When It Rained Hell Out of Heaven

Well, it's good to be here tonight, friends, and you're not going to want to miss my message this evening. I want you to hear a story tonight about a man called Lot. Have you ever heard of the man called Lot in the Bible? I know some of you have.

I know you have heard of Abraham in the Bible. The Bible talks about Abraham's faith. I know you've heard of Abraham.

Well, Lot was a nephew to this man Abraham, and they were herdsmen, and they had a falling out between them on account of the differences between their herdsmen. So they split company, and Abraham took the hill country, and this man Lot settled in the vale of Sodom because it was a well-watered country with plenty of opportunity, plenty of commerce, and material prosperity. But the trouble was, Sodom was a very wicked city.

In fact, the people who lived there had fallen into such moral depravity and corruption that God took notice of it. In the book of Genesis, in chapter 18, God is speaking with Abraham about how he had decided to destroy Sodom, and God said, because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous. Well, what cry was God referring to? It was the cry of rape.

Sexual perversion had become the primary activity of the man of Sodom, whom the apostle Paul speaks of what sodomy is in Romans chapter 1. The men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lusts one toward another, a man with a man, a work and that which is unseemly. In other words, friends, the men of Sodom were homosexuals, and they were raping one another. And that's how bad things had gotten in this city called Sodom.

It had no moral values. The Sodomites had no moral compass, and the city was so full of vileness and wickedness that God couldn't find 10 righteous people who lived there to keep from destroying it. The title of my message this evening, friends, is When It Rained Hell from Heaven.

And this message is about how God will destroy a wicked nation. I believe America has grown wicked like Sodom and Gomorrah. The filth that pours out of Hollywood and the entertainment industry is enough to pollute the entire planet with immorality.

In this city tonight, every massage parlor is full, every strip club packed with drooling customers bent on fulfilling their lusts before this evening is over. Every gay bar in this city tonight is elbow to elbow with customers. There's enough booze being drunk tonight to drown the entire city.

Historians tell us that ancient Rome was destroyed because it had become a brothel. America has become one big brothel. But there's enough sin taking place in this country at this very hour for God to destroy the entire nation.

America sins all she wants to, and then dares God to do anything about it. We see the reason why in the book of Ecclesiastes we read, Because sentence against a evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the hearts of the sons of men is fully setting them to do evil. That's what was going on in that wicked city of Sodom.

The Sodomites' hearts were bent on doing evil. We see this is so in Genesis chapter 19. God sends two angels to Sodom to destroy it, and their job is to get Lot and his family out of the city before it's destroyed.

Lot takes the two angels into his home for the evening, but the homosexuals of that city saw those two beautiful angels, and they wanted to have sex with them. Hear me now! We call good evil today, and we say wrong is right, but the word of God condemns all sexual impurity. Soon every Sodomite in town was gathering around the house a lot and circling it like hungry vultures.

Listen to the word of God! But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter. And they called unto Lot and said unto him, O where are the men which came unto thee this night? Bring them out unto us, that we may know them. In other words, friends, these homosexuals wanted to have sex with those two angels.

I'm not going to honeycoat it. That's what my Bible says. And Lot argues with them and said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly.

But America doesn't condemn sexual perversion today. Rather, America endorses it, legalizes it, and promotes it as healthy, normal activity. America has become one big Sodom today.

God is ready to destroy the sin-loving nation. Now these Sodomites standing all around Lot's house decide to get violent because they're burning in their lusts and they want fulfillment. We see this in verse 9, what they say to Lot.

And they said, stand back. And they said again, this one fellow came in to sojourn and he will needs to be a judge. Now we will deal worse with thee than with them.

And they pressed sore upon the man, even Lot, and came near to break the door. But listen, friends, to what the angels did next. You see, I'm telling you a story many of you have never heard before because most preachers today are afraid to preach the hard reality of the Bible that God is a God who must punish sin.

Ministers today fear man more than God. So they skip over many sections of the Bible which speak about the total destruction of a homosexual city. Some of you are so shocked this is even in the Bible.

You go find a Bible tonight, friend, and you go to read in Genesis chapters 18 and 19. Don't be fooled by churches today who only speak about a God of love and omit the fact that God is a God of justice who is angry with the wicked every day. Hear me now.

Some of you may be in grave danger like these sodomites. Listen to what these angels did next. At first they grabbed hold of Lot and pulled him back into the house and then shut the door and locked it.

Listen to verse 11. And they smote the men that were at the door of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves to find the door. Listen, friends.

These lust-filled sodomites still groped around that door trying to break in to rape those angels even in their blindness. A judgment upon them from God himself like blindness did not reform them or make them repent. They had become so reprobate in their sins.

