That last hymn we sang, Nothing
Between My Soul and My Savior, if you didn't understand the
spirit of that hymn by the writer, it's one of those dogmatic resolves to see to it that nothing keeps
you from Christ. It's not just a nice piece of
phraseology. Nothing between... It's actually
emphatic. Nothing between my soul and my
Savior. Lord, don't let anything be between
my soul and the Savior. Nothing! Nothing between my soul
the Savior nothing at all that's that's the spirit of that hymn
because you know and I know that that's the battle every day and
how appropriate is that hymn in regards to what we are contemplating
today I know a man that our Lord spoke of who let everything come
between his soul and the Savior and alas he finds himself perishing
under the wrath of God. The parable of Lazarus and the
rich man is a very prominent, very powerful, very pertinent
and often controversial parable. And when I say parable, I do
not mean myth. For those of you who are not
as sensitive to biblical terminology as you could be, understand that
biblical parables are not myths myths are lies that are constructed
within allegorical and metaphorical Sort of genres But they have
no truth to them whatsoever that's a myth a myth may be a story
that is made up about a concept that is made up a myth may be
a metaphor and an analogy or a an idea that is set in the
construct of imagery and pictures, but there is no reality behind
it in terms of truth. That's what a myth is. Mythos
is our term for what the New Testament writers said would
dominate the thinking of our present generation. When we think
of parables, however, don't think of parables in the biblical sense
of parables, in the Pauline sense of parables, or in the master's
sense of parables as stories that really don't have relationship
to the truth. Contrary to the fact they are
essential truths that are framework in a form of speech that's designed
to cause you to think. Parables are simply augmentations
of propositional truth that sometimes are difficult to grasp without
the parable. Certainly this is the case when
you and I think about the idea of eternal judgment. The mortal
soul has very little by way of experience or capacity to envision
or to contemplate thoroughly the idea of eternity without
God. The language of scripture around
the subject of eternal punishment is language that is almost exclusively
symbolic. Because to talk about things
to come when we've never been there is to talk about things
with which we have no factual reference point. And so what
God has to do is use metaphor and analogy and symbolism to
speak to us about realities. This is one of the reasons why
in theology today and in scholarship, particularly among the unbelieving
scholars and your pagan scholars, they would argue that the Bible's
emphasis on a literal hell cannot be true because there is no way
to describe it in such sufficient terms for us to draw that conclusion. But as you will see over the
next several weeks, because I'm going to be talking to you about
the doctrine of eternal punishment. for a number of weeks, not a
long, exhaustive period, but at least three sermons must be
given to this text in order for us to appreciate what's here. We will learn as we work through
the passages that our Lord Jesus Christ was able to accomplish
in this parable, not only many principles, many, many principles
that are essential for us to consider before us, many practical
principles with regards to life and death and relationships,
practical principles like the wages of sin is death. The parable underscores that
sound doctrinal truth. And what it says is all have
sinned and come short of the glory of God. What the parable
will teach us are a number of antitheses, the antithesis between
the rich and the poor, not in general, but in specific, the
antithesis between the miserable person and the blessed person. the antithesis between the individual
who lives in comfort and the individual who is suffering. It will talk to us about the
blessing of the rich and the miserable to be found only in
the realm of time. It will talk to us about the
conscious awareness of truth neglected when once a person
finds himself in hell. It will explain to us that hell
is not a place of silence or a departure from reality, but
in fact hell will be more real than life is here now for people
who live in these physical bodies and can manipulate their conscience
by lies. Hell is a form of reality greater
than the world We presently live in for which the rich man will
help us understand. He came to know more truth when
he ended up in hell Than he did living here and so hell will
teach us a number of things and the passages will teach us a
number of things and don't and don't Don't fool yourself. This
text is rich rich rich with comforts and Those that will take heed
and pay attention to the doctrine therein So the title of our message
today is the rich man and Lazarus and I want you to follow me in
your outline because this will help us We'll just make our way
through our outline today. I chose to just deal with the
opening verses here because they are Instructive and we need to
regard them. I'm I started back at verse 16
addressing what I had called last week, the bridge between
the parable of the prodigal son and the doctrine of eternal punishment,
that bridge being the parable of the unjust steward, the prodigal
steward, as we talked about last week. And I want to actually
address a few things in relationship to that, because I want you to
be persuaded that as our Lord Jesus Christ lays out before
us this parable of the rich man and Lazarus, the ultimate consequences
that befell both of them this parable is not disjointed or
disconnected from the parable of the prodigal son in fact it
really is a culmination of the parable of the prodigal son the
parable of the prodigal servant and the consequences of living
a prodigal life the parable of the prodigal son the parable
of the prodigal steward and the consequences of living a prodigal
life, a wasteful life, a life that was aimless, a life that
was given to dissipation, a life that was given to the frivolous
pursuit of one's own objective. The calamity in the parable before
us is that this rich man had every opportunity to be an enormous
blessing to people in his life. only to end up perishing, perishing,
perishing under the wrath of God. And what is intriguing to
me, Saints, as I pour over the Scriptures again and again and
again, is how that our Lord Jesus Christ in his teachings, in his
preaching, never failed to address every important area in our lives. In fact, the parable of Lazarus
and the rich man carries within it so many important redemptive
doctrines that our Lord truly gave to the people of his day
the whole counsel of God. Everything that was necessary
for life in godliness was preached by Christ to his generation. And so the first thing I want
to call your attention to in point number one is the moral,
the moral and spiritual lesson of the steward, the steward. You remember that fella. He's
the individual that had the opportunity to be the manager of the property
of that rich man over in chapter 16, verse one. And he squandered
that rich man's resources and that rich man took him out of
the stewardship and in the process of removing him from his stewardship,
you saw and I saw last week how he, in an inferior but prudent
way, Positioned himself so that when he was removed from his
stewardship He at least had somewhere to go so that he could exist
his lifestyle would change radically But by virtue of his resources
by virtue of his authority by virtue of his power And here
is the lesson that we derive from that to whom much is given
much is required to whom much is given much is required and
if you will acknowledge that God has given you something and
Use what God has given you in order to bless others. It might
just serve in the day when the tables are turned on you to be
a blessing for you. The rich man who owned the land
and the property and the business of which he now fires this steward
stands back and says, you know, that boy was pretty smart. He
was smarter than enough to know that when I kicked him out of
the stewardship, he wouldn't be sleeping under the bridge.
