Turn to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. I titled this message, A Look Beyond the Grave. A Look Beyond the Grave. And this is based on a true story. Vicki and I were watching a program
last night, a movie last night. And at the beginning of the movie,
it said, Based on a True Story. Well, every time we see that,
it catches our attention. We got to see what it is. And
I told Vicki, I said, I could use that title for my message
in the morning, Based on a True Story. Then I said, but I could
use that for every one of my messages. I said, I can title
every one of my messages based on a true story. But this is
based on a true story, and our Lord is giving it. And what we have in this portion
of Scripture is a rare look beyond the grave. I know many speak
of life after death, and many wonder what it's like And many
wonder if there is life after death. Well, here our Lord pulls
the curtain back and He lets us see into that
next world. He gives us a glimpse. We just
get a glimpse into that world and what happens after death. Right here it is. Right here
it is. And I want us to keep in mind
who it is that's giving us this glimpse. It's the Lord who is
both Lord of the living and the dead. He knows what he's talking
about. He's Lord of the living and the
dead. Now I know that many use hell
and its torments as a scare tactic to get people to make a profession. But I'm using it To be honest. To be honest. As Paul said, I
have not shunned to declare the whole counsel of God. I like preaching on the love
of God in Christ Jesus. I like preaching on the grace
of God, the mercy of God, but we can't ignore these things
also. And be honest with people. We have to be honest. Be honest
with the Scriptures. Be honest with one another. So
let's look at this for a little bit. In verse 19 and 20, we have
two men presented to us by our Lord. One is lost, one is saved. Now if you were living at that
time, which one would you think was saved? It'd be that rich
man. It'd be that Jew. You say, how
do you know he's a Jew? He called Abraham father. He
kept speaking to Father Abraham. That tells me this man was a
Jew. And everyone who looked at those
two at that time, no doubt thought that rich man surely had God's
favor. One is poor, one is rich. One is healthy, one is sickly. The dogs licked his sores. And
this was God's child. This was God's child. Don't make the mistake of thinking
that health and wealth is a sign of God's favor. You know what
a sign of God's favor is? Faith and repentance. That's
a sign of God's favor. God grants you the faith to believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and repent. Poverty is not a sign
of God's displeasure. It's not a sign of God's displeasure.
Christ became poor. Did He? He became poor. He was among the poor far more
often than He was among the rich. He said, you tell John the Baptist,
the poor have the gospel preached to them. They have the gospel
preached to them. Now, both men died. Everybody expected Lazarus to
die. That rich man, when he would
see him, he expected Lazarus to die. He didn't expect to die. Not when he died. I don't think
anybody expects to die when they die. People, you know, when reality
of death sets in is when they die. You don't expect to die
tonight. I don't think anybody here expects
that. It really expects it. But both men died. We all have
to die sooner or later. Solomon says over in Ecclesiastes,
the rich and the poor die, the beast die, and he said the same
happens to all of them. The righteous, the wicked, the
beast, they all die. Listen to Psalm 49, 6 through
9. They that trust in their wealth
and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches, none of them
can by any means redeem his brother or give to God a ransom for him
that he should still live forever and not see corruption, not die. No, both men died. But after
they died, now comes the real difference. Now listen, now comes
the real difference. Death puts us in our place forever,
doesn't it? There's no change after that. And there's something else you
notice in the reading of the Scripture. The rich man's name
is not given. You notice that? His name is
not given. But the poor man's name is given.
You know why? His name is given, Lazarus. Because
His name is in the Book of Life. His name is written in the Lamb's
Book of Life. And every name, now listen, every
name that's not written in the Lamb's Book of Life shall be
forgotten. The Word of God teaches us that. It teaches us that they
shall be forgotten. And that man's name is not even
mentioned. It's just mentioned that he was a certain rich man.
And here's another note of interest. As the rich man lived, so he
died. He lived unjust, unjust, unjustified,
and he died unjustified. He died that way. Listen to what
Solomon says in Ecclesiastes 11.3. If the clouds be full of
rain, they empty themselves upon the earth. And if the tree fall
toward the south or toward the north, in the place where the
tree falleth, there shall it be. There's no change. If a tree
falls to the north or south, it doesn't get up and do... No. That's where it is. That's where
it lies. Now, listen to Revelations 22
and 11. He that is unjust... He's talking about when he dies.
