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- The End Times (Luke 17 26) - Part 1
The End Times (Luke 17-26) - Part 1
Leonard Ravenhill

Leonard Ravenhill (1907 - 1994). British-American evangelist, author, and revivalist born in Leeds, England. Converted at 14 in a Methodist revival, he trained at Cliff College, a Methodist Bible school, and was mentored by Samuel Chadwick. Ordained in the 1930s, he preached across England with the Faith Mission and held tent crusades, influenced by the Welsh Revival’s fervor. In 1950, he moved to the United States, later settling in Texas, where he ministered independently, focusing on prayer and repentance. Ravenhill authored books like Why Revival Tarries (1959) and Sodom Had No Bible, urging the church toward holiness. He spoke at major conferences, including with Youth for Christ, and mentored figures like David Wilkerson and Keith Green. Married to Martha Beaton in 1939, they had three sons, all in ministry. Known for his fiery sermons and late-night prayer meetings, he corresponded with A.W. Tozer and admired Charles Spurgeon. His writings and recordings, widely available online, emphasize spiritual awakening over institutional religion. Ravenhill’s call for revival continues to inspire evangelical movements globally.
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Sermon Summary
In this sermon, the speaker highlights the excessive focus on entertainment and pleasure in today's society. He emphasizes the negative impact of television, which he believes is designed to distract people from thinking critically. The speaker also references the decline of the Roman Empire, attributing it to factors such as divorce, high taxes, and a craze for pleasure. He warns that without a spiritual awakening, the world will face severe judgment, and urges listeners to prioritize their love for God over worldly distractions.
Sermon Transcription
I don't like long-winded preachers. Well, my voice isn't good yet. It will get better. If it gets worse, you're in trouble. I'm glad the Lord has lengthened my life a little more to get back here. If people ask you where you've been, you say, I went to Helen Reithner. Well, when is he coming back to Anaheim? You say, always on Super Bowl Sunday. Last year. Did you plan it that way for this year? Well, praise the Lord. I get quite a lot of mail. As a matter of fact, I get more mail than I like. But it seems that half of the mail that I have got the last three weeks has been divided. On one hand, people saying we're on the verge of the greatest move of the Holy Spirit that the world has ever known. Or on the other hand, we're in line for the greatest visitation of judgment that the world has ever known. And I think possibly both of them are right. Last year, I had hoped to go to London and didn't make it. So I spent the time in prayer and asked the Lord about what had been suggested about coming here. And I felt the Lord then gave me a message, but not specifically. And so last week, somebody on the staff, I told you before, John Wimber is like Jacob. He leans on his staff a lot. And he said, Brother John wants you to preach on Sunday night. Well, I certainly had a word from the Lord for during the week, which was very, to say the least, disturbing. I believe there's, if you want to know the secret of preaching, there are two things about preaching. Number one, you master your subject. And number two, the subject masters you. Well, I'm not sure I've quite mastered the subject, but it surely mastered me during the last few days. I believe we're living on the edge of the most awesome days. We'll never, the world will never go back to what it's been before. We've three mad men in the world, I think. Of course, there are more than that. There are three outstanding Gaddafi, I think. Anti-God, anti-Christ, anti-America. This villain in the, what do you call him, Saddam? Saddam Hussein. I call him Saddam Hussein. And then there's also this other very lovely guy that we love so much, Gorbachev. He completely deceived the nations. He's an amazing man, with bloody hands, gets a Nobel Peace Prize. Got his picture on the front of Time magazine. Has been given at least seven distinct honors in the last six months. And yet, he got all the money he wanted from America, all the money he wanted from Germany, and then decided to rape two other nations. He supervised the rape of Afghanistan for ten years. He knew about that terrible slaughter last year in China. And he knew what was happening when 60,000 people were massacred in Romania. So these are our friends. I woke up this morning, I usually do that. But I woke up this morning with an old English hymn on my mind. You know, the 16th and 17th centuries were very wonderful for kind of supermen spiritually. Can you imagine going to a prayer meeting that finished at four o'clock in the morning, and Charles Wesley was singing, and John Wesley was singing, and what's the other fellow? Oh, Whitefield, thank you. And Newton, John Newton was there. And Calper was there, C-E-O-W, we call him Calper. Cooper we often call him. But he wrote some wonderful hymns. You know, one day, he suffered terrible fits of depression, like, what was he, young American? David Brainerd