Well, it's good to see you all again in tonight. And we do bid you a very warm welcome. I'd like to thank David for leading the meeting. And we trust you'll remember these meetings in prayer. Maybe this is your first night. And we'd love to see you back again. Now tonight, I would like you to turn to the book of Genesis, first of all. We've got four very short readings from God's word tonight. Three of them are in the book of Genesis. And one of them is in the New Testament in 2 Peter chapter 2. But first of all, Genesis chapter 13. Genesis chapter 13, and it's verse number 10. Speaking about a man by the name of Lot, who was the nephew of another man by the name of Abraham. Abraham's herdsmen and Lot's herdsmen have had a bit of an argument, a bit of a tiff, and Abraham has decided it would be good for him and Lot to part company. And so Abraham has given Lot a choice of two plots of land. And that's where we break into the reading of Genesis chapter 13, verse number 10, where the Word of God says, And Lot lifted up his eyes and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered everywhere before the Lord destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the Lord, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zohar. Then Lot chose from all the plain of Jordan, and Lot journeyed east, and they separated themselves one from the other. Abram dwelt in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelt in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent towards Sodom. But the men of Sodom were wicked, and sinners before the Lord exceedingly." And then Genesis chapter 18, just over a few pages to Genesis chapter 18. Reading from the 17th verse this time. Genesis 18 verse 17. And the Lord said to Abraham, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do, seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and a mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of the Lord to do justice and judgment. Now I want you to notice just there that there's a tremendous contrast between Abraham and Lot. Abraham was spiritual and had a desire that his children might be brought up in the fear and admonition of the Lord. But Lot, Abraham's nephew, didn't seem to have any kind of desire that his children might be brought up in a godly environment because Lot pitched his tent towards Sodom. And then the Lord had a promise for Abraham at the end of verse 19, that the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And the Lord says, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great and their sin is very grievous, I will go down now and see whether they have done all together according to the cry of it which has come unto me. And if not, I will know. And then a few verses from Genesis chapter 19. Verse number 23, God says, The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. And the Lord rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities and all the plain and all the inhabitants of the cities. and that which grew upon the ground. Now I want to turn over to 2 Peter 3. You don't have to turn it up, but you can if you like. I'll just begin to read from 2 Peter 2, reading from verse 6. And God, turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensemble. And that word just means an example or a pattern. unto those that should after live ungodly, and deliver just lot vexed with the filthy conversation or behaviour of the wicked. For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds." And we know that God will bless these readings from His Word. And I'll invite you now to pray and to seek God's face. and to pray that God will speak to hearts in this meeting tonight. It may be tonight that you're not yet a Christian. God has spoken to you in nights past. Pray that God will speak to your heart again. And I'm asking God's people to pray that the Spirit of God will strive and get a grip upon unsafe people in this meeting tonight, and that salvation will visit this hall. Let's pray. Our Father, we thank Thee, O God, for the reading of Thy Word. We thank Thee tonight that Thy Word is truth, and Thou hast exalted Thy Word above Thy very name. And Father, tonight we pray that Thou wilt open up Thy Word to every heart, and we pray that the Spirit of God will come, and grant, O God, tonight that men and women will have ears to hear what the Spirit of God will say to these people in this room tonight. Father, I pray that Thou wilt save tonight I pray that thy spirit will strive and work in the hearts of sinners. I'm asking, O God, for carnal Christians, that, Father, thou wilt help them to lay all upon God's altar. And for those that are backslidden, that thou wilt restore the years that the locusts have eaten. To that end, O God, I give myself to thee. I surrender all that I have into thy hand. And I pray that God the Holy Ghost will take this earthen vessel Hide it behind the cross. Fill me with the Holy Ghost. And speak to hearts in Jesus' precious and worthy name we pray. And for God's eternal glory we ask it. Amen. I have to say tonight that perhaps one of the best days, not the best day, but one of the best days in my life was the day that I left school. So many people used to say to me, school days are the best days of your life. I don't know what kind of school they went to, but it certainly wasn't like the school I went to. I despised school. And Friday afternoons were perhaps the worst of all. Whenever we were sitting our GCSEs in fourth form and fifth form in a school in Lisburn, we had two hours of English literature to sit through. Two hours of it without break. And we would sit with our pens and write down everything the teacher had said. And it went on, men and women, for two