Luke chapter number 16. Luke chapter 16 the Bible reads, "He said also unto his disciples,
'There was a certain rich man which had a steward, and the same was accused unto him that he had
wasted his goods.' And he called him and said unto him, 'How is it that I hear this of thee?
Given account of thy stewardship, for thou mayest be no longer steward.' Then the steward said within
himself, 'What shall I do? For my lord taketh away from me this stewardship. I cannot dig,
to beg I am ashamed. I am resolved what to do, that when I am put out of the stewardship,
they may receive me into their houses.' So he called every one of his lord's debtors unto him,
and said unto the first, 'How much owest thou unto my lord?' And he said, 'In a hundred measures of
oil.' And he said unto him, 'Take thy bill, and sit down quickly, and write fifty.' Then said he to
another, 'And how much owest thou?' And he said, 'In a hundred measures of wheat.' And he said unto
him, 'Take thy bill, and write fourscore.' And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had
done wisely. For the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.
And I say unto you, make to yourselves friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that when ye fail,
they may receive you into everlasting habitations. He that is faithful in that which is least is
faithful also in much, and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. If therefore ye
have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
And if ye have not been faithful in that which is another man's, who shall give you that which is
your own? No servant can serve two masters, for rather he will hate the one and love the other,
or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.
And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things, and they derided him.
And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men. But God knoweth your hearts,
for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.
The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God is preached,
never man presseth into it. And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than one tittle of the
law to fail. Whosoever putteth away his wife and marryeth another, commiteth adultery. And whosoever
marryeth her that is put away from her husband, commiteth adultery. 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
art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you there was a great goal fixed, so that they which
would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from this."
And 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 that one rose from
the dead." Let's pray to the Lord God. Thank you again for everything you blessed us with. Just ask
that you would be with our pastor now, please strengthen him, fill him with your Holy Spirit,
and bless the preaching and the juice in me. Amen. Amen. We're in Luke chapter 16 this morning
and the title of my sermon today is the rich man and Lazarus, the rich man and Lazarus. I want to
preach through the story here that's found in Luke chapter 16 and emphasize the reality of hell.
And this is an incredible story here, probably one of the most powerful passages in the New Testament.
It's definitely one of the most unique passages in the New Testament because of the fact that
it's the only passage in the Bible where God actually allows someone who is burning in hell
to actually speak their mind. And we have various instances in the Bible where people and angelic
hosts are speaking in heaven, but this is actually the only account of someone who's actually in hell
that's given permission to actually give an account and essentially speak about their
experience and what they feel in hell. Now let me say a couple of things by way of introduction
before we get into the actual passage itself. First and foremost, let me start off by saying
that I do not believe that this story is a parable. Okay. Now what is a parable? Well,
a parable is a dark saying that is used to illustrate a spiritual truth. Now what is a
dark same essentially referring to an enigmatic cryptic story using earthly things in order to
illustrate a spiritual truth. And the story of the Richmond and Lazarus is a passage that we know
proves the doctrine of heaven and hell. Therefore, those who oppose this actually don't like it.
You know, a lot of people who oppose the doctrines of hell, uh, don't really or like to twist what
this passage is talking about. People who believe in annihilation ism, people who believe in soul
sleep or just those who just outright deny the existence of hell will often try to excuse this
passage as simply being a parable. Oh, it's an illustration. It's just symbolic of something else.
And the argument that they'll use is that because the previous passages, the previous chapters are
explicitly called parables. Therefore those, the subsequent stories are also parables. You know,
we have the parable in Luke chapter 15 of the prodigal son, the lost sheep. And of course,
we have parables in chapter 16. And therefore this story must be a parable because it kind of
follows that pattern. That is essentially their argument to say that this is a parable. But let
me give you a couple of reasons, excuse me, why this is not a parable. First and foremost,
let me say that Jesus Christ, when speaking in parables will identify the story as a parable.
That is very consistent throughout the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
that when Jesus Christ puts forth a parable, he or the narrator of the Bible will often tell us,
this is a parable that he spake. He spake another parable concerning this. This is a parable. And of
course, here in this particular story in Luke chapter 16, he does not do that. Secondly,
we also see that parables are stories that Jesus told, listen to this, using earthly things
to symbolize spiritual truths. Whereas the story of Lazarus and the rich man is all spiritual.
There's nothing earthly about it. We're talking about two people who are in, one is in heaven
and one is in hell. And the question you got to ask yourself is this, if it symbolically represents
something else, what does it represent? Right? Obviously it's just an explicit story of someone
who is literally in hell. It doesn't symbolically represent anything because, you know, the Bible
doesn't clarify what that's talking about other than the fact that it's a man burning in hell.
Okay. And let me also say another thing about parables. And that is that, you know, when Jesus
Christ gave a parable, when he gave a dark saying, obviously these are stories that had to be
understood knowing what the doctrines were from clear statements in the word of God. And so we
can't base our doctrine and what we believe just off of parables. We have to base what we believe
off of clear statements in the Bible. And what parables do is they bring clarification or they
kind of reinforce that specific doctrine. So we never want to use necessarily the story here or
any kind of parable as a means to believe what we believe about specific doctrines. We need clear
statements in the Bible. Then of course parables and stories reinforce those teachings. Okay.
So Jesus Christ, when speaking in parables will identify them as a parable. Parables are stories
that Jesus used using earthly things to symbolize spiritual truths. Also parables that include a
person or individuals are nameless in parables. Okay. Meaning God just kind of throws a person
out there, an individual and never explicitly names them. That is consistent with all parables.
Whereas here in this specific story in Luke 16, the Bible specifically names Lazarus.
And although it does not specifically name the rich man, does specifically name the patriarch
Abraham. No patriarch or prophet is ever used in parables to illustrate anything. Parables again,
are illustrations or stories of that illustrate a spiritual truth. And so those are some of the
reasons why I believe this is not a parable. This is something that literally happened.
This is talking about a man, a rich man who is literally in hell even today and talking about
a man by the name of Lazarus, who is still in heaven as well to this day. The second thing I
want to mention by way of introduction is that I don't believe that this story is teaching the
erroneous doctrine of Abraham's bosom. Now, obviously the phrase Abraham's bosom is in the
passage. Okay. But just because the phrase is in the passage, doesn't mean that the dispensational
teaching of Abraham's bosom is a fact. Okay. What is Abraham's bosom? Abraham's bosom,
according to the dispensationalist, is the second compartment of hell that house the souls of the
Old Testament believers. Okay. So what their belief is, is that in the Old Testament, nobody
went to heaven. Everyone who died from Genesis all the way up until the death of Jesus Christ
went straight to Abraham's bosom, which is essentially next to hell. Okay. And once Jesus
Christ died and descended into Abraham's bosom, he preached to the spirits in prison and they
believed again. And then he took all of them to heaven thereafter, but that is a false doctrine.
