Let's be turning to Luke chapter 16. Luke 16. We're looking at the close of this chapter where our Lord gives us one more parable of the rich man and Lazarus.

Now, when we read this parable, One, you probably notice the strong application of it to the scribes and the Pharisees. Our Lord is speaking to and addressing the scribes and the Pharisees who heard the things that Christ was saying. And the scriptures tell us that they despised Him. They despised They despised his words, they despised his teaching, and they felt it. They knew it was against them, what he was saying there, and they despised him for it.

Luke verse 14 says they derided him for it because he was countering the very thing that they loved. their wealth, their riches in this world, themselves, their flesh, their works, their righteousness. And Christ opposes the things of this world. Christ opposes this flesh. He opposes us what we are by nature that we would hear and look to him rather than to ourselves and our own works and our own strength.

They not only heard these things that he said, but many of them had even seen the miracles. They saw the miracles that he worked and accomplished. They heard of them, the wonder of those things, and yet they hated him. And those works, those things that he did were testifying that the doctrine that he spoke concerning himself was true. Because the father was testifying and saying, yes, this is my son. I have sent him. Hear him. Hear him.

Even Nicodemus, who came to the Lord by night, being a Pharisee, said, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. For no man can do the works that you do, except God were with him. We can't deny it. We know.

understand what the scriptures are teaching us, what they are showing us, what God is revealing in his word and through the preaching of the gospel, is to know that this Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God come in the flesh. And this Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah. He is the Savior of his people. He is Christ and he is Lord of all.

we are to to hear him now in verse 15 Luke 16 15 our Lord was speaking to these scribes and Pharisees and he said unto them he or they which justify yourselves before men but God knoweth your hearts God knows the heart of us all He knows what's in our heart. He knows what we're thinking. He knows our ways. He knows us intimately. He knows it.

And God knoweth your hearts for that which is highly esteemed. And here's what he's getting at. That which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. In other words, he's saying that by nature, we're hypocrites. We're hypocrites. We pretend and we do put on a show outwardly to hide and disguise what we are inwardly. And it's to our own hurt, it's to our own destruction that we would do it, but he's exposing it, he's laying it bare that we would see our need, that we would see our corruption, that we would see our need of him, and that we would see in Christ our all. He's salvation. He's my righteousness. And flee to him, that we would lay down the works in our hands, and run to the embrace of Christ and be received of God in Him, in Him.

And so what our Lord is always showing us is that it's a heart work. It's a heart work. Ye must be born again. Ye must be born again. And wait a minute, I didn't make myself born the first time. No, you didn't. I can't make myself born again the second time. No, it's a work of His grace. that we would seek him for that grace. And if you seek him, if I come, it's because he has given life. If I come in spirit and in truth, it's because he has given life. Otherwise, I wouldn't. I would continue in my hypocrisy and put on a show.

Now, we're to hear the words of our Lord for ourselves. Yes, we see a strong application to the scribes and Pharisees here. At this time, our Lord was addressing and speaking to the scribes and Pharisees here and the Jews, but we are to apply these words to ourselves. We're to hear them as though he's speaking to me, to me. And so to see and know that if I am saved, it's not because I have done it, but because he has saved me, a sinner. undeserving of His grace and brought me out of that wickedness and trusting myself to trust Him.

And so the purpose of this parable lays open before us the end result, the horror and the terror and the end result of unbelief. of not hearing Christ, not trusting him, not believing him, but shutting him up and keeping yourself in this way of hypocrisy, in the way of man, to do for himself. And yes, he was speaking it to the Jews there first, but just like they had a long history of religion, right, through which they became blind. So we today as Gentiles, believing Gentiles, we have long histories of religion in our nation, throughout the world. Many of us have grown up in religion. Many of us have gone around to various religions. Many of us think, well, we know something, we've learned something, and think that we've arrived, but The Lord is saying, hear it, hear the word. Don't close your ears to this and say, well, that's for them. It's for us, too. And if we forget, we've forgotten the word of exhortation, which is unto us. Unto us. As Paul said, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith. For who maketh thee to differ? He went on to say to the Corinthians, who maketh thee to differ from another? And what hast thou that thou didst not receive? And if thou didst receive it, if you have this understanding, why do you boast in glory as though you had not received it? It's been given. What we have is given to us of God.

All right, so those are just a few things to lay down. Let's go now to verse 19. Verse 19, and our Lord describes a certain rich man. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day.