Because he had worked in such a prudent and shrewd way With
those who were under him his constituents and clients that
the door would be open for him to enter into their homes When
he was out of a job Now the moral lesson in that portion of scripture
as our master said it look with me in luke chapter 16 how he
laid this down in verse 9 and i say unto you Make to yourselves
friends of the mammon of unrighteousness. Do you see that? And I say unto
you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness.
Now, this here is speaking particularly concerning money. There's three
aspects I want to deal with in point number two. But he says,
with your resources, with your finances, with your abilities,
with your gifts, make to yourselves friends of the unrighteous mammon,
that when you fail, do you see that? When you fail, they may
receive you into everlasting habitations. I realize that I
didn't expand on that or explain that last week, and I want to
touch on that briefly. The objective that Christ is
laying down to those who have to those who have and have the
opportunity to be a blessing to others Is this that you and
I would use our resources to see to it that men and women
become saved That they become authentic children of god and
that as such they would be secure for eternity having been chosen
in christ and called by the gospel and established in the grace
of god so that when they die and go to glory And when you
die and go to glory, they might open the doors and say, man,
I've been waiting on you. I thank God that you brought
the gospel to me. I thank God that you were a part
of a ministry that actually brought the gospel to me. Welcome, welcome
into the kingdom of God. That's what he's talking about.
Can you imagine? Can you imagine sharing the gospel
with people that you and I know and love and care about? And
they died before us. They'll be there to welcome us
should we make it in. Should we make it in and that's
the lesson that our lord was saying you can see the target
of his message both in chapter 16 the first part and the latter
part is his disciples just to help you the major target of
our lord's instruction in the parable of the steward as well
as lazarus and the rich man is to the church as a whole but
more specifically to his disciples look again at the opening of
the passage in um Chapter 16 and he said verse 1 and he said
unto his disciples Do you see it and he said unto his disciples?
So the message the burden of the message is to this group
of men whom he's going to use To turn the whole world upside
down and he wants them to be clear on their motive clear on
their method and clear on their ethics children of God if there's
anything that can keep a us from the Savior, block us from seeing
his glory, hinder us from being able to enter into the riches
of his efficiency and grace is money. Money will block between
you and the Savior. In fact, there's three things
that's given to us in point number two, and we might as well look
at that. The idolatry of covetousness in finances, faith and family. The idolatry of covetousness
in finances, faith, and family. Why do I say that? In the parable
of the steward, it's about finances, right? In the sort of bridge
between the steward and the parable of Lazarus and the rich man,
we read over in verse 16, the law and the prophets were until
John. Since that time, the kingdom
of God is preached. Now watch this. And every man,
what? Presses into it. Now, why do
our Lord give that little snippet in between the parable of the
steward with the resources of which he squandered? Because
he's linking the consequences of living a frivolous, aimless
life when you have before you an opportunity to enter into
the kingdom of God. You see, if one thing will hinder
you from actually pressing into the kingdom, it's money. Money,
our will, our prominence, our fame, our success will hinder
you from pressing into the kingdom. Am I telling the truth? Can I
share with you the parable? It's a couple of chapters back.
A rich young ruler comes to our master and he says, master. In fact, he says, good master,
what must I do to obtain eternal life? Do you recall that? And
the Lord Jesus said, sell everything. And he went away Sad You know people will pretend
like they're serious about the kingdom of God until you touch
their idol and Once you touch their idol, you will expose them
for having perpetrated a fraud. He actually came to the master
and And he raised the right question. The inquiry was, how might I
obtain eternal life? You and I would just be flabbergasted
at Bill Gates or Warren Buffett or any of the filthy rich moguls
of this world coming and asking the question. Pastor Jesse, or
Grace, any member here, what must I do to be saved? Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. But what
is the implication of that? Lose your life for him. Well,
I'm not willing to do that. Well, then you're not willing
to be saved Are you guys hearing what I'm saying? You're not willing
to be saved and and many such Incidents occurred in the life
in the ministry life of our Lord Jesus of which it this here just
blew the disciples away It's just when they saw that Jesus
didn't just welcome this rich man into the kingdom They were
floored The actual Greek language is they actually, they blew fuses,
synapses in their mind. They couldn't actually find a
place to hold on because you know the assumption as we're
getting ready to deal with is when you're rich, oh man, you
got a hand in the kingdom. you've got a hand in the kingdom.
