at learning. They recognized no obligations of honor. They lost all their natural affection, had no use for mercy. Lost their natural affection? I had a man in my office a while ago. Boy, was he one thousand percent stronger than Calvin. Every baby in the mother's womb is already predestined. God knows its destiny. Tell me that a million babies were destined in eternity to go down the john last year? What kind of a God have you got? I believe God asked for knowledge. I don't believe He predestined them to that. But these people have become so corrupt. They are so lawless. They obey nobody. Laws of God are laws of men. They are in a state of total rebellion. Being well aware of God's pronouncement that all that do these things deserve to die, they not only continued in their own practices, but did not hesitate to give their thorough approval to others who did the same. As far as I see, we parallel today in our moral or immoral condition, the conditions of Noah and the conditions in the days of Lot. But who worries about it? These people were warned of judgment. The word of God says remember Lot's wife, because she has stacks and stacks and stacks of advice before this inevitable thing came upon her. She didn't remember her father Abraham and his righteousness, the greatest man who had walked the earth. She didn't remember her father and his righteousness. After all, you only go six chapters back and God's flooded the world, destroyed the world. And He's hung a sign over it. My spirit will not always strive with mine. Wake up America. We're going to hell as quickly as we can. He'll cut us off before long. We don't break His laws every day. We don't transgress His commandments and get away with it. There's a payday. I call it a final checkout counter. When everybody's bills will be due. When every sin that isn't covered with the blood will be exposed before billions of people. It goes further down there into Timothy. 2 Timothy chapter 3 says this, Do you realize that in the last days the times will be full of danger? Men will become utterly self-centered, greedy of money, full of big words. They will be proud and contemptuous without any regard for what their parents taught them. They will be utterly lacking in gratitude, in purity and in normal human affection. They will be men of unscrupulous speech and have no control over themselves. They will be passionate and unprincipled, treacherous, self-willed, conceited, loving all the time what gives them pleasure instead of loving God. They will maintain a facade of religion but their conduct denies its validity. You must keep clear of people like this. The time is coming when men will not tolerate wholesome teaching. Again, God's problem in the Old Testament was not the Amalekites or Hittites or Jebusites or Hivites or any otherites. God's problem in the Old Testament was Israel. God's problem tonight is not humanism in the school. That's an excuse to lazy pastors. We need to get the Bible back in the home. We need to get prayer back in the house, in the school. We need to get prayer back in the home. Ask your congregation tomorrow, how many of you fathers are not really fathers in the home? You're not the king in the home, not the bully, you're not the king, you're not the priest in the home. You don't gather the children around your lap and every day read the word of God and instruct them. I had the privilege of praying many mornings between five and six o'clock with that precious man that God used in the Hebrides revival in 1950, Duncan Campbell. I remember one day talking, it was before six and as Bunyan would say, the water stood in his eyes, all the tears were there. I said, how is it in the outer Hebrides? Amongst those so-called stuffy Presbyterians, you saw a move of the Spirit of God. Well, he said, I'll tell you one reason, I think. The little boys and girls there from five years of age see daddy bring the Bible out every morning. And if there's pressure on the farm or somewhere, he leaves it till supper time and all the dishes are put in the sink, then he takes the word of God and he reads it. And all those children have to learn the short of catechism, which is really an epitome of theology. There's your answer. Those children have had the word of God in their hearts since they were five or six, Paul, plants, Apollos, waters, God gives an increase. The revival there was due again to two old ladies, 184 and 182. They joined hands and made a covenant. Oh dear, I get tired of people making promises. The highway of most of our lives is filled with broken vows and unfulfilled covenants. Lord, if you get me out of hospital, I'll pray next hour every day the rest of my life and you forgot God the week after. That woman dying in labor pains, the doctor said the odds are against you. And she said, well, if you get me through this, I'll be a different woman. But she wasn't, except she had another baby. But apart from that, there was no miracle wrought in her. Let me look here a minute. And this is really the important thing I want to say. In the midst of all this devastation, in the midst of all the corruption, there was one man stood alone. He was unchanged with the system, with the customs. Young lot pitched his pen towards Sodom. Then he went in Sodom. I remember an old man said to me, but son, look, you know what, the devil will help you in your Christian life. I said, he will, yes. He'll help you to get to the top of the ladder. And when he gets to the top, he'll push