Rich Man & Lazarus

I wanted to warn you that some of our message today is dealing with hell, and I'm pretty warm already. So, excuse me if I don't wear my jacket. Take your Bibles, if you will, and turn to Luke 16. Luke 16, starting in verse 19. Verse 19. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day, and at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.

Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by angels, carried by the angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, He lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.

For I am in anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things. and Lazarus in like manner bad things. But now he is comforted here. And you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able and none may cross from there to us And he said then I beg you Father to send him to my father house for I have five brothers so that he may warn them lest they also come into this place of torment.

But Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And the rich man said, No, Father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. Let's pray.

Father open our hearts today to receive your word to remember the gospel is the power of God for salvation to those who believe and Father we're thankful for that word that condemns yet most of all Father forgives and blesses So help us be reminded of that today as we look for these next few minutes at your word. Pray these things in Christ's name. Amen.

I knew I was going to be preaching four months ago at least. It's always hard for me to come up with something that I think I can preach on and that is good for everybody to hear and would bring glory to God. And I was struggling. I had four or five topics. I just couldn't nail them down. and while I was sitting there reading one night, Nancy called and said, hey, turn on channel whatever it was.

We get quite a few Christian channels, so-called Christian channels on our TV. And they was playing a video of this very parable. And it was word for word. They showed it. I mean, they add a little thing just to make it, you know, I guess more convincing, even though you shouldn't need more convincing than what's in here. But it really is a compelling video about this rich man and what happened to him after he left this earth And I thought man this is it But sometimes I think I bit off more than I can chew but we going to look at it here today Notice, this is a parable told by Jesus, one of many that he spoke, and I'm sure one that most of us have heard countless times. again Jesus taught in many parables which are simple word pictures with profound spiritual lessons one pastor described them as that they hid the truth from self-righteous self-satisfied people who fancied themselves too sophisticated to learn from him while the same parables revealed truth to eager souls with childlike faith, those who were hungering and thirsting for righteousness.

So let's see what profound spiritual lesson Jesus is teaching to those listening to him then and to us here today. You know, this parable is a little different than most of them in that Jesus uses actual names of people in this parable compared to, like in Luke 13, he'll say a certain man, or Matthew 21, a certain landowner, or in Luke 10, a certain priest, and there's many others as well. And he calls the poor man Lazarus.

And he also uses Abraham, which was and is a real person. The rich man is not given a name. Let's look at the different lives lived by Lazarus and the rich man. Again, verse 19. There is a rich man who clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. Now remember, this is Jesus talking.

He's describing this rich man as clothed in purple, fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. If you remember, purple was a symbol of royalty. In the book of Judges, purple garments are the clothing of kings. So he was dressed in the best money could buy this rich man Every day not just once a year or twice a year every day this man dressed this way And the verse also says that he feasted or ate sumptuously every day. lavish, luxurious meals.

You know, maybe Thanksgiving meal we'd get once a year. Maybe he had it every day. He must have. So he lived a joyous living every day because he could afford to. So he was probably highly influential in the community, in synagogue. People probably looked up to him.

This man had it all here. And he must have also had the knowledge of God, the covenants and laws of God. And he knew who Abraham was. How did we know that? It says so later in the scripture. He recognized Abraham, the father of the Jewish nation.

Then we see the beggar. Let's look at the beggar, Lazarus. how does Jesus describe this man? He's completely opposite of the rich man. Jesus says he was covered with sores, poor, hungry, and he's laid at the gate of the rich man's estate every day begging for scraps of food from his table. He couldn't walk. Evidently he couldn't walk.

They had to carry him. Destitute, probably shunned and humiliated, by those that passed by him. Probably repulsive to them. Received no help. In the video, I don't mean to take the video as truth, but they showed the rich man walking by this Lazarus begging for food. And Lazarus reached up, touched the man's cloak, the purple cloak.

The man immediately ripped it off and gave it to a servant and said, Go burn this. That's the kind of disrespect this man showed to this poor beggar. Couldn't walk, repulsive to those around him, received no help, and it Matters worse, the dogs came and licked his sores. Is that humiliating or what? Maybe it gave him some relief. I don't know.

But it's repulsive, you know. And when you think of the dogs here, they're talking about, they're not talking about our cuddly little poodles that sit on our laps and wear ribbons in their hair. These were street mongrels looking for food to eat just like this poor man was doing. So the one man had all he wanted. The other man had nothing. The rich man had all he wanted in a life.

He had a life of ease. But he lived only for himself. And as the beggar lies at the gate of the rich man, the picture shows utter disregard of the rich man for the poverty-stricken man. laying there in the street. A rich man, self-absorbed, self-centered, self-indulgent. Now Jesus told many parables in this and two in hearing shot of the Pharisees. Mostly directed at them, I do believe.

