Well, it's a delight to see you,
to be with you. There was a surprise when Gary
told me that Jim wasn't going to be here. I accused him of
trying an old retail trick of lost leader. I don't know what
you know. Some of you who have been in retail know what lost
leader is. advertise one thing and then the people show it up
and say we've already sold out. So I think that's probably what's
going on. Nonetheless, we'll see what the Lord has for us. I want you to turn back to Luke
chapter 16. I want you to read the remainder of this chapter.
The verses I'm going to deal with are very familiar to you. If you were listening to our
brother read, there's some strange language in that first part of
Luke chapter 16. different and says some things
that you don't hardly know what it means. And I'm not quite sure
I know what it means either, so I don't think I'm that smart.
But at any rate, beginning with verse 19, it says, There was
a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen,
and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of 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. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes,
being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus
in his bosom. 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. But Abraham said, Son, remember
that thou in thy life receiveth thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you there is 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. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for
I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they
also come unto this place of torment. And Abraham said unto
him, They have Moses, and the prophets. Let them hear him. And he said, Nay, Father Abraham,
but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And
he said unto them, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Now, I confess to you that I
have preached from this particular passage several times over the
years that I have been privileged to minister the gospel of the
Lord Jesus Christ. And I also confess to you I have
never been satisfied that I have come close to the meaning of
this passage. This for the most part is the
quintessential text used to describe heaven and hell. Many preachers
have preached from this describing heaven and hell. I cannot count
the number of messages I have heard concerning the torments
of hell and the glories of heaven. This message or two words from
this, three words from this message was preached by Ralph Barnard
when I was a young fellow and I got a hold of one of the tapes.
It was called, My Son Remember. You remember that? And the way
he described it, it was, Surely some place I never wanted to
go. I never wanted to go. It was a place of remembering.
And he spoke of all the evil deeds that men did would be brought
up to their memory. And it was kind of a scary situation
to hear him preach it. And I have had over the years
the bejeebies scared out of me by preachers preaching about
hell. And though I do not believe you can scare someone into salvation
any more than you can sweet-talk them into salvation, I do think
that a healthy regard and concern For the eternal woes of the damned
is reasonable and prudent. I don't think I'm off the wall
for saying that. I cannot imagine anyone in their
right mind having read this passage here, having read this passage,
desiring to wind up there. I certainly don't. I certainly
don't. There is a division among the
scholars and theologians as to whether this story is a parable or a record of some true history. Some say that because a name
is given to the poor beggar, Lazarus, that it couldn't be
a parable, which is generally a story that does not use proper
names, but two are used in this, Lazarus and Abraham. I'll tell
you what my difficulty is about preaching about hell. It's trying to do it in a manner
where I don't sound like it's my idea, like I come up with
it. Or preaching in a manner that
doesn't come across as some vindictive pleasure in the fact that such
a place exists and that many will end up there. And when I
think about it, I usually think especially those I don't like
will end up there. It's difficult to preach about
it, to be honest with you. Now in this passage, further
difficulty is presented in connection with this story, the rest of
it, in what our brother just read in the first part of chapter
16, because it's all one thing here. All of it says the same
thing. Strange words. Make friends with
evil mammon. Make friends with evil mammon. Mammon is some of the most odd
words in all of Scripture. what is spoken and what I just
read to you in verses 19 through 31, our text, the passage must
be viewed in light of this context, and we don't understand what's
being talked about. This may make it seem to be more difficult
because of the nature of the message in the first part of
this chapter. Since all Scripture is about Christ, we really don't
have to go any further than that. all of this is about Christ,
then this passage also has to do with the Lord Jesus Christ. Though heaven and hell are set
forth here, surely we can rest assured that they are not the
primary or preeminent subject of this passage of Scripture.
This is about Christ. This is about our Lord Jesus
Christ. It's about His work of redemption. It's about justification
that He accomplished. And these things are inseparable
from the person. You can't talk about Christ.
