and wicked world that we live in. It's a world that's passing away, and one that I look forward to its passing. Because my God says, love not the world and other things of the world, for this world is passing away. And you know, a lot of us, even that's in the church or been around church people, have neglected those words. We've been complacent. And the title of our sermon this morning is Come Out of Her, My People. He's calling his people out of the world. Some of us are listening for a trumpet call, an audible voice of God. Where's the wisdom of God? God's shouting it from the rooftops to come out of the world, but yet still we plow ahead and continue on in this world. The majority of us, and God's speaking more louder now, but with the confusion of the languages and the love of this world, the majority of people are entangled in it. The devil, Satan, deceiving the whole world. And in that we have a lot of church people or people within the church that are being deceived. We will look at What God is saying here this morning our reading scripture came from Luke chapter 17 The 32nd verse remember lots wine That's like I said, that's versus one of the shorter verses in the Bible. It's not quite as short as Jesus well but I guess it would belong those same lines because there's a lot of tragic a tragedy of a a warning in that word, remember Lot's wife, because she was destroyed all of a sudden. She was a faithless woman, even though she had been among a faithful people, a people of God, in which she should have known better. She should have grown in the faith. She should have been able to discern the word of God and have faith and trust God at that time, but like a lot of us today, we plow ahead in loving the world and the things of the world, and not prepared to leave. Not prepared to leave this world. Are you making preparations today to leave this world? Is this world your home? Are you putting down roots? Are you like our father Abraham? You know, Abraham never dwelt in a home after God called him out of Ur of the Chaldeans. He never dwelt in a home. And are you dwelling here, are you making this your home? Are each day you looking forward to leaving this place? Because it is not, there may be a sign that you're not born again and God's not talking to you because he's preparing his people right now for the exodus from this place. Just as Locke's wife should have been prepared. As I said, this is about walking by faith and hearing God speaking because he's calling, he's talking to his people. Jesus say, the spirit do it yet work. The spirit consistently works. I was reading scripture, this text coming from Revelations 18, one through six. It says, after these things, I saw another angel coming down from heaven, possessing great authority. And the earth was illuminated with his splendor and radiance. And he shouted with a mighty voice, saying, fallen, fallen, certainly to be destroyed is Babylon the Great. She has become a dwelling place for demons, a dungeon of haunted by every unclean spirit, a prison for every unclean and loathsome bird. For all the nations have drunk from the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality, and the kings and political leaders of the earth have committed immorality with her. And the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth and economic power of her sensuous luxury. But I heard another voice from heaven saying, come out of her, my people, so that she will not be a partner, a partaker in her sins, and receive her plagues. For her sins, her crimes, transgressions have piled up as high as heaven, and God has remembered her wickedness and crimes. For judgment, he's judging the harlot now. Repay to her as she has repaid others, and pay back to her double her torment in accordance with what she has done. In the cup of sin and suffering, which she makes, makes a double portion of perfect justice for her. to the degree that she glorified herself in revel and gloated in her sensuality, living deliciously and luxuriously, to that same degree impose on her torment and anguish in mourning and grief. For in her heart, she boasts, I sit a queen on a throne, and I'm not a widow, will never and ever see mourning or experience grief. For this reason, in a single day, her plagues, her afflictions and calamities will come, pestilence and mourning and famine. And she will be burned up with fire and completely consumed for strong and powerful is the Lord God who judges her. That's a destruction that he's talking about worldwide. That's every single nation up on this earth. And a lot of us are in those nations right now. We are being judged. Even if we're part of the church, you know, the judgment begins at the house of God. So every action, everything you do is part of Babylon is fallen. In other words, it's a foregone conclusion that Babylon will be destroyed. Now this is the final fall of Babylon. It won't rise again. This Babylon won't rise again. Whether it's political or spiritual, it won't rise again. So our first point is to flee Babylon. Flee Babylon. What was the indictment upon the city of Babylon? What charges God had brought up against it? That's what we need to look at. What was the charges? Don't get stuck in the religious churches these days that are riding the hobby horses of abortion and sodomy and all types of lesbianism and same-sex marriage and all that. Those are hobby horses. We know the wrong in there. And they kind of tag that with Sodom and Gomorrah. But that's not why Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed. That was just a manifestation of the sin. You know, if you're sick, or you have a problem, you know, I went to the doctor the other day, and I was telling about some small headaches or whatever, and it's the ENT, and she gave me some antibiotics and some steroids to take to try to help my sinuses and clear it up, and trying to find out just what's causing the problem. What's causing the problem, see, because The headache is just one of the symptoms, one of the things that comes about by it. You understand that? The sneezing and the stuffiness, those things we can see. We can see homosexuality. We can see drug addicts. We can see murderers. But what about hypocrisy? Are you looking and able to see the hypocrisy in this nation? Are you able to see? You see, because one of the things with Babylon was that the languages was changed, that they wasn't understanding one another. I can't understand my family. Can you understand the people in the world? Can you understand your family? We're not understanding one another. You know, a lot