Turn, if you will, in your Bibles
to Luke 16, and let me read again two or three verses that I may
use them as a text. Verse 22 of Luke 16, And it came
to pass that the beggar died, and 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."
Now, there are so many things to learn from this passage of
Scripture that I really scarcely know where to begin. But by way
of introducing the message tonight, I want to point out two things
that I learned from this Scripture before I deal with the subject,
what the rich man learned when he woke up in hell. First of
all, we learn from this scripture that death comes to all men,
rich or poor. Death comes to all men, and it
is an appointment that all must keep. The scripture says it is
appointed unto men once to die. Now, being a minister of the
gospel and preaching to many people, Perhaps I notice the
death of a person more than some of you notice it, unless, that
is, it occurs in your family. Of course, if it occurs in your
home or among your relatives. But take, for example, the funeral
that I'll be preaching Tuesday morning. This dear lady was 63
years of age, and just six or seven days ago I was in her home
sitting in her bedroom talking to her about the gospel. She was asking me questions about
salvation and about eternal life. And I was turning through the
scripture using her Bible and reading to her scriptures that
I asked God to give me to reveal unto her one whom I suspected
was dying. I wasn't sure, but I suspected
that she was. She had a serious illness. And I was asking the Holy Spirit,
Spirit of the living God, please, please give me some scripture
to read to this dear lady. Maybe in a few days she'll be
standing at the judgment. She'll be dead and facing a holy
God. Now lead me and let me point
out to her clearly and definitely and scripturally and realistically
the way of life. And now I've tried to do that.
I read the scripture and then before I left I knelt beside
her bed and held her hand and prayed with her and I asked her
to pray with me. And I formed a prayer that I
wanted her to pray, and she repeated each word that I said. Now, if
she really meant that in her heart, if she really meant that,
she's with God now, she's with Christ, all because the Holy
Spirit was pleased to reveal through this servant the way
of life. And if she didn't believe it, if she didn't mean it, then
it's a different story. Now perhaps I'm more aware of
this fact than some of you. Now, about eight days later,
I'm to stand over her body and conduct a memorial service. A
friend of mine visited a hospital. He's also in the ministry. Visited
a hospital. One of his members was there
in the hospital, and the man was dying. And the pastor took
him by the hand, and he said, Fred, are you saved? And the
man gripped the pastor's hand tightly and he said, Preacher,
I am if you told me right. Now you think about that a little
while. I am if you told me right. The
man died. The pastor walked away thinking,
as I know every God-called, sincere man who's not seeking to build
a following or build a congregation or build a name or build a church
or a following, but who is seeking to lead men to Christ, he went
away thinking, did I tell him right? Do I know the way? Is this the way? Is this the
way of God? Death comes to all men. Death is coming to you someday. You're sitting here listening
to me tonight, perhaps for the last time. The scripture says,
boasts not ourself of tomorrow. Every one of us have plans for
tomorrow. I've got a big day tomorrow.
I've got plans for tomorrow. I may meet God tomorrow. I've
got to redeem this hour. I've got to be faithful to this
congregation. I have plans for next month.
I have plans for November. I have plans for January. But
those plans may all be counseled by the providence of God. And
your plans too. Death comes to all men. There's
a day set for your death. There's a day set for my death.
The Scripture says that man's days are determined. The number
of his months are with the Lord. God has appointed his bounds
and he cannot pass. And which of you, by thinking,
can add one cubit to your statue? That is not talking about inches
to your height, that's talking about days to your life. They
are decreed and determined and set by God Almighty. The instrument
of death may already be prepared. And I'm conscious of this. I
hope that you're conscious of it. I don't know whether it's
because God has has given us a burden for the salvation of
sinners, or whether it's because we're getting older ourselves,
or what it is, maybe we're becoming aware, more aware of the value
of life and the importance of Christ. But I feel this so deeply. I feel a responsibility, I feel
a burden of the Word of God. Death comes to all men. The second
thing that I learned from this scripture, before I get into
the heart and body of this message, I learned this. There is no purgatory. Absolutely it does not exist. There's no halfway house where
everybody goes and we all catch a train out of there sooner or
later. The Scripture says, look at it, the beggar died and was
carried to Abraham's bosom. The rich man died and in hell
he lifted up his eyes. This man who knew God, this man
who evidently more his credentials was not the fact he was poor,
and the unsaved man was not unsaved because he was rich, but this
man who knew God died and immediately, as Christ our Lord said to the
thief on the cross, today shalt thou be with me in paradise.