You can't even say His name or mention His name. and not mention
His work. It's an impossibility. His name
means that He was appointed for the work or anointed for the
work. His surname, Jesus, means that He shall save His people
from their sins. There is no separation between
Christ and His work. Tell me one thing about Christ,
but don't tell me anything about His work. It's an impossible
thing. So this is about Jesus Christ
and His work of redemption. And one theme or word that occurs
throughout this passage is riches, or mammon, or unrighteous mammon,
or true riches. These things are mentioned over
and over again. Look back at what our brother read just a
few moments ago. Look at verses 9 through 13 of chapter 16. I
say unto you, make to yourself friends of mammon of unrighteousness,
that when you fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations.
He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in
much, and he that is unjust in least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye have not been
faithful in the unrighteous mammon, and that is the riches of the
world, who can commit your trust to the true? And the word riches
is added for our understanding, but I think maybe the true is
a little better there all by itself. And if we have not been
faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that
which is your own? That in itself is a strange statement.
If you've not been faithful to another man's, how are you going
to get what's your own? That's an odd statement. Look at verse
19. There was a certain man which
was clothed in purple and linen and fared sumptuously every day.
Then in verse 22. Again, this richness is set forth. It says, ìAnd it came to pass
that the beggar died and was carried into the angels of Abraham,
and the rich man also died.î Then in verse 25 it says, ìAnd
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy life receiveth thy
good things.î Likewise, lathers is an evil thing, but now he
is comforted, and thou art discomfited, or thou art in tortures. Now,
since this passage must be weighed in the light of all Scripture,
comparing scriptural things with scriptural things, and spiritual
things with spiritual things, and since the Bible makes it
clear that no person is justified by works before God, doesn't
the Bible say that? I'm pretty sure it does. Phrases here such as being received
into everlasting habitations, doesn't have anything to do with
justification before Almighty God. You know and I know that
when a person is rich, we're naturally suspect of them anyway.
That's us, you know. And we tend to think that rich
people, they didn't get that honestly. They must have done
something crooked to make it, you know. And we look at the
poor and we pity them. And we're kind of in between
somewhere. But the fact is, riches are not in and of themselves
sinful. I have a good friend who's a
millionaire. I only have one that's a millionaire that I know
of. I may have more, but they haven't told me. He actually
told me. But he told me he was a millionaire before the Lord
saved him, before the Lord revealed Christ to him. And when the Lord
revealed Christ to him, he realized why the Lord had made him rich
to start with. And he's one of the supporters of many missionaries
and gospel churches a very rich man. Riches aren't sinful, and
poverty is not meritorious. Being poor is not a merit before
God. Suffering is not meritorious. That kind of thinking makes men
take vows of poverty, so they'll feel like they merit in a righteousness
before God. That's not what this text is
dealing with. Scripture says, ìBy grace are you saved, through
faith. And that not of yourselves is
a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.î Now,
the words of our Lord concerning these things, I believe, are
parabolic in nature. And being such, even the words
of our text are designed to teach one specific theme. This whole
chapter teaches one specific thing. You see, a parable cannot
stand on three legs. It cannot do it. You can't treat
a parable like you do some other scriptures that aren't parabolic,
that you can deal with verse by verse and take apart here
and use a word there. When you look at a parable, no
matter what it is, you're going to have to deal with the whole
parable to understand the single theme that's being taught. And
our Lord is teaching a single theme here. A single theme here,
and the theme being taught, the lesson that our Lord is delivering
is actually very simple and is a theme that He used in other
places in Scripture. And the theme is simply this.
If you do not make proper use of what you have, you are without
excuse. If you don't make proper use
of what you have, you are without excuse. Our Lord said in Romans
chapter 1 that when men knew God, they weren't thankful to
Him as God, and they were left without excuse. And what happened? In nature, He had revealed that
He was omnipotent, all-powerful. That was a light. And men, instead
of using that to seek Him and to love Him and to declare Him
as the God He is, turned the truth of God into a lie and began
to worship the creature rather than the Creator. They had light. They had a light that they could
use and should use, and they didn't use it. They didn't use
it. So their end was, of course,
the end of all natural fleshly religion, and that is reprobation.
