You want to turn your Bibles
back over to the 16th chapter of Luke. I want to speak to you this morning
on some things these verses suggest to my mind that Shana read to
us, beginning here in Luke 19 concerning the rich man of Lazarus. And the text here says that the
Lord Jesus was speaking of two certain men. I don't know if
this is a parable that some suggest. I don't know if this was something
that really happened. It wouldn't surprise me at all
if these were two real men. He mentions a real man by the
name of Abraham. And he mentions here two certain
men, a rich man who died and perished in his sins and went
to hell. He called the place here torment.
And then he mentions another certain man here who was a beggar
who went to heaven. We have a rich man who went to
hell and a beggar who went to heaven. But this parable is not
about the evil of riches. This parable has nothing to do
at all with the evils of riches. Neither does it have anything
to do with the virtues of poverty. There is no sin in riches and
there is no virtue in poverty. Abraham was a rich man. David
was the king of Israel and he was a rich man. Joseph of Arimathea
was a rich man, and the scripture says nothing about the riches
being evil. Money is no more evil than wood
or stone, and fine linen and purple is no more evil than wearing
overalls and a flannel shirt. Pride and unbelief and arrogance
is just as much prevalent among poor people as it is rich people. I don't know which one would
be the worst. Maybe you could have your opinion upon this.
Who is the worst off? A rich atheist who dies in his
sins? Or a Catholic priest who has
taken a vow of poverty and dies in his? They both wind up in
the same place. Wealth never kept the first man
from coming to Christ. And poverty has never brought
the first man to Christ. Now somebody will ask, why then
did Christ emphasize that this rich man perished and went to
hell, and the poor man, he went to heaven? Because the Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking here to Pharisees who were covetous people. And
they were attempting to serve two masters. Now look here in
verse 13 and verse 14. No man can serve two masters. For either he will hate the one
and love the other, or else he will hold to the one and despise
the other. You cannot serve God and wealth. And the Pharisees also, who were
covetous, heard all of these things and they derided Him. Riches aren't sinful, but how
we feel about riches may well be sinful. The love of money
is the root of all evil, not money. Wealth has never kept
any man from coming to Christ, but the love of it has. Wealth
won't be the ruin of any man, but those who trust in it will.
Being rich will not keep a man out of heaven, but desiring to
be rich, they will do so. Paul said it like this, they
that will be rich, that is they that set their heart on riches. And they that covet after them
and give their time and their talents and their effort to being
rich, they fall into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown
men in destruction and perdition. The love of wealth is the root
of all evil. Luke makes mention of three rich
men in his gospel. In the 18th chapter he tells
us of that rich young ruler that you and I are so familiar with,
that he came to the Lord Jesus and even bowed down in front
of Him and said, Good Master, what good thing shall I do that
I may inherit eternal life? And the Lord finally said this
to him, Go sell all that you have. Go sell your fields and
your cattle. Go collect your money and your
bank account and give it all to the poor and come and follow
Me and you shall have life everlasting. And what did the Scripture say
about that man? He went away grieved at that saying because
he was very rich. He had great riches. What kept
him from coming to Christ? What kept him from surrendering
himself up to Christ? It wasn't his wealth. It was
his feeling about his wealth. It was the way he considered
his wealth. He told them in this parallel text when the disciples
were so amazed when he said, How hardly shall they that have
riches enter the kingdom of heaven. And they said, If a rich man
can't be saved, who can be saved? And he said, I'm speaking of
those who trust in their riches. They trust in their riches for
their hope and their happiness. And how hardly shall such a man
be saved. The Apostle Paul said, Charge
them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded,
nor trust in uncertain riches, but in the living God, which
giveth us all things to enjoy. It wasn't this rich man's riches
that kept him from surrendering to the Lord Jesus, but it was
his trust in Him. is trust in Him. Look here in
chapter 12. Back over to your left a couple
of pages. Luke tells us of another man. Look here what he says about
this rich man in Luke chapter 12 and look in verse 15. And He said unto them, Take heed
and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. And he spake
a parable unto them, saying, The ground of a certain rich
man brought forth plenty for him. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do, because I have no room where to bestow
my fruit? And he said, This will I do,
I will pull down my barns, and build greater, and there will
I bestow all my fruits and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take thine
ease, eat, drink, and be merry. But God said unto him, Thou fool,
This night shall thy soul be required of thee. Then whose
shall all these things be which thou hast provided? So is he
that laith up treasure for himself, and is not rich towards God."