you over. Very often success is the worst thing that can come to us. We need adversity. We need to fight the world, the flesh, the devil. It says concerning this man Abraham, he stood before the Lord. Does that ring a bell? Does it say in 1 Kings 17 verse 1 that Elijah stood before the Lord? He didn't kneel, he stood. He's waiting for two things. He's waiting for a commandment and he's waiting for authority to carry it out. And Abraham has every conceivable evil against him. The city is swarming with filth. People delight in it. They buy it. They sell it like we do. Friday night. Some taverns will be open till 2 and 3 in the morning. So will dance halls and discos and all these hell holes. And the churches will be locked up. Maybe there's only one fault with modern Christianity. We don't take God seriously. Why should the man in the street believe God if we don't believe him? Why should they obey what you say, preacher, when you don't obey what God says to you? Sure, I'd like to write another book on revival. I've got something boiling inside me. I don't think I'm going to do it. Because, you see, I don't have to do it. The secret of revival isn't a secret at all. It's splashed right across the Word of God for over a thousand years. And it's the priest that's to lie between the altar and the doorpost and let him weep and let him travel. I went to a certain famous college, and as I went in a Bible college, it was a great big display thing, you know, with a guy with a tennis racket, all plastic, of course, plastic gold. Somebody kicking a football. Somebody else with a baseball. Somebody else with a volleyball. Somebody else with a basketball. I mean, in miniature. I got on my knees, and I was looking, and a fine young fellow said, Sir, could I help you? I said, I'd be very happy if you could. What are you looking for? I was looking to see who got the trophy for praying. He said, what? I said, don't you have a model of somebody praying in these famous Bibles? Are you serious? I said, yes, are you? Do you think you're going to get a reward in heaven because you knock more home runs in the Wesleyan, what do you call it, Bible school? Or as you go to, where does the Pentecostals go when they die? Springfield, yeah. Do you think you're going to get a reward because you hit more home runs? Come on, preacher. I had a young man came to see me this week. He thinks God has called him out of a business career to become a preacher. Give me some tips. I said, read Acts 26 on your knees every day for the next month. Tells you what your job is. Acts 26, to open the eyes of the blind, to turn them from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and an inheritance among them that are sanctified. When you've done that, read all the minor prophets and soak yourself in them. Get out of the way of pygmies and walk with giants. Get away from the modern trash that they sell at CBA next week. And read what God says and measure up to some of the standards God has. We don't need any advice, and God doesn't. We try and give it to him. You say, I wonder what would happen if we really knew that judgment was coming, say, next week, Wednesday night. I'll tell you what would happen. Every church would be packed out. I told you the other week of a friend of ours who came back from Korea. Of course, wide-eyed, oh, there's Dr. Cho. Cho, is it? Dr. Cho, Paul Cho. That's a church of 300,000, 400,000 now. But the thing was, she went up the mountain. There was a cave there, and there were nearly 2,000 women in there, praying as though they were all delivering a baby in agony. Hour after hour after hour after hour. Do you know why? Because you can walk to the borders, and on the border of North and Korea, there's a million Russians lined up, ready to come over and plunge the whole nation into blood. So every time they go to church, the pastor says, you memorize this chapter next week. You memorize that hymn next week. It's an open secret. There'll be no Bibles around in a few years. There'll be no hymn books around in a few years. We'll be huddled in concentration camps. We'll be hiding in caves. The streets will be running with blood. We're going to be martyred. Oh, if we knew that. Come on now, come on. Don't suggest we don't know. Yeah, you say, if we were going to be murdered, or if we were going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah. Well, don't you listen to what Mr. Reagan says? That Russia's deciding what temperature to roast us at. And if you don't think there's going to be a bloody thing like that can happen, what do you think about the Word of God that talks about the Battle of Armageddon? What do you think about the Scriptures that nobody quotes these days? That Jesus is coming in flaming vengeance. Forget all about your rapture. Come on, preachers. How many of us will be clear from the blood of the people in our streets? If I were a Protestant Pope, I'd close every church in the nation for a month. There wouldn't be another word of preaching. Your people can't handle the light they have now at the judgment seat. And all you'll do on Sunday is add condemnation to them. They can't handle it. Every one of us know to live better than we're living. And that's our condemnation. We know to be praying better than we're praying. We know how to fast better than we're fasting. We know we should be weeping more than we're weeping. We know we should have gone to a place where God Almighty can give us groanings that cannot be uttered. And