Chapter 16. I want to begin reading in verse
19. I want to begin this morning
looking at this passage, then this afternoon we'll finish it.
Luke chapter 16 and verse 19. There was a certain rich man
which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously
every day. And there was a certain beggar
named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and
desired to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's
table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked
his sores. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by the angels unto Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was
buried, and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments,
and seeth Abraham aforeoff and Lazarus in his bosom. And he
cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus,
that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my
tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said,
Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth thy good things,
and likewise lazareth evil things. But now he is comforted, and
thou art tormented. And beside all of this between
us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that they 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 thou wouldst 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. 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. And he said unto him, If they
hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded,
though one rose. from the dead. I want to look
at the life of these two men this morning, and I want to look
at after their death this afternoon. But here in verse 19 and verse
20, the Scripture tells us the Lord Jesus is this preacher.
And He tells us you have two certain men, a rich man and a
beggar. There has been a lot of discussion
in the commentaries where this is actually a parable or where
it really happened. I really don't know. I'm not
even concerned with that. If it was a parable, then this
is what could have happened. If it was real, then it's what
did happen. And you and I can learn much
from it this morning. It seems that our Lord, first
of all, was preaching this to the Pharisees. He told us here
of this rich ruler who died and he was obviously a Jew because
he addressed Abraham as his father. He was a covetous man, a rich
man, a covetous man. Most rich men are covetous people. Not all, but most are. That's
how they get rich, by being covetous people. And we're told here in
verse 14 that these Pharisees, most of them were rich, Nicodemus
was rich, and they were covetous people. They were covetous. That's one of the reasons they
didn't like the Lord Jesus, because He preached against their covetousness. So this, first of all, may have
been in particular to them. In general, it probably represents
two classes of people in this world. It represents saved people
and lost people. It represents those who believe
the gospel of the Lord Jesus and those who do not. I know
these are extreme cases. You have this one man here that
was exceedingly rich. Most people aren't that way.
He lived comfortably every day. He lived a luxurious life. That's an extreme case. And here
we are told about this poor man. He was in poverty. He lived a
miserable life full of sores. Most people fit somewhere in
those extremes. Very few are exceedingly rich
and very few suffer like this man suffered. But still, they
represent to us those who do not believe the Gospel, they
die in their sins unforgiven, and those who do believe in the
Lord Jesus Christ. and what happens to them. I think
if we limit our view this morning to riches and poverty, we'll
miss the whole thing. If I come up here this morning
and I preach to you that it's a virtue to be poor, and that
being rich won't save you, and if you're rich you'll be damned
because of it, that would prove no good for you or me, would
it? I think probably the first thing I should say this morning
is that riches never damned anybody. The problem is not with riches,
is it? We find in the Scriptures that
a lot of godly people were rich. Job was an exceedingly rich man. Abraham was a rich man. David
was a rich king. Joseph of Arimathea was a rich
man. Riches never caused anybody to
be lost. Men are lost because they're
graceless in their hearts. And you know poverty never saved
anybody, did it? I bet when the last account has
been taken, there probably will be more poor men who are lost
than there ever was rich men. It's not about poverty. It's not about riches. It's about
whether Christ, whether His grace is in our hearts or whether it's
not. And this rich man, his whole
problem was this. He was graceless. He was graceless. He needed a new birth. He needed
a new nature. He needed to be born of love. Great temptations are associated
with being rich. Great temptations. Paul wrote
this to Timothy and he said this, warn them that are rich in this
world that they be not high-minded or trust in uncertain riches. High-minded. Be not arrogant. Be not independent. Don't think
that you can trust in your riches and have your joy of this life
and your freedoms and trust in that and things be well with
you. A lot of rich people are high-minded. They're arrogant
and self-willed people. Luke tells us about three rich
men in his book. This passage here, and look over
in the 18th chapter in verse 22. I think sometimes if we take
these three men, rich men that Luke talked about, this is a
good sequence to take them in. You remember here in the 18th
chapter where this rich young ruler came to the Lord Jesus.