And our Lord, in the process of expounding and establishing
the gospel, must demolish these kinds of false notions. They
still prevail for us today. So we dealt with finances as
being a hindrance to actually coming to Christ. Now our Lord
says, Even the issue of entering into the kingdom of God can be
hindered by those who want to purchase homes and have Businesses
and prosper and be wealthy in this life verse 15 is the basic
premise upon which verse 16 Emerges if you you are they he says to
the Pharisees who were covetous He said unto them you are they
which justify yourselves before men watch this, but God knows
your heart for that which is highly esteemed among men is
an abomination in the sight of God." Catch that now. Capture that. And think this
through for a moment. I don't want you to say more
or less than the text says, but ask yourself, what do you highly
esteem? And as soon as you identify it,
say this, God hates it. What do you highly esteem that
you haven't been taught by God to esteem in regards to what
he esteems? And say this, God hates that.
God hates pride. God hates a proud look. God hates
feet that are swift to shed blood. God hates gossip. God hates divisiveness. God hates a haughty heart. God
hates self-righteousness. God hates anyone or anything
that thinks that they can operate, live, and achieve success apart
from a vital relationship with Christ. He hates it because it
is the antithesis and the ultimate manifestation of the devil. I
will exalt myself above the stars of God. I will sit in the sides
of the north. I will be like the most high
God I'll rule over everything you guys understand what I'm
getting at and this type of Lunacy of covetousness is what our Lord
is warning. He said the kingdom of God is
preached now that I have come and men are pressing into it
but there's some who are not because they have been halted
by the pursuit of riches the pursuit of riches here's another
one in your outline I see in point number two the idolatry
of covetousness and finances the idolatry of covetousness
and faith and the idolatry of covetousness and family isn't
that weird verse 18 whosoever puts away his wife and marries
another commits adultery and whosoever marries her that is
put away from her husband does what commit adultery now and
when you understand the Bible you understand that you can't
read one verse and understand that one verse unless you deal
with that one verse in light of every other verse that deals
with that verse so I'm not gonna go behind to unpack the context
I'll simply say this the same people with which Jesus is targeting
this admonition and warning to that is the leaders of Israel
with regards to finances they were covetous and with regards
to faith they did not enter into the kingdom of God remember what
Jesus said in Matthew chapter 11 we were as such that pipe
to you to dance and you wouldn't we mourned and you wouldn't everything
we possibly could get you to understand in terms of the necessity
of coming to Christ you wouldn't do it and on this occasion our
Lord is teaching the disciples that it's possible to be gripped
by such covetousness love for self ultimate idolatry, that
it would drive you to throw away your family. You see, the rulers
were common for getting rid of one wife and marrying another.
And the Lord identified that as covetousness. Well, certainly
it is, isn't it? What does the Decalogue says?
Thou shall not covet another man's wife. And so our Lord,
before he goes into the parable of the rich man, actually undresses
the specific components of transgression on the part of these stewards
in their rebellion against the gospel. So now, as we get ready
to head into that, here's what I want you to think about. All
these fellas who are standing there deriding Jesus, hating
him, despising his bold, plain, straightforward preaching are
people who have a facade of righteousness. who appear to the masses to be
right with God. They are wearing their long robes.
They have their phylacteries and they quote Bible verses.
And they are the ones telling people that they have the keys
to the kingdom. They won't let those people in.
And Jesus says, you aren't even going in. But the people are
under the delusion that the Pharisees are righteous and Jesus is exposing
them for being nothing but unrighteous. This is the context. OK, now,
since I've given you the context, follow me. The context carries
itself over into the next parable and you'll begin to identify.
the folks that are in front of us. So in our outline, here's
the first thing we wanna deal with, with regards to the parable
of Lazarus and the rich man. Point number three, Lazarus and
the rich man, a parable of extremes. This is, okay, the artistic,
but nevertheless inspired word of God with regards to the parable.
God will give us extremes, extremes. Lazarus and the rich man, a parable
of the extremes. Verse 19 and 20, there was a
certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and
fared sumptuously every day." What a depiction. You already
get it, right? This flaming, flamboyant, gaudy,
excessively overdressed peacock strutting about society, coveting
being noticed. from the top of his head to the
soles of his feet. Even when he raises up his shoes,
he wants you to know what kind of shoes he has on. Our Lord paints the picture,
but as I told you, this is not mythical. It's true. It was true
then and it's true now. It's true now as it was true
then. that men give themselves over to excessive, lavish lifestyles
because they want to be the absolute center of attention. the absolute
center of attention. And the interesting thing about
what's taking place here with regards to this rich man is when
you understand the language, there was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine linen. Our Lord is now elucidating
or calling attention to the quality and character of his dress. And the language suggests that
he spent a lot of time in the mirror. It would be the same language
that was used in 1st Peter chapter 3 and 2nd Timothy chapter 1 where
God would say to the godly woman, do not be known for the putting
on of clothes. And for those of you who are
still insensitive to biblical context, we are not suggesting
that women don't put some clothes on. But that's not what we're
talking about. What we're talking about is the
process. You know how you sisters do it.
