If you want to turn your Bibles
back over to Luke's Gospel again, chapter 16. Luke's Gospel, chapter 16. We
want to go back and look again at the words of our Lord Jesus
Christ concerning the rich man and the beggar. We're told there in verse 19
that there was a rich man that fared sumptuously every day.
In verse 20, a certain beggar named Lazarus that laid at his
gate full of sowers. In verse 21, desiring to be fed
with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover,
the dogs came and licked his sowers. And it came to pass that
the beggar died, 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 torment. And he saw Abraham aforeoff,
and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. And said, 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 lifetime receiveth thy good things, and likewise
Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented. And besides all of this between
us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that he which
would pass from thence to you cannot, neither can they pass
to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have
five brethren, that he may testify to them, lest they also come
to this place of torment. 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
would believe. And he said unto him, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose from the dead. Well, we pick up here in verse
22, And it came to pass, that the beggar died and the
rich man died. And I could say that about all
of us here, couldn't I? Just a few more days and it'll
come to pass that we'll die. The Scripture says that it's
appointed unto men once to die. But you know death is such a
mysterious thing, isn't it? I'll be honest with you, I cannot
believe I'm going to die tonight. I just don't believe I am. And
you probably don't either. I've got plans made for this
afternoon. Some of you have plans to get
up tomorrow and go to work. You have things you've got to
do. Some of us have a plan for next month, maybe some for next
year. We cannot believe we're going to die, can we? And yet
we look around us and we've got neighbors, we've got friends
that's dying. Here these men have been dead now as far as
we know for 2,000 years. Everybody is dying. It's appointed
unto them once to die. And yet, this rich man didn't
believe he was going to die. I imagine when he heard that
Lazarus had died, he said, well, that's no surprise. That man's
been sick so long, I'm sort of glad he's gone. But he didn't
believe he was going to die. But he did. It came to pass that
they both died. And like I said this morning,
if you and I had to stop right here and go no farther, then
we'd have no idea what happened to these men after they died.
But we don't have to trust to our own understanding. We don't
have to trust to somebody that's had dreams. But we have got the
truth from Him that's faithful and true. From Him that knows
the truth and won't lie to us. The faithful and true witness.
Him that the Bible says everything is naked and open in His eyes.
We stopped at the gravesite this morning, but here is one who
knows these men now, who knows where they're at, who knows what's
taking place in their lifetime. We got these two men, and I said
it this morning, I think probably they're examples to us of the
whole classes of this world. Every time somebody dies, they
go to one or two places. I know people like, they like
to think there's some middle place, Catholicism has tried
to come up with some middle ground. They don't go to heaven, but
they don't go to hell. A lot of people want that middle place,
don't they? But the Bible knows nothing of the middle place.
It knows only these two places, a place of torment and a place
of comfort. There's the believer and here's
the unbeliever. And now let's look at and see
what we can learn as we just go through here. And one of the
things, brothers and sisters, Learn with the help of my dear
wife to quit trying to preach everything. There was a time
when I'd have spent four hours, two hours this morning and two
hours this evening, looking at this verse. My wife has taught
me well. You've given us too much, she
said. You've given us too much. So I'm not going to try to cover
all of this. So if somebody comes up after a service and says,
I wish you'd said this, well, I probably wish I would too,
but that's too much. Let's just look at what we can
see. Then first of all, what do we learn from our Lord Jesus
Christ concerning death? Well, first of all, it's this.