hours. Can you think of anything as repulsive? Two hours of English literature. We studied Shakespeare. And we studied men like Thomas Hardy. And I'll tell you, it was mind-numbingly boring. I hated English literature. And one of the greatest writers in English literature was a man by the name of Charles Dickens. Charles Dickens wrote a book by the name of A Tale of Two Cities. Now we didn't have the pleasure of reading that book and I'm thankful for that because I've seen it and sitting in shelves and it's about five or six hundred pages long. I don't know what that book's about but I do know that that book is fictional. But the Bible in Genesis chapter 18 and Genesis chapter 19 records for us the tale of two cities and it's not fictional. It's an historical record of the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. And it's factual and it's historically accurate. And I want to speak to you tonight upon a tale of two cities. A factual account of Sodom and Gomorrah. You know, whenever I read about Sodom and Gomorrah, I believe that they characterize much of what's going on in the 21st century in Macrefelt, in Northern Ireland, in the south of Ireland, in Great Britain, and in all of the civilized world. We are living in days of tremendous change. The political landscape is changing. The moral landscape of Ireland is changing. The ecclesiastical landscape of Our land tonight is changing. And spiritually, Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland as a whole and Great Britain is going through tremendous changes. And I believe, largely speaking, the changes are for the worse. Sodom and Gomorrah were punished by the Lord. And the American evangelist Billy Graham said, if God does not punish this generation of Americans, He will have to apologise to Sodom and Gomorrah. And I believe that, dear friend, that is very true. A preacher by the name of Leonard Ravenhill wrote a book entitled, Sodom Had No Bible. And that is true as well. Dear friend, tonight let me ask you, how many Bibles do you have in your home? Sodom had no Bible, and yet our homes are coming down with dozens of Bibles. Sodom had no evangelical churches. Tonight, in Northern Ireland, we have hundreds of them. Sodom had no preachers. Tonight, we have hundreds. Sodom had no evangelists. Tonight, we have many. Sodom had no Bible schools. Tonight, dear friend, we have several. Sodom had no prayer meetings. Tonight we have dozens. Many of you have sat in prayer meetings today already. Sodom had no Christian literature. And tonight our houses and our homes and Christian bookshops are coming down with thousands and thousands of Christian books. Sodom, dear friend, didn't have any. Sodom had no gospel broadcasts. Today we have had several going across the airways. Sodom and Gomorrah had no Christian or Bible websites. Tonight there are thousands, perhaps even millions. Sodom had no gospel tapes and Gomorrah had no gospel CDs. And tonight there are thousands of them floating about the country. Sodom and Gomorrah never once had a gospel campaign. There was never once whenever an evangelist come down to Sodom or went to Gomorrah and set up a little hall or put up a tent and preach the gospel. Dear friend, that never happened. And here you are sitting in the third week of a gospel campaign and the Bible says that because of their sin, God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Now let me ask you tonight, if God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, that never had the privileges that you have. What will be your latter end? You know, we ought to bear in mind that judgment is always according to privilege. God's judgment is always according to privilege. You say, preacher, what do you mean? Well, the Lord Jesus, before he sent out his disciples, he says, if you go to a certain town or city and you preach the gospel and tell them about me and tell them about the Messiah and call them to repentance, and if they do not listen to you as you're leaving that city, shake the dust from off your feet. He says, I tell you, it'll be more tolerable for Sodom and for Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city. Dear friend, tonight let me tell you, you have absolutely no right whatsoever to hear the Gospel twice whenever there are thousands and millions in the world that have never heard it once. The Lord Jesus Christ went on to say in Luke's Gospel chapter 12, to paraphrase it, he says, you know that servant that did not know his Lord's will, he says he will be beaten with few stripes. But that servant that did know God's will and didn't do it will be beaten with many stripes. And I wonder how many stripes you will be beaten with. Now whenever we consider the portions of scripture that we've read together, there are three parties in view. There are the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrah, and that speaks of the ungodly that have never heard, and never heard the gospel, have never responded to Christ. Nevertheless, God punished them. And then we're also introduced to a man by the name of Lot, who you might say is Mr. Carnal Christian. Mr. Carnal Christian, who the Bible describes as being just and righteous, but certainly did not live like a Christian. And then there's Lot's family that had a Christian father, but were not saved themselves. And then, of course, there's Father Abraham, a man who was sold out for God, a man who was obedient. And I want to just speak to you tonight upon a tale of two cities. And bear in mind that it's a true story, a true tale. I want you, first of all, to think about the depravity of these two cities. the depravity in these two cities. You might have hung a sign over Sodom as people were travelling