Today was the day of his death. and today was the day of his
entrance into glory. Today was the day of his departure
from the earth, and today was the day of his entrance into
glory. Today was the day of his good
night on earth, today was the day of his good morning in glory.
The Apostle Paul said, to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord. You say, well, where'd purgatory
come from? Now listen to me, this is so.
And anybody who knows the first thing about church history knows
this is so, if he knows something about the Bible too. Purgatory
was invented by religious hucksters. It was invented by religious
leaders to extract money from the living. That's the sole reason
for it. That's the foundation of it.
These religious hucksters invented purgatory in the hope of extracting
money from the living in hope of some way relieving the suffering
of their departed loved ones. They told these living people
that their departed loved ones were in purgatory. And if they'd
pay the church so much money and do so many good deeds for
the church and support the church, then they'd pray for them and
eventually pray them out of purgatory. And it was nothing in the world
but a way to get money out of living people playing on their
sympathy and their pity for their dead loved ones. And that's where
it was invented. It does not exist anywhere in
the Word of God from Genesis to Revelation. If a believer
dies, he immediately goes to the presence of Christ. If an
unbeliever dies, he immediately goes to a place of punishment.
That's what Christ, this is Christ teaching here. If the apostle
was teaching it, it would be so also. But the Lord Jesus Christ
is giving us this story, and he said, the beggar died and
was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom. a place of comfort,
not a place of purgatory, not a place of suffering, not a place
where he waited while people here on the earth were shelling
out the money to get him out of purgatory. He went to be comforted. Now he is comforted, the Scripture
says. And the rich man died, and immediately,
it says, he lifted up his eyes in hell. being in torment. But the important thing here,
and the thing that I want to get into in this message, is
that this lost man, this man who died and went to hell, discovered
some things in hell that he either didn't know before, or he chose
to ignore them. He discovered some things in
hell that he either did not know, or else he knew and chose to
ignore them. And my prayer is that we'll all
learn them now, and not have to learn them in hell. There
are four or five things he discovered when he woke up in hell, the
first of which is this. He discovered that death does
not end life. It ends our existence on this
earth. It ends our existence in this
body, which we know at the present time. But it does not end life. there is life after death. Job
asked this question, If a man die, shall he live again? And
he answered it himself. Turn with me to Job, chapter
19. In Job, chapter 19, he asked the question, he answered it
himself, If a man die, shall he live again? Job 19.25. Listen,
For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the
latter day upon the earth. And though after my skin worms
destroy this body, and they will, immediately upon death the body
starts to deteriorate and decay. In fact, where it's not embalmed
it has to be buried in twenty-four hours, because it's already beginning
to be destroyed. The worms from within are destroying
the body. Yet in my flesh shall I see God,
whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another, not a stranger, though my reins be consumed in
me, I am going to see the Lord." There is life after death. And
David was well taught of God when he spoke of being reunited
with his son. His son had died, and David dried
his tears and went to the house of God and worshiped the Lord.
And he said, he cannot come back to me, but I shall go to him. The flowers may die and never
live again. The animals may die and never
rise. But man was created in the image
of God, and man was made a living soul. That's what Scripture said.
