and my what worms are we. It's amazing that he would love
us and give his only begotten son to die for us. That song
was written by Isaac Watts a long time ago. He's the same one that
wrote We're Marching to Zion. So we've sung or heard sung two
of his great hymns this morning. Well, if you would, open your
Bibles to the book of Luke, and I want you to go to chapter 12
to begin with. Luke chapter 12. I'm going to be speaking this
evening on the subject of the king's palace. Very simple title, The
King's Palace. This evening, The King's Palace. This morning I want to speak
to you on The King's Prison. A very sobering subject indeed. And I ask God the Spirit to bless
as we endeavor to set before you that which the Scripture
has to say about the king's prison. I'm going to eventually go to
that portion Ron read to us just a few minutes ago in Luke 16,
but I want to begin here in Luke chapter 12, verse 58. Luke 12, 58. Let's get the last two verses
of Luke chapter 12. when thou goest with thine adversary
to the magistrate. The word adversary is a, well,
I guess we'd call it a legal word, a forensic word. It means your legal, the legal
opposition, your legal opponent. When thou goest with thine legal
opponent to the magistrate, to the king, to the governor, whoever's
in charge. As thou art in the way, give
diligence that thou mayest be delivered from him, lest he hail
thee to the judge. The judge deliver thee to the
officer, and the officer cast thee into prison. I tell thee,
thou shalt not depart thence till thou hast paid the last
mite." Or literally, till you have paid every penny. The Lord Jesus here compares
really each of us to a person who's on his way to meet the
to meet the king, to meet the chief magistrate, to meet the
judge. And with us is an adversary. With us is a legal opponent. You see, we're on our way to
meet the king upon his throne of glory. The adversary that
walks with us is God's law. God's justice that demands we
be righteous before God will accept us. Now, if we're not
delivered from all charges that God's law, this legal opponent,
if we're not delivered from all charges that are brought against
us by this adversary, We have to be cast into the king's prison. In other words, if we die in
debt to God's law, what does the law of God insist upon? Perfection. Righteousness. No sin. Only positive holiness. Without a holiness, no man shall
see the Lord. If we are brought by the adversary
to the King and we're in debt, we have no righteousness, we've
not been washed in the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, then
we must be cast into the King's prison. There's only one place,
you see, where the indebtedness of sinners was paid in full,
and that was at the cross of Calvary. You must understand
this, the king's prison, that is our king, the Lord Jesus,
his hell, it is not designed, the reason for its existence
is not that we might pay our indebtedness to God. There is
no way you can render any payment to God for any of your sins. You've got to understand that. That is the just punishment of
God. That's what hell is. There's
only one way that sin could ever be put away. There's only one
way that the indebtedness of God's people was ever fully retired,
and that was by our Lord Jesus, by His substitutionary death
upon the cross of Calvary. The law of God insisted upon
righteousness for us. We had no righteousness to present
to God. Therefore, God, He sent His only
begotten Son in love and in grace. And he went to the cross of Calvary
for this reason, to do away with our sins. John says, we know
he was manifested to put away our sin. He paid our debt. And
all for whom he died, and we could say this, all who rest
in him, all who trust in him are debt free. Absolutely debt free. Now our
faith doesn't remove our indebtedness, but our faith believes Him, reaches
out to Him, embraces Him who did pay our debt. But understand
this, if you live and die without God and without Christ Jesus,
you're in debt to God's law. And just as sure as you're living
right now, you've got an adversary. And that's God's law. And God's
law is going to take you to the great magistrate himself. He's going to take you to the
king. Dying without Jesus Christ, oh,
it opens up a world of damnation for you. And here's what the king's going
to do. He's going to put you in his
prison. And you're never getting out.