Now I want you to notice this man's attitude. The first man's
attitude towards his riches, he trusted him. He can't trust
Christ and anything else. He trusted his riches. Here is
a man who trusted his riches. Here's a man who loved his riches.
And notice the attitude they give him towards himself. What an arrogant, self-love,
independent attitude his riches gave to him. Look what he says.
Seventeen times, I read in these three verses here, he uses the
word, my. My fruits, my barns, my goods,
my soul. Mine. It's all mine. None of
it was His. It was given to Him from a very
generous God. All the temporal blessings He
had was given to Him. And yet He said, They're mine.
I've done it. I've stored it up. Isn't it ironic
that when the rich man in hell was talking with Abraham, Abraham
said, Son, remember in your lifetime you had your good things. You
called them yours. You bragged about how you had
got them, how you preserved them. You were so arrogant about it.
You recognized God in none of it. And that's what this man
here said. And in hell, the memory of his
arrogance will haunt him to death. Look what a presumptuous and
deceitful attitude that he has. The Bible talks about the deceitfulness
of riches, doesn't it? How riches deceive a man. Look
here at what he said in verse 19. I have much goods laid up
for many years, so take your ease. You've got many years to
live. Who told him that? His own heart
told him that. He had all of his wealth. He
became so independent. He trusted in his wealth. And
he said, I'm going to live for many years. My soul, he didn't
have a night. He only had a few hours. Take
your ease when the sentence of heaven is gone out against you
this night. Take your ease with a heart full
of covetousness. Take your ease when you have
angered God because you have abused His gifts. Take your ease. They've already got the horses
hooked to the coach that's going to take you out to the cemetery
and take your ease. The presumption that rich men
have sometimes. I think I told you about seeing
the interview just a few days ago with Mayor Bloomberg, the
former mayor of New York City. He has several billion dollars. And they would interview him
about his riches and what all he was doing with them. He was
giving a lot of it away to charity. And then he made this statement.
He said, when I go to heaven, I won't even have to stop for
an interview. I'll just go straight in. That's
presumption, isn't it? That's independence, isn't it?
And that's what many rich men think. I've got many goods laid
up. And they're going to profit me
in some way or another. That is, take thine ease, O the
presumption and deceit that soon becomes apparent in the heart
where covetousness reigns. This man's riches were his treasures. And that becomes evident after
a while, doesn't it? It's difficult. And what the
Bible teaches us, it's difficult. Though wealth is no sin in and
of itself, it's difficult to have it without the heart to
come in to love it and to trust in it and to become arrogant
because of it. And here in our text in chapter
16, the Lord Jesus tells us the problem with this rich man, his
attitude towards others. The first young ruler, we see
his attitude towards Christ. How did his attitude towards
his riches affect his attitude towards Christ? He would not
come to Christ. He would not give up his riches
for Christ. In the second rich man, we saw
how riches affected his attitude towards himself. It's all mine,
independence, arrogance. But here, this rich man's attitude
was manifested by the way he looked upon others, the way he
treated others. This rich man saw Lazarus laying
in his gate, and don't you imagine he saw him almost every day?