It's a false teaching and nobody who reads the Bible without any preconceived ideas will ever
come to that conclusion of the dispensational interpretation of Abraham's bosom. Okay. You see
the truth is, is that every person who's ever died being a believer is in heaven and has always gone
to heaven from the beginning of time. Okay. And to say, well, no one went to heaven in the old
Testament shows clear ignorance of the old Testament stories, such as Elijah, who was
literally carried by a whirlwind and chariots up into what heaven. It also talks about Enoch,
who was not forgot, took them, who went to heaven. Right. And if you want to get even more specific,
you have the thief who died on the cross. And this is still old Testament era. Okay. Cause Jesus
Christ had not died yet. And Jesus told him today, that shall be with me in paradise. We know that he
also went to heaven. Okay. We also have the story in Job chapter one, where the sons of God came to
present themselves before the Lord and Satan came also among them. Sons of God are referring to
believers since the Bible defines sons of God as those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
showing us conclusively that people are in heaven in the old Testament. Now, the reason
dispensationalist teach this doctrine of Abraham's bosom is because they teach a very damnable
heresy known as dispensational salvation. And what that teaching is, is that they assert
that there are different gospels throughout the ages. People were saved differently throughout
history. You know, in the old Testament, people were saved through the animal sacrifices and
the keeping of God's commandments, along with believing on Jesus Christ. That's what they
claim. And so they believe that once Jesus Christ came, he brought salvation by grace through faith,
which is why they had to kind of believe again in Abraham's bosom and then be taken up into heaven.
But Abraham's bosom, according to the Bible, is simply the chest cavity of the patriarch Abraham.
Okay. When it says that Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom, it's referring to the fact that Abraham
is kind of, you know, with him. Lazarus is essentially rubbing shoulders with the patriarchs
in heaven. Okay. That's not hard to believe. The Bible tells us Jesus Christ, when talking
about the centurion, for example, says that people will come from the east and the west,
and they'll sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, referring to the fact that those who are
lightly esteemed in this world, if they're believers, will rub shoulders with the greats
of the Old Testament. Okay. Whereas the children of the kingdom, according to Jesus, will be cast
down into outer darkness. There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth. All right.
And so I don't believe this is a parable. And I also don't believe that this is teaching the
doctrine of Abraham's bosom, the second compartment of hell. This is literally referring to Abraham
being in heaven and Lazarus rubbing shoulders with them. Now, with that being said, let's get
into the passage here. First and foremost, let's learn some lessons regarding the rich man in
Lazarus. Lesson number one is that this gives us the reality of heaven and hell. This is a powerful
passage to illustrate the fact that heaven is real and so is hell, right? And this is something that
we have to consistently emphasize as Christians, consistently emphasize as churches because of the
fact that there's so many churches out there that want to downplay hell, right? They want to downplay
what hell is. They want to downplay the damnation of hell. But the Bible tells us that the
foundational doctrines of the Christian faith include the eternal judgment. The Bible says in
Hebrews chapter six. In other words, we have to teach people what the Bible says about hell,
eternal damnation, the lake of fire, the fact that this area, this place is a place of torment and
fire and where men have no rest day nor night. The Bible tells us knowing therefore the terror
of the Lord, we persuade men. And so knowing the fact that hell is a place of fire and brimstone,
where the warm diet not and the fire is not quenched persuades us to want to go persuade men
to accept the free gift of salvation. Okay. And so this story, when I read it, it kind of reminds me,
it refreshes my mind regarding the reality of hell. The fact that there are people in hell today,
there's people that are dying today that are going to hell. There's people that are going to die
tomorrow. They're going to descend into hell. People will continue to go to hell. And we can
offset that by going out and preaching the gospel, getting people saved, and telling people about the
free gift of eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. And so the story gives us that reality
of heaven and hell. But what's another thing that we can learn from this story? Well, number two,
we can learn that riches can impede a person from getting saved. You know, someone who is wealthy,
someone who has riches, someone who has a lot of money can often be hindered from accepting the
free gift of eternal life. Look at verse 19. It says here, there was a certain rich man,
which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And of course,
this rich man is the person who ends up going to hell. And it says here that he was a wealthy man.
And in fact, it says that he fared sumptuously every day. What does it mean to fair? Well,
fair means to be treated in a stated way. Okay. Sumptuously means luxuriously or lavishly. So this
is a person who's experiencing the good life. So to speak, you know, they got the money,
they got the nice clothing, they have the best food. This person is living luxuriously, lavishly.
He is essentially experiencing the riches of this world. Okay. Now hold your place or go to Mark
chapter 10, Mark chapter 10, if you would. You see, the rich man was a man of great wealth,
which ultimately played a role in him rejecting the gift of salvation. And the same can be said
today that people who are of great wealth, people who have a lot of money, people who have riches,
they're often the hardest people to win to Christ. Anybody can tell you who's done so many for any
length of time. When you go to the quote unquote rich neighborhoods, it's hard to get people saved
there. They often don't open the door. And if they do, they're very rude. They don't want to talk to
you. Why? Because they're affluent. They have riches. They're trusting in their wealth, which
is one of the reasons why we like to go to the quote unquote ghetto areas. You say that, you
shouldn't say that word. Well, I grew up in the ghetto. So I know what I'm talking about. Okay.
You know, the ghetto areas are often the most receptive to the gospel. You know, the gang
infested areas are often the most receptive. You say why? Cause they're near death all the time.
You know, they're always experiencing the, uh, the reality of them dying and going to hell,
going into what they would consider just the afterlife. And so often they're very much
receptive to the gospel, but the opposite is the true with those who are wealthy wealth. Listen to
this has a way to keep people from the subject of salvation in a way that no other sin can,
believe it or not. Okay. Let's look at the rich young ruler here in Mark chapter 10 and verse 21.
The rich young ruler comes to Jesus and wants to know what he has to do to obtain eternal life.
And of course, Jesus Christ kind of gives them a smart answer. And he talks about the commandments
and this man responds by saying, well, I've kept all these, I've kept from my youth up.
And obviously he hasn't kept not to bear false witness because that's obviously a lie
because no one's been able to keep the commandments of God. Look at verse 21. Then Jesus beholding him,
loved him. Now, why does Jesus love him? Because he doesn't want him to go to hell. Okay. He wants
him to have salvation. He understands that this guy is lost. He says, loved him and said unto him,
one thing thou lackest, go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast and give to the poor.
And thou shall have treasure in heaven. By the way, notice it doesn't say thou shall be saved.
