That the days preceding Christ's second coming will be characterized by a lack of serious thought and spiritual indifference, mirroring the times of Noah and Lot. It highlights the suddenness of Christ's return, using the example of Lot's wife, who perished by looking back at Sodom, to illustrate the danger of not fully committing to God. The message warns against spiritual complacency and the corrupting influences of the world, urging listeners to be vigilant and prepared for Christ's imminent return, as evidenced by global trends like apostasy, political division, and lawlessness.
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Luke seventeen and verse twenty-six. Twenty-six verses of Luke seventy. 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, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot, that it ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they filled it. The same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.
Even not shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed. In that day he which shall be upon the house top and is stuffed in the house, let him not come down to take it away. He that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember Lot's wife. Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it. Whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you in that night there shall be two, and the man is in the italics. It should read, I tell you in that night there shall be two in one bed. One shall be taken, and the other shall be left.
two, and woman is in the italics again, two shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men, or two shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the other left. They answered and said unto him, Where, Lord, they said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, thither will the eagles be gathered together. Our subject tonight is men unthinking, but God unfolding his plans. When how true that is, we're living in days when men and women are just not thinking along serious lines. They're not concerned, it seems, about future events.
They're just going along, not giving any thought or consideration to the days in which we live. Men on thinking, as all the time men are in that frame of mind and state of soul. God is gradually, but certainly unfolding His plan for the human race and His plan and program on this planet in which we live. This is another New Testament confirmation of history. You can't deny the fact of the flood, otherwise you would have to call the Son of God a liar. because Christ puts his imprimatur upon the flood right here in this passage when he refers to it.
To deny that God reigned fire and brimstone out of heaven upon the cities of the plain and destroyed them. To deny them is to deny Jesus Christ because Jesus Christ put the stamp of his approval upon that awful judgment that came upon those cities of the plain. So you have here another case. of the confirmation of events of history. In other words, the right way to say that word or pronounce that word history when it applies to the Bible is his story. We say history, but just say his, H-I-A, his story, God's story. God is telling us a story, something that he has done and things he's yet going to do.
Certainly if this passage teaches anything, it teaches the suddenness of Christ's second coming. And by the way, nine times in Luke's Gospel you have the second coming of Christ referred to. You have the danger of it, the sudden happening of the second coming of Christ, the danger to the world, the danger to the nation, and the danger to the individual. That's why I pointed out to you the individual in each of those verses. Two in a bed, two in a field. and true grinding at the mill. I'm going to mention three or four trends. Those of you who listen to our sermons on the Revelation heard some of these, but there are always new comers coming. Some of the trends that are evident today, pointing to the latter days, pointing to the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ, shows in the wind things that you can point to and associate with Scripture that tell us definitely, very emphatically, that Jesus Christ is coming very, very soon.
This is the trend of the church. I think you can divide the true church, and when I'm using the word church now, I'm referring to true believers, not the apostate state of things we have all around us. We'll have something to say about that in a few minutes. I'm talking about the true church of Jesus Christ, those who are born again, those who are washed in his blood. those who are members of his body, those who know they have eternal life, that they'll never perish. And they can be divided into two classes. And what are those two classes? On the one hand there is lukewarmness. On the other hand there is a longing for his coming.
As I move around I meet lots of people and they're longing for his coming. Oh they say I wish the Lord would come. And I kind of think that in my earlier days as a Christian, I found more Christians longing for the Lord's coming then, because it was in the depression. Christians were speaking of the Lord's return, oh, I wish he would come, I wish he would come. But you know, you don't hear quite so much about that now, because we're living in prosperous days, we're not in the depression. When Christians even get in trouble, they want the Lord to return. I think I told you one time of a little fellow, the son of a preacher, Ray Tuesday, through my song leader at the same time, he was a preacher as well as a song leader.
One day his boy disobeyed him, and he said, I took him into the bedroom and I really gave him a good sound spanking, a solid application of the Board of Education on the feet of understanding. He really laid it on. He said, you know, Brother Wilson, it was quite amusing. He ran into his mama and he was rubbing a certain part of his anatomy. He said, Mama, I wish the Lord would come. He was only about four years of age. In other words, it was kind of unpleasant what he was going through. And he heard his parents talk about the Lord coming and taking the people of God out of all their troubles. And he wanted to get out of his troubles. Yes. But you know, That's true.