He saw him laying there in his rags. He saw the sores all over
his body. Every time he passed this rich
man, he asked him just for a few crumbs. Every day he saw his
need and he didn't care. He did not care. Verse 22 in
our text says that the beggar died. In other words, he was
still begging when he died. He died in his rags. He died
in an empty stomach. He died with sores all over his
body. The only comfort this man seemingly
had was the dogs licking his running sores. And what did this
rich man do about it? Nothing. Nothing. Why? It was his attitude towards
his riches. He didn't need anybody else.
He didn't care about anybody else. He could get along without
everybody else. But you know his whole problem
was not his wealth. It was his heart. And you know what was the matter
with his heart? He didn't have the love of God there. That was
his problem. It wasn't his wealth. It was
how he felt about them. He loved them. And that's all
he loved. The Bible says those who are born of God are born
of love. And by this we know that we pass
from death into life because we love the brethren. And the
love of Christ constrains us. You can't see somebody in need
without helping them if the love of God dwells in your heart.
The love of Christ constrains us to be merciful, doesn't it?
to help people, to care, to go the extra mile. Why didn't this
man do that? He didn't have the love of God
there. That was his whole problem. Can you imagine going by this
man every day, seeing him in the miserable state that he was
in, and not lifting a finger to help him? We don't really
know if he even gave him the crumbs from his table. He desired
the crimes, but did he even give them to him? His whole problem
was he knew nothing about the love of God, and he knew nothing
about that faith that works by love. This is my commandment,
that you love one another. But how in the world is a man
going to obey that commandment if he don't have that love in
his heart, if he's not born of it? Why does the Lord Jesus emphasize
that Lazarus went to heaven and he was a beggar and sickly and
lived in his misery? Why does he emphasize that in
his part in this portion of Scripture? Because there have been very
few of God's children who have went to heaven on beds of ease. very, very few people that God
saves and they go to heaven on beds of ease. Most of the Lord's
children live under extreme and difficult circumstances, either
outward circumstances or inward circumstances. But we threw much
tribulation in or in to the kingdom of heaven. In Hebrews chapter
11, we read of some people who had trials of cruel malkins. and scourgings and bombs and
imprisonments. Now think of that. Think if you
had to live a life that you were scourged and mocked and imprisoned. We are told of others who were
stoned and sawed asunder and tempted and slain with a sword. Remember John the Baptist? Down
in the dark, damp dungeons? A child of God and they came
and cut his head off? Remember James who carried a
slew with a sword? We read of others who wandered
about in sheepskins and goatskins. Listen to this, being destitute. Go home and look that up and
see what that word means. destitute, afflicted and tormented
while they lived in caves and dens of the earth, whom the world
was not worthy. And yet all of these suffering,
afflicted people obtained a good report from heaven. And yet all
of them lived in misery. I wonder what these TV preachers
think about Hebrews chapter 11, when they talked about if you're
sick, you must be out of God's will somewhere or another. If
you're not rich, then you must not be enjoyed God's blessings.