Says thou shall have treasure in heaven. Okay. He says, and come and take up the cross and follow
me. Now given this man is not saved because he's not trusting in Jesus Christ solely. And Jesus
knows that verse 22 says, and he was sad at that saying and went away, grieved for he had what?
Great possessions. Jesus looked round about and saved them to his disciples. I want you to notice
here. How hardly, in other words, how scarcely shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom
of God. So after the rich young ruler is set, he's like, man, I got to sell all my stuff. I got so
many possessions. He walks away from the subject of salvation. Jesus looks at everyone and basically
says, this is why rich people can't be saved. Now he clarifies what he means in verse 24.
He says that the disciples were astonished at his words because it's like, well, I thought
whosoever believed it can be saved. I thought anybody can be saved. I thought we're supposed
to preach to the gospel to everyone. So they're astonished because they're like, whoa, rich people
can't be saved. But Jesus answered it again and saved unto them children. How hard is it for them
that listen to this trust in riches to enter into the kingdom of God. So the reason it's hard for
people who are rich to enter into the kingdom of God is because they're trusting in their wealth,
they're trusting in their riches. They don't depend on anybody else but themselves. They believe that
money has power. Wealth can produce pride and a false sense of security, right? It can produce
a false sense of dependency on one's self. But the gospel, my friends, requires what? Humility,
poverty of spirits, and a dependency on someone else to save them. And so it is common for a
wealthy person to reject the gospel because of their trust in riches and what riches can provide.
Go with me, if you would. Turn with me, if you would, to Luke chapter 12. Go to Luke chapter 12,
if you would. Luke chapter number 12. I'm going to read to you from Proverbs chapter 11. And verse
number four says, "Richest profit not in the day of wrath, but righteousness delivereth from death,"
the Bible says. I'm going to continue reading. And verse 25 says, "It is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God," essentially
explaining how difficult it is for someone who is rich to be saved. And they were astonished out of
measure, saying among themselves, "Who then can be saved?" And Jesus looking upon them said, "With
men it is impossible, but not with God, for with God all things are possible." So he explains the
difficulty of getting someone saved who is wealthy, but then he also explains, but it's not impossible.
Very difficult for sure, but it's not impossible because with God, all things are possible.
And look, you might know saved wealthy people. I know wealthy people who have gotten saved.
And obviously there are specific instructions in the Bible giving towards wealthy people who are
saved, not the trust in the riches to make sure that they are generous and to distribute to the
necessities of the saints, to put their trust in God, to be rich in faith, not just in monetary
wealth. And so obviously it's not impossible for them to be saved. It's just very hard.
Okay. And again, if you've been so winning for any length of time, you run into a very wealthy
person. They never have time for the gospel. Okay. You know, they don't have time for the gospel.
They, they're not willing to humble themselves to actually listen to the presentation of the
gospel. They're not even thinking about the things of God in many cases. Okay. And this is why I
believe that no billionaire is saved. Okay. Millionaires, yes, possibly. Okay. And we've
had millionaires in our church who are just very wealthy business people and they're saved,
but billionaires, like I don't think people realize how much a billion dollars really is.
And, you know, to acquire that much money, uh, you know, you kind of have to just be a little
dishonest. Let me just be honest. And so, um, you know, a person who has a billion dollars really
can't waste, they can't spend it all after a while. And so having all that money and can often be a
barrier to someone getting saved. Now, obviously riches can be detrimental to both saved and
unsaved. You know, the Bible tells us the reason the Bible also tells us in first Timothy chapter
six, verse six, that Godliness with contentment is great gain. And it tells us for we brought nothing
into this world. And it's certain that we can carry nothing out having food in Raymond. Let
us there with be content. And it warns us. It tells us that they, that will be rich fall into
temptation and a stare. What is the will to be rich? I just want to have a lot of money. I just
want to have a lot of wealth. I just want to make a lot of money. And you know, it's not bad to
want to make money, but when it starts to take the place of spiritual disciplines and spiritual
priorities at that point, it becomes an idol. Idolatry covetousness is idolatry. And when you
begin to put money before God, then it becomes a problem. God is not against you having money,
having wealth, having riches. If you're able to handle it, that is not against you having
possessions. As long as those possessions are in your possession and not you in the possessor's
possession or possessions, possess you and hinder you from serving God and doing that,
which is right in the sight of the Lord, from reading your Bible, praying, going to church,
soul winning, serving God. It's getting kind of quiet in here, man. Can you put the AC on please?
I'm getting hot. And that's why it says they, that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare
and then into many foolish and hurtful lusts. Why does it put people into many foolish and hurtful
lusts? Because money can buy anything. And when you have money, you have more options for good
and for bad. So it says into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drowned men in destruction
and perdition for the love of money, by the way, not money, but the love of money is the root of
all evil. The world will often misquote this and say, money is the root of all evil. No, it's not.
It's the love of money that is the root of all evil. It's the desire, the covetousness, the greed
for the love of money is the root of all evil, which while some coveted after have aired from
the faith and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. So obviously Christians can't lose
their salvation. We know that, but they can pierce themselves through with woes and sorrows and
difficulties and pains and hurts. Whereas an unsafe person can go into perdition because of
wealth. It can keep them from getting saved because wealth can often cause overconfidence
in this life. Look at Luke chapter 12, if you would, Luke chapter 12 and verse 15, it says,
and he said into them, take heed and beware of covetousness. What does covetousness mean?
It means the lust to have that which you should not have or could not have or should not have at
this moment. Okay. Something that does not belong to you. And it doesn't just have to be
monetary wealth. It could be possessions. It could be people. It could be status. Okay. Beware of
covetousness for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesses.
In other words, you shouldn't be identified by how much wealth or things that you have, right?
Your life doesn't consist of those things. Virtue is what our life consists of serving Christ is
what our life consists of not based upon how many things we have. He says in verse 16, and he spake
a parable into them saying the ground of a certain rich man brought forth plentifully. 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 my goods. So instead of being generous, being liberal with his fruits and helping others
and maybe helping those who are less fortunate, or just being generous with his family and friends,
he decides to tear down his barn, his house, you know, his storage and build bigger ones to
house more riches and abundance. He says in verse 19, and I will say to my soul, soul,
thou has much goods laid up for many years, take thine ease, eat, drink and be merry.
