to the sixteenth chapter of the
book of Luke. We're going to talk about a subject
that is very familiar with you. You've read it many times and
heard this portion of scripture used as a basis for I've read
the sermons and heard the exposition of it all, and it's a familiar
part of the Word of God. Now, whether it's a parable or
not, I don't know. The Lord doesn't say it's a parable,
but I've read some fellows that they seem to think that it was
a parable. But be that as it may, it's in the Word of God, and
it's the truth. There are lessons to be learned from it. And we
begin reading there at verse 19, verse 19 through verse
31. Let me read it. You can read
along with me. There is a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and
fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of swords. Which was laid at his gate indicates
that he had to have some help. The poor helpless beggar had
some sort of infirmity that didn't or that caused him to be unable
to get around on his own, and someone
had to take care of him. So they laid him at the rich man's
gate, and he is full of sores, and desiring to be fed with crumbs
which fell from the rich man's table, that which fell off of the knife
and fell off of the plate, broken pieces of bread, fragments of
meat, and he desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from
the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. Of course, this is, in a spiritual
sense, a picture of every believing sinner This
is the way we are beggars, full of sores, destitute, unable to
fend or help ourselves in the matter of justification before
God. Anyhow, it says that it came
to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels
into Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and
was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes,
the rich man. Being in torment, seeing Abraham afar off, Abraham
the father of the faithful, and Lazarus in Abraham's bosom,
and he cried. He prayed, and he said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am
tormented in this flame. And Abraham said, Son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things. Providence of
God smiled upon him in his lifetime, and he reminded him of it. He
said, Do you remember? Do you remember what a good life
you had? And he says, And likewise, Lazarus,
this beggar that's in my bosom, evil things. But now he's comforted,
and you're tormented. And besides all this, in other
words, if that's not enough, besides all this, between us
and you, there's a great gulf fixed. There's a big hollow there. There's a big canyon there. No
bridge can be made to cross this gulf. A great gulf fixed so that
they which would pass from thence to you cannot. Neither can they
pass to us that would come from thence. Ain't no way that we
can get over there. There's no way that you can get
over here. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that thou would send him to my father's house. He said, for I have five brothers. That he may testify unto them.
He may talk to them. lest they come also into this
place of torment. Abraham said unto him, They have
Moses, and they have the prophets. Let them hear that. They got
the word of God, let them hear the word. The word of God is
not limited, it's not bound. They got that, let them hear
the word of God. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham,
if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. They'll
change their mind. And he said unto them, If they
hear not Moses, they don't hear the word of God and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. Well, this rich man, had to wake
up in eternity before he could tell the dream of his wasted
life. A wasted life. The words that I've read to you
here about the rich man and a certain beggar are heavy laden with solemn
and weighty meaning. As I said, the Lord did not call
this a parable, but there are many lessons to learn from this
portion of scripture that I have read to you. Let's learn just
a little bit about this certain man. In that 19th verse it says
there was a certain rich man, a certain man, that is, a man
of note, a famous man. a man of importance. He was probably
a Pharisee. Our Lord had been talking to
the Pharisees up there in one of the previous verses. He
was talking to the Pharisees. And so this, in all probability,
was a Pharisee, a famous man, a man of importance. He is one
who desired the uppermost seats in the synagogue. The chief seats
in the synagogue, that's where the Pharisee wanted to sit. He
wanted the best seat in the house. He was a fellow that loved to
be greeted in the marketplaces. He was the fellow that wore his
finery out in the marketplace, and if it rubbed a poor beggar
or a Gentile sinner, He became contaminated and immediately
returned to his home and changed his garments. He is a fellow
who had amassed great riches. He is a wealthy man, most of