You give yourself at least 30 minutes to an hour to make sure
the scarf is right, the sweater is right, the skirt is right,
the boots are right, the earrings are right, hair is right and
you make sure you write before you come out the door. That's
just the way you do it. Now that's all right for a woman,
isn't that right? Don't come out my house looking
like the cat drug you from the backyard somewhere. But it's a problem when men do
it. It's a problem when a man is
given over to the putting on of apparel. And as I was thinking
through the character model of this individual, he actually
represents a whole culture today. There's a whole culture of people
given over to the putting on of clothes. And because of technology,
now we have a whole business, billion dollar business, given
over to dress. Isn't that true? You got modeling
shows now. that just pop up everywhere and
people get to just salivate and just give themselves over to
the imagination of wearing the clothes that the people on that
show are both making and wearing. Y'all know what I'm talking about,
y'all. You know what I'm talking about.
Because some of y'all just stay fixed in front of that television.
You don't even go to the bathroom. Now watch, I'm going to make
an application here because as I thought this through, what
our Lord did right here in verse 19 was to do what only could
be done in the 21st century, and that is expose a category
of people who have always been doing this, but not have always
had the exposure worldwide for the world to see them. Today
they do. Television allows This morbid,
self-absorbed practice to be something seen by everybody.
See, this goes back to Noah's son who lifted the skirt of Noah
so that the whole world could see pornographic relationships
that were hidden in secret between a man and a woman, which dominates
our culture today, you understand? Looking upon the secrets of marital
relationships. today as well. If a person can
get a camera in front of them, they'll do anything. Before technology
occurred, they would do it, but they would do it in secret. The
text tells us that not only did this man take great pleasure
in dressing But he dressed for the public, for the last line
says, and he fared sumptuously every day. Do you see that? He
fared sumptuously every day. And what that means is he lived
large, he engaged in feasting, he celebrated daily. Everywhere
he went, what he did was big enough for whole entourages to
be a part of his life. He was not content to just live
a normal, quiet life for himself. But everywhere he went, he had
to have his partners with him. Everywhere he went, he had to
have the cameras rolling. They had to see him get out of
his car, and see him head into the restaurant, and see him go
back home, and even watch him brush his teeth in the bathroom.
You understand what I'm saying? This is where we are in the 21st
century, aren't we? And the psychologists will say,
you got problems. And that would certainly be the
case. He fared sumptuously, and our
Lord made sure that his disciples understood this last clause.
Every day, seven days a week, he lived at the height of self-absorption. He couldn't wait for the sun
to rise. It was all about him. See, this is the extreme that
our Lord is laying down with regards to the rich. And then verse 2, verse 26, and
there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his
gate. Do you see that? Now, I want
you to mark the theological and the redemptive connotation in
the first part of verse 20. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus. But you see, the rich man wasn't
named. He was just called a rich man. Because you see, while both
of them are being spoken of in the narrative, the rich man is
not personally named. He's not personally known because
he's not personally called. What we deal with in terms of
the rich man is his wealth and his work, but God doesn't know
him. God doesn't know him in the scheme
of redemption. God doesn't know him in the realm
of salvation. God doesn't know him having called
him in Christ, having named him in Christ, having chosen him
in Christ. He doesn't know God and God doesn't know him. Are
you guys hearing me? And when God doesn't know you,
you're in bad shape. And when God doesn't name you
by name, you're in bad shape because my sheep know my voice
and I know them and I call them and I call them by name. You're in trouble when God doesn't
name you. And the only thing that you have to represent you
when he doesn't name you and call you is your words. And you're
in trouble if you stand before God and your words. But here's a poor beggar whose
condition goes before his name. because of the lesson that God
wants to teach us. See, this is what I meant by
the extreme, the extreme of the parable. He was a beggar and
his name was Lazarus. It could have said, and there
was a certain man named Lazarus who was a... No, he was a beggar. He was a beggar. He was a beggar
for a long time and he was sick. In fact, he was so full of sores,
as the third clause in that line says, that he couldn't walk. He was lame. He was sick. He was a beggar. He was helpless. He needed others. And apparently
in his miserable, miserable condition, other people carried him and
placed him where they thought he might receive some benevolence.