But God said to him, thou fool this night, thy soul shall be required of thee. Then whose shall
those things be, which thou has provided. So is he that laid up treasure for himself and is not
rich toward God. And obviously we can apply this to both saved and unsaved, a safe person who has
much wealth and abundance. You know, if they're not generous, if they don't use that wealth for
a particular purpose, whether that be for the work of God, for those around him, being liberal with
his resources and just kind of accumulates wealth, does nothing with it, what if you die? It'll be a
waste of resources. It'll be a waste of money. God blessed you with resources and they're wasted on
you. Okay? And the same goes towards those who are unsaved, right? Someone who dies without Christ
has all this wealth. I mean, it goes to the estate. It goes to the government. It goes to someone else.
It goes to someone who's greedy. It just, it ends up getting wasted. And so it's important for us
to be rich toward God, not necessarily in monetary wealth, but actually in faith. Okay. You know,
how much faith do you have in your spiritual bank account? Do you have enough to spare? Are you a
wealthy person? Spiritually speaking, can you pray down resources from heaven? Can you make things
happen via your prayer life? I know that you can possibly buy certain things. You can purchase
certain needs, but how about praying for those needs, right? Now that's wealthy right there.
You know, if you're a person who has wealth and you're like, well, I can purchase this.
I can make this happen by doing this. You know, that's great if God bless you with those resources,
but I want to challenge you this morning to be rich toward God in faith, your ability to actually
pray those things down so that God can show himself strong on your behalf. The Bible says
in Mark chapter eight, you don't have to turn there verse 36 for which shall a prophet a man
if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul, what shall a man give in exchange for his
soul? You know, the rich man in Luke chapter 16 had all these riches, but I guarantee you today in
2024, he doesn't care about any of those riches. He doesn't care about all his wealth. He doesn't
care about all his possessions, all his monetary gain. Why? Because he lost his soul. And yeah,
he might've gained the whole world, quote unquote. He might've had everything that the world wanted
and all of the luxurious living and the lavish living. But you know what? Now, all he wants is
a drop of water on his tongue to cool him because of the torment that he's experiencing, but he's
not going to receive it. Riches can often impede a person from getting saved. So this is one of the
reasons, again, why when we go sowning, we try to go to areas, we try to go to areas that are poor,
right? Or what we would consider in America to be poor. Okay. You know, section eight housing is good
area to go sowning it. Regardless of what your position is on that, people there are less
fortunate to a certain degree. And even if they're not less fortunate in monetary wealth,
maybe they have their needs met. You know, they probably don't have a Bible believing church
that can give them the riches of the gospel to preach unto them. They've never heard of eternal
life explained in a proper way. And in fact, the majority of those areas have a lot of prosperity
gospel preachers. Okay. And so we try to go to those areas the most and try to save the rich
areas for last. But quite frankly, we just need to hit all the areas. Okay. And here in Anaheim,
I wouldn't consider this to be a very rich area, but it's pretty well to do. Okay. It's different
than Compton for sure. It's different in south central, then Watts, then parts of Long Beach.
Right. And so you've noticed it. I've noticed it when we've gone zoning here is just not very
receptive to the gospel, but it's possibly because of wealth. Okay. It can impede people from
actually getting saved. And so sometimes people in the world think, Oh man, if I'd have all these
riches, I'd be so happy and I would have everything I wanted and I would be so content and it would
just be great. But hold on a second. You wouldn't even think about salvation though. And riches can
be a curse into someone because it causes them not to be mindful of the afterlife. Whereas someone
who's in poverty, they think about that stuff. Go back to Luke chapter 16, Luke chapter 16.
The third point that I want to make here is that poverty can cause people again, as I mentioned,
to be open to the gospel. Verse 20 says that there was a certain beggar named Lazarus,
which was laid at his gate at the rich man's gate, of course, 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. So we see here that Lazarus is receiving evil in this world, right? And receiving evil in
this world can often listen to this tenderize the heart to receive the gospel. I've noticed in my
experience that the people who are sometimes the most receptive to the gospel or even receptive
towards spiritual truths are those who have experienced trauma, those who have had a hard
life, those who have gone through difficult times as a child, as an adult. These individuals are
often the most receptive to spiritual truths. They are what Jesus says as a person who loved much
because they're forgiven much. Experiencing poverty, trauma, and various evils can often
be a great springboard for people to be saved. Now I'm not saying that it's good that people
are traumatized, you know. It's good that you've experienced poverty and hurt, sorrow and evil,
and that you are at the mercies of wicked people in this world. That's great. Good for you.
Obviously that's not God's will, but I will say this is that people who are in that position or
in that condition are often poor in spirit. They often are more humble because they realize like,
man, life, you know, and they're often looking for an answer. They're looking for a savior.
Okay. And, you know, they want the truth. Okay. Bible says in Psalm 34, you don't have to turn
there. Verse 18, the Lord is nigh unto them that are of a broken heart. Listen to this and save
it such as be of a contrite spirit. And when you look and study regarding the gospel, you'll see
that, you know, Jesus Christ talked about preaching the gospel to the poor. Why? Because they are less
fortunate. They're, they're mindful of spiritual things. So Lazarus received evil in this world.
He had no wealth, no food. I mean, he's eating crumbs from the rich man's table. I mean, the rich
man is horrible, right? He's barely even letting them have crumbs. So he has no wealth, no food,
and no health. Why? It says there that he's full of sores. So he had some disease come upon him.
He, his health is not good. And to add on top of that, it says that dogs came and licked his
source. I mean, that's a horrible condition to be in. I've heard different interpretations about
this. You're like, well, the dog saliva actually has healing properties. And so I don't want no
dog licking me, whether I have sores or not, because dogs lick nasty stuff. You know what
I'm saying? And so, you know, they, they lick excrement and their bottoms and stuff, and then
they go and lick sores. I mean, I think what the Bible is doing here is actually illustrating
how bad he had it. Where he's so incapacitated that he's seen as just like the off scouring,
even to dogs. Where dogs are coming and licking his sores and just, I mean, that's a miserable
state to be in. I don't believe God sent the dogs to lick his sores, to alleviate his pain or
something like that. Nowhere in the text, people come up with weird stuff. You know, it's just like,
just read the text for what it says, go to James chapter two, hold your place around Luke 16. Now,
let me, let me explain something regarding the rich man and Lazarus, because this is a passage
that is emphasizing the fact that one person is in heaven and the other person is in hell.
And essentially describing the finality of both of those, meaning that once you're there, you're
always there. You just never leave hell. This is not a chapter that is explaining how they got there.