He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. And he which is
filthy, let him be filthy still. And he that is righteous, let
him be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. There's no change after death. No change. Death
doesn't change who we are. Now, verse 27, the rich man,
this rich man, I will point this out later, but the rich man remembered,
in hell, he remembered his father's house and he remembered his five
brothers. He's still selfish. As I said,
there's no change. He didn't remember those around
him. He remembered his father's house.
He remembered his five brothers, and that's all he remembered.
He didn't remember anybody else. And he asked Abraham to send
Lazarus back to warn his brothers about that place. I don't ever stand in the pulpit
and warn you about a place. I warn you about God. God who
outside of Christ is a consuming fire. That's who I warn people
about. God. He wanted them to warn them
about that place of torment. And he knew his brothers knew
Lazarus. They had passed him many times.
So this is why he wanted him to send Lazarus back to speak
to his brothers. All of a sudden, Lazarus becomes
important. But there's something else I
noticed here. He's speaking to the wrong person, Father Abraham. He's speaking to the wrong person.
If you want to talk about salvation, you're going to speak to God.
See, his whole problem was he thought because of his connection,
his heritage to Abraham was going to save him. He thought that
automatically put him in the covenant and everything was alright.
Everything was all wrong. He missed the Lamb of God. He
missed the atonement. He missed true righteousness.
He missed Jesus Christ. And he's talking to the wrong
person. He's talking to father. He's calling Abraham his father. It's God we speak to. We don't
speak to Mary. We don't speak to Abraham. We
don't speak to any of the departed saints. We speak to God Almighty. Lord have mercy on me. If he had said, Lord have mercy
on my brothers, you know, send them back and tell them about
the gospel. Tell them about Jesus Christ. But that's not what he
said. Warn them about this place. And he believed if one rose from
the dead, that they would believe. If one rose from the dead and
came in here, you think anybody who does not believe would believe? I talk to you every week about
one who rose from the dead. And some still don't believe.
Some still don't believe. Some still do not confess Christ
and follow it after Him. He rose from the dead. When He
rose from the dead, they still didn't believe on Him. When He raised the other Lazarus
from the dead, they didn't believe on Him. In fact, they were so
mad that they wanted to kill Lazarus because he got so much
attention over it. The other Lazarus. But Abraham gives him the correct
answer. Abraham said to him, they have
Moses and the prophets, they have the Word of God. Now why
would you believe someone that rose from the dead? Because if
Lazarus went back, you know what he'd tell them? The Word of God. The same thing, Moses and the
prophets. The same thing I'm telling you
this morning. It wouldn't be any different. It'd be the Word of God. And
that's why Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them. Listen, his brothers, they heard
the Scriptures read every week. They heard the Scriptures read
weekly. And he said, let them hear what
the Word of God says. And he said, no, Father Abraham,
no, no, no, no. But if one went to them from
the dead, they'd repent. If they see one from the dead, They wouldn't repent. Repentance
is a gift of God. Faith is a gift of God. It's
a work of God. It says over in Book of Acts,
He granted to the Gentiles, listen, He granted them repentance. God
granted repentance. God did a work of grace in the
heart. God gave life. And in the giving of life, He
gives faith and faith comes repentance. They go together. Oh, they'll repent. No, they
won't. He said, no, if they won't hear Moses and the prophets,
if they will not hear the gospel when it's preached, if they will
not hear the Word of God, this is God's Word, this is not my
words, this is not the words of a man, this is literally the
Word of God. This is God speaking. When Doug
read the Scripture to you, he was reading, the Lord was speaking.
He's speaking. That's why the Lord said, take
heed to how you hear, for with what measure you meet it with,
it shall be measured to you again. Now, as I said, they both died. Let me get back to this. Lazarus
died, or verse 22, Lazarus dies. The righteous die as well as
the wicked, but what a difference. Oh, what a difference after they
die. We are told that the angels carried
him to Abraham's bosom. Now, in saying this, he's saying
that he was carried to heaven. Because the Jews, they often
made this expression when someone died and they went to heaven,
they went to Abraham's bosom, because they believed Abraham
was in heaven, Abraham was in a happy state, and they are saying
that that person is there with Abraham in heaven. That's what
they're saying. And he says here, the angels,
the Lord said the angels carried him to Abraham's bosom. And this
rich man dies, And he's buried. He's buried. And in hell he lifts
up his eyes, being in torment. And he sees Abraham afar off,
and Lazarus there with him, in his bosom. He's there with him. I think of my pastor and Rupert
and here, they're with Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, you know, with
the Lord, but they're with all these other saints that we read
about in the scriptures. David, they're with them. They're with them. And he's saying
here that he saw Lazarus with Abraham. This rich man is one everyone
envied. Everyone envies the rich. Now
they do. They want to be like him. They want their children to grow
up and be like him. I bet you there's not one person,
not one person said to their child, I want you to be like
Lazarus. laying over there at the gate, dogs licking his sores,
there's not one parent who said, I want you to be like Lazarus.