The text says very acutely, and he was laid at the rich man's
gate. Do you see that? He was laid
at the rich man's gate. So we have this extreme, the
opulent, greedy avarice of the wealthy, proud, self-righteous
rich man and his large estate. You see that. Then we have this
poor, miserably poor beggar who is providentially placed at his
gate. And again, as I thought about
these two concepts, I said, you know, prior to television, prior
to cameras, the shame And the guilt of both parties, shame
on the part of the beggar and guilt on the part of the wealthy,
were successfully hid. You know, culture spends a lot
of energy strategically placing the poor on the outskirts of
town. This is generally the case in
your communist countries, in your third world countries, Africa,
particularly India, where they have a caste system. And this
is true everywhere. Strategically, the poor live
with the poor. Middle class live with the middle class. Wealthy
live in gated communities, right? This is just kind of strategically
the case. And what's that designed to do is to make a distinction
and separation between the guilty conscious and the shameful condition. And the wealthy would do all
that it possibly could to protect their children from that aspect
of reality. And so you and I know this to
be the case, that if you grew up privileged, it's quite possible
that your whole life was confined by an atmosphere that depicted
that life for you is the way life was everywhere in the world
until you went outside the gate. And you look and say, wait, there's
more to life. Then, you know, Range Rovers
and Cadillacs and Porsches and Mercedes-Benzes and all of the
paraphernalia that goes with being wealthy people and the
attitude and the demeanor. You step outside and you begin
to see poverty, indigent people, living lives of squalor, and
it begins to bother you, as rightly it should. And so the wealthy
now who have protected their children from conscious conflict,
which is part of the message today, by the way, are now exposed
and therefore conflicted. And you know how it goes in the
self-righteous world of humanism today with your pluralist and
your progressives. Hey, people who are driven by
guilt will now pursue every possible means of trying to allay and
assuage the problems of the poor in life, right? Only they won't
bring Christ to the table. we are the world we are the people
we'll get it done ourselves right and so they will labor labor
labor intensively and the only reason they're doing it is because
now it's exposed what's interesting about our text which brings us
to point number three are you ready i'm sorry it's point number
four you see this in your outline
I don't know if I want to deal with that one point number five
I'll go back to point number four the providence that places
a problem in front of the privileged had a few peas to work with there
didn't you the providence of God that places the problem right
in front of the privileged They laid that man at his gate. That was smart, don't you think?
See, they did all they could to help him, but they couldn't
help him. And they were poor and desperate and hungry too,
but they knew a rich man because this fellow let everybody know
he was rich. And they took that poor, miserable wretch and dropped
him off at the front gate. The providence of God that places
problems in front of the privileged. And in your outline, we won't
have to belabor this long, there are only three responses that
anyone can render when God places a problem in front of you. See,
because I could easily contemplate that the rich man, in a real
sense, is you and I, given the resources that we have. And here's
a providential act for you to consider. Watch this. that God
would take a problem of which you really don't want to deal
with and put it in your front door. You got that? And so now here you are, you
just spent two hours, three. The first hour you nursed your
skin in a sauna and oils and ointments. The last two, you
dressed yourself. You had your assistants to dress
you and now you headed out the door under the assumption that
the pathway is clear For you to go on doing what you always
do and that is peacock yourself all over the world But on this
occasion God has placed a problem in front of you To wake you up
to your responsibility With the resources that he has given you
Am I making some sense? They're there. Now you have three
opportunities. One is you could look at the
problem and you could go, so what's your name? And the beggar
go, Lazarus. And what's your problem? Well,
I'm just hungry. I see. I see. I see. I see. Can I talk with you a
little bit more about that when I come back? Because that's what
politicians do. See, politicians listen, but
that's all they do. They just listen. That's called
politics. What are politics? The art of
listening. Just listening. Have they solved
any poverty anywhere, anytime? All the politicians that then
ran through Oakland, Have any of them since the days I was
in elementary school solved any of the problems in just Oakland? I'm not talking Richmond. I'm
not talking Hayward. I'm not talking San Francisco.
I'm talking just Oakland. Oakland is worse now than it
ever was. Can you know why? Because the
wealthy politicians stopped and said to Lazarus, what's your
problem? And Lazarus said, I'm just hungry.
Okay, let me write that down. And I got to go meet with the
committee. Are you hearing me? We got to meet. We got to meet.
And so you can do that and become a politician or when the situation
is set in front of you, you can listen and actually respond. That is assess the problem, realize
it's a real need, understand that you are privileged to meet
that need and meet the need. And you don't ever have to worry
about having to deal with that need in front of you ever again.
Interestingly enough, that is hard for us to do. And it becomes
harder when you're given over to covetousness. Because covetousness
is the thing that keeps us from caring about the problem that's
in front of us. Because in order to actually
sufficiently care about the problem, you've got to give up your resources.
See, what I'm talking about in this context is really the parable
of the Good Samaritan a few chapters back. When that same rich man
came to the Lord Jesus Christ, or another one, arrogantly said,
what must I do to obtain eternal life? He says, do this, do that.
