Welcome to the 2013 Shepherds
Conference, General Session 8, Steve Lawson. I invite you to
take God's Word and turn with me to Luke chapter 16...Luke
chapter 16 and in this session I want to speak to you on preaching
in light of eternity, preaching in light of heaven and hell. Luke chapter 16 is our text for
the hour. I want to begin by reading the
first five verses. God's inspired and inerrant and
infallible Word reads, now there was a rich man and he habitually
dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor. every day. And a poor man named
Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and longing
to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's
table. Besides, even the dogs were coming
and licking his sores. Now the rich man died and was
carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. And the rich
man also died and was buried. In Hades, he lifted up his eyes,
being in torment and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue for I
am in agony. in this flame. As preachers of
the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we are commissioned
by heaven to preach as those who have their eyes upon eternity,
that we must always preach with heaven and hell before us. It
was Jonathan Edwards, the preacher of the Great Awakening, who said,
Oh God, stamp eternity on my eyeballs. In other words, God,
make me to always see those to whom I preach in light of their
eternal destiny. The great Puritan Richard Baxter
wrote, I must always preach as a dying man to dying men, as
never to preach again. That is to say, every time we
enter the pulpit, It must be with the eternity of men and
women indelibly etched upon our eyes. William Booth, the founder
of the Salvation Army. addressed his legions of street
preachers in the 19th century and said, I would that you could
spend a weekend in hell and hear the shrieks and the groans of
the damned in hell. I would that you could smell
the burning flesh of those in torment. Then you would come
back preaching the gospel of Christ. with greater urgency. We must always preach as though
eternal destinies depend upon it. John Wesley, founder of the
Methodist movement in the 18th century said, I desire to have
both heaven and hell ever in my eye while I stand on this
isthmus of this life between two boundless oceans of eternity
past and eternity future. The Puritan Richard Sibbes said,
this word eternal is a heavy word, close quote. The truth
is eternal realities are so heavy that they should weigh upon us
as we minister the Word of God. J.C. Ryle wrote, forever is the
most solemn word in the English language. Any pulpit that deals
only with the here and now is a shallow pulpit. We must have this eternal perspective
as we preach. Too many preachers are consumed
only with this present passing moment, with having your best
life now, but have lost all sight of heaven and hell. As we stand
in the pulpit, we must preach for souls in light of eternity. We must do the work of an evangelist. We must warn of hell below. We must point to heaven above
because one day there will be no tomorrow. And that's why I
want us to focus in this hour upon this text, this passage
And for us to have, as Edward said, for us to have eternity
stamped on our eyeballs. This account is a parable. A
parable is an earthly story with a heavenly meaning. It is a story
that is intended to teach profound theological truth. We say that
a picture is worth a thousand words, and so it is here. This
is the story of two men. One is rich, the other is poor. It is the story of two deaths.
One is noticed, the other is unnoticed. It is the story of
two destinies. One went to heaven, the other
went to hell. The point of the parable is to
show the great reversal that death brings to many. Many who
are rich and famous in this life will be subject to eternal damnation
in the life to come. And many who are nobodies in
this life, who are poor and begging, will be ushered in to eternal
bliss in the life to come. Again, the point is to show the
great reversal for many that death brings. As we look at this
text, there are three main headings that I want you to notice. I
want you to see two men before death. That's verses 19 to 21.
And then I want you to note two men at death. That's verse 22. And then finally, two men after
death. Verses 22 to 31. Let's begin
with two men before death. Beginning in verse 19, as this
story begins, Jesus introduces us to two totally different lives. The contrast could not be any
greater here, could it? And verse 19 starts with the
rich man. Verse 19, now there was a rich
man. This rich man here is one who
lived exclusively for this world and for the things of this world.