that death doesn't end a person's existence. It doesn't end a person's
being. The beggar died, and his soul
was separated from his afflicted body, but it doesn't stop there,
does it? The Lord Jesus said angels wrapped
him up in their arms and bore him off or up to another world,
to heaven. to Abraham's bosom, another life,
another realm outside of what you and I can see with the naked
eye. But not just the poor man, the
rich man died, and his body was buried. And we don't know how
he got to this place. We don't know if angels bore
him to this place. We don't know if he was driven
to this place. But he went off into another
realm. He went off into a place of torment,
hades, the place of the dead. We're told here also that they
were both conscious of their state. It was said here in verse
25 that Lazarus was comforted and he was conscious of that
comfort. Here he had been terribly afflicted
and he was conscious of it. He left this life for another
world and he was conscious of the world that he was in. And
the rich man knew where he was. He was conscious that he was
tormented. He even said it himself, I am tormented in this flame. So we know that when death comes,
the souls of men do not cease to exist. They do not cease to
live somewhere or the other. We are not like animals. As far
as I know, the Bible teaches that animals die and they cease
to be. But humans are superior, aren't
they? They're God's choice. They're
His cheap creatures. And though we're fallen into
sin and dead in trespasses and sin, we will not cease to be. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this, after this, there's a judgment. And
after this, there's eternity. So that's the first thing we
see. The second thing the Lord Jesus teaches us here in verse
22 is this, that there's a drastic change that will be brought about
at death. A change that's incomprehensible
to those who are saved and incomprehensible to those who are lost. What a
drastic change come upon these two peoples as they die. The
beggar died and angels said that he was carried from this world
up to heaven and what a change was wrought upon that poor man. Now he is comforted. He knew nothing of comfort in
this life except what he knew in his soul from knowing the
Lord, the joy of the Lord. But the Bible says now he is
comforted. And let me remind you of the
distinction of what he faced in suffrage year and what he
enjoys yonder. Here the Bible says he was carried
by men to bag. But at death he was carried by
angels to receive that eternal inheritance. Here he lay, there
he leaps. Here he needed crumbs to exist. There he needs nothing. Here
he was full of sores. There he is full of joy. Imagine
this. What a distinction between him
and this other man. And what a difference he experienced
at death. Here he received his evil things
and only evil things. But there he receives only good
things. Here he was tormented. There
he is relieved of any and all pain. Here he had the presence
of dogs that came and licked his sores. There he has the presence
of God and angels and the spirits of just men made perfect. Here
he wept. Oh, the poor man wept. He looked
on his sores and he wept. He looked at others eating and
tears run down his eyes. He looked at the mean looks of
others when they saw him begging, and he wept. But he is not weeping
now. God has dried all tears from
his eyes. Can you imagine that? He will
never see death. He will know no sorrow. He will
experience no pain. There he will never cry because
there he is comforted. Isn't that wonderful? What a
change! And brothers and sisters, I imagine
the change is drastic. It doesn't matter if you're a
child of God living in this world and you enjoy a lot of this world. And you're in good health right
up to the time you die. Still, there is as much a distinction
between heaven and earth that the saint that had the most joy
and the most comfort in this world will experience a drastic
change. What will it be to lead this
life and to go to be with the Lord Jesus Christ? What will
it be to lay down this body of death where sin is working, that
burdens us? We don't know from one hour to
the next what may befall us. To lead this life of uncertainty
and go to heaven. Oh, what a change that will be.
And this dear man here experienced it. Death will bring about a
change. There was a drastic change for
this rich man. We're told in verse 23 that now
he is tormented. Things changed for the poor beggar.
Things changed for this man. We're told here that he was rich,
but you know something? There he's the beggar. Here he
fared sumptuously every day, but there he's tormented every
moment. Here he lived a life of ease,
there he has no rest day or night. Here he hoped to live forever,
there he lives in despair, surrounded by death. Here he denied himself
of no carnal desire, there he is denied even of a drop of water. Here he was the object of God's
carnal blessing, there he is the object of God's wrath. Here
he had the company of the rich and famous, There he has the
company of devils and the damned. Oh, what a change in this man. And listen to this. Just as death
brought a drastic change, the Word of God and the decrees of
God will forbid no change for all eternity. As it is with the
poor beggar today, it will be forever. What's his condition
this afternoon? He's comforted. He's comforted. And that will never change. The
decree of God will forbid any change. How is it with the rich
man this afternoon? He's still tormented. And that
will never change. As the tree falls, so shall it
lie. The condition that a man's in
with the Lord when he dies. If he's a saved man, he will
be comforted. And that will never change, Wayne.