But every child of God in this room says, I want my child to
be like Lazarus. I do. Not necessarily laying
at a gate and poor, but I want him to be like Lazarus who believed
God and died, and the angels came, and what a heavenly host
took him home. What a train of angels took this
saint home. What an entrance he had into
glory. But everybody, they want their
child to grow up and be like that rich man. Everybody wants
to be a friend of the rich. The rich, the Scripture says,
have many friends until he goes broke and then he don't have
them. But boy, as long as you got money, you got a lot of friends
now. The rich has many friends. I'm sure this rich man had a
big funeral. You know, they look at the size
of the funeral and say, boy, he must have been an important
man. I wouldn't judge by that. All the upper class were there,
all the dignitaries were there, you know. And Lazarus, no doubt, was buried
in the poor man's field. He was buried with probably nobody
there, maybe one or two people. That's all that showed up, except
for the heavenly host. Oh, that's the ones I want at
my funeral. And if you come, I won't know about it anyway.
But I sure want the heavenly host to be there. I sure want to be carried home
to glory. God took great care in bringing
Lazarus home. He sent this heavenly host to
accompany him. Listen to Revelations 14, 13,
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord. From henceforth, yea, saith
the Spirit, that they may rest from their labors, and their works do follow them. The rich man's place. Let's take
a look at it. In hell, he lift up his eyes
being in torments, plural. This is based on a true story. This is a true story. Our Lord
never gave a story that was not true. This rich man lift up his eyes
in hell and there's a few things he found out real fast. He found
out who God is too late. He didn't listen. He didn't listen. All those times he went to the
temple, all those times he heard the Word of God, he did not listen. He's a rich man. What do you
think he's thinking of while he's there? He was thinking of
his investments. I guarantee you he was thinking
of his investments. He was thinking of his crops. He was thinking
of... He was not listening. Take heed how you hear. He found out that his self-righteousness
could not save him. He found out that his connection
to Abraham could not save him. It's your connection to Jesus
Christ that saves, not to anything of this flesh. He found out there is judgment
after death, Jews included, him included. They thought they were
completely isolated from that through that covenant with Abraham. He found out that God is a just
God and no respecter of persons. That's what he found out. He found out truth too late. And he was in torment. Whatever
that is, he was getting it. Whatever that is. Whatever those
flames are. He's getting it. And then there's
something else I want to point out. He was very much alive. He could see Abraham with his
eyes. He could see Abraham. He could
speak. He asked for water to cool the
tip of his tongue. His body had a thirst. He had
a thirst. I have no doubt that a part of
the torments of this place is the unsatisfied appetites of
the body. Because we use this body to sin
with, and it's going to be punished right along with us. Body, soul,
and spirit. Those who are punished there. I want you to listen to this
Scripture, Matthew 10, 28. Our Lord says, Fear not them which
kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul, but rather
fear Him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell. That's who you fear, not the
place, but Him. Him. And then listen, He envied
Lazarus. He said, Sin Lazarus, sin Lazarus,
Lazarus wasn't important to him before. Send Lazarus now. And then the pain was real because
he said, I'm tormented in this flame. And Abraham said, Son, listen,
I think here is one of the greatest torments. Here it is. Son, remember. Right here. Right now, you and
I value our memory, don't we? We value having a good memory.
But in hell, that's one of the worst things you're going to
have. Listen. Son, remember. He remembered
all those scriptures. He remembered. I guarantee, if
someone were to perish from here, You would remember this message. You will remember this portion
of Scripture. You'll remember it. The greatest torment is the memory.