Our Lord uses natural finance here. He talks a lot about finances
to teach us spiritual truth, stewardship. Having riches and
proper use of what is available to you are metaphors. They are
metaphors for the gospel, for the gospel and hearing the gospel,
the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And this text declares
the response of some men and the response of other men to
the gospel. The longer I preach the gospel,
the more I realize that it's never heard with impunity. That those who are here tonight
will not leave here the same that they were when they got
here. Because the gospel is the power
of God unto salvation. And God has caused those who
preach the gospel to always triumph in the Lord Jesus Christ. And
that triumph is twofold. It's a triumph that honors God's
mercy. It is a triumph that honors God's
wrath. And one thing for sure, when
you hear the gospel, I'll guarantee you that you love Christ more
after it's done, or you hate Him more after it's done, because
that's just how it's rigged. It's one thing. It's the truth. If it's the truth, then there
is nothing else but the truth. You either bow to the truth and
believe the truth, or the truth will slay you. You will fall
on that stone, or that stone will fall on you. That's always
the case. You're here tonight. You've traveled
from here and there, and I appreciate you coming. I'm glad to be here. I'm glad to preach, though I
don't much like to hear the sound of my voice anymore. I was kind
of looking forward to hearing Jim Byrd. But our Lord here speaks
in parables that are guided missiles. They are guided missiles. They're
like that fellow who drew an arrow at a venture and shot it
in the air. He had no idea where it was going.
I don't have any idea where this is going. I'm going to preach. I don't know what it's going
to do here tonight, but I'll tell you this, it's a guided missile.
It will find its mark. It always will. It doesn't have
anything to do with me. has to do with the truth. So these parables
that our Lord says speaks of guided missiles targeted for
one specific group. Now, He speaks to His disciples,
but if we look at it in the context beginning back in chapter 15
and go all the way through 17, He speaks to His disciples, but
always in the earshot of some other people. And the other people
that he speaks to are the Pharisees. The bullseye for this era are
the Jews, and in general, the Pharisees in particular. How
are they described? Look back at chapter 15. They
are a group of people who stood around and were upset that Jesus
Christ ate with sinners. And so our Lord says to them,
in verse 2, they are called the Pharisees, and describes, and
the Pharisees murmured. Spurgeon said murmuring is a
two-syllable word that any beast can make. Murmur. That's all it is, a murmur. And
they said, ìThis man receiveth sinners and eats with them, and
he spake a parable to them.î So he's going to teach them a
single lesson. He spake a parable to them. In verse 7, here's how
they're described. ìI say unto you that likewise
joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than
than over 99 just persons which need no repentance. Now, that's
the Pharisees he's talking about. That's the 99 he left behind
to go out and find one lost sheep. That's the Pharisees. They don't
need repentance. They're just. They say they're just and they're
justified before God. They don't need any repentance.
I know they're not children of God because we live in a state
of repentance, don't we? Child of God lives in a state
of repentance. Look over at verse 14 and 15. Here we have part
of that parable, which is the prodigal son, and he's lost everything,
and now he goes to try to get help from somebody, and a Pharisee
is described. And when he had spent all in
verse 14, there arose a mighty famine in the land, and he began
to be in want, and he went and joined himself to a citizen of
that country, and the citizen sent him out into the fields
to feed the swine. He gave him something to do.
He didn't feed him. He didn't feed him. Kind of like the old
covenant and the new, you know, in John chapter 4 when our Lord
must need to go to Samaria. Jacob had a whale there. It was
Jacob's whale. God gave Jacob a whale. God didn't
give that woman a whale. He gave her water. The old adage,
you know, if you give a man a fish, he'll eat it. If you teach him
how to fish, he'll eat forever. That works in grace, I tell you, when
you really think about it. We've been given the fish. God
has not given us a fishing pole. God didn't give us a well. He
made us a well. A well of living waters. Look
at verse 29 of Luke chapter 16. Or chapter 15, excuse me. It
says this, and he answered, he said, Lo, these many years do
I serve thee. Here's another Pharisee. This
is the son that stayed at home and was a good boy. He said,
ìLo, these many years do I serve thee, neither transgressed I
at any time thy commandment, and yet thou never gavest me
a kid, that I might make merry with thy friend.î Well, if he
has been just and righteous all those years, why does he need
a sacrifice to start with? Why does he need a kid? Why does
he need a kid to be sacrificed? He is a righteous man. Now, all
these things tell us that every one of these people mentioned
here had something very special. They had light. They had been
given some things, and they were responsible for the proper use
of what they had. These same people derided Christ. Now, why did they deride Him?