Love your neighbor like you love God. And then our master gave
the parable of the fellow that came down from Jericho to Jerusalem. Jerusalem to Jericho and he was
taken by thieves and wounded and half-dead left on the road
and the Baptist went by and drove around the corner wouldn't stop
then the Pentecostal came over and looked at him and and prayed
in Jesus name and kept rolling and you can take the Catholics
and the Lutherans and everybody else in your press materials
would ask him are you one of God's elect and keep rolling
right And yet a Samaritan, a half-breed, devil-filled, fornicating Samaritan
came by, saw him, and actually had compassion on him. But to
actually have compassion is to HAVE! To actually have compassion is
to possess something. This is why I say this idea of taking
away and giving is fundamental. You can't give something that
you don't have. You can't give so you can pretend
you are a compassionate person But you are not sure you are
a compassionate person if you can't give compassion You can't
give what you don't have Please hear me And so our lord rebuked
everybody in the parable of the good samaritan by saying who
is your neighbor? The person that god drops in
front of you with a problem and you have the resources to deal
with it Oh, that's powerful, isn't it? You see, I say that
as I thought about this message, I said, for the most part, man,
we probably are the rich man here. Truth be told, we could
do more, right? I don't want you to be ridden
by guilt, which is why I'm getting ready to deal with the next point
here, which is important. I don't want you to be ridden
by guilt, but I don't want your heart to be hardened in false religion either.
And here's what I want to say. Point number four, faulty conclusions
dispel. Do you see that? Faulty conclusions
dispel. What are the faulty conclusions
that must be dispelled? That the rich are not automatically
right. The rich are not right automatically
because they're wealthy. the poor are not automatically
wrong because they're poor now I know that might work well in
your word of faith religion where they say you're only poor because
you don't believe God but I'm here to tell you there's a man
in this text who believed God and he would have completely
deconstructed all your arguments for wealth predicated upon faith
right And so here the syllogism doesn't work. If you are wealthy,
then you are blessed of God. And therefore, those who are
not wealthy are not blessed of God. That can't be true. That's
a flaw. Whether you are wealthy or not
does not determine your blessing. So there are two truths that
need to be called to mind here briefly. First, that's this,
are you ready? The Bible tells us in 1 Corinthians 1, verses
24 through 26, not many mighty, not many noble, not many wealthy,
not many rich are called. God generally and normatively
saves the base, the lowly, the impoverished,
the broke, the afflicted, the needy, the sick, the incapable. Are you hearing me? But not totally. There are the wealthy that God
will save, whom he will make poor in spirit, poor in their
attitude of themselves, miserable in regards to the reality and
the enormity of their sin. broken with regards to the reality
that they could live for all eternity without God. He can
take a very, very rich man, woman, family, group of people and make
them to identify with this Lazarus quickly if the grace of God would
ever intervene. So it's important for your theology
and mine to stay consistent. Wealth or poverty has nothing
to do with the grace of God in terms of salvation, but God does
things in general for which the warning is still valid. It is
extremely difficult for a rich person to enter into the kingdom.
In fact, Mark's gospel puts it this way just to help you. It
is hard for those who trust riches to enter into the kingdom. I
thank God for that, don't you? Not that it's a problem for me
because I'm not rich anyway, so I don't even know what it
means to be tempted to trust the riches. But just in case
a few of you are rich out there, what he's saying is what will
damn your soul is that riches become the foundation of your
confidence before God and not Christ. Am I making some sense? So this is so critically true
now and I know this from my own experience in my my goings about
I know very wealthy Believers people who have resources and
the kingdom of God is definitely furthered by those whom God can
trust with resources There's no doubt about that. So you and
I ought never to fear obtaining resources are well only what
we will do with them and so the lesson really is about Not the
rich man, but the rich man who fared sumptuously, lived large,
absorbed all that wealth on himself to the neglect of legitimate
concerns that can be an indication of one's spiritual condition
with God. Is that good? Is that OK? And
so as we work through our outline, I want us to understand the faulty
conclusion. It's dispelled that the rich
are not automatically right. The poor are not automatically
wrong. The principle is very clear. And then point number
six, as we get ready to wrap this up, who really is this rich
man? Who really is he? Because he
comes on the scene as this enigmatic character who has no name whatsoever. And we only have a few verses
with regards to his life on this earth. And it's a despicable
life. I mean, despicable. No person with any sense of personal
character would want to live a life where he's or she is in
bondage to being given over to dressing and partying all day. Wouldn't that be boring? Don't
you like sometimes you just put a t-shirt on and a pair of jeans
and kick it Don't don't you? Just just kick it in a pair of
jeans and a t-shirt and i've got people I know very wealthy
people when we get together all they wear a pair of jeans You
would never know. I love people like that. I'm assuming the money
is no issue for them They like jeans like I like jeans and a
t-shirt and you know, how much food can you eat in a day? You know what I'm saying? How
much better is a stake in one place than over in another? I
mean, how much better? Some are better, but I mean,
how much better? And so what I'm talking about is these extremes
are designed to show us the ludicracy that takes place when the spirit
of covetousness dominates your life. Saints, listen to me. People do stupid things when
they are given over to covetousness, whether in small circles or in
the larger, more influential areas. They do stupid things.
Idolatry is insane. Idolatry is insanity. It's insanity. So then, who is this rich man?