in saying, welcome to Sin City. Drive carefully. Or as you were leaving Gomorrah, you might have seen a sign saying, thank you for visiting Sin's capital. I hope you enjoyed your stay. They were capitals of inequity in the world at that time. Whenever the Roman Catholic priest, Martin Luther, went to Rome, he came away disappointed and he recorded these words in his diary. He said, if there is a hell, then Rome is built over it. If somebody had visited Sodom expecting to find God, they could have equally as well said, if there is a hell, then Sodom is built over it. I remember a number of years ago, traveling to America with my father, and we went to the city on the edge of the Nevada desert, Las Vegas. Didn't really know what to expect. But whenever we arrived, we found that the street was lined with strip clubs, nightclubs, casinos, people peddling pornography, trying to sell drugs in the street corners, beggars, rogues, vagabonds, gamblers, and thieves. And I remember my father saying to me, if you did not believe in the devil, you certainly would after visiting Las Vegas. And that's true. But a person could have visited Gomorrah entirely ignorant that there is a devil and a spirit world that is dragging men down to hell. And if they had any spiritual sensitivity at all, they would have been convinced as to the reality of the devil. Sodom and Gomorrah had rejected God wholesale. And they were bent on living for time and for sense. The Bible says that their sin before the Lord was very grievous. It saddened the Lord and it made God angry. The Bible says that the men of Sodom were sinners before the Lord exceedingly. And dear friends, that's just like the world we are living in tonight. And the Bible says that the cry of Sodom came up before the Lord. Now what does that mean? Well, it just means that the sin of Sodom was a stench before the Lord, and it cried out for God's judgment. And your sin tonight cries out for God's judgment. Now, what kind of sin was going on in Sodom and Gomorrah? I want to tell you that it isn't all that pleasant. First of all, in Sodom and Gomorrah, there was all kinds of sexual perversion. The people of Sodom and Gomorrah, I believe, were involved in adultery, Homosexuality and incest. You ask me, well, why do you believe that? Well, I believe that because the men of Sodom saw two angel-like men going into the house of Lot and they said to Lot, bring them out that we may lie with them. They were homosexuals. And then after Lot came out of Sodom with his two daughters, the daughters turned round to each other and said, let us get our father drunk that we may lie with him. Now, where did they learn that from? They got it, dear friend, in Sodom. We hear a lot tonight, don't we, about civil partnerships and gay pride. And dear friend, you can call it whatever you like, but the Bible calls it sodomy. The Bible calls it sin. It's not an inherited trait, dear friend. It's not a biological condition. It's not something that you inherit genetically, but the Bible calls it sin. You all know those words, I'm sure many of you at least, in the book of Romans. And it says in Romans chapter 1 verse 26, concerning certain individuals, for this cause God gave them up to vile affections. God gave them up to uncleanness. And God gave them up to work that which is unseemly and unnatural. For this cause God gave them up to vile affections. For even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature, and likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman. It says there they burned in lust one toward another, men with men, working that which is unseemly. And so God says concerning homosexuality and concerning this kind of sin that they were involved in, that it's unseemly, it's unnatural, and it's vile. And dear friends, that is God's work. And that is God's Word. Dear friend, I want to tell you something that all sexual sin in the sight of God is wrong. Sometimes evangelical and fundamentalist Christians single out a certain group. But dear friend, what about men that are unfaithful to their wives? What about young people that go out and fool around and toy around with sex outside marriage? Dear friend, that's all filthy and it's all repulsive in the eyes of the Lord. Did you know that not only did Sodom and Gomorrah fall through sexual immorality, but so did the Roman Empire, so did the Babylonian Empire, and so did the Grecian Empire, were brought down because of sexual perversion. Maybe tonight you're saying, preacher, you know, it's hard. We struggle with this. And I'm sure many of you do. You maybe even struggle with homosexual tendencies. It's eating you up inside, and you're saying, Preacher, I can't help this. You're saying, Preacher, I can't get victory over this. Or, I'm addicted to some internet site, and I just can't give it up. And, dear friend, it's absolutely repulsive. It might be something as vile as looking at your little brother or sister and thinking the wrong kinds of thoughts. And you're saying to me, Preacher, tonight you're judging me and I just can't convict your help over this. Dear friend, I want to tell you tonight, God can forgive you. There's mercy tonight with the Lord. I believe tonight with all my heart that God loves you and God can set you free. Because I read about the Church of Corinth. Apostle Paul talks about people that are effeminate. And people that are sexually unclean, he says, they'll not enter into the Kingdom of God. And then he says to the church at Corinth, but such were some of you. And there were people sitting in the church at Corinth that at one time in their lives, some of them had been homosexuals. Some of them had been fornicators. Some of them had been