You're never getting out. It's a very serious subject this
morning. I always approach the subject
of punishment of sinners with unusual seriousness and solemnness. I'm sure you understand this,
but I've got to say this to you. All of you, each one of you,
you're either going to the king's prison or to the king's palace
someday. There is no third state. And
you need to think about that. Preacher, you're trying to scare
us. I wish God the Spirit put some
fear of God in your heart and in your eyes. You're either going
to the king's palace or the king's prison. Everyone is. What a sobering thought. I think
if you ask most people, are you going to the king's prison or
to the king's palace, Let's say I'm going to the king's palace.
I'm going to heaven. I'm going to heaven. Well, why
do you say that? Because I'm not a bad person. I'm basically a good person.
And I try to do right things. I believe in God. I believe there's
a God. I believe there's a Jesus. Well,
you believe as much as the devil believes. He knows there's a
God. And he knows there's a Jesus.
The demons, when our Lord Jesus approached one who was possessed
of devils, the devil spoke to him and said, we know who you
are. You're the Son of the Highest. You say, I'm a religious person. Well, let me show you a religious
person who died and perished, and that's the subject that I
want to go to, the text I want to go to, back over in Luke chapter
16. Go back to Luke chapter 16. Here's one of the main individuals
in this story, is a rich man. Now, in the Latin, they called
him dives. They gave him a name. And dives
just means a rich man. But the Bible doesn't give him
a name. He's a no-name person. No-name
person. Whereas the other man, he's Lazarus. He has a name. It's a name given
to him by God. His name was written down in
the Lamb's Book of Life from before the foundation of the
world. His name is engraved upon the very hands of our Savior. He was a poor man, but he was
God's man. He didn't go to heaven. He didn't
go to the king's palace because of poverty. He went to heaven
because Christ came to die for him. He's an object of God's
mercy. And though the Scripture doesn't
relate it, it doesn't tell us of his conversion, we may be
certain, based upon all the other evidence in the Word of God,
this man is a believer. This is a man who rests in the
Lord Jesus. But of this world's goods, he
had nothing. He was very, very poor. But he
was rich in grace. He was rich in mercy. The other
man, he was fabulously wealthy. The scripture says he was dressed
in purple and fine linen. And the word dress means continually
dressed. Every day he was immaculate. Every day he was dressed with
the very finest of clothing. And he fared very sumptuously
every day. He had the best foods. He lived
in a great mansion. He had everything his heart could
desire. But for all of his wealth, for
all of his riches of this world, he was really the poorest of
the poor because he had no Savior. He died in his own filthy righteousness. The adversary came after him. And the adversary said, I'm taking
you to the king and didn't give him warning. He just died. Oh, he had a fancy burial. Did
you notice when brother Ron read the passage of scripture, Lazarus
died. Didn't say anything about his
burial. He's a very poor man. His body was just cast out in
the beggar's field, maybe the potter's field or wherever, to
be buried, if he was buried at all. The rich man, he died and
he was buried. And no doubt had a fabulous,
fabulous service. He's a great man in the eyes
of other men, but he's nobody in the eyes of God. not even worthy that his name
be put down in Scripture. His name is not engraved upon
the hands of the Savior. His name was not written in the
Lamb's Book of Life. He's a no-name man who was taken
by the adversary and cast into the king's prison forever. And that's what's going to happen
to you if you die without a Savior. I'll tell you that. I'm just
being honest with you. You've got to have a righteousness
that God approves of. And the only righteousness God
has ever approved of is that of His Son. You've got to be
washed in His blood. You've got to be brought by effectual
grace to the Savior. Otherwise, there's no hope for
you. I'm telling you, each one of us, if I could talk to each
one of you individually, I would tell you the adversary is going
to come get you one day. If you're righteous, you're going
to glory. If you're unrighteous, you're
going to hell. You're going to paradise, you're
going to the prison. Which is it going to be? The main character, I suppose,
we would say in this story is the rich man. The rich man died, and to his
shock, to his amazement, he's in hell. And he lifts up his
eyes, being in torment. Now, first of all, we need to
consider who our Lord was speaking to, because that's kind of a
key to this whole thing. And all of us have studied the
Bible enough to know that we need to see who our Lord is talking
to. Who's he speaking to? Well, back
up and look at verse 14 of Luke 16. Luke chapter 16. Now let's look
at verse 14. And the Pharisees also, who were
covetous. That's kind of a key word too,
because we're talking about a rich man. He's covetous. He wanted more. The Pharisees also who were covetous,
they heard all these sayings and they derided him. And he
said unto them, that's key right there. Who's he talking to? He's talking to the Pharisees. To the Pharisees. And he said
unto them, ye are they which justify yourselves before men. But God knows your hearts. For
that which is very highly esteemed among men is abomination in the
sight of God. It's foul and detestable. They
were hypocrites. Our Lord called them hypocrites.