of times you can speak the same language, but not understand one another. People see what's going on, but they're not understanding it. They can't see the evilness in the world because they've become dull of hearing. They're part of the world. They aren't walking with God, preparing by faith and hearing and seeing God says, come out of here. I'm about to destroy it. They're like Satan. Satan thought he could rule the throne of God, but God was still on the throne. It's just that sin, his sin had gotten him so far away from God that he couldn't feel God. He couldn't see God. You know, a lot of times if you get away from the church, you become like a reprobate mind that you can't see your sin. And you're out in the world saying, well, all in the church, you'll be thinking you're a good person. Everybody in the church won't be saved. You think that you're morally good and Jesus died for you or whatever, but through your actions you're betraying the very God that died for you. You're not walking by faith. You're walking not examining yourself that you're not in the faith because the faith is listening to God. Now listen, with the indictment, listen at the charges. Forget about the sodomy, because that was an open manifestation. Ezekiel, the 16th chapter, in the 46th verse through the 58th verse, see what nation does this sound like? Does it sound like the nations of this world, especially this nation we live in? and says, your oldest sister was Samaria. He's talking about the people of Israel. Now, he's talking to people that Ezekiel prophesied, and he's talking about Israel and Judah, God's people. This is their sin. This is what he's saying, because God called them Sodom and Gomorrah. He called Israel and Judah Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, your oldest sister was Samaria, who lived with her daughters in the north. Your younger sister was Sodom, who lived with her daughters in the south. So that was Israel, which the capital city is Samaria, and Judah, which the northern tribe, which was the capital city, was Jerusalem. And it was the tribe of Judah. So that's Sodom and Gomorrah. He says, but you have not merely sinned as they did. You quickly surpassed them in corruption. As sure as I live, says the Lord, sovereign Lord, Sodom and her daughters were never as wicked as you and your daughters. Sodom and Gomorrah wasn't close to the wickedness that's in the world today, that's in the church today, that's in America today. Sodom and Gomorrah wasn't quite that close. And Jesus Christ says, the people of Sodom, if they were alive, they would rise up to judge this generation, because they wasn't quite that wicked. That's what Jesus says. And look what Ezekiel is saying about it. When we talk about daughters, you kind of reference that back to Revelation when he says Jezebel and her daughters, and he's going to throw all of them into the bed to kill all of them. He's talking about the churches there. And a lot of them say it's the Roman Catholic Church in which spawned the Protestant churches. And it's always pictured as a woman, a female entity, the churches are. So we're talking about the Roman Catholic Church and all of the Protestant churches that become out of her. We're talking Baptists also. Baptists is one of those Protestant churches, Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran, all of these. Those are the daughters. So he's talking about the churches, the religions of this world. I tell you, Babylon was spiritual and political. It's also a place. It's geographical. He says, Sodom's sins were pride. What? Is this a proud nation, or do we have nothing but proud people? Gluttony? Look at the obesity rate. That's all they do. Right now, someone somewhere, thousands of people tailgate, millions of people tailgating, and it's all about pleasure. That's all this nation live for is the weekend. It's about pleasure. It's about the war. It's about sports. It's about life. That's the indictment. It says laziness. They like the Laodicean church. They're not working spiritually. Now, we're talking a physical laziness, not a soulfulness in the things of God. Because remember, I told you, faith has works. The true peoples of God has works. So we're talking about people that are spiritually lazy. While the poor and needy suffered outside of her doors, she was proud and committed detestable sins, so I wiped her out as you have seen. Even Samaria did not commit half your sins. You have done far more. You have done far more detestable things than your sister ever did. They seem righteous compared to you. Shame on you. Your sins are so terrible that you make your sister seem righteous, even virtuous. But someday I will restore the fortunes of Sodom and Samaria. I will restore you, too. Then you will be truly ashamed of everything you've done for your sins and make them feel good in comparison. Yes, your sisters Sodom and Samaria, all their people will be restored. And at that time, you will also be restored. In your proud days, you held Sodom in contempt. But now your great weakness has been exposed to all the world. And you are the one who is scorned by Edom and all her neighbors and by Philistia. This is your punishment for all your lewdness and detestable sin, says the Lord. Now don't think you can get a whipping and go back in the house now. Because it's raining on the just and the unjust. Remember I told you those that don't come out of Babylon, though they be some of God's people, Those, a lot of those would be the souls under the altar that are destroyed, that are dying. God will restore them, but their punishment was death for not coming out of Babylon. Their punishment was the suffering. So those that he's talking about restoration, he's not talking about a worldwide restoration. He's talking about a restoration of his people because when you stand up for the truth, when you start to come out of Babylon, that's when everybody will turn against you. your children, your spouses, your employers, employees, the people of the world, your neighbors and things. It's not going to be easy when you start coming out of Babylon. So when God says he's going to destroy Sodom, he's talking about removing the wicked. See, it won't be any more names. The only thing that will be left is the ones that are sanctified, the ones that are set apart by God. The destruction of the people will have hastened its route. He will be able to perform that destruction. That's why he's telling us to come out of the world. And I keep telling you, he's not talking geographically. He's talking about spiritually. Don't get