This man is a one-dimensional man. This is a natural man. This is a worldly man. Amazingly
enough, this rich man is intended to represent the Pharisees, those
who, although they were outwardly religious, in fact, lived for
this world and the things of this world. Look a few verses
earlier in verse 14, context. Verse 14, now the Pharisees,
who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things
and were scoffing at Him. Their religiosity cloaked the
depravity of their own hearts. They were not lovers of God.
They were lovers of money. They were lovers of this world.
They were lovers of themselves. Their religiosity was simply
the mask of a hypocrite to cover over their depravity. This is...this
indictment is not because they had money. There's no sin in
having money. The sin is that money has them. They live for money. Many in
ministry and in strict fundamentalist, strongly conservative movements
like Phariseeism live for this world. Verse 13, the verse right
above that, Jesus is crystal clear. No servant can serve two
masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will be devoted to one and despise
the other." You cannot, you cannot, you cannot serve God and Mammon. The two are mutually exclusive. It's not both and, it is always
either or. Their sin, as I said, is not
that they possess money, but that money possess them. And
by the way, a poor person can commit this sin. It's the love
of money that is the root of all evil. It's not the possession
of it, it is the love of it, even if you don't have any. That's
where this rich man is, though he has many possessions, he is
a man all wrapped up. in the things of this world.
We read, he habitually dressed in purple. Habitually, do you
see that? That's his lifestyle. This is
his life pursuit. This is his driving passion and
his priority. He is dressed in purple. He is
living in wanton pleasure in the lamp of luxury. He lived
a habitual lifestyle of opulence and the display of his opulence. to dress in purple was to dress
in the most lavish and expensive way of the day. And fine linen
refers to expensive garments that accompany purple garments. It's not just that this man had
his money, he loved to display it and to show it off and to
build up his sense of self-esteem and self-importance by raising
himself above others. joyously living in splendor every
day. This man was a strutting peacock,
showing off his money. He wanted everyone to know he
was rich. He was utterly self-absorbed,
self-consumed, and self-pampered. A man all wrapped up in himself
makes for a very small package, and that is what he is. Moreover,
this man was very religious, although his religion had not
changed his life pursuits, had it? Verse 23 says that he recognized
Abraham as the father of Israel. In verse 24, he claims to have
a relationship with Abraham. He says, Father Abraham, as though
he knows Abraham, that he's identified with Abraham. Verse 29 and verse
31 indicates he knows the Bible, he believes the Bible, he quotes
the Bible. He is a double-minded man. He
is living with one foot in this world and one foot in the Word. He has a divided heart. He has
split loyalties. He is outwardly religious, but
inwardly consumed with money. The fact is, his pursuit of money
has crowded out any room for God in his life. His real love
is not God, it is gold. His real desire is not for a
Savior, it's for silver. His sin is not that he has money,
but that his money has him. He acknowledged God, but adored
his money. His entire focus in life is upon
the here and now. He has no thought of eternity.
He has no thought of the life to come. All that He is living
for is wrapped up in the things of this world. No thought of
death, no thought of the final judgment, no thought of His eternal
destiny. He assumes that His present status
will somehow take care of Him in the world to come. Note second,
the poor man in verse 20, and a poor man named Lazarus. Talk about a contrast. Here is
a poor man, a man so poor that he has absolutely nothing. He
is reduced to a life as a beggar. He has absolutely nothing in
his pockets, nothing in his hands, nothing hidden away anywhere. The only thing that he has is
whatever someone else will deposit into an open hand. His name is
Lazarus, which means God has helped me, or God has provided
help. And from His name, we can assume
as well as the rest of what we know about Him here, that that
he is dependent upon grace. He is dependent upon God to meet
his needs. He knows that he cannot meet
his own needs. Only God can meet his needs and
he knows it and he looks to God and his trust is in God. It says
he was laid at his gate, referring to the gate of the rich man.