Okay. Because we know that the rest of the Bible does teach that it's not because he's rich that
he's in hell because rich people can be saved. And it's not because the man is poor that he's in
heaven. You say, well, how do we know? Because the rest of the word of God tells us that in order to
be saved, you have to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You have to place your faith in Jesus
in order to be saved. Right. And if you, if a person is in hell, that's a person who has rejected
the free gift of eternal life. So this is explaining to people and we should always already have in our
minds how they got there in the first place. It's not because of their financial status or because
they're in poverty. We obviously know based upon other clear scriptures that one accepted Christ
as their savior and one did not. Okay. Very important. But the condition that we see the
poor man in is that he's a beggar. He's full of sores. He's hungry and you know, he's not in a
good condition. Let me read to you a couple of passages before we get into James chapter two,
Luke four verse 18 says the spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach
the gospel to the poor. He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the
captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised. Obviously,
he's given us a list of people who are receiving evil in this world. They're brokenhearted,
they're poor, they're captives, they're blind, they're bruised. Why? Because people in that
condition are often the most receptive. You know, my father-in-law used to talk about the season of
the soul and he used to say it's really important to catch people in the season of the soul. What is
the season of the soul? It's referring to a season in a person's life where they are suffering,
they're going through trauma, maybe they have a death in the family, maybe they're experiencing
some harsh health issues, you know, they've lost their wealth, they've lost their job, you know,
they're going through a hard time and that is often the perfect time to go to them and give
them the gospel because they are humble because of the situation that they're in. And you know,
I think of brother Ron, you know, for the, um, the banquet, he didn't give me permission to share
this, but I'm going to share it too late. Can I share it too late? I'm just kidding. You know,
he, he, he had to like fire one of his employees, right? Not because you didn't like them, but you
know, he had another situation going on, but he had to fire one of his employees. But you know,
and it was, it was like a sad situation because the man lost his job, but he ended up coming to
Brother Ron is like, I want to go to your church, you know, cause now he's thinking about the things
of God because he's going through a hard time and he came to church and he ended up getting saved.
He believed on Jesus Christ and he got saved. So it's like, Oh man, it's sad that he got fired.
Yeah, but it's great that he was saved from the fire though. So even though he lost his job,
and of course I'm sure he's going to be able to get another job, but you know, it's, it's kind
of great that that happened in order for this person to be receptive and open to the gospel.
And look, this is why sometimes I even pray for some people who are not, they don't want to get
saved. Sometimes I pray, Lord, remove all their wealth, remove their health and their wealth,
because maybe that's impeding them from being receptive and humble to receive the gospel.
And sometimes that's what it takes. Okay. He preaches the gospel to the poor, the brokenhearted,
the captives, the blind, those that are bruised. He also says in Luke 6 20, and he lifted up his
eyes on his disciples and says, blessed be the poor for yours is the kingdom of God. Look at
James chapter two and verse number one, it says, my brethren have not the faith of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Lord of glory with respect to persons for if they're come unto you, excuse me, for if
they're come unto your assembly, a man with a gold ring and goodly apparel and they're come in also
a poor man in vile raiment and you have respect to him to wear the gay clothing. Gay means happy
in the Bible. Okay. He's not like wearing rainbows or whatever and saying to him, sit out here in a
good place and say to the poor stand out there or sit that or sit here under my foot still stool.
Are you not then partial in yourselves and become judges of evil thoughts? So what is he saying?
He's like, you know, it's not right that if someone comes with wealthy clothing, luxurious clothing,
that you show favor to that person and you're not necessarily being hospitable to the person who's
not dressed as nice. Okay. He says, you're being partial respect our people. Verse five says,
hearken my beloved brethren, hath not God chosen the poor of this world, rich in faith and heirs
of the kingdom, which he has promised to them that love him. So if we were to kind of, you know,
conjecture what's going on here, he's basically saying, you know, when visitors come to church
and maybe a really wealthy person shows up, I don't know what a really wealthy person looks
like, but let's just exaggerate here. You know, he's got rings, he's got, you know, all the jewelry.
I mean, he just looks like he pulls up in a Ferrari or something. Is that even a thing
anymore? Okay. It's still a thing. You know, he pulls up in a Ferrari. He has an entourage
or something. He has a Butler walking around or some, no one's ever going to show up to this
church like that, by the way. And then another guy comes up, you know, uh, you know, he's,
he's dressed in vile raiment, meaning that like, he doesn't have the nicest of clothes.
He's just dressed, not necessarily to impress, but in regular clothing, maybe shirt, jeans,
shoes, just not necessarily looking wealthy. You know, the Bible's telling us here that that
individual just statistically speaking is more receptive to the gospel. They're more rich in
faith than the person of wealth because the person of wealth might have a superiority complex,
right? However, the person with vile clothing is probably an individual who's humble at heart and
recognizes he doesn't have anything. He's nobody and so therefore it's ripe for the picking so to
speak, okay? They are rich in faith and so this is clearly teaching us that we should direct the
gospel to those who are less fortunate. Obviously we want to give the gospel to everyone and not be
a respecter of people even in that area. We want to even get sometimes we have to teach our church
not to be a respecter of people where they only want to give the gospel to poor people and never
give the gospel to rich people, okay? Other churches like the other way around. Our church is like all
right we got to go to this rich area and it's like oh man we got to go to the wealthy areas it's like
man I was going to get saved there you know but you know what they need a chance too though they
deserve the chance and so what the bible is teaching us here is that the natural inclination
is to often show favor to the wealthy person the person of education the person who is affluent
rather than the person who's maybe quiet poor-stricken doesn't look necessarily as
rich or wealthy but we need to give the gospel to that person they are very receptive go back
to luke 16 if you would so we see that riches can often impede a person from being saved
and may i say they can often impede a christian from fulfilling god's will
okay uh we don't want riches to ever cause us to slow down the christian life or excuse us from
having from fulfilling certain responsibilities right well i'm rich i have wealth and so i don't
do soul winning that's like you know what other people do now we're all commanded to go soul
winning regardless of how wealthy you are you know i knew uh there's a guy um and you might know who
who this is but there's a college out there called how's anderson college okay and hiles is because
of jack hiles anderson is a millionaire businessman who invested in that college and you know he paid
for a lot of the things there but the man was a soul winner he's a very wealthy man and you
wouldn't even be able to tell about the way he dresses because true millionaires actually don't
dress in gay clothing okay you know he the guy was he just looked like a regular guy but he was a
millionaire he didn't drive a nice car he just a regular car and but this man loved soul winning
even to the point where he like he paid full-time soul winners in the Philippines for years he's
like I'm going to pay you to just do soul winning and you would pay for soul winners all across the
world specifically in the Philippines and so obviously there's certain rich people that
know how to deal with riches right and he's rich toward faith rich in faith rich toward God
look at verse 22 here's another thing we can learn from the story of the rich man Lazarus
and that is that death brings the believer immediately to the presence of God and the
unbeliever immediately to the flames of hell okay no such thing as soul sleep no such thing as