that's a hundred million miles past praying in tongues. It's an inner grief. It's something that has no language. God says so. I don't say so. I'm convinced with all my heart we're in the most severe decade. I don't think we'll last a decade. Five years that America's ever had. And she's not going to be changed by legislation. She's going to be changed by revival. And revival only comes by birth, by travel. I get too many visitors. I wish I didn't get some of them. But the other day a very refreshing young man came to me. In the course of talking he said this. Do you know anything about a lady? What's her name now? Oh, she was in England when we were there. Agnes Sanford. Some of you read Agnes Sanford's books I suppose. Six years ago somebody told her that that San Andrea Fault, is that what you call it? Is going to split wide open. And that section is going to slip into the Pacific Ocean. That section of California. She went and bought a house on the San Andrea Fault. Defied the devil, defied her friends. And she's living there. And has been holding on to God for six years. Without tremendous catastrophe will not come. Isn't it amazing that this righteous man so called? I'm angry with Lot. Wait till I see him. I'll tell him off. I'll tell you that. Why didn't he go pray with Abraham? He didn't pray with Abraham. We were in a prayer meeting the other night. Where somebody prayed and said, Well, this coming Saturday my family and they're a very well known family. World famous. They'll be at a ball game. All the grandkids are going to have a ball game. But they won't come to the prayer meeting tonight. No church is stronger than its prayer meeting. The church isn't praying, it's playing. The pastor isn't praying, he's straying. The devil fights your prayer life. I think of that woman I get up now two or three in the morning. I think there's that precious little woman on the San Andrea Fault there. And she's got the destiny almost of millions in her hands. She said, they're not going to pray until I leave. I'm going to pray. I'm going to put out my life. She won't get a congress medal for it. She won't be asked to go to the White House. In most cases she won't be asked to go to God's house. They'll think she's a fanatic. But there's that one precious woman that's become my heroine. Oh yes, yes, I love the stars and stripes. I keep saying I'm going to get a flag. It hasn't come yet, but anyhow I'm going to get one. But when I see people singing, Is this what you do with your hand on your heart? And half of them cheat the income tax. Anyhow they don't love the country. They break every blessed law they can break. They're hypocrites. And stand my consciences of thee. Oh America, America, how beautiful. Accept the IRS. Go to hell. You know I think one of these days most of them are going to wake up and take God seriously. I spoke about two weeks ago about the barren women in the Bible where Rachel got fed up of the jewels and all the glory and everything. I noticed this woman Roth's wife. Oh brother was she something. I'll tell you what a note I made here about her. When the judgment came what said. Verse 14 of chapter. Wait a minute. 19 says this. Lot went out and spake unto his sons-in-law which had married his daughters. There you are. His sons-in-law had married his daughters. The marriage was never consummated. So they had their sex between themselves. The dogs that they were. Which had married his daughters and said, Get you out of this place for the Lord will destroy this city. But he seemed unto them as one of mock. Now this woman had seen the most righteous man in the world. Abraham. She'd seen her father when he was on stretch for God. And she forgot about the holiness of Abraham. She forgot about the holiness of Lot. She forgot that God had already poured his judgment out in water and flooded the earth and now he's going to burn the thing up. Let me stick this in your mind again. Like it or not. There's one reason we don't have revival. Do you know what it is? We're content to live without it. When it becomes number one priority. We'll do something about it. There's only one reason the world tonight is going to hell fire. And that's because the church has got holy ghost fire. I don't care whether you've got Holy Insomnia Church or Pentecostal or what it is. It's a pillar of fire over it. After tonight we're going to start our meetings. Every Friday night we're going to start with 10 to 15 minutes of total silence. The scripture says be filled with the spirit. It also says be still and know that I'm God. We come out of the fever of the world. And you've been racing up the road. And you come in here and expect somebody to become sanctified. We need 10 minutes, 15 minutes to clear our minds of all the dross and all the thinking and all the material things. The church is earthbound. We're as materialistic as the man up the road. The Lord's going to utterly destroy this place. He seemed unto them as one that mocked. I had a man and his wife came from Pittsburgh. Where is it, Pennsylvania? To see me yesterday. Very delightful man. I'll tell you why I liked him. Because he agreed with all my idiosyncrasies. Notice what he said. Brother Ravenhill, I've read your books. My heart beats like yours. But you know what? People won't accept my message. Did they ever accept the message of a prophet? If you see a man saying he's a prophet and he's well dressed and has no scars, forget it. Maybe he's a prophet. P-R-O-F-I-T. Like