Because they did all they could to look their best before the
eyes of men. So that men would justify them,
men would say, my, what holy people these guys are. They read
the Bible in public, they pray on the street corner, they look
at him, he's fasting this week, he's fasting two times in a week.
You know, I see he goes to the temple, he puts in 10% of everything
that he makes. Man, this is the holiest guy
in the world right here. And then our Lord says this,
notice in verse 16 and 17, because He's speaking to people who said
they were loyal to the law, right? They're loyal to the law. They
live by the law. We have Moses, they said. We
have Moses. Well, He said in verse 16, the
law and the prophets Run to John. Since that time, the kingdom
of God is preached and every man presseth into it. All kinds
of men press into it. The kingdom of God. The kingdom
of God is the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation. The kingdom
of God is preached unto you. The King and His kingdom. His
kingdom of grace. His kingdom of mercy. His kingdom
of righteousness is preached unto you. And he says in verse
17, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle
of the law to fail. And then he gives an illustration.
These are men who said they love God's law. But they didn't think
anything of breaking the law. And he gives an example, verse
18. Whosoever putteth away his wife,
and marreth another, commiteth adultery. And whosoever marreth
her that is put away from her husband, commiteth adultery.
The Pharisees thought nothing about divorcing their wives for
the least thing, for the least reason. And these were men who said,
we love the law. We live by the law, and everybody
said they're the most righteous people we know. That's the reason
the Lord Jesus said to the disciples, accept your righteousness, exceed
the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. You're not
going to enter into the kingdom of God. Because the only righteousness
they had was an outward righteousness for the eyes of men. Within,
they were full of dead men's bones. Within, they were unwashed. Within, they were filthy. Within,
there was only the rags of self-righteousness, the filthy rags of self-righteousness. And one day, when this rich man was not expecting
it, the adversary came. The adversary came and just hailed
him away to the king. And the king said, put him in
hell. Put him in prison. And that's where he went, and
that's where he's been for all these hundreds and hundreds of
years. Now, notice he was rich. And I'll tell you about the Pharisees
again. Remember, our Lord is addressing his remarks, first
of all, to the Pharisees. Let me tell you something about
the Pharisees. They thought that being rich was an indication
of the blessing of God. The blessing of God. But our
Lord, our Lord's Spirit inspired Luke to write in verse 14 again,
the Pharisees also who were covetous, who were covetous, to them loving
money and pursuing materialism was like pursuing blessings. It's sort of like the health
and wealth religious message that so many are preaching today. But our Lord said you're detestable
in the eyes of God. In the eyes of men, this rich
man He was the epitome of a man who's made it. He's got it made.
I wish I was like him. That's what people would say.
I'd walk by his house. See that big mansion? There's
that big gate in the walkway, and there's a poor old beggar
at his gate. Of course, a rich man doesn't
have any time for him. But people look on past him and
say, that's a shame. And that guy, he's got the world
by the tail on a downhill pull, doesn't he? He's just got it
made, that guy does. That's the way the folks looked
at the rich man because that's the air given off by the Pharisees. But there was At his gate, a
man laid who was Lazarus. By the way, the word gate means
gigantic gate. No doubt with an elaborate walkway. This man, he loved prosperity. He had no use for the poor. Now
remember, our Lord is addressing, first of all, the Pharisees.
