Remember

I'd like to speak tonight on four passages of Scripture where we find the word remember. Let us look first, please, at the seventeenth chapter of the Gospel by Luke, in each of the passages, and we'll turn back later. The seventeenth chapter of Luke's Gospel, and verse 32.

Remember Lot's wife. The twenty-third chapter of Luke, and verse 42. And he said unto Jesus, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

The twenty-fourth chapter, and verse 6. He is not here, but is risen. Remember how he spake unto you when he was yet in Galilee, saying, The Son of Man must be delivered up into the hands of sinful men and be crucified. And the third day rise again.

And one more scripture in the sixteenth chapter of Luke's Gospel. Verse 25. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things.

And likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. Now let us look back to the seventeenth chapter, and that first verse I read.

And I read this verse first, knowing I know that it is not the Gospel here, but indeed I would like to point out to you, before we bring you the good news, that this world tonight is really like Sodom and Gomorrah. What a world we live in. And I feel sorry tonight, my friends, if you are in this audience without Christ, I ask you, what have you got? The whole world is collapsing around us.

Our governments are just falling down. And they are losing reigns, they have no more power to do anything, and the whole world is in a mess. And I speak particularly of Canada and the United States, that God has so wonderfully blessed in all the world.

There are no two nations that have been so wonderfully blessed as these two countries, and yet I suppose the most ungodly things are taking place in these two countries today, Sodom and Gomorrah. And you'll notice, if you look back with me, just to the 28th verse of this Luke 17, I think we'll find that we have Sodom right with us tonight. Likewise, also as it was in the days of Lot, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built it.

Now, my friends, isn't this true of this world tonight? The restaurants are packed day and night. They're eating and drinking. You say, what's wrong with that? Here they were eating and drinking without any thought of God.

God was pushed out of their lives. Is it not true today? You know it's true. You know that the churches, so-called the gospel rooms, are practically empty while the theaters and the ballparks and the hockey arenas and all kinds of amusement parks are packed to the door.

God is pushed out of their lives. And how many times in a restaurant do you find men and women bow their heads before they eat their food? Very few. Very, very few times you see it.

They just eat like animals. God is pushed out of their lives. And there was a lady who left Sodom.

That is to say, her body left Sodom, but her heart remained in Sodom, and she was the wife of Lot, who we know from the New Testament was a man of faith, a righteous man, but in the wrong position in the world and under the power of Sodom and Gomorrah. How many Christians are like that tonight? They're right in Sodom, right mixed in with this ungodly, Christ-rejecting world. They're right up mixed into the whole business.

Maybe you're here tonight, Christian, and you're like this, too. And Lot's wife left her heart in Sodom, and notice what happens. It says in the 31st verse, And that day he which... No, the 29th verse, pardon me.

But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Now, God had told them not to look back, but Lot's wife looked back, and because she did, she became a pillar of salt. And no less a person than the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, says, Remember Lot's wife.

And I trust, my friends tonight, if you come into this room without Christ on the way to eternal damnation in the lake of fire and brimstone, that you will remember Lot's wife because you have absolutely nothing to look forward to as every day when the sun rises in the east, you take a step nearer to the grave and to meet God in judgment. Now, with those words, let us turn to the gospel in the 23rd chapter of Luke. Here we have a man who also was leaving a place.

Lot's wife left Sodom. The thief on the cross was going to leave this world. And my friend, you are going to leave this world.

You cannot stay here. You just can't stay here. You have to leave this world and go out into God's eternity.

You can't stay here. And this man in this chapter, I'm going to read, just look at these verses to see what a wonderful thing is the grace of God. Here was a man who was a sinner.

Now, when we speak about a sinner, you may say amen to that. You may say, well, he was a thief. He was a robber.

He was a bad man. But I'm not like that. A few years ago, maybe three, we were in Columbus, Ohio, and our beloved brother, Robert Kaiser, took me to see a man who he said to me on the way there, I'm going to introduce you to a man who has never, never sinned.

