May God be pleased to bless us
together this morning as we turn to his word. Let us come to the
Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, and we'll read verse number 25. The
Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, and we'll read verse 25. But Abraham said, son, remember
that thou in thy lifetime Receivest thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented. This was a parable that the Lord
Jesus Christ spoke when he was on this earth. And it is the
only place in the Word of God where this is actually recorded. But it is a very powerful parable,
and it's a very important parable that we might be able to consider
together. It shows to us two things, really. It shows to us the natural life
that is spent on this earth, And that natural life leads in
two directions. And that natural life will then
end up in one of two directions, one of two places. And those two places are hell
or heaven. And the truth is that everybody
who is born into this earth will either go to heaven or go to
hell. And all of us here this morning
will one day be found either in heaven or in hell. And so the things of God quite
clearly are not things that you and I can just ignore. They're
not things that you and I can trifle with and think there are
no consequence. And we have the truth of this
word, and we see typically two people, two types. Those who
are saved and those who are lost. And we have a picture of those
two types. We have a picture of the one
who is set forth as a rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen
and faring sumptuously every day. Well, he had a pretty comfortable
life in this world. And I'm sure such a character
would not want to leave this world because of the things that
were given, the things that were received, the things that were
enjoyed. And then on the other hand, we have a description of
a man called Lazarus. A certain beggar named Lazarus
which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed
with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover
the dogs came and licked his sores. So we have a description
of those two people. And then what happened? Well,
What happened to them both will happen to all of us. What happened
was they died. They died. And one died, the
beggar, 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 being in torments." So we see the end of those two
characters was very different. Their life on the earth was very
different. But the truth was that their
life on the earth was only for a few years, whereas their life
which was to come, which they entered into, was eternal. There was no time. It would never
finish and therefore this man, this beggar, this Lazarus, he
was comforted and he had a very happy and a wonderful time spent
in eternity, whereas the rich man was tormented eternally. Now we note that this rich man,
you see as soon as he died, he lifted up his eyes in hell being
in torment. Now we know of course this was
a parable and this was a figurative picture. We must realise that
it wasn't a situation which would be worked out, but it's a picture
to give us some understanding, some comprehension of the terribleness
of being lost, the terribleness of not knowing the truth, the
terribleness of not believing in the truth of God's word, and
the terribleness of therefore spending our life the things
of this world rather than being concerned about the state of
our eternal soul and being rightly prepared for that great day when
you and I will come into this category and will die. And of course none of us know,
do we, how soon that will be. None of us know how long you
and I have upon this earth. But the important word is, be
ye also ready, because we know not what a day nor an hour may
bring forth. And if we were asked the question
this morning, are we ready to die? Are we ready to die? Most people don't like talking
about dying, Most people think it's a morbid theme. And why do they say that? They
say that because they are content with the things of this world.
They don't want to look beyond the things of this world. They
don't want to realise that they have a soul which will live forever. Therefore they don't want to
think about those things which are eternal. They try and shut
them out from their minds. they don't want to consider them. Well, it will be a blessing,
a wonderful blessing for us if we do consider these things and
are concerned about them and desire to know that our souls
are right with God. We are concerned, surely, very
often about many, many things in our natural life, but Remember,
the Lord Jesus said to Martha, with reference to her sister
Mary, Mary was sat at Jesus' feet, listening to what he said. Martha was involved in very many
things in serving, and the Lord said to Martha, Mary has chosen
that good part, that good thing. My friends, today, Have we received
grace to choose rather to suffer affliction with the people of
God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season? Now, this
picture here gives us the situation. Lazarus, a poor man, afflictions,
didn't have hardly anything in this world. But he had a good
hope. He had a good hope of eternal
life. And when he died, it was well
with his soul. On the other hand, the rich man
was just the opposite. He spent his time, no doubt very
proud of his position, clothed in purple, strutting around,
and feeding sumptuously every day. no thought of his soul,
no thought about where he should spend eternity. And yet, there
was that terrible day when he died. Because outside of life
on this earth, there is no hope. There is no hope. There is no
place of mercy once you and I have died. Mercy is only to be found
this side of the grave. It is not to be found the other
side of the grave. And so we have this picture before
us here of this rich man and immediately you see he cried
out for mercy. He said, Father Abraham have
mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his
finger in water, and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in
this flame." He called for Lazarus. Lazarus, who was obviously despised. Lazarus, who sat at the gate,
and we see he was a beggar, sat at the gate, full of sores, designed
to be fed. Was he fed? Did the rich man
feed him? Did the rich man send him any
food? No. No, he ignored him. But now you see, it's a very
different picture. He now sees Lazarus could be
useful. He now sees that Lazarus could
be perhaps sent to provide some relief for him in this place
of torment. Tormented in flames. It's a fearful thought, isn't
it? It's a fearful thought to think of those who are lost. those who are not saved, those
who do not believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who are lost and
will spend eternity tormented in this flame. Was there a place
of relief? Was there any favour? Abraham
said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy
good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, But now he is comforted,
and thou art tormented. What a difference. What an exchange. You see, comfort in this world
to eternal misery. On the other hand, difficulties
and trials in this world, but eternal happiness in the world
to come. And then is expounded the great
difference and the impossibility of there ever being a link between
the two. His statements made beside all this.
Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed." Well, we can perhaps
try and imagine that, you know, two pieces of land, perhaps with
a great precipice either side, and just no possibility of passing
from one side to the other. A great gulf fixed. So that they which would pass
from hence to you cannot Neither can they pass to us that would
come from thence. No, my friends, once you and
I have died, once you and I have left this world, our soul has
departed, it is to go to that place where there will be no
change, no exchange. We will either be forever with
the Lord or forever with the devil and his angels. Oh, those
evil spirits. My friends, think of this great
gulf fixed between. So that they which would pass
over from hence to you cannot. Neither can they pass to us that
would come from then. So there is that gulf fixed. Once death has occurred, there
is no return. There is no mercy. There is no
way back to the very clear and a very solemn picture which the
Word of God gives to us. It's something which should make
us all exceedingly concerned with regard to the state of our
soul, that whether we are possessors of the life of God, that new
nature, that blessing from God, so that we now have an insight,
perhaps only in a little way, but nonetheless an insight into
spiritual truth, the reality of the things of God, the necessity
of being born again of the Spirit of God. It is so necessary that
you and I possess the life of God in our souls. Now, just passing on for a moment, this rich man now, remember this
is a parable, But this rich man, therefore, realizes that there's
no hope for him. Then he thinks, oh, my brethren,
my brothers on the earth. He thinks about them. I pray
thee therefore, Father, thou would it send him, this man Lazarus,
to my father's house. For I have five brethren, that
he may testify unto them lest they also come into this place
of torment." You see, he now wanted the truth of God to be
told to his brethren, his brothers. Understandable, isn't it? He
didn't want them to come into this place of torment. He wanted
them to be told by Lazarus. Well, what have we read? We have read these words. They
have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Now, they're
not referring here to the New Testament, they're referring
to the Old Testament. We today also have the New Testament. We are much more light. We have
these truths that we have here before us at this time, but nonetheless,
We have this solemn truth, they have Moses and the prophets,
let them hear them. Well, simple truth is, you and
I have the word of God. What a blessing it is, my friends,
to have the word of God. And to be able to read it. Do
we all really, really appreciate that we have God's word which
describes to us the way of salvation, which tells us of the need we
have of a Saviour, the need we have of a new heart, a clean
heart, the need we have of knowing the Lord Jesus Christ as our
Saviour, It's spelled out to us in all these pages in the
Word of God. And you know the solemn truth
is that there are those people who have been privileged to hear
the Word of God read, the Word of God preached from, the Word
of God in their own language, possessing the Word of God themselves,
having read the word of God perhaps most days, and yet have never
been blessed with the gift of eternal life. Surely there can
be no greater punishment to have woken up in hell, in torment,
realizing that there has been that benefit of the truth of
God before their eyes, and it's never entered in. They've never
possessed the blessing of spiritual life. They've remained dead in
trespasses and in sins. They have not believed the truth
of the Word of God. They've turned their back upon
the wonderful truth and they've been effectively satisfied with
the things of this world. They've just gone through an
exercise of religious things, trying to pacify their conscience. But we know real cry as the publican,
when he came and said, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And that wasn't just words from
his mind, that came from the heart. And it will be a great
blessing if you and I possess this evidence in our hearts that
the Spirit of God has caused us to cry out to our God for
mercy, and to such an extent that we will not, we do not,
we cannot give God any rest until we have the evidence from his
Holy Spirit that we possess that life of God in our souls, that
life which he gives, so that we have the evidence that whereas
we were dead, whereas we were blind, but now we see our spiritual
eyes have been opened to observe and to realise the truth of God's
Word, the necessity of possessing the life of God in our souls,
the necessity of knowing that the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world to save sinners, and not only that, but in a personal
way, He came into the world to save me. You see, we must have,
my friends, the evidence of that in our hearts, the evidence that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the great God, came into this world specifically
to save you and to save me, amongst all the whole Church of God. But my friends, It's not something
that is just a general position. It needs to be a personal requirement
in our life that we know the Lord Jesus Christ has died upon
Calvary's cross to take away all our sins and to deliver us
from the wrath to come, that which this rich man was now in. You see, He was told, no, your
brothers, they've got the word of God to read and to hear. My friends, how true that is
today. He goes on and he tells us, you see, if one went unto
them from the dead, they would not repent. Why would we repent
anymore? If somebody came here this morning
and said, hey, I've just come from hell. And I'm telling you,
it is a real place. My friends, we have it here in
the Word of God. And the Lord tells us, there
is a hell, and I'm telling you about it. You see, it will make no difference.