And though this body dies, and though, as Job said, the worms
shall consume it and devour it, and it shall decay and go back
to the dust and ashes from whence it came, my soul will go to God
who gave it, either to be received in mercy through Christ or to
be cast away from God in eternal torment." Now, it may be, I don't
know. It may be that men do not want
to think of life after death, and that's because of the fear
that all will not be well with them. But you know, we're great
ones to insure our homes, and they're going to be destroyed
someday, and never rise again. We're great ones to insure our
cars, and someday they'll be on the junk heap. We're great
ones to insure these bodies of ours. We insure our limbs in
case we lose one, and this body's going back to the dust. How about
our souls? What, and I hate to use the word
insurance in regard to the soul, but what assurance do you have
in regard to your soul? What about your soul? When your
body dies and you put it in the grave, and your family's taken
care of, and your business is taken care of, and your children
are taken care of, what about your soul? You put the body in
the grave and the soul goes to God who gave it to meet God in
judgment. There's life after death. If
I die tonight, I'm going to stand in the presence of God tomorrow.
The second thing that this man discovered in hell, he discovered
their life after death, he discovered, secondly, that God will punish
sin. Now, my friends, and this is true, most people fall into
one of two classes. Most people either believe that
God is too good to send a man to hell, or else they believe
that they're too good for God to send them to hell. Now that's
so, and you know it. Most people fall in, they don't
believe they're going to hell, they don't believe that they're
going to be punished for their sin, and they're either, they
either fall into one of two classes. They either believe that God
is too good to send a man to hell. God is just going to, He
might talk like this in the Bible, when the chips are down, and
when it comes right down to it, God's too good to send a man
to hell. Or else they believe that they're too good for God
to send them to hell. But the Scripture says God will
punish sin. The Scripture says the soul that
sinneth, it shall surely die. The Scripture says sin, when
it is finished, bringeth forth death. The Scripture says God
will in no wise clear the guilty. He will not do it. The Word of
God declares the wages of sin is death. Now, Adam found this
out in the garden. I don't know whether he believed
God or not. Satan said, God lied to you. Satan said, God knows
if you eat of that fruit of that tree, you'll be like God. God
had said to Adam, if you eat of it, you'll die. Now, I don't
know whether, I know that Adam was not deceived. I know Eve
was. The Scripture says Eve was deceived. Adam was not. Adam willingly,
with his eyes wide open, knowing the consequences, or at least
suspecting the consequences, took that forbidden fruit. Now
it may be that he took it with a suspicion that God really would
make it easy on him, and he wouldn't lose everything. But he took
it, and he found out that he lost everything. The wicked world
found it out in the days of Noah. Noah preached righteousness.
Noah was a preacher of righteousness. And the wicked world turned their
back on his warning. And they found out, God will
punish sin. Pharaoh found it out at the Red
Sea. God had already given him ten
warnings. Ten plagues were visited on that
city. And finally, after the Israelites
had fled from Egypt and were on their way to the Promised
Land, Pharaoh still went after them. And God covered him and
his whole army in the Red Sea. Israel found it out in the wilderness.
Sodom and Gomorrah found it out on the plains. Will God punish
sin? Jesus Christ proved it on the
cross. The scripture says, God spared
not his own son. Now, if there was even a suspicion
that God Almighty would not deal in pure justice and righteousness
with sin, if there was even a hint that the Holy God would let somebody
off who had broken his law It certainly would have been his
well-beloved son, because Christ was a sinner by imputation. He didn't have any sins of his
own, he was taking somebody else's sin. And when they came to Calvary's
cross, if there's any hint or any suspicion that God might
deal lightly with sin, don't you think he would have dealt
lightly with Christ? If there's any suspicion that
a holy God will not extract from a sinner infinite payment for
infinite guilt, it would have been at Calvary. But when you
turn your eyes to Calvary, you see that Almighty God will deal
with sin, no matter who that sin is upon. Even if that sin
is upon His Son, Almighty God will deal with that sin in strict
righteousness and strict justice, giving not one corner. For he turned his back on Christ
and left him to die under absolute, complete wrath. And this rich
man who died and went to hell, he wasn't there very long until
he had discovered two things. He had discovered first that
men live after they die, and he discovered secondly that God
will punish sin, all sin. The third thing he discovered
in hell, he discovered, and this is something that I would like
for every person listening to this message to catch real strongly
and clearly, And I'd like for everybody in the radio audience
to listen to it carefully. He discovered when he got to
hell that hell is no joke. Now, men carelessly use the word
hell. I imagine you men who work at
Armco and Ashland Oil and you men who work in other places
among unsaved people and maybe among professing Christians are
going to hear this word hell used several times this week.
