The Second Coming 09 as in the Days of Lot — Stan Ford

I want to turn, if we may, Pete, if you have your Bible, or maybe you have your Bible and would much rather I just read the Scripture, but if you have your Bible and I care to turn with you, I want to read part of the 17th chapter of the Gospel of Luke.

The Son of Man Revealed in the Days of Lot

Luke chapter 17, I'd like to connect reading to verse 28. Luke chapter 17, I'd like to connect reading to verse 28. Luke chapter 17, I'd like to connect reading to verse 28. Even not shall it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.

In that day he which shall be upon the house of, and his stuff in the house, let him not come down to take it away, that is in the field, let him likewise not return back. Remember, remember, lot wise.

Whosoever shall seek to save his life shall lose it, and whosoever shall lose his life shall preserve it. I tell you in that night there shall be two men, one in one bed, one shall be taken and the other shall be left.

Two shall be grinding together, the one shall be taken and the other left. Two men shall be in the pill, the one shall be taken and the other left. And they answered and said unto him, Where, O Lord? He said unto them, Wheresoever the body is, never will the easels be gathered together.

May the Lord just grant his blessing for the reading of his old precious work. I think we ought to sing that chorus again, sir. I know you've taught us that lyrical piano dance. I think we ought to. Thank you.

You know they go on like every night, don't they? It'll just about be time, they say. Well, that's it. I'll reduce their wages, you know. You've got nothing now. I don't know what I'd give them then, but there we are.

Thank you very much. A little children's chorus that we sang last evening, and I'd like us to sing it again. A simple chorus. A little children's chorus we've been singing away in England. We've been singing a few American choruses.

Let's sing ours, shall we? If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're fat, or lean, if you're short, or if you're poor, or if you're in between, God loves you. Come on, let's see how well you remember the words.

If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're... I can't hear you. Look at me now. God loves you. If you're... or if you're... He loves you when you're... He loves you when you're... He loves you when you're feeling...

He loves you when you're... No matter what you... No matter what you... God loves you. He really does. It's a pretty simple word. Come on. If you don't know the tune, sing La, La, La. If you're black, or if you're white.

Away we go. If you're black, or if you're white, or if you're... Oh! My friend's got a gym down there. He mostly sits and doesn't sit at all. You know, Mrs. Jim, you're improving him. You really are. Come on, then.

Are you ready? If you're black, or if you're white. For the last time, if you're... Happily in the glory we have entered. For God and Father are hearts, are moons, say to me. If you couldn't have loved us more than you did, then you couldn't have spoken in a better way than you did.

We ask you tonight that once again you think of that which is before us, that we might realize that you still care for us, you still love us, and you say, no, by sorry. That would then be great. For Jesus' sake.

Christ's Return and the Question of When

As you know, the general theme of these sermons has been painting the path that Jesus Christ is coming back again. And from many different avenues, and in many different ways, we have considered the great truth that the Bible teaches that Jesus said, if I go, I will have again.

Now of course immediately people ask this question. It's the question that I tried to deal with a little last evening. If Jesus Christ is coming back again, when will he be coming back again? And I don't believe that that question is just idle curiosity.

I believe it's a question that every one of us would like an answer to. So let me pray here and now tonight, that I don't know when Jesus Christ is coming back again. But I tell you this, I so want to live my life that if he came back at this moment, I would welcome him, I would be pleased to say, Lord, I'm glad to see you.

The tragedy is that most of us would have a feeling that we would like to run and hide if we knew that the Lord was coming back. But while I don't know the day, I don't know the hour, when Jesus Christ comes back, there are given to us in the Word of God persons' lives that are extremely important.

Tonight, we have read one of them. The Lord Jesus said that when he returns in great power and glory, and please let me remind you that the rapture will precede that by at least seven years, but when the Lord returns in great power and glory, he will find in this day the very place he saw in the days of love.

For we read together from that seventeenth chapter of Luke,. Likewise, also, as it was in the days of love, they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they plundered, they builded. But the same day that love went out upon them, it raised fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all, even her.

The Warning of Lot's Wife

Now please, I did not say this. The Lord Jesus said it. Evil thou shalt it be in the day when the Son of Man shall be revealed. And so we have before us the tremendous story that links the Old Testament with the New.

It links the statement of God to his great friend Abraham with the statement of God and his trust to death. And I have a feeling that all of us find it extremely interesting to ponder again the nineteenth chapter of the book of Genesis to see how in the day in which we live the very things that happened then seem to be lifting their head again.

Things that have not been prevalent in the world at large, but things which are becoming very prevalent especially in what we call the land of the quick, the dead. The Lord Jesus said this, remember whatever else you forget, remember all remember not good.

It is interesting, is it not, that there are only two women that the Lord Jesus told us to remember. As a matter of fact, he didn't tell us to remember as many men as he told us to remember women, and he only told us to remember two women.

He dared to say, I want you to remember last wife, but I want you to remember a New Testament woman as well. I want you to remember a tenor, but I want you to remember a saint. And he tells the story, or connects the stories of it all, of a woman that came and anointed the Lord with ointment out of her alabaster box.

She poured it upon him against the day of his burial, and she proclaimed, wherever the gospel is preached, that story must be remembered. That story must be preached. Is this significant that God asked us to remember two women of such opposite characters?

One who had a link with Jesus Christ, one who had a chance of a link with him, but turned her back on him. Remember, and it is the first one of the Old Testament that I want to talk with you about tonight.

Lot's Wife and the Sure Word of Judgment

I want to say my usual greetings, if I may. As I look at the story of the nineteenth chapter of Genesis, it seems to me first of all, and you will permit me, please, to use an English colloquialism, and it may sound harsh, but I want to use it because it is harsh.