Because we would still not believe, we would still not repent, unless
the gracious, glorious Spirit of God comes and convinces us
of our need. And so, he comes and he We find
this final verse, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, that
means, in this sense, it means they were deaf to the truth of
God's word. Oh, my friends this morning,
are you and I deaf to the word of God? We've all here this morning,
we've read this together, haven't we? We've read this account together. Has it had an effect upon us?
Or have our ears been shut? We've been deaf. We haven't really
heard what it really means. We may have read the words, we
may have understood them naturally, but my friends, have we actually
heard them with an ear which has been opened by the Spirit
of God to hear the truth of God's Word? And the great need that
we have of knowing ourself as a sinner and the Lord Jesus Christ
as our great and glorious Savior. If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from
the dead. Now, my friends, may the Spirit
of God this morning persuade us of our need of a Savior, the
Lord Jesus Christ. This is surely a very striking
parable, is it not? And it's a very solemn parable. And it's surely a parable that
you and I should be so concerned about, to have a right understanding
of. And it will not be good enough
for you and me to come and pretend to worship God all our life,
You know, there have been those people, there have been people
who worshipped in this chapel, who worshipped all their life.
They've only pretended to worship. They've never really worshipped.
And they've gone to hell. And they've woken up in torment.
People who have spent their life going to this chapel. It's a
very, very searching and solemn thought, is it not? Because by
coming here week by week will not save your soul, will not
save my soul. My friends, unless the Spirit
of God comes and gives us light, then we shall wake up in torment,
in hell forever. A place where there is no mercy.
You see, mercy is to be found this side of the grave, not the
other side. Once we passed Out of time, we
are in eternity. Mercy is to be found in time,
not in eternity. And so, you and I, my friends,
can bless God this morning that we are still in time. And while we're in time, may
we find mercy. May we find mercy from our God.
And that mercy is very simply this. It's to open our ears to
hear and our eyes to see, in a spiritual sense, the need that
we have of a great and glorious Saviour, to know that He, the
Lord Jesus Christ, and none other, has come into this world to die
upon that Cross of Calvary in order to give that great sacrifice
required that ransom price to be paid, that our sins might
be forever washed away, and they're only washed away through the
death of the Lord Jesus Christ, through the shedding of his most
precious blood. It comes down really very simply
to this. What think ye of Christ is the
test to try both your work and your scheme. You cannot be right
in the rest unless you think rightly of him. My friends today,
what do we think of the Lord Jesus Christ? Let us not have
any other theories. Let us not have any other belief. We need to believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. The word tells us this very straightly. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
and thou shalt be saved." Oh, my friends, that you and I might
possess grace, which is the unmerited favor of God to come and stand
very simply and to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ so that
He is our Savior, my Savior, your Savior. There's no hope
anywhere else. No hope in anything else. You
see, we do not obtain heaven by our works. There are works
to be done. And we're told that faith without
works is dead. But my friends, our natural works
will not bring us to heaven. The Word of God tells us, it
is by grace you are saved. not of works, lest any man should
boast." And so how important it is that we know that grace
of God which is the unmerited favour, which is the light of
the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ shining into our hearts
as that light which will never go out. But my friends, if we've
never had that light, we're in darkness and we shall spend eternity
in hell. Well, here we have this account
that the Lord Jesus speaks, demonstrating to us very clearly there's only
two characters. Those who are saved, those who
are lost. Those who are comforted, those
who are tormented. Those who live this life as though
it's their home, those who live this life as though they're strangers
and pilgrims upon it, journeying to their celestial home, journeying
to the celestial city, journeying to that place to go and to be
where Christ is, which is far better. My friends, we see then the very
clear picture that we have here before us. And you see this morning,
as we are blessed to read and to hear of the truth of God's
Word, the solemn situation is that none of us will be able
to say, well, if you wake up in hell, in torment, you will
never be able to say, well, I was never told, I never heard about
these things. because every one of us has read
and have heard about these things this morning. And if perhaps
our conscience is stirred, and we need our conscience to be
stirred, to examine ourselves as to whether we do possess the
life of God in our souls. The Word of God encourages us
to examine ourselves Don't just assume you're all right. Just don't think, well, I can
wait a bit longer. I'm quite young, I'm only a boy
or a girl, and I can wait a bit longer to consider these things.