the Pharisees were. And he is a fellow that the Bible
says devoured with his houses. He was a well-dressed fellow. He dressed in fine linen and
silk. And he fared sumptuously every
day. He lived in the land of milk and honey. And the majority
of those Jews were rich people. They were rich people. They're
still rich people for the most part. At that particular time
they were wealthy people. There was plenty of everything
in the land of milk and honey. And the majority of the Jews
fared sumptuously every day and particularly these Pharisees
and the priests and the prophets. Of course, there were no prophets
then. But the thing that was extremely
wrong with these people that is typified in certain rich men
is that they had no sense of sin. They had no sense of sin
whatsoever. There was not only a certain
rich man, but there was a certain beggar, too. And this beggar
was despised and rejected by the majority of the Jews at that
time. They were despised by the Jews,
and the Jews would not even let them come into their temple for
fear of contamination. Well, this fellow was a poor
man, we know that. He is a poor man. He was like unto the Lord Jesus
Christ. He was a poor man. Our Lord was
a poor man. He was born of poor parents. Though he was poor, he who was rich became poor. But when he became poor, He did
not cease to be who he really was, God manifest in the flesh,
but he was a poor man. Now, although he assumed human
nature, our nature, without sin, he did not cease to be God. Nor
did he lose, as a man, his robes of excellence and glory and so
forth as deity. He didn't lose that. Yet these
divine perfections of the Lord Jesus Christ were seemingly hid
because of his poverty and the meanness of the society of that
day. He had no liberal education,
our Lord, He didn't go to the school of the rabbis. He didn't
go to high school or he didn't go to college. He didn't go to
the seminary. He had no formal liberal education. He was a poor man. And he was
looked down upon because he was a poor man. He was like this
beggar. The religionists of that day
looked down upon this beggar. That's the way the world looked
down upon the Lord Jesus Christ. I said he was born of poor parents,
had no liberal education. Scriptures indicate that he had
to learn a trade. Foster father Joseph was a carpenter. He was a carpenter. He didn't own a foot of ground
to call his own. When he died, he didn't have
a penny to leave his mother. The only thing he could say was
to one of the disciples, he said, take care of her. So he is a
poor man. Well, let's learn some things
about these two men, a certain rich man and a certain beggar. Well, I can tell you this, that
a man in this life, and I've been around some funerals here
lately, and I was impressed with these verses of Scripture here
as they relate to what I observe in this twentieth century. Now, man may have a beautiful
appearance in the sight of man and yet be utterly corrupt in
the sight of God. Man may have in this life the
finest credential and be accredited by many as to being a fine fellow. But yet, at the same time, he
might be corrupt in the sight of God. This fellow here, this
certain rich man, he had the fine linen and silk of his own
righteousness, yet he was not beautiful. in the eyes of God. He died and went to hell. He
appeared outwardly in this world among his fellow men to be a
fellow of good standing, a man of high morals, a man of good
character, and probably a man of a great reputation, a man
that they admired. exalted and spoke well of. Looked that way, society put
up with him. He was very religious. He went
to the temple and prayed so many times every day. But the purple
and fine linen of this man's righteousness will never be beautiful
in the eyes of God. He's like those that the Bible
speaks of in the book of Revelation. They say that they have no need
of anything. We have no need of anything.
We're all right. We have no need. But the writer
of the book of the Revelation, he says that you say you don't
have any need of anything, but in reality, You are wretched
and naked and blind in God's sight. And that's the way these
fellows are. They have everything in this
life. They have the acknowledgment
of their peers. They have the friendship of this
world and the providence of God smiles upon them. They dress
well, they talk well, they look well, but in the eyes of God,
they have nothing. They have nothing. Now, recently I had a funeral
and I told the folks, I said, I've known the man that you've
asked me to eulogize here. I've known him a number of years.
Not well, not intimately, no one of him. But I said, I can't say anything
about his relationship with God because I don't know. But I do
know this, that I have had a lot of services like this. I've preached
a lot of funerals. And I've preached funerals for
babies. I preached a funeral one time for a baby who was only
one day old and died. And I preached for teenagers.