All right, well, in that day, The Jews were a wealthy nation. Compared by worldly standards, they were a wealthy nation. They had riches. They had systems in place that enabled them to conduct business. They were in a good part of the world that trafficked and had all kinds of roads coming and going from there. They were wealthy.

And the people of reputation, the people that were on the inn, if you were, were very religious because in religion that's where the money was. It was big business there. You could be a money changer for all the Jews that lived outside of the nation coming to worship God at the temple. They had to exchange their money and there would be a little bit of extra coming back to them in the exchange rate. They made a profit on that exchange. Or they might set up a table in the temple and sell the doves and the sheep and goats or anything, bullocks, anything that was needed for the sacrifice, they could sell it and earn a good profit and good money. on that.

They had good homes, they had goods in their homes, they had good nice clothes, and they fared sumptuously, meaning they ate good foods. Tasty, healthy, nutritive foods for the body, and they enjoyed themselves.

But above all that, they had the respect and the honor of the people who looked at them and thought, these are something. These are the heads of our state. These are the best of the best people here. And they had the praise of men. And the scriptures tell us they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.

And so they were receiving these things. And because of that, they were very proud. And their minds and heads became puffed up, thinking of themselves more highly than they ought to think.

And they had a righteousness. This is how it manifested. They had a righteousness. They thought themselves good and to have a place with God. They thought they were accepted of God, and they boasted of the fact that they were sons of Abraham. Physically speaking, they were descended from Abraham, through the seed of Isaac, through the seed of Jacob, through the seed of one of the sons of Jacob, and that they were something. They were the chosen people. The elect of God And they thought, by my works in the law, because I'm descended from Abraham, and because of my works, I'm circumcised, I'm not cut off from the people, therefore I have a place at the table in the happiness of Abraham when I die. I have a place reserved for me with my name tag on it. They were very confident in that.

Well, going deeper in how this applies to us, and so that we can see it, is they had no spiritual hunger. They had no trouble in themselves spiritually. They were righteous. They weren't poor in spirit. They didn't mourn for their sins. They weren't troubled by the things they saw in their flesh, in their heart, in their thoughts, in their words. They could just turn to the law and just clean that up, fix that up, and so they didn't have to trouble themselves about it.

They were not poor in spirit. They were rich. rich in works and rich in understanding, so they thought. They had no hunger and thirst for righteousness. You that are poor and in poverty of spiritual things, you hunger and thirst. They didn't hunger and thirst. The way a rich man has abundance of food as opposed to a poor person, think of that in terms of righteousness.

They didn't have, the sinner has no righteousness of their own. The sinner has no works to fall back on. The sinner can't say, well, I do this and that, and I do all these things right, therefore God will excuse that, that one infraction, that one sin. They didn't have that. They didn't need mercy. They didn't need mercy, they didn't need a savior, because in their eyes, when they looked in the mirror, this mirror, they said, yep, I'm lined up, my hair's fixed, I have nothing in my teeth, my breath smells good, everything's good about me. No dirt or smudges on my face or clothes, my tie's straight, everything's good, right?

They didn't see what the scriptures are really showing us, that we're sinners, that we're sinners, that we cannot save ourselves.

And so this certain rich man makes up the body of all the self-righteous, who think of themselves as perfect before the Lord, needing no repentance, needing nothing more. And because of that, Christ was despised. What do I need him for? I am righteous. What do I need his righteousness for? What do I need grace for? I don't need grace. I'm good. I can just fix it all by the law, and I'm perfect and acceptable of the Lord. And so they had no need for Christ. He was despised. They thought very little of him, if anything, except that they hated him.

Now our Lord then describes another man, a certain beggar. Verse 20. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores." This name Lazarus in the Hebrew, as I understand it, means Eleazar. This is Eleazar here. And I've read a number of commentaries on this. What blesses my heart, the one I see most is that this Lazarus, this Eleazar, this beggar here, is a picture of Christ, the Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, men at first say, no, no, no, this can't be Christ because Christ is no beggar, amen. Christ is not a beggar, not at all. He's no beggar of men, but in the estimation of men, The way man looks at a filthy, stinking beggar that's laid out in his way. He despises that beggar. He thinks, I don't want this guy around me. Why does he keep showing up at my house? Why can't he go down the street to my neighbor's house? Why is he always outside my gate? And he's tiring of him. He's getting tired of him and wants him gone. He doesn't want to hear about Christ anymore. He doesn't want to hear about this.