You cannot wait a bit longer because you know not what a day
nor an hour may bring forth. The vital thing is to know that
you are ready To stand before the judge of the whole earth. To whether you know that you
are washed in the blood of the Lamb. Whether you know that you
are a needy sinner. A sinner that needs to be forgiven.
Remember, no sinner, unforgiven, can get to heaven. But my friends,
we're all sinners. We're all black sinners. We're
all vile sinners. Oh bless God, if the Saviour
has died to atone for our sins, and we have the good hope that
it is so, the gracious Saviour has died for us. Think of it,
think of it. Almighty God, come down for such
a wretch, such an unworthy person as you and me, for that personal,
that singular work, to atone for your sin and my sins, to
make us at one with God. Oh, my friends, the blessed work
of a Saviour to know, therefore, that we are washed in the blood
of the Lamb. And not only are we washed in
We are clothed with the righteousness of Christ to cover our nakedness. We have that picture, do we not?
Going back into the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned and
they offended God. They were naked. My friends,
they were told that the seed of the woman should bruise Satan's
head. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ should
come and deliver them from the wrath to come. And we have that
wonderful picture of the Lord making them garments, clothing
them with those animal skins. And the picture was, therefore,
in that death of those animals, blood was shed. Right back in
those days, without shedding of blood, there's no forgiveness.
So it followed through, right through the Old Testament, right
up to that time when the blessed Saviour died, and shed his blood,
there was the forgiveness. What happened, forgiveness was
given, was shown to them, and they were clothed with those
skins. My friends, through Christ's
death, he clothes us, he covers our nakedness with his righteousness. It's a wonderful, glorious scene
that we see. Is it our concern today to know
two things then, that we are washed the blood of the Lamb,
to take away all our sin, and that we are clothed in the righteousness
of Christ to cover our nakedness. Try and imagine the wonder of
that scene, the glorious blessing to be redeemed by the blood of
the Lamb, and then to realise that When we are found then,
when we do die, to be found in glory. We shall be clothed. Our nakedness is covered. And
there won't be then that position. We read of another account when
the Lord went and saw that person who did not have on the wedding
garment. Remember, the Church of God goes
to the marriage supper of the Lamb. eternally united as his
bride, united to Christ to be found forever with a savior,
singing his praises throughout eternity. Well, this morning,
my friends, where do we stand, you and I? We either stand like
this rich man, or we stand like this beggar Lazarus. We're still
on praying ground. And all of us here this morning
are one or the other. My friends, we don't want to
wake up, do we, in torments to that place where there's no mercy
and no hope in that great gulf. Surely we want to stand on that
right side and to know that we are amongst those who are comforted,
eternally comforted, eternally blessed, well, we should be thankful
to God that we have an account like this. To be able to examine
our religion by and to test ourselves and to be concerned that when
we come to that day, we do not come short, you know, often thinking,
I say as you know, of that account that we read of in the Pilgrim's
Progress, of that person who was called ignorance. Ignorance. He thought he was alright. He
thought he was on the heavenly road. He thought he'd be received
into glory. But when he came to the door
of heaven, to the gate of heaven, he was asked, where is your certificate? He couldn't find it. He hadn't
got one. My friends, you and I don't want
to come to the day of our death in ignorance and have not our
certificate. And the certificate is really
the evidence that Christ has taken away our sins and he signed
it in blood. That's what you and I need to
know, this side of the grave, that we do possess the certificate,
the evidence of the life of God in our souls. Well, may we each
be ready when that day shall come, that call shall come, ready
to go and to be with Christ, which is far better, and not
be found in that place of awful torment forever. Amen.