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The message you're about to hear was preached at Liberty Baptist
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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.
Luke chapter 16 And when you find your place, if you would
stand with me for the reading of the Word, as we honor that it is
the eternal, preserved, inspired, and infallible Word of
God this morning. Luke chapter 16 and our reading
will be in verses 19 through 31. Luke 16 this morning.
All right, we found our place. All right, let's begin our
reading in 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.
See if Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, 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
receive is thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now he is comforted, and thou are tormented.
Beside all this, between US and you there is a great gulf fixed,
so that they 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
would send him to my. Father's House, for I have 5
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, he said unto him, If they do not hear Moses
and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose
from the dead title, the message this morning is 2 Eternal
Realities. 2. Eternal realities.
Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer once more.
So we ask the Lord's blessing on the message.
Father, I thank you for this passage.
Thank you for this church and their their faithfulness to you
over the years. Father, I'm thankful for all are
in the building today and I pray that you would help me help my
lips to speak, which you'd have me to speak today.
Would you use your word to minister to those that are here,
Father, an uncomfortable truth, but an important truth that we
must understand. And I pray you'd help me in the
delivery of the message. Would you allow us to leave
today, having been challenged and convicted and stirred in our
own Christian lives? And Father, there's someone here
who does not know Christ as their Savior.
I pray, Father, that you'd get a hold of their heart today, that
they would realize their need for you.
And I praise you for this. I ask you, bless Brother Rivero
as he's preaching away. Would you anoint him and help
him as he preaches today? And Father, would you have your
blessing on the service now? We ask in Jesus name, Amen.
Thank you for standing. You may be seated this morning
as we get right into the message to eternal realities to eternal
realities. There is perhaps no greater
contrast in. Society than a.
Beggar and a rich man. A beggar is powerless.
He is infamous and rejected by the world around him.
There's even a a certain attitude that we have when we
see beggars right? We we, we don't.
We don't look to them as favorably as we would a rich
man. He has no influence.
He has no family to help him and nowhere to live.
His clothes are old, ragged and torn.
He smells and he has poor hygiene.
And from the beggars perspective, worst part for him
is that it seems like nobody cares.
The rich man, however, has an entirely different experience.
He's powerful, he's comfortable. And.
Spoiled with the finer things of life.
He he doesn't just have what he needs, he has options, right?
Grants him options. He he has the options of exotic
sports cars and designer clothes and Rolex and gets to do what he
wants, when he wants, where he wants, with who he wants.
He's rich, he enjoys life. Now just imagine the shock it
would. Be if somehow.
The beggar and the rich man could swap roles.
That'd be quite a shock, wouldn't it?
You've seen perhaps maybe those TV shows or people swap roles
with one another and and while we know that's not reality in
one. Sense in our.
Passage Here we see the beggar and the rich man swapping roles
for all eternity. See we live in a culture that
generally values wealth and status in society.
I would say, and I think most of you would agree with that here
are some quotes on on wealth and money from from certain wealthy
individuals. Mark Cuban, he had the show
Shark Tank he had on the show not a particular individual that
I appreciate or like, but he he makes a statement here that I
think does sum up the way our culture thinks about wealth.
I don't care what anyone says, being rich is a good.
Thing. I don't care what anyone says,
being rich is a good thing. Grant Cardone says money can't
buy happiness and poverty can't buy anything.
Isn't that right? Money can't buy happiness, but
poverty certainly can't buy anything.
But I, I, I like this quote here from Benjamin Franklin.
I think it really helps us as we prepare to, to start studying.
This passage says money never made a man happy.
Yet nor will it. There is nothing in its nature
to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he
wants. You found that true in your.
Life that's true about. Women too, not just men, right?
The more a. Man has the more the.
More man wants, the more a woman has, the more she wants.
But listen to this, instead of filling a vacuum, it makes 1.
Instead of filling a vacuum. It makes 1 instead of satisfying
that craving that you. Have instead of feeling full,
it's like you're even more empty than you were before.
Suffice it to say, I don't want you to misunderstand me this
morning. There's no merit in poverty and
no vice and wealth necessarily in and of themselves.
There's no merit to being poor. God doesn't necessarily say
you're more righteous or you're a better Christian if you're
poor, and he doesn't necessarily say that.
If you're wealthy, you're a worse.
Christian or you're a poorer Christian.
But they that. Have riches are.
In danger of becoming materialistic.