And those who are without Christ will be tormented. And that will
never change. Eternity will forbid no change. If hell lasted for a million
years or ten million years, they could live in some hope. But
they cannot hope because hell is not measured in time, but
it is eternal. Just as the joy and happiness
and life of the saint is said to be everlasting, so the torment
of the damned is said to be everlasting. On the Day of Judgment it is
said that those shall go away into everlasting punishment,
but the righteous into life everlasting." Everlasting damnation, everlasting
rest and happiness. There is no change. Some have
asked what this means here. The gulf. In verse 26, there's
a great gulf fixed. Some have asked the question,
what is that? It's not a geological gulf. It's not that there's such
a distance between heaven and hell that nobody can cross it.
It's a much more definite gulf than that. This gulf is God's
decree. It's His Word. He has fixed it
in His Word that those who go to torment will never get out
and go to heaven. It's everlasting. Those who are
in heaven could never get out of heaven and be cast down to
hell. It's fixed in God's Word. Once
damned, always damned. Once saved, always saved. It's
decreed in God's Word. Look in verse 27 and verse 28. And he said, I pray thee therefore,
Father, can you see the despair in this man's heart? Here he
requested, his request was denied. I pray thee therefore, since
you won't even grant me a drop of water, I pray therefore that
you would send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five
brethren that he may testify to them lest they come to this
place of torment. Now what's hinted at here? First
thing is hinted at is this. There may be whole families in
hell. Here was a man that had five
brothers and he was fearful that the whole family was going to
wind up in hell. All of them. The whole family. Could it be that perhaps there
are whole families, moms and dads and siblings all go down
to hell for all eternity? Could that be? Listen to what
Isaiah says. He said, Lord, pour out Thy fury
upon the heathen that know Thee not, and upon the families of
those that call not upon Thy name. They never call on the
Lord Jesus. There are whole families that
never pray. Dads that never lead the family
in prayer. Moms that never sit and pray
with their children. Children who never pray, and
they all live and go down to the pit together. Sometimes you
see in the Scriptures where the Lord saves old families. He saved
Lydia's family, her household. The Philippian jailer, he was
saved, and his household was saved. And they all went up to
heaven together. But oh, there's other families
that never call on the Lord, and they die, and they're lost.
for all eternity, and they suffer together. Why was this rich man
so concerned about his brethren? Well, I for one don't believe
it's because he loved them. I just don't believe he loved
them. He didn't love them here, and I doubt if he loves them
there. I don't think anybody in hell would change, brothers
and sisters. Hell is not a place to reform people, is it? It's
not a place to convert people. And he never loved his brethren
here. He never loved their souls here. I don't think he'll love
them there. Men said, well, when you get
to hell, you'll be a believer. Maybe in hell, but you still
won't believe the Lord. A man that won't call on the
Lord here, he won't call on Him there. You see how selfish this
rich man still was. It was still all about him, wasn't
it? My tongue, my brethren, me and my. Hell is not made to reform
people. It's made to punish sinners for
their sins. That's what hell is. Why then
was he concerned about his brethren? Why did he say, Sin Lazarus,
that he may witness to my brethren? Well, don't you think that him
probably being the oldest, he was the example to his brothers?
And he was a bad example. And when he died and went down
to hell, he knew what was going on here. He knew that they hadn't
come there yet, and he says, I don't want them to come here.
Why? It's going to increase my torment. I wasn't a light to
them. They lived just like I taught
them, being their older brother. They're using me as a pattern,
and look at me. And when they get here, they're
going to scream, what have you done to us? You left us an awful
example. Their coming here will only add
to my torment. I think that was his whole problem. Can you imagine what people who
have led others astray lied to people and they believed their
lie? Remember when the Lord Jesus raised from the dead and those
Pharisees paid soldiers to say that His disciples stole Him
away? And they said that saying was still reported among the
Jews. And people believed that lie
and was damned. Can you imagine those Pharisees
in hell saying, why did we lie to those people? They're going
to scream at us when we get here. I often think of poor Mohammed,
that poor false prophet. And that cut my head off when
they heard me say that. But he was a false prophet. And
he's not only deceived his family and multitudes of others, that
man has deceived nations. Whole nations has received his
writings and believed it. And he's in hell. And he's waiting
for them to come and drop into hell on top of him and saying,
what did you do to us? Our blood is on your hand. That's
what this rich man didn't want his brethren to come there for.