When Christians are healthy and well and all goes well, the sun is shining, they're not so concerned about the Lord coming, but when troubles begin to break upon them, maybe they get sick. Things are not going well. Then they want the Lord to come. They want Him to deliver them out of their troubles and fire. Do you know what pleases the Lord Jesus Christ? What pleases Him most is for a Christian to want Him to come. when everything is going wonderful. Even if I'm enjoying excellent health, I have enough thing to worry about. I have all this world's goods I need. Everything is going well. The sun is shining. My pastured is green.
But there's one thing I want above and beyond all this world with all its fairness, with all its beauty, with all its plenty and bounty. There's one thing I desire above all, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ again. That's me, love for God. And you know there are those who do long for him to come. Now that's the Holy Spirit working in the heart of the Christian. Is the Spirit of God deceiving the Christian? When he causes the Christian to yearn and long and pray for the Lord Jesus Christ to come? So you have the trend of the church, the spiritual, the godly side of the church. But then there are others in their lukewarm.
They don't want the Lord to come. some of them really born again. They haven't had enough of this life yet. They really don't want the Lord to come. Shame on such Christians. The uppermost thought in every Christian thought should be the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. Another trend is so-called Christendom. Now I'm looking outside the church. Because in all this that we call Christendom today and all the various denominations and orders and so on, there are the real Christians. When you take the real Christians out, you have nothing but an empty shell left. Take the few Christians out of this denomination and the few Christians out of that denomination, and you've got nothing else but an empty shell left behind.
And that's what we call today so-called Christian books. Modernistic Christianity. And I'm going to tell you it's just about as empty as a drum when it comes to the fundamentals of the Word of God. It's just one huge organization. We have a new word today, ecumenicalism. That's what so-called Christianson is heading for. One huge worldwide church with Rome as its head. And we're living in those very days of formation of this one universal church with Rome as its head. The ecumenical movement has made strides far beyond the dreams of those who even started the fear and trembling.
Rome broke this upon so-called testimony a few years ago, ready to retreat if it wasn't accepted, but it was accepted. And the major denominations gobbled it up. But today they're four and a hundred percent. showing how near we are of the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ. But in Revelation, the seventeen and eighteen, you have the scarlet woman. You have this so-called Christendom without Christ. Without Christ. Just an organization, a huge organization. So you have the trend of so-called Christendom. Apostasy and worldliness characterized.
Apostasy. Getting away from the truth of God. But what about whirlwind? I read something that I never dreamed that I'd ever read. And I could give you the denomination if I chose to. And almost a church where this took place up in the north. You know, the church put on a play on Judas Iscariot. And this happened right in the church. And Judas Iscariot was depicted dancing with a girlfriend. And this is what he was singing. I need the money. I need it, honey. I could just do with wealth. If he is God, let him take care of himself. You imagine that being done, Mr.
Judith O'Skaya, doing the singing. In other words, what he cared for Jesus Christ, what he wanted was the thirty pieces of silver. And if Jesus Christ is God, let him take care of himself, give me the thirty pieces of silver. Things like this going on. What world in us today? They're turning churches into social centers. There are spiritual powerhouses for God. Then you have the trend of the Jews, the return to the land of Palestine. We'd like to have more to say about that if we can only chart from Egypt to Canaan. Prosperity in the land is drawing the Jews back. Persecution on other lands is driving them back.
Many Jews are going back to Palestine because of prosperity in the land. My how prosperous is that little land that for centuries lay under the heel of the ruthless lazy Turks. Only in nineteen eighteen were the bands broken and the Jewish people able to return. And today it's the most prosperous little nation on the face of the earth. The prosperity of the land of Canaan, the land of Palestine has led the Jewish people back. And in those who didn't go back for prosperity reasons, They were driven back because of persecution. Persecuted by Russia. Persecuted by other Balkan nations. Persecuted by other Near Eastern nations.
