of the Bible Conference this
coming week in the church, the Sovereign Grace Church in New
Caney on Friday evening and Saturday morning. And one of the pastors
from Yucatan, Brother Elio, is going to be preaching, and he'll
be preaching in Spanish, and then Pastor Joseph is going to
translate into English. I just was thinking about him,
this pastor coming up here. This is a man that we all have
had a part in his ministry because from the very beginning of our
church in 1977, the very first month, we began supporting Brother
Walter Groover. And then, of course, later when
Cody and Winner went to Mexico. We supported them as a church,
not only financially, but praying for them. And this is a illustration
or an example of the good work that they, both of those men,
Brother Groover, Walter, and Cody did in training men to preach
the gospel of God's sovereign grace. And you'll be able to
hear What a brother from Yucatan, what he believes and what he
preaches. Same thing that we believe and preach here. And
looking forward to being with him and his wife, who is also
coming for the services. And pray for the services if
you're not able to attend. Remember them in prayer. Now,
if you will, let's turn back again tonight to Luke chapter
16. I'm going to read once again the
words that our Lord spoke concerning the rich man who died and went
to hell and the beggar, Lazarus, who was carried into heaven by
the angels. Beginning with 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 desiring 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
into 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 afar off 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 receivest thy good things and likewise
Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and thou are
tormented. And beside all this, between
us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, which would pass
from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would
come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore,
father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house, for
I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they
also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith 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
the one rose from the dead. First week that we studied from
this passage, which was two weeks ago, we looked at Lazarus being
carried by the angels into the bosom of Abraham, which we saw
represents heaven. And I believe the Lord blessed
that message to many of us. And the second message I brought,
we saw the torments. We tried to point out the torments
of hell that the Lord Jesus Christ has saved his people from, that
is the wrath of God which is to come, and how those four things
about hell the Lord Jesus Christ experienced when he died upon
the cross. We know that hell is described
as a bottomless pit, and it is also described as outer darkness,
and as a place of torment, showed to us by him desiring just a
tip of Lazarus' finger in water being placed upon his tongue,
and then, of course, separation. We saw the darkness that came
while the Lord Jesus Christ was upon the cross, and the place
of a bottomless pit that the Lord, as though he could never
get his foot on anything stable. God brought him up out of a horrible
pit, he confessed in the Psalms. And then he thirsted. Remember,
he said, I thirst. And it was prophesied of him
that his tongue would cleave to the sides of his jaw. And
of course, the separation when he cried, my God, my God, why
hast thou forsaken me? Now tonight, we're looking at
this passage again, and I believe probably for the last time at
this time, but I wanted to bring out three lessons for us from
hell. Three lessons from hell. Three observations. that I want
to bring our attention to. First, we should observe where
praying to the saints originated. Where praying to the saints originated. In verse 24, it originated in
hell. And he cried and said, Father
Abraham, have mercy on me. Abraham was a believer, thus
he was a saint of God. And this rich man we see here
prayed to him. He called upon him. And so I
want to emphasize that. This is where praying to saints
originated. It originated in hell. We know
that hell is a place prepared for the devil and his angels. It is only here in hell, the
Bible tells us, of anyone calling upon a saint, of praying to a
saint. In all the scriptures, in all
the word of God from Genesis through Revelation, we never
find it taught that any believer, any man or woman should pray
to anyone other than God. In Genesis, we read early on
in Genesis 4 and verse 26, then began men to call upon the name
of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ. When he taught his disciples
to pray, he said, pray, our father, which art in heaven. And then
in Matthew chapter six, when he was speaking about prayer,
he said, but thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet,
and when thou has shut the door, pray to thy father. We're never taught in any place
in the word of God to pray to anyone other than God. You hear me now? were never taught
to pray, to call upon anyone other than God. This man in hell
called upon a saint. He prayed to a saint. He prayed
to Abraham. And the point that I'm making
is this here is where praying to saints originated. It originated in hell. This man He not only prayed too
late, but if he had been still in this earth when he offered
this prayer, his prayer would never have been heard. Why? Because he was praying to someone
other than God. He was praying to this man, Abraham. Yes, he was a believer, Abraham
was. Yes, he was a saint, but we're
never taught We're never taught in any place in the Word of God
to pray to saints. Now, some one of you here tonight
surely is going to ask, well, preacher, why would you make
this point? Why would you bring this out
to us here in this congregation? Well, I want to tell you why.