I want to remind you first of all, of a stupid woman. Oh, please, I would choose to be courteous, especially to you ladies, but I do not feel I can use any other word but that word tonight. When Jesus Christ said, remember a lost wife, he dared ask us to remember a woman who was a stupid woman when you said all you've got to say.

And though the words may seem ugly, the deed that she did was uglier. But I want you to remember not only the story of a stupid woman, but I want you to remember the story of a sure word. It seemed utterly ridiculous to lock, it seemed utterly ridiculous to lock wife, it was more than ridiculous to lock son, to lock son-in-law.

I only know this, that God said he was going to pour fire and flames coming out of heaven upon Sodom and Gomorrah because of their wickedness. And you could almost hear them say in your Americanism, oh yeah, oh yeah, that's a thing to say.

That God was going to do something that no one had ever seen done anywhere else. He was going to pour down upon his feet fire and flames. It was a sure word. And may I please remind you, it is a sure word not only because it happened then, but because in our day and generation it is being proved that it happened.

Oh please, if archaeologists have never discovered what they have discovered, I want you to understand that I would have believed the story of Sodom and Gomorrah because God said it and the Lord Jesus supported it.

It thrills my heart, I must admit, when I find that the greatest of modern scientific minds, when I find men like Dr. Wiseman have gone yonder to the great country where it happened and have found abundant proof as we will see in a moment, that the word was sure that it did happen as the Bible said it would happen.

And I want to remind you not only of a stupid woman, I want to remind you not only of a sure word, but I want to remind you of a serious warning that as it was in the days of law, there will be a serious warning.

Hearing, Heeding, and Hesitating at God's Word

First of all then, may I say a word or two about this lady that I have dared to call a stupid woman. There are a number of things that stand out so clearly to any now woman that will read the 19th of Genesis.

The first thing that stands out so clearly is this, that here was a woman who heard the word of the Lord. She was without excuse. God spoke to her husband, God spoke to her, God sent into this scene two angelic beings that they might chase them out of the city.

She heard the word of the Lord. The second thing I want to say about her was she not only heard the word of the Lord, but she hearkened to the word of the Lord. Oh no, she was not like her son-in-law.

She did not listen to her husband and then it was reported of her that he angered his one-in-law. That's what was said about his son-in-law. They thought that father had gone round the bed, that father somehow or the other had become a little bit deranged.

She's coming to us in this city and telling us to escape for our life. What a ridiculous thing to say. She was not like that. She heard the word of the Lord and with her husband she actually left the city.

She actually fled from the city. She was a stupid woman not because she heard the word of the Lord and not because she hearkened to the word of the Lord, but she was a stupid woman because she hesitated at the word of the Lord.

And she looked back I will say she was turned into a pillar of gold. First of all, she heard the word of the Lord. Now my friend I don't want to spend time because I do not find it pleasant at all. I do not want to spend time in reminding you of the wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah.

I am speaking to an absorbed audience, but there are boys and girls here and so I must watch what I say. I only remind you that the city of Sodom has given to our modern language the vilest, filthiest, wickedest word that is possible for a human being to take a body with.

Wicked and vile was the sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. That one shudders even to mention that my heart is moved. I am not an emotional man as all of you know. But I confess this to you. That when I read the 19th chapter of Genesis and I look around this world of ours today, a great love comes into my soul.

Cultural Decline and the Days of Sodom

I wouldn't stay here as an Englishman. I never thought in my own country that the day would ever dawn when an act of Parliament would be passed that legalised homosexuality. And I come to your country and I find it satisfactory the same has happened here.

We had a programme on our television at home just three months ago. I don't look at the television very much. I don't have time. And when I look at it I get a bit disgusted and want to turn it off anyway.

But this programme was what we called Wacker's World. We have a man by the name of Wacker who tours the world and gives us something of what he finds in different parts of the world. And he was giving us a description of plants and fish.

And there upon the very film, upon the very television of our streets, it showed us the wittedness of action. It showed areas that once had been poverty areas, once had been starved areas, once had been absolutely run-down poverty areas that were being fought up.

And they were being fought up by those that were practising homosexuality. They were being fought up by men like living pigs. And the whole area there we saw on our own television screens as you saw those actions.

I suddenly remember the stars there. And as in the days of love, as in the days of love, as men stood outside of love's house and tried to break down the doors and tried to lock, give us those men that we may do what we will with them.

So today, I'll tell you I'm sorry to talk like this to others, but you know and I know that this is what is happening in our Western world today. They're saying in words of judgement that what happened to Sodom and Gomorrah will happen to this world one day.

Escape, Mercy, and the Way Back to God

He gives the words of warning. Dare tend to angelic beings to laugh when they laugh, not a taste for their life. Look not behind thee, tarry not in the plain, a taste for the mountain that thou might not be concerned.

And here is a woman that has listened for the message that these men brought to her husband and to her. A taste for the mountain. Oh please, I'm not going to allow my imagination to wander things. I'm not going to suggest to you that that mountain speaks of Calvary Hill.

I'm not going to suggest to you that there is another mountain where God in his grace gave his son to die for our sins. And I am going to ask you this, if it doesn't speak of that, what does it speak of?

Isn't it wonderful that while God has issued a word of warning against that which is vile and wretched, he offers also a word of counsel to every one of us. He dares to say, whoever we may be, there is a way back to God on the dark path of sin.

There is a door that is opened and all may go in. But Calvary I said she not only heard the word, she hearkened to the word, in fellowship with her husband.

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