attached to your spouse, to your children, to stuff. That was the representation we seen with Joe. Joe wasn't attached to any of that stuff. He lost all of his children and all of his stuff, but yet he still worshiped God. That's the main thing. It's not how many brothers and sisters and parents and relatives and what all this earth stuff, all that stuff, God can replace it with new stuff. He gave Job new stuff. He can give you new brothers and sisters. Jesus Christ, when he was standing and they said, your mother and brothers and sisters out there, he says, who is my brother and sister except those that do the will of the Father? See, he'll give you a memory of new brothers and sisters, and he'll wipe away all those old memories as though they never existed. Those were there just there to prepare you for the kingdom of heaven. Are you been preparing yourself for this kingdom now? Are you getting ready to walk in the kingdom? And that's right now. You should be getting ready right now. Jesus' admonition was to be ready. He didn't say get ready. He says be ready. In other words, it is finished, and there's a job you should be doing now. There's a sanctification process that you should be going through at this time. It's not when you come back, you're not going to have time to get ready. That's why it says, remember Lot's wife. Destruction was sudden, because you had heard the word. That's why it says, when this gospel shall have been preached, then the end of all things will come about. after this gospel is preached, and it's gonna be preached to the ends of the earth. And it's being preached right now. You know, we got people in all types of country that if we look at the breakdown, that here's this. We all in China, India, Saudi Arabia, Russia, and all different parts, I don't know if y'all looking at those breakdowns that I give you sometimes, how many countries and nations that we, this message goes up. The gospel is being preached. That's why I say, are you listening at God's word, or are you watching the wide, wide world of sports, though? You know what's going on on YouTube and Facebook, but do you know what's going on in the spiritual kingdom of heaven? You know all about who won the game, who playing for the Super Bowl, and all these other things. But that don't mount to a hill of beans. It don't mount to a hill of beans. Jesus was saying to hasten out of this world. So we should be working right now. He says, remember the five wise and the five foolish? Well, the bridegroom had already promised marriage to them. But there were five in the church that were busy, and they continually being spiritually strengthened and trimming their limbs. They were going to Bible study. They were going to prayer service. They were reading their Bible. They wasn't forsaking the assembly together of themselves. And God was working in their lives, but they had the five foolish. And so we'll just go sit up in church and go to sleep. We'll just hear the word of God and just say that we are born again. We'll just say that we belong to a church. We'll just, a lot of them don't even belong to churches and just say, well, we believe Jesus died for us. We'll celebrate Christmas and Easter and thing, and that'll be fine. But that's considered defy foolish. That's foolishness. You're building a house on sand. You're not digging deep. Digging deep requires suffering. It requires anguish. It requires striving, agonizing, agonizami. It says contend for the faith. This is all about faith. Will he find faith when he get back? And faith is something that we have to develop. It's increasing faith. It's ever increasing. Lot's wife was lingering around. And Jesus says, flee, come out of her. The angels, if you read it in Genesis 19, they drove out of the city by her arms, her lot and the daughters. The angels had to grab them by the arm. If people have to drag you, like people say their parents drove them to church, do people have to make you worship God? Are you thirsting and hungering for his righteousness? Are you prying and trying to get into the doors of the church? Are you trying to take heaven by force? Are you pressing the other end? Are you thinking, well, I'll get it when I get it. God shall speak to me, and this is going to happen. I'm a pretty good person. I do good. I love my neighbor. And I haven't killed nobody or whatever. You look warm. He going to spill you out of his mouth. You going to be like Lot's wife. You going to be like salt that has lost its savor. It is good for nothing but maybe icing the road with, trotting underfoot. She's preserved as a pillow of salt for you to look back and see, but you cast salt on the ground that doesn't have any flavor, that the light doesn't shine anymore. It doesn't have a bite to it. If somebody step on you, will you holler? If we talk about your God, what's going to happen? Can they see your light so shiny and give glory to God? Are you on fire for God, or have you let the embers die out? James says. Book of James, the fifth chapter in the ninth verse, where James says, don't grumble about each other, brothers and sisters, or you will be judged. So in other words, we should know the word of God about murmuring and complaining and gossiping and tail bearing and all these other things. So we should learn how to fight, how to go to the kingdom, how to get in the kingdom of God. Because James says, for look, the judge is standing at the door. If the judge is standing at the door, do we have time to get right, or will the judge just walk in the door? If he's standing right at the door, you don't have time. He could hear what you're saying. He could hear what you're saying or whatever. Or if he's standing at the door there, Jesus says, it is finished. It's all over with but the whining and crying. And he says, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when he do come back. So let's not be meandering around like Locke's wife. When people say, flee, get out, the storm's coming or whatever, so many people perish because they want to get those things they say that has sympathetic, has certain meaning to them, some pictures. They want to get this thing that has some kind of symbol in their life. But sometimes you have to run off and leave everything. It's like Richard Pryor was saying one time on one of his things, say some people run out like the Titanic is sinking. They get their belongings or whatever. But some people run out and say, man, golly, I left my wallet off in there. That's how you fleece something. You leave everything. Whoever couldn't run with you, you lay it aside. Everything