And he said, What must I do to have eternal life? And the Lord
Jesus said, Keep the commandments. And he said, Which one? And he
told him which commandments. And he said, All these I've kept
from my youth up. Well, he hadn't. He hadn't. Wayne
told us this morning, anyway, if you break one, you broke them
all. If you're guilty of one, you're
guilty of all of them. He hadn't done that, but he said
he had. But the Lord Jesus said to him,
if you will be perfect, if you want to be accepted, go sell
all that you have and give it to the poor, take up your cross
and follow me. This man was an exceeding rich
man. And here was his ply in verse
21. And he said, all these things
have I kept from my youth up. And then Lord Jesus in verse
22 told him to sell all of his treasure and follow me. And verse
23, And when he heard this, he was very sorrowful, for he was
very rich. Now, let me tell you this old
man's problem. Why he wouldn't follow the Lord
Jesus. It wasn't because he was rich. That wasn't his problem. His problem was he trusted in
his riches. When he went away sorrowful,
the Lord Jesus said, Hardly shall they that have riches enter the
kingdom of heaven. And his disciples were amazed. They said, Who then can be saved
if a rich man can't be saved? And then he explained to them
what he was talking about. He said, Children, how hardly
shall they who trust in their riches enter the Kingdom of Heaven. This man put his trust in his
riches. Now, I don't know really how
you do that. I've never experienced it. And I hope I never do. But you can imagine if you were
rich, you could get somewhat proud about it, couldn't you?
You could make your own way in this world. You could make your
own joys, your own satisfaction. You could go where you wanted
to, when you wanted to, buy whatever you wanted to buy. You could
satisfy this old flesh till it's fullest content. And I don't
think that would be a good thing. And I think if a man got to that
point and the Lord Jesus said, you let go of that and you trust
Me, it would be difficult for that man to say, I can't do that.
That's what happened to this man. I can't do that. But you
know it's not just riches, is it? It's not just wealth that
men trust in. The Lord told us here in the
18th chapter, look in verse 9. Look at this. He spake this parable
unto certain which trusted in themselves that they were righteous. I don't know how much wealth
they had, but they thought they had a righteousness that was
so rich that they could please God with it. And they trusted
in that righteousness. This is the righteousness the
Apostle Paul had before the Lord saved him. And you know what
he said about that righteousness? What things were gained to me,
those I counted lost for Christ. And don't you believe that in
and of himself, It was just as impossible for the Apostle Paul
to let go of that righteousness that was his own as much as it
was for this rich young ruler to let go of his wealth. I tell
you, brothers and sisters, it's hard to let go of your own righteousness. And that's usually the last thing
we'll let go of anyway. And here's a man that just wouldn't
do it. He wouldn't do it. He was a rich man. And the Scripture
says he went away sorrowful. Look back in chapter 12 of Luke.
Here is another rich man the Lord is going to tell us about.
And it is found here in chapter 12 and it begins there in verse
15. The Lord Jesus was preaching
and this man interrupted his preaching and said, Lord, speak
to my brother that he divide the inheritance with me. And
the Lord Jesus tells him in verse 15, Take heed and beware of covetousness. For a man's life consisteth not
in the abundance of the things which he possesses. Then he told
us about this rich man. He spake a parable unto them,
saying, The ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentiful. And he thought within himself,
saying, What shall I do? Because I have no room where
to bestow my fruits. 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 all my goods. And I will say to my
soul, Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years. Take
your ease, eat, drink, and be merry. And God said to him, Thou
fool, This night thy soul shall be required of thee, then whose
shall those things be which thou hast provided? So is every one
he that laith up treasure for himself, and is not rich before
God." Now I was reading this and I was amazed. You talk about
high mindedness, you talk about arrogance. This man mentioned
himself 17 times when he started speaking. Now, ain't that amazing? 17 times he said, I and my. You talk about self-centeredness. I will build barns. I will do this. I will do that.
And I'll say, and I'll do this, and I'll do that. He was so caught
up with himself. Why? I guess you can do that
when you're rich. This man was rich and how arrogant
he was. Notice what a bragger he was.
My fruits, my barns, my goods, my soul. I think it's ironic
that Abraham spoke to this rich man and told him, remember in
your lifetime you had your good things. You called them your
things. You called them your barns. You
called them your fruits. And now he reminds this man in
hell. I remember how you bragged, he
said. And look how presumptuous this
man was. In verse 19 he says, My soul,
you've got many goods laid up for many years. You've got your
barns full of goods laid up for many years. Boy, that's presumptuous,
isn't it? Many years. He didn't have that
night. He didn't have another night.