Well, this rich man is a mirror to the very people that Christ
is targeting with the exception of his disciples, but is certainly
for them to understand the warning of becoming leaders, of becoming
popular, of becoming influential, and therefore possibly becoming
wealthy. Mark with me now as I develop
this aspect of redemptive truth that's critical. That's critical. Who is this rich man? He is the prodigal servant. He is the prodigal son. He is the greedy Pharisee. Look at verse 13 and 14. No servant can serve two masters,
for either he will hate the one, love the other, or else he will
hold to the one, despise the other. You see that? You cannot
serve God in what? Money too. He is your greedy
Pharisee. He's your false prophet. He's
your ravening wolf who devour widows' houses. whose eyes are
full of adultery. He is the prosperity preacher
who, in their utter reprobation, labored to justify their lifestyle
before men, but God knows their hearts. He is the church and
the nation that professes to believe in the Bible, in heaven,
in hell, and the promises of Abraham, who squander their inheritance
with riotous living. He is the scandalous steward
of Luke chapter 12. Remember Luke chapter 12, the
Lord talked about an unfaithful steward who was faithful to the
ministry for a season, but then over time he said, you know what,
because my Lord delayeth his coming, I think I'm going to
change my message. He used to preach from Genesis
to Revelation, biblical truth. Unassailable true God exalting
true but over time covetousness took root and he changed his
message and now he became a prosperity preacher and He has auditoriums
filled with people twenty thirty thousand deep and you know what
his argument is He's justified to do it because hey if I wasn't
telling the truth, you couldn't have this many people sitting
under me But I beg to differ Islam has billions of people
the Catholic Church has billions of people and Buddhists have
billions of people Hindus have billions of people. In fact,
the scripture says broad is the way Many go that way it is therefore
more prudent to ask yourself Why do we have tens of thousands
of people pouring into the building? What kind of message am I preaching?
Whoo Am I telling the truth? Now we don't put a number on
what God can do. But here's what I do know God
tells us what he does do normally He tells us very plainly, narrow
is the way and there are few that find it. Few that find it. And we know from the beginning
of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to the present hour, this
is true. Normally, it is like looking
for a needle in a haystack to find a church that actually not
only teaches the gospel, but lives it. Most of our churches
are given over to the very covetousness that we have depicted in our
text. And let's just take it and carry the metaphor a little
larger, faring sumptuously every day, banqueting in the public
of those who really have need. This here is the detestable manifestation
of wealthy ministries who laud their success, suggesting that
gain is godliness when the world is still in dire need. I've said
this before concerning Catholicism and this filthy wealth of billions
of dollars all around the world. And they would build shrines
and parishes, ornate shrines and parishes in the middle of
abject poverty. And their priests would run around
in gaudy robes and flashy array as if somehow they are princes
and kings. and the people live in squalor. There's no way you can reconcile
that with the gospel. You can't do it. Are you guys
hearing what I'm saying? And yet religious folk are deceived
every day by the delusion of that false prophet who floats
across the air in all of that ornate garb. Oh, he must be a
God. Look, his feet don't even touch
the ground. I remember two weeks ago, it
was either Brother Hugh, every now and then I have some brother
that have a sense of humor, or one of my other brothers that
sent me a little video clip over of a little small little parish
in Italy. Small little church, about 45
people in Italy. And the priests were all dressed
in their gaudy robes and they had the Ark of the Covenant.
See, I told you the Ark of the Covenant for them is the Pope.
When you got him sitting on staves, he's the pope. He's supposed
to be the Lord Jesus. He's supposed to be the king
of kings. That's the object of their worship. But on this stave,
they had the Mother Mary, right? The Mother Mary. They're carrying
the Mother Mary into the church. And all these old Italian people,
bunch of old, it wasn't but about 30, 40 old Italian people, as
the priests were coming up the aisle, they were all standing
in just breathless awe. Oh, oh. The mother Mary, oh,
idol of the mother Mary. I'm talking about a full-size
idol. And I know Mary wasn't even that big. The thing was
about six feet tall. Watch this now. This was amazing. They're coming down the aisle.
Oh, oh, everybody. Oh, and the priest walking real
steadily. Old priest too, right? Walking
real steadily. I am not lying. One priest went,
like in the book of Kings with other. And watch this. Mother
Mary fell down and her head broke off. The old people had a fit. They had an absolute fit. And
what was this? The priest stood, and you could
tell. What are we going to do now,
fellas? What are we going to do now?
with God's mama. What are we going to do with
God's mama now? Give me a few more minutes of
your time. I love God. Don't you love God? Did you know
what he says? He says there's no place where
the workers of iniquity can hide themselves. What's done in the
secret will be brought to light. That's what he said. And I'm
just using the metaphor of that particular scenario to show you
the idiocy, idiocy of false religion as it's embraced by billions
of people, deceived and deluded by idolatry. But it goes on in
your evangelical church too. pedophile, that sexual pervert,
Eddie Long. Everybody knows him and all of
the scandal he got in had some wicked false prophet Jewish men
come along and and and wrap him in the Torah and put him on a
stave and lift him up as if somehow God had recovered him and put
him right back into the ministry and the people stood and clapped.
You know what we're dealing with? Delusion. And God shall send
them a strong delusion that they should believe a lie who all
had pleasure in unrighteousness because they would not receive
a love of the truth. You will be deceived. If you
reject the truth of the gospel. That's who this rich man is.