He was laid at his gate. This man did what he could and
all he could do was beg. He had to be carried wherever
he went because he was unable to walk. He was laid at the gate
of the rich man and his life was that of begging and hoping
and pleading and praying that something would be dropped into
his hand. He also had sores. a skin disease. His body was wasting away. He
certainly was not living for the things in this world. He
had nothing in this world. The only hope that he has is
in another world, in a world to come, a world on the other
side of death. In verse 21, longing to be fed
with the crumbs, longing. Hunger was his constant companion. He would take anything, scraps,
crumbs, leftovers, rubbish, remains. A hungry man is a humble man. A hungry, humble man will take
anything on any terms. He sets no terms. He will receive
from anyone or anything. And he ultimately is humble before
God. God is opposed to the proud but
He gives grace to the humble. He was longing to be fed with
the crumbs that were falling from the rich man's table. Besides,
even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. The dogs were
scavenous animals, they just roamed the streets of ancient
cities and went from trash can to trash can and just looked
for anything to eat out of the trash. The dogs are at the bottom
of the food order. And even they were coming up
and licking his wounds. He is in such a pitiful position
that the only one giving him any attention are the dogs. This man had absolutely nothing
in this world, but he was fabulously rich in faith. He was rich toward
God. poor in spirit, rich in grace. He had nothing here, no wealth,
no health, no possessions, no property, no money, no food,
all he had was God. That's a great place to be because
when you have God, you have everything. And if you don't have God, you
don't have anything. What a contrast we are given
here between this rich man and this poor man. One was on the
top of life, the other was on the very bottom. One was living
for this world, the other was living without anything in this
world and living for the world to come. One was looking to himself,
the other was looking to God. Is this not how everyone in this
world is? Everyone in this building is
in one of these two categories. And in everyone to whom we minister
and everyone to whom we preach, regardless of what their economic
status is, regardless of their place in society, everyone to
whom we preach is either rich in faith towards God, or they
are in abject poverty towards God. Two men before death. As we minister the Word of God,
we must understand that they are the saved and the lost. They
are the saints and the aints. They are the wheat and the tares.
There's the good fish and the bad fish. They are the true professors
and the false professors of faith in Christ. Second, I want you
to note two men at death, as different as were their lives,
so their deaths were equally different. Look at verse 22,
Now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to
Abraham's bosom and the rich man also died and was buried. Before we see the differences
in their deaths, please note first the similarity. The similarity
is glaring. Both died. The government has
come up with a new statistic. One out of every one person dies. And that's what we see here.
Death is no respecter of person. Unless the Lord tarries, you
will die and I will die. Some die rich, some die poor.
Some die old, some die young. Some die sick, some die healthy.
Some die married, some die single. But all die. This is the only
similarity that we see between these two men. The only common
denominator is death. And the Bible says in Hebrews
9 verse 27, it's appointed unto man once to die. And after this,
the judgment. Every one of us has two unbreakable
appointments, death and judgment. Note the poor man who died first
in verse 22. Note his death. Now the poor
man died. There's no mention of a burial.
As there is for the rich man who has a burial, the poor man
just simply dies. He's too poor for a burial, too
poor for a funeral. And who would come anyway? Only
the dogs. He just died without the attention
of man. And although he died without
the attention of this world. God noticed, God took notice,
and God dispatched the angels from heaven and from the throne
of grace. They were commissioned to come wing their flight down
into this planet and to come for Him. And we read in verse
22, and He was carried away by the angels. God sent His servants
for Him to bring Him home, to bring Him home out of this world
that was not His home, to His true home, the new Jerusalem
in heaven. But note the rich man who died.
