I have a very solemn passage
of scripture that I want to read from my text this morning. The
scripture is found in the 16th chapter of Luke. I'm going to
read verses 23 and 24 of Luke 16. And in hell he lifted up
his eyes, being in torment, and seeing Abraham afar off, and
Lazarus in his bosom. He cried and said, Father Abraham,
have mercy upon me. Send Lazarus that he may dip
his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented
in this flame." Now, my subject today is five awful lessons learned
in hell, or what the rich man discovered in hell. Now, this
is a difficult subject. It's a subject upon which I do
not enjoy preaching at all. I don't enjoy preaching on judgment
and condemnation and eternal punishment, and I don't expect
you to enjoy listening to this message. I often have people
come to me after a message and they say, I enjoyed your sermon. Well, I know what they mean,
and I don't mind them saying that. They don't particularly
mean that they enjoyed a message on the subject of judgment and
condemnation and eternal punishment. But they mean by that that they
appreciated the message. They appreciated the warning.
They appreciated the servant of Christ being faithful to their
souls. They approved of the message.
And I understand what people are saying when they say that.
They say, I enjoyed your sermon. They mean by that I appreciated
it, or I approved of it. Well, I don't enjoy preaching
a message on judgment and condemnation. And I don't expect you to enjoy
listening to it. But if we're going to be true
to the word of God, If we're going to be true to our heroes,
we have to preach on judgment, because the Word of God deals
with that subject. I'd much rather talk about the
love of Christ for sinners. I'd much rather talk about his
substitutionary work on the cross, his resurrection, his ascension,
his exaltation, his lordship. I enjoy preaching on those subjects,
but I must, I must deal with this subject today. I feel in
quest of God's Spirit. I feel led of God's Spirit to
speak on this subject, Five Awful Lessons Learned in Hell. Now, I want compassion when I
preach on a subject like this. I'd like to have the affection
and compassion of the Apostle Paul, who wrote in Romans 9,
verse 1, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not. My conscience bearing
me witness, I have great heaviness of heart, and continual sorrow
for my brethren according to the flesh. I could wish," he
said, that I myself were a curse from Christ for my brethren according
to the flesh. And you know, Moses stood before
the queen, an angry God, and the people of Israel when God
was going to destroy the whole nation. And Moses stood between
an angry God and the people of Israel, and he cried, Lord, if
you're not going to have mercy on Israel, then blot me out of
the book which thou hast written. If you can't show mercy to these
people, then blot me out of the book which you've written. Wouldn't
it be wonderful if we had that kind of intercessor's heart,
if we had that kind of compassion and affection for those to whom
we preach? And that's the way Paul felt,
and that's the way Moses felt. But I recognize that while time
changes some things, time doesn't change all things. And time hasn't
changed the fact that I'm preaching to people as Moses and Paul preached
to people who have great hardness of heart, and many of them are
not going to learn the lessons of Scripture and the lessons
of grace and the lessons of mercy and the lessons of the gospel
here on this earth. They're going to have to learn
these awful lessons in hell. These awful lessons, these awful
truths are going to have to be taught them at a time when nothing
can be done about it because of hardness of heart. What makes
men have hardness of heart? What brings about hardness of
heart? Well, now you'll learn something here if you listen
to me. There are five things in the scripture that the scripture
tell us causes hardness of heart, and the first one is ignorance.
Ignorance causes hardness of heart. Many people have hardness
of heart against the gospel, against the truth of God, because
of ignorance. In other words, our Lord said,
You do err not knowing the scriptures. You err because you do not know
the scriptures. That's the reason you're mistaken.
And that's the reason you're wrapped in tradition and custom
and ceremony. That's the reason you don't know
God, is you do not know his word. You do err not knowing the scriptures. And then in another portion of
God's word, in John 12, 40, it says, He hath blinded their minds
and hardened their hearts. Blindness of mind and hardness
of heart go together. where you have blindness of mind,
it contributes to a hardness of heart. Ignorance, the second
thing that causes hardness of heart, the reason men do not
learn, and the reason they do not understand, is because of
unbelief. First, ignorance, you do not
know the scriptures, and therefore you err. And secondly, unbelief. Now, Israel, in Hebrews 3, Paul
said they saw God's works. They saw the miracles. They saw
what God did in Egypt and in the wilderness, and yet they
didn't believe. And then in the book of Mark, chapter 6, verse
52, the Lord says, they considered not the miracle of the loaves
and fishes, and they hardened their hearts. In other words,
these people couldn't plead ignorance. They sinned against light. They
hardened their hearts against what they saw and what they heard.