The way a man despises a beggar, thinks he's above that beggar that's how the world that's how the self-righteous looks at Christ a filthy stinking beggar all right and so you think about it it's what it's describing is our Lord the glorious Son of God who laid aside his glory when he took upon him this flesh, and he came in what men call Christ's humiliation. He stooped so low, he humbled himself so low to such a degree that is called his humiliation because he covered himself so well that the men didn't see that this is the son of God. That's how well that flesh showed him to be weak and humble and low and beneath everybody else. That's how they despised him the way you would despise a beggar who keeps showing up at your door.

The scriptures tell us that he came unto his own and his own received him not. They didn't want him there. And yet, God laid him right at their gate. Right at their gate, they laid this Lazarus right there before them. And he came, and there he was. And Isaiah brings this out in Isaiah 53. I know we were there earlier, but let's go back to Isaiah 53, this time looking at verses three and four. Isaiah 53, verse three. You think of the way a rich man despises a filthy beggar, just laid out there on the street in their way. It says, verse three, he is despised and rejected of men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid as it were our faces from him. He was despised and we esteemed him not. We thought nothing of him. This was the general response of men to Christ.

Surely he hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows. So those sores, where you see him full of sores, it's a picture of the griefs and the sorrows of his people laid on him, being borne on him. He didn't do anything to produce those sores. He didn't partake of this world's sins and wickedness and filth. He had no darkness in his heart, and yet our sores were laid on him. Our rebellion, our wickedness, our sins, our evil thoughts and words and deeds were laid on him, on him. we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted." Even though he was there for his people's sake, bearing their iniquity and putting it away, when men looked at him, they said, well, he's a rebellious insurrectionist. He's getting what he deserves. That's how men saw him on the cross there. Now, remember, when our Lord came into the world, the first time, he came meek and lowly. It says he came riding on an ass, the occult, the foal of an ass. That tells me he must have been a slight man, meaning he wasn't heavy, he wasn't well-fed, he was a thin man, probably not very big in stature, and able to ride on a baby donkey, a young donkey there. And so in the eyes of men, they thought nothing of him, nothing of him.

He took that place while his enemies sat in the seat of the scorner. They sat in the positions of power. They were the great men. They had all the wealth. They had all the influence. They knew the ins and outs of government and how it all worked and how they could off him, how they could get rid of him. They were in the positions and he was in a position of nothingness. at all, and so they hated him the way a filthy rich man hates and despises a disgusting, filthy, dirty beggar, smelly beggar.

All right then, well if this is a picture of Christ the Lord, if this is a picture of our Savior, Lazarus here, why does it say in verse 21 that he was desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores." Right? If this is Christ, why does it say this? Well, actually, this is what I find to be one of the most beautiful illustrations of our loving, gracious Savior for sinners.

Because those crumbs which fall from the rich man's table, it's a picture of us, brethren. We are the crumbs that the self-righteous say, Let them go. They don't fit in here. We're tired of that one. Let them go. We don't need that crumb. We've got plenty here on the table. We've got the meat, the vegetables, the bread, the wine. Let that crumb go. Who cares? Who cares? That crumb there describes us, full of sin, our warts, our lumps, our failings, our shortcomings, our folly and foolishness, our stink, our transgressions, our trespasses, our iniquities. It's a picture of us. We're the crumbs. We that have no righteousness, have nothing to boast of before God, have nothing to say, look at me, a fine prized piece, a cowboy tomahawk steak. No, that's not us. We're that little dirty crumb that the self-righteous are happy to say, let him go. Let him go. We don't want him here anyway. We don't need him.

That's who the Lord assembles. He is happy. pleased to receive the sinner to himself, to receive the publican, to receive you that have no place in this world, no acceptance in this world for your works, your ways, your thoughts, your ideas, you're needy, you need grace. That's whom the Father and the Son gather to themselves, the crumbs. The crumbs of this world needing mercy, needing forgiveness, and they delight in the grace of God for them. They delight in God's mercy, in God's patience, in God's long-suffering for them. They're thankful for the grace that he has made a way justly that he may receive us unto himself.