Given back to the land of Palestine of today. What a powerful little nation we've got there. What an explosive little nation we've got. She'll take on Turkey any day. She'll take on Egypt any time. What a powerful little nature. Why is she going to be so strong? Because God's with her. God says, I'll put her back in the land in the latter days. And we're living in those very days today. Then the trend of the world politically. In other words, the various camps of nations lined up that we took up in the book of Revelation. The four camps, the north, south, east, and west. Politically, the world is being lost divided. Militarily, the massive destruction...
that we have given us in the Book of Revelation, the weapons of destruction that stagger the imagination. Many years ago when I read the Book of Revelation, read about one-third of the inhabitants of the earth being slain, I thought those days will not be in my day, but here I have lived to see the day when one-third of the population of the earth, in fact, the United States has enough power and arsenal without rushes to exterminate every living soul from the face of the earth. Military then, the trend is, for in the latter days. And then lawlessness. Do you need to say anything on lawlessness? In Noah's day, the earth was filled with violence.
I took this out of the Albany Herald just the other day. What a picture. A brute monster of a man, his name is violence, with a dagger in one hand and a gun in the other, and behind him standing a man with a small suitcase, and he's got reason. on his suitcase. Reason is pushed into the background, and in the forefront is this monster, and this is what it's called, top billing the world over. The world over, top billing, violence. And even last Monday, your editor had a remarkable editorial. He was saying something about Edgar Hoover's report last week on violence in the United States.
He said violence in the United States has reached the point that if it goes beyond it, we're done. We can't cope with it. He says we do not have the military power. We do not have the power in our police force. We do not have the organization to be able to cope with the violence in the United States. If it goes anything beyond what it now is, it's out of control. And here you have the state of the world right back there in the old day. It says violence. The earth will fill with violence. It isn't our nation filled with violence, and is it not worldwide? And it says, As it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the coming of the Son of Man, bringing the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ right up to date.
So you have lawlessness. You have morality. You have the social trend of things. And these last three drop in the flood and judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah. That lawlessness, morality... and the social situation. In Sodom, we have a complete breakdown of the social order. You notice what, as we read it, eating, drinking, yes, carousing, breakdown of the marriage relationship, buying, selling, planting, building, unprecedented in the past twenty-five years, building. Never in the history of this world has so much building gone on in perhaps the last twenty-five years, because the population exploded.
Isn't it remarkable? It's mentioned way back in those days. Today, all over the world, wherever you go, building, building, building, building, where there's building, there's money circulating, money to spend for carousing, having a big time, high living. that the crash has got to come, as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the coming of the Son of Man. In other words, you might say in connection with Noah, it was indifference. In connection with Sodom and Gomorrah, these two are linked together, it's corruption. And that just about summarizes America today, indifference and corruption. Men and women just absolutely indifferent to Spiritism.
They're not concerned. concerned only for the needs of the body, not concerned about the soul and spiritual things. Along with that lack of concern, that indifference is corruption, and how terrible is our state of corruption in this nation. You'll notice that Abraham was informed of this judgment. You know, every Christian should be informed, especially those walking with God who'll be gripped by this information. Abraham was informed by God of the judgment that was to come. In old Abraham he thought, well, I feel sure that I can rescue some out of this overthrow. And he went before the Lord.
He says, Lord, if I find fifty righteous people, will you spare the city for fifty's sake? God says, yes, Abraham. If you can find fifty people in Sodom and Gomorrah who are righteous, I'll spare these cities. Then Abraham began thinking, he was thinking, perhaps, maybe I can't find fifty. This is an awful ungodly place. I better come down to forty. Forty-five. Lord, if I find only forty, will you spare it for forty-six? God says, yes, I'll spare it for forty-six. Then he began thinking again, maybe I can't find forty.
Supposing, Lord, I find thirty. Will you spare it for thirty-six? God says, Yes, I'll spare for thirty-six. Abraham took it upon himself to speak once more unto the Lord. He says, Lord, if I find but twenty, will you spare Sodom and Gomorrah for twenty-six? God says, Yes, I'll spare the city for twenty-six. God is known to punish. God knows the fearfulness of his wrath. And if you can find twenty, I'll spare the city. for twenty-six. Abraham said, I'll speak once more, then I'll stop. Lord, if I find ten, will you spare the cities of the plain for ten-six?
And Abraham thought, oh, I can count a lot of family in there. I think I can figure it out quickly. It'll be ten. And I'll save the city. I'll stop at ten. Lord, if I find ten, will you spare the city for ten-six? God says, I'll spare the city for ten-six. You know, Abraham stopped asking before God stopped giving. Even if Abraham had gone down to tithe, Lord, if I find tithe in this way, the city would have been over for us, because it ended up with only three. There were less days than Abraham even thought.