addicted to all kinds of vile practice, perhaps even sex with animals. And yet Paul says, God has saved you, God has delivered you, and today you are new creatures in Christ. God can save you. Maybe you struggle with it. I tell you tonight, Christ can set you free. But not only was there sexual perversion in Sodom and Gomorrah, but there was also violence. It says therein, Chapter 19, verse 1, that there came two angels to Sodom and Eve, and Lot sat in the gate of Sodom, and Lot, seeing them, rose up to meet them, and he bowed himself with his face toward the ground. And then he brought them into his home. You see, while Lot was a carnal Christian, And I believe that Lot is where the church is at tonight, the evangelical church, regardless of what denominational tag hangs over the door. I dare say you can hardly point to any denomination that does not have something of the spirit of Lot within them. But Lot was a nice man. He was hospitable. And here came two strangers. He says, fellas, come into the house. I'll feed you all. Set you up for the night, and all will be well. Very hospitable man. But Lot did not realize that these were two angels that God had sent from heaven. Now it tells me in Hebrews chapter 13 verse 2, Be not forgetful to entertain strangers, for thereby some have entertained angels unaware. You say to me tonight, Roger, do you believe in angels? I say I do. Read about them here in Genesis chapter 19. And whenever Lot brought these men into his house, the people of Sodom had been watching them, walking through the streets. And then they went to Lot's door in the middle of the night, and they said, Lot, bring out these men that we may lie with them. In other words, that we might rape them. And you see, there's violence here. And the young and the old, it says, were involved in it as well, according to verse 4. You see, it's not just the dirty old man that goes down to some end of town or goes on to some website, but it's young people and teenagers as well that are involved in this kind of stuff and involved in violence. And so often, sex and violence go together. Did we not just hear recently about a young lad, was it a 15, that stabbed a 65-year-old man in the head with a screwdriver? Dear friends, you might think it's funny, and I see some of you laughing about it tonight, and I don't know what you're laughing about. This is the world that we are living in. And this world is going to reap the judgment of God. And some of you tonight think that it's funny. May God have mercy upon your soul. You need the protection of God whenever you're going out into the world. Some of you are going to places that you shouldn't be at. Places that are dangerous. Remember, there's a spate there of young girls going to Kelly's nightclub up there in Port Rush, getting their drinks spiked and then getting raped down somewhere along the beach. Is that the kind of risk that you want to take whenever you're going out into the world? Maybe a baby on the way that you have no desire for, you don't want, or some sexually transmitted disease? Not only was there sexual perversion and violence in Sodom, But the Bible also says in Ezekiel chapter 16 verses 49, that the sins of Sodom were these three things, pride, fullness of bread and abundance of idleness. Top of the list. God overlooks the homosexuality and the sexual perversion and the violence. And he says, the sin of Sodom is pride. That's exactly, dear friend, where gay pride came from. It came from Sodom itself. And I'll tell you, God hates pride. God hates pride above every other sin, because pride is a root sin. There is not a sin that a person can commit that does not have its root in pride. Here's what Proverbs says about pride. He says, These six things doth the Lord hate. Yea, seven are an abomination unto the Lord. You know what's top of the list? A proud Luke. God hates a proud Luke. God despises it. And then Proverbs 8, verse 13, it says, The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride and arrogancy. Proverbs 16, verse 5, Everyone that is proud in heart is an abomination, excuse me, unto the Lord. And then Proverbs 21, verse 4, And high Luke, a proud heart and a ploughing of wickedness is sin. Maybe tonight you're proud that you can dodge the gospel. Maybe tonight you're proud that you can sit through meetings like this and leave without God's mercy. Maybe tonight you're proud of what you've achieved in life. You're proud of your looks. You're proud of your sporting ability. You're proud of your business. You're proud of whatever it is you have. Dear friend, tonight we've got nothing to be proud about. You know whenever God saw me and God looked into my heart? You know what God saw? God saw darkness. God saw rebellion, God saw hatred, God saw variance, God saw envy, strife, God saw a proud young heart that would neither bend nor yield to God, and God loved me. And there's absolutely nothing in this heart of mine that would have ever caused God to look upon me with favour and with love, because I'm just a guilty, hell-deserving, pedigree, thoroughbred, bonafide rebel against God. God hates your pride. What was it that brought Lucifer out of heaven? It was pride. What was it that brought Adam and Eve out of the Garden of Paradise? It was pride. What is it that damns more souls, wrecks more homes, destroys more marriages, ruins more families, splits more churches than any other sin? It's old, stubborn, filthy, religious pride. And I'll tell you, what is it that stops you tonight from coming to Christ? What is it tonight that keeps you in your sin? Dear carnal Christian tonight, what is it that stops you from putting everything upon God's altar and saying, take the world, but