I wonder if our in our country, in our culture today, people
have riches. And money and things and stuff.
And that we value those. Things that we're not in danger,
perhaps. Maybe even already.
There that we are materialistic, you say, Brother Brett, how do
you how do you define being materialistic?
Well, Merriam Webster defines it as a preoccupation with.
Or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual.
Things OK here. Here's my version of that.
Is that you're so? Preoccupied with things, with
stuff. That you neglect thinking about
intellectual or spiritual things, so that you are so
preoccupied with what you have in this life.
That you neglect the most important things, such as the
intellectual. Or the spiritual that that is
materialism and and our culture has become more and more
materialistic because we've become.
More and more secular. Right to be secular.
Basically has the idea of. Separating life from anything
religious, anything spiritual, it's just, it's just material.
It's just the world around you and there are many people that
adopt that world. View in our lives that.
Particularly in this. Part of the country.
That are materialistic. They are secular.
They don't believe anything spiritual has any any.
Value. They don't believe that.
Anything in life is related to spiritual things.
It's just what we have. Now, and after this is all over,
that's it. There's nothing more, and thus
if you believe. That and that's your world view.
You would. Want to accumulate all the stuff
that you could, right you'd. Want to get everything that you
could in this life. You'd want to drive fast cars,
you'd want to live in a big house, you'd want to have the
best the best meals and fine dining, and you'd want to wear
nice clothes. And you would just live it up
while you're here. If this is all there is, and I
certainly. Don't want to make anyone.
Here feel guilty who has been blessed with wealth or with
property or with things. Things are not bad in and of
themselves, but it becomes bad. When we have a mentality that
our life is about the things we possess and not who we are, our.
Identity. You see in our text we see two
particular individuals on two different spectrums of society,
a beggar and a rich man. And materialism certainly was
was present there with the rich man, as I believe it can be here
with us today. And yet there is one.
Way that all, rich or wealthy, however you want to say it, will
one day lose their riches. They will die, and if you lack
material possessions one day you will die as well.
You ever thought about that? I I I think it's sad that many
people try to avoid uncomfortable subjects such as
death and life after death. Because it is uncomfortable,
because it is unknown to us, and because there are there are
things about acknowledging the reality of that that maybe
caused us to think of. Our loved ones who have gone on
or. Others that we know.
Or other uncomfortable experiences.
And and while I I would I would agree with you that it is an
uncomfortable subject and we should deal with it carefully,
you wouldn't want to neglect. It so that you're not prepared.
You wouldn't want to do that with your retirement, right?
You, we plan for retirement and we plan for, for what lies ahead
in the future because we know it's real, right?
Because we know it's coming. We know that one day we're going
to have to make those means necessary.
But when it comes to our life spiritually and and through all
eternity, we're going to exist in one of two.
Places according to God's Word. And there is only one way that
you can. Be prepared to face eternity.
Sadly, I believe most. People are unprepared as this
rich man was, but we see that the beggar who had a miserable
experience here on earth. Who had a?
Horrible experience on Earth. He was prepared.
Isn't that incredible? Someone that people looked at
with disdain. Every day people that rejected
this beggar, they thought they thought nothing of him.
They thought what a miserable existence, who would?
Ever want to be that? Man, and yet he was the one that
was ready. And the rich man, the one who
dressed in purple and fine linen, we were talking about the
best of the best clothing. He was, he was extremely wealthy
in in his time and in his day. He woke up into a reality he had
no idea was coming and he wasn't ready for it.
And I want to remind you this morning that he's still there.
Today it's a place called Hell. I don't enjoy talking about
hell, but as a as a. God called preacher.
I have no choice but to preach on the subject of hell because
it isn't God's Word and because if it's a subject that we
neglect and shame and woe to the preachers in our day, that will
not preach about hell and rue the day in which we live in a
country where people are afraid to talk about the most important
subjects of God's Word. You need to know about hell, you
need to know about heaven and you need to know about what
Jesus is teaching in this passage.
I want to I want to say just just right off the top here in
the in the early in the beginning of the message that
one day you will enter eternity. You will go off into eternity
one day and that you may live a nice long life here on earth.
You you may get in a horrible accident and die what we might
call. A premature death, It really
doesn't matter. You're going to face eternity
one day. And I'm asking you if you're
prepared. I'm asking if you've given
preparations, if you've given any thought to it.