Here's a man who walks with God. And he thought, surely there are ten righteous people in these two large cities. I can find ten. I'm almost confident. Those of an old mystery. But the testament of God said. I've had people question some remarks we've made, but only a few people are saved. That few were really born again. All you've got to do is talk to folks. Lots of people, members of the church, lots of them, old church officers. You asked them, are you a Christian? Well, I hope I am. But don't you know it? No, I don't. I just hope I am. I want to be.
How many can you find? How many can you contact today? You asked them, are you a Christian, and they respond happily? Praise God I am. I know I'm saved. I'm going to heaven. Let me tell you, friend, there are numbers you. And it would surprise you, and it would surprise me, as you knew how many born-again people were all right in all of them. In Abraham's day there were far less than even his rock. What does the Lord Jesus Christ say? Jesus tried to enter into straight gates. For many shall enter in, shall seek to enter in, and shall not be able. And he goes on to tell us about the broad way that leads to destruction, and the narrow way that leads unto life. Notice that. The broad way that leads us to destruction.
Many going on that broad way. The narrow way that leads us unto life. And he says, view there be that kinder. They are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not my words. Christ says that are few on the narrow way that leads to life. But there are many on the broad way that are going to destruction. Showing there are far more people lost than there are people saved. The question is tonight, are you among the few who are born again and ready for the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ? You know you have the amazing assurance of the believer in this passage.
God says I can do nothing until Lot is out of those cities. Get Lot out and remember Lot was a backslider. Can you imagine that? Lot was a backslider. He sought a place of prominence in the city of Sodom, and he became a judge when he separated from his old uncle Abraham. He separated from Abraham, and he was a prosperous man, and he set his face toward the city. And he grew fast in popularity, and he became a judge. He sat in the gates. With his prosperity and popularity, he got away from God. And so poor was his testimony that when he went to warn his two sons, and that's why I drew your attention to him, he went to warn his two sons-in-law about the judgment that was coming, and he seemed as one that mocked under him.
Imagine that. Here he goes lost, and he goes to his two sons-in-law. They'd married his daughter, and he told them God was going to judge this city, and for them to get up and get out of it. And they mocked him. Well, you haven't been living like anybody that's been living in a city that's under judgment. You're not indicating by your life that judgment's coming upon this place, and they laugh at it. Is your life, Christian, such that it commands your testimony? Does the world then look at you and listen to your testimony? Can the world say, well, there's a person who's living for Christ and living for another world. They're waiting for the Lord to come.
And if you were to go to them tomorrow morning and try and sound the alarm, tell them, you know Jesus Christ is coming, and he's coming soon, he may come today, are you ready? Do you know what they'd say? Well, you got excited for all of a sudden. Oh, yes. Oh, poor Lot, he lost his testimony. And he goes to his sons-in-law, try to warn them, and they laughed at him. He hadn't had a consistent testimony. But isn't it amazing? God says, I can do nothing until Lot is under his place. God's judgment is stayed until Lot is outside Sodom and Gomorrah. God will not destroy the city until even the backsliders, he'll have to reach the government.
Let me tell you this, friends. Jesus Christ is not going to come, and the judgment of God is not going to fall upon this world until every member of the Church of Jesus Christ is called away. Even a backslider. As long as there's a backsliding born against Christians in this world, the judgment day hasn't gone. But when Jesus Christ comes, even a backslide is going to be caught up, saved by sovereign grace. That's what the Bible says. Well, if I can do nothing until locked out of here. You know, the Lord Jesus likens the church unto the salt of the earth.
salt is a preservative. It prevents corruption in meat. That's why they put meat into grind to preserve it. To prevent different things turn to corruption. Christ says you're the salt of the earth. God only knows this poor world is corrupt enough as it is. But what's preventing it from coming to its ugly head? What's preventing this world from reaching the point where it's total corruption and God's going to judge it? The fact that the church is here. The fact that the few born again believers are in the world, they are the son of the earth. He says you are the light of the world. When you take the light out, there's darkness left. When the church is taken, then there'll be corruption left and judgment upon that corruption.