Look back at our text. I'm going to get there in a minute. Hang
with me. In verse 14 it says, ìAnd the
Phariseesî in chapter 16, ìalso who were covetous heard all these
things, and they derided Him.î Why did they deride Him? Because
they were covetous. Covetousness is what? It is idolatry
according to Scripture. It was these Pharisees who justified
themselves. It was they who highly esteemed
that which was an abomination to God. They esteemed themselves. They esteemed things that God
says was an abomination. And the word abomination is a
very powerful word. It means human gas. That's the Hebrew meaning of
that. And that's just about as gross as you can get. God says,
that's what you did. That's what all you do is. It
stinks in my nostrils. It's the smell in my nostrils.
These thought that our Lord was speaking about money. Did you
think that's what He was talking about when we were reading this
text? Mammon, riches, wealth. They thought He was talking about
money. They thought He was talking about their money. Their money
and how they used it. And their mismanagement of it.
They looked at their pocketbook, and it says our Lord was looking
at their hearts. There was a heart problem here,
and they thought it was a problem with the pocketbook. They thought
that the riches they possessed in their bank account was what
He was referring to, but our Lord was speaking to their unique
privilege. They were privileged more than
any other people on the face of the earth. More than any other. Someone
told me there's 59 million square miles of land on the earth. I
don't know whether that's true or not. I read it somewhere,
I think. But you know where God met with His people? In a 15
by 15 foot area, one time a year, with one man, and not without
blood. And He met with nobody else.
This was a privileged people. That's what this memony is. That's
what these riches are that he is speaking of. They are very
privileged people. What were their riches that they
had available to them that they did not use properly? What did
they have that they did not use properly? The true riches, whatever
that is. What didn't they employ? What
was their covetousness? What abominable thing did they
highly esteem? What mammon did they serve in
opposition to serving God? What did they have? They had
the Word of God. Think about that. They've had
it for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. They
had the greatest riches of all, of all. Look at verse 16 and
17. Here's what they had. Verse 16,
ìThe Law and the Prophets were until John. Since that time the
kingdom of God is preached, and every man presses unto it.î They
had the Law and the Prophets. Itís easier for heaven and earth
to pass than one tittle of the Law, and thatís the old Word
of God to pass. They had the Word of God. How did they use
it? You had the Word of God. They
had the Word of God. They had the Gospel in tight
picture and shadow. When our Lord said these words,
He was preaching out of the Old Testament. He was preaching out
of the Old Testament. Look how Paul describes them
over in Romans chapter 9. Romans chapter 9. Here's the privileges they had. Verse 4, it says, "...who are
Israelites, to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory,"
that is, the Shekinah glory dwelling over the mercy seat in the holy
place, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the
service of God, the Levitical priesthood, and the promises. Wow, they had a lot of stuff,
didn't they? They had it all. who are the fathers, and of whom
are concerning the flesh, Christ came." They were the physical
lineage of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is blessed forever. Amen.
These were a privileged people. They were a privileged people.
All the Law and the Prophets, what did they speak of? They
spoke of Christ. According to Scripture, Christ said, All the
Law and the Prophets spoke of Me. And they had Jesus Christ
standing right in their midst. They had the Son of the Most
High God standing right in their midst, and they derided Him. They derided Him. The mammon
they served. The riches they were unjust stewards
of. The abomination that they highly
esteemed was their own righteousness, their own merit before God, self-righteousness,
their self-justification. Because it says they believed
they were just. Our Lord said that. They believed
they were just. They believed they were just. They abused and rejected the
Word of God. And they were the only ones who
had access to it. What a privilege they had. But
they abused the Word of God. They were rich. But their riches they used to
rob widows' houses. And they got them by robbing
widows' houses and make long pretenses of prayer. They were
religious treasures. People have treasures. Where
your heart is there, where your treasure is, there shall your
heart be also. That's what our Lord said. These had treasures.