You know, when David was being persecuted by Saul and he fled into the wilderness, What does it say there? When he first fled into the wilderness, when he knew this is it, Saul won't have me. The next time he sees me, he's going to kill me. It says that everyone that was in distress, and everyone that was in debt, and everyone that was discontented in Israel gathered themselves to David, and he became a captain over them. That's you and I, brethren. You that are distressed because of your sin, you're anxious, you're not settled in this world, you have no place in this world, you that have a great debt, a great debt of sin that you owe the Father. Millions and billions of dollars you owe that debt. You that are discontented. Discontented in this place, discontented in that place, you can't find any peace or rest

Go to Christ. Come to Christ. Be gathered to the Lord Jesus Christ. He is pleased to receive the crumbs. He delights to have the crumbs come to Him. You that are empty, you that have nothing to give to God, go to the Savior. Go to Him. He is the captain of our salvation. He's the Savior. He's Lord. He's able, brethren. to bless his people.

We're the dogs that come and lick his wounds, meaning knowing that for my sake, he's bearing those wounds. For my sake, I put him there. He bore that strike for me. For that one, for that sin, for that iniquity, for that transgression, for that trespass, he bore it. He suffered. He was wounded for me. for me.

And so the dogs, we that are filthy dogs, smelly, filthy dogs that have no righteousness, we come to him and feed upon Christ and are nourished by Christ and delight in Christ our Savior who brought, who condescended so low so as to take the place of the lowest servant. When Christ girded himself and he washed the feet of his disciples. What? He's Almighty God washing the feet of the servants of God and his people. But that's what he did on the cross. He took that lowest place. bearing the sins of his people as the lowest servant in order to give us who are servants and have nothing life and riches. All in him, all in him graciously. Graciously, he did this.

So I'm thankful. And you that are sinners are thankful for Christ. And we gladly feed upon the Lord Jesus Christ.

You think of that Syrophoenician woman who could find no relief for her daughter with a devil, right? And none of her doctors, none of her religious men in that place could do anything for her. And our Lord graciously went up there knowing, and she sought him out because our Lord brought it together. And she was happy to take that place of a dog when our Lord said, it's not right for me to give the meat of the children to dogs. And she said, yeah, Lord, that's true. I am a dog. Please, even the dogs take the crumbs that fall from the children's table. And he's the one that gives that heart to make us willing to come as a dog, a needy mercy beggar for his grace. to feed upon, to lick his wounds, as it were, who is wounded for me. He does that. That's love, brethren. That's love. That's love.

And that's not just the external duty of love, but that's all the things about love that sweeten the bouquet and make it more than just a duty, a cold, heartless duty, but brings together all the sweet things that we are blessed with and nourished with and encouraged by and comforted by that our Lord did for me, for us. that love him, and he brought that love.

Then having accomplished that mighty work of salvation, we're told in verse 22 that it came to pass that the beggar died. He died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom, and that speaks of the death burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, what he accomplished for us on the tree, and obtaining our redemption. And when he rose, he went to his brethren, to the church, and he gave us the commission, making us witnesses of these things, of who he is, why he came, what he accomplished. You are witnesses, he said, of these things. We're not just assembled together to be Pharisee 2.0. This dead letter religionist, that's not what he accomplished. He saved us and turned us to him, to find our life and light in him.

And so then having done that, he gloriously ascended on high. And how does Luke say it in Acts chapter one? It says he was taken up. He was taken up into the clouds, just like this Lazarus here was carried up by the angels into Abraham's bosom, heaven, right there in heaven, where he sits in the body of a man on the right hand of the throne of his father, ruling and reigning, opening the book, opening the seals of the book, that is, putting into place all the will and purpose of God here. all under his hand, that glorious man, the Lord Jesus Christ.

And then we're told the rich man also died and was buried. It seems to be a reference to he died without trouble. Like we see so many rich people seem to die without any trouble. Everything seems to be going well for them. Everything was good for them. They lived to a ripe old age, full of wealth, and have all these goods in the world. But the psalmist tells us in Psalm 73, verse 19, how are they brought into desolation? As in a moment, they are utterly consumed with terrors. Where? In hell, in hell. They close their eyes in death and open their eyes in utter torment, in utter torment there.

And so here we see this rich man, our Lord says in verse 23, Luke 16, 23, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Now he beholds him, now he sees him whom he despised and rejected, seated in glory. Now he beholds and knows, oh, This is the Savior. This is the Messiah here. And he cried and 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. What he's saying is, send the Messiah again. I missed him the first time. Please send him again to give me relief, to save me from my sins, to put away this torment from me. Send him again, Lord. Send him again.