Christ said to the city of Capernaum, He said it's going to be more
tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for
you, because you sinned against the light. They perished in ignorance,
but you sinned against the light. If the mighty works had been
done in Sodom and Gomorrah, which are done in Capernaum, they would
have repented, but you sinned against the light. And this is
another thing that contributes to a hardness of heart and keeps
men from acknowledging the truth, and that is unbelief. And I'll
tell you something else that contributes to hardness of heart,
and that is the deceitfulness of sin. Sin is a deceitful thing. And over in Ecclesiastes, the
wise man wrote in chapter 8, verse 11, because judgment against
an evil work is not executed speedily, because God does not
come down upon a man the moment he sins, because God is patient
and long-suffering. and does not execute judgment
immediately upon our offense or our transgression. Therefore,
the hearts of men are set in them, hardened in them to do
evil. They go along and commit sin
and evil, and do it again the next day, and the next week,
and the next month, and the next year, and God doesn't step in
and stop them, or arrest them, or judge them, or cast them into
hell, and they just go right on in sinning, the deceitfulness
of sin, until finally their feet shall slide in due time. And
when the cup is filled with transgressions and iniquity, then God judges
them. But that develops a hardness
of heart. Why don't men learn? Why must they wait till judgment
and eternal hell to learn things? Ignorance, unbelief, and then
deceitfulness of sin. Because judgment against an evil
work is not executed right now, the hearts of men are hardened
and set in them to do evil. I'll tell you another thing that
contributes to hardness of heart, and that is religious tradition,
religious custom. The Pharisee stood in the temple,
and he prayed thus with himself. Now, he didn't pray to God. There
was no prayer in anything that he said. But he prayed with himself,
Lord, I thank thee I'm not like other men. I'm not an adulterer. I'm not an extortioner. I'm not
unjust. I pay my tithes. I fast twice
a week. I read the scriptures. I give
alms to the poor. He was set in his religious pattern. in his religious custom, in his
religious tradition, and his ears were not open to the voice
of God, nor to the word of God. His heart was not open. It was
hardened by tradition and custom. He was hardened by custom in
religion. Religious duties hardened him
in his rebellion against God. I tell you the last thing. These
five things cause hardness of heart and keep men from learning
what they ought to learn. and keep them from learning now
what they will learn in hell, and that is pride. Pride grows
before destruction and a haughty spirit before the fall. How terrible
it is, how tragic it is, what a terrible thought to be hardened
in ignorance and unbelief and by the deceitfulness of sin and
by custom and tradition in religious duties and by pride of heart
that closes my ears and shuts my eyes and hardens my heart
against the voice of God, and then I'll be forced to learn
these lessons when it's eternally too late to do anything about
them." Now, what are these lessons that this man learned in hell?
Five awful lessons learned in hell. Well, the first lesson
he learned, and it tells us this there in Luke chapter 16, verse
23, and in hell, He lifted up his eyes. The first
thing this man learned is there is a hell. There is a hell. Do you believe in hell? Well,
the disciples of our Lord did not have a lot to say about hell.
Our Lord Jesus Christ spoke often of hell, but the disciples themselves
had little to say about it. They had something to say. I
suppose it was because they knew so little about hell. Our Lord
knows about it. Our Lord warned us about it,
but the disciples, well, Paul in 2 Thessalonians 1, 7, he said
this, and to you who are troubled, rest with us. When the Lord Jesus
Christ shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels
in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and
them that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, Christ
shall appear in flaming fire, taking vengeance, for vengeance
is mine, saith the Lord. And then Peter said in 2 Peter
2.4, For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast
them down to hell. And then John in the book of
Revelation mentions hell several times. In Revelation 21.8 he
said, But the fearful, and the unbelieving, and the abominable,
and murderers shall have their part in the lake that burneth
with fire and brimstone, which is the second death. Well, the
disciples had something to say about it, didn't they? They believed
that there is a hell. They taught that there is a hell.
They preached that there is a hell. They warned men about hell. But our Lord Jesus Christ had
a lot to say about it. In fact, he said more about hell
than he said about the eternal city, the New Jerusalem, heaven. He described hell more often
than he described heaven. He said here in Matthew 10.28,
"...fear not them which kill the body, and have no more that
they can do. But I'll tell you whom you shall
fear. Fear him who is able to cast you soul and body into hell."
And on another occasion, our Lord said, if your right hand
offends you, cut it off. It's better to go through life
maimed than than having two hands to be cast into hell, where the
worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched. If thou write I
offend thee, pluck it out. It's better to go through life
with one eye than having two to be cast into hell, where the
worm dieth not and the fire is not quenched." These are the
words of Christ the Lord. Now Christ was not teaching that
we should maim and mutilate our bodies. He didn't teach that
at all. And anyone who accepts it that
way is a fool. The Lord Jesus is saying, no
matter how precious a thing is to you, and no matter how valuable
you may consider a thing, it's not worth perishing for, even
if it's your right hand or your right eye. There's nothing worth
going to hell for, anything in this life that comes between
you and God. That's the reason our Lord said,
he that comes to me must hate his mother, father, brother,
sister, husband, wife, yea, his own life, if he will be my disciple.
