In this sermon, the preacher shares a personal anecdote about a fellow preacher in Dallas who had a unique introduction to his sermon. He then offers advice to a young man who believes he is called to become a preacher, suggesting he read Acts 26 and the minor prophets to understand his purpose. The preacher emphasizes the importance of reading and studying the word of God, rather than relying on modern literature. He concludes by referencing the story of Lot's wife in Luke 17:32, urging listeners to remember her as a cautionary example.

Welcome to From the Pulpit in Classic Sermons. Each week we bring you a different message from some of history's greatest speakers in the Christian faith, and powerful sermons for modern preachers too. This week we have Leonard Ravenhill with his message, Abraham in Light. They look at the Gospel of Luke, sorry, the 17th chapter. 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 a bit 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. To 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 he 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 48 again says, as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built, but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and 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 fence 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 Sodom, pardon me, 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's 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 our 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 toward 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 a 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 I come 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 your TV. Don't say we're buying the youngster a TV for Christmas on his own and 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 angels to Sodom and even 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's 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? So 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 percent of them came to the choir practice the choir master would resign the first week. But if a preacher got 10 percent of his congregation, as in the Church of Hollywood there were 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 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 supposedly full of faith of the Holy Ghost. They got elected because they own two Texaco stations and 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. I came to 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 laid 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 them to 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 shut the and he shut the door after him and he said no I pray you brethren do not so behold I have two daughters which have not known man. Why hadn't they known man they were married. Read in the chapter they were married. But the marriage would never consummate it. This righteous man had married his sons after some wealthy homosexuals. Where in God's name was his righteousness. 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 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 put judgment on us. Is it a case of time or temperature. Does it now 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 is 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 refuse to acknowledge this God or to thank him for what he does. They became fatuous in their argumentations and plunge their silly little minds further into the dark. Behind the facade of wisdom they became such fools. Fools who could exchange the glory of immortal God for an imitation God like mortal men of things that fly and crawl. Therefore God gave them up to be play things of their own foul desires and dishonor their bodies. Moreover since they consider 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 to John last year. What kind of a God have you got? I believe God has foreknowledge. I don't believe he predestined them to that. But these people have become so corrupt, they're so lawless, they obey nobody. Laws of God are laws of men. They're 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 nor and the conditions in the days of lot. But who worries about it? These people are 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. 2nd 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 Hittites 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 to order. 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 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 or the tears were there. I said, how is it in the outer Hebrides? Amongst those so-called stuffy Presbyterians, you saw more 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 farmer 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 shorter 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 of Paulus 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 at here a minute. And this is 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 tent 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 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's swarming with filth. People delight in it. They buy it. They sell it like we do. Friday night. Some taverns will be open till two and three 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, I went in a Bible college, a great big display thing, you know, with a guy with a tennis racket, all plastic, of course, plastic gold. Somebody kicked me 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 it, 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 the 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 to 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 see, 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 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, 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 come 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 cleared 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. 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 fast 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, if we last, 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 traveling. 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 the 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 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 get, we're 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 that isn't praying is playing. The pastor that isn't praying is 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 till I live, 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 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 it this way you do it, 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, O America, America, how beautiful, except 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 her jewels and all the glory and everything. I noticed this woman, Lot's wife. Oh brother, was she something. I'll tell you what a note I made here about her. When the judgment came, Lot 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 Mark. 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 Pentecost 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, 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, I've read your books, my heart beats like yours, but you know what? People want to accept my message. Did you 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 he had noticed the sons-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, and on the hand of his wife, on the hand of his two daughters, but not his sons-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 that 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. Then notice, stepping backwards and forwards a little bit, but anyhow, in the 18th chapter, verse 22 says, The men turned their faces from thence and went toward 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's preaching from Dallas. At the end, before he preached, the other man come in Yankee Doodle Trousers, you know, stripes, white and black, and a blue vest with stars on, and a tall hat and a stick, and a 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 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 what did he say? It 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, will thou also for they destroy the righteous with the wicked? Put a bench without a 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 there 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, and 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've 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 pulpit prayers. 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. And 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 of Islam. It's pure. How does he know it'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. He's going to put you through the fire to take it out. We speak of the Holy Ghost stand with fire, but that's not what the scripture says. The whole, the word, 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 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. Neither may be comfortable, but it's true anyhow. His wife looked back, at what? At a 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 it's impervious to all the thinking of the world. It'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 and hear 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 these 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 messengers 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, and had a marvelous feeling in our bellies. We had a brother prayed 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 wasn't living then. I was living a few years after. But I went to Wales and I met people a hundred years old who went to the Welsh Revival. As I say, I talked with Duncan Campbell. The tears were coming into his eyes, and he said, Brother Raymond, most of our people never seen the glory of God. God remembered Abraham. Verse 30, Lot went up out to Zoar, and he dwelt in the mountains, and his two daughters 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 do they do? They get their father drunk and lie with him. They're bitches. You say, that's a bad word. Well, I looked it up in the dictionary, and it said, bitches, a female dog, or a dirty woman who's 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 model. 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 mortal, an 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 Wilkins in New York 20 years ago. I remember when that girl came out in the office, she was spectacularly beautiful. She came up in a snow white caddy like 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 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're wiped out. I believe some denominations 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 they get 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 said, you want to act like that's right? 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 should 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 called in 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 from empty seats. But on the other hand if the 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. You 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 Edmonds, Scotland. 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 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, give me children or I die. In the 1500s Richard Baxter went to Kidderminster, my dear wife and I went to 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 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 says he's 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 Welsh up the road a poor man has a blanket on his bed and he gets out of bed in the morning at three o'clock. There's no heat in the house. He takes out a big old Scottish plaid and wraps it around. 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 three thousand 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 80-90 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's 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 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. Four, five, six hours every night of his life for what 30 years. I look at my dear wife every morning. I give her a hug and kisses. 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 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 medical order 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 around the back door someday, ask her if I'm easy to live with, if I'm not, write me off as a hypocrite. 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 you don't like that bunch 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 a 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 writing 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, 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 around the circle but listen, if there isn't a presentation of the 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 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. Peter's second blessing, the second coming, miracles, healings, signs, wonders, anybody will listen to that but preach righteousness. Brother you're out of business all of them. Not only was Noah a preacher of righteousness but a more amazing man. Five minutes inside eternity friends, we'll all wish we'd been more holy, we'll all wish we carried bigger burdens, we'll all wish we 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, if 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 baptized with the Holy Ghost and revolutionized the world. But they got greedy, got so satisfied. Let me quote Maxine again, quote Maxine 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 it is, I'm going to close in a minute. It's getting late for 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 changed? 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 is scary 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 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 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. You've been listening to the From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons series. This week you heard Leonard Ravenhill with his message, Abraham and Lot. Tune in next week to hear John Piper speak about the price of God's own blood on From the Pulpit and Classic Sermons.