He's a church, he's a nation of professors that believe the
Bible. We'll see this next week. He had every doctrinal truth
under his belt. Still went to hell. Still went
to hell. Still went to hell. But who then
is Lazarus as we finally close? Who is Lazarus? Who is this beggar,
this miserable, sick person that lay in front of the gate of the
rich man? I'll tell you precisely who he
is. The beggar here is the individual who receives little more than
the kindness and comfort of dogs licking his wounds, easing his
pain, but also identifying with his misery and making themselves
his friends. Thank you, Lord. See, because
only redeemed sinners as they listen to the text and exercise
their senses, raising the question, where am I at in the message?
Because wherever the message is preached, God's talking to
me. And do you know where I found myself? With the dogs. You see, the dogs represent true
believers who have no problem identifying with miserable sinners. The dogs are the only ones who
could help a miserable sinner in his misery, who could identify
with his affliction and can lick his wounds with the comfort of
gospel truth. See, I remember a woman who was
called the Syrophoenician woman, of whom our master said, no,
we can't give our bread to the dogs. And yet she says, even
the dogs eat the crumbs from the master's children's table. You know what she says, I'm a
dog, but I'm your dog. Our Lord stepped back and said,
do you see this? Now this is faith. Because she didn't let her humility,
she didn't let her weakness, she didn't let her sinfulness,
she didn't let her carnality or her fleshliness or any of
her impediments stop her from coming to Christ. Listen, whether
you know it or not, you and I are dogs. It's just a matter of whose
dog you are. Either you are the dog of God,
or the dog of Satan, or your own dog, but you're a dog. You're
just as bad as a dog. You might be a poodle, or a German
shepherd, or a Rottweiler, or a pit bull, or a pointer, but
you're a dog. I'm here to tell you, you're
a dog. And just as there are bad aspects of dogs, there are
good aspects of dogs. Caleb was God's dog. Dogs are
faithful to somebody, aren't they? A man's best friend. And so what we learn in the narrative
is when rich and wealthy churches and preachers and men and women
who are part of this opulent lifestyle will not go and minister,
minister to the miserable, God's elect will. God's elect will
minister to the miserable. Are you hearing me? They will
minister the gospel to the miserable. How do I know this? Because Matthew
chapter 25 tells me one day the Lord's coming in his father's
glory and he's going to take his seat on his father's glorious
throne and he's going to divide the nations on the right hand
and on the left hand and the nations on the left hand will
find themselves being cast into the lake of fire. And here's
the premise upon which they'll be cast. He said, because when
I was sick, And when I was hungry, and when I was in prison, and
when I was Lazarus, you wouldn't come to me. Are you hearing me? You wouldn't share the gospel
with me. You wouldn't preach the truth with me. You wouldn't
comfort me. You wouldn't show me that there's
something more than this miserable life. And as much as you did
not do it to the least one of them, you didn't do it to me. We learned it in our men's meeting
yesterday. the profundity of Christ in me,
in me, in Christ. See, before God saved one of
those hard-hearted, self-righteous, covetous Pharisees, the Apostle
Paul was neglecting Lazarus all day long until God knocked him
down on the Damascus road and he said, Paul, when you did it
to them, you did it to me. You understand what I'm getting
at, Saints? And here, I want you to understand more fully
the implications of our text. This is really not just talking
about going around the world feeding the poor. Although there
is a strong and continuous ethic in the gospel, there is nowhere
where you find neither Christ nor the apostles neglecting the
poor. It was a constituent to evangelism. And remember the poor. Remember
the poor you guys got that and remember the poor in the Apostle
Paul's affirming and establishing the free grace of God in Christ
Remember what he said in Galatians chapter 2 and by all means will
continue to remember the poor Jesus said the poor you have
always with you and here listen to me It's in the context of
the poor of our world that you and I have the opportunity to
bring the gospel to them You know, in your own life, very
seldom is the righteous, the self-righteous, the righteous
in their own eyes, the conceited righteous, going to hear your
gospel. But poor people will hear your gospel. I'm talking
about poor in spirit. But more, I want to say one more
point here. Not only is this referring to elect sinners who
come to the wealthy, opulent church and cannot find mercy
at all. I'll talk about that next week.
You're going to see how the tables turn. but they find mercy by
the dogs, God's dogs on the outside. But also redemptively speaking,
Lazarus here represents our lowly Savior. Oh, I know it's hard to see.
But the one who was afflicted, the one who was wounded, chastised,
accursed, rejected of men, despised of nations. If you look on the
Lazarus in our text, it should launch you to the Lazarus of
Calvary and cause you to see some semblance between that Lazarus
and our Lazarus. and understand that our Savior
was more afflicted than any man. If you talk about wounds and
sores and putrefying sores and gashes and afflictions, there
was no one afflicted more than Him. There was no one wounded
more than Him. He bore our sins in His own body,
on the tree, and He stands between heaven and hell, and He looks
in the face and conscience of man and says, would you receive
a Lazarus like me? Are you hearing what I'm saying?
And something is interesting about this proposition. I'll
build it next week. The only people that will come
and find solace and comfort and healing in the wounds of an afflicted
Lazarus are dog-like sinners who actually find healing in
his wounds. who actually find healing in
his wounds. There is a man whose wounds can
heal you. But you have to take your place
with the dogs. Amen.