When the church is taken out, all born again believers, when Jesus Christ comes, then nothing but darkness remains. The light is gone, darkness remains, and the judgment of God will be visited upon that darkness. how important and even the backsliding Christian is. You know here there were two messengers sent unto this city, two messengers. Read that in verse one of chapter nineteen. God sends two messengers. God has sent two messengers to this world. What are they? The word of God and the Spirit of God. There are those who didn't accept the testimony of those two messengers.
And what were they going to do? They were going to try and get those two messengers and humiliate them. And the two messengers smote them with blindness that they weary themselves to find the door of a lost house. Here are people who rejected the testimony of the two messengers. That's what men and women are doing today. They're rejecting the testimony of the Word of God and the Spirit of God. And God smote those men with blindness so they couldn't find the gold. You know, God is smiting men and women with blindness today because they will not accept the testimony of his word and of his Holy Spirit concerning the days and the days. Man is in the dark spiritually.
He's born spiritually blind. Ignorance of God. He needs to be born again. Then man is in the dark deliberately. Men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil, the Bible says. Men choose darkness. They'd rather have it than light. Here is man deliberately in the dark. Then I read in my Bible about some judicially in the dark. God has given the spirit of slumber eyes. Because of their constant rejection of light. May you enlist more fully next Sunday night on the imponderable thing. God says, all right, if you want darkness, you'll have it.
If you want ignorance of me, you'll have it. You'll have more than you want. If you want darkness, you'll have a darkness that can be pelted. You'll have dense darkness. And eventually the blackness of darkness forever is the final abode of the law. So you have spiritual darkness, deliberate darkness, judicial darkness, and eternal darkness. You'll notice how the angels hastened Lot. You know, that's very striking. They hastened Lot. They took a hold of his hands. Poor old Lot was loath to leave. Yet he knew that judgment was coming. And the angels had to grab a hold of Lot's hand.
They grabbed a hold of the hand of his wife. They had to take hold of their hands of his two daughters and almost pull them out of the place. And yet here they are. They used present-day land as Christians. low to give up this whole world. Is that a tragic picture? It shows the earnestness on God's part, on the two messengers. Pull them out of them. They don't want to go voluntarily. They don't want to go willingly. Pull them out of them! And they lay hold up on their hands and pull them out. And you may think sometimes we're a little too earnest on this matter that we're not earnest enough.
I am not as earnest as I should be. They come through patient sinners up with these solemn facts. One time a young doctor was called two o'clock in the morning, an emergency call. He jumped in his automobile and he had a number of miles to go because the farmhouse was way out in the country and he was speeding along at high speed. Right ahead of him was a pile of rock and he crashed onto the pile of rock. and was killed on it. When he was found dead, there was an investigation. The man who was in charge, the foreman who was in charge of the road construction and repair, he said, we had a red lantern on top of that pile of rocks, and he did have.
And the last man that left the job... left the red lantern right on top of that pile of rocks, but a bunch of kids came along, and they flipped that red lantern, and one of them walked over and hung it on the fence post about fifty feet away from the rock. The young doctor came along, and the red lantern was not there. His mentor said, friend, I'm up here tonight, and every Sunday night, and every Sunday morning, and all I'm doing is raising that red lantern. I want many women to see him, and be warned about what's ahead of him. I'm not taking away the red light. I'm not taking away the red lantern, putting it somewhere else so you can't see it. I want many of them to see it.
Every time I preach, I want many of them to see they're dying without Christ. I want them to realize that Jesus Christ is coming and they're not prepared for. We've got to wave the red lantern. We've got to put it right in the middle of the highway of humanity that they may see it and be warned thereby. judgment fell on the cities of the flames. God brings iron and brimstone down upon these cities. By the way, that's atomic action. Those who have investigated, scientists who have investigated that area tell us that every indication that it was atomic action that was used when God destroyed the cities of the flames. It was almost another case, although many years ago over Hora-Shima and Nagasaki, you know what the atomic power did to them.
the fierce heat that accompanied this judgment, fire and brimstone. There must have been a terrific noise that left these cities in a pile of ashes and just smoke arose in the morning. For when Abraham went out he looked toward the cities of the plain and the countryside went up in his smoke. Here is God using something that man has just disclosed in the last thirty years upon his power. You know these people whose bodies were burned up You know what happened to their soul? Their souls are in a lost eternity today, and Jude tells us in a little epistle of Jude, they're still suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. There's no such thing as annihilation in the Bible.