What did they do? They gave alms. They did righteousness. That's
what the word alms means. They did righteousness. They
took care of the poor. They prayed. They fasted. They were very religious, naturally
righteous men. And the Lord said, you've got
the reward of what you wanted. Your alms, you did alms so everybody
could see you doing it. You brought attention to yourself
and not to Christ. You've got what you wanted. And
you prayed not in the closet in private where no man could
see you pray. You went out in public. And you
called out people to pay attention because now you were going to
pray. And you got what you wanted. They said, there is a holy fellow. And when you fasted, you'd come
out of the room where you fasted and you were all wore out. You
had sweat on your brow. And your hair wasn't combed.
And you didn't look good. People said, oh, he's suffering
for the call. God said, you got what you want.
You got what you want. That's what these Pharisees had.
They were rich. They had riches. They knew that
it was the right thing to do, to give alms, because God said
to do so. They knew it was right to pray, because God said to
do so. They knew it was right to fast,
because God said to do so. But they used it in a manner
not to honor God, but to honor themselves. You ever do anything
like that? Nah. You wouldn't do anything
like that, would you? You wouldn't do something nice
for somebody, would you? And then just wait somewhere
down the road for the opportunity to work it into a conversation
that you did it? That's abusing the privilege
that we have. It really is. And that's what these folks did.
It was an abomination to God. They trusted in themselves that
they were righteous, and they despised others according to
Luke chapter 18 and verse 9. They used the economist's approach
to natural election as accounting them entitled to the wealth of
the world. They believed that they were
rich because they were righteous, because they were the elect of
God. When I was taking economics in college, that was one of the
theories of economics that they put forth about Calvinism in
Western civilization, was that many of the Calvinists believed
that they were wealthy, and many of them were, because they were
the elect. And it was a form of self-righteousness
that they set forth. They used the law, the Word of
God, as a legal means of self-justification based on their own entitlement. Anybody think like that? Remember
what Job's friends of no value said to him? You know, if you
was righteous, none of this stuff would happen to you. You did
something wrong. Because righteous people have
it made in the world. That's what most people believe.
They have it made in the world. Most people don't understand
what righteousness is anyway. I don't. I'm thankful that God
fixed it so He made Christ to be my righteousness, because
I have no idea what my righteousness is. Do you know what yours is?
It's Christ. I know this if I look at anything
that I do, or am, and think, that's righteous. Boy, I know
that's wrong. That can't be right. Jesus Christ
lived on this earth perfectly, 33 years, perfectly, perfectly. He never had an evil thought
or did an evil deed. Every word he spoke was to honor
God the Father. Surely, men would see that kind
of perfection and say, ìThere you go, thereís a holy man.î
You know what they said? ìWell, heís a wino.î Thatís what they
said, ìHeís a winebibber. Heís got a devil.î You think
you know what righteousness is? You donít. And neither do I. But I know this, God has made
Jesus Christ to be my righteousness. That is my only righteousness.
I have no other. These men were rich because God
had given them very much and they abused it. They would fail
in the end because they abused their riches and they would be
without excuse or recourse. They were rich. They were the
rich of which our Lord speaks in this entire text. The religion
of human merit was their bankroll. And they served their bounty
and not God. And even the reference to adultery
here has its roots in the marital ties, not in the marital ties,
but in the religion of the flesh. Abusing what is good. Abusing
what is good. Why are the people to get married? We know it's so they can get
along and have a nice life together and raise kids and stuff like
that. But why are people to be married? To honor God. Come up with another reason.
To honor God. The wife is to be in subjection
to her husband. Why? Because the bride is in
subjection to Christ. Oh, I thought it was because
men were better. Forget it. And let me tell you something
about that. When the Lord says something to somebody, don't
take that to mean that you have anything to do with it. The Lord says that you are to
love your brethren. Don't look to your brethren to
see if they love you. And when the Lord says to the
wife, be in subjection to your husband. Listen, husbands, you
don't have anything to do with that. You understand that? God didn't say, husbands, make
sure your wives are in subjection. That's stupid. What does He say to husbands?