give me Jesus? It's your pride. Backslider, what is it that stops you from coming back and saying, Father, I have wandered away from thee. I have sinned against heaven and before thee. What is it that stops you from saying that? It's old, stubborn, foolish, stinking, filthy pride. And Sodom was filled with pride. Not only was Sodom filled with sexual perversion and violence and pride, but Sodom was filled with greed. Because God says the iniquity of Sodom was pride and fullness of bread. Fullness of bread. Just old greed and gluttony. Nobody in Sodom was content with what they had. There's something like that, isn't there, in all of us? I know whenever I go to Maud's ice cream shop and you see the small cone, and then you see the double cone, and then you see the waffle cone. I'm usually not content until I've got the waffle cone. With three scoops, marshmallows in one, pooh bear in the other, and chocolate ripple. There's just something in us that cries out to satisfy the flesh. Maybe for you it's something more serious. Maybe it's wages at work and you just want to get as much as you can. Maybe you're not content with the car you've got and you need a bigger one. Maybe you don't think your girlfriend or your wife's as good as looking as she used to be and you're looking out at somebody else or maybe it's your boyfriends. Put on a little bit of weight around the midsection. You want to get somebody that's a little more toned. Maybe your house isn't big enough for you. Maybe your job isn't fancy enough for you. Maybe it's your clothes and you've been wearing the same suit for, oh, maybe a week now. Or that hat you've got on your head, you've had it for five days and it's gone out of date and you need something else and you're never content. That is the sin of Sodom. Foolness of bread. Just bringing all the bread into the house and letting it go to waste. Gluttony and greed. The Bible says, Be content with such things as ye have, for he hath said, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. The Bible says that godliness with contentment is great gain. Dear friend, money can't buy that. And another sin in Sodom was the sin of laziness. Laziness. You know, man naturally is lazy. That's why God, even after he'd forgiven Adam, sent them to till the ground and says, you will earn a living, dear boy, by the sweat of your brow. Because he knew that Adam was lazy. And we live in a world tonight that is lazy. Sodom was a lazy city. People partied all night and committed sin all night, and then spent all day lying in bed. Now there's nothing wrong with having a rest. That's why God has given us the Sabbath day, that we might rest. And there's nothing wrong with getting eight hours sleep a night, dear friend, it's good for you. But the problem with the people of Sodom were that they couldn't pull themselves out of bed to go and find a job. And how many people are there like that in the world today? Down in Lisburn, it's called Bow House. And if you're down on a Thursday afternoon or anything like that, you'll see the big fat guys with their tracksuit bottoms on and their white goodies, standing, twiddling their thumbs, waiting for the door to open, and they're out to collect their £69 or whatever it is. And then they'll spend the rest of the week lying in bed, waiting for a job. We live in a world where people live and thrive off the DLA, and off the dole queue, and off benefits. And you say to them, you know, have you found a job yet? Well, what's the point of me going out working? I could never earn the living that I'm getting lying in bed. That's the world that we're living in tonight. There's an old-fashioned theological term. You don't hear it used much nowadays, and it's total depravity. And that's what Sodom had. Total depravity. And the Bible says that that is the problem with every single person that is born into this world. Total depravity. You say, well, what does that mean? Well, it means that you are dead, spiritually speaking. You're so dead that there's not even a pulse. You're just like Lazarus, bound hand and foot, with a napkin round his eyes and his ears, that's lying dead in a grave somewhere, with a stone over the door, and you can do absolutely nothing to save yourself. Nothing whatsoever. You couldn't even come in repentance on your own. You couldn't even choose Christ tonight on your own. You can't even turn from your sin tonight on your own. And that is why it's not in this preacher to preach his heart out that you would be saved. Salvation is off the Lord. And there's not a sin that you're not capable of going out and committing half an hour after this meeting is over. You say nonsense preacher. I tell you that's true. If God lifted his hand of restraining grace off your life, you would just be exactly like the people of Sodom. Because the Bible says that we are all dead in trespasses and in sins. It's like a wee Christian man I heard once, that he'd gone for a triple heart bypass. And whenever he was recovering from it, and he's lying in the drip in his hospital bed, the doctor came along and says, well sir, how's your heart today? He says, Doctor, to be honest, it's exactly like yours. It's deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. And that's how Jeremiah describes the human heart. My heart is deceitful, it's vile, and it's desperately wicked. My heart is so vile and wicked that there's nothing in the world like it. Who can know it? Is there anything as deceitful as the human heart? The Bible says there isn't. And dear friend, tonight, that is why you need God's mercy. There are sins that you could have committed last night and it's only the grace of God that kept you from committing. There