And do you really know what's going to happen when you die?
And don't you think we ought to consider it?
But more than just consider it and more than just brainstorm,
we have an authoritative word from Almighty God who says this
is what's going to happen after death and this is what's going
to happen in eternity. We have divine revelation from
God to know exactly what's going to happen and exactly how we can
prepare ourselves for what's coming.
This is not an opinion. This is the inspired word of
God. The the scriptures are are like
God breathed out his words. He revealed to us what we could
not know otherwise. And shame on those that would
mock God's word in our day and time and say, oh, that's just an
ancient book. And I can't believe that people
would put their trust in an ancient book.
It's not just an ancient book, my friend.
It is a timeless truth that God has given to humanity, and He is
preserved for you to day, even now, so that you can hear His
word concerning the most important subject.
That anyone could consider eternity.
Eternity. We don't understand eternity.
Our minds can't comprehend eternity.
It's, it's endless. There's, there's, there's no
time there. God is eternal.
And by the way, God made you to be eternal.
You are eternal. You're you're not just going to
die one day and then you're. Dead as a dog.
You will live, you will. You will exist for all eternity.
And only one of these two places, heaven or hell.
And I want to remind you this morning.
That that there is a there's a reason why for all eternity.
Some people will be comforted. And they will enjoy everlasting
life and some will be tormented forever and ever and ever that.
That's a that's a sobering thought.
It's the reason why we have missions.
It's the reason why we have a all in visitation.
It's the reason why we leave tracks at Walmart.
It's the reason why we tell people about Jesus.
It's the reason why we do something so uncomfortable as it
seems to talk to people about their soul.
Why? Because there's an eternity
awaiting them. They're going to go to hell if
they don't trust Jesus Christ and believe the Gospel.
There's no Plan B. There's just one plan.
So, so let's let's look at this passage and see what Jesus
Christ. Taught about eternity.
I find it interesting that he spoke very little about heaven
and spoke very much about hell. It says that there's.
Two men. Live these two different
experiences. And and I want to.
Back up a little bit in the context.
Because he is talking about. Money.
He's talking about wealth. And it it may seem strange that
he, he seems to talk about wealth in the first section of
this chapter to his disciples in a mostly positive way, how you
can use wealth or you can use money for eternal things or the
Kingdom of God. But notice that it says in verse
13, he makes his very, very important point.
No servant can serve 2 masters. He he's talking about slaves and
that that a slave can't have two masters.
He only has one and and it's. Impossible to serve 2 masters.
For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other.
You cannot serve God and mammon. That word Mammon is just an old
English word for money or material.
Things he's saying you. Cannot be a servant to God and.
Money. Your money's supposed to be a
servant to you. You're not supposed to be
serving your money. He's telling that to his
disciples, but apparently there was another.
Crowd there that overheard the Pharisees.
You ever heard of the Pharisees? They were the religious.
Elite in their day and they were, they were very wealthy,
they were opulent, they were businessmen, they were religious
leaders. They were the types of people in
that society that like the rich man is embodying the the
Pharisee in his opulent lifestyle.
And, and we, we learn about the Pharisees from what Jesus
taught, that that much of everything they did was a show.
They looked for the applause of men.
They looked for the recognition of men.
That's why they displayed their wealth and they, and they
created this fence around the scriptures of their own rules
and their own laws so that they could essentially become the
religious authority over God. And it was no longer about the
word of God. It was about the traditions of
the elders and the, the scribes and the Pharisees and the
religious elite in their day. And as they overheard Jesus
teaching, notice it says in verse 14, and the Pharisees also
who were covetous. You know what it means to be
covetous, right? It means that you have, you have
a craving or a desire for more and more and more.
They they were materialistic, we could say.
They were covetous, they heard all these things and they
derided him, they mocked him, ha ha ha.
Ha, you hear what he's saying? Who would listen to Jesus?
Jesus says this to them. He said unto them, Ye are they
which? Justify yourselves before.
Men that they would, they would. Actually tell you how righteous
they were. They were, they were so proud.
They were so proud, so prideful that they would actually present
to the world. Look at us.
We are the gold standard. If you want to be religious, if
you want to be righteous, if you want to be right with God, just
be like us. They justified themselves.
But God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed
among men is an abomination. In the sight of God, OK.
Verse 16 is key for our text. The law and the prophets were
until John. Since that time the Kingdom of
God has preached and every man presseth.