most of the big radio boys. He seemed as one that mocked to his sons. And when the morning arose, the angels hastened to Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, thy two daughters, which ye have noticed the son's-in-law left out. Lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, even Lot was lingering. You talk about mercy? While he lingered, then these angels laid hold of his hand. Now, on the hand of his wife, on the hand of his two daughters, but not his son's-in-law. They brought them forth and set them without the city. It came to pass when they brought forth, then forth abroad, he said, Escape for thy life, look not behind thee. Verse 26 says, But his wife looked from behind and became a pillar of salt. Isn't it amazing? With hell raining from the sky, she defied God? It's equally amazing to me tonight, with judgment coming down on us very soon, that most of the churches are locked up at this very hour. We're never going to win the world by organizing, it's only by agonizing. But then notice, stepping back, backwards and forwards a little bit, but anyhow, in the 18th chapter. Verse 22 says, The men turned their faces from thence and went towards Sodom, but Abraham stood before the Lord. He wasn't going to be moved by anybody. Abraham drew near and said, Will thou also destroy the righteous? He never prayed for Sodom, he never prayed for Gomorrah, he prayed for the preservation of the saints. People say, Oh bless America. There's a fellow in Dallas preached, not the 4th of July this year, 4th of July last year, we were in the Bahamas having a rest, and somebody turned the thing on and said, Here's a young fellow preaching from, I never said his name, but I won't. His first name is Bob, anyhow. But he was preaching from Dallas. At the end, before he preached, the other man come in Yankee Doodle Trout, you know, stripes, white and black, and a blue vest with stars on, and a tall hat and a stick, and the guy danced on the platform singing Yankee Doodle Dandy, you know, just like Isaiah did. You know what Isaiah did in the first chapter? Then he tries to get serious. Oh, how come you need... Oh, my dear wife and I, we have decided to give America to God. Good Lord, that's like giving a bride a bag of manure. Give America to God? Rotting with venereal disease? Rotting with AIDS? With more illegitimate babies than we've ever had in our history? With more drunkards than we've ever had in our history? With more people on drugs than we've ever had in our history? It doesn't alarm the world. It doesn't alarm us. He did not pray for Sodom. He did not pray for Gomorrah. What did he say? He said in verse 22, The men turned their faces from thence and went, but Abraham stood. And the next verse says, Abraham drew near and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? Put a ban to that of fifty righteous within the city. And notice he mentions that all the way down. In verse 23, the righteous. In verse 24, the righteous. In verse 25, the righteous. In verse 26, the righteous. He gets down to the end where it says, If they lack fifty of the righteous. Verse 29 says, He spake yet again and said, Peradventure, there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. Verse 33 says, The Lord went his way. As soon as he had left communing with Abraham, then Abraham returned unto his place. And then you go on to that terrible scene again. These girls are spared. How are they spared? An angel, God, in heaven, in mercy, comes to these girls who have had object lessons in righteousness and holiness. They've seen the most amazing man. They've seen Abraham. He was a standing joke in Sodom. You ever go up the hill there and see that old man, you know? He's a marvelous looking character. Oh, he has such a marvelous beard. Oh, he's such a marvelous figure. But watch out, because if you're there, he'll most likely shed blood and build an altar and pray. And you know, when he prays, he scares you to death. We can't even have any pulpit prayers. The most shabby thing in church is there is pulpit prayers. Oh, my Lord. I'm reading this verse again here. Verse 16 in chapter 19. While he lingered, the men laid hold, or the angels laid hold on his hand, on the hand of his wife, on the hand of his two daughters. What did they do? I'll tell you what they did. They got from out of the place. Lot's wife, of course, here now, has looked back and she's turned into a pillar of salt. She's looking back to the country club. She's looking back at the place where she bought all the jewels. She hasn't got them with her and they were ashes before long. As I've said before, we sing, let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. We sing the end of that chorus. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. All is wonderful, passion and purity. All thou spirit divine, all my nature refine. Till the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. You see, when a man is purifying gold, he puts the mixture, the gold, the alloy, in a crucible, modern crucible, an induction crucible. And he sits there with a sieve and he takes the scum. Gold is the heaviest of all metals. It falls to the bottom. The rubbish comes to the top, he takes it off and throws it away, takes it off, throws it away. He doesn't take it off this time. Why? Because there is none. It's pure. How does he know he's pure? Because as soon as it's pure, it reflects the maker. Reflection there. Let the beauty of Jesus be seen in me. But brother's going to take the dross out and he's going to put you through the fire to take it out. We speak of the Holy Ghost and with fire, but that's not what the scripture says. The word of the scripture, the Greek says, Holy Ghost fire. It's not the Holy Ghost plus fire, it's the Holy Ghost who is fire, because our God is a consuming fire. And again, you never have to advertise a fire. Every time you advertise in the newspaper, you're advertising your bankruptcy. If a pillar of fire ever comes in your church, you'll never advertise again. Now, it may be comfortable, but it's true anyhow. His wife looked back at what? At the country club. At the place where she bought her, what do you call them now, Christian Dior clothes and all the rest of it. And all the jewels. They weren't a bit of good now. But where your treasure is there will your heart be. She was following outwardly, but inwardly she was fretting, not following. She's worried about the house. She's worried about all the antiques. She's worried about all the treasures in the place. But notice verse 29. It came to pass when God destroyed the cities of the pen, God remembered Abraham. Come on. The one man that prayed and is delivered, God remembers him. Because he'd obeyed God. He'd heard the voice of God. And therefore God answers prayer for the man who didn't pray for himself. I don't read that Lot built any altars. He was too busy building his bank book up. I don't read anywhere that he prayed. Old Abraham is keeping his daily habit of contact with God. He builds his altar. He stands against the ridicule. I imagine people come and want his autograph. They see that camera that's taking his photograph. But impervious to all the thinking of the world, he's impervious to whatever Lot, his nephew might say. He's seen the face of God. He's heard the voice of God. I tell you, if you see the face of God, the voice of God, all hell won't move you. I'm glad you chose that hymn tonight. I've been thinking of it during the week. How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord. You may tremble on the rock, but I'll tell you what, the rock will never tremble under you anyhow. The foundation is laid in the blood of Jesus Christ in the exceeding great and precious promises of God. I say again, as I've said in one of my books, one day somebody's going to read the Bible and believe it. When they do, we'll all be embarrassed. That's why you get kids in foreign countries who only have about one chapter of the Bible and they read it and they believe it. And the ministries are astounded. Oh, I went to school in America. Doesn't matter whether you went to school in America or in hell as far as they're concerned. Shows the works of God and they can't do it. I've told you, I'm sick of theology on paper. I'm sick of just reading the Word of God and I go to a meeting and somebody says, God is here. Oh, shut up. If you put 500 roses in a room and bring a blind man in, he'll tell you whether the rose is there or not. You won't have to tell him. If God is there, I don't need you or Gabriel to tell me God is there. I'm a spirit, God is a spirit. His spirit bears witness with my spirit. You can't persuade me God is there if He isn't. Because we sang my favorite hymn, All Hail King Jesus. We had a marvelous feeling in our bellies. We had a brother pray there a few nights ago. I'll never forget it. He was very, very, very profoundly moved. And he said, God, the reason why our young people are not in the church is they've never seen the Shekinah glory. They see the lights of the world and the lights of the world dazzle them because there's no light and glory inside. When the glory comes, you know what? We won't put these lights out for weeks. In the Welsh Revival, I was living then. I was living a few years after. But I went to Wales and I met people a hundred years old who went through the Welsh Revival. As I say, I talked with Duncan Campbell. The tears would come in his eyes and he'd say, Brother Raymond, most of our people have never seen the glory of God. God remembered Abraham. Verse 30, Lot went up out to Zor and he dwelt in the mountains and his two daughters were with him. Now, these are the two girls. Come on now. They've seen all their city consumed. They've seen their buildings consumed. They've seen their government consumed. They've seen their markets consumed. They've seen everything consumed. What did they do? They get their father drunk and lie with him. The bitches. You say, that's a bad word. Well, I looked it up in the dictionary and it said, Bitch is a female dog or a dirty woman who is immoral and corrupt. And they got their father drunk, it says in verse 33. They made their father drink that night. The firstborn went in and lay with him and perceived not when she lay down. He came to pass on the moral. The firstborn said unto the younger, Behold, I lay with my father yesterday night. I made him drink. Go thou in. And it says verse 35, They made their father drunk. Verse 36, They were both daughters of Lot. Were in childbirth their father. Could you think a girl who'd been rescued by a living immortal angel dragged by the wrist would dare to get her father drunk and lie with him and become a dirty dog herself or bitch? That's a dirty word, but I use it. Because that's what she was. It used to hurt me profoundly. I worked in the first days with Dave Wilkinson in New York 20 years ago. I remember when the girl came back in the office, she was spectacularly beautiful. She came up