annihilation ism says in verse 22 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 lived up his eyes
being in torments and seeth abraham afar off and lazarus in his bosom now go to luke 23 if you
would look chapter 23 i did i do think it's interesting that lazarus is mentioned his name
but the rich man is not and i would speculate that the reason why we know lazarus by name and the
rich man we don't know by name is because depart from me you workers of iniquity i never knew you
to god the rich man is just a rich man he has no name his name has been blotted out the book of
life whereas the lord knows lazarus because lazarus places faith in jesus christ so death
brings the believer immediately to the presence of god and the unbeliever immediately to the flames
of hell the doctrine of soul sleep is a false doctrine soul sleep is the teaching that believers
who die remain uh or excuse me remain in their bodies so their spirit actually remains in their
bodies until the resurrection they are asleep okay and they'll often point to various passages
in the bible where people who are dead are described as being what asleep they'll say oh see
that means that the spirit is still there they're just asleep but let me just explain something to
you the reason the bible talks about people who are dead as being asleep is because dead people
I know it's crazy look like they're sleeping you know they're just just looks like they're sleeping
right but also you know to prove the fact that uh we know for a fact that the spirit does not remain
in the body is because James 2 says that as the spirit without the body is dead or the body without
the spirit is dead talk about the fact that when the spirit separates from the body implying that
it does it's dead okay and so when you die your spirit separates from your body and of course if
you're saved you go straight to heaven and if you're not you descend into the lowest parts of the
earth known as hell Philippians 1 23 says from in a straight betwixt two having a desire to depart
to be with christ which is far better nevertheless to abide in the flesh is more needful for you
implying that in order to be with christ in order to depart and be with christ which is far better
it would require for him to leave his flesh because the alternative is that to abide in the
flesh meaning be alive is more needful for them second corinthians 5 6 says therefore we always
have come therefore we are always confident knowing that whilst we're at home in the body
we are absent from the lord for we walk by faith not by sight we are confident i say and willing
rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the lord the bible says showing us
that when a person dies they are not only absent from the body but they're also spiritually present
with the lord look at luke 23 if you would and verse 42 of course this is the thief on the cross
verse 42 says and he said unto jesus lord remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom
jesus said unto him barely i say unto thee today not at the resurrection not at the end of the world
not at the rapture he says today shalt thou be with me in paradise showing us the fact that
jesus knew that the the thief would die and after death because he told the lord jesus christ
remember me when thou comest into that kingdom which is a form of calling upon the name of the
lord the lord tells them today your spirit obviously his body stayed behind his spirit
went into heaven also known as paradise okay so this is showing us luke chapter 16 shows us
conclusively that when a believer dies they don't remain in their body they go straight to heaven
in the presence of god but also the doctrine of annihilationism is also false because the
doctrine of annihilationism teaches that when a person goes to hell they just burn up okay
and you know they just cease to exist they're not conscious of what's taking place to them in hell
okay they just cease to exist but the bible tells us in luke 16 that the rich man lifted up his
eyes in hell being okay did you notice that being in torment the bible says and seeth abraham afar
off and lazarus in his bosom go back to luke 16 Luke 16 verse 23 it says he lifted up his eyes in
hell being in torments and seeth abraham afar off and lazarus in his bosom now i will say this
okay this is obviously a very unique story because again it's the only account where a person is
given the permission to speak while they're in hell and so there's a lot of unique factors
regarding the story a second unique factor would be the fact that the man is also not only able to
speak to talk about his condition but he also sees abraham afar off okay and people in hell cannot do
that people who are in hell cannot see people in heaven i believe this is just a very unique case
where god is allowing this man to converse with abraham which is the father of faith
in order to communicate what he's feeling so on and so forth okay because he sees abraham afar off
and lazarus in his bosom verse 24 says 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 now let me uh i don't want to get ahead of myself but i do want to mention
this and that is the people namely catholics will often use this passage to teach the false
doctrine of purgatory okay they said purgatory is real because we have an example of it in luke 16
well purgatory you know those who are supposedly in purgatory are dependent upon the prayers of
those who are living to help them transition to heaven right you guys understand that but the rich
man is not doing that the rich man is not asking for prayer he's asking for water he's not like hey
can you pray rosary for me can you tell lazarus to pray rosary for me so i'm not burning in this
flame no he's actually asking for water because of the fact that prayers can't get people out of
hell okay and so there's no such thing as praying for someone who's in hell folks once they're in
hell it's final they can't get out anymore it's eternal damnation and in fact there's only one
instance where anybody in hell actually gets out for a time and that is when they're transferred
to the lake of fire okay they're taken out of hell placed before the presence of god to confirm
their guilt before the lord and to confirm the fact that they're not written in the book of life
they are reunited with their physical bodies and both soul and body are cast
it alive into hell okay into the lake of fire so they're reunited and they're thrown into the lake
of fire and they burn forever okay that is the only time where they receive any relief from the
flames of hell but even then they're before the presence of god and they're going into a bigger
fire and then we also say this is that the lake of fire and hell are both hell people want to make
a big deal like well one's giana one's a desk you know there's a big difference yeah the only big
difference is that one is bigger than the other but but you know ask someone and obviously you'll
never be able to but ask someone who goes to the lake of fire you know can you feel a difference
they won't because it's just fire torment flames no rest day nor night i mean that's essentially
what people experience in the current hell the difference is the current hell smaller than the
lake of fire which is also according to the bible called hell jesus called it hell okay so he's
tormented in this in the flame showing us that hell isn't a separation from god by the way that's
a common thing that people will say well hell is just a separation from god whereas the bible
explicitly says the people who are in hell are burning before the presence of god and of the
angels okay and the bible says that god you know sees the hearts of men he sees hell how much more
are the hearts of men so obviously he is present when people are burning in hell okay and people
try to romanticize hell for some reason i don't know why well it's just a separation from god
it's not literal flames it's not literal torment the greatest pain is that you're just separated
from god wrong no fire is not quenched worm dies not i'm tormented in this flame god doesn't sound
like just a separation from god okay it's a place of fire place of torment and you know to claim that
oh well you know it's you just burn up well no it says that the fire is not quenched meaning
something is perpetually causing it to burn okay so the rich man is conscious of the pain that he's
receiving and you know we never want to think well you know once you die an unbeliever dies
they just burn up they just cease to exist it's just like a black screen or something
and just out floating in space somewhere and they just cease to exist that's what the atheist thinks
that's what the agnostic thinks but folks the bible clearly teaches that people know what's
happening to them in the afterlife you know even with believers how long oh lord holy and true
does thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth right they are uh feeling
time they understand time they understand pain they also understand relief because people who
are in heaven have a sense of relief they no longer suffer they no longer have pain look at
verse 25 he says but abraham said son speaking to the rich man remember that thou in thy lifetime