did, and other great characters. He wrote tremendous, and one morning he got up and he said to his coachman, drive me around the city. So he got in his cab, there were horses drawn of course, and he drove around the city, and a mantle of fog came on the city. And they drove round and round and round and round, and finally Mr. Calper poked the cab, and he said to the cabbie, stop and see where we are. So he said, look, look, there's a gate there, I can see through the fog. And he was back at his own door. Because it's like preachers to go round and round, and end up where they began anyhow. And then, what he did out of that, he went inside, and he sat down and wrote a hymn, God moves in a mysterious way, his wonders to perform. I like this part, this is what blessed me this morning, he plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm. I'm not a bit nervous about Gaddafi or any bunch of them, because Jesus already said this, while we're on this pilgrimage here, number one, we shall have tribulation, number two, he said, be not afraid. But come unto me, all ye that labour and let it rain, and I will give you rest. And let not your heart be troubled. Well, I don't have a very troubled heart tonight. In another sense, I do. If this isn't going to be the greatest week I've ever lived, I shouldn't be here. Physically, I'm frail. Mentally, I'm not, but physically, I'm frail. My memory is faltering at times, but my heart is flaming. This week can change not only the history of the vineyard ministries, it can change the history of the world. There isn't much time left. We can't miss the beat, we must hear the voice of God. I'm prepared, if God wants, I'll crawl on my belly down the aisle, if need be. A few, two or three years ago, one of the men leading one of the cults, he married 2,000 people in one meeting in New York. They didn't know each other, but he married them all. 2,000 in one meeting. I'd like to conduct a funeral for 2,000 people this week. People who died to sin and self and all the pettiness and junk that spoils our Christian life. I've used this phrase often, I've used it when I was here before. I want the devil and hell to know that this meeting is in the vineyard. I want ministries to be born. I want the men that are going to move the world for God in the next generation to be born during this week. Nothing less will satisfy God. Revival has to start somewhere. Why not here? Sometime, why not now? On somebody, why not us? You can't get it more than that. Unless you say right in there. Okay, I'm going to read a scripture to you here. The gospel recorded by Luke. The 17th chapter. Gospel recorded by Luke chapter 17 and verse 26. And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives or exchanged wives, one writing is. And they were given in marriage until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. You see, this thing has been going around in my mind. I've been getting letters from all over the country and telephone questions. Do you think these are the last days in which we're living? Definitely not, sure they're not. Well, our pastor says they are. Well, your pastor doesn't know, he's dumb. Well, the TV preacher said that these are the last days. Well, he doesn't know either. You say, do you know? Yes, sure I do. I wouldn't be here if I didn't. Oh, I didn't invent it. How do I know? Well, there was a certain man called Jesus and he claimed he was the way, without him there's no going, the truth, without him there's no knowing, and the life, without him there's no growing. And it's Jesus himself that gives the answer to the question. As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. Do you remember in the Acts of the Apostles, in the speech that Peter made, he says, the Holy Ghost was promised by Joel in these last days, and that was written 2,000 years ago. Go to Hebrews chapter 1, God who at sundry times and in divers manners spake unto the fathers by the prophets hath in these last days spoken to us, that's 2,000 years ago. The book of the Revelation, things which will shortly come to pass, that was written 2,000 years ago, we're 2,000 years beyond the last days. We're not in the last days, we're in the end time. Again, read Daniel 8 and 9 when you go home. So I want to know, what I can really say is the end time, what will happen. Jesus says, he was under pressure, you remember, he was after the Pharisees when the kingdom of God should come, and he says, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of Man. What are the days of Noah like? Well, look at chapter 6 of Genesis, and you'll find the answer. Genesis 6.11 says, the earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with what? Violence! Of course, we don't have any of that around today, do we? After all, we were promised 20 years ago, when we had more education, there'd be no violence, no quarrelling, no divorces, everything would be in order. The earth is filled with violence. This is the first time in history that a million men are facing each other to destroy each other. It's the first time in history that 28 nations are being gathered around Jerusalem. Well, you say that happened in the day of Titus, the city was destroyed and blood ran up to the