in a snow white Cadillac, a convertible. Boy, she was something. What are you here for? My friend here needs help. Dave came in. I said, Dave, this girl says, Dave said, you need help. Oh, well, I used to go to church. I was filled with the Spirit. I spoke in tongues. And I can recite the 23rd Psalm. I can do this. What are you doing now? Never mind. What are you doing? Why have you come here? I'm prostituting. She said, I sat on the front row in the choir and enjoyed the services. And now here she is. I read an awful word in, what was it, 1 Samuel, I forget the chapter. Remember the sons of Eli, how they corrupted themselves and God says, the house of Eli will never be purged. Bring all the sacrifices you need. And they are wiped out. I believe some denomination will be wiped out before long. They've toyed with truth. Preachers are not going to be judged only for what they've said, but what they wouldn't dare to say they're going to be judged for too. And that's going to be tough. One man stands in the gap. You know what preachers do when it gets going, going gets hard, decide to go into politics. Guys keep calling, I think I should go into politics. I think I should go to Washington. I say, that's like, it's like taking an ice cube and dropping it in a volcano and say you'll cool it down. You won't do a thing when you get to Washington except become as corrupt as the rest of the gang. If God has called you to the ministry, it's the loftiest thing in the world. Don't stoop to be a king. Don't stoop to be the President of the United States. Don't stoop to be the King of England. We deal with the loftiest, mightiest, eternal things. We're not settling temporary judgments as to whether they shall widen the road or cut down some houses and make a new road. We're dealing with eternity. Well, I'm praying the next three nights. Tomorrow night we're going to speak on prayer. Sunday night on holiness and vision. Monday night I think on the judgment seat of Christ for sinners and for saints. The next night maybe on worship. I promise you it will be good. There are some people fasting and praying for that meeting. I'm amazed how many people have phoned me and said, I don't go there but I'm going to go. Not because you're there but God wants you to go. Personally, I don't care whether you come or not. I admit I wouldn't like to preach through empty seats. But on the other hand, if God's there, I wouldn't like you to miss it. God used Abraham, one man. God used Duncan Campbell with the background of old, crippled old ladies, 82, 83, 84, who fasted and prayed for weeks. Who made a holy covenant before God they wouldn't die until you rent the heavens and God did exactly that. It troubles me there's so little passion in our praying. We can get enthusiastic at a football match or some other thing but when it comes to eternity and lost men and women, there's not much zeal, there's not much passion, not many tears. I remember walking on the main street in Edinburgh in Scotland and I looked at the cathedral there and remembered John Knox. That precious, precious man. A brilliant scholar. But he lost sight of his eloquence. He lost sight of his monumental sermons and he got angry and he got to a place of passion. And you remember he took the words of Rachel, Give me children or I die. And again she didn't say that when she'd made her hair nice and put on her best dress. She flung herself at the feet of her husband and said, Give me children or I die. In the 1500s, Richard Baxter went to Kidderminster. My dear wife and I went through that town often. When he went, there wasn't one family in the town that had family devotions. He had revival on the local level to this degree. They built five galleries in that huge church and he packed every one of them. Before the revival, there wasn't one family in town that had devotions. When he died, there wasn't one family in town that didn't have them. I'm burdened about that word. We use it so often. I guess you preachers use it. This church, we're part of the body. Are you really part of the body? Christ is the head. If you sever the head from the body, you've got nothing. If Christ isn't the head of your church, you've got nothing. You may have a good bank balance and a good account. Come on. Are we the body? Because Jesus said, this is my body. His most sacred, holy body, he says, is broken. Do you know a church that says to God, break us to pieces if you like. Take our deacons away. Take our Sunday school teachers away. Break us. But in holy pity, do something for this hell bound community I'm living in. John Knox says, give me Scotland or I die. At the same time, John Wells shot the road. A poor man has a blanket on his bed and he gets out of bed in the morning at 3 o'clock. There's no heat in the house. He takes out a big old Scottish plaid and wraps it round. He's groaning on his belly on the floor and his wife says, get into bed, laddie. Get into bed. He says, woman, how can I sleep when there are 3,000 people in this parish going to a lost eternity? I picked up the wonderful diary of McShane. I read it often. McShane was the brainard of Scotland. He died at 29. He was a genius in Hebrew. He went as a missionary to Israel. And when he got there, God said, go back home. Maybe I mentioned last week a man that was in our house two weeks ago from a little fellowship called Zion. I walked in the upper room there after preaching one Sunday morning to about 80 or 90 people. I went up to see this