I want to tell you why I want to make a point and am making
a point of this. I looked the other day at the
religions of the world. And of course, Christianity has
the most number of adherents of any religion in this world. But think about this, in the
great mass, millions of so-called Christians, how many of them
have been taught and practiced praying to saints. You say, well, surely it wouldn't
be many. Oh, yes. Oh, yes, it would be. In fact,
I would say a great majority, if not the majority, of those
who are under the title of Christians, Christendom, have been lied to
and have been taught to call and to pray upon the saints,
and anyone other than God Almighty. Several years ago, I was watching
something on YouTube, and I came up on a video that was made by
a Roman Catholic priest. And he was drawing a parallel
between Pope John Paul and President Ronald Reagan, and he had several
parallels there, but the one that caught my attention, both
of those men were shot. Both of those men had an assassin's
bullet enter into their bodies. But listen, now this is according
to this priest. Who did Pope John Paul call upon
immediately when he was shot? Did he call upon God, the Father? Oh, no. He called upon the Holy
Virgin, the Mother of God. Now you say, well, you shouldn't
talk about someone else's religion, preacher. It is a false religion. It's a false religion, my friends. And some of you here tonight,
you know exactly what I'm saying, because you were born and raised
for until the Lord saved you in that teaching, and no doubt,
maybe you called upon the Virgin at one time, or some other saint.
Well, this is where that teaching originated, in hell. You hear me? In hell. You say,
well, you must hate Catholics. I don't hate Catholics. I love,
I don't hate anyone. But I hate that lie. I do. because it is deceiving thousands,
yea, billions of people. Not just that lie, but some are
much worse. Nothing can be any worse, in
my opinion, than teaching people that the priest has the power
through that ceremony to turn that little wafer into the body
of Christ. And you say, do they do that?
Sure, that's what they teach, absolutely. And when he puts
it on someone's tongue, what does he say? The body of Christ. The body of Christ. The body
of Christ. What a lie, my friends. No one
has ever been given the power to turn a piece of bread into
the actual body of Christ. But even worse than that, By
turning that into the body of Christ, what they are professing
is they are sacrificing Christ again. Not a blood sacrifice,
no. But it is a denial of what the
scripture clearly says, for by one offering. By one offering. Not by offering the body of Christ
over and over and over. again and again. No, Christ by
one offering hath perfected forever those who are sanctified. That
is his people. By that one offering. So that's
my first point. We should observe where praying
to the saints originated. It didn't come from the teaching
of Moses, didn't come from the teaching of David, didn't come
from the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ, it came straight
out of hell. The second point is this. We
should observe the first word that Abraham spoke to this man
in hell. What is it? Son. Notice that. Son, in verse 25. The very first
word he said, son. Now I point this out to us because
here we have a son of Abraham in hell. Don't we? We have a son of Abraham
in hell. At some point in the history
of the nation of Israel, they had come to believe and they
were taught and very much convinced that the mark of circumcision
being a natural descendant of Abraham meant that they were
God's children. They just believed that. They
were God's children by the fact that they were the natural descendants
of Abraham, the fleshly descendants of Abraham. The Gentiles You
and I, I would imagine most of us here tonight, Gentiles, what
did they think about us? Dogs. Dogs. And there was no hope for anyone
other than being a natural descendant of Abraham and they were automatically
saved. If anyone was going to be saved,
it was going to be a child of Abraham. But here we find a son
of Abraham in hell. When the Lord Jesus Christ was
here in the flesh, he dealt with this deception. I want you to
look with me in John chapter eight. In John chapter eight, our Lord is speaking with a group
of these religious Jews. They answered him, we be Abraham's
seed. We're descendants of Abraham.