Tell that to this beggar. Tell that to those in Hebrews
chapter 11. Tell that to Job, who lost ten
children in a few minutes. and lost his servants and his
cattle, and was sitting on an ash heap scraping the balls off
of his body. Tell that to him. Tell that to those who lived
in the Volga prison camps in the 40s and 50s and were beaten
and died because they loved the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell that
to the underground churches in China today and in Russia and
other places. who are underground because they
profess the Lord Jesus Christ. And many of them are suffering
and dying now. Here's the helpful thing. Here's
the thing that encourages us concerning this beggar, and it's
this, in his abject misery, this man was loved of God with an
everlasting love. He was a redeemed man. He was
a child of God. He knew the Lord. He lived by
faith. He could say with Job, I know
my Redeemer liveth. Now that's amazing. And the reason
that's amazing is here's a man that lived with an empty stomach. He bagged for every crumb that
he had. He was so weak he couldn't sit
up. He laid at the rich man's table. He was in so much pain from his
sores. And you know something? He lived
without any hope of his situation getting any better in this life. And yet, He was an object of
the redeeming love of God in Jesus Christ. Ain't that encouraging? Isn't that amazing? Where will the providence of
God bring us to before we leave this world? What afflictions
and misery might it expose us to? both of our body and our
soul. It may bring us so low that all
we can do is lay and suffer while we see others enjoying this life. How will we feel if God brings
us there? But here is the thing, this beggar
in all his misery was a saved man. He was the saved man. Saved in the Lord with an everlasting
salvation. And this rich man who fared sumptuously
every day was the lost man. One had the love of God manifested
in his heart. The other was exposed to God's
anger. God is angry with the wicked
every day. Psalm chapter 7 and verse 12. Truly a man's life. His eternal
life. consisteth not in the abundance
of the things which he possesses. You can't judge your spiritual
state and condition before God by the things that you possess,
even your good health. Often the righteous suffer adversity
of all kinds, and even heaven tries them sore, while unbelievers
prosper every day. Here's the question we need to
ask ourselves. Lazarus, are you a poor sinner
and nothing at all? Is Jesus Christ your all in all? Lazarus, do you trust the Lord
Jesus Christ? Lazarus, do you have high thoughts
of the Savior? Is your faith in His blood? And
what would He say? Yes! Yes! Yes! In all my misery
and pain, yes, yes, yes. Lazarus, are you not offended
at him? No. Are you ashamed of him? No. Would
you trade your situation? Would you trade your faith for
the faith of the rich man? Boy, that's the test, isn't it? No. I wouldn't trade places with
him for nothing. You say, Bruce, I just feel like
I don't have hardly any faith at all. My faith is so weak and
so little. But would you trade it for somebody
else? In the worst difficult situation
you find yourself in, you who have an interest in Jesus Christ
this morning, would you trade yourself and your situation for
Donald Trump's situation? I wouldn't either. And you wouldn't
either. Let's see this in our text. As
I read this and meditated upon this in the past week, there's
some other things here suggested to my mind. And here's the second
thing. Death will manifest. And it's
going to take death in some cases to be manifested. That God has
put a distinction between the righteous and the wicked. We're out to misjudge God's dealings
with men. in this life. But death will
clear it all up. We have to think, God is favoring
that one person. Look how they are enjoying His
temporal blessing. And God is judging that other
person because look at the trouble that they are in. Well, let's
wait until one second after death and then we can know for sure. We're told here in verses 22
and verse 23 of our text that both these men died. Lazarus died full of sores and
this rich man died in his prosperity. And if it wasn't for what God's
Word teaches us, you and I would conclude that that's the end
of their existence if it wasn't for what God's Word teaches us.
Isn't it amazing how some people are bold enough to spew out their
opinions on life after death? They write whole books about
life after death. There's movies made about life
after death. And those people know no more
by nature and in their own carnal brains about what takes place
after death than you and I do. If it wasn't for the words of
the Lord Jesus Christ, you and I would know nothing about what
takes place after death. We could easily conclude, like
the Hindus do, that they come back as a cow or a mouse or a
rat. Why do we believe what we do?
Why do we believe that a man's existence does not stop when
he leaves this earthly life? Because the Bible teaches us
contrary. The Lord Jesus Christ made heaven,
didn't He? And He prepared hell. He made
heaven for the righteous and hell for the wicked. And both
of them are open in His sight. He is no mere man. He is God. And everything is naked and open
in His sight. The Bible tells us here that
both of these men, they died and they were buried and they
were conscious that they had entered into another world, another
life, another realm. This poor beggar was conscious.
that he had left his afflicted body with all of his sores and
weakness, and he was now conscious that he was in a place of comfort. He was conscious of that. It
was manifested to him. And then we're told that this
rich man who died in his riches, he left his life of ease, and
we don't know how. We don't know if he was driven,
we don't know if he was carried, we don't know if he was forced
into this place, this state that the Bible calls Hades, the place
of the dead. But he was conscious of his existence,
and he was conscious that he was being tormented in a flame. And those who live in this life,
as though this life will end their existence, needs to come
here and read the words of the meek and lowly Savior who would
have never spoken of such things unless it was true. You know, you may get some of
us preachers and we get bold and we get started and make these
wild statements. And we may wind up saying things
and hurting people's feelings. Not this man. This man only bore witness to
that which is true. He told us the truth, didn't
he? And the fact that he was so meek and lowly about it. When he talked about the comforts
of heaven, people said, oh, I like that. I can understand that.