And I preached for funerals of middle-aged people. And I even
preached a funeral one time for a fellow who was 95 years old.
I preached hundreds of them. And I come to this conclusion,
based upon what I understand of the Bible, that a man dies
just like he lives. If he lives without God, he'll
die without God. And there's no need to say anything
indifferent. If a man lives without God in
this life, he'll die without God. I don't care how much those
that love him mourns and weeps and groans and gropes to grab
some string to hold on to. It won't change anything, regardless
of how a man appears in this life to other men. If he knows
not God and doesn't live for God, he'll not find God then,
and he won't come to know God then. He'll die just like he
lives. That's terrible, isn't it? And
that's sad. That's sad. I can think offhand
of hundreds of people that I'm acquainted with and have known
and still know that have lived all their life without God and
yet entertained some hope of being with God in eternity because
someone's come along and told them, whether it's their parents,
or whether some preacher or some religious group has told them,
do the best you can. Do the best you can. Do unto
others as others would do unto you. Follow that rule and that
guide. Be morally correct and straight
and all that and honest and upright and all those things. And it'll
be all right, but it won't be all right. A man can be moral,
very moral, and morally better than some of us here, and yet
not know God and never live for God or serve God. Isn't that
right? That's right. And boy, there's
people that live on this side of you and this side of you and
over here and behind you, or people like I'm talking about
here this morning, that are good neighbors and fine people. But
they don't know God. And they live in this life without
God, and when they die, they'll die without God. And that's the truth. So help
me, God. Listen, listen to me. A man may
have a wonderful, beautiful appearance in the sight of men, in the sight
of men, yet in the eyes of God Almighty, They'll be utterly
corrupt, as this fellow was. In the eyes of men he looked
good. He fared sumptuously every day,
dressed in purple and fine linen and silk. Never knew what it
was to want for anything. But when he died, when he died,
he wasn't beautiful in the eyes I'm telling you this morning,
I'm telling you the honest, God's truth, that the only way a man
can be beautiful in the eyes of God is to be baptized in the
blood of God's dear Son and clothed in the divine, perfect righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the only way. prior to this 16th chapter was
talking about the narrow way and the straight way. He said
there's two ways here. There's a narrow way, real narrow,
and there's a broad way. He said the narrow way leads
to life eternal, and he said, few be that find that narrow
way. Broad's the way that leads to
destruction, and many go therein, on that way, that broad way.
The narrow way is the way I just described to you, that the only
way that a man can come to God and live for God and serve God
in this life is to be baptized in His blood, to plunge beneath
the fountain filled with Emmanuel's blood and be clothed with the
righteousness of the Lord. That's the narrow way. That's
the narrow way. He's not talking here about,
don't watch the television, don't cuss, don't do this, and all
those things have their place. But the narrow way is the gospel
way. It's excluding every other way. It's excluding every form and
type and shred of righteousness and works that a man can hold
on to. And he's shut up. to the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ and that alone must be the solid
basis on which he stands upon. That's the narrow way. And there's
very few people that know what I'm talking about. Very few. Out of six billion people in
the world, how many? How many is trusted? How many
sees Jesus Christ as the way and the truth and the life? in
all of his offices as prophet and priest and king, as saviour,
a just God and saviour, as the surety of the covenant, as the
substitute, the shepherd of the sheep, laying his life down,
paying what they owe, shut up to his righteousness. How many
people believe that? How many people see that? How
many people are trusting in the Christ of the gospel? Very few. Very few, when it comes down
to it, they all trust in something else, holding on to a little
something, a little bit of something. The little bit of something that
a man holds on to will damn him throughout eternity. Even if
it's only the weight of a feather, it'll damn him. It's Christ alone,
or it's nothing. It's all Christ, or it's nothing. See, that's the narrow way, Jack.