Verse 22, and the rich man also died and was buried. At his death, he was buried,
meaning he had a funeral. And no doubt it was commensurate
with his lavish lifestyle that was elaborate and ornate. Surely
it was attended by all of his friends and his many family members. Surely his five brothers who
are mentioned in verse 28, they were all there as well. When
the rich man dies, it's amazing how people come out of the woodworks
and want to be identified with the rich man when he dies. But
please note, there is no mention of any angels attending him in
his death. Now the rich man died noticed
by this world, but he was unnoticed by heaven. He was honored by
this world, but he was abandoned by heaven. Can you not hear the
eulogy? Oh, he was loved by all of us. What a successful businessman
he was. What a respected community leader
he was. What a charitable man he was. What a religious man he was. Death is an approaching reality
for all to whom we preach. And for every sermon we proclaim,
it may be the last gospel message that they will ever hear before
they put one step into eternity. And we must help people prepare
for what lies on the other side and for the death that is surely
to come. John and Charles Wesley were
founders of the Methodist movement in the eighteenth century. And
a physician who cared for many of the followers of Christ who
were a part of this early Methodist movement noticed that when these
believers died, they died differently than the unbelievers. that the
believers died triumphantly. They died in peace. They died
without panic. They died without a frantic sense
of clinging to this world. They died looking to the face
of God and ready to be received into heaven. And this physician
said to Charles Wesley, most people die for fear of dying,
but I have never met with people such as yours They are none of
them afraid of death. They are calm. They are patient.
They are resigned to the last, to which John Wesley then said,
our people die very well. It's the mark of a Christian,
is it not? We die very well. Many of us have been over to
see the exhibit, Truth Endures, and we've seen the Wycliffe Bible,
we've seen the Rogers Bible, and we know of the martyrdom,
the price that they paid to bring the Word of God into the English
language, and how they went to the martyr's stake singing the
hymns and triumphant in their faith. How can a man live like
this? How can a man die like this? And the answer is because we're
not living for this world, we're living for God and the world
to come, that our Savior has removed the sting from death.
And we realize that death is but the eye of the needle. It
is the passage into the very presence of God. We graduate
to glory. Two men at death, one unnoticed
by the world. but noticed by heaven, the other
noticed by this world, but abandoned by God." Now I want you to note
third, two men after death, beginning in verse 22 yet again, because
as different were their lives and as different were their deaths,
their eternal destinies were even a greater contrast, a stark
contrast, as different as the east is from the west. Notice
the death of the poor man in verse 22. The poor man went to
Abraham's bosom. Abraham's bosom is a figure of
speech for heaven. Heaven is so glorious and so
vast that no one image of heaven is sufficient to communicate
The whole, sometimes heaven is represented as paradise, as a
beautiful garden. Sometimes it's represented as
a celestial city. Here it is represented as Abraham's
bosom, which really pictures a banquet feast. and close fellowship
and close relationships, so close to one another in laughter and
joy and pleasures and happiness that one man could just lean
his head back on the bosom of the one next to him, like John
did with Jesus in the upper room and just laid his head on the
bosom of the Lord Jesus Christ. What a glorious picture this
is of our eternal home in heaven with the saints and just cradling
our head on the bosom of our loved ones and the intimacy and
the joy and the happiness of our fellowship and the merriment
in heaven like a banquet feast, just joy unspeakable and full
of glory. And Jesus said in Matthew 8 verse
11, many will come from the east and the west and recline at the
table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of God.
of heaven." This is where this poor man went. He was at the
bottom of the heap in this life. He couldn't be any lower in this
world. And when he goes to the next
world, he goes to the very top, to the father of the faithful,
to Abraham, and he lays his bosom or his head on Abraham's bosom.