Love your wives like Christ, like the church. Now, wives,
you don't have anything to do with that either. You can't say,
well, the Lord said do that. That's for the husband. God knows
who He's talking to when He talks to folks. He knows who He's talking
to. And when they use the marriage
becomes light and means nothing, and they separate and divorce,
that's why our Lord said it's adulterous. It's adulterous. Because it is against the glory
and the honor of Christ and His church and what He did for them.
Their religion was an adulterous religion. Over and over again,
our Lord called them an adulterous generation. That didn't mean
they were going out and cheating on their wives. It meant that
they weren't making use of what God had given them for His glory
and for His honor. And it was to these that our
Lord spoke the words in this day. verses 19 through 31. There was
a certain rich man, a rich man, clothed in purple and fine linen
that fared sumptuously every day. Now, who do you reckon he's
talking to there? Who do you reckon he's talking
about? The same folks he's been talking about since Luke 15 on.
He was clothed in purple. That's a Latin word there and
we get our word profusely or profound from that word. His
wealth was great and he was openly grand in his wealth. He was also
clothed in fine linen. This was probably that fine Egyptian
linen that's renowned for its beauty but also its fragility.
It tears real easy. It is the same linen that covered
the harlot's bed in Proverbs chapter 7, and it pictures religious
self-righteousness, this fine linen. The rich man is the religious
Pharisee who had at his disposal the riches of the law and the
prophets, and he had before him Jesus Christ. of whom all the prophets spoke."
That's the rich man. Then there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus. Who was this beggar? If this is a parable, why was
he named? I believe it is a parable. And
he's named because he must be named. He must be named. His name is above every name. His name is the only name under
heaven given among men whereby we might be saved. The name Lazarus
is the Greek rendering of the Hebrew name Eleazar, and it is
a name that means God is my help. God is my help. What did God
say of Jesus Christ? He said, I have laid help on
one who is mighty. The word beggar means a poor
person who is in need. And you say, well, wait a minute,
you're talking about Christ. Yes, I am. It is difficult for us to consider
our Lord in that capacity. It is nonetheless the description
that our Lord gives of Himself in His humanity and His suffering.
He gives that description of Himself. It is what the Lord the Prophet
said of him. In Psalm 34, verse 6, it says,
This poor man cried, and the Lord heard him and saved him
out of his troubles. Psalm 40, verse 17, But I am
poor and needy. That's the same psalm that says,
Lo, I come in the volume of the book that is written to me to
do thy will, O God. I shall preach righteousness
in the congregation. We know that's about Christ from
Hebrews chapter Chapter 10, don't we? In that psalm it says, I
am poor and needy. I am poor and needy. Yet the
Lord thinketh on me. Thou art my help and my deliverer. Make no tarrying. Oh, my God. Psalm 41, ìBlessed is he that
considereth the poor. The Lord will deliver him in
times of trouble.î Psalm 69, ìBut I am poor and sorrowful.
Let thy salvation, O God, set me on high.î Ecclesiastes 9.15,
ìNow there was found in it that city of poor wise men, and he
by his wisdom delivered the city. Yet no man remembered the same
poor man.î Whoís that talking about? Isaiah 66, too. For all these things hath mine
hand made, and all the things have been, saith the Lord. But
to this man will I look, even to him that is poor, and of a
contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word. How does the Lord
describe Himself in Matthew 11? Come unto Me, all you that labor
heaven and earth, and I will give you rest, for I am weak. I am weak. You think Psalm 51
is really about David? Psalm 51 is about Christ. It
describes David's actions and his repentance. It ends with
these words, ìThe Lord looks to him with a contrite heart.î
Our Lord was a man of a broken heart and a contrite spirit.
And he was poor and he was needy. Everybody else had a house to
lay in. Where did he sleep? On a rock. He laid his head down
on a rock. Our Lord said, for all these
things, but I'm going to look to the man who trembles at My
Word, the poor man. This poor man, Eleazar, Lazarus,
God is my help, laid at the feet, or laid at the rich man's gate.
What does that mean? He came unto his own. and his own, received him not. It says he was full of bruises
and sores. He was wounded for our transgressions,
bruised for our iniquities, and with his stripes we are healed.