Christ must be first. Whoever or whatever stands between
you and a personal relationship by faith with Jesus Christ must
go. It must be cut off. It must be
cast aside because it's not worth perishing for. Nothing is. Christ is first. Christ is the
only one, the only foundation. And then he said in Matthew 13,
49, so shall it be at the end of the world. The angel shall
come forth and sever the wicked. from among the just and shall
cast them into a furnace of fire." The first thing that the rich
man learned was there is a hell. There is a hell. It's not just
a curse word. It's a place. It's not just a
byword. It's a place. It's not just some
place that you want people to go with whom you don't agree.
It's a real and awful place. He found out there's a hell.
In hell, he lifted up his eyes. And then the second lesson he
learned in hell was this, that hell is a place of misery and
torment. Now listen to him. He says, Father
Abraham, send Lazarus that he may dip his finger in water and
cool my tongue. I'm tormented in this flame. I am tormented in this flame. You know, I've had people ask
this question. Well, why can't the unbeliever,
the wicked, just be annihilated? Why must God send men to hell?
Why can't men just cease to exist? In other words, here's a man
who hates God and hates the truth and the gospel and lives for
his own selfish pleasure, mistreats others and has no use for the
gospel, and he dies. Why cast him into hell? Why not
just let him cease to exist? Why not just annihilate him?
Well, I can help you on that if you listen carefully. Now,
there are several forms of life. There's mineral life, and there's
vegetable life, and there's animal life, and then there's mental
life. God Almighty made life in the
mineral state, and He made life in the vegetable state, and He
gave life to animals. They have life. But when the
mineral dies, or a vegetable dies, or an animal dies, it is
annihilated. It does cease to be. That's the
reason there's no penalty for killing an animal. There's no
penalty for plucking up a rose. There's no penalty for cutting
down a tree. An animal dies or a vegetable
dies and it's annihilated. It ceases to exist. But man got
life from God. Man was created in the image
of God. When God made Adam from the dust,
he breathed into Adam the breath of God. The breath of God. And he became a living soul.
An animal's not a living soul, a living spirit. The vegetables
are not living souls, and minerals are not living souls, but man
is. Man got his life from the soul of God. And if God can't
die, man can't die. That's so. The scripture says
when a man dies, the body goes back to the dust from which it
came, and the soul, the spirit, to God who gave it, either to
God in it to be accepted or received through Christ in righteousness,
or it goes back to God for judgment and condemnation and to be separated
or cast away from God. But man cannot cease to exist. He cannot be annihilated. Even
so, the devils and the fallen angels, they are living spirits. They are living souls. And we
have living souls, and we cannot cease to exist. That's the reason
you talk about hell being eternal death. Because they never die,
they never annihilated, they never are consumed, they never
cease to exist. That living soul or living spirit
lives on, either separated from God or with God. Everybody's
going to live always somewhere after this life. What is hell
like, the misery of hell? He said, I'm tormented in this
flame. I don't know so much about actual
fire in hell. I don't think that's really the
issue. First of all, hell is a place of memory. Thorn, remember. It's mental anguish. It's emotional
anguish. Thorn, remember. Remember. You've
got eternity to remember. And then hell is separation from
God. God is light. There's no light
in hell. It's darkness, outer darkness.
God is love. There's no love in hell. God
is compassion and mercy. There's no compassion or mercy
in hell. Hell is separation from God. God is good. There's no
goodness in hell. You see, everything in hell is
opposite from God. And in hell we're separated eternally
from all that God is and all that God gives. And then hell
is truth realized too late. Truth realized too late. This
man realized when he went to hell. that he had five brothers
on earth that were coming to this same place. There are no
unbelievers in hell. Everybody there knows there's
a hell. They know that Christ is the
only way of salvation. They know that the blood maketh
atonement for the soul. They know that by faith a man
is justified. They know that there's life after
death. They know these things now, but it's too late. Truth
realized too late. And then hell is unfulfilled
lust and unfulfilled desire. Now, the person who has evil
passions and evil desires on this earth and evil lust can
find a source of fulfillment, but not in hell. Not in hell. He that's filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that's ungodly, let him be
ungodly still. He that's unholy, let him be
unholy still. And your companions in hell will
be the fearful, the unbelieving, the abominable, the murderers.