The Pharisees. To those of you who've been in
Sunday school the last couple of Sundays, and I'll say a word
to those of you who have not been, we've been studying Acts,
the beginning of Acts chapter 3. Last week the beginning of
Acts chapter 3, today the last part of Acts chapter 3, and it
was all about a beggar. A lame beggar who was at the
temple gate, beautiful, beautiful because it was made of Corinthian
gold, and he was sitting there begging. Now guess who frequented
that temple many, many times? Pharisees. They go in, they go
out. They go in, they go out. Did
they help the poor beggar? No. You know the reason they
didn't help him? Because to be poor was an indication
of the curse of God. That man's under a curse. Just
get away from him. And they'd just bypass him, go
right on in the temple. But that's the one Peter had
a word of mercy for. And in this story, it is the
poor man that God had shown grace, saving grace, saving mercy. And the rich man, though he looked
down upon the poor beggar, the poor beggar had the grace of
God in his heart. The poor beggar had been washed. The poor beggar was robed in
the righteousness of Christ Jesus, though he had nothing of this
world's goods. And the Pharisees just ignored
him like they ignored his Savior. They were offended by Lazarus
just like they were offended by his Redeemer. They had nothing
good to say about the poor beggar, Lazarus. They had nothing good
to say about the beggar's savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. So our Lord, in giving forth
this story about a rich man who died and wound up in the king's
prison, he was setting before them What happens to folks like
the Pharisees who were religious, but lost? Who said they had a
form of godliness, but they didn't have the power of it. Who said
they were the children of God, but they had no grace. They had
no mercy. They said they were good people,
but Christ Jesus came to save sinners. They said they lived by the law,
but the law that they said they lived by condemned them. Because the scripture says, for
as many as are under the works of the law are under its curse. For it is written, cursed is
everyone that continueth not in all things that are written
in the law to them. I love the law of God. I'm living
by the law. Well, you better keep it perfectly
then. Outwardly and inwardly. Because
that's what God demands. Perfect conformity to His law. which you can't render. No wonder
the Apostle Paul said in Galatians 4, he said, tell me, ye that
desire to be under the law, don't you hear what the law says? You
who are trying to be good and you think God will pay attention
to you, God will welcome you, don't you hear what the law says?
God demands perfection. You can't find that anywhere
except in Christ. God demands righteousness. You
can't find that anywhere except in Christ. You're in debt to God. The only
one who paid the debt of sin was our Lord Jesus by His bloody
sacrifice that satisfied God's justice. Those who come to Christ
Jesus through His blood are forgiven. Those who don't come to Christ
Jesus give evidence of the fact He didn't die for you anyway.
and your sin remains. You see, this man, this is what
I want you to see. This man to the Pharisees, he's
their hero. He's their hero. He's got it
all. And those young Pharisees walk
by and say, I'm gonna be like that one of these days. Oh, how
God has blessed him. Oh, you poor beggar. God has
cursed you. No. God has blessed that man. He blessed that man with all
spiritual blessings and heavenly places in Christ Jesus. And that
fellow that lives up there in that mansion, who doesn't have
time for the beggar, who by his works gives abundant evidence
that he is graceless, that man up there, He's got nothing. He's not blessed, you're wrong.
He's not blessed, he's cursed. He's under the curse of God.
Now having material things, it can be good, and you can use
things wisely. But I'll tell you, if you set
your affection upon things of the earth, Those things of the
earth, they'll be like a millstone about your neck. They'll drag
you down to hell. The scripture says of this man,
their hero, in hell he lifted up his eyes being in torment. And he's thinking, this can't
be right. I believed in God. I prayed three
times every day. I fasted twice in the week. I tried to do what's right, best
I could. Well, you're in the King's presence
now, and you're not getting out either. That's frightening, that's scary.