Man will mash his finger, and he'll use the word hell. He'll
get mad at somebody, and he'll tell them to go to hell. And
then they'll flippantly make jokes about hell. But I can't
help but cringe every time I hear anybody laugh about hell. Now,
my friends, if there is a hell, and the Bible teaches that there's
a hell, If there's no hell, there's no heaven, because the teaching
of heaven and hell comes out of the same Bible, from the writings
of the same Holy Spirit, and from the lips of the same Lord.
If there is a hell, it's no joke. Now, it's no joke. I cringe to
think about people who are my friends and my relatives and
my loved ones going to hell, don't you? And I certainly don't
like to hear anybody laugh about hell. I don't hear jokes about
the treatment of the Jews back in the gas ovens in World War
II. Anybody making jokes about that?
That was too horrible, wasn't it? Too real. I don't hear people
making jokes about how our men were treated in North Vietnam
in those prison camps. Anybody joking about that? I
don't hear anybody joking about it. It's horrible. There's no
laughing matter about it. It's not a laughing matter. I
don't hear people joking about the rest home a few months ago
that burned down, and all those old people and inlaid people
burned to death. Anybody joking about that? But
they joke about hell. And you know, one reason I think
that they do it is because they really don't believe there's
a hell. But I'll tell you this, if there is, it's no joke. And
this man found out that hell's no joke. It's a place, he said,
it's a place of torment. He said, I'm tormented. Now,
I don't know whether there's real fire in hell or not. You
say, well, you're not orthodox. I hope I'm orthodox. I try to
be orthodox. It may be that fire is a figurative
speech. I don't know a figurative speech.
But to me, actually, the fire in hell is not the most horrible
thing. I think there's several things
that are worse than body suffering. body anguish. For example, first
of all, hell is memory. Look here, Abraham said to the
rich man, son, remember, verse 25, remember, remember. Just as the save in heaven will
remember the earth. And what happened here The unbeliever
in hell is going to remember earth and what happened here,
and he's going to remember every common mercy. When those men
were trapped in the mine up in West Virginia, and told how they
ate rats when they could catch them, and drank urine, you know,
as those men sat there trapped for days in those mines, in darkness,
hungry, thirsty. Don't you imagine that they remembered
every piece of bread they'd ever thrown out the door? Don't you
know they remembered every meal they ever sat down at and left
something on their plate? Here they ate a steak and just
couldn't eat it all and just pushed it aside, or ate some
hot rolls covered with butter or a piece of apple pie and ice
cream and just too full to eat anymore and just pushed it aside
and raked it off in the garbage and threw it out the door. Don't
you know that they thought about that? Oh, if I just had the crust
of that bread that I threw away. Abraham said to the rich man
in hell, you've got a long time to remember. Remember every sermon
you ever heard. Remember every verse of scripture
you ever read. Remember every prayer you ever
listened to. Remember every preacher that
ever tried to be faithful to you while you sat with your mind
off in the distance somewhere while he was trying to tell you
to prepare to meet God. And you'll sit there like those
trap miners remembering every piece of bread they ever threw
away and said, My God, why did I let that opportunity slip?
Why did I sit there and pay no attention? Why did I go out there
on the job and permit those unbelieving, law-breaking, God-hating people
to influence me to walk with them and make fun of the Word
of God? Hell's memory. Tell you something
else, hell is truth realized too late. There are no atheists
in hell. There are no agnostics in hell.
There are no infidels in hell. Everybody knows the wages of
sin is death who's in hell tonight. Everybody in hell knows that
the church can't save. Some of them tried it. Everybody
in hell knows that baptism won't wash away your sin. Some of them
tried it. Everybody in hell knows that
good works won't make you acceptable to God. Some of them tried it.