He says, this is very interesting to see this man. The Lord made his car stall so he couldn't get out. There he was stuck in the driveway doing everything in his power to get out, but he couldn't.

I believe the Lord kept him there. By the way, this man is now in eternity. And so I sat in his car beside him and said, isn't it wonderful to know the Lord Jesus as a personal Savior who has cleansed our sins away? Well, he said, sir, but I have never sinned.

And I said to him, but sir, your argument is not with me today at home, but your argument is with God. For God says you are a sinner. You say you're not a sinner.

And speaking reverently, somebody is telling a lie. And I know it's not God. For it's impossible for God to lie.

Well, that man wouldn't listen. He made accusations against our brother which were not true, trying to get away from the subject of eternity. But now he's in eternity.

He's in eternity. And God knows where he is. For there are only two destinations in eternity, not three.

There is no purgatory, either heaven with Christ or hell without Christ. And my friends in this world, you and I must decide where we are going to spend God's eternity. By the grace of God and through the cleansing power of the blood of Christ, I am going to be in the glory.

I'm going to be in that wonderful place where disappointment and sorrow and sin and pain and death will never be known for all eternity. Now, this man was on his deathbed. It was a cross.

Notice, first of all, what happened to this man in verse 40. Turning to his companion in crime, he said, Does not thou fear God? Well, that's a strange question, isn't it? But it's a question tonight, my friends, that every man in the United States of America should say, Does not thou fear God? Because, you know, the scriptures say there is no fear of God before their eyes. Tonight, my friends, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.

You may be here tonight. You may be a college graduate with a dozen degrees after your name. But if you do not fear the Lord, you know nothing about wisdom.

For the fear of the Lord is the beginning, the very beginning of wisdom. That was the first thing that this man found out as he hung on that cross beside the precious Savior and his companion in crime. Now, it says, See not in the same condemnation.

Here they were, both of them together, going into eternity. Can you imagine that? Going into eternity. Then, in verse 41, he says, And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds.

Now, our brother said last night something that I believe is very important. There is no salvation without repentance. Then you remember what he added.

He said, Repentance doesn't save people. Christ does. But there is no salvation without repentance.

And I believe here we have this man not only fearing God but taking his place before God as a sinner. Now, careless men and women who we talk to make this statement, which means to me nothing. Empty words.

Oh, they say we've all sinned. Everybody's sinned, more or less, they say. Careless, indifferent statements.

But a man who comes into the presence of God says, I, me, never mind anybody else, I, me, have sinned. I'm the sinner. I'm guilty.

I deserve judgment. I deserve hell. I deserve God's wrath.

I'm guilty in the presence of God. That's what this man did right here. Then he did something else.

The end of the 41st verse. But this man hath done nothing amidst. Isn't that wonderful? He spoke well of Christ.

And I trust at the end of this meeting, everybody here will be able to speak well of Christ. Oh, how God delights to look down on this world and see a man or a woman or a young boy or a young girl speaking well of Christ. What a wonderful thing it is to speak well of Christ.

I read a story the other day about a man who was rescued from a watery grave. He didn't know the name of the man who had rescued him, but wherever he went, he said this. This man came into the water and he saved my life.

Then he'd go someplace else and he'd say the same thing. And one day, one of his friends said, listen, we've heard that story a hundred times. Why don't you tell us something else? Who is this man that saved you from a watery grave? He said, I don't know his name.

I don't know where he lives. I can't thank him, but thank God, he said, I can speak about him. And that's what we do tonight, my friends, except this difference.

We know the name of the man who saved us. His name is Jesus. We know where he is.

He's at the right hand of God. And we know him personally for we've met him and he's our personal Savior by the grace of God. How wonderful in this world, think of it, friends, as we get nearer to the end, as we see and read what's happening in North America, never mind South America, North America, how we bless and praise God that there's a Savior for sinners tonight.