knees. Exactly. But in the days of Titus, and Jerusalem was surrounded, it wasn't surrounded merely with nations, there were 28, now it's surrounded by atom bombs. What does it say? Violence filled the earth? Well, isn't it a day of absolute violence? Here's a man almost with his finger on the button, and we don't know what next crazy thing he'll do. Of course, we always give him plenty of time to get ready. We told him secretly we're going to trouble him after the 15th of January. We kept our promise, and he kept his. Then last week, we told him and his gang that we're going to invade some of the islands, so he just put a million gallons of gas down to make it easier. We told him what we're going to do. And yet we know now that it's possible, and tonight in the news it said people have gone to bed in Israel with their gas masks, they're afraid of poison gas and so forth, and every time you hear the news, at least in our area of the country, we broke all records for murder last year. Last year in New York there were more murders by October than the whole of the previous year. Of course, we don't call them murders anymore, we call them homicides. The preacher today has no language. There are no kids fornicating now, they're just sexually active. Makes it a lot easier, doesn't it? Every kind of sin. No drunkards anymore, just people, what do they have? A chemical dependency. Very nice. Drinking isn't a curse, it's a habit. It's a disease. So you go to the local store and say, give me a six pack of disease. Isn't it easier we make sin and we fool around with it? We won't call sin by its name, not even in a sanctuary. Nobody's divorced anymore, they're just having an affair. Or they've just decided to separate. No adulterous, just having an affair. And the toleration of sin was awful in the day of Noah. The earth was cut before God and the earth was filled with violence. And God said to Noah, at the end of all flesh, it's come before me, for the earth is filled with violence, it's repeated, and behold, I will destroy them that make the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood. That's a very, very interesting thing, isn't it? Going back to the text for a minute, in the 17th of Luke, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of Son of Man. What did he build? He built an ark. He didn't have a sail. It wasn't made to sail, it was made to float. It was 450 feet long. It was 75 feet at the beam. It was 13 stories high, 15 stories high, which is 45 feet. It was a most amazing thing. It amazes me when I read about it. Let me go back a minute here. What did this man know again? He got a word from the Lord. And why did he succeed? Because he obeyed God. He did the most ridiculous thing. Nobody had ever seen a boat in their life. Here this crazy guy says the earth is going to break up, a water chute up, holes in the sky will come down, the water will meet water and will be flooded. And Noah built an ark. How long did he build the ark? Well, you know the answer. 120 years. That's 43,800 days. Multiply that by 24. Do you wonder the word of God says God is long suffering? He waited all that time, 120 years. And what did the people do? They laughed, they scorned, they ridiculed. But you can summarize the whole thing when you turn as I did a minute ago there to 2 Peter and chapter 2 and verse 5. It gives you the secret of this man. What was the secret? You say built an ark. No, that's not why he's known. He's not known for building an ark. He's known because he's a preacher of righteousness. A preacher. God in heaven, I pray this week some preacher will come here half dead and go back home to the other country they've come from, energized by the Holy Ghost, illuminated by the Holy Ghost, praying in the Holy Ghost, thinking in the Holy Ghost, preaching in the Holy Ghost, until the cities in which they live shake with the power of God. There is no alternative for that. A preacher of righteousness. We don't have many preachers left. They're all teachers, teachers, teachers, teachers. Oh, mercy. Don't give me any tapes, please. Oh, you can give me one of the vineyards singing what was his name? What was that? That hymn I gave you last year that you liked so much. You know that good English hymn? What was it? Crowning with many crowns. Wonderful. I'll take that. You know I got 40 tapes for Christmas gifts. And I'm generous. I gave them all to the goodwill. We've got to get back to Holy Ghost preaching. There's no alternative. TV preaching has had its day. We've got to get men anointed with the Holy Ghost. Men who weep more than they sleep. Men who fast more than they feast. Men who walk in the presence of the Holy God. They dwell in the secret place of the Most High. What do you imagine this man did for 120 years? Everybody's conned him. Can you see him going there? He had no tools. In case you don't know, he didn't have a bus or something. He goes down the road and he cuts down a tree. And so he says, leave the thing alone. You're dealing with the environment. That tree's been there since the Garden of Eden. Don't cut it down. He starts cutting trees down. Everybody's up against him. He starts slicing the trees into planks so that they can have be able to work. And for 120 years