that's hindering you from running the race. When they said run, Lot ran. Lot's daughters ran. Mama got left behind. Mama, you better exercise and try to learn to keep up. And don't go looking back and going on. Whatever you're looking at, that's what's going to slow you down. Are you looking at the world this morning? Are you looking at the things of the world? The world has your focus here because Peter was walking on the water. The storm was boisterous and everything, so it was clamoring when he got out there. So had nothing changed when he got out there on the water, but he took his eyes off Jesus. Will you have faith when he comes back to keep your eyes on him, looking toward Jesus and not away from Jesus? Jesus' death and resurrection has cleared the way for us to be released from the bondage of this world through faith. Through faith, that's the only way we can get out of this world. That's our way out, through faith. That's why he came and died and was resurrected. It's through faith, through hearing of his word. That's the only way out, I can tell you. The truth shall make you free. And you know the truth, and that's what makes you free. But what happens during that time He's loosening the little cords of sin, the cords that so easily binds us. Sin has strongholds. And that's what's going on with me, with the steroids. I'm trying to think of what the name of it was that she gave me. But one of them was Augmentin. And I'm trying to think of the other one's name. But what that's doing is loosening up. It's loosening up the things that she can see, because it may be something else underlying deeper than that that's at the root of the problem. That's why John says the axe is laid to the root of the tree. That's what God's word does. It goes in there and gets the root out. It gets bitterness out. It gets hate and envying out. It gets all these other things out because we don't see what's all tying us up here. We could see the surface issue. And it says laying aside every weight and every sin that's possessed of us. So we should be getting ready as we're running. It's like pulling off clothes. I pull off my jacket. And my top, as I'm running, I'm pulling off everything and I'm putting on Christ. If you pull off, you have to put on. You don't want to be naked. So you have to put on Christ. You have to put on love. You have to put on gentleness, the fruit of the spirit. Christ has to be working in you. And like I said, that only works through faith, through hearing and doing God's word. So in Galatians 5 and 1, Paul says, it was for this freedom, this liberty, this freedom from the law and the bondage of the things of this world that Christ has set us free. He completely liberated us. Therefore, keep standing firm and do not be subject again to the yoke of bondage or the yoke of slavery that he's to remove. If Christ has set us free, why would you go back into Babylon? Don't do like Kanye West, say, master ain't that bad. We going to stay on the master's yoke. You see, that's what they did when they was leaving Egypt. They said, master ain't that bad. We remember the yoke. We remember the onions. We remember the leeks and the garlics and the menthol. You remembering food and carnal stuff, but you remember you was in slavery? You was in bondage? If Jesus had thrown out the bondage, why would you go back for something carnal? That's how you trap an animal. You put food down under a snare or something, and through the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, they go for the material thing. You're going for wealth. You're going for money. You're going for the lottery, gambling, drinking, and things of this world, and that's what binds you. Forget about those daughters, and sons, and husbands, and wives, and people that's behind. If God had to call them out, they'd have been running right along with you. Whoever makes it out is who God called out. If he didn't call them out, that's why they're back there. Paul said, forget about those things behind. I'm pressing on toward the mark of the high calling in Christ Jesus. Well, damn, Kimberlin, where you got your own salvation? You can't save nobody else. If God tell you to run, you run. Second Peter, what Second Peter was talking about in this, the 17th chapter and the 22nd verse, Second Peter says, these false teachers are springs without water and mist driven by tempest, for whom is reserved the gloom of black darkness, for uttering arrogant words of vanity, pompous words disguised to sound scotterly a profound, you know, we some professor, a doctor. I'm at Liberty University and my father was far well and we have this degree and all that. Religion unites with politics and this religious whore, political whore, Babylon is dragging you down. It's a false prophet. It's anti-Christ. They're anti-God religiously, just that they are with these seducing spirits. It's breaking you down. It's holding you in Babylon with promises of peace, promises of winning, promises of money, promises of stuff. All that's in the world, the lust of their eyes, the pride of life, they're not of God. Love not the world nor the things of the world. Stop listening at what people are saying. You become dull of hearing. Get your voice in tune with God. Get your ears in tune with God. What is God saying? Is he saying, come out and love not the world? Satan will keep preaching at you about that tree. Doesn't that apple look good? Doesn't the fruit look good? You mirandering around, looking. standing around looking, you remember, Lodge, what happened? He says, but meaning nothing containing no spiritual truth, they beguile and lure using lustful desires, using lustful desires by sensuality, those who barely escape from the ones who live in error. You just got into the church, you're a young person in church, and some false prophet deludes you away. God had hired this prophet to go tell the king about his destruction or whatever, but God told him, don't stop and don't eat with nobody. Don't go the same way you came in. But this old prophet, a false prophet, he came to him and said, you know, I'm a prophet too, and God told me to tell you this. Well, if God told me to tell you that, that's the problem. He should have come and told me that he told you to tell me. Since he didn't tell me himself, that's your problem. I'm not listening at you. You know, we're listening to too many voices. If God came and told him to do this, it should be God tell you to come and change that. If God say worship on this day, if God says, I've sanctified and set this day apart and made it holy through the vain