are sins that you could have committed in life that could have got you a life sentence. It's only by the grace of God that you didn't commit them. There are sins that you could have committed that would have destroyed your testimony and your life and your reputation and your family and it's only by the grace of God that you didn't commit them. Because the Bible says that we are all as an unclean thing. And even all of our righteousnesses are as filthy as rags. Isaiah chapter 1 verse 6, speaking of man, it says from the sole of the foot to the crown of the head, there's no soundness in it but wounds, bruises, putrefying sores that have neither been covered up nor mollified with ointment. Now where is there room for pride in that? And so you see the depravity in these two cities. But the Bible also talks about the destruction of these two cities. You see, God's patience ran out one day. And God decided that he would tell Abraham about what he was going to do. And God says to Abraham in Genesis chapter 18 verse number 20. Genesis chapter 18 verse number 20. He says, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is very great and because their sin is very grievous, God says, I'm going to go down and I'm going to have a look at them. And if their sin is as full as I think it is, I'm going to destroy them. And so you see that it was a foretold destruction. It was a foretold destruction. You know the Bible says concerning a group of people called the Amorites. Genesis 15 verse 16 it says, the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full. What does that mean? Well I believe tonight in a spiritual sense there is a cup in heaven and the name of every sinner is on that cup. And as God looks at that cup, he sees their sin rising and rising and rising. And whenever it's not repented of, that cup arises full to the brim. And then God pours out the vials of his wrath upon the sinner. And that is, dear friend, what he was going to do here in Sodom and Gomorrah. And I want to tell you that you've been warned. The Bible says there's coming a day whenever Jesus Christ shall appear in heaven with his mighty angels. and with flaming fire he will take vengeance upon all that obey not God and obey not the gospel. An American evangelist in 1932 was preaching in a gospel campaign in Texas. His name was John Rice. And as John Rice was preaching, he cried out and he said, listen, he says there's a man sitting in this meeting and if he doesn't repent of his sin, in 24 hours he'll be dead and he'll be in hell. And there was a man that sat in that meeting and trembled under the preaching of God's Word. And was troubled of soul. And he left the meeting and the next day he was found dead in the local gasworks. Dear friend, I want to tell you tonight that I'm warning you. I'm warning you that you need to come because the Bible makes clear that there's a foretold destruction. Isn't it interesting that God spoke to Abraham concerning this? But God did not speak to Lot. In fact, God sent two angels to tell Lot that there was a destruction coming. You see, Lot had got to the place where he was so insensitized spiritually that he could no longer hear God's voice. And maybe Christian tonight, that's where you are. You can look back five years ago and you read God's word, God spoke to you. You sat in gospel meetings and God spoke to you. You sat in church services and God spoke to you. And as you drove in your car you were conscious of God with you. And as you were in the workplace you were conscious of God with you. Lot used to be like that, but now he's just grown spiritually insensitive. And God no longer speaks to Lot. And Lot no longer hears from God. And Lot no longer speaks to God. Is that you tonight, carnal Christian? Not only was it a foretold destruction, But it was also a fiery destruction. The Bible says that God rained fire and brimstone from heaven. Now what's brimstone? Brimstone is like sulphur. We were in Israel in July. And as we were travelling around, a tour guide pointed down to the bottom part of the Dead Sea, which is just like a desert today, and says, you know, archaeologists and historians will tell us that just at the bottom of the Dead Sea, that's where Sodom and Gomorrah was. And he says round about the seabed there is the highest sulphur content in the face of the earth. See the Bible is 100% historically accurate. The Bible says that God is going to destroy this world with fire. It tells us in 2 Peter chapter 3 verse number 7. It says that the heavens and the earth which are now by the same order kept in store reserved unto fire against the day of judgment. And then it says in verse number 12, looking for and hastening to the coming death of the Lord, or in the heavens being on fire, shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat. This old world is going to be burned up one day. Remember here incidentally about a preacher who's reading from this verse. And his reading wasn't very good and his exegesis was even worse. And he read the verse instead of saying the elements shall melt with fervent heat. He says, the Bible says the elephants shall melt with fervent heat. And he says, if the elephants are going to melt with fervent heat, what's going to become of you and me? And dear friend, you know what he's getting at? You'll not have a lake to stand on. It was also a full destruction. Sodom and Gomorrah were completely destroyed, and today they're covered with water. You see, this is God's urban renewal program. And it was also a final destruction. They never raised their ugly heads again. And dear friend, I want to tell you tonight, if you're not saved, there is no second chance. Hell has no exits. If you die without