he stands a ridicule. Why did he do it? Because it says in that marvelous chapter of Heroes, in Hebrews 11 as I've told you, I can read that chapter every day and weep and get down on my face before God. Remember in Noah's day, not one person had a Bible. There were no gospel broadcasts. There were no books printed. The only thing they did, he was a preacher. What did he preach? He preached about judgment. He preached about an awful calamity that backed him up away there in the Garden of Eden. He preached about the time when man sinned and let sin into the world. Can you imagine him? Do you think for 120 years when he had God's timetable in his hand that he was happy and facetious? Do you think he was buying land? Do you think he was investing his money? Of course not. He's a preacher. And the secret of preaching is this. This one thing I do, I've been tempted to. I'll never do another thing but preach. I don't do much good at it, but I'll do it. This one thing I do, that's all the apostles did, that's all this man did. He wasn't building a fishing boat. He wasn't building a boat to cruise around with his family. He knew every time he cut that wood, you could hear the saw zipping through the wood. You could hear the groaning of his spirit. You could see the tears falling from his face and rusting the blade of his saw. And there he knows that God is going to come in judgment. Nursery. As it was in the days of Noah. What did they do? For 120 years they ridiculed him. What was he preaching? He was preaching about sin entering into the world. They'd never seen a, well some of them had seen a prophet. A crazy man had been walking around with a long beard. I've never heard of someone like him in my life. Enoch walked with God. And he got the secrets of God. And then he disappeared. Can you imagine him going down the sea? The old name for prophets is seer. S-E-E-R seer. He's a seer. He sees through time into eternity. He hears what nobody else hears. He sees what nobody else sees. He says what nobody else says. He groans as nobody else groans. He prays. I wish it left me some records of the praying of Enoch. Enoch walked with God. He didn't care a hill of beans what anybody else was doing. They could make millions of money. They can do this, do that, do the other. He set his course to obey God. Come what may and he did it. Can you imagine him going down the main street with his hands in the air? This poor venerable looking old shaky man crying at the top of his voice the Lord is coming with 10,000 of his saints. How in God's name did he know that? Does not begin the very first chapter of the second book of the Thessalonians that Jesus is coming with what? Inflaming vengeance. I like that lovely hymn of Wesley's. Lo, he comes with clouds descending once for favoured, sinners slain. Every eye shall then behold him clothed with dreadful majesty. That's too much for the nervous stomach of our generation of Christians. We'd rather sing Wesley's other hymn, Gentle Jesus, meek and mild. Listen, there is no gentle Jesus, meek and mild. When you see him you'll be terrified. When he comes in the clouds. Why did he come the first time like that and conquer the world? No siree. He came to live on earth and show it to the man. The man Christ Jesus is there in the heavenly places. But he not goes down the street. People ridicule him and say you fool. You've been shouting that same thing. Then up comes Noah saying the same thing. You say listen you old clown. You know that man. Enoch used to come this way and he disappeared. Nobody knows where he's gone. Maybe somebody killed him. Do you think they cared? Do you think a man cares when he heard the voice of God when he knows the will of God? Come hell or high water you to it. We don't see preachers move by the Holy Ghost much. I'm going to preach on that one day this week. I got two messages. Two brand new messages. They may cost you $50,000 each but anyhow. John nodded his head. Martha we're going to be rich this week dear. No I want to tell you I wouldn't come here unless God had moved my heart by the Holy Ghost. He moved me at 31,000 feet coming over the great divide. I was praying for everybody who's here. I was praying for every man from every country that's coming here this week. I want the devil and hell to tremble every time the sun rises on California. I want demons to cringe. I want slaves to be liberated. I want the unanointed to be anointed. I want the blind to see. I want the lame to walk. I mean spiritually and morally. And that's exactly what God wants. No siree. 