Into it, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than
one title of the law to. Fail.
It's the. Smallest stroke in Hebrew.
He's saying all of it's going to be fulfilled, none of it's going
to be left out. God will fulfill all of His.
Word. And he says, Whosoever putteth
away his wife and marieth another committeth adultery.
Whosoever marieth her that is put away from her husband
committeth adultery so. He's going to go on through a
series of lectures. Addressing the Pharisees here,
but the very. First thing he he tells is this
story that I would say is not a parable, but a true story about
two men who really lived. And there are those in our day,
the liberal scholars and theologians who try to say, oh,
this is just a parable. This is not a literal teaching
because they want to diminish the doctrine of hell from the
Bible. And they say, well, it's not
literal flames. It's just a place of separation
and it's not a place of eternal torment.
It is a place of eternal torment and literal flames.
That's what Jesus said here and he did.
He noticed he doesn't. Call it a parable, for one
thing. You see that I need you to look
at your Bibles. To see double checked me there.
But he doesn't call it a parable and notice that he uses proper
names. Lazarus was a real person and
Abraham was a real person that really lived.
Jesus is not telling a parable here.
He's telling a literal happening to real people who literally
existed and literally died and literally went to hell and went
to and eternity in heaven. Now I'll get I'll get into that
a little bit more because Lazarus didn't technically go to
heaven. He went to Abraham's bosom.
We'll deal with that just a little bit later in the message.
But I want to make this very clear up front.
This is not just the story, this is a literal account.
Notice that he talks about a certain rich man.
This rich man is meant to embody the materialistic lifestyle of
the Pharisees, and Jesus teaches this to them.
Through this true story, we'll see that the the contrast
between these new men, two men, is a warning.
It's a warning to those who live for the pleasures of this life,
to those who live materialistic lives.
To those who put all their value in right here and right now.
Because one day right here, right now is not going to be
what it is today. This world's going to change.
Everything in this world that we live in now is transitory.
It's just. Temporary, but there is a one
final eternity that's coming and you need to prepare.
Yourself for it, friend. Verse 19 He says there was a
certain rich man. Which was?
Clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day,
he he lived a lavish and luxurious lifestyle.
We see that he lived a completely different lifestyle
than Lazarus. Did they live?
2 completely different lives on earth.
Notice that he was clothed. In purple and fine linen.
Purple was the color of royalty. It was the color of that was
very rare in. Society, it was made.
From these clam shells that they got in the Phoenician seafaring
trade. And so to get one of those
purple dyed garments was not only.
Extraordinarily expensive and extravagant.
It was a display. It was a statement.
That you would make in society. We see the trade.
Wars going on with. The the US right now and the
rest of the world. And some wouldn't call it a
trade war. Whatever you want to.
Call it tariffs and. Trade well in their day that to
to get purple, you had to get it through trade.
It was very expensive and he wore that.
He wore that not not just because it was available and it
was what he bought in the store. He wear it to make a statement
and he had that fine linen. Which probably came from India
and. Egypt, again, it was, it was
very expensive and it was a rare combination that showed that he
was wealthy, he had money and he wanted.
Everyone to know says he fared sumptuously everyday that that
ideas. That he he was continuously
feasting in luxury. I mean, it was, it was non-stop
he fared that that idea that he fared was that it was a
continual feast of. Banquets and extravagance means.
Splendid luxurious lifestyle. The rich man was was faring
sumptuously every day. But then look at the next
individual. There's certain beggar named
Lazarus which was laid at his gate.
Can I remind you that that the rich man had a gate?
That was not something that that was common in their day.
He had a gate. And Lazarus was laid there at
his gate and and Lazarus, the fact that he was laid there at
his gate, the idea is probably that he was crippled or that he
had some type of bottle bodily physical problem that he
couldn't walk or he couldn't help himself or move himself
along. So the idea was that he was
thrown there and that he was. Put there by someone else.
And so he's, he's a, he's handicapped, we might say.
And and on top of that, he has this problem with his.
With his body, he's full of sores and it says he was
desiring to be fed. With the.
Crumbs. The crumbs.
Imagine. Asking for crumbs.
How hungry are you that you just want crumbs?
So just give me the crumbs. That fell from the rich man's
table. The idea that he was desiring to
be fed does somewhat imply that he never got.
Anything. And so here we we see these two
different men. Lazarus here's at the gate, he's
full of sores and he's begging for for food.