Oh, what awaits us in glory! What awaits us? Someone as well
said, if we only knew what awaited us, we wouldn't look both ways
when we crossed the street. We just desire to depart and
be with the Lord. And Paul said, for me to live
is Christ, but to die is what? Cain. It's so much better to
be with the Lord out of this world of sorrow and sin, and
to be in that place where there is no more sin. no more sorrow
and He will wipe away every tear from our eye and walk streets
of gold and drink from the river of life and eat from the tree
of life and to behold our Savior and to look upon Him in His full
glory as we looked at two nights ago. Will we know one another
in heaven? Spurgeon said, we knew one another
here, will we be bigger fools there? Here's the deal, we'll finally
really know one another in heaven. I mean, we misunderstand one
another now. We assume the worst at often
times. But there we will truly know
one another in the fellowship, in the relationships. It will
be glorious. But notice the rich man. It's
not so glorious. In verse 23, Jesus as He tells
this parable, it's as though He pulls the lid off of hell
and the smoke begins to ascend upward out of the fiery pit below. And we're allowed to hear something
of the shrieks and the groans of the tormented souls and the
damned in hell. I want to tell you several things
about this place where the rich man went. His money could not
buy him a pass to heaven. His place in this world would
not reach high enough that he could lay hold of heaven and
pull himself up by his own works of self-righteousness. No, he
falls short of the glory of God. First of all, hell is a real
place. Notice verse 23, in Hades, not
in an imaginary place, not in a figment of someone's imagination. He's in Hades. He's in a real
place. He went straight from His death
and descended to the place of the wicked prior to the final
judgment. Hell is not here on earth. Hell
is a real place prepared for the devil and his fallen angels.
Hell is a real place on God's map, just as real as Los Angeles,
just as real as New York or Chicago. This place to where he went could
not be any more real. In the Old Testament, Hades referred
to the unseen world of the dead, whether saved or lost, but here
it has a specific meaning. Referring to the abode of the
unsaved dead, just as it does in Matthew 11, 23 and Luke 10
verse 15. Here, Hades is a real place called
hell, that place that is the bottomless pit. It is a lake
of fire. It is a land of darkness. Hell is a real place. It could
not be any more real. Second, it's an immediate place.
We read at the end of verse 22, and the rich man also died and
was buried, beginning in the next verse, in Hades. He died, he was buried, in Hades
he lifted up his eyes. This all happened so quickly,
so rapidly. The three verbs here, he died,
he was buried, he was in Hades. Boom, boom, boom. Five seconds
after he died, he opened his eyes in hell. He was immediately
in torment. There was no delay, there was
no holding pattern, there was no halfway house, there was no
purgatory. He was instantly, immediately
in hell before his family even knew he was dead. There was no
time to repent. There was no time to turn to
God. There was no time to say, God, I'm sorry. No time to say,
God, I did not mean to go to hell. Just immediately, He died
and He's in hell. Third, it's a conscious place...a
conscious place. Look at the beginning of verse
23, in Hades, He lifted up His eyes. He could not have been
any more awake. He was not in a soul sleep. He
was not in limbo. He was not unconscious. He was
certainly not annihilated. He's never been more alive. He
is alive and awake and alert to every experience. He's able
to see, it says He lifted up His eyes. He's able to feel.
He is being in torment. In fact, all of His senses now
are intensified just as our resurrected, glorified body in heaven will
be greatly intensified for our new environment in heaven to
be able to look upon the Lord Jesus Christ. We will have a
body that will be supernaturally prepared for our home. above
so He will have a body that will be adapted for hell so that He
will be in the flames but never consumed. He will be in the fire
but never perish. And everything that He feels,
He will feel a hundred times more, ten thousand times more. He is in a conscious place. Fourth,
he's in a separated place. At the end of verse 23, we read,
he saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. The emphasis here
is on these two words, far away. He is very separated from all
of the redeemed. The damned in hell are very far
away from the saints in glory. In fact, verse 26 says, a great
chasm separates them, an impassable gulf, an uncrossable abyss. Everyone does not go to the same
place. There is a great separation after death. Hell is far away. from all joy and all happiness
and all love. This rich man is now separated
from God's blessings. He's not removed from God because
God is everywhere present and God is even in hell inflicting
the wrath upon this man. But he is separated from grace
and separated from favor and separated from mercy. There is
not one drop of grace or mercy where this man is. far removed
from the smile of God, far removed from the blessings of Christ.