philosophy of men and wine, I'm not going to let you change something because of your theology, your philosophy, what you think is right. I don't worship on Christmas, and I think that's his birthday. God should have put that in his word if that's what he wanted me to do. He should have said that in his word. Why would he meander around and be so ambiguous with this? God is plain and simplistic. He tells us what to do. Don't you come muddying the water and complicating this. He says, they promise them liberty when they themselves are the slaves of depravity. But whatever anyone is defeated and overcome to that person, thing, or philosophy, or concept, he is continually enslaved. For if after they have escaped the pollutions of the world by the personal knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome Their last condition has become worse for them than the first. For it would have been better for them not to have personally known the way of righteousness than to have known it and then to have turned back from the holy commandment verbally handed down to them. The thing spoken of in the truth is true in the proverb has happened to them. The dog returns to his own family. A sire is washed only to wallow again in the same mire. So you've got to watch whom you're listening at in this Babylon. Like I said, they will come to you in sheep's clothing. They're going to be wolves. You need to find out what happened to that other sheep. How did they get his clothing? They've skinned him and ate him. It's a lot of people don't have a quarter in their pocket because rebs say give it. They sending all their money for anointed oil and cloths and the preacher saying, let's go evangelize over here. Let's send money here and send money there. Well, I need money at home myself, Rev. You put it in there yourself. You know, if you counting on this, I don't see that in God's word. I'm giving according to God's word. Be led by the spirit of God. Man will lead you in all kinds of ways. But these very same people that's doing that, they have seersucker suits. They got million dollar planes and Rolls Royces. They have all kinds of money. This guy, Kanye West, with all the millions and millions he has, no, it's not affecting or touching him. But one day, we will see whether his security is in his money or is it in the right place. They said they, the Bible says that they will cast their money away because money can't save you. If he would have only went back and listened at the Beatles songs, the Beatles says money can't buy you love. Money can't buy that. The old Jay says, some people just gotta have what people would do for the love of money. Some people just got to have it. So don't follow 50 cents saying get rich or die trying. You follow God. You look unto God, seek unto God, and all these things that you need will be added to you. Other than that, you be content with such that you have. Godliness is not necessarily gained in the way that people look at gain. Galatians 4 through 12. Concerned for the Galatians, Paul said, before you Gentiles knew God, you were slaves to the so-called gods that do not even exist. So now that you know God, or should I say now that God knows you because, you know, Lot's wife knew of God. She didn't know God because the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge. So a lot of people in the churches and places know of God. They don't know God. The ones that were witnessing for God, feeding the sick and the needy. There's so many churches that feed the needy, that have lines where they give away clothes and things. There are a lot of people casting out devils and doing all kinds of work for God. They know of God, but they don't know God. God says, I never knew you. God says, I never knew you. Depart from me, you that work iniquity. So she should have been getting herself in the knowledge of God that God don't play around. If God says run and don't look back, you run and don't look back. She heard what he did at the Red Sea. She heard what he did for Abraham. She seen Abraham go back and get her husband from the other kings. She had seen the works of God. Have God been working in your life and then you turn around and get tied up again in the beggarly elements of this life? I couldn't go back and get that home way out there somewhere. I would rather this old shack and try to put what's on it or whatever. Because you get tied up with the things of the world and a new home and houses and cars and things. Now you got to get out there and go slave. You can't miss a payday. If some people out there, they miss one payday, they're going down in tubes. The card note, $400 or $500 a month. And nowadays, they finance them for five, six, seven, eight years. They went up from three years, years of back. There was three years, and 95, and 97, and 98. And then the insurance note, you have to have full coverage on them. The note's almost as high as the payment. Apartment rents and things. One and two bedrooms start at $500, $600 a month. And if you're buying, don't think about it. Because, wow, and you've got insurance, and then the upkeep is on you. What happens when you get a note like that? That means you're in the world. That's why he says, oh, no man, nothing. Now, I'm not saying that you can go out there and pay cash for a house or whatever, but you better get one that you can afford. You better be wise about this and that God leads you to that. Because once you sign that note, once you say, God blessed me to get this and God blessed me to get that, Two or three years later, when they're coming back to get that stuff, don't be talking about calling the devil in. You were saying, God bless you to get it, and God bless you to get that. And you done got so far so strung out, now you can't pay for that stuff. And them folks come back and get their stuff. Because what happened was, God wasn't your foundation. Or you wouldn't have got so strung out in bills and things that you can't even sleep at night wondering who you robbed, Peter, to pay Paul. And you're robbing the church, and you can't even come to church. You can't even think straight. You don't have time to live in a house that you call a home. There's no home. It's a house, because it's just a place for changing clothes. You can't sit out in the yard, barbecue, or cook, or sit under the fruit tree or something, or take your time. because you're busy chasing that dollar, the things of the world. That's Lot's wife. Remember her now? Because Job said, though the Lord give it, the Lord take it away. So he wasn't all discombobulated about it. His wife