What would life be without Christ? Can you imagine, I speak to those who are Christians tonight, what would life be if it wasn't for Jesus? It would be certainly an awful sad and dreary life as we march on to eternity without Christ. Thank God there's a Savior tonight. There's a Savior for sinners.

And this robber, he couldn't join any church. He certainly couldn't get baptized. He couldn't start to live a better life.

He couldn't put any collection in the collection plate to try to buy his salvation. He couldn't turn over a new leaf. He couldn't become a better husband to his wife, a better father to his children.

He just couldn't. He could do nothing. He was there on a cross, which was his deathbed, and beside him hung a Savior.

Isn't that wonderful? There hung beside him a Savior. And what a Savior, beloved friends. Let us look by faith at that Savior now for a moment or two.

There he was. His head crowned with thorns. His face, no doubt, from the blow that he received, marked.

The hair plucked off his face. No doubt his face was bleeding. Possibly his head was bleeding.

His hands were nailed to a cross and his feet were nailed to a cross. And this man turns to him and says in the 42nd verse, and he said unto Jesus. Notice, he was speaking now to Jesus.

Who was this Jesus? First of all, he's the Son of the living God. He's God himself, God manifest in the flesh, the mighty creator of the universe, the Son of man, the Son of David, the one who fulfilled all the Old Testament scriptures. And there he was, hanging there on that cross.

And the man said, Lord, he called Jesus his Lord. Now wasn't that wonderful? Is it possible that that man on that center cross was a Lord? He was more than a Lord. He was the Lord.

He was the Lord. And he says, Lord, remember me. When thou comest into thy kingdom.

Friends, think of what faith this was. A man on a cross has a kingdom? Yes. The robber saw beyond the cross and he saw that he was a king.

He was the king of Israel, the king of the Jews. And he says, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. Now, what hope was there for this man? Maybe you're here tonight disappointed, frustrated.

You see the whole American continent collapsing under your feet. You say, what in the world can I do? What have I got in this world? Listen, friends, to this blessed, glorious news. There is a Savior tonight, not on a cross, but in the glory at the right hand of God, a Savior.

And he is that robber's Savior. And he's my Savior too. He said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom.

Now, what would the Lord say to this man? What could Jesus say to this man? What would the modernist minister say tonight about this man? Well, he'd have no message for him because it's all do and do and do and do good works and live a better life and turn over a new leaf and all that kind of nonsense. But here was a Savior. And what did he say? He said, Truly, I say unto you, today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

Now, if he had said, today thou shalt be with the angels in paradise, that would be a wonderful thing. But he didn't say that. The thief asked to be remembered in his kingdom.

His kingdom hasn't come yet. Two thousand years have passed by. But he said, Today, this very day, thou, the robber, shalt be with me in paradise.

Now, this robber was going to go into the very paradise that the sinless, holy, eternal Son of God was going. He was going to have a companion there. And it was a man, beloved friends, who was like you and like me.

He was a sinner. Now, you know you're a sinner. You say, Well, I'm not a very bad sinner.

One time we were preaching the gospel in Toronto in a park. And there was a man who came over to us and he said, Do you men keep the Ten Commandments? And a brother said to him, Do you? And he said, I do my best. Because he said, There's no salvation unless you keep the Ten Commandments.

So this brother said again, But do you keep the Ten Commandments? He said, I do my best. He said, Your best is not good enough. Do you keep the Ten Commandments? Yes or no? And the man said, Well, I told you, I did my best.

But he said, Your best is no good. You've got to keep the Ten Commandments a hundred percent. Do you do it? And the poor man bowed his head and he said, Well, not quite.

Not quite. Then said this Christian man, You are going to hell if you haven't got Christ. You see, Jesus is a Savior.

He is a Savior. And He's a Savior for bad people. He's a Savior for sinners.

And we're all sinners. For the Bible says there is no difference. Now, man makes a difference.

He has a catalog of sins. He marks them up and he says, Well, here's one category. There are the vile criminals, murderers, hands stained with blood.