We're Abraham's seed. And we're never in bondage to
any man. How sayest thou you shall be
made free? The Lord has said if the Son
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And the Son,
that is the Son of God, is the only one who is able to make
a man free, deliver a man from sin. And they said, well, we've
never been in bondage to any man, and here you're telling
us that if the Son shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. You shall know the truth, and
the truth shall make you free. Now notice, Jesus answered them,
verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committed sin is a
servant of sin. And the servant abided not in
the house forever, but the son abideth ever. If the son therefore
shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. I know, I know
that you are Abraham's seed, but you seek to kill me because
my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen
with my father and you do that which you have seen with your
father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father.
Well, here's the son of Abraham in hell. Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if you
were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham.
If they were the spiritual seed of Abraham, not the fleshly seed,
they were that. But if they were the spiritual
seed of Abraham, they would have done the works of Abraham. If
you were Abraham's children, you would do the works of Abraham. What was the work of Abraham?
He believed God. He believed God and it was imputed
unto him for righteousness. If you were the children of Abraham,
the spiritual seed of Abraham, you would do the works of Abraham.
You would believe in me. You would believe in God. They were Abraham's seed, as
we see in verse 37. But Abraham's children do the
works of Abraham. Verse 42, he said, Jesus saith
unto them, if God were your father, you're Jews, you're the natural
descendants of Abraham. Does that mean that God is your
father? That you're automatically a child of God? You're saved?
Our Lord said, if, if God were your father, you would love me.
God's children love Christ, don't they? Of course we do. We love him because he first
loved us. Now who was their father? The
devil. Verse 44, you are of your father
the devil and the lust of your father will you do. He was a
murderer from the beginning and abode not in the truth because
there's no truth in him. When he speak of the lie, he
speaketh of his own for he is a liar and the father of it." Look with me to Romans chapter
2, just a moment. In verse 28, the apostle said,
is not a Jew which is one outwardly. Outwardly. He's a descendant
of Abraham. He's got the mark in his flesh.
He's been circumcised. That didn't make him a Jew, Paul
said. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly. Neither is that circumcision
which is outward in the flesh. But now notice, but he is a Jew
which is one inwardly. And circumcision is that of the
heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter, whose praise is
not of men, but of God." Their praise was they were children
of Abraham. They were the natural descendants
of Abraham. But when a person is circumcised
in the heart, that just refers to the new birth. That's what
that means, a new birth, given a new heart, according to the
promise in the covenant, a new heart. Now, Abraham calling this
man son, the first word he spoke to him, son, meant that this
man in hell, he was more responsible. than any Gentile who went to
hell. You say, why was he more responsible? Because he was a member of the
nation of Israel to whom God gave the word, gave the oracles
of God. And that just reminds us or makes
us think of the fact, are there degrees of punishment in hell? I believe that there are. I believe
that those who have had greater light and greater opportunity
and have refused the truth, have turned from the truth, that they
will be more severely punished than those who haven't had the
opportunities. That these, the Israelites, they
had the letter, they had the word of God, the oracles of God.