God had no choice but to burn up the city and to destroy them. That's a vivid picture of men in their natural condition today apart from Christ. They burn in their lust.

They're blinded by sin. They are all throughout this town tonight looking for a sex partner. America tonight is blinded by sin as she sins all she wants to right before she faces destruction as well by a provoked God and an offended sovereign.

You can't shake your fist and face a Godfriend to get by. No, sir. A day of reckoning is fast approaching.

God will arraign every sinner at a final judgment. There he will cast them into a lake of fire which is an everlasting hell. You don't want to go to hell, friend.

I'm here tonight to warn you. Don't go to hell. Hell is a terrible place of darkness, fire, and smoke, and misery.

It's a prison from which you can never escape. Listen to this terrible scene in my Bible of destruction and terror that fell upon Sodom and Gomorrah. Hear me now.

The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the Lord rained upon Sodom and 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 listen, friends, to this terrible sight as Abraham watched it in horror from his vantage point up on the mountain. Verses 27 and 28 tell us about it. And Abraham got up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the Lord.

And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace, a furnace. Now look at this. Look at this, friends.

And listen to me. Look this way. Surely, had the Sodomites known in advance what utter destruction was about to fall upon them, how that they, in their secure and comfortable homes, laying together and burning in their lust for one another, would soon, at the break of day, rather than have a pleasant sunrise to greet them, and to hear the usual sounds of birds singing to them, rather fire would drop down out of heaven and consume them, burn them up, burn the very flesh off their bones, as fiery chunks of smoke and hot brimstone crash through the roofs and ceilings to consume them in their beds.

So great was the sudden judgment from God, so overtaking and consuming in its finality of destruction, that the plumes of black smoke billowed up like that of a raging furnace. What a horrible noise Sodom on fire must have made that particular morning, a daybreak filled with the cries and shrieks of the surprised Sodomites, as hell rained down upon them from heaven and burned up their city, reducing it to piles of smoke and rubbish. Surely, had they known what a horrible and painful fate awaited them, they would have done everything in their power to reform themselves and repent before God and avoid such a final catastrophe.

But they had no warning, and they perished in an onslaught of falling flames as they were burned to death. One of the most horrible ways to die is to burn to death. People in burning buildings would rather jump to their deaths than be burned alive.

That's what they did in the terror attack of 9-11. They jumped out of the hundredth floor to their deaths instead of being burned up. Hell is a region of burning terror and torments.

I'm here to warn you, friends, that you must repent or just go on to hell. You have the guilt of your sins, and you stand under the condemnation of a holy God who must punish sin. Your only hope is to get an interest in Christ Jesus.

Jesus is the only refuge and remedy for sin. But you must come to him, friend, and believe on him for forgiveness of sin. Jesus came into the world doing good, but wicked men cried away with him and nailed him to a cross.

But every stroke of the Roman's hammer, when the Roman soldiers were nailing up the Son of God, every stroke of the hammer was an explanation point that God must punish sin. God must punish sin. God must punish sin.

Listen to me, friends. Look at that blessed man on the cross. Look at that bloodstained Savior from sin, his arms outstretched, beckoning you to come to him and believe on him.

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me. Look at that man on the cross, friend.

See his bleeding hands and feet. He cries, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The cross is the place where wicked men sought to get rid of him, but by his death it becomes the place where his saving power flows out to all. Hear me now! Flows out to all who come in repentance, confessing they are sinners and own them as their Savior and Lord. There's a coming day of judgment, friend, where you will face the Lord Jesus Christ and you will bow your knee to him.

For at the name of Jesus, every knee shall bow. You can come to Jesus now as your Savior or you will one day face him as your judge, your judge. Come to Christ, friend, and get your sins under his saving blood.

His blood can wash away the deepest stain of sin, but you must come to him and believe on him. I'm going to sing a hymn. Listen to me.

If God has been dealing with your soul through this message, then don't delay. Don't you go to hell. You come to Christ.

You come to Christ for forgiveness of sin. Jesus is salvation. He is your only hope.

Jesus is the pearl of great price worth selling all for so he may be gained. Come to the nail-pierced feet of that blood-stained Savior and lay your sin burden down and surrender your all to him. Give your all to him, friend.

He can save even you. He has power to save you. You come as I sing.

All to Jesus I surrender. All to him I freely give. I will ever love and trust him in his presence daily live.

I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all. All to Jesus I surrender.

Humbly at his feet I bow. Worldly pleasures all forsaken. Take me, Jesus.

Take me now. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.

All to Jesus I surrender. Lord, I give myself to thee. Fill me with thy love and power.

Let thy blessing fall on me. I surrender all. All to thee, my blessed Savior, I surrender all.