man, Rex Andrews. Wide head man, little white beard, blue eyes, cheeks any girl would envy. Pink. I was looking at one of the most amazing men America has had in a hundred years. Do you know why? The man I looked at hadn't been to bed one night in 30 years. Not 30 days, not 30 weeks, 30 years. Living in America and nobody knew. All the big preachers were getting on TV and showing off. Here's a man shut up with God from 10 o'clock every night till 5 in the morning. I'm embarrassed to say I get up early and pray when I think of that man. 4, 5, 6 hours every night of his life for what? 30 years. I look at my dear wife every morning. I give her a hug and kiss her. I think she's lovely as she was when we got married 46 years ago. I've been faithful to my wife for 46 years. Can't I be faithful to God for 46? Despite the world, the flesh, the devil and everything that wants to hinder me? Can't I make a vow to God? I don't make vows these days. Because I know if I make them, I'll keep them. If I know if I wouldn't make one or two of them I'd like to make, I'd be dead in six months. Maybe God will test me on it. I'm sick to death of mediocrity. I'm tired of assembly lines that turn off kids up at, what do you call it now? Springfield, off the assembly line. The guys don't know God, never mind the baptism of the Holy Ghost. They speak in tongues, proves nothing as far as I'm concerned. Every Mormon nearly over in Utah speaks in tongues. They'll tell you that proudly. Every Christian scientist will tell you every miracle Oral Roberts has had, they've had. There's only one proof of the Holy Ghost in your life and that's a holy life. That's the only proof. And the second proof is you're easy to live with. Don't ask my wife here, come round the back door some day, ask her if I'm easy to live with, if I'm not, write me off as a hypocrite. You see, and I'd better wind this up, God demands holiness if you're going to pray. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, neither hath clean hands. Not the man that's doing tricky business. And the pure heart is emptied of all self-interest, self-seeking, self-glory, self-ambition, self-righteousness. Self has gone out. And the Holy Ghost has come in to take total occupation. Yes, these girls were saved out of fire. They could see the smoking city. And they dare to go in the tent and make their father commit, get them pregnant. I'm amazed how hard some people can become after they profess to have been filled with God. They can go back to worldliness and thawedness and materialism and stand up and talk about repentance. Why doesn't God Almighty slay them? Because He's appointed today and He's going to judge us. Here is one man who stands in the gap. God can't try to look for a man to stand in the gap because here's a man that's forgotten about worldly interests. He doesn't go look after his sheep. He isn't looking after a new piece of land. He's seen the deterioration and I don't believe for a minute these girls went to hell and perished without hearing prayers of their father Abraham over there. Seeing the tears of their father Abraham. When he said goodbye to Mesopotamia with its idols and materialism, it was forever. He got married to the will of God and he stayed with the will of God. God isn't looking for brilliant men. He's looking for genius. He's looking for holy men. He's looking for men totally emptied of self who say, I am determined by the grace of God to be the holiest man in this community without telling anybody about it. It's a relationship between God and myself. No, this man doesn't pray for Sodom and Gomorrah. He doesn't pray that some government, some good sanctified men will become rulers of town or presidents or in the local government. He's praying for righteous men. Preserve the righteousness of your saints. If we can get a holy band of people, we can see God do as much as ever he's done in history. People will say we're arrogant, we're funny. Well, surely in God's name we don't really like that much, do you? I'd rather be considered the biggest idiot in the world with the anointing of God than be the smartest man outside. I don't see much of these big fashionable churches. How about these big wonderful preachers? I'm trying to write another book I get scared to write. I'll tell you why. Because once I say something to you, God puts it on the plate and says eat it yourself. Otherwise I'm just giving you advice. I'm waving my hands. Go that way for healing and this way for blessing and that way for something else. I say to me that one of the awful things of our day is that Calvary has become a tourist attraction. Oh, I went to the place where Jesus was crucified. I picked up a little stone. I brought it. I thought you'd like a souvenir. I put it down. I don't want it. There are lots of people going to Calvary. Not many people getting on the cross. Not many people who really want to die. I've gone round the circle but listen. If it isn't a presentation of Holy Ghost fire there'll be a judgment fire before long in America. You may agree or disagree with Dave Wilkerson's new book. I think most of it hits the nail on the head. Some I don't understand. Some he doesn't understand as far as that goes. But America's in jeopardy. There's nobody who can rescue us. We can't make friends with communist nations and other nations. God is going to get us to the place where he's going to break the nation. But before he does that he'll break the church. As far as I'm concerned we've