But they didn't believe, they didn't receive Christ when he
came. He came unto his own and his own received him not. Look in Galatians chapter three. The point I'm making is this
man was a Jew, outwardly, and he was in hell. You say, well,
what does that have to do with us? Most people today are taught
just because they've been baptized, and it's really not even baptism,
just because they've been sprinkled as a child that they're as sure
for heaven as these Jews were convinced they are as sure for
heaven just because they are the natural descendants of Abraham. In Galatians chapter three, In verse 28, he said, there is
neither Jew nor Greek, there's neither bond nor free, there's
neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus,
and if you be Christ, then are you Abraham's seed. If you be
Christ, not that natural seed of Abraham, that spiritual seed. That spiritual seed that is as
the number of the stars in the heavens, that spiritual seed,
which is Christ, which is Christ, not him personally, but his body. If you're Abraham, if you're
Christ, then you're Abraham's seed and heirs according to the
promise, the promise that God made. And that covenant, all
those promises that God will be our God, God will remember
our sins no more. All those promises are ours. As the children of Abraham, or
rather as the seed of Abraham, not that physical seed, but the
spiritual seed. Those who are born again of the
Spirit of God. Now, back to our text. I have
one other point I want to make. This is very important, very
important. We should observe Abraham's testimony
to the word of God. This man was convinced, I assume,
that if somebody would go to his brothers, who had been dead
and buried, would rise from the grave and go back to his brothers,
that they would believe him. But I want you to see Abraham's
testimony to the word of God, right? To this book that we have
in our hands, to the word of God. In two times, notice this, two
times in a very short space, we read that it's not some miraculous, thing that people need is not
seeing someone who's risen from the dead that will meet the need
of men in this world. No, it's hearing the word of
God. It's hearing and believing the
gospel. Notice that in verse 29, Abraham
saith unto him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear
them. And I emphasize that word here.
Let them hear them. And then in verse 31, and he
said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither
will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Hearing, what does the scripture
say? Faith cometh by hearing and hearing
by the word of God. The testimony here that Abraham
gives to the word of God, how God has been pleased to use his
word in saving his people and calling out his people. Sometimes
people say, well, I believe God, it's not a question of what God
can do and what God cannot do. It's a question of what God has
chosen to do and what he has chosen to do. is to save people
through the preaching of the cross. It pleased God, the Apostle
Paul said, through the foolishness of preaching to save those that
believe. Now, here's the question. If
they hear Moses, Abraham said, let them hear Moses and the prophets. Well, now, if a person hears
Moses, and he hears the prophets, what is he going to hear? What
is he going to hear? Well, he's going to hear of Christ. That's what he's going to hear.
If he hears Moses, remember our Lord in John chapter five, speaking
to some religious Jews at that time, he said, search the scriptures.
Well now, what scriptures did they have? Did they have Acts? Did they have 1 Corinthians?
Did they have Galatians? No. The only scriptures, they
didn't have Mark or Luke or John or Matthew. Search the scriptures. Well, if they searched the scriptures,
they would hear the prophets and Moses. Because Moses and
the prophets made up the Old Testament scriptures. Search
the scriptures, our Lord said, for in them you think you have
eternal life, but they, The Scriptures, they are they which testify of
me, of Christ. I want us to look at a few places
tonight. Look with me. First of all, if
you will, into Luke chapter one. I'm sorry, Luke chapter 24. Search the Scriptures. Let them
hear Moses and the prophets. What will they hear if they hear
Moses and the prophets? They're gonna hear Christ. They're
gonna hear Christ. And Luke chapter 24 in this verse
we're going to read is when our Lord appeared to those two disciples
on the day of his resurrection who were walking to Emmaus. And they were disheartened, they
were down, spiritually down because they confessed that Christ who
they thought was the Messiah, or hoped that he was the Messiah,
had died, been crucified. They didn't understand that.
How could the Messiah die? Well, they'd been taught to look
for a Messiah who would be a king, right? Who would set up a kingdom
in this world. But our Lord appeared to them,
you know, he was walking along with them. They don't recognize
him, but in verse 27, We read, and beginning at Moses,
they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. Beginning
with Moses and all the prophets, he, that is Christ, he expounded
unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself. What would they hear if they
heard Moses and the prophets? They'd hear Christ. They'd hear
about him. I looked down in that same chapter
to verse 44, and this is, I believe, a week later when he appeared
to them, and he said unto them, these are the words which I spake
unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be
fulfilled, which were written, here's Moses, in the law of Moses,
and in the prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. What would they hear if they
heard Moses and the prophets? They'd hear of Christ. Look at another place, look over
in Acts chapter 10. This is Peter in the house of
Cornelius. And notice what he says in Acts
chapter 10, verse 42. Peter says, and he, that is Christ,
commanded us to preach unto the people and to testify, that is
he which was ordained of God to be the judge of quick and
dead. And notice, to him, to Christ, the one who commanded
them to preach to him, give all the prophets witness. and through
his name, whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission
of sins. Let them hear Moses and the prophets. And when they hear Moses and
the prophets, what will they hear? They will hear of Christ.