43,000 days to repent. Isn't it amazing? How did this man stand all the ridicule and the scorn? Can you imagine the sons of Noah coming one day and say Daddy don't you think you missed time this thing? A man down the road says he heard you 25 years ago. And he said oh my father heard him 50 years ago. And you're still saying that? Sure. That's why we preach the everlasting gospel because it's an everlasting gospel. It isn't just a bit of a flip that helped you in times of hardness. But Noah built an ark. A monstrous thing. I tried to work that thing out. Do you know it works out to 56,250 cubic yards? Three stories high. Read the story yourself. The Lord stuck it with the food that you like. Well you've done that maybe. And all the details that God gave me fulfilled. He said they did eat, they drank, they married wives until Noah entered the ark. Let me read this bit of history for you. This was written in the time of Wesley, not this particular piece. But by the way, somebody gave me a bible you passed on to me Brother John. Did you see what it said inside? You know who gave it? Well it's signed on the inside to Lady Isabella by Sir Francis Drake. Wonderful. He never thought I'd get his bible. The only thing I don't like him, he invented smoking didn't he? Well I've got that lovely bible. I got another gift too, thank you. But one of the greatest literary works ever written was Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by what was it? Oh thank you. The professor says Gibbons. So there you are. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Listen, this is what it explains, the downfall of the greatest empire up to that date. He says, number one, the rapid increase of divorce, undermining the sanctity of the home, which is the basis of human society. Number two, higher and higher taxes and spending on puggly monies for bed and circuses for the populace. Number three, the mad craze for pleasure. Isn't it crazy? Oh I know you love the Lord. Do you love him enough to turn the blind eye to the toilet bowl? I mean the Super Bowl today? Do you think we're going to get... Listen, if God doesn't send us an awesome visitation of the Holy Ghost, we're going to have the worst judgment we've ever known in history. We've lived like kings for 25 years. Sing God bless... I don't sing God bless America. Why not? I love it. I give my life for it. God bless America. Oh bless us why? Do you want another refrigerator? You've got two. Do you want another car? You've got two. Do you want another house? You've got one and two. While the rest of the world is starving? While the rest of the world doesn't know which way to turn? Are we going to be loaded and loaded and loaded? Let's get on with this. The building of gigantic armaments. Does that sound like it? When the real enemy was within. The decadence of the people. There's no nation in the world that will destroy America. We'll self-destruct. I know this rascal wants to wither our economy and we're going into a tremendous depression. I'm sure of that. But this all happened as this man says. These are the reasons for the decay of a nation. Number three, five. The decay of religion fading into a mere form. Losing touch with life and becoming impotent to warn and guide the people. There's one thing for sure. Let me go back here a minute. You know in the days of John Wesley when a man came from England it took him three months to cross the Atlantic. He spent six months there, three months to get back. That was a year. And when a man got to England he was brought before the government and asked what do you see in a strange country. So one man came along. I won't give you the exact date. His name was Hugh Peter. He returned to England from where? A country called America. Nobody knew a thing about it. And he told the parliament in England in a sermon. Listen to this. This is your country. Unblemished. God in heaven. You can't walk down New York Street. You'll get mugged in daylight. Never mind in night time. Women get raped going through Central Park. Here's a man writing in 1700. I returned to England from America he told parliament. I lived in a country, hold it, where for seven years, not seven weeks, not seven months, for seven years, I never saw or heard a curse. I never saw a drunkard. Why should there be beggars in our isle of England when there's so much work to do? So there you have it. Can you imagine living in a country where in seven years, not months, I read that, then I woke up at two in the morning and I jumped out of bed, went to my office to read it. I've mistaken it. The man said seven weeks. No, seven months. Seven years. He never once saw a drunkard. Never once heard a curse. Never once saw anything that was villainous. There was hardly a jail existing. Now we can't fill our jails quickly enough. Another monstrous thing they didn't deal with in the days of, obviously in the days of Noah and that previous period when the whole thing was given over to witchcraft and uncleanness and sodomy. Now when I, if I say sodomy, you think of sexual immorality. What about the other side of the coin? What does the Bible say? That the curse of sodom was what? Pride and what? Fullness of bread. I can't go into a store but what I weep. Twenty kinds of bread. Twenty kinds of this. Twenty kinds of fish. Twenty kinds of while the rest of the world is starving. Pride. We're the only nation in the world that put a man on the moon. Didn't Khrushchev say we'll cripple America? We'll let her spend all the money on inventions and we've spent millions of dollars. We got a man on the moon with a telescope that doesn't work. Should have ordered it from Japan. Then it would. But here we are. Rich and increasing goods and of need of nothing. And yet Noah gets to business and he preaches. Noah, a preacher of righteousness. I'd love to have heard that man thundering. Let me go back a minute to the sixth or