And here's this very respectable man who's so clean and neat and tidy, but both of them have no Savior. And they're both lost. And they're both going to hell because there is no difference.

No difference. I've stood in penitentiaries and I've talked to men. I talked to a man recently whose hands were stained with blood.

And I said, My friend, I'm no better than you are. I'm a sinner. Saved by the grace of God.

Yes, Jesus is a Savior. You say, Well, tell me, sir, how could a man like this robber get into heaven? I thought heaven was a place where all the saints were, all the good people. My friend, if that was true, there wouldn't be a person in heaven because there are none good.

No, not one. There are none righteous. No, not one.

Isn't that a strange statement? Do people believe that in America tonight? They do not believe it. They say, I don't believe that. I believe there are good people.

But the eternal God says, There are none good. No, not one. There are none righteous.

No, not one. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. I go down to your seat and I say, Sir or lady, are you going to die? You say, Well, someday I suppose I'll have to leave the world.

But why are you going to die? Because the wages of sin is death. And we've often said in preaching the gospel, the doctor could write on every death certificate, cause of death, sin. The reason this man died and this woman died was not because they had a heart attack, not because they had cancer, not because they had some other disease, but sin.

For sin kills. And the wages of sin is death. If the point is that a man wants to die and after death, the judgment.

Now my friend, let us ask ourselves this question. Are you tonight saved? Do you know personally the Lord Jesus Christ? Does Christ live in your heart? Are you born again? Are you indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God? Maybe each question you say, no, no, no. Then you're lost.

You're lost. And how can you get out of the mess you're in? Only one way. And that is that God must punish sin.

God has to punish sin or he would no longer be God at all. But here is the good news of the gospel. We have this afternoon, what is the gospel? The gospel is God's good news to sinners.

What is that? That on the cross of Calvary, two thousand years ago, the Son of the living God, holy and harmless and spotless and sinless, was made sin for us and who bore our sins in his own body on the tree. And I speak reverently. God punished him so that he might never have to punish you.

Friends, back in the city of Montreal in the year 1930, by the grace of God, that's the news I heard. And praise God for the Savior. He took my sins.

He bore my sins. He bore my judgment. He was punished for me.

He was judged in my place. And he saved me. And he can save you tonight if you will only receive him, not religion, not baptism, not confirmation vows, not any membership in any organization, but if you receive him, a person, the Lord Jesus Christ, then God says you'll be saved.

The verse was quoted last night, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. Who says it? God says it. Do you believe it? Have you ever spoken well of Jesus in this poor, sad world where he is despised and rejected and hated? Have you ever stood up and said one kind word, just one kind word about Jesus? I challenge you tonight, have you spoken well of Christ ever in your life? Are you willing tonight to take this Savior of sinners as your personal Savior, trusting only him, not you and him, but just him alone as your personal Savior, saying, He died for me? In Toledo a month ago, I told a story, and I'm sure that those who were there will please pardon me for repeating this story, which I believe is really a marvelous story.

There is a man who lives up here someplace in Northern California who is a child of God tonight. He was the sparring partner of Jack Dempsey. And I heard about his conversion.

I got his address, I wrote to him, and he wrote me the most beautiful, heartwarming letters about Christ. You see, friends, in all Christ, you've just got to talk about him. You can't help it.

You've got to talk about him because he wins your heart. And that's what this man did. He wrote me these beautiful letters.

And one time his letters stopped coming and I thought, well, maybe he's dead. Maybe he's gone to be with the Lord. So I phoned him long distance.

At 12.10 a.m. in Montreal, which would be 9.10 out here. And this is the story he told me during the phone conversation. He said, I went to a prison someplace in the States and he said, I went to the death cell of a man who was going to the electric chair for murder.

And he said, I told him about the Savior and he received the Savior. He was saved by the grace of God. And he said, the day before he went to the chair, his last request was that I might have my supper with him, his last meal on earth.

And he said, I stayed with that man all night. We spoke about Jesus. We read the Bible.