He was a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. Look over at Psalm
38 just for a moment. Psalm 38. Look at verse 5, ìMy wounds stink and are corrupt because of my
foolishness.î Look at verse 7, ìFor my loins are filled with
a loathsome disease, and there is no soundness in my flesh.î Thereís Christ on the cross.
My arms are disjointed. Iím full of bruises and sore. The dogs lick his wounds. It all starts out with the Pharisees
looking at a bunch of dogs and wondering why the Savior is eating
with them. Luke 15. Who are these dogs? Us. It's us. Sinners love Him. Dogs love Him. That old Syrophoenician woman,
you remember her? He said, I'm not going to give
bread to the dogs. She said, I know. That's the truth. I'm
your dog. I'll be your dog. I am your dog. These dogs licked His wounds.
And it says, It came to pass, as was ordained and according
to purpose, that the beggar died and went to glory. Do you know
anybody that sounds like? He died. and went to glory. Scripture says, when He had purged
our sins, He sat down on the right hand of the Father, ever
living to make intercession for the saints. In the fullness of
time, Christ came, born of a woman, born under the law to redeem
them that are under the law. And the religious Pharisee then
died, and he went to hell, it says. And in torment, he cried
for who? Lazarus. Because I'll tell you
what people will know in hell. They'll know there's always been
just one thing that will set them right with God. They'll
know that in hell. They'll know that in hell. My
son, remember, he cried for Lazarus to ease his pain. He cried for
the water of the Word to slake his thirst. He now desired what
he had before, discounted and abused. He wanted what he had. He wanted what he had. And Abraham
said, ìSon, remember what you had.î What did he have? What
do you have? He got the Word of God. He got the Law and the Prophets.
He had the Law and the Prophets. He had Christ at his gates. When the Gospel is preached,
Christ is there. He is the Word made flesh that
dwelt among us. We beheld His glory as the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. I don't fully
understand how this thing works with regeneration, how this Word
is preached by poor, weak, frail, trembling human lips with stammering
tongues. I don't know how that works.
I really don't. I've been preaching the Gospel
for a long time, and I haven't figured that out yet. God talks
about it in terms of of semen and spermatozoa, of life beginning
somehow in a person's heart when the Word is preached, uniting
the Word with the person, and that person bearing Christ, as
it were. Strange language. I don't know
how it works. It's kind of like the fellow who said, do you know
how electricity works? And the only answer is, really
well. It works really good, electorates.
And the Gospel works really well. I know that. I don't know how
it works, but I know it works really well. We have the Word
of God. This man, this rich man, rich
in his own righteousness, who had the Word of God, he was not
an infidel in that sense. He understood. He had the Law
and the Prophets. He had the ceremonies. He had
all those things. He had the priesthood. He had
all that. And let it go. He let it go. He counted that as riches. He counted that in the sense
that it was enough to get him to glory. Anybody like that in
Scripture? Christ looked at these same people
in John chapter 5 and said, You search the Scriptures. For in
them you think, in the searching of them, you think you have eternal
life. But you see there, they which
testify of thee, and you will not come to me that you might
have life." People will come to the Scriptures and count it
as riches. People talk about reading the
Bible. I had a fellow tell me he read the Bible seven times
one time. And I said, well, what does it
say? He said, I don't know. Do you
know what the Bible says? If you're a child of God, you
do. You're the only one in the world who understands it. But people
think, well, there must be some merit in reading the Bible. There
is no merit in reading the Bible. You can be self-righteous about
it, though. And you can even count your soul on it. Sad to
say. How do I know? When you get in
a fix, and things start going bad, what
do you think? Well, I need to get my Bible.
I didn't read my Bible. Now you should read your Bible.
But what are you really thinking? What are you really thinking?
If I read my Bible, things are going to get better. That's self-righteousness,
folks. That's works religion. Well,
I need to pray more. Why? To get yourself out of a fix.
That's self-righteous works religion. We don't do anything, now listen
to me, anything, anything, anything in this world to better our estate. Because we can't. So stop thinking that way. We
need to just stop thinking that way. These fellas, this rich
man had the riches of the gospel, but he counted it as righteousness
that he had those things. You had the Law and the Prophets,
you had Christ at your gates, but you sought to justify yourself
and esteem what God despises. You are tormented, and Lazarus
rests." He does. He rests? Of course He does.