He's begging for just a little bit of sustenance.
And then you have the rich man who is clothed in the most fine
linen and the purple, and he's fairing sumptuously every day
and he's just gorging himself constantly.
And he's totally indifferent to the needs of.
Lazarus, These dogs came and licked his sores.
I'm not. I'm not sure if that's meant to.
Show that he was being comforted by the dogs licking the sores.
That actually made it worse. But I think what we can see is
that the dogs treated Lazarus better than the rich.
Man, but one day an event happened which dramatically
changed their experience. It's an event that will happen
to you one day. They both died.
This, this experience of death, is what John Donne calls.
The great leveller, the great. Leveller It's the inevitable
appointment of death. Death brought to both of them a
great reversal of circumstances. So it came to pass in verse 22
that the beggar died. Notice it doesn't.
Say he was buried. You see that he wasn't buried.
Now I want to remind you, these were Jews and that burial was a
symbol or a token of what would come in the future, that there
would be a resurrection. That's why why, why Christians
and Jews buried, because there was an understanding that by
planting this, this dead body into the ground, that one day
new life would come. And Lazarus didn't even get that
burial. And probably to the Pharisees, I
can imagine they would think, well, if you don't get buried,
you don't get resurrected. And so they didn't they.
He didn't even get a burial. But notice what it says.
He was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.
Now I want to talk about this a little.
Bit, and I don't want to get too bogged down in this, but
Abraham's bosom is not heaven. It was it was part of what the
Old Testament called hell or the word Sheol in Hebrew, which was
2 compartments of the unsaved dead that were in the the
torment. The place of hell where there
was suffering and where there was torment, but also those that
were believers in the Messiah would be in the, in the part
called Abraham's bosom or paradise.
So you see these two having this discussion back and forth one
another, right? And there's, he says that
there's this great gulf fix. So somehow they can't get to
them. They, they can't go to the other
place. Those that are in Abraham's
bosom can't go to hell and those that are in hell can't go to
Abraham's bosom. But we understand this, that
while they're in that place of comfort, they are experiencing
bliss, comfort. Those over here are being
tormented, they're burning, they're, they're crying out for
mercy and there's, there's no mercy.
And so Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom.
Now we know this and I'm, I'm going to say this up front so we
can move on with the message that when Jesus died, was buried
and resurrected and went to heaven, that all the Old
Testament Saints that were in that place were then able to go
to heaven because Jesus put the blood on the mercy seat.
And because he died, was buried and rose again from the dead.
Now we can, we can be in the presence of God, we can, we can
actually be in the presence of God because of what Jesus did.
But at this time Jesus hadn't done his work yet.
And so those that died went to Abraham's bosom if they were
saved, if they were believers. And those that were unbelievers
who rejected God went to hell. And, and hell is a temporary
place as well, because one day it says in the Book of
Revelation that God will take all that are out of hell and
they will stand at the great white throne of judgement.
Why don't you turn there with me?
Revelation, Revelation chapter 20, verse 11, Revelation chapter
20 and verse 11. And I saw a great white throne
and him that sat on it from. Whose face the earth and heaven
fled away, and there was found no place for them.
And I saw the dead, the dead, small and great.
That rich man is going to be here.
The dead, small and great stand before God, and the books were
opened and another book was open.
Which is the book? Of life and the dead were judged
out of those things which were written in the books according
to their works. This is a judgment in which may
will be judged according to his works, but the but the whole
point of the judgment is not to determine where they're going to
go. It's to determine their level of
punishment based on what they did.
Not all sin is the same. And God records all the sins of
mankind and he will have a righteous just judgment against
all sin. And, and it says here that he's
going to judge them according to their works.
And notices that the sea gave up the dead which were in it and
death in hell. Hell delivered up the dead which
were in them. They've been in hell for however
many years, hundreds of years, thousands of years, however long
they've been there. They would be conjured up and
stand before God, and then they will be cast in the lake of fire
for all eternity. Death and Hell were cast in the
Lake of Fire. This is the second death, and
whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast
into the Lake of Fire. So those that are in Abraham's
bosom, they were able to go to heaven.
Now when a believer dies today, they're in Christ.
They go straight to the presence of the Lord.
But those that are in hell are still there.
They're they are crying out for mercy.
They're crying out in torment. They are not getting any relief
and they will never get any relief.