go, hey, curse God and die. Look, woman, you get away from here. You don't sound like my wife. You sound like a devil. You mean me curse God and die? The Lord give it, and the Lord take it away. See, you shouldn't be vested in stuff. You didn't bring nothing in this world, and you ain't going to take nothing out of the world. He says, you are trying to earn favor with God by observing certain days or months or seasons a year. He says, I fear for you. Perhaps all of our hard work with you was for nothing. So you think by going to church on Easter, Christmas and all that, you're doing God a favor. You're serving God. He says, you observe certain days and things like that's going to get you somewhere. You then turn again to the beggarly elements of the world. You observe all this foolishness and stuff. It can't get you nowhere. What you eat and drink, that can't get you into heaven. One of the living Bible calls it weak and worthless principles of religions and philosophies. Lot's wife should have done as Paul did. Paul was a Pharisee of Pharisees. Paul was of the upper echelon of the Pharisees. He was of the tribe of Benjamin. That was supposedly one of the most pure of all. with the tribe of Benjamin. He was born the eighth day. I mean, he was circumcised the eighth day. Everything was did according to the law. That's what Paul was doing, persecuting those that wasn't keeping the law. But what did Paul say in Philippians, the third chapter of Philippians 7 through 8? He says, but whatever form of things were gained to me, as I thought then, was important. These things are once. regarded as an advancement in merit, a philosophy degree, a doctor's degree. Most preachers are not in a competition with one another. They want to be called bishop, doctor, apostle, or something. They think, oh, that means something. But Paul says, I have come to consider all this is lost, absolutely worth nothing for the sake of Christ and for the purpose which he has given me for my life. But more than that, I count everything as lost compared to the priceless privilege and supreme advantage of knowing Christ Jesus, my Lord, and of growing more deeply and thoroughly acquainted with him, a joy unequal. For his sake, I have lost everything. I considered it all garbage." That doctor's degree, garbage. Everything that's back there, in King James' translation, he called it dung. And you know what dung is. He called it all done and was worthless. What was she looking back for? What was she looking back for? If God tell you to go over here, I believe there's something better over there. Huh? If God says, don't fool with this tree, I think I'd be better eating of all the other trees. I don't think I would fool with that tree God said don't fool with. Whatever God take away from you, I know he's working together for good. He has something better for me. I know it's getting better and better. You know, the word of God is like that. And I experienced that. Putting together my next lesson, I was thinking about Sister Harriet. And she said, Pastor, let's continue on in this Babylon. Let's do this Babylon. She was like Peter when Peter said, look, Lord, let's just build a tent right here. Let's just build this right here. Oh, but if she thinks she liked it coming out of Babylon, you wait, we got, you go deeper in the word of God. In God, every day is going to be a new day. Every day, something's going to be better. In the next series, hopefully God brings it home to a heart. We should say, oh, pastor, I thought we could stay in coming on out of Babylon, but sanctification is much better. If you, in word of God, each day, the more you read and study, it just makes you hungrier and hungrier for more of the word of God. You can't wait to hear what's next, what's coming next, what else God has to offer. The pleasures are endless. Paul says, It hadn't come into the mind of men, the things that God has for those that love him. Those that serve him, it hadn't come in. You couldn't imagine the riches and the glory and the things that God has in store for us. And here we haul into some rotten, rancid chicken. Churches done cooked some chicken and they done put it up there under the light. And it didn't sit under the light and it got dry. You ever get chicken and they give it to you and it's dry and stringy? And you there as a homeless person or a bum or something and you eating this dry chicken that's been cooked a few hours ago and then sit under that light and you got it as a filet mignon sitting over there. And it's perfectly tender. You don't even need any sauce or anything on it. And it's like, I remember I ate a prime rib up at the butcher block in Arkansas. That thing was so tender, you could cut it with a butcher knife. Here he has a prime rib sitting over there with just the right amount of au jus on it. And he has that. And you look in there eating, holding on to that old, heated, dried out chicken. God has something for you. They're thinking about the leeks and the garlic looking back. Paul says, forgetting those things that are behind. I'm pressing forward to a high mark in Christ Jesus. You see, once Job said, now it hurt me, he said, you know it hurt me to lose all my children and to lose all that stuff I labored and worked for. But God gave him more children. God gave him more stuff. He gave him double what he had. See, God's gonna wipe away all memories. See, when Joseph came out, that's why he named one of his children Ephraim and Manasseh, because he was naming them that because, I forgot which one, I didn't study it for this lesson, because he says, God has helped me forget. God has helped me forget. He had married one of the priests that Pharaoh had gave him. She was a Gentile. But it made him forget his brothers had threw him in a pit. And they had sold him in the slavers. He forgot all that they did. Because when they came, he says, God, you meant it for evil, but God meant it for good. I had to go through the suffering and the hatred. I had to go through the pit, being put in a pit. I had to let Pharaoh's wife lie on you, Joseph, so I could get you into the prison so you can learn the Egyptian language and you could learn the Egyptian culture. Two or three years later, after you think the butler then forgot about you, that then he can say, oh, I remember this guy that was put in prison with me. And then we can change your clothes and bring you in to Farrar. And then Farrar could put you second in charge. You don't know why God has you going through what he going through. But if he tell you, run and don't look back. Run and don't look