One other place I want you to turn to, Romans chapter three. Romans chapter three. Verse 21. But now the righteousness of
God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law. That's Moses, right? By the law. The law was given through Moses
and the prophets. Now the righteousness of God
without the law is manifested being witnessed by the law and
the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of
Jesus Christ. Anna, don't you love these next
few words? The righteousness of God, which
is by faith of Jesus Christ unto all and upon all. Them that believe. That's me,
that's you, right? The righteousness of God is unto
all and upon all. All that believe, for there's
no difference. That is no difference between
the Jew and the Gentile. For all have sinned and come
short of the glory of God. He commanded us, Peter said,
he commanded us to preach unto the people. And as I said, faith
cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Men are saved
by grace through faith, according to Ephesians 2.8. But no one
can believe in one of whom he has never heard. You cannot believe
in one of whom you have never heard. Let them hear Moses and
the prophets. And when they do, they're going
to hear. They don't need to see somebody
come back from the dead. That's not going to solve their
problem. No, they need to hear. They need to hear the gospel
and believe. Jesus Christ, a person, God,
manifest in the flesh. That's who they need to hear.
John Bunyan made this comment one time. He said, upon another's
life, I did not live. Upon another's death, I did not
die. I stake my whole eternity. Can you say that tonight? Upon another's life, I did not
live. Christ, he lived that life, that
life of perfect holiness, righteousness. and upon another's death, that
I did not die. He died, the just for the unjust,
that he might bring us to God. I stake, John Bunyan said, I
stake my whole eternity. In other words, upon Christ and
Christ alone. Someone said that the great subject
of Moses and the prophets is Jesus. The great doctrine of
Moses and the prophets is substitution. Yes, he died in the stead of
his people. He lived in the stead of his
people. That life that he lived, it's imputed to us, that righteousness. That death that he died, make
an atonement. It's imputed unto us as though
we had died that day. Now let me close tonight with
this. The rich man in hell begged for
a drop of water, and none was given. Think about that, water. What was the need of the man
in hell? It was water. The Lord Jesus
told that woman at the well, a Gentile woman, woman who had
been married seven times and was now living with someone who
was not her husband. But he said unto her, if thou
knewest the gift of God, and who it is that speaketh unto
thee, thou would have asked of him, and he would have given
thee living water. Living water. And then we have
another place in John chapter seven when He stood at the end
of that feast of the Jews and he cried, if any man thirst,
this man in hell thirsted. If any man thirst, let him come
unto me and drink. And you know the Bible, the way
God closed it is, almost with these words at the very end,
the spirit and the bride say come. and let him that hears
say come, and let him that is a thirst come, and whosoever
will, let him take of the water of life freely. You know, all of us, as we live
through this world, or live in this world, we are on a journey.
And there's just a step between us and eternity. That's an awesome
thought, isn't it? Just a step, just a heartbeat
between all of us and eternity. And once we enter into eternity,
then these words apply. He that is unjust, let him be unjust still. He that is filthy, let him be
filthy still. He that is righteous, let him
be righteous still. And he that is holy, let him
be holy still. In other words, just as soon
as a person takes that step and enters into eternity, then we're
either filthy or righteous. We're either unjust are justified,
and that is forever. Never change. You know, when
you think about hell, and none of us like to, but don't you
know that there's no hope in hell? There's none whatsoever. You know, if a man would go to
hell and he was convinced, well, after a billion years, I'm gonna be given another opportunity.
That'd give him some hope, wouldn't it? A billion years, there's
no hope in hell. A person dies unjust, he'll be
unjust throughout eternity. But if a person dies righteous,
and that's through the righteousness of Christ, right? He'll be righteous
throughout eternity. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us here tonight.