But he went farther than that and told us about the torments
of hell. And I tell you, I put value upon
His words, and you do too. And we wish everybody did. Something else the Lord Jesus
teaches us. Not only does the ending of this
life not end our existence, but at death there will be a tremendous
change. in our existence. He says here
in verse 25, Now he is comforted. What a change! What a drastic,
immeasurable, incomprehensible change! Now he is comforted! He had begged for crumbs! Now,
bless God, he begs for nothing. He has been given more than his
lips could ask or his heart could think. He was full of sores here,
but now he is filled with all the fullness of God. Here he
received his evil things, there he is receiving his good things.
Here he cried, but now he is laughing. Here he lay in utter
weakness, there he leaped with joy. Here this man was despised
and rejected, and there he's loved and received. Here he wore
his rags, now he's dressed in fine linen, clean and white. Here he had the company of dogs,
there he's got the company of God, and Christ, and angels,
and the spirits of glorified men, made perfect. Here he was tormented, there
he's comforted. Oh, what a change! And I think
that will be the word of every saint. I don't care how far they've
advanced in their Christian life. I don't care how near the Lord
they were, what holy lives they obtained here in this life. I
tell you, when they leave this world to be with the Lord, you
know what they're going to say? What a change! What a change! Now he is comforted. Things changed
for this rich man too, didn't they? He was comforted. Now he
is tormented. Oh, here he slept easy. Now he
has no rest. Here he was rich. Now he is the
beggar. Here he laughed, but there he
cries. Here he had all his heart's desire. There he has denied every request.
Here he had his good things, now he has his evil things. Here
he enjoyed God's temporal blessing, there he suffers God's eternal
wrath. Here he enjoyed the company of
the rich and famous, there he has the company of devils and
damned souls. Change. A change. I was reading where the famous
horseman died, one of them, a few months ago. one of the great
atheists of our day. And some religious people started
the rumor that just before he died he realized how wrong he
was and he began to cry out in fear. And his wife put out an
article that said that's not so. My husband died in peace. He never feared God when he lived
and he never feared God when he died. He died in great peace. That's what she said about her
atheist husband. You think anything changed for that man? One second
after his death. You better bet it did. I ain't
afraid of anything or anybody. You will. You will be. I don't
believe God. I don't fear God. You will. I
was talking with a pastor friend of mine this last week and he
had a young man that was raised under his ministry. And he became
a professed atheist. And the pastor said he was talking
with him. And he said, well, he said, I knew that my profession
was false. I knew that I hadn't been honest.
I knew that I wasn't saved. And he said, all I did was live
my life in fear of hell and the fear of having to face God. And
he said, I just convinced myself there is no God. And he said,
now I live in peace. may live in peace and die in
peace. The book of Psalms says, There are some that have so deceived
themselves, there are no bans in their death. Their strength
is firm even when they face death. But one second after death, when
death has got the victory, when the King of Terrors has snatched
their last breath from their lungs, there will be a change.
There will be a change. Things changed. And just as death
brought this great change, so eternity will forbid any change. You know something? That man
who went to heaven and was comforted, he is still comforted this morning.