That's what he's talking about. I'm telling you, there are some
that are beautiful in the sight of men, but are corrupt in the
eyes of God. Listen, a man may be poor and
loathsome in the eyes of his neighbor, and yet be beautiful
in the sight of God. Isn't that right? Look at that
21st verse. It says, and a certain beggar
named Lass laid at his gate full of sores, desiring to be fed
with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover,
the dogs came and licked his sores. Boy, he's despised by
those people. Despised by them. Boy, if you
cling to what I'm talking about this morning here and give forth
a witness as to what you're clinging to, they'll despise you. They'll
despise you, they'll reduce you to nothing, and consider you
as a dog. Listen. It says, but it came
to pass, this beggar that was despised by everybody else, it
came to pass that the beggar died. And he was carried by the
angels into Abraham's bosom. He is carried by the angels.
The angels came down and got that fellow. and carried him
to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and
buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes." See what I'm saying? A man may be poor. He may not
have anything in this life. He may not have anything. Oh, we've got... God smiled upon us. We all have
something. Everybody's got a... a few dollars
in his pocket. Everybody's got a little bit
of Social Security coming. Everybody's got something. But a man doesn't have anything
in the sight of God in his natural state. He's a beggar. He's diseased
and he's full of sores and there's nothing worthwhile about him.
You ever come to that state? You ever come to the place that
you You feel your need. You have a need. Until you feel
your need, you never come to Christ. You've got to feel your
need, know your need, that you're full of sores and your righteousness
is as filthy rags and you haven't got anything that you can give
to God that everything you touch defiles. And you shut up to Jesus
Christ. Well, a man may be poor and loathsome,
in the eyes of his neighbors, but yet he might be beautiful
in the sight of God. This poor beggar here might have
been the object of disgust to many, but the Lord looked not
upon his outward appearance. He may stink in the eyes of men
or in the nostrils of men, But in the eyes of God, he is a precious
jewel, and he was a sweet fragrance, a perfume when he died. Oh, listen, a man may have a
burial like a dog and yet be attended by the angels of God.
As far as I know, this fellow didn't even have a burial. It
seemed like it happened so quick. But if a man does have a burial
like a dog, and he be right with God, and
he be right with God, he be in the narrow way, yet his funeral
will be attended by angels. I preached a funeral one time
a few years back. Folks called me and wanted to
know if I couldn't find anybody to hold a man's funeral. He said
he was kind of an outcast, didn't have no particular job, and they
didn't know how he made his living. They said he had a heart attack,
and we haven't got anybody to say some words over him at the
funeral home, and would you be kind enough to do it? And I said,
yeah, I'll say some words. And I did. And that poor fellow
didn't have anything, and nobody attended the service. But me
and the policeman and a couple other fellas, that's all was
there. He had a funeral like a dog. He didn't know anybody
and he was so despised and disgusted, disgusting and downtrodden that
he couldn't find enough to carry him. Wasn't even enough people
to come around and carry him. And I was one of the four. I
was the preacher and I was the pallbearer. I don't know if he had any hope
or not. I don't know anything about it. But I know this, that
a man may have a funeral like a dog and yet be attended by
angels. This fellow didn't have anything
but the angels of God came down and they bore him into Abraham's
bosom. I like that. I like that. Listen, no poor house inmate
ever got a more unceremonial funeral. Then this fellow, wasn't
nothing to it, but it was attended by angels. Someone said they rattle his
bones. They rattle his bones over the
stones. He's only a pauper whom nobody
owns, but God owned him. God owned this certain beggar.
No one else owned him, but God owned him. That makes a difference,
don't it? God owned him. And boy, when he died, God sent
them angels to get him, get him, and they carried him. They bore
him up and carried him, laid him gently into Abraham's bosom. And there he was, safe in the
arms of God. We can learn from this
that a man might have a pompous funeral, and at the same time
have a miserable soul. Listen, and I've seen this at
funerals. Funerals are what? What are they?