He is cut off. He is as distant as anyone can
be from Abraham and from Lazarus and from all of the redeemed
from all of the ages. Fifth, it's an agonizing place. Verse 24 now begins to unfold
for us something of the torment of the damned in hell. In verse 24, and he cried out
and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus
so that he may dip the tip of his finger. and water and cool
off my tongue." Now listen to this, for I am in agony in this
flame. He will be in agony throughout
all of the ages to come. Hell is a place of eternal fire
in this flame. Jesus said in the gospels, it
is a place of unquenchable fire. Jesus spoke of the fiery hell. Jesus said that those who are
in hell will be burned with fire. Jesus spoke of the furnace of
fire. Think of the intensity of fire
inside of a furnace where everything is turned in. There's no diffusion
of the flames and of the heat. Instead, it's only intensified
and multiplied within the furnace, and all of hell will be the furnace
of flame. And Jesus spoke of the eternal
fire. Those who speak of annihilation
are delusional. Jesus spoke of the eternal fire. He spoke of where the worm never
dies, where they are salted with fire, just fire upon fire upon
fire. And in the book of Revelation,
we read that Those in hell are tormented with fire and brimstone. It's referred to as the lake
of fire, people just drowning in fire but never able to drown. They are tormented with fire
and brimstone, the lake of fire which burns with brimstone, just
fire that is on fire. Jesus spoke of the lake of fire
and brimstone, they will be tormented day and night forever and ever. the lake that burns with fire
and brimstone. As a result, hell is a place,
Jesus said, of the weeping and the gnashing of teeth. That all
of the weeping down through all of the ages is nothing compared
to the weeping in this bottomless pit, this fiery lake called hell. This hell fire will never go
out, not in six years, not in 60 years, not in 6,000 years,
not in 6 million years, not in 6 billion years, not in 6 trillion
years. It is eternal fire. Someone may
well say, don't you think this could be simply symbolic fire? Any symbol never fully represents
the reality of what it pictures. The picture of the sunset never
does justice to the full beauty of the sunset. The picture of
my wife never fully conveys the full beauty of my wife. Every
symbol falls far short of the reality that it represents. So
what if hell is...hellfire is only symbolic then? Whatever
hell is is far worse than whatever the symbol of fire is. But hellfire
is real and it is to be taken as such. It is a furnace of raging
fire, a towering inferno of blazing fire, an incinerator of consuming
fire. Hell is a real place with real
fire inflicting real agony. Sixth, in verse 25, it's a haunting
place. It is a place of haunting memories
that will terrify every soul forever that ever descends down
into the pit below. Verse 25, that Abraham said,
child...what's the next word? Throughout all of the ages to
come in hell, the capacity to remember. Child, remember that
during your life you received your good things. And likewise,
Lazarus did bad things, but now he is being comforted here and
you are in agony. In hell, damned souls will be
able to remember forever as they look back upon their entire life.
They will remember every sin. They will remember the consequences
of every sin, the heaped guilt of every sin. They will remember
every gospel presentation, every opportunity that they had to
receive the Lord Jesus Christ. Their conscience will haunt them.
Their conscience will accuse them. Their conscience will heap
guilt upon them forever. Hell is a haunting place where
if they could screw their head off of their neck and separate
it from themselves so that they would be relieved from this remembrance,
but they never will. Seventh, hell is an inescapable
place. In verse 26, We see how confining
hell is, that once you enter into hell, you will never escape
hell. Verse 26, and besides all this,
between us and you there is a great chasm, a megachasm, fixed. It's fixed forever by God, that
chasm, this uncrossable chasm is forever fixed and never to
be removed so that those who wish to come over from here in
heaven to you in hell will not be able. Why would anyone want
to leave heaven and go to hell? I'll tell you why, to rescue
loved ones. They will not be able to come
to those who are in hell and pull them out of the fire. And
neither will those who are in the fire be able to cross over
and have any relief whatsoever. A person may laugh their way
into hell, but they won't laugh their way out. The English poet
John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost, this sign over the gate
of hell should read, abandon all hope. There is no second
chance. There is no reincarnation. There
is no purgatory. Proverbs 10, 28 says, the expectation
of the wicked perishes. Proverbs 11 verse 7, when a wicked
man dies, his expectation will perish. Hell is an inescapable
place. Think of the claustrophobic panic
in hell, like a man being held under the water and he can't
come up for air and the panic on the inside for air. So it is for those in hell, no
escape. Finally, it's a desperate place. It's populated by desperate people. This rich man in hell now suddenly
becomes burdened for others regarding their eternal destinies. This
rich man in hell now makes a concluding plea, and he says in verse 27,
he, the rich man, said, then I beg you. He urges, he pleads,
he begs, I beg you. that you send someone to him,
to Lazarus, to my father's house, for I have five brothers, in
order that he may warn them so that they will not also come
to this place of torment, anything but coming to this place. Oh,
go warn my loved ones, warn my closest of kin." But Abraham
said, I have Moses and the prophets, They have the Word of God. They
have the Bible. They have the Scripture. Let them hear them."