We could say of him now, he is comforted. And that rich man
who went to hell, there's been no change in him after all of
these hundreds or thousands of years. Now, he is tormented. He talks here in our text in
verse 26 about the great gulf. Did you notice that as Shannon
read it? I don't know why the Lord said
it like this. There was a reason for it, I'm sure, but He said
those, they're in torment. cannot get out of that torment
and come up here. And those that cheer cannot leave
here and go there. They cannot. Why? There's this gulf. There's this
gulf. There's no way to make the journey
from one place to another, not just because of the distance.
It's far off. But there's this gulf. What is
that gulf? The Lord mentions it in the context
here that we didn't read to you. In verse 17, look at this. It
is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the
law to fail. The Word of God cannot fail.
It can never be proven wrong. Its promises and threatenings
are sure. And here's the promise. When
a man goes to be with the Lord, he is forever with the Lord and
can never change. And this threatened to the lost
and the wicked, their torment shall ascend death forever and
ever. What is this gulf? It is the
Word of God. The Word of God has fixed their
eternal states and it can never change. Let's assume, and I say
this with all reverence, to make an argument. Let's assume that
God would become extremely sorry for the hell that He created
to punish the wicked. And He thought to Himself, I've
got to figure out a way to get them out. He could not. He's
bound by His own Word. And He would cease to be God
if He goes contrary to His Word. And if somehow he reached down
and got the rich man out of hell, the next thing, somebody may
reach up and pull Lazarus out of heaven. It's fixed. There will be no change. If anything,
his torment will only increase. And if anything, Lazarus' comfort
will only increase. But those situations can never
change. Two more things quickly. Here
is something awesome. Here is something very solemn.
This suggested some thoughts to me as I was reading it. In
verse 27 and verse 28, Then the rich man said to Abraham, I pray
thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my
father's house. For I have five brethren, that
he may testify unto them. lest they also come to this place
of torment." Why would he ask this of Abraham? I know the first
thing that probably comes to our mind, and I imagine there's
an element of truth about this. He loved his brother. He had
five brothers that he was raised with, and he loved them. And
if that's so, then this suggests to us that even in hell there's
this element of sympathy that men carry there with them, that
they had here even upon this earth. There's usually sympathies
in the family for people who are suffering, isn't it? You
take a dear mother. And she sees her child wracked
with a high temperature, and the child is almost out of her
head. And the mother sympathizes with that child. We've got it
on record that there's been houses on fire, and mothers ran in and
gave their life trying to rescue their children. Could this sympathy
be carried to hell for a person's own torment? What would it be for a dad to
be in hell knowing that his favorite son,
the son of his bosom, the son that he loved, was going to drop
in there with him at any time and suffer torment with him?
Wouldn't that be awful? Could that be the reason he said,
send him to my five brothers? It's bad enough that I'm here?
It's going to add to my torment to see my brothers suffering
as I'm suffering? There could be some truth in
that. I think there's probably truth
in this also, that he felt so responsible for the condition
that his brothers were in, I imagine and some have suggested that
this man was probably the oldest of the brothers. By nature, he
died first. And him being rich, can you imagine
the influence he had over his brothers? And yet, how did he
use that influence? Did he influence them to that
which was good? I doubt it. He said, Abraham, they must repent. Yet, I doubt that He taught them
repentance. And He certainly didn't repent
Himself. Could He be a thinker? I'm blaming
myself for the bad influence that I was on these brothers.
And they're going to blame me. And when they come here, they're
going to add to my torment because they're going to be screaming
at me. Why didn't you tell us? You had the advantage over us.
You knew more than we did. Brothers and sisters, we need
to use our influence for that which is good. Raising our children,
talking with our neighbors, speaking to our co-workers, if we have
any influence over anybody, we need to use it for that which
is good and not for that which is evil. Lastly, consider this. I thought
this was very solemn. Verses 29 and 30. Abraham said
unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.
And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from
the dead, they will repent. I want you to notice this, that
hell will not change a man's heart towards God and His Word and
His Gospel. He didn't believe it here. He
had no confidence in the power of it here. And in hell, that
hasn't changed. They have Moses and the prophets.