Oh, it's bad enough and torment will be bad enough that you suffer
for your own damnation. But having the blood of people
on your hands and waiting for them to come there after they
believed your lie. Notice this about this. This
tells us something else about this rich man. He is more conscious
of Lazarus than he pretended to be. Here he pretended he didn't hear
him. When he passed by Lazarus, Lazarus said, except you repent,
you perish. Seek the Lord while he may be
found. What did the rich man do? Went on like he never even
heard him. He saw Lazarus suffering. He saw his sores. He knew he
was hungry. Went on by like he didn't see
him. But you know he was aware more than what he let on. How
do we know that? Because now he tells us, send
Lazarus. Send Lazarus. Send him to me
and bring a drop of water. Send him to my brother's house.
What would he tell them? How do you know anything about
Lazarus? Oh, I was watching him. I was listening to him. Brothers
and sisters, don't be discouraged when you witness to your co-workers. when you witness to your neighbors
and your friends and your relatives, they're hearing more than they're
letting on like they're hearing. When you get up on Sunday morning
and you get ready and you come to the worship, your neighbors
see that. They may not tell you, but they
see it. These neighbors around this congregation, they hear
us singing. We've invited these folks. We've
invited these folks. They won't come here. They hear
us singing. In the summertime, they could
probably hear me preaching. But they pretend they have no
idea what's going on here. But I tell you, when people reach
hell, they remember, don't they? They remember. And I think that
will be one of the torments of hell. They remember. Son, remember
thou in your lifetime. I just wonder sometimes if Agrippa
The thing that torments him more than the flame of hell is his
memory of saying, Almost thou persuadest me. Wouldn't that
be something? In your heart to remember, I
was almost persuaded to be a Christian. I was almost persuaded. I just
felt like I wanted to leave my sins and come to Christ that
Paul was teaching. But I didn't. And now he's tormented, ain't
he? Oh, he's talking about, you dear children, bless your hearts,
come to Christ. If you feel the Holy Spirit draw
in your heart and you feel your guilt, flee to the Savior. Flee
right now to the Savior. Don't wait till tomorrow. Don't
wait till next week. Next week may be too late. As
far as we know, King Agrippa never did say, Paul, I want to
hear you again. As far as we know, he never was
almost persuaded. To be almost persuaded, the psalm
says, is to be altogether lost. Altogether lost. Oh, the memory. Remember that thou in thy lifetime. In verses 29 and verse 30, this
has to do with the Word. Abraham said unto him, They have
Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And here this man
has no regard. He had no regard for God's Word
here. And he still does. He has no regard. No, Father. No. The Word's not enough. If
one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. No. If they hear not Moses and the
prophets, they won't hear though one rose from the dead. Moses
did all those miracles down in Egypt. And then he parted the
Red Sea. And you know what the Bible says?
For all this they sinned still and believed not His wonders. It's not miracles that we need
today, is it? We don't need to see signs and
wonders. Brothers and sisters, we need one thing. We need to
believe the naked Word of God in our hearts. That's what He
uses to save people. These things are written. that
you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and believe in
you might have life through His name. Faith comes by hearing,
and hearing by the Word of God. That's what we need, faith in
God's Word. Faith to believe it, not signs
and miracles and such things. The world's never accepted this,
but here's God's answer to the world. If they hear not Moses
and the prophets, What did Moses say? He told us of Christ, didn't
he? He wrote of me. He wrote about
our sin. Wayne told us this morning. The
law worketh wrath, but the law is the knowledge of sin. Moses'
writing shows us our sin, but it does more than that, doesn't
it? He wrote of Christ, the sin bearer. He told us of God's judgment
was upon our sins, and then he said, look, look and live. He wrote of Christ. Believe in
Christ and live. The Father Himself has given
us the record of His Son. And those who believe the record
that God gave of His Son, they have life. I've never seen a
miracle. With these naked eyes, I've never
seen a miracle. I'm talking about a miracle that the Bible talks
about a miracle. But I believe His Word. And life has taken place in my
soul. Believe His Word. Believe His Word. Believe it
and be saved. May God bless His Word. Let's
pray.