is it the beginning of the seventh chapter of Genesis. No, the end of the sixth chapter. Thus did Noah, according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And chapter seven, verse one, the Lord said to Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark. For thee have I seen righteous. Do you see that? In another part of the scripture it says Noah was the only righteous man in the world. He didn't have a prayer partner. He didn't have the whole counsel of God in his hand. Friend, if you were put on an island, would your faith survive if you know Bible, if you know church to run to? I mean, are you so intimate with God that you know his voice? Are you tuned into him? Are you so reckless that you've abandoned everything he's ever trusted you with? To go the last mile of the way in this degenerate generation in which we live, this place when Sodom is accepted, when even ministers are being homosexuals are being ordained, we have no concern about sin at all. And it says of Lot, it vexed his righteous soul every day. Does it vex our soul? Does it vex your soul? Does it distress you? I was at a certain place a while ago, some very fashionable people there, and somebody said to a lady, Well, what about your children? Oh, my children? Oh, well, they're growing up. One is 17, one's 18. They're both at college. How are they doing with their studies? Oh, they don't study very much. They're both addicted. What, to drugs? No, TV. Oh, well, why don't you pull the plug? Pull the plug? We'd have a riot in the house. Hey, you've got two 17-year-old college kids riot because they can't have a babysitter call the TV. Isn't that intelligent? No, I can't pull the plug. Do you know what TV has become to many people? It's their life support. If TV goes off, they're miserable. Maybe God will paralyze our industry and make us realize that there's something more to live for than the things which are seen in a temple and get our eyes on things which are seen, not seen, rather, which are eternal. But the Lord says, I've found thee only righteous. And he says, have you considered my servant? In that day he was perfect and upright. Nothing else will satisfy God in your life but perfection, perfect love, perfect obedience, perfect submission, perfectly doing the will of God. Let the world go to hell if need be. Let your neighbors despise you. You say, I've found the pearl of great price. Now I'm going to do what God tells me to do. And so Noah stands there. And year after year they laugh him to scorn. And he knows that very soon God is going to pull the lever, as it were, and the whole world is going to be flooded. Everybody is buying land and selling it. Everybody is getting rich. Everybody is saying, you know, all things will never change. We're going to live like this forever. And they extend their banking accounts. Again they go after money. They go after industries. They plough all they have. This man never bought a thing. I was in a place last week at a very society wedding. And a man shook hands with me and said, you know, that man's worth $60 million. Wonderful. He'd just bought a yacht, $700,000. He's a deacon in a church. He believes Jesus may come to thee. Well, who gets the $700,000 yacht tomorrow, if Jesus comes tonight? But you see, we're living for the visible. We're living for the material. It's peace and prosperity. We're living in the most terrible day in the industry. In history, pardon me. I think the multi-million dollar evangelists have had their day. There were certainly none in the days of the days of Noah. Noah couldn't turn a switch and bringing a hundred different channels. Your kids don't go to hell fast enough, so buy them a TV and put it in their own room. We're bringing filth from hell direct into the living room. Our children, we've got teenagers that become, in their early teens, they're veterans in sin. I don't want to watch very much on TV. I watch things that hurt me and make me cry. And about a month ago there was a show they broadcast all the way from Moscow, and it was on sex. Maybe somebody was like, sex? In the Soviet Union. There's a lovely cheerful girl. How old are you? Fourteen. Well, do you practice? Oh yes, always. Who's this girl? Oh, she's my friend. Are you sexually involved? Yes, yes. I've had two abortions at sixteen. A woman comes up and says, I've had twenty abortions. A man comes up and he says, I know a woman not far from me who has had thirty-five abortions. Do you think she ever dreams she's going to see those babies face to face at the judgment seat of Christ? Those babies she snuffed the light out of them? They might have become missionaries, they might have become statesmen or something. But we live in a day when sexual impurity is acceptable. We live a day in a day when we're mad on sport. Did you think for a minute how many billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars are invested in sports? We've never had more entertainment, we've never had more pleasure than we have today, but we've never had less joy! You get out of work and you can't use your second car or it comes to the place where it costs too much and you can't turn your TV on more than an hour a day. When it first came it was two hours a day, then