And he said, "'No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from
the dead, they will repent.'" Oh, if they could just see a
miracle, if they could just see a sign, if they could just see
something supernatural, I know that will get through to my brothers.
"'And then they will be warned not to come to this place.'"
But in verse 31, he said to them, "'If they do not listen to Moses
and the prophets, Neither will they be persuaded if someone
rises from the dead. What a claim for the sufficiency
of the Word of God and the cause of evangelism and the power of
God to save even the chief of sinners if they will but turn
to the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. This man never intended to go
to hell. He never made it his life goal to go to hell. He never
meant to go to hell, He never wanted to go to hell, but He
went to hell nevertheless, whether He intended to or not. And we live surrounded by people
who are on the broad path headed for destruction, and we stand
with an open Bible week after week, and we minister the Word
of God to people, and I fear at times as if there is no hell,
as if there is no final judgment, as if there is no giving an account
to God on the last day. Let us preach as to persuade
lost sinners to escape the flames of hell. Let us have the heart
of Spurgeon who said, if sinners will be damned, at least let
them leap to hell over our bodies. And if they perish, let them
perish with our arms around their knees, imploring them to stay. If hell must be filled, at least
let it be filled in the teeth of our exertions and let not
one of them go unwarned and unprayed for." What does this text require
of us as preachers, as servants of the Lord Jesus Christ, even
as businessmen here who serve as lay elders or as deacons?
What does this require of us? Number one, we must tell people
of heaven and hell. Jesus had more to say about both
heaven and hell than anyone else in the Bible. We must speak often
of these two eternal realities. We must set this contrast before
people. We must describe the eternal
destinies with vivid details. We must tell them of the glories
of heaven and the groans of hell. Second, we must point people
to Jesus Christ. Jesus said, or the angel said,
you shall name His name Jesus, for He will save His people from
their sins. Save from what? Save from this. Save from the wrath of God. Peter said, there is salvation
in no other name. For there is no other name under
heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. Paul said there
is one God and one mediator between God and man, the man Christ Jesus. Jesus said, I am the way and
the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father but
through Me. We must explain to them what
repentance means and what saving faith requires. And then third,
we must urge people to believe upon Christ. urge them to believe
upon Christ. We're not just presenting the
gospel, we must persuade with the gospel. Second Corinthians
520, Paul writes, we are ambassadors for Christ. You know what an
ambassador is? An ambassador is one who is dispatched
by a king and is sent from his royal chamber with his message
to go to a faraway land and he stands in representation of his
king who has sent him. Paul says, we are ambassadors
for Christ. as though we had been dispatched
from the very throne of heaven above with the royal message
of the saving gospel of Jesus Christ. And then he says, we
are ambassadors for Christ as though God were making an appeal. Did you hear that? We are to
make an appeal. We are to call for the verdict.