Christ, the Bible says, he that being often reproved, hardeneth his neck shall suddenly be destroyed and that without remedy. There's no remedy. There's no second chance. Live without God's mercy and you'll have all eternity to regret it. Live without Christ and you'll have all eternity to cry out in agony of soul that you never trusted Christ. He's a fool and a final destruction. And it's interesting that it tells us, isn't it, in Genesis chapter number 19, verse number 11, that concerning these sodomites, that God blinded them. There was blindness. The Bible says the God of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not. But it wasn't the devil that blinded these people, it was God himself. You know, there's such a thing in the Bible as judicial blindness. And it's one of God's ways of judging sin, that whenever a person has heard and heard and been warned and been warned, God says, OK, that's it. I'll blind you. You can go on in your sin, content in it, happy in it, and you'll just be blinded. That's what the Bible says has happened to Israel. It says blindness in part has happened unto Israel until this day. There's a judicial blindness. There's a hardening of heart. There's a searing of the conscience, so much so that you become beyond feeling. The evangelist Sam Workman says whenever he was a boy, just down the road from him, there was a blacksmith's shop. And he went in one day and he used to come home from school with his little bag and stand and watch the blacksmith. And this day, the blacksmith was working away at a white hot horseshoe over his anvil. And whenever the horseshoe went cherry red and then the colour went out of it, well, the blacksmith just lifted his tongs and took it with his hand and threw it over his shoulder. And me Sam Workman ran over to a horseshoe and thought it was cold and picked it up and scalded his fingers. And then the old blacksmith came over with his hand, he lifted it up again and looked at it and threw it down as if there was nothing wrong with it, there was no heat in it at all. And me Sam Workman, he went over with his left hand, picked it up again, burned his fingers. And then the blacksmith came a third time and picked it up and looked at it and threw it down and says, there's nothing wrong with it. And the wee fella says, well, there must be, because it's burned my fingers. And then the blacksmith just held out his hands, and they were rough, and they were hard, and they were calloused, and they were like leather. And maybe tonight, dear friend, that's how your heart is. There used to be a time whenever the heat of the gospel penetrated your heart and it hurt to listen to sin being preached against. It hurt to listen to eternity. It hurt to hear about a God of love that sent His Son to die for you and you still haven't received Him. But now tonight you can sit and you can look at your watch and say, what time will this meeting be over till I get the crisps and the Mars bars into me and that I get over and speak to that girl, that fella? Even as a Christian, some of you are like that. And your heart tonight has got a shield on it, and your conscience is no longer tender for a lot of you. And maybe God's just allowed you to go on in your own lusts, like God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God hardened Pharaoh's heart. God hardened Pharaoh's heart. Listen, if you're sensitive to these things, you need to come to Christ tonight. Remember, judgment is always according to privilege. The last thing that I want you to notice is lots of deliverance from the cities. Lots of deliverance. from the cities. Well, we know that Lot was a righteous man. We read about that in 2 Peter chapter 2. It says he was a just man. He says he had a righteous soul. Lot was just and righteous, but he wasn't living right before God. He was a carnal Christian. And the Apostle Paul says there's a lot of carnal Christians in the church of Corinth. He says, you're saved, but you haven't grown in grace. You're still carnal. There's still envy, bitterness, backbiting. And that's, dear friend, just what Lot was like. That's what Lot was like. And maybe tonight you're the same. And then Lot hears that the angel of death is coming and God's going to pour out judgment upon the nations. And upon Sodom and Gomorrah. And the Bible says that he goes to his sons-in-law. You see, Lot had five daughters. Three of them got married. And Lot went to his sons-in-law and says, listen, get out of this place, because God's going to send judgment. And the Bible says that he seemed as one that mocked his sons-in-law. He had no testimony. And maybe tonight you're sitting and you're thinking, I would love my family to come to Christ, but you've got no testimony. And whenever you say, come to the gospel meeting, say, what would I come there for? Sure, all them Christians are just as bad as I am. And largely speaking, a lot of them are right. The church is full of hypocrites. Lot was one of them. But dear friend, if I was to hand you a cheque tonight for a million pounds, and you took it into your hand and you said, well, I would love to go and get this cheque cashed. But see the bank in Macrophelte, it's full of hypocrites. There's no point going in there and getting the cheque cashed because everybody who works in the bank, they're all hypocrites. You say tonight the church is full of carnal Christians and full of hypocrites, you might be right. But that's not going to stop me coming to Christ and getting God's blessing. That shouldn't stop you coming to the Lord and receiving eternal life, now should it? Just because somebody else doesn't want to live for God, why should you be the same as they are? And so Lot went