Everybody in hell knows that the only way to be saved is through
the blood of Christ. Some have never tried it. That's
so. The blood of Christ. Everybody
in hell knows the value of faith. Tell you something else about
hell that's going to play on the heart and mind of people
who wind up there, it's forever. Some of these men I preach to
in Lucasville, some of them have life sentences. That's a long
time. Some of them feel like that they'll
get out some day, some of them don't have much hope. And I'll tell you, it's a difficult
thing to sit in a jail cell, I don't know, but I'm sure they
do, and realize that there's just no way out. Damnation forever,
salvation never. And written on the walls of hell
are these words, damnation forever, Salvation never. I tell you the
fourth thing in closing that this man learned in hell, he
found out that there's life after death. There's life after death. Actually, this is death. We're dying slowly. Every time
my heart beats, I have one less beat left in the bank. Every
time I breathe, I have one less breath left in the bank. I'm
drawing on it and I'm putting nothing in. I'm drawing on that
account every moment of every day, and I'm putting nothing
in. I'm moving closer and closer to the time I'll die and the
time I'll really start to live. I'll really start to live. This
man discovered God will punish sin. If He didn't punish your
sins in Christ, He'll punish you for them. Now that's so,
and he found that out. And he found out that hell is
no joke. I hope that nobody listening
to my voice will ever again meet you in hell without a sob in
your throat and a tear in your eye, because there are people
you grew up with who are in hell right now, and it's no joke."
And then he discovered that Christ is the only Savior. Now listen
to him in verse 27. He said, "'Father Abraham, I
pray thee, send Lazarus to my father's house. I have five brethren
that he may testify to them, lest they come to this place
of torment. And Abraham said to him, They
have Moses and the prophets, that is, they have the Bible
and they have preachers. Moses wrote the first five books
of the Bible. That's who he's talking about.
Moses wrote of me, Christ said. And they have the writings of
Moses and they have the writings of the prophets. Let them hear
them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went to them
from the dead, They'd repent. You believe that? You believe
sensationalism can actually save a man's soul? Well, listen to
what Christ said. And he said to them, if they
are not willing to hear the Word, if they are not willing to hear
God's preacher, neither will they be persuaded, though one
actually rose from the dead. Now, my friends, all of this
sensationalism of religion, this sensationalism and high pressure,
it may attract, it may astound, and it may amaze, but it won't
save you. It just won't do it. Now, I'll
give you some examples of that. If you think that if God would
send Lazarus back from the grave to preach to this congregation
tonight, If you think that would convert a man's soul and bring
him to hate sin and love God, you're mistaken. Consider what
Israel saw and heard in the wilderness. While when they left Egypt, the
firstborn son in every home perished in every home but their home,
and they were miraculously led, over two or three million of
them, by the hand of God through a wilderness for forty years,
and their shoes didn't even wear out, neither did their And Moses
smote a rock, and they drank water that came out of a rock
over dry, parched sand. And every morning when they got
up, there was bread out there on the ground for them to pick
up and eat plenty. And all of these miracles they
saw, and it amazed them, but they continued in unbelief. They
continued in rebellion. And then when Christ spoke and
raised the other Lazarus from the dead, I don't hear of any
religious revival after the resurrection of Lazarus, do you? A lot of
people saw him come out of that grave. But it doesn't say that
they followed the Lord. And Jesus Christ arose from the
grave, And the Pharisees, the religious leaders, instead of
vowing to him and believing him and receiving him, they actually
paid the soldiers to lie about his resurrection. No, sir. Sensationalism may amaze, it
may astound, it may attract the curious, but it won't change
the heart. It won't convert a sinner. The
only way that a sinner can be converted and brought to faith
in Christ is for Christ to be revealed to him in the Holy Scriptures. For example, turn to the book
of Acts chapter 10, verse 43. In Acts 10, 43, listen to it. To him, to him, that is to Christ,
give all the prophets witness. that through his name, whosoever
believeth in him shall receive forgiveness of sins." And that's
what the scripture is all about. That's what the prophets are
talking about. They're talking about remission of sins through
Christ. Now then, actually, if Lazarus did come back, he arose
from the grave, And there was a big article in the paper in
the Ashland Independent tomorrow afternoon in the Huntington Herald-Dispatch
that Lazarus had risen from the grave and was going to preach
at the 13th Street Baptist Church next Sunday morning. You reckon
it's possible that we could see it to people? Do you reckon it's
possible that we could even get to cars in this end of town?