receive us thy good things and likewise lazarus evil things but now he is comforted and thou are
tormented and let me make a quick comment here and that is just because of course if abraham is
calling him son he's obviously referring to someone who is of israel okay he's physically a son of
israel so this is showing us that just because you're a son of israel a son of abraham of the
flesh doesn't mean you're going to heaven because this man is in hell and abraham is addressing him
as what son clearly showing us that this man was a son of abraham according to the flesh but being
a son of abraham according to the flesh in other words being a jew does not get you saved just
because you're a part of a specific ethnic group doesn't mean you get a free pass to heaven
doesn't happen that way and here's the proof son and he's talking to someone who's in heaven
okay all right i'm sorry in hell so he says abraham said son remember that thou in thy
lifetime receive us that good things and likewise lazarus evil things but now he is comforted in
our torment now this teaches us that the pleasures of this life are temporary as well as the
sufferings of this life so the pleasures of this life are temporary yeah it may seem long
but at the end of the day all that stuff goes away and in like manner your sufferings are also
temporary just as the sufferings of lazarus was also temporary go to james chapter five if you
would james chapter five hold your place there in luke 16 james chapter five you know he lived
luxuriously lavishly he had all of the fine clothing the fine foods and he was in comfort
he enjoyed life but you know it all came crashing down it all came to an end and here's a great
passage to illustrate that james five verse one says go to now ye rich man weep and howl for your
miseries that shall come upon you isn't that interesting your riches are corrupted and your
garments are moth eaten your gold and silver is cankered and the rest of them shall be a witness
against you and shall eat your flesh as it were fire ye have heaped treasure together for the last
days behold the higher of your labors who have reaped down your fields which is of you kept back
for fraud cryeth and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the lord of
sabioth you have lived in pleasure on the earth and been wanting you have nourished your hearts
as in the day of slaughter you have condemned and killed the just and he does not resist you here's
a great passage to teach us that we should never envy the rich don't envy the rich hey young people
don't be the type of christian that you just wish you had it just like that instagram influencer
who has all this money just like that famous person to have all the money all the wealth
all the girls all the fame that they could ever want it will be corrupted one day they should
weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them and christians have a tendency to envy
the sinner to envy the unrighteous to look at the possessions of the unrighteous and think oh man i
wish i had that not understanding that that person will weep and howl for their miseries one day
hey ye shall weep and be sorrowful and the world shall rejoice but your sorrow shall be turned into
joy the bible says okay sin is pleasurable for a season but folks just emphasize that part a season
you know the riches are pleasurable for a season but i promise you every single wealthy person
every single famous individual every single wealthy individual who is currently in hell right now
would give all that up in the times past in order to have salvation and look this preaching is
actually not popular at all as you can plainly see we need to have a check board or something
for you know people who walk out of the service you know what i mean when i preach the point that
i'm but you know it's the truth though it's true and you know the truth of the matter is is that
christians can often have this attitude you know what's funny is that you know people get offended
at preaching against wealth they get offended at that stuff you know because it hits home but
folks let me remind you is that riches can destroy you and don't envy the person who has riches and
possessions it's not worth it okay you know godliness with contentment is great gain and
we're not talking about being aesthetics here and monks and like you just can't enjoy life and no
smile no fun make you a good boy and all this stuff we don't believe in that stuff okay obviously
we believe in having a very good time we're in the holidays right now so we're uh you know we're
eating our heart to our hearts fill you know we're singing we're having a great time but obviously
life isn't just about partying and having fun and all those things you know we got to be serious
about the things of god as well but just understand you know allow yourself to be content with the
things that you have though okay and don't envy the rich person because the rich person will one
day fade out as the chap okay go back to luke 16 if you would go back to abraham's uh dissertation
here in verse 26 says and beside all this between us and you there is a great gulf fixed so that
they which would pass from hence meaning here to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would
come from fence referring to there okay now let me explain a couple things here what is the great
gulf well the great gulf is you know often refer a gulf is referring to a ravine or a chasm of
sorts but the context would indicate that it's actually referring to the land of the living
okay this is the great where we're at right now is the great gulf and the reason it says fixed
it means it's just like it's you know it's it's essentially stable it's fast and it cannot be
moved so that would make complete sense because we are in between heaven and hell we're between
the living and the dead right between those who are in heaven and those who are in hell
and those who are in heaven obviously cannot cross over uh to the great gulf fix nor into the place
of hell which by the way this is why we don't believe in ghosts or whatever like i think i saw
my grandma or you know there's a video out there circulating folks ai is wild okay and those videos
have always been around okay but you know i saw this of this old lady or this young child or
whatever and i think it's my great great great great great great you know and you know this
on on this indian burial or cemetery or something like that and demons okay if you see something
like that it's a demonic entity no such thing as when people die they don't just hang around
i got unfinished business i gotta find my murderer you know yeah it makes for a great hollywood movie
okay but it's not real it's not like they have a choice and they're just stepping outside their
body and they're just like i gotta i gotta get this message to my wife and you know doesn't
exist once they die if they're saved they go straight to heaven or they're not saved to go
straight to hell they can't pass to this place okay you're like yeah but what if they look like
a person well you know demons can probably take the form of people and often to convince let me
just speak to the mexicans in our church too okay because they're often the most guilty of this
stuff that they just believe all the all the fables not real my friends okay i believe in demonic
entities and you know satanic entities and things of that nature but not in actual human spirits
that are stuck here okay and so uh and you know some of that some of those videos are
questionable anyways but the great gulf is referring to the land of the living so the
rich man's request to have lazarus come and cool his tongue is denied for that reason he's saying
this great gulf is here they can't cross over and of course those who are in hell can never go to
heaven which is another reason why purgatory is nonsense because people are like oh you know we
can just pray them out and go to no they can't cross over abraham said it right it is they that
would pass from hence to you cannot neither can they pass to us that would come from fence sorry
lazarus can't go there and you know what isn't it just like poetic justice that lazarus wanted
the crumbs from the rich man's table meaning he wouldn't even spare a meal for lazarus then
now the rich man is asking for a drop of water from lazarus and i promise you lazarus probably
would have gave him a drop of water if he asked for it if he could cross that great gulf but he
cannot okay and so you know this this catholic teaching of purgatory's nonsense and it has sent
millions i would even say billions of people to hell through that doctrine because a lot of people
think well you know i'm catholic and yeah i've sinned but you know what we got purgatory and so if
i die i'll just go there and make sure you pray a couple rosaries for me you know give to the
catholic church or whatever and i'll make it out and you know i'm sure there's catholics in hell
right now they're like man purgatory sure feels like hell you know and apparently no one's praying
you out because no one can pray you out folks this is the finality of hell this is why we have urgency