He has entered into the rest because He has finished the work
that He was ordained to do. That's the language that's set
forth here in this passage, verse 25 and 26. Abraham said, ìMy
son, remember that thou in thy life receiveth thy good things,
and likewise Lazarus' evil things. But now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented.î And beside all this is a great
gulf fixed. The great gulf fixer that would
pass over from thence to you cannot, and neither can they
pass to us that would come from thence. What does this man say? Send Christ back. The next time he comes back, it's all over, folks. He's going to wind this thing
up. You see, God has spoken. God is not speaking. He is not
speaking. He has spoken. Faith does not
rely on what is being said. Faith relies on what has been
said. Faith is subjective in that sense.
It has an object, a singular object, the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it is subjective in this sense. We cannot prove a thing
we believe. I listened to talk radio the
other day. I do that when I'm driving because it passes time
real quick and it makes me laugh and all these jerks on talk radio.
But they were talking about a debate between the creationists and
the, and I think they're calling it the design guys now, rather
than the creationists, but they're calling the guys who believe
in design, and the evolutionists. Oh, and they were talking about
how the debate was going and all that crazy kind of stuff.
Really, really exciting. Listen, if it can be debated,
It is debatable. Does that make sense? We don't debate the Scriptures.
We bow to the Scriptures. We don't have an opinion about
the Scriptures. We bow to the Scriptures. Do you know what the root word
for opinion is? Or the root word for heresy is?
Look it up. First definition of heresy. opinion. You see, the truth allows no
opinion. It allows no opinion because it's the truth. You have
the truth. You have the truth. It's not
debatable. It's not debatable. Everything we believe, we believe
because one day God put something in us that made us do that. One
day I was walking down the street as an unbeliever. I really was. I didn't believe any of this
mess. I didn't care for it. The very
next day, you could not convince me that everything in that book
wasn't the absolute truth and that Christ was my whole hope.
What happened? Did I get smart? Did I study
up? Did I pray through? Through this
Word, God did something to me. And now I can't help but believe.
I can't stop believing. And I've tried a few times. Haven't
you? How many times have you quit
the ministry? How many times have you quit? Oh, my goodness. We do it about every other day.
I'm really convinced after preaching this tonight, I ought to quit.
I'll be honest with you. This matter of faith, we cannot
prove it. Stop trying. Stop trying to come
up with evidence that you are a child of God, because the only
evidence that you are a child of God is this, I believe. You say, well, that doesn't make
it so. It does if God gives you the
faith to believe it, because the verity of the whole thing
relies on Him and not on you. This man had the prophets. He perished because he counted
these things as righteousness. Lazarus is Christ. He finished the work
of salvation and now he rests. He rests. This man says, send
back Christ to tell them. Tell those people I love not
to come to this place. They'd believe somebody. if they
rose from the dead. They'd believe somebody if they
rose from the dead. But repentance does not come
by seeing. It comes by believing. By believing. It's granted by the grace of
God. He said you had your law and
your prophets. You heard the words of Christ. And you abused
the riches that you were given. You did not believe, but rather
used the Word and the Christ to establish your own righteousness.
And if you use not the riches that you have properly been given,
you are without excuse. That's what this is all about.
The rich man is the self-righteous man. The poor man is Christ. And he is in our midst. Our Lord,
when He spoke to Zacchaeus, He gave a parable to folks about
talents. Remember that? And He said of
those talents that He gave one man one talent, another five,
another ten. And the one with five talents
went out and produced five more. The one with ten talents went
out and produced ten more. But the one with one, you know,
he believed God was sovereign. Because when he comes back, he
says, what have you produced for what I've given you? He said, well, you
know, you're an austere man. And you put people down and raise
them up. You do what you want to do. And I just figured I'd
just hold it for you. He said, well, let me have that
and I'm going to give it to the one that's got ten. The one that's got ten. What our
Lord is teaching in this parable is simple. You've got the Word
of God. We have the Word of Almighty
God. Christ is in our midst. Seek Him. The true riches that
He speaks of.