I had to ask my wife, will you marry me? I couldn't just say,
you're pretty, you're wonderful. I had to ask. I had to call for
her decision. And at times I feel that we are
so scared of decisional regeneration that all we do is just lecture
on the gospel while people are going to hell. And we never beg,
and we never plead, and I think we're too proud to beg. We must
warn, we must entreat, we must invite, we must summon, we must
exhort, we must call, we must lift our voices. Listen, we're
Calvinists, but we're not hyper-Calvinists. Hyper-Calvinists believe in the
five points, but they never call sinners to faith in Christ. And
fourth, we must urge them to believe upon Christ now, today,
this moment. Tomorrow is the devil's day.
Today is God's day. We must call upon people to believe
and be saved this very moment. Second Corinthians 6 verse 2
says, behold, now is the accepted time. Behold, today is the day
of salvation. Proverbs says, do not boast about
tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. God
said to the man who wanted to build bigger barns and bigger
barns, He said, you fool, this very night your soul is required
of you. at the height of the Great Awakening
in 1741, the very year in which Jonathan Edwards preached Sinners
in the Hands of an Angry God. As he preached that towering
sermon on July 8, 1741, it was the high-water mark of the Great
Awakening. It sent ripple effects through
the colonies. And the discussion was, is the
great awakening of God or is it of the flesh? Is it of God
or is it of the devil? And there was the old lights
and the new lights and it split the church right down the middle.
And the old lights said, no, no, this is not of God. There's so much emotionalism.
And the new lights said, no, this is of God. September of
that year, Yale University was ready to commence The New Year
and the Board of Trustees met on September the 9th, 1741, and
they were split down the middle as to whether the Great Awakening
was of God or not. And by the providence of God,
on the next day, Jonathan Edwards was appointed to preach the commencement
sermon to the Yale body faculty, to the Yale body Board of Trustees,
and to the Yale body student body. And as Jonathan Edwards
stepped forward, he preached from 1 John 4 verses 1 through
6, And he would conclude the sermon and give the five distinguishing
marks of a true work of God. But before he came to that, he
gave the nine distinguishing marks that do not in and of themselves
disqualify this as a true work of God and as he worked down
one through nine, he intentionally saved for number nine to answer
this question, the preachers are raising their voice. The preachers are frightening
people into a psychological commitment. And Jonathan Edwards responded
and said, if you can preach on hell, and the final judgment
and the damnation to come without lifting your voice and without
urging and without pleading, you, sir, do not even believe
in hell. But if you truly believe in hell,
Edward said, you will be a man possessed by the Holy Spirit
and you will proclaim the gospels of Christ and you will warn sinners
of such a perishing final damnation that awaits them. Men, we must preach with eternity
before us. We must preach with heaven and
hell awaiting those to whom we minister the Word of God. And
as we preach the Word of God, we must have our toes on the
very brink of eternity. For our voice may be the last
voice that many will ever hear who are perishing. May they leap
over our bodies into hell if they are to go to hell. And may
our arms be around their ankles and knees, as Spurgeon said,
pleading with them to be saved. This must be recovered in evangelical
preaching in this hour. Let us pray. Father, open our
eyes, pull back the veil, allow us to see through the lens of
Scripture the realities of heaven above, of Abraham's bosom, of
the glories of the presence of Christ, of a land that is fairer
than day, with all the saints of all the ages, and the Lamb
upon His throne, and that beatific vision of beholding the face
of the Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, we pray that You
would give us insight into the bowels of hell below. Let us
hear the shrieks and the cries of damned souls pleading for
just one drop of water to touch the tip of their tongue. Stir
our hearts to be more than just theologically and biblically
committed to these doctrines, but set our hearts on fire by
these truths. And may we be a body of men who
will preach the Word of God. as though at the end of the service
we shall all step out of this life into the life to come. Father,
seal this to our hearts. Only Your Spirit can drive this
deep into our souls. May we own this, may we possess
this, may we be marked by this. Father, help us to have ministries
that will have its impact upon eternity. In Jesus' name we pray,
amen.