We prayed together. And the next morning he said, I walked down the aisle to where the electric chair was. And he said, when we got there to the room where the chair was, he said there were about maybe a hundred or so witnesses who were seated around this room to see the execution.

And he said, he turned to them and said, gentlemen, I want to tell you that I'm a saved sinner, that the blood of Jesus Christ has cleansed me from all sin, that I'm going on the way to glory. And then he said, he turned to me and he waved his hand and said, Joe, I'll be there before you. He went into the room.

He sat on the chair. They turned on the switch. He said, and in two minutes he was with the Lord.

Oh, I tell you that Jesus is a Savior for sinners. I'm glad I'm a sinner. Thank God I'm a sinner because by being a sinner I've come to know Jesus.

And what joy comes into the heart to know this glorious Savior of sinners. Today shalt thou be with me in paradise. Just a few minutes later, the blessed Lord Jesus Christ died for this robber's sins.

He cried out on that cross, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? And the answer comes back, for me, Lord Jesus, thou wast forsaken of God for me, a poor worm of the dust, a poor vile sinner. Thou didst take my place, my substitute. Oh, how blessed, friend, do you believe that tonight? Maybe you say, I've never heard that before.

Well, thank God you're hearing tonight that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners and that the blood of Jesus Christ, God's Son, cleansed us from all sin. Here is the Savior, the Savior of sinners. Today thou shalt be with me in paradise.

You know, I've often said this and thought this. There's a day very, very near when I'm going to meet the robber. Isn't that wonderful, friends? I'm going to meet this man.

And you know, I'm looking forward to that because I want to ask this man a question. And this is the question I want to ask this man, this robber here. I'm going to meet him in the glory.

I want to ask him this question. Please tell me, dear brother, what happened when you said, Lord, remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom? What happened? And I want to hear him say this. There was a smile came on that face of the man of sorrows.

There was a smile came. There was one man in the world that day. His disciples had gone.

They forsook him and fled. There was one man in all the crowd that spoke well of Jesus. And he was just like me, a poor, hell-deserving sinner saved by the grace of God.

Friends, Jesus is a Savior. And in the 24th chapter, the verse I read to you, we find that the one who was on the cross is now in the glory. Listen to these words.

He is not here. He is not in this world tonight. He is not here.

But he is risen. He is risen. Here is a risen Savior.

And as we heard last night, it's terrifying. If you're not saved tonight, this is terrifying news for you, that you've got to stand before that Savior. You've got to see Jesus.

Everybody is going to see him. Can you imagine that? Everybody. The Christians are going to see him with joy.

The unsaved are going to have to stand in his very presence. I believe, I suppose, I'm right in saying this, they're going to see those hands, nail prints. They're going to see those feet, nail prints.

And they're going to be reminded that man on that throne died for sinners and I rejected him. I despised him. I neglected him.

I turned away from him. And he's going to say to them, depart from me. I never knew you.

Now, friends, isn't that solemn? Isn't that solemn? There is a risen Christ. Jesus is not dead. He lives as a real man in the glory.

If our eyes could pierce those heavens above, we would see at the right hand of the majesty of Almighty God, his Father, a man sitting on the very throne of God. And that man is a Savior tonight. Very soon he'll come in the air and call out of this world every born-again believer.

There won't be a Christian east or west or north or south. And the world is going to come under judgment. Judgment.

The judgment of God. Oh, you say, sir, we don't believe that in these days. But I do because it's in this book.

And heaven and earth shall pass away but my word shall not pass away. Now let us turn to our last and final Scripture in the 16th chapter of Luke, which I believe is very, very solemn. And my dear friend, I'd like to draw your attention to this, that this is not a parable.

Not a parable. Never let the devil or any preacher tell you this is only a parable. No, sir, it's not.

The Lord said in the 19th verse of the 16th chapter of Luke, There was, notice, There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fed sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.

Now notice. Notice, friends, the rich man had to die. The beggar had to die.