How deceitful riches are. Many years. He trusted in his
riches and he thought his riches would secure him. Many years. And you know what God calls a
man that looks to the marvel and looks to next month and next
year? You know what God calls that
man? He says, You're a fool. You're a fool. goods laid up
for many years, take your ease? And you face an eternity? Face
your ease? In a heart where Christ does
not abide and take your ease? Ready to face God and take your
ease? Hell is underneath your feet
and take your ease? Man alive how deceitful riches
are. Proud and presumptuous about
it all. No faith, no Christ, no help,
no hope, and take his ease. A man can have much of this world
and use it for God's glory when grace reigns in his heart. But
if grace is not there, he merely lives to himself. I don't care
if he's poor. I don't care if he's rich. Where
the absence of grace is, men live to themselves. And they
are not rich before God. So Luke gives us these three
rich men. One of them came and the Lord
told him to give his riches away and followed him. He went away
sorrowful. And then another we see even at the hour of his death,
he is still so presumptuous, trusting in his riches. And now
we come to this rich man here. This rich man. And notice in
chapter 16 and verse 19, notice this man, how he lived. I think
probably I've already explained to you in these other two examples.
He lived in luxury every day. Boy, he had the means to have
the best that anybody could think of having. He had more, John
read to us this morning, they've got more than their hearts can
desire. Rich people. His clothes, look
at his clothes. Boy, he had the finest. Purple
and fine linen. The food, he had the best. Health,
he was healthy. How do we know that? Because
the Bible says he prospered every day. He wasn't in trouble like
other men was. He was never sick. He never had
to beg. He lacked nothing. Every day,
this man prospered. I don't know of anybody like
that, but I imagine there must be some like that. And the Lord
Jesus said this is the case with this man. He fared sumptuously
every day, every day, until that night when God said to him, you
fool, you fool, tonight your life is going to be required
of you and then who will these things be? The very night that
he died, he was still glorying and trusting in his riches. What has to happen to a man to
secure his eternal doom and misery? You know what has to happen to
somebody for them to secure their eternal misery? For God just
to leave them alone. God left this man alone, didn't
He? What dealings He had with his conscience, I don't know.
But mainly He just left him and let him fill his heart with the
things of this world. That's all God has to do. And
a man will secure his own eternal damnation. He will lay up treasures
for himself and never be rich before God. How much better,
eternally better, brothers and sisters, to live with the greatest
affliction every day and have grace in a man's heart than to
fare sumptuously every day and live and die in our sins without
forgiveness. Who would you rather be? Would
you rather be the rich man or Lazarus? One man said, I want
to be the rich man when I'm living. I want to be Lazarus when I die.
But it don't work that way, does it? It don't work that way. It doesn't work that way. What
was this man's problem? He was filled with the treasure
of this present world, and he was empty of the treasure of
that world that's to come. Let me emphasize that again.
It wasn't his riches. It was his whole attitude towards
him. It's not money. It's the love
of money. This man had no grace in his
heart. If he had had, that would have changed his whole attitude
towards his money. Look at Lazarus in verse 20 and
verse 21. There was a certain beggar. First
thing we're told about this man that he was a beggar. He wasn't saved because he was
a beggar. Being a beggar don't save anybody, does it? Riches
don't damn you. Poverty and suffering don't save
you. This man was a beggar. Now imagine this. He had no money
at all. This man had came into financial
ruin. If he ever had a penny, he now
lost it. He was a beggar. If he got anything
to eat, he had to beg for it. If he got anything to drink,
he had to beg for it. When he was cold, he had to beg
for the clothes that he had on his body. He was a beggar. That's
all he ever did. You saw this man laying on the
street corner, you went across on the other side because you
know what he was going to do when you spoke to him. When he
saw you, he was going to beg. That's all he did. This man had
nothing. He had nothing. He was a beggar. When he was hungry, please give
me something to eat. When he was thirsty, he said,
please, somebody give me a drink of water. When it was cold, he
said, would somebody please give me a coat for my body. He never had a penny and had
no way of earning a penny. He was a beggar. Now that's hard
to imagine a man like this, isn't it? A beggar, all of his life. Secondly, consider this. He never
possessed good health. He possessed evil health. Others
might say their health's not good. You know what he said about
his health? It's evil. In verse 25, he had
his evil things. His health was evil. Look at
his weakness. You didn't see him standing on
the street corner begging. He never sat in a chair saying,
I'll work for food. This man couldn't even sit up.