That's just a, well, it's a time when everybody gets together.
That's about all it amounts to. Relatives come in, And people
that knew the deceased 25, 30, 40 years ago or something heard
that he died and they didn't live too far off, they go to
the funeral home and they see his wife, they knew her and they
shake hands and stand around and tell jokes and sit around
there and eat sandwiches and drink coffee and that fell up
there. Don't mean a thing. Listen, they'd
be more real grief and mourning at a funeral. And there's lots
of that, ain't there? People cry, mourn, carry on. Sometimes they're uncontrollable,
can't handle it. But there'd be more of that,
there'd be more of it at most funerals if those that mourn
and weep and those that didn't mourn and weep could see behind
the veil, could see where they was at, those that they're weeping
for. those that are feeling sorry,
if they could see where they went. See, this certain rich
man had a pompous funeral, had everything, and he died and he
went to hell. And I'm sure that there was a
lot of folks mourning there, but they'd have mourned louder,
and there'd have been more mourning if they didn't know what really
happened to that fellow. He died and went to hell. preachers that I know of, eulogize
the past of the departed man, but never say anything about
the present. Where did it go? It says, the wail of the death
march in Saul is mockery compared to the wail of a lost soul in
eternity. We'll learn this, that a man
may have an abundance of this world's goods, yet in the world
to come be utterly destitute or be in entire want of the least mercy of God." This
fellow had everything, but there in verse 24, listen to what he said. He said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. This is the least of the mercies
that God could grant a man down there in hell. It's just a drop
of water. He said, Send Lazarus, that beggar,
send your pussy. That beggar never had nothing
in his life. Dip the tip of his finger in
water and cool my tongue. What am I saying? I say he may
have an abundance of this world's goods in this life. yet in the
life to come may be destitute of the least mercy." Can't even
get Lazarus to put his finger in a glass of water and drop
a, just a drop of it on my tongue to give me a little relief. Oh, listen, this worshipper,
this guy was a worshipper of money. And most people are. Money's the bottom line. How
much of it can I make? Spend and be spent for what?
For money! My God, work 18 hours a day if
we can. Work six days a week, work seven
days a week, work midnight hours and more. What for? Money! That's it. Why do you want money?
Buy more things. Isn't that right? That's what
everybody's after is money, money, money. That's the way this guy
was. There was a guy in the Bible
that said he made so much money, he said, let's tear down these
barns. I've got so much money and I've got so many crops coming
in that my barns won't fit. So let's tear them down and build
bigger barns to hold this crop. And God said, you fool, this
night your soul is required. Well, the worshipper of money
on earth has found out in eternity that a smiling providence is
no evidence that a soul is right with God. The providence of God
fell upon this fellow in this life. He's rich. God let him live for a long time
and amass a fortune. But just because he amassed that
fortune was no evidence that his soul was right with God because
the end of his wasted life proved that he had no evidence and he
wasn't right with God. A man that lives independent
of God in this life, he actually insults God. That's an insult
to God himself. We are made, we are made for
God. Our souls will never find no
rest or peace until we are right with God. And to live independently
of God as though he didn't exist, is to insult God to his face. And that's the truth. Listen,
this everlasting thirst for a drop of water is an awful and terrible
experience to a man who never knew what want meant, who only
lived for the gratification of his own desire. And what a torment
that was for that fellow. He had everything in this life,
but here, here he couldn't even get a drop of water. Listen,
learn this, that a man might neglect his opportunities in
this life, and in the life to come, he'll have good cause to
remember his foolishness. For the Bible says here in verse
25, it says, And Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy
lifetime receiveth thy good things. Remember that the smile of God's
providence fell on you in this lifetime and you didn't have
to bury too many of your dead men. You didn't see too much
sickness. You had everything that you wanted.