They're suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. You find that in the little book of Jude, the people that were destroyed back in the day of Solomon the Moor. Here is God singling out one, and with this I once dwell for a little while and remain in my time. Christ singles out one lost wife. He says in our text, remember lost wife. She was out of Sodom, yet she perished. They had gotten her outside the city limits, but she perished. You may call yourself a clean living person. You're outside of Sodom. You're outside of what we call this corrupt and stupid world.
You're separate from that. You don't associate with all the low-down characters that haunt the night spots and live in the gutters of sin. You say, no, I'm aloof from that. You may be. So was lost twice. You got out of it. But you perish. You didn't get caught enough out of it. You look back and you became a pillar of thought. And you may stand aloof from other people and say, I don't drink, I don't gamble, I don't do this, I don't do the other thing. My life's clean. Friend, if that's all you've got, you haven't entered it. Lothwaite without sight at all, and she perished. Remember, Lothwaite. Furthermore, she was prayed for by Abraham.
And I'll tell you to have a man like Abraham praying for you. You had somebody. She was a friend of God, and here's a young woman, prayed for by Abraham, and yet she perished. I think of Jerusalem as Ezekiel tells us, in Ezekiel fourteen and fourteen, God says, though Noah, Daniel and Job were in that city, praying for them, I wouldn't spare. A person can go so far from God that the prayers of the saints will not affect their destruction or changes. When you go that far from God, that the prayers of God's people are not effectual, I believe I know people that have gone that far. God says, O Noah, my Noah could pray.
Daniel, how Daniel could pray, kneel upon his knees three times a day. The Bible tells us and pray to God. Job, the one that went through that awful experience in the book of Job, I'll tell you, Job knew something and lay in hold upon God. God said, if these three men of prayer even prayed for Jerusalem, I wouldn't listen to their prayers. These went so long and far. And a sinner can go so far as the prayers of God speak to people. will not in any way deliver us how sad, how sad. And here is Lot's wife. She was related to this friend of God. She was related to Abraham. Why, she was the wife of Abraham's nephew, and yet she perished.
Oh, yes, you may be related to some godly people, and yet you can perish. She can be paid for but by godly people, and yet perish. She was warned of God, yet she perished. She saw danger. And she perished. And she witnessed judgment. There must have been an awful roar behind them when God rained fire and brimstone down upon those cities. And Lot's wife being told definitely not to turn around and look back. Look not behind me, but as case of. But Lot's wife, she got her friends back in Sodom and Gomorrah. She got her the good times back there. She couldn't.
Four go the temptation. I want one last lingering look at the old one, an old companion. And she looked back and she became a pillar of God's presence. Yes, she saw judgment and yet she perished. How far can people go and still miss God's salvation? She experienced divine influence. The angels lay hold upon The hand of Lot's wife, she'll feel the pressure of that curly hand throughout all eternity. She's in hell tonight, Lot's wife.
Christ says, remember her. She felt the hands of angels as they laid hold upon her to pull her out. But finally the angels could hold on no longer because God's judgment struck her. When she disobeyed, she looked back and became a pillar of thought. She was almost saved, almost, but not enough. Almost is not the same, almost but lost. Yes, so many have come to this point today, almost saved, but almost is like a Tipper, almost so thou that slavest me to be a Christian.
We want you not to be almost, but altogether to become a Christian. and avoid being almost saved. Remember, lost wife. To almost eat, just starve, to almost drink, just to panic, to almost sleep, to remain restless, to almost believe, is to be lost. I read during the last World War about a boy. He wrote home to his wife here in the States, when they had had fifty missions over the continent, bombing missions, Then they were able to go home. He said, I'm going on my fiftieth mission. Then I'm coming home. But he was shot down on that fiftieth mission.
Almost there. I also read the two men. It took them one year to work their way from Germany up to Norway. They wanted to escape to England. Took them one year. Finally, they were headed towards the British coast. Only a half a mile away. After one year, escaping from Germany. And a German bomber saw them and swooped down and gun them to death. They almost made it. Almost made it. That's like a lot of people today. Almost made it. She heard her last message, but she perished. And why did she perish? She didn't perish because of murder.