He was so weak that somebody carried him to the rich man's
gate. And when they carried him there,
the Lord said he lay there. He was so weak he couldn't even
sit up. And the only time he could move
was when somebody had pity upon him and come and moved him from
one place to the other. He could do nothing. No, he didn't
have a sign saying we'll work for food. He couldn't work. He
couldn't do anything. This man was a beggar and he
was so weak that he couldn't even walk. He couldn't even crawl.
Look at this horrible disease on top of that. The Lord said
he was full of sores. Wouldn't this man be physically
repulsive? You would never invite this man
to come and eat dinner with you. You could never sit across the
table from this man while he was eating. He was full of running,
infectious, putrefying, stinking, itchy sores. You couldn't even
stand to wash this man. He was so vile. He stinked in
his own eyes and in the eyes of everybody else. He had to
wear these loose rags upon him because his body was so full
of sores. Full of sores. When he looked
on his feet, there he was full of sores. Looked on his hands,
full of sores. Looked on his face, looked on
his scalp, he was full of sores, repulsive, infectious sores. That's the condition of this
man. He was a beggar, he was weak, and he was full of sores. In his abject poverty, he has
to beg for the essentials just to exist. Crumbs. Crumbs. And you notice He didn't
beg for the crumbs that was on the rich man's table. He'd have
took those who fell on the floor. Do you have any crumbs that has
fallen from your table? I'll take those. I have these
hungry pains. I'm starving to death. I'm sick. I'm weak. Would you give me the
crumbs that your maids swept up this morning from the floor?
What an awful, awful condition this man was in. He don't have
a house for shelter. He don't have a table for food.
He don't have a bed to rest in, a hospital to treat him, a health
care worker to come and check on him, no friends to help him.
That's the condition this poor man was in. Evil, evil, evil. None of us are there, are we?
Don't just make you ashamed of yourself. It just makes me ashamed
of myself. Complaining about the weather.
Got a little cold. Got a little snow. Oh my, aren't
we awful? We are sinners, John. We are
sinners. That we could ever complain about
anything after reading about this child of God. If we had
to stop here this morning, we'd despair, wouldn't we? We'd just
say, let us eat, drink, and be merry, for tomorrow we die. But
consider this, brothers and sisters. Consider what this man did not
possess. Anything physically. He was of
no worth monetarily. His health was gone. He was full
of sores. He didn't possess any physical
thing worth having. You wouldn't want anything this
man had. But he did possess something. And this is the amazing thing.
He was possessed of that everlasting love of God. which is in Christ
Jesus the Lord. Ain't that amazing? Can you imagine
a man living in torment like this, and yet the love of God
is shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Ghost? Ain't that wonderful? In his abject poverty, in his
utter weakness, in his physical torment, he was possessed of
something the rich man knew nothing about. The love of God that is
revealed and manifested in the Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Sometimes you and I get in afflictions
and we begin to think and doubt the love of Christ for us. The
least little thing. Let the few bumps get in the
road and what do we begin to do? Oh, does the Lord really
love me? Well, look at this man. Look
at him. And yet Christ loved this man.
In all his afflictions, there was a place reserved in heaven
for him. Made and reserved for this beggar
in heaven. That's love, isn't it? He was
possessed of God's love. Boy, I tell you, no wonder the
Apostle said, the Lord Jesus said, a man's life consisteth
not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth. Eternal
life has nothing to do with who you are or what you possess.
Here's a rich man who fared sumptuously every day and was without the
love of God in his heart. And he was a beggar, afflicted
every day until he died. And he was loved of God. Isn't
that amazing? That's amazing. Secondly, consider
this. He was possessed of this. He
was possessed of a work of grace in his heart. This is amazing
to me. Here was a bagger and he was
in his miserable state and yet he was a believer in the Son
of God and redemption. How could such a weak man find
strength to pray? And yet he did. How could such
a destitute man hope? But he did. How could he love
and how could he be patient and wait upon the Lord? But he did.