Money doesn't keep you alive. I think it was John D. Rockefeller who offered a million dollars to any doctor who could save his life, but they couldn't do it. He had to die and leave behind him millions and millions and millions of dollars.

You see? And so it says here in verse 22, It came to pass that the beggar died. Notice now, when it starts out, it starts with the rich man because he belonged to the world. So he rightly had the first place.

When it comes to eternity, it's reversed. The beggar now is first. And notice, my friends, the rich man was not lost because he was rich.

He was lost because he was an unbeliever, as I'm going to show you in the words of the Lord Jesus shortly, if the Lord will. They died. Now notice about the beggar.

He was carried by the angels. Not an angel, but the angels and they excel in strength. Why couldn't one angel carry him? The angels carried him.

Oh, how precious he was. He was a man who had faith. He didn't have any money, but he had faith.

Isn't that wonderful? And that's why he was going to this blessed place because he had faith. And it says, The rich man also died and was buried. I suppose he had a grand funeral.

I suppose some rabbi stood up and said, What a wonderful man! Why, he gave a million dollars to charity last year. Oh, he was a wonderful neighbor and he did all kinds of things that were good to his neighbors, but he had no faith. He had no use for God.

And maybe you're here tonight and you're just like this man. You have no faith and you have no use for God. God is pushed out of your life.

But you see, God pushed himself, and I speak reverently, into this man's life. And notice what happened. Verse 23, And in hell.

Oh, you say, Sir, now there must be a mistake here. You don't believe this stuff, do you? I sure do. The only man who never told a lie said it.

The only man who never sinned told it. The only man who could draw aside the curtain and let us look into eternity said this, And in hell. He lift up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his booth.

And now notice, And he cried. Oh, you say, I thought he was like a dog. He was dead.

I thought we were like dogs. When we die, we're just plain dead. No.

The Son of God said no. Do you believe the Son of God? Do you believe God's Christ? Did the Savior, and now I speak reverently, did the Savior make a mistake here? No, he didn't. I believe he knew that man, knew all about him, like he knows all about you, and he loves you just the same.

God loves you. And God longs to bless you. God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

Hell was not made for you, or for me, or for anybody in the world. It was made for the devil and his angels. Now, friends, this may sound a little bit rough to you, but I believe it's the truth, and that is this.

If you prefer the devil and his angels as your eternal companions, then it's not God's fault. For God wants to take you to glory. He wants to bring you to heaven.

But to get there, you must come to him as a guilty sinner, and you must have Christ. There is no room in heaven for any child of Adam's race who says to Christ, I don't want you. There is no room in heaven for any child of Adam's race.

I don't care whether he's the top bishop of the United States, or whether he's one of the leading great men of religion in the whole world. There is no room in heaven for any child of Adam's race who says no to Christ. You have to have Christ.

It's Christ or hell for every child of Adam's race. Tonight, my friends, it's Christ or hell for you for all eternity. This man was in a lost world.

Now, let's not try to say, well, it doesn't mean this. What does it mean? Tell me what it means. Is the Lord, and I speak reverently again, is he just telling us this to frighten us? He's telling us the truth.

The man cried. The man could see afar off. He did not need glasses.

He could see afar off. He cried. He said in the next verse, mercy.

We must hurry. Mercy. He used the word mercy.

He could have had mercy in the world, but he rejected mercy. Are you rejecting mercy tonight? Are you rejecting mercy? This man rejected mercy, but now he cries for mercy. And he wanted Lazarus to go to him.

Now, notice, friends, you can read these verses and never once did this man say, take me out of this place. Never once. Why? Because he knew he couldn't get out.

He was there for eternity, and he's still there tonight. And in a future day, he will stand before the great white throne, and he will be sent into the lake of fire. Now he is in the lost eternity.

Friends, what about it tonight? Are you going to go to this lost eternity when there is a loving Savior? As we have often said, God has blocked the road to hell with the cross of Christ. Are you going to step over that cross and perish with the devil and the damned for eternity under the wrath of God? You say, I don't believe in that. But I do because God says so.