These are your companions in hell. It's unfulfilled lust,
and this man learned hell's a place of misery. The third thing he
learned in hell was this, an awful truth. He learned that
on earth, poverty with God is better than prosperity without
God. Some of you haven't learned that,
and you're going to learn it too late. You know, Abraham said,
Son, remember that on the earth you had good things, and Lazarus
had evil things, and now for eternity He is comforted and
you are tormented. When will we learn that a man's
happiness does not consist in material things, but in knowing
God? When will we learn that a man's life consists not in
the things he possesses, but in the Savior that he possesses
and knows? What shall it profit a man if
he gained the whole world and lose his soul? This man here
that went to hell, he had everything on life, in life, on this earth,
that the natural body could desire and enjoy everything. And when
he died, he had nothing because he didn't have God. It's better
to know Christ. It's better to have Christ. It's
better to have eternal life than to have anything. Our Lord said,
why take ye thought for the things that ye shall eat? What shall
we eat? What shall we drink? Wherewithal shall we be clothed?
What shall we wear? The Gentiles, the heathens, seek
these things. Seek ye first the kingdom of
God, and his righteousness and all these things will be added
unto you. The so-called good things that
we give ourselves to attaining in this world that do not contribute
to a fellowship with God, we will find in hell that they will
be like in the ancient Mariner, an albatross around our necks.
All of these so-called good things, we're so materialistic. We're
like the rich young man who said, soul, take thine ease, eat, drink,
and be merry. I'll build bigger barns tomorrow,
and I'll tear down my old barns, and I'm just going to enjoy life.
And God said to him, tonight thy soul shall be required of
thee, and then whose shall these things be that you've acquired
and that you've accomplished? Worldly fame is fleeting. Worldly
possessions are decaying. Worldly relationships will someday
end. Eternity goes on and on and on. Poverty with God is a lot better
than prosperity without God. I'll tell you that. And you'll
learn that someday. I wish we could turn loose of
these things. I wish you were as concerned about your soul
as you are about your new house and new car and about your body
and about your appetite and about all these things that you're
given to pursuing. If you are just concerned about
your relationship with God, well, someday you will be. And that
brings me to the fourth thing, the fourth lesson this man learned
in hell is there's no second chance after death. There's no
second chance after death. Spiritual matters are decided
right here, not then. I don't care what men teach.
They can teach there's a purgatory and they can teach all these
other things that later on a man can be prayed out or rescued
or some way. But you know, Abraham said to
the man in hell, Between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed. And no one can come from you
to us, and no one can go from us to you. That gulf is fixed. In hell, there's no gospel preached.
In hell, there's no call of grace. In hell, there's no repentance
and faith. Men may talk of purgatory, but God doesn't. God doesn't.
You ever hear that song, I dreamed that the great judgment morning
had dawned and the trumpet had blown? I dreamed that the nations
had gathered to judgment before God's great throne, and from
the throne came a bright shining angel, and he stood on the land
and the sea, and he swore with his hand raised to heaven that
time was no longer to be. Oh, what a weeping and wailing!
As the lost were told of their fate, they cried for the rocks
and mountains, they prayed, but their prayers were too late.
The moral man stood at the judgment but his self-righteous rags would
not do. For the men who had crucified
Jesus, they had passed off as moral men too. The religious
man was there, but his good deeds, when death came, were left far
behind. The angel who opened the record,
not a trace of his good deeds could find. The rich man was
there, but his riches had melted and vanished away. A pauper he
stood at the judgment, his debts were too heavy to pay. The man
who'd put off salvation, not tonight, I'll get saved by and
by. No time now to think of religion.
Well, at last he'd found time to die. And oh, what a weeping
and wailing as the lost were told of their fate. They cried
for the rocks and mountains. They prayed, but their prayer
was too late. And then the fifth lesson this
man learned in hell was this, that the only way men are saved
is by the word of God. He said, Father Abraham, I've
got five brothers on the earth. sent Lazarus down to preach to
them, and Abraham said, they've got Moses and the prophets, they've
got the Word of God. No, he said, they don't believe
the Word of God, but if somebody came back from the dead, they'd
believe. And Abraham said, now you listen. If they do not believe
the Word of God, they won't believe, though one rose from the dead.
Miracles don't save people. Visions and dreams and signs
and wonders. It's the Word of God. Faith cometh
by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. Israel saw the miracles
and the wilderness, but they died in unbelief. Capernaum,
Bethsaida, all these cities in which our Lord preached, they
saw him raise the dead and heal the sick and give tax to the
blind and make the lame to walk, but they died in unbelief. The
only thing that will convince a man of sin is the word of God.
I'm not ashamed of the gospel. It's the power of God and the
salvation. This is the way God saves men. He pleased God with
the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. For
the Bible convicts us of sin, reveals Christ and brings us
to repentance and faith. It's by the Word of God that
faith is born. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word of God.