That won't do them any good. They've got the gospel. That
won't do them any good. Well, what do you think will
do them good? Well, I've got my opinions. And He's still willing
to express His opinions even in hell. Turn to one last passage of Scripture
with me over in John's Gospel, Chapter 12. If one went unto
them from the dead, surely they'd be convinced and they would repent. Would they? Would they? You know something, brothers
and sisters? All of us this morning, I hope, are convinced of this.
That there's one thing for sure that brings saving faith. There's
only one thing for sure that brings saving faith, and that's
the Word of God. And if a man won't hear the Word
of God, then he'll never believe to the saving of his soul. We've
got clear evidence here in this passage that I'm going to read
to you that miracles will not necessarily bring saving faith. Look at what he says in verse
37 of John chapter 12. But though he had done so many
miracles before them, yet they believed not on him. Now that's amazing. Though he
had done so many, not only miracles, but so many miracles. If you
were in the synagogue and you were standing next to a man that
had a little swiveled up arm, and little tiny hands and little
tiny fingers. And Jesus of Nazareth looked
at that man and said, Stretch forth your hand. And he stretched
it forth whole. Would you believe? Would you
believe he is who he said he was? You may not. They didn't. If you are out on the road and
you are following Jesus of Nazareth around and a man approached him,
and his nose was rotted off, and his ears were rotted off,
and he was wracked with fever and sores all over his body,
and he was full of leprosy. And you heard that man say, Lord,
if you will, you can make me clean. And you stood there and
you watched the Son of God put His hands on his body and say,
I will be thou clean. And suddenly, this immediate
change came on that man that he was as clean as a child. Would
you believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God? You may not.
They didn't. You stand outside of Lazarus'
tomb and you know that this man had been dead so long he was
stinking? And you hear Jesus of Nazareth lift up His voice
and say, Lazarus, come forth! And that man that was dead came
out of the tomb? Would you believe Jesus Christ
was the Son of God? You may not. They didn't. They
didn't. But there's one thing that brings
faith. These things were written that you might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, and that believing you may have life through His
name. If they hear not, Moses and the prophets, You know
what happens when we're here? We live. You know what happens
when we're here? We believe. That's the way salvation
comes to a man. It's not by seeing. It's by hearing. Hear and your soul shall what? Live. Hear and your soul shall
believe. That's the way faith comes. Well,
I'm going to do this. I'm going to straighten my life
up. I'm going to mend my life. I'm going to be baptized. I'm
going to join the church. I'm going to start doing better.
And on and on and on and on. That won't save a man. Hey, but
one way a man can be saved, and our Master mentions it right
here in our text. Hear, hear, and your soul shall
live. God is near today, isn't He?
The Bible says He's near, and that's why we call upon Him while
He's near, because the day is coming when He'll be far off.
God will hear the needy heart now. He'll mock it in hell. Oh, Lord, save us. Lord, save
us. Oh, blessed Father, we do thank
You for this Word of Your dear Son. How honest and sincere He
dealt with us. Oh, help us to take this to heart.
Help us to rejoice if we're in Christ. Help us not to murmur
and complain against you or against your providence when you afflict
us. When we're tried, help us to
remember that we can't judge your love and goodness by your
providence. We must look to You. We judge
You by Your Word. I pray that You'll awaken some
poor soul here this morning that may be without You and to think
upon the shortness of their life and the longness of their home
that is to come. We pray this morning for those
who aren't here, for those who are sickly, We pray for them,
Lord, that You'd be near them and teach them, teach them of
Yourself and Your love and mercies. And Lord, when we come down to
the day that You've appointed for us, all of us, oh, be near us in that day. You're our hope now, be our hope
then. Receive us into Abraham's bosom. Receive us in Christ. Receive us in God our Father.
Receive us up into Heaven. Let us know something about the
comfort that this poor beggar experiences. We ask these things
for the glory of our dear Savior. Amen.