And one day they're going to be called up out of hell and stand
before God at the great white throne judgment.
And God is going to read to them all of their works and they will
be sentenced for eternity to the lake of fire.
This is a real thing. Wow, sobering.
So Lazarus is comforted, but I want you to see what happened to
the rich man. It came to pass.
The beggar died and was carried by the angels in Abraham's
bosom. The rich man also died.
He was buried. See that he was buried.
And in hell he lift up his eyes. It's the word Hades.
It's the it's like the underworld is what the word
terms. He woke up in hell being in
torments. That's present tense torments.
And you see, if Abraham afar off, and Lazarus, and his bosom,
he. Recognizes.
Them again, this must be literal 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. I just want to say this right up
front that this is not a revival that he's having in hell.
The rich man in his pride and in his arrogance, even as he's
there in hell, is crying out for Lazarus to serve him like he's
just his servant still. He's he's not realized yet that
you're no longer a rich man. You don't have power over people
anymore. Now you're a beggar and that's
all you're going to do for all eternity is beg and beg.
And Lazarus is not here to help you anymore.
You're the beggar now. In his.
Arrogance. And in his pride, he cries out
to Abraham to be treated like he's a rich.
Man. But he's not a rich man anymore.
He's a beggar. All he wants was the notice.
All he wanted was a drop of water.
Remember Lazarus? All he wanted was some crumbs.
What he's getting is just we have to fight the temptation to
think that. Hell is too cruel and that
somehow the righteous God of the universe has miscalculated.
By punishing people in hell, he is not miscalculated.
He's giving them exactly what they deserve.
Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth
is 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's a great Gulf fix
so that they which wouldn't pass from hence to you cannot neither
can they pass to us that would come from thence.
Now we may be tempted to think at this point in the message
that the reason that the rich man went to hell was because he
was rich, and the reason that Lazarus went to heaven was
because he begged. But that's not why I said at the
beginning of the message, there's no poverty, there's no
merit in poverty. And there's no vice in wealth.
We see in this next section exactly why.
Exactly why? They ended up this way in
eternity, he says to Abraham. Still dictating the way things
should happen as. A a proud Sinner in hell, he
said. I pray thee therefore, Father.
That that would have send him to my father's house, for I have 5
brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come
into this place of torment. You know what he said?
Could you have someone go to my family and tell them so they
won't come here? And this is what Abraham said.
Abraham saith the name. They have Moses and the.
Prophets let them hear them. God had already spoken.
Did you, did you catch that God had already spoken through the
Scriptures? He says they have the
scriptures. Let them hear them.
He said, nay, father, you see, he's still wrestling with God's
plan. He he does, he doesn't get it at
all. He says nay, father Abraham.
But if one went from unto them from the dead, they will repent.
Can I remind you that Jesus rose again from the dead and not
everyone repented. Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead
different Lazarus from this text, Lazarus from the dead.
And what did they do? They didn't repent and and say
God have mercy on our souls. They said we got to kill Lazarus
because if we don't kill Lazarus, people are going to
start believing in Jesus and then we'll lose our power.
He. Says no, you're not going to,
You're not going to change the way God's designed it if they
don't. Listen to Moses and the
prophets. They're not going to listen if
someone rises. Again, from the dead.
They hear, not Moses and the prophets.
Neither will be persuaded, though. 1 rose from the dead
there's. Listen to me this morning,
folks. There's no amount of miracles
God could do for you that will change.
If you will not respond to the eternal revelation of God's
Word, then you're not going to respond to anything else God
does, because what He's given to us is sufficient to understand
the things of God and the things of eternity and His plan for
salvation. And, and, and this is the main
truth that I want to get across to you this morning, is that
Lazarus was comforted in Abraham's bosom and the rich man
was tormented hell. Because of their.
Response to divine revelation because of how they.
Responded to the truth of the Word of God and I I'm very
concerned. This morning.
That there are a lot of people that sit in.
Church on a regular. Basis and think that they're
good with God because they're hearing scripture preached.
And taught, but they're not responding.
That's a dangerous place to be, folks.
When you get to a place where you can hear God speak and
respond negatively, So what? Yeah, that's just what the
preacher says. That's not just what the
preacher says, it's what God says.
You will spend eternity either tormented in hell or comforted
in God's presence based on how you respond to the truth of
God's Word. The gospel message is so clear,
folks. It's so clear that a child can
understand, but it's so humbling that adults often reject it.