You fared sumptuously in this life. You ate well. You dressed
well. You had everything. Never wanted
for anything. You remember that. You remember
them opportunities. And I'm telling you here this
morning, a man that lives in this life and neglects, and neglects
God Almighty in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ is the biggest
fool that ever was. You talk about a fool. A man's
a fool, F-O-O-L, that neglects God Almighty in this life when
he has these opportunities. We have opportunities now. We
have opportunities to hear the Word of God. We can hear the
Word of God right here. We can hear it Wednesday. We
can hear it Sunday morning, Sunday night, and other times if we
desire. We can hear the Word of God.
A man neglects the opportunities. We're living in the day of grace.
It's the day of grace. One day it will not be the day
of grace. The door is open now. The door is open. But one of
these days the good man of the house is going to rise up and
shut the door, and no man can come in. And when he shuts the
door, that man that shuts the door, he has the key that locks
it and the key that opens it. See? See what I'm talking about? Ma'am, you ought to be serious
about this, ought to be concerned. Remember, remember, son, in your
lifetime these opportunities, remember that? Remember? Remember
this beggar here? He didn't have that evil thing
spelled upon him. He never had nothing. Had a barrel
of a dog. He had no doctor. The dog had
to go over and lick his sores and you had a personal physician. Do you remember that? That's
what he said. Remember? He said, now he's comforted. He's comforted. He took advantage
of his opportunities. They aren't tormented besides
all this. He said, you're in a place, there's
a great gulf there and it's fixed, impassable. So they which would
come from where you are cannot and neither can they. Go from
where I am to where you are. You can't pass. And he said,
I pray thee, Father, that you send them to my brethren. Send
old Lazarus. Send him to... I've got five
brothers. Five brothers. He is concerned. I wonder why
our Lord put that in there. Are we to be concerned about
other people? We ought to be concerned about
our children. We ought to be concerned about our mothers and
fathers anyhow. We ought to be concerned about them. If what
I'm saying is true, that a man's got to hear the gospel, faith
cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of God, he's got
to hear the gospel of truth in order to be saved. Then we ought
to try to get those that we love dearly, under the sound of this
gospel for adventure God might save us. Son, remember. Son, remember. Well, what I'm
saying is, if we're going to play this religion business,
if we're going to play, let's don't play with God. Play someplace
else. Ain't that right? Let's be serious
about this. Serious. It's important to me. I was talking to some people
the other day, and they were talking about going to church.
I said, well, why don't you go to church? Oh, they said, we
just kind of got out of the habit. We used to go with them. We just
got out of the habit. Well, I said, you ought to get back into the
habit. I said, this is a church regardless of what you think
of it. I said, it's a divine institution of God. I said, God
Himself started the church. I said, the Lord Jesus Christ
is the head of the church and He organized the church. And
I said, God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and God the Son,
the eternal Son of God, I said, they have preserved the church
and have preserved the church. For these 2,000 years they have
kept the church intact. That is, the true believers kept
it. And I said, you'll find one here
and there. And I said, you ought to go to
them. You ought to go to it. I said,
if God started it, you ought to get in it. That's the way
I look at it, don't you? If God started it. If he didn't
start it, it wouldn't make any difference, but he started it.
He said, upon this rock, I'll build my church. What rock was
that? Peter said, thou art the Christ,
the Son of the living God. That's who you are. And he said,
upon this rock, upon the confession, that confession that you made
as to who I am. He said, I'm going to build my
church on that. Huh? That's where it's at. Well, we ought to identify ourselves.
I mean, you say, well, I sure believe what you're preaching.
Well, do you know Him as your Lord?
Is He your Lord, your substitute, your righteousness? Huh? Is He all that, just Him and
Him alone? Is He all that? You ought to identify yourself.
You ought to raise your hand. Say, I stand with the gospel. I'm not going to be like that
rich man who died and go to hell. I want to be clothed in the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Though people don't see that
righteousness, the eye of God beholds it. I want to be clothed
in His righteousness. Well, let's stand. We'll be dismissed.