But Abraham said, son, remember that thou and thy lifetime receiveth thy good things. You received your inheritance, and you consumed it and wasted it on sin and the world. You wasted it when you heard these things and had these things. And you saw Lazarus at your gate, and you despised him. Likewise, Lazarus, evil things. But now he is comforted. He has finished the work which the Father sent him to do. All things are now ready. They're put away. He's comforted. All right, sit thou on my right hand till I make thine enemies thy footstool. It's done. He's come. The Savior has come, and thou art tormented. You see, what Christ came to do, he's done it. He's redeemed his saints. He's accomplished the work.

And you that hear him, hear him. Hear him today. Hear him now. And Abraham goes on saying, beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from here to you cannot. Either can they pass to us that would come from thence, or from where you are. And one of the terrible things that seems to be brought out here in this parable is this sense of what the wicked, who are in the torments of hell, know and understand when they can do nothing about it, when there's nothing to be done. It's already done. It's sealed. The door is closed. And when man dies, he'll have a clear sight of the truth of Christ then. But then it'll be too late. If he dies in his sins without Christ, then it's too late. There's nothing that can be done for him.

Today is the day of grace. Today, if you hear his voice, harden not your heart, as Israel did in the provocation, when it came out of Egypt. Or when God sent the prophets and they hardened their hearts and shut them up to what he was saying, when they hardened their heart in the day of John the Baptist, in the day that our Lord came, in the day that the apostles preached, in the reading and testimony of the scriptures, don't harden your heart. Beg God for a tender heart, a good ground, receive that word, and that it take root in Christ, and bring forth fruit abundantly, to the praise, honor, and glory of his name.

Then retold verse 27, he said this rich man, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him 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.

Now, what exactly these five brethren means or indicates, I am not necessarily settled. I don't have a good view on it. Some said it's a picture of Israel, the tribes of Israel. I thought, as it may be speaking of the first five books of the Bible there, I know that Joseph also selected five brethren out and presented them to Pharaoh. And I don't know. I do know that if you take the man, plus his five brethren, it equals six. One plus five is six. And that's the man was created on the sixth day. It's a picture of man who always comes up short. Six, six, six. The number of man. He's always coming up just short of perfection. Seven, seven, seven. Completion. A perfection. The Lord. Man always comes up short. He's lost him in sin, but really what I think, short of having some insight into the specifics there, we see a changing of the heart.

This man now sees, in hell, he now sees and knows That is Christ. That man that I despised as a filthy, stinking beggar is the Lord of all in glory. He's the Savior. And I despised him. And he has this change of heart, saying, now I see. Now I see. And can you do good for this and that and do this thing here? But the point is, when it all boils down, is when you die, if you die without Christ, if you die despising Christ, you die in your sins, and the only inheritance you have there is an inheritance of eternal death in the torments of hell, the presence of God without a mediator, which none of us can bear. None of us can stand in that.

All right, now verse Basically, we must be born again. We come as mercy beggars. We're the beggars. We are the beggars for his grace and mercy. And he makes us so. It's a blessing when he makes us that needy sinner. Tried and failing and see our inability, that's a mercy. If it leads you to Christ, to cry out to him for grace. It's a mercy.

Verse 29, Abraham saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And that's another testimony that this word is testifying of the Lord Jesus Christ from beginning to end. Who he is, why he came, what he accomplished. Whether you're in Moses, where you are in the law, you're in the historical books, the prophets, And the poetical books there of the Old Testament or in any of the new, it all testifies of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And verse 30, and he said, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they'll repent. Well, we know the answer to that. No, they won't. No, they won't. Because one did rise from the dead, and they don't believe. They don't hear him, they don't believe.

And this is why he says, in verse 31, he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, if the word preached doesn't reveal life, doesn't expose and uncover what God has done for them, and the Lord Jesus Christ, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. It testifies of Christ. And it's through the foolishness of preaching that the Lord reveals this to us.

In this very word, which all men have, and they can see the deadness of the letter, they can hear the commands, and they can fix themselves, but they miss that it's testifying of Christ. They miss him like a man misses a filthy beggar. and doesn't even want to take notice of him. That's how men go through this word and through this life.

We need the grace of God, brethren. Otherwise, we'd be these rich men, despising Christ, and go through life, closing our eyes one day, and awaking in the torments of hell, in the presence of God, without a mediator. Christ.

But you that believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and cry unto Him for grace and mercy, you'll find Him a willing Savior. all who need Him, who need His grace, who need His mercy, who need His salvation, He is a willing Savior to the needy, poor, begging sinner.

He's a willing Savior because He knows. He knows our sins, He knows our infirmities, and He provided sufficiently for everything for His people. Believe Him. Amen.