Jesus died as a substitutionary sacrifice in the place of
sinners. I mean, upon him was placed all
the sins of the world. And and I'm not just talking
about the elect, I'm talking about all because we're not
Calvinists. We believe God died for all
people. We believe he would have all men
to be saved and that he made a way for all people to come into
the knowledge of the truth and understand the truth.
And this is what he's saying is that you have Moses.
What is Moses? Moses would be the law and the
10 commandments to show you that you have, you have not met God's
moral standard. You are a Sinner.
You are guilty before God judicially and that God as the
judge must punish you because of your sins.
But here's the message of the prophets.
The message of the prophets is that no, there's good news
because one day there's someone coming who's going to save all
mankind. He's going to die on the cross.
He's going to be buried, taking all our sins away to the grave.
Oh, but up from the grave, he's going to rise again.
And all who place their faith and trust in Him.
Will be saved. Have you done that this morning?
I can't tell you if you're saved or not.
All I can tell you is that if you've.
Placed your faith. And trust in Jesus Christ and if
you've repented of your sins. You're saved on the authority.
Of the Word of God, not the preacher.
But if you've never done that, my friend, you are in danger of
eternal torment in hell and then in the lake of fire.
So if you're if you're not born again this morning, the
application to you is clear. You need to get saved.
You need to place your faith in Jesus Christ.
You need to turn from everything else in this world that you're
trusting in, the materialism or other gods or whatever it is,
and you need to place your faith in Jesus Christ.
That's your only hope. But I I see a lot of great
application here for Bible believing Christians who come to
church every week. Don't you?
Because we can. We can be so materialistic.
We can be like the rich man in a sense to where we live, like
there is no eternity coming. God preached this to me first
before He had me preach it to you.
Because we can live and go about our lives like good Americans
and go to the grocery store and go to the restaurants and do
what we want to do with our lives and not be a witness to
people and not give ourselves to telling people about this very
important message. Because we don't want to be
accused of being radical or we don't want to be accused of
being a fire and brimstone preachers.
You don't need to be a fire and brimstone preacher.
You just give them a track, just be a witness.
Tell people about what Jesus did for you.
Tell people about about the hope that he has for their souls.
But but please listen to this. Your family that's not saved are
going to go to hell if they're not saved.
Your Co workers, those people that you, that you live next to
your neighbors, every person is going to face eternity.
What are you going to do as a Christian?
Are you going to live in light of these two eternal realities?
Or are you going to buy into some?
Of the ideas that are out there. Well, it's all kind of the same
Muslims. Are sincere, probably more
sincere than most of us this morning, but they're going to
hell because they're placing their faith and trust.
Outside of Jesus Christ, Catholics are sincere.
They are. I was one.
God saved me at 18 years old as an altar boy out of Catholicism
through the power of the gospel message.
But they're lost. They need a savior.
And those who just they, they don't have any.
Concern. They're indifferent.
One day they're going to face eternity folks.
So I want to I want to leave the message with you at this point
that you would consider. How am I living in light of
these two? Eternal realities and is.
There is there a need for me to perhaps get more serious?
About my Christian faith. Or, and I, and I can just say
this as I, as I minister Grace Bible Baptist Church in
Connecticut and I've, I've heard people talk and, and you know,
we, we go out on visitation and I've, I've seen this and, and
I'm not accusing anyone in particular.
I myself can be subject to this, but this idea, oh, we have to go
out and knock on people's doors. That's so inconvenient to my
schedule. Not in light of eternity.
Not in light. Of an eternal hell to give a
person a track to knock on their door, to talk to them for a few
minutes. It's really not a lot to ask, is
it? And I want to remind you, it's
not your pastor asking you to do it.
It's God asking. You to do it because the Great
Commission is not an option to be considered.
It's a. Command to be obeyed.
So I'm going. To ask that you stand with me
and as we prepare for invitation.
Would would you? Would you seriously consider
this message? Not because I'm.
Preaching it. Because it's God's word.
Would you? Seriously consider your part in
reaching souls for eternity. Would you seriously consider if
you yourself? Have made this decision to trust
Christ as Savior and if not, I want to encourage you today.
You can. You can get right with God
today. Thank you for listening to this
sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.
If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we
can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at
info@mylibertybaptist.org. Or you can visit us this Sunday
at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.
May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.