And if I didn't believe it, I wouldn't be a Christian. If I didn't believe it, I wouldn't be a Christian. Friends, this is Saul, and I want to say this.

I feel I should. I was talking recently, or I should say last March, to a clergyman. He asked me this question.

He said, Do you believe the first eleven chapters of the book of Genesis? I said, Yes, sir, I do, by the grace of God. He said, Well, we've pretty well decided that they're just, you know, like stories, he said, sort of stories put in there. I said, Listen, if those chapters are not true, you and I are going to hell.

And he said, Now look, that's making it too strict. I said, I'll prove it. The Lord Jesus said, Then came the flood and destroyed them all.

You say that's not true. Then you have taken away the Savior. Because if it's not true, if there was no flood, then one of two things happened.

Either the Lord Jesus, now I say this reverently, told a lie, or he made a very serious mistake. One or the other would disqualify him from being who he is. This clergyman said, Well, I never thought of that.

Maybe you've never thought about it, but it's right in the book here. The Bible is the word of God. And my friend, tonight, if you don't want to land in this very place where this man was and where he heard the message, my son, remember.

Remember. Remember your life. Remember.

You know, this date, what is it? The 27th of December 1975 will be stamped on your never-dying soul that you tonight heard of a Savior. And you young people tonight who are here, you say, My mother is a Christian. My father is a Christian.

My mother breaks bread. My father breaks bread. But that will never save you.

You may have the finest grandfather, the great-grandfather, and a great-great-great-grandfather. You may say they were all Christians, but that doesn't save you. You personally must receive the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior.

And you must take sides with Christ. Remember, friends, you must take sides with Christ or perish. A man cannot serve two masters.

It doesn't say three, it says two. Now, this again, I say, may seem hard, but let us make it very clear there are only two masters. One is Christ, the Lord Jesus.

The other is the devil. And we are going through this world either under the colors of one or the other. My friend, do you believe that? Do you believe that? I do.

I believe that. Whose side are you on tonight, my son? Remember. And then it tells us at the end of the chapter, because our time is almost up, notice what happens in the 27th verse.

Here is a man in a lost eternity and he is praying. Just imagine. Can you imagine that? I pray thee.

I pray thee, he says. Therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him to my Father's house. For I have five brethren that he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place of torment.

Abraham said unto him, Now notice, friends, what does Abraham tell them, tell this man? He tells them what I'm going to tell you tonight. They have Moses and the prophets. What am I going to tell you? You have not only Moses and the prophets, but you have the full display of the word of God, the Old Testament and the New Testament.

Now notice, we said a while ago, this man was an unbeliever. I'll show it to you from the scriptures. Now notice verse 30.

And he said, Nay, Father Abraham. What did he mean by that? He meant this. When I was in that old world, I did not believe Moses and the prophets.

I didn't believe it. And my five brothers don't believe it either. They want to see a miracle.

They want to see something happen. They want to see a dead man come into their room alive. And if he will testify to them, then they may believe.

But my friends, what are the final words of the Savior? And he said, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. If you don't believe the Bible, if you don't believe the word of God, you're lost and you'll never get to heaven. If you don't receive the record of God, concerning the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ, who died for sinners on the cross of Calvary, you will perish.

You will perish. Isn't that solemn, my friends, to think of this man in this lost eternity? Remember, we've had these four passages. Remember Lot's wife.

Never forget her. Never forget her, my friend. Remember Lot's wife living in that ungodly Sodom.

And that's exactly where you're living tonight, in Sodom. This world is Sodom tonight. You're living in Sodom.

Is your heart wrapped up in Sodom, young people? I ask you, you say, I'm a Christian. I ask you, is your heart wrapped up in Sodom? When you come tomorrow morning to the meeting, is your heart going to be left in Sodom? Are you going to remember the Lord Jesus tomorrow in death as a believer, and your heart is away outside in Sodom? Remember Lot's wife.