out sinned Sodom and Gomorrah. I say they had no Bibles. And that book sold very well. They hadn't. But nobody ever wrote to me and reminded me until years after I'd written it. I'll tell you what they did have. They had two of the greatest preachers that ever lived. Noah was a preacher of righteousness he said in Peter. Everybody remembers him because he built an ark. God remembers him because he preached righteousness. He didn't preach anything but righteousness. He preached the second blessing the second coming. Miracles, healing, signs, wonders. Anybody will listen to that but preach righteousness. Brother you're out of business almost. Not only was Noah a preacher of righteousness but a more amazing man. Enoch. Imagine in the early days of the world Enoch with 10 preaches according to the 24th verse isn't it in Jude. There he is standing at the beginning of the world and he says Jesus Christ is coming with 10,000 of his saints to execute judgment. Dear God we've forgotten it. Never mind those people. Noah preaching righteousness Enoch preaching Jesus Christ is coming in judgment. Who wants to hear it anymore in our churches? No give us something sweet and sugary and nice. Something that won't hurt us. Something that won't send us home weeping and broken. There's enough trouble in the world without going to church to get it. Come on carnal trouble is one thing. Spiritual trouble is another. Carnal burdens are one thing. Your business troubles and other things. But when it comes to the burden of the Lord which is spoken of so often by the prophets the minor prophets an entirely different thing. But he says my yoke is easy my burden is light. As we sang that hymn tonight never thought of it until we sang it tonight. Strength for today. Why did you give me more strength today? Because you didn't need it. If you'd needed it if you'd been carrying a bigger burden it would have given you more blessing it would have given you more power it would have given you more anointing. You didn't need it. You didn't ask for it. You wanted to sail through this day like yesterday with as little burden and as little obligation as I can have. Five minutes inside eternity friends we'll all wish we'd been more holy. We'll all wish we'd carried bigger burdens. We'll all wish we'd had more tears. We'll all wish we'd had more trouble. It's too late there's no turning back. If we don't write if we don't write pardon me if we don't see revival God's going to write America off I'm sure of that and England as far as that goes. The sons of Eli betrayed God and they wiped their generation out. I wonder what would have happened if Hananias and Sapphira hadn't grieved God. They might have had some of the most wonderful children baptised with the Holy Ghost and revolutionised the world. But they got greedy they got self-satisfied. Let me quote McShane again quote McShane said a hundred more than a hundred years ago there's one thing for sure the devil hates in the world and that's a holy person. He doesn't mind half-hearted people. He doesn't mind people who want to be sanctified on Sunday and caramel on Monday who enjoy a prayer meeting but enjoy a bowling alley tomorrow night just as much. He's looking for a heart of people whose hearts are pure pure in their purpose pure in their intention pure in their desires. It's getting late. Just now he put I'm going to close in a minute. It's getting late for the Americans. All kinds of people are writing Dave Wilson your book has stirred me. They call me from many countries often I just read your book it's been translated I've been challenged I say forget it brother you need to be changed not challenged. We get challenged every time we go to church who gets challenged? Who comes out with a miracle heart? Who comes out with a fire of God burning in him that all the waters of hell and discouragement can't put out? We build monuments to our heroes we don't copy them in lifestyle we don't copy them in passion. Abraham was like Elijah a man of like passion as we are. God discouraged sometimes but on the other hand he held on. He held on when all Sodom went down he held on when his nephew went down. He held on when the city burned but he lived to see God honor his prayers and God will honor our prayers. God is going to have to give us holy men men who look in the face of God and say Lord I'm not concerned about my preaching and my name in this district I want to be a channel of blessing from your throne to a world that's doomed and damned. When we get desperate as I've said before God does not answer prayer he answers desperate prayer. We're going to pray for a season now. I'm not going to sing I'm going to ask you to leave if you wish to leave when we get down you can go out or you can stay and pray for a half hour or more as the Lord leads us I can't transmit in words what's in my heart I wish I could I wish I could kind of cut a vein and say there's a spot of my blood that's what they used to do and cut a vein couples that were going to get married used to cut a vein and put their wrists together and pledge made a covenant with blood you don't have to cut your vein the blood is you have to discipline your life under God you have to be willing for ridicule you have to be willing for sarcasm you have to be willing for somebody saying he thinks he's holier than we are so why worry we need God to render heavens only that's going to give me a chair please that's the only answer that we have that's the only answer