and told his family and they just laughed at him. You see, Lot helped to damn his own family. You see, whenever Abraham prayed, God gave Abraham a promise. And God says to Abraham, if I find ten righteous people in the city, he says, I'll spare it. Now there was Lot, he was a righteous man. There was Lot's wife, there was Lot's five daughters, and there was Lot's three sons-in-law. That's ten people. If Lot had won his family to Christ, Sodom and Gomorrah would be here to this day. You see how the believer is the salt of the earth? But if the salt loses its savor, it's good for nothing but to be cast away. Lot helped to damn his own family. Maybe tonight, dear Christian, you're the same. Not living for God, not right with God, not hearing from God, not living for God, not living a holy life. And people are looking at your life and say, if you're a Christian, dear friend, I don't know what I need because our lives are the same. But praise God there was Abraham. And it was Abraham's praying that saved Lot. There was an intercessor standing outside of Sodom. And the Bible says in verse 29 that God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow. And I want to tell you tonight, there's been people who have been praying for you. Maybe you've got a godly father or a godly mother, and they're praying for you. Maybe you've got a godly grandmother or godly grandfather. Like Lut, you've got a godly uncle, a godly brother, sister, a son or daughter, and they're praying for you. You see, Abraham had his eyes on that which was eternal. Hebrews tells us that he looked for a city who had foundations, who's builder and maker was God. Abraham saw absolutely nothing attractive in Sodom. And I want to tell you tonight that there's nothing attractive in this world for a true born-again Christian. Lot was delivered by Abraham's prayers. You see, Abraham was holding the ropes on Lot's soul. And dear friend tonight, what if somebody's holding the ropes on your soul? praying for you, and then they die and they go to be with the Lord in heaven, and you're left behind, and dear friend, there's no intercessor left for you. Here's what it says in Isaiah 57 verse 1. It says, The righteous man perisheth, and no man laith it to hurt. Merciful men are taken away, none considering that the righteous is taken away from the evil to come. What if God took that grandmother away to be with himself in heaven? What if God took away that friend of yours that prays for you to be with himself in heaven? Who's going to hold the ropes in your soul? The only thing that keeps you out of God's hell tonight is a thread of divine grace. And God holds that thread. And dear friend, God has got absolutely no promise, no obligation whatsoever to keep holding on to you while you go on living without him. Dear friend, you need God tonight. Leaving Sodom, Cost Lot a lot of stuff. Cost him his family. Just his two daughters come out with him. Cost him his wife. Cost him his friends. Cost him a lot. But staying in Sodom would have cost Lot absolutely everything. And staying in your sin, whenever you know that God is going to send judgment, it'll cost you absolutely everything. And you're just as depraved as Sodom and Gomorrah were. You can't save yourself. You say, preacher, well then, what do I need to do? You need to come to Christ. You need to get to the cross tonight. I heard once about an arched exhibition and there was a painting on the wall and the title of the painting was Checkmate. And on the picture was depicted a picture of the devil playing chess with a man. and he'd got him into the checkmate position and the man was finished. And one day a famous chess player, seen the picture on the wall, and he stood for hours studying it, and one of the men in the museum comes up and says, what are you looking at the picture for, for so long? He says, listen, I play chess and the title of this picture is checkmate. Now he says, I have discovered that there's still one move that this man that's playing the devil can make. One move that can in fact help him win the game. And dear friend, tonight the devil has got you in checkmate position. And there's no move that you can make save one. Get to the cross. You need Christ. Without the shedding of Christ's blood, you'll be lost. Come to Christ. Come while the Saviour and mercy is waiting. Steer for the harbour bright, for how do you know but your soul may be drifting over God's deadline tonight. Let's bow. Our heads. It's by our heads I believe tonight that God has brought you here, that you might hear words whereby you can be saved. Christ can save you. God can have mercy upon your soul. Maybe tonight you're like Lot and you're cold at heart and you're backslidden, you need the Lord. Maybe you're like the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, the people in either of these two cities, and you're Nazi. I trust and pray tonight that you'll get right with the Lord. If you want to speak to David or myself, we'll be standing around in the meeting. I'll be standing at the door. David will be here in the hall if you'd like to speak to either of us. Come, but come to Christ. I'll show you words whereby you can be saved. Our Father, we pray in Jesus' name. That thou wilt take thy word, Lord, that's been preached, Lord, in weakness, but we pray that the Spirit of God will come and write it upon every heart. And, Father, that sinners will be saved and those cold at heart will be restored. Father, give young people grace to come and speak and get right with God. Don't let anyone leave this meeting while they still hang in God's judgment balances without God's mercy. Father, answer prayer, because we offer it in Jesus' precious name. Amen.