This man had a work of grace in his heart. What does this show us, brothers
and sisters? It shows us this, that a work of grace in the heart
is not dependent upon the good providence of God over us. Providence
may bring you to nothing. It may lay you under its will
and crush every earthly desire and hope. And yet grace will
keep you believing and hoping and trusting and loving and waiting
on the Lord in the face, in the face of what you're suffering
and all the afflictions that you're going through. Satan told
the Lord, he said, you take all that Job has away. Take his possessions,
take his health, flick his body and he'll curse you to his face.
to your face. Well, the Lord let him do all
of that, didn't He? And here sat Job on the pile of ashes. He had no children left. His
health was gone. He lost all his possessions.
And what did He say? Was there any grace left? Though He slay me, yet will I
trust Him. That's grace, isn't it? The walking
golden slippers, Mr. Bunyan used to say, on a sunny
day, it's not difficult to trust then. But let a man lose his
family. Let a man lose his health. Let
him sit on an ash heap. Can he trust God then? And Job
said, I do trust Him. And He may slay me, but I'll
trust Him. I know my Redeemer liveth. Brothers and sisters,
that's grace in the heart. The Lord knows something Satan
doesn't. The work of saving grace in the heart of a poor sinner
is not dependent upon his physical or his mental condition, but
upon the work, the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit in his
heart. That's what it's dependent upon.
And you know something? Once the Holy Spirit takes up
this work, he'll never quit it until he's finished. Where will
next week find some of us? Ain't no telling, is there? Ain't
no telling where it may find us. But I tell you this, brothers
and sisters, if the Holy Spirit has begun a work of grace in
your heart, no matter where you find yourself or what condition
you find yourself in, He'll continue that work. He'll do it. It's not dependent upon the good
providence of God upon you. Look at the earthly end, verse
22, of these two people. And it came to pass that the
beggar died and was carried by angels into Abraham's bosom.
The rich man also died and was buried. Here we see their death.
This is the earthly end. You and I can't find two men
more diverse than all the Scripture. They had nothing in common, did
they? But this one thing, they both died. They both died. Boy, Grace is a great leveler,
ain't it? He spares none. He don't wait for anybody. He
won't tarry while you get ready. All the doors that we could bolt
won't keep Him out. He comes irresistible, and He
comes to everybody. It's appointed unto men once
to die, and after this is the judgment. And nobody can resist
that appointment. God Himself has made it. And
when time comes, we may be rich, we may be unexpected, or we may
be in poverty and hoping that death will come. But when that
appointed time comes, we die. Everybody dies. One man said,
we all have one life to live. We all have one death to die.
We all have one judgment to face and one long home to go to. And
that's the truth, isn't it? Death is the great leveler. Nothing is said about how they
died. The Lord didn't tell us. We could speculate and say the
bagger may have died of infection. It's almost surely he died in
great pain. Nothing is said about where they
buried him. Maybe this dug a hole and stuck him in it. He had no
money. Nothing said about how the rich
man died, but I imagine probably he died at night in his sleep
without any pain. But what a funeral he had. They
called the dignitaries together. The mayor came. They got up and
spoke a bunch of accolades. What a great man he was. The
charities he gave too. And they both died. But you know
something? You go back a few years later,
and you look at the bones of those two men, and you can't
tell which bones belong to the rich man and which bones belong
to the poor man. That's what death does. It removes
all physical distinction. Here is our end, brothers and
sisters. And I've sometimes stood at a
gravesite, and this is what I've said. This is as far as we can
go. We can see no further than this
because you and I are mere men. We're mere women. We're mere
creatures. But the One that was preaching this to us is no mere
man. He's the Lord of glory. Everything
is naked and open in His eyes. Hell is naked with Him. Heaven
is open. He can see what men face and
what they go through in their condition after death. And this
afternoon we're going to look at what He said happened to these
two men after they died. Your opinion is as good as mine.
And there's so much speculation. But this is not opinion, is it?
This is the voice of the Eternal Son of God who knows. Let me finish with a quote from
J.C. Ryle. Here's what he said. All that
men would learn to live as though they must one day die. Truly it is poor work to set
our affections on a dying world and its short-lived comforts
and lose a glorious immortality. Here we are toiling and we are
laboring and wearying ourselves with every trifle and running
to and fro like ants upon a heap And yet after a few years we
shall all be gone, and another generation shall take our place. Live for eternity, O reader. Seek a portion which can never
be taken away from you." God help us to do that. God help
us to do that.