Why, you could rent the biggest football stadium in the world,
and you couldn't handle the people that would come to hear that
man who arose from the grave. But let me ask you some questions.
What could Lazarus tell you about sin that God hadn't told you
in his Word? Huh? What could he tell you? What could he tell you any more
about the fall of Adam than God tells you right here? Or the
consequences of that fall? Or what effect it's had on you?
What could Lazarus tell you about your own sins that God hadn't
told you already in his word? What could he tell you? Just
exactly what revelation could he pass on to you and me about
sin that God hadn't already told you? What more could Lazarus
tell you about death? God has told you that the body
dies and goes to the grave and the soul goes to God who gave
it. God has already told you that dust, that the body goes
back to dust, and the soul goes to face a holy God. What more
could Lazarus tell you about judgment than the Word of God?
What more could Lazarus tell you about Christ and salvation
than God's already told you in His Word? It's not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He
has saved us. That's all He'd say. He'd say, without the shedding
of blood there's no remission of sin. He'd say, O the foundation
can no man lay than that which is laid, Christ the Lord. He'd
say, he who knew no sin was made sin for us that we might be made
the righteousness of God in him. He'd say that we're accepted
in the beloved. He'd say he was wounded for our
transgression. By his stripes we're healed.
Lazarus couldn't say anything that God hadn't already said. If you don't believe God, you
reckon you'd believe Lazarus? It's just that plain. You reckon you'd believe Lazarus
if you won't believe Jesus Christ. That's what Abraham said. He
said to that man in hell, he says, they won't believe God,
they won't believe Lazarus. And that's so. And that's the reason I don't
give a hoot for all these so-called sensational preachers talk about
from the prison to the pulpit, and from the pool room to the
pulpit, and from dope addict to the pulpit, and from skid
row to the pulpit. That's nothing in the world but
sensationalism. Every one of us came from skid row. Every
one of us ought to be in prison. Every one of us a deserving of
hell. Why should I go and hear a man just because he was on
skid row? I don't want to hear him talk
about Skid Row, I want to hear him talk about Christ. Why should
I go and hear some dope addict preach? I want to hear a man
talk about Christ, not about the evils of dope. And if Lazarus
came back here, he couldn't tell you anything that God Almighty
hadn't already told you. And God Almighty's going to require
that you believe not what Lazarus said, but what he said. He said,
My words will judge you. Not Lazarus' word, not the preacher's
word. My words. My words. A change in the heart
is wrought by the Holy Spirit. It's not wrought by argument
and sensationalism. People may wonder why I do not
put pressure on people to make decisions after I preach. I don't
want folks making decisions. I want God to save people. I
want God to change the heart, and if God changes the heart,
a decision's been made. And if God brings you to know
Christ and to love Christ, it's going to leak out on you. You're
going to tell somebody. And if God brings you to embrace
Christ as your Lord and your Savior, you're going to confess
Him. You're going to confess Him by baptism. And if God brings
you to believe this Word, it's going to crush you and break
you and humble you and bring you down into dust at His feet.
And you're going to love Him for the rest of your life and
praise Him throughout eternity. Now, I know that. I know that. And conversion is something that
takes place in the heart by the power of the Spirit based on
the merits of His dear Son. Our Father in Heaven, Take the
message tonight and make it a message of warning. Make it a message
of instruction. Strengthen every believer. Knock
all the foundations out from under the unbeliever. Show men that hell is moving
up to meet them at their coming. And what we learn in hell is
too late to put in practice. And what we learn in hell is
too late to act upon. We've got to learn it now. We've
got to be brought to a knowledge of Christ now. We've got to receive
Him and believe on Him now. In the name of Christ we pray.
Amen.