Rolf Barnard called the memory God's bloodhounds. He's got a
message on God's bloodhounds and it's the memory. He was told
to remember how blessed he was while Lazarus suffered at his
gate. He says, you in your lifetime, you received the good things
and Lazarus, the evil things are a hard life. But now he's
comforted. He's comforted in the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's evident he believed the
gospel. It's evident he believed God. And now you're tormented. Beside all this, he said, between
us and you there's a great gulf fixed, so that they which would
pass from here to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that
would come from there." Now listen, here's what he's saying. God
has decreed that the two shall never mix again. That the righteous
and the ungodly will never mix again. That's all that's saying. God has decreed that. But Abraham
said there, and I want to touch on this again, as I said earlier,
Abraham said they had Moses and the prophets, let them hear them,
let them hear the gospel. Let them hear the gospel, let
them believe God, because a miracle, seeing one
rise from the dead, is not going to help them. Death is real,
judgment is real, heaven is real, hell is real, salvation from
sin, death and hell in Jesus Christ is real. It's real. It's very real. It's very real. Now in closing, I have one last
scene of a man in hell. I have one last scene. And I
want us to go to it. Look over Matthew 27. Matthew 27. Verse 45. Now from the sixth hour there
was darkness over all the land until the ninth hour. And about
the ninth hour, Jesus cried with a loud voice saying, Eli, Eli,
lama sabachthani. That's to say, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? Here is a man, here's a man,
another man, going through hell. Here's another man suffering
the hell of God's wrath. Here's another man who lifts
up his eyes in torment. Here's another man in John 19.28
says, I thirst. Just like that man in hell said,
send Lazarus to dip his finger in water and cool the tip of
my tongue. Here's another man. Another man
who cries out, I thirst. I thirst. I'm in these flames.
I'm in these torments. He's in the same torments. He's
in it. He's in it. Jesus Christ's sufferings,
His greatest sufferings, was far more than the pain that He
suffered in the flesh hanging on that cross and the beating
He took. He's taking God's wrath. He's
taking hell. That's what he's doing. But oh,
what a difference in the two men. What a difference in these
two men. You see, this first man could
not satisfy justice by his death. That's why the torment of hell
is eternal. Those there cannot satisfy God's
wrath. They still hate God. They still
do not believe God. But this second man, now listen,
this second man, he is able to put out the flames of God's wrath
because of who He is. He's God hanging on that cross,
suffering His own justice, that's who He is. He's the God-man,
suffering at the hands of His own justice. He's satisfying,
this is the only man who could literally die. and satisfy the
justice of God and put out the flames. He's able by His person, He's
able by His obedience, He obeyed God's law perfectly. And here is a man suffering the
hell of God's wrath, not for his own sins, but the sins of
others. My sins. I see, listen, I see
this rich man in hell. That's me. That's where I ought
to be. Then I see this other man hanging
on a cross going through hell. For me. For me. And in him, the hell of God's
wrath is swallowed up. He drank the cup dry. There's nothing left. There's
nothing left. Christ Jesus is the only man
who could satisfy God by His death. Now listen, the Scripture
says that God finds no pleasure in the death of the wicked. He
finds no satisfaction in the death of the wicked. God found
no satisfaction, no pleasure in the death of that rich man
being in hell. But He does find pleasure in the death of Christ.
Listen. Well, just turn over to Isaiah
53. You'll read it. There is one
death that satisfied God that God found pleasure in. Isaiah
chapter 53. Look in verse 10. Listen. Yet it pleased the Lord
to bruise him. He found pleasure in it. It pleased
the Lord to bruise him. He hath put him to grief. God
put him to grief on that cross. He put him in hell. When thou
shalt make his soul and offer him for sin, He shall see his
seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the Lord
shall prosper in his hand. He shall see of the travail of
his soul, and shall be satisfied by his knowledge. Shall my righteous
servant justify many? For he shall bear their iniquities.
That's what he's doing on Calvary's tree. Therefore will I divide
him a portion with the great. He shall divide the spoiled with
the strong, because he hath poured out his soul unto death. He was
numbered with the transgressors. He bared the sin of many, and
he made intercession for the transgressors. That is one death. That is one man who died under
the wrath and hell of God's wrath and put it away. Put it away. And my word to anyone here, and
everyone here, is to flee to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let me
tell you a story that I've heard my pastor tell several times. He told of a wagon train And
it was going out west. You know they had their big prairie
fires from time to time, lightning strikes. He said there was a
wagon train going out west and there was this big prairie fire
coming toward them. And the wagon master, he told
them to circle the wagons and they burn out a great big area. Burn it out. And then they circled
the wagons on that area. And this little girl saying to
her father, she said, I'm scared. She was getting scared as the
flames grew closer. And he said, honey, don't worry,
you're standing on burnt ground. Jesus Christ is burnt ground. Jesus Christ is burnt ground.
And where the fire has burned once, listen, it will not burn
again. It will not burn again. I thank God, I thank God that
Jesus Christ took my hell for me. And all those who look to
him and all those who flee to him are safe. They're safe. They're on burnt ground. And
it will not burn again.