She didn't perish because of adultery. She didn't perish because of drinking. She perished because of unbelief. That's why she perished. God told her not to look back, and she looked back, and she became a murderer's son. Are you going to disobey God? Unbelief is your damning sin. He that believeth not shall be damned. All you have to do to be saved is to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shall be saved. But he that believeth not shall be damned. That's the sin of unbelief. You know this family of six. Very interesting. Two daughters, Mr.
and Mrs. Lop, two daughters and two sons-in-law. Think of it. Three were saved, Lop, and his two daughters. Three were lost. Two might have been saved. The two sons-in-law might have been, had Lop's life been consistent, but they were lost. One was almost saved, that's lost wife. Here you have a husband saved and a wife lost. You have two daughters saved and a mother lost. You have two wives saved and two husbands lost. That's the way you divide up this family of victims.
It's a sad, sad breakdown. The Bible tells me it'll be more tolerable. It'll be easier for the people of those wicked people of those wicked cities. It'll be easier for them in the day of judgment than it will be for people who hear the gospel today and turn it down and reject Jesus Christ. That's exactly what the point of trial says. You say their judgment was severe at war. But, friend, it's not going to be near as severe. It's going to be for those of you who hear God's simple way of salvation in your own tongue and you're warned. How you can escape the judgment is to come, and yet you won't heed the warning. How sad would it be? The way people shy away from salvation, you would think the moment they got saved, they were killed.
They shy away from being saved. It's an awful thing to become a Christian. Why, it's the most impenetrable thing in the world to become a Christian. It's the happiest thing. I've never seen anyone yet miserable because he got saved. I've seen many miserable because they're not saved, but I've never seen one miserable because he got saved. He's very happy he got saved. Remember Lot's wife. I pointed out those verses thirty-four and thirty-six. Two shall be in a bed. One's to be hidden. The other's to the next. I think of a husband and wife. Two shall be in a bed. They live together. They've worked together. They've eaten together. They've slept together.
But they're not going to be together. But they're not together in Christ. and they'll not be together throughout eternity. Solomon saw it again. Two shall be in a bed, one shall be taken, and the other shall be laid. Two shall be grinding at the mill, one shall be taken, the other shall be left. Two shall be in the field, one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Here you have home life, husband and wife, one is saved, the other isn't. When Jesus comes, the same one's going, the other one's going to be left for judgment. Two working at the mill. Here you have factory life. One's saved and the other is lost. When Jesus comes, the saved one's going and the lost one's left.
Then you have farm life, two working in the fields. One shall be taken and the other left. Family life, farm life, factory life. Two working side by side. One's a Christian, the other is. The saved one's going when Jesus comes. The other one's going to be left behind and shut. I wonder if that other one is going to be used. All the suddenness of the coming again of Jesus Christ. We may come tonight. We do not know. But if it comes to end and you have kept caught outside, you have known the blame but you have set aside to raise the red lantern tonight to warn you of the danger that you are being lost.
We let the coming of the Lord God. How can you be saved? For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. God wants to give you everlasting life. He'll give it to you tonight. For God so loved the wicked, ungodly, betrayed, corrupt, and violent world. For God so loved the world, how did he prove it? He gave his only begotten son. He had but one son he gave. That whosoever believeth in him, and that whosoever means you, me, everybody else, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, not perish with the awful judgment that's coming upon the world, but have everlasting life.
You may have everlasting life right now. You may possess eternal life this very minute, if you possess Jesus Christ, for he that hath the Son, hath life. Remember, watch, watch, watch. Our Heavenly Father, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who comes to thee, we ask thy blessing upon thy word, and may it lead thee in sovereign faith to do this for thy glory. We do pray thee, Father, for we awaken those who are not Christians, and may they be alarmed as to their flight and their danger. You are whole shrewdness awaiting them.
Without your Savior, without Christ, O Father, we do pray we will save precious souls in tonight's evening. Those of us who are saved, may we also be disturbed about the near coming of the Savior. The days are darkening, and the hope shines bright at his return. May our lives be consistent with our testimony. As we await a glad day, to hear his shout, and be caught away to be forever with the Lord. Bless them, thy word of all heart, he asked in his worthy and preciousness.