when we go out and preach the gospel this is why we're serious about getting people saved and
learning how to sow in and learning how to preach the gospel because this is a reality of people
dying and going to hell and you know once they're there it's too late too late can't do anything
about it after that so it's important for us to not only get strangers saved but it's important
for us to get our family saved as well i hope you're praying for your family i hope you're
doing the best you can to witness to your family i hope you pray for them i hope you think about
them i hope you bring them to church to get them saved because folks our life is but a vapor you
know and and death can come up death can seize upon anyone at any given time and once that happens
it's over with it's you close that book they're done it's nothing can change that okay and so
you know we have this great goal fix so whose responsibility is it to get Lazarus to heaven
and to keep the rich man from going to hell those who are in the great goal fix
our job you know above us we have heaven below us we have hell and it's our job here to get people
saved you know to keep people from going to hell and help people to understand how to go to heaven
look at verse 27 we see here the damn desire the salvation of those in the great gulf verse 27 says
then he said i pray thee therefore father that that would have sent 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 so he's like i want water can't have water he goes okay then please send him to my
father's house and you know what the rich man doesn't seem like a really good person even in
this life when he was living in this life but you know there's enough in him even while he's in hell
that he doesn't want his family to come to go to hell and you know what let me let me say this
it's possible it's very likely that many of us have family members who are in hell you know and
obviously they're not omniscient but i promise you that your family members who are in hell
are hoping that you're getting people saved first of all they're hoping that you get saved and
obviously you are if you if you believed on the lord jesus christ but you know there's also
someone's someone's family members in hell and they're hoping that you come to their family's
house and tell this to their brethren that they would avoid the place of torment you know obviously
people in hell can't pray and can't get answers uh can't get their their prayers answered but i
guess to a certain degree they kind of can right say why because i'm sure there's people in hell
hoping to god praying that someone a soul owner would come to their family's door to give them the
gospel and you know we try to fulfill that every single week and i hope that when you go out there
you think about that i'm knocking on the door of someone whose ancestors are probably in hell
and are hoping that someone would come to their door their family's door to keep them out of
hell send them to my father's house five brethren to testify unto them look at verse 29 abraham
say them to him they have moses and the prophets let them hear them now you know when you read
this story you kind of think to yourself like what was abraham's purpose of this story he can't
he just can't do anything can't send lazarus he can't dip the tip of his finger in water he
can't send lazarus to go preach the gospel he's just there to kind of answer questions that was
it if you think about it but really abraham is there for us abraham isn't necessarily there for
the rich man because he can't do anything for the rich man and what this story is illustrating is
that once the person's in hell no one can help them whatsoever abraham is actually there for us
to show us the urgency of getting people saved and he tells them here he says they referring
to his five brethren they got the bible let them hear that he says and he said nay father abraham
but if one went up went unto them from the dead they will repent and if you know what does he
mean he's like if lazarus would just come back to life if they see lazarus come back to life
then they'll get saved but hold on a second jesus christ did that he actually came back to life he
resurrected from the grave and yet people still reject the free gift of eternal life he says in
verse 31 he said unto him if they will not hear moses and the prophets neither will they be
persuaded though one rose from the dead and obviously we have an underlying tone of jesus
christ in his resurrection meaning that the physical resurrection of jesus christ is just
as powerful as the written word that's being preached into someone you know people are like
well if i saw god no you you wouldn't get saved no you wouldn't if if jesus just showed himself
if i was there and i saw i believe wrong you wouldn't because his resurrection is just as
valid as the written word of god as moses and the prophets when we preach the resurrection it's
just as powerful and just as valid as if you were there in the first century viewing the
resurrected christ it has the same authenticity the same power and you know people saw the
resurrected christ and still didn't believe on it i mean think about that an entire nation he came
into his own his own received him not and once he resurrected they're they're they're conspiring to
like lie about his resurrection saying that his disciples took him away privily so obviously
the resurrected christ what is teaching us here is that preaching moses and the prophets and of
course now we have the new testament is just as powerful can get someone saved as seeing the
resurrected what is it showing us it's showing us that faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the
word of god not your illustration not your testimony not miracles not you know any other
thing what preach christ in him crucified moses and the prophets for if you would have believed
me you would believe moses for he wrote of me you know because the pharaoh is like well we believe
moses we don't know who you are you're born for on occasion it's like if you would have believed
moses you would have believed me because he wrote of me and beginning he tells his disciples oh you
fools and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken and beginning at moses and
all the prophets he expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning himself this
is showing us the importance of preaching the written word my friends and we need to keep to
keep this thing alive as fundamental baptists then when we go out and preach the gospel we're
actually opening up the word of god we're showing them from the scriptures how they can be saved
you know pray unto the lord for god's power pray into the lord that the person would be receptive
but let me just remind you that the power is in the preaching of god's word though power is in the
passages themselves we don't need any miracle because let's just be honest when jesus christ
does return he's coming in style he's descending in clouds he's disrupting all the cosmic bodies
turning the sun and the moon into blood stars are falling from the sky earthquakes and people
are still not getting saved i mean just read revelation all the cosmic occurrences and
supernatural occurrences that come at a second coming and people still refuse to be saved showing
us full well that you know what when people say show us a sign it's a wicked and adulterous
generation to seek it after a sign and there shall no sign be given into it but the sign of
jonas the prophet for as jonas is three days and three nights and the well's belly so shall the
son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth what's the sermon this morning
the sermon is the rich man is still in hell christians have been preaching about the rich
man ever since he went there and he's been a byword and a proverb of someone who trusted in their
riches to be saved and it took him straight to hell and it's proved to us also that at the end
of the day you know the most powerful testimony that you can have is the testimony of the lord
of the resurrected christ the power is in the word of god and so let's pray follow me thank you so
much for this story that gives us the reality of heaven and of hell and we're thankful for lazarus
lord because he's an example to believers who might be of contrite of a contrite spirit
poverty-stricken suffering and anguished lord but he taught us lord that uh the things concerning
him had an end and now he's enjoying the peaceful tranquility of heaven of eternal life rubbing
shoulders with the patriarchs and uh being comforted of you lord whereas the rich man
is still in hell he has no rest day nor night and every year or every week someone might be
preaching about the rich man being there and lord it's a reminder to us all that hell is final
and we can't get anybody out of there but we can figurative figuratively pull people out of the
fire by preaching the gospel to them while they're still in the great gulf and i pray
that you help us to do so lord bless us as we go on our way we love you we thank you praise the
saints in jesus name amen