It's like those people in Matthew chapter seven. Our Lord said,
many will say to me in that day, the day of judgment, Lord, Lord,
have we not prophesied in thy name, in thy name cast out devils,
and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then I'll profess
unto them, I never knew you'd depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. And I'm sure when the Master
told this story to the Pharisees, they were shocked. And I'll promise
you this, hell is full of people who are shocked to be there.
They're just shocked. Totally, they're taken off guard. There you'll see popes, preachers,
priests, nuns, Sunday school teachers, religious people, monks,
Buddhists, people who lived even in poverty, denying themselves,
thinking all along, God's pleased with me. God is only pleased
with Christ Jesus. That's what you need to hear.
He's only pleased with Christ Jesus and His sacrifice and He's
only pleased with you in Him. That's right, isn't it? That
is the truth. Because you, outside of Jesus
Christ, I don't care who you are, you are detestable to God. So the man died and went to hell. I won't even begin to describe
the terrors of hell. Not much I can say about it.
You just read the Scriptures. From this passage of Scripture,
it's a place of regrets, and it's a place of remembrance. In fact, look down here at verse
25. Ron's read this to you, so I'm
going to skip over a little bit what he read, but look what he
says in verse 24 first. He cried, he said, Father Abraham,
have mercy on me, and sent Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his
finger in water and cool my tongue, for I'm tormented in this flame.
And Abraham said, or but Abraham said, son, remember, and that's
gonna be one of the agonies of hell, I promise you, the memory,
Oh, what a very keen memory people in hell have. How many times
you think Pilate has remembered washing his hands of the blood
of Jesus Christ and saying to the Jews, His blood's on your
hands. He's still trying to wash that
blood off his hands. He can't get it off. He's remembering,
there stood before Him the only Savior, the Lord our righteousness,
the only one who can deliver the poor sinner from the clutches
of sin. He stood right in front of me
and I went crucifying. He still remembered. How many
times do you reckon that's gone through his mind? Over and over
and over again. How many times do you think Judas
has remembered, I kissed the door to heaven and now I'm down
here in the King's presence. I set at his feet. I read his
word. I preached. He gave me power to perform miracles. I did all of these things and
look where I am now! And he just thinks about that
all the time. That's got to be part of the
torments of hell. And this man, this rich man,
Abraham says, remember, remember all the things that God put into
your hands? Did you use any of them in order
to get yourself under the sound of the gospel? Did you go listen
to John the Baptist? John the Baptist who preached
me, Christ would say, who said, Behold the Lamb of God. Did you
listen to John's message? He told you. He pointed me out. But you wouldn't look. You're
too arrogant. You're too busy looking for riches.
You're too busy looking for satisfaction in this world. You wouldn't look
to me and be saved. And so you're down there. And
I'm not letting you out. Hell is a place of no joy, no
happiness, no merriment, no light, no life, no Christ. One writer said, here's what
hell is. It's God avenging His wrath on
you, and you don't have a mediator. You don't have a Savior. You
don't have anybody to stand between you and the wrath of God. You
don't have a substitute. That makes me shiver. You're
guilty. You're guilty of all these transgressions
against God. And you're not getting out. Imagine if you can. I read, a
writer said this, and it at least got me thinking here. He said,
imagine if you can, so I'll say this to each of you, imagine
if you can, all of your heartaches through your life, all of your disappointments,
all of the tremendous amount of hurt and pain that you have
borne All of your disappointments, all of your sufferings, all of
your sorrows, roll them all up into one experience. Well, now that's enough to be
a hell, isn't it? But now, put in there the wrath
of God. You see, all of your excruciating
agonies in this world, and some of you have had horrible experiences. I know you have. But for the
unbeliever, think of all of those and then add to that the greatest
of all things, the infinite wrath of a holy God, and all of those
things pressing on you forever and ever, that will give you
a little indication of what hell is. You know, I can say to the Lord's
people, and some of the Lord's people are afflicted, some of
the Lord's people are tried. We have some in our own congregation
now who are in the hospital, nursing home, back at their house,
sick, unable to come and worship with us anymore. And I can say
to those people who are tried and troubled and in sickness
and in weakness, I can say to the beloved people of God, don't
lose hope. Don't lose hope. There's a better
day coming. Oh yeah, there's a better day
coming. Your condition will change. Lazarus, I know you're laying
at this gate. Don't give up hope, brother.