it was four. Now it's 24. What do you have TV 24 hours a day for? One thing only to stop you from thinking. That's all it's for. To cloud your judgment. Everything you see on TV you want it, you need it, you must have it. Life isn't complete without it. We're mesmerized by it. Again I say to you, we've never never ever been more soaked in pleasure. Doesn't it say in the second letter of Paul to Timothy chapter 3, in the last days perilous times shall come, and what does it say? Men shall be lovers of themselves more than lovers of God. And it gives you a list there if I can find it somewhere here. True Timothy 3, where is it? Hey, at the last days. Written 2,000 years ago, okay. Here's a man who's on God's timetable, he knows God's mind, he puts it down for us to read. And he says in True Timothy chapter 3 verse 1, also in the last days perilous times shall come for men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemous, disobedient. Listen to it. After all that rotten stuff what does it say? Unthankful. I wonder how many of us here today thank... Don't raise your hands falsely, I'm not asking for your opinion like that. How many of you thank God today for your eyesight? I see one, you did, good brother. One dear man here, one person blind. Every day you accept it, it's your right. What if they do send poison gas? I don't have you sleep every night, I don't. I vow to God this week while I'm here I'll eat less than I ever eat, and to do that safely I'll sleep less than I ever sleep. This year this week has to be the week of weeks in my life. The week of week in your life. The week of weeks when you head to eternity you'll discover your whole life turned round, your whole understanding turned round, your understanding of God, your understanding of sin, your understanding of the righteousness of God. Why is this man so unpopular? Isn't it amazing that he preached for a hundred and twenty years and not one person was saved? Only his wife and his children got into the ark. Oh they laugh, they scorn, they ridicule. You can't take this fellow too bad, I mean he's good to do business with, but he's crazy about this one thing, that one day God's going to pull something in heaven the earth's going to be flooded. I don't think he built the ark in the secret place behind the bushes, I believe he built it where it could be seen by everybody. He built it maybe on the top of the hill so people would see it there, it was before their eyes, what do we say, forty three thousand days? All they did they got used to it. It's like you living in America, it's like you handling the Bible, which can be the most precious book you ever handled in your life, it can tell you about heaven and hell, it can now tell you how to invest your time, how to invest your emotions, how to invest your vision, and yet we just put it on one side, we read the newspaper more, we read the TV more. Do you think Sodom had its nightclubs? Maybe it did. Sodom had its corruption. Again verse nine in the sixth chapter of Genesis says, these are the generations of Noah, Noah was a just man and in his generation he walked with God. And the chapter seven again, verse one, the Lord said to Noah, come thou in all thy house, that's all into the ark. Dear God, he was slow wasn't he? Why didn't he say, listen, I'm in tune with the infinite, I know the God who made the heaven and the earth, I've got his plan, and his plan is sick of your sin, is sick of your adultery, is sick of your broken marriages, is sick of all your vileness, and listen you better get ready. Do you think he said to his son, you know boys, you and I have an insight on this, let's start building lifeboats. You know we'll give a special discount every month, or buy them every month. Get a lifeboat, because judgment's coming, he didn't do that. He doesn't build a cruise ship, he's not going chasing around having fun. Do you think God almighty could trust you and I that within so many days or years judgment will come on America and it'll be ripped.
The End Times (Luke 17-26) - Part 1
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Leonard Ravenhill (1907 - 1994). British-American evangelist, author, and revivalist born in Leeds, England. Converted at 14 in a Methodist revival, he trained at Cliff College, a Methodist Bible school, and was mentored by Samuel Chadwick. Ordained in the 1930s, he preached across England with the Faith Mission and held tent crusades, influenced by the Welsh Revival’s fervor. In 1950, he moved to the United States, later settling in Texas, where he ministered independently, focusing on prayer and repentance. Ravenhill authored books like Why Revival Tarries (1959) and Sodom Had No Bible, urging the church toward holiness. He spoke at major conferences, including with Youth for Christ, and mentored figures like David Wilkerson and Keith Green. Married to Martha Beaton in 1939, they had three sons, all in ministry. Known for his fiery sermons and late-night prayer meetings, he corresponded with A.W. Tozer and admired Charles Spurgeon. His writings and recordings, widely available online, emphasize spiritual awakening over institutional religion. Ravenhill’s call for revival continues to inspire evangelical movements globally.