back. Have faith and trust in God. Whatever he says, he says, he who loses his life for my sake will gain it. Trust him. Trust him. Abraham came to where he had such a trust in God. He staggered not at the promises of God. He said, go out and kill your son. They said, OK, let me not tell Sarah, though. She'll get in here and go to suggesting this and that day. He snatch him up the next morning and took him up to the hill and everything. And he was about to plunge that knife in him because God says kill him. If God say kill him, God could raise him up again. God could do all. Nothing is impossible with God. Do what he say do. That's what Jesus' mama said. Whatever he do, say do. Do it. So Lot's wife had enjoyed all these things. And so judgment came upon her. Because adulterous generation looked for signs, and she didn't trust God. And she had hold to things in this world. And he's telling us he's the judge Babylon. And he tells us this world is Babylon, and he had given us this land. And if you're looking at the Book of Deuteronomy, what he told the people, he says, when you come into the Lord, thy God shall bring you into the land whither thou goest to possess it. and had cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, the Gergesites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hittites, Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou. When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before you, thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them. Thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them. Neither shall you make thou marriages with them. Thy daughters shall not be given unto their sons, nor thy daughters shall be given unto their sons. For they will turn you away from thy They will turn away thine son from following me, that they may serve other gods. So will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you and destroy you suddenly. So while we are in the world, he wants us to keep away from the evil in the world. He's in the process of destroying this world because he told us this world is passing away. Love not the world. Those people that he's smiting in those deaths, don't get too hung up on those things. People die all the time. He left death here for a reason. He left here there for a reason. So what we need to do is get close to God. And as Job would say, I've heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you. See, now he understood why God killed his children. He understood death more better. He understood the things of God. And if you're following God, and you're a friend of God, and you have faith in God, God's going to open up your understanding, whereby you'll understand the scriptures, and you'll come to know God, and love God, and be led of God. For those that are led by the Spirit of God are the sons of God. But it takes faith, and faith cometh by hearing. When the angel says, God says flee and don't look back, when you hear my word, harden not your heart. Today is that day of salvation. So he says judgment is coming up on the world. She openly rejected God's offering by turning back, by looking back. If you've been in the church, if God had blessed you alone, God says, listen to what he says in Hebrews now, because it's no way she could be saved because that was presumptuous sin. She knew what God said. Willful sin against God results in woes upon you. In the book of Hebrews, it says, for it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened. And she heard of God. She knew of the things God had done. She had been living with Lot. Lot had herds and cattle. Lot had so much stuff. He was so fully blessed of the Lord that he had to separate from his uncle Abraham. Some of us, God has been so good to us, and it's gonna be impossible to get back in his good graces if you start disobeying him. He says, those who experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted of the goodness of the word of God. Did you hear, didn't I tell you, Abraham told her, Lot told her because Lot was a righteous and just man. A lot of us have heard and preached what the Word of God says. We've heard the Word of God, and you've heard that and turned against it. If you don't have that, it's gonna be impossible. Remember Latchwan, she didn't have time to repent. It was final and frank. He preserved it in salt. Salt is a preservative. She'll never be saved. Babylon will never be saved. It'll never rise again. It says, and who then turn away from God, it is impossible to bring such people back to repentance. By rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to a public shame. And that's what the church is doing. The way of God was the large wife was a sanctifying thing because 1 Corinthians 7, 13 through 14, the wife is sanctified through the believing husband. So we have to have faith. We have to have faith in God and follow him by faith. Will he find faith when he come back? That's my third point. It is a matter of having heard the call that you be preparing yourself. He says, when the Son of Man come, Matthew 24, 37, When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah's days. In those days before the flood, people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up until Noah entered into this boat. The people didn't realize what was going on that happened until the flood came and swept them all away. But God was calling them. He was calling them through Noah. Noah had preached 120 years. They had heard the word of God. Where's the promises coming? That Peter says, in the last days, scoffers will come in saying the same thing. Where's the coming of Christ? But like I said, he's at the door. He's coming. Now, you better watch it. He says, that is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes. Two men will be working together in the field. One will be taken, and the other left. Two women will be grinding flour at the meal. One will be taken in the other lair. So you, too, must keep watch, for you don't know what day your Lord is coming. Understanding this, if the homeowner knew exactly when a burglar was coming, he would keep watch and not permit his house to be broken into. So you also must be ready all the time. Like I said, you're not going to have time to put on your shoes. He said, if you left something in your house, go back and get it. If you're up on the roof, run. Now, who in the house, they need to run. If your children cross town or whatever, somebody over there, don't stop and call them and say, hey, run. This could happen. No, you just run. If it be on a Sabbath, he said, pray that your flight not be on a