It's not going to always be this way. You go into the king's palace. You go into the king's palace. Anticipate a glorious, never-ending
day of joyful bliss in the palace of the king. We have a good hope,
Paul says, through grace. That's what he says. What is
a hope? A blessed expectation. of good
things to come, based on the Word of God. We've got hope. We've got a good
hope. But to those who know not Christ
Jesus, and the adversary comes and arrests
you, and takes you to the king, and he puts you in his prison,
there is no hope for you, my friend. There is no possibility
of things getting any better. Now, you're alive now. I tell people as long as you
pray for your sons and daughters, your moms and dads, and brothers
and sisters, and others in your family, dear friends, because
while they're alive, possibility God might show mercy. And there's
a possibility God might show mercy to you. I know this, he delights to show
mercy. Scripture says he got plenty
of mercy, plenty of grace. He's in the sinner-saving business,
that's what he's in. This is a faithful saying and
worthy of all acceptation. Christ Jesus came into the world
to save sinners. Paul said, of whom I'm chief. Here's a poor beggar. He died and went to heaven. He
didn't go to heaven. He didn't go to Abraham's bosom,
which is just another word for heaven, another expression for
the king's palace. He didn't go because he was poor.
He went because he had a savior. It isn't true that all rich people
go to hell and all poor people go to heaven. That's not true.
Rich man didn't go to hell because he's rich. He went to hell because
he loved his riches. He loved materialism. He hated
Christ Jesus. That's his problem. He wouldn't bow to God's way
of salvation. He's of the Pharisee thought.
God will receive me because of what I do. If you look upon salvation
that way, he's going to put you in prison too. And the beggar,
he went to heaven Because God made him to realize his spiritual
poverty. And he fled to Christ Jesus,
the only Savior. God saved him. And he went to
heaven. See, there's a barrier between
heaven and hell, between the prison and the palace. It's set
forth this way, verse 26. Abraham said, besides all this,
between us and you, there's a great gulf between us. There's us and
you. That's all it's going to be in
the end, isn't it? Just us and you. So that they which would pass
from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us which would
not come hence. And all of a sudden, the man
is concerned about his brothers. Abraham said, they've got the
word of God. What's he mean there in verse
29? Abraham said unto him, they have
Moses and the prophets. Let them hear then. What was
the message of Moses and the prophets? The Lord Jesus Christ
and his death. All the prophets spoke of Him.
They all wrote of Him. They all testified of Him. Of
His sufferings, of His death, of His resurrection, of His exaltation,
of His reign, of His coming again. They all wrote and preached of
Him. They have the Word of God. That's
what Abraham told Him. But the man, you see, he still
is insistent upon something else. He said, yeah, but I'll tell
you what's better than the Word of God, a miracle. If one rose
from the dead and went back and told them they had believed,
Abraham said, you're wrong again. You're wrong again. If they don't hear Moses and
the prophets, if they don't hear Christ and Him crucified, they
won't hear the Gospel message. Hey, they're not going to hear.
They won't be persuaded. Even if one rose from the dead
and told them about it. Our Lord Jesus rose from the
dead. Didn't believe Him. He raised
Lazarus from the dead. Not this Lazarus, but Lazarus
of Bethany. He raised Him from the dead.
They didn't believe Christ as a result of that. Well, it's like one in the Old
Testament said, I set before you life and death. It said,
set before you life and death. I've talked to you tonight about
the palace. I'd heap rather talk about the palace of the king
than the prison of the king. But I do have to be honest. I've
got to tell you the truth. I don't want you to go to prison.
Join us in the palace of the king.