Sabbath, because you could do things that is against the law to do on the Sabbath day. He says, run. A faithful and sensible servant is one to whom the master can give the responsibility of managing his other household servants and feeding them. And if the master returns, though, and finds that servant has done a good job, he'll be rewarded. But I tell you the truth, though, the master will put the servant in charge of all he owns if he's doing that, if he's busy working when the Lord comes back. But what if the servant in charge of all he owns, but what if that servant is evil and thinks, well, my master might not be back for a while? And he begins beating the other servants, partying and drinking with them. and getting drunk, the master will return unannounced, not saying when he's coming, and unexpected, and he will cut the servant to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites. And that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth, he says. So we're not wanting to go. back in the bondage to this world or the things of this world. And no man can serve two masters. If you're a bond servant of Jesus Christ, you should yield your members to righteousness. And you'll grow in the grace and the faith. And that's what overcomes the world. Faith is what overcomes the world. That's the only way you can overcome the world. It's through faith. And the only way you can be lucid through Jesus Christ. So I have a bit of a long conclusion here, longer than normal. But a perspective through which we can look at these things in daily life makes all the difference in the world. How are we looking at these things? From what perspective are we looking? A common way of illustrating this is to ask whether we see the glass is half full or half empty. Do we think God's calling as a blessing that has opened up doors to a fabulous eternity to come? Or do we feel it bars us from areas enjoying life, enjoying the games, enjoying the things in life. Does it hinder our life? Are you willing to lose your life, be consecrated unto God, doing those things God say in that? So how are you looking at that? From what perspective are you looking at it? Is it suppressing you? Is it oppressive? Or is it enlightening and liberating to follow God? And apparently, Lott's wife thought it was oppression. He says, will he find faith? And this second admonition about Lott's wife, who was totally unprepared because she had no faith. If she'd have had faith during that time, she'd have taught her daughters and sons, because it does say he had sons also. But she'd have taught them the things of God or whatever, and what they grasped, they didn't grasp. And what they didn't grasp, they didn't grasp. It was out of her hands. It was in the hands of God. So it wasn't anything to look back for. The things that God had given them, that same God could give her more. If the house is on fire, let it burn down. Keep running. Do what God said. He can give you another house, but you can't get another. So she was attempting to hold on to a life or see that life as it go by. And looking back, it's a hindrance there. So we need to be working diligently to build our faith. And that's the only way we can build that faith is by yielding to God in every area, in every choice that we make in life. As I said, his word has a sanctifying process to it. Each thing that you go through loosens you up for greater challenges. So as I take those, that prednisone was the stereotype I was trying to think about. Prednisone. So as I take the prednisone and it's augmented, after those things clear up, after I go back to the doctor in three weeks or what, she can see whether what she thought was the diagnosis was the problem. or whether it's a deeper problem or not. As we pull off the Word, as we empty the furniture out of the house and put Christ on, put on His healing balm. See, by His stripes we will heal. As we put on the Word of God, we'll see other things deeper that's rooted in us that we have to take off. Things that you didn't know was underlying thoughts and things in you. So it's a continually pulling off this world, laying aside every weight and sin that's besetting you for running this race. But let me, can I tell you, as the Apostle Paul was saying, the evil was in him. The will to do that was in his flesh. But God was revealing to him those things that was wrong. As we come to the table, we have to examine ourselves and see of our unworthiness and see his faithfulness and his worthiness that he will dress us that we be found in Christ, that we be found clothed in Christ, covered by his blood. Do we hear God's call in the midst of the confusion, in the babble that's going on? See, God has the languages and people scattered. And if they're not understanding you, and the world's not going to understand you because he says it didn't understand him. But you should be able to see the world and the plight that they're on, PL, plight. The plight that they're on, you should see it. It's the broad way and that way to destruction. So we must remember Lot's wine. And it's been given to the end time church. No generation, no time has had more reveal and more of God's word, more pleasures and openness than this end time church. But don't be a lair to sin in this time. See, the lair to sin say they was rich and had been increased with goods and had a need of nothing. But see, we need Jesus. We need Jesus, we need Jesus all the time. All these other things, that's just things that are added to us for seeking the kingdom of God. So those things, what we have to remember is, it's those things. Do not look back. Remember the prophecies, remember the word of God, that he's looking for faith when he comes back, but he's looking for prepared people, the people that have been walking in faith. This is a faith walk. Can I tell you that? Walking by faith, looking to please God. If that's what you're doing day by day. And when I went to print these pages out, They were talking, I heard a sheriff, deputy, and they was talking about her land and different things or whatever. What's consistently on your mind? What are you meditating about? God tells us what should be on our mind and what should be meditating on. He says meditate in his word day and night. Pray without ceasing. It gives us very little time for ourselves. But John did say, He must increase and we must decrease. So will he find faith in you when he comes back? Will he find you fully focused and looking up on him for salvation? In Jesus' name, we want to pray that he does find that and that he doesn't catch us looking back.