A lot of them were. We see that in the parable of the dishonest manager in 14 and 15 of this chapter where it says Pharisees who were lovers of money heard all these things that Jesus said, heard his parables, and they ridiculed him. Not only did they love money, they were prideful and wanted to be seen by men, self-righteous, hypocritical, prideful. but I'm sure the Pharisees when they heard this parable listened to how Jesus described the rich man probably thought this wealthy man was extremely blessed by God and the poor destitute despicable man begging in the street was cursed by God and worthy of hell just the opposite I'm reminded of another parable in Luke 18 if you want to turn there real quickly based on verse 9.

He told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous Pharisees and treated others with contempt Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus, God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week.

I give pies of all that I get. but the tax collector standing far off would not even lift his eyes to heaven but he beat his breast saying God be merciful to me a sinner. I tell you this man went down to his house justified rather than the other for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled but the one who humbles himself will be exalted. we've looked at these two men's lives in just these two verses. Now we're going to look at their deaths.

Verse 22 and 23. Back in Luke 16. The poor man died and was carried by angels to Abraham's side. The rich man also died and was buried. Stop right there for a minute. Look at the difference of their deaths.

The poor starving beggar dies, was carried by angels to Abraham's side. a poor Jewish man Lazarus who would not have been buried he probably wasn't even buried in a tomb he may not have even been buried at all he could have been thrown outside on the city dump where they burn the garbage of the city every day we don't know all that we do know one thing he was carried by the angels to heaven he was a believer we don't we don't see that in this scripture until we see he was carried to heaven by the angels a man who suffered probably his whole life we don know disregarded spit upon He still believed in God He still believed in Christ Even though, you know, I get so tired of hearing preachers preaching prosperity gospel. Saying that God wants his people rich and wealthy and healthy. I don't see it in this parable.

He's rich in Christ. Isn't that all we need? So he's in heaven. And it says he was welcomed there by who? Abraham. The text says to Abraham's side or his bosom, which means he was welcomed into the fellowship of other believers already in heaven, particularly Abraham Father Abraham and now he was sitting at a place of honor far cry from his life on earth a place in heaven a home already prepared for him he's there you know Paul tells us in 2 Corinthians to be absent from the body he believes we're instantly with God or instantly in heaven with God.

So when we die, we're instantly in hell or instantly our spirits are instantly in heaven. Hell or instantly in heaven, right? There's no time in between. He says this in 2 Corinthians 5, 7, For we walk by faith, not by sight. Yes, we are of good courage and would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. So he is telling the Corinthians here that when he dies, he expects to immediately be in the presence of the Lord.

And all believers as well. So that's what happened to Lazarus. And what did Lazarus do to gain his salvation? We don't know. one thing we do know, he had to have believed in God and his promises and he had to walk by faith he had to believe by faith Even though it doesn say that in this parable we know it true because he there He's carried there by the angels.

Now let's compare his death to the rich man. Verse 22, the rich man also died and was buried. and in Hades, or hell, being in torment. Here the rich man who had probably had, of course we know he had all the resources to have a fine funeral. Everybody probably attended, his friends, his family, the best tomb money could buy. But this was the last place or time his wealth was going to be of any use to him. for now he was in torment, eternal torment.

What an ironic twist in the story of these two men. The rich man who had all the earthly advantages and fortunes of life on earth but never offered to help the beggar lying next to the gate of his mansion each and every day. Now he was the one humiliated and abandoned without hope. Now he's begging for relief. and how does the rest of this verse go verse 23 and in Hades being in torment he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side and he called out Father Abraham have mercy on me said Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in anguish in this flame.

Here he's still kind of treating Lazarus as a subservient to him, you know, lower than him. He wants Lazarus to come to him and bring him relief. Opposite ends. So Lazarus, who wanted only breadcrumbs from the rich man's table. Let me stop for a minute. You know, I read where back in those days the bread was a main thing on the table, not only to eat, but, you know, they ate with their hands.

They would use the bread to wipe their hands. hands, dirty, filthy hands, on that bread to dry them off. And, you know, it would make crumbs. Just sweep them off the floor. That's what Lazarus wanted. You know, can you imagine that? He was begging just for them dirty crumbs.

The rich man disregarded. But now he has received a place of honor in heaven. and the rich man who had everything never showed mercy or compassion to lazarus jesus taught we read it in the in the reading of the law today blessed are the merciful for they shall receive mercy there was no love in the rich man's heart there was no mercy toward the needy you know it's a reminder to believers to us believers here in first john well let me turn it real real quickly first john 2 no it's not first john 2 it's first john 3 i do believe first john 3 16 but by this we know love that he laid down his life for us and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers but if anyone has the world's goods and sees his brother in need yet closes his heart against him how does god's love abide in him little children love us let us love not love in word or talk but indeed in truth that's a lesson for us here believers we have what the world's goods and refuse to share them with those that need it? Do we really have the love of God in our heart?

Think about that. We can talk about love, talk about it in word or talk, but do we show it in deed and truth? Just a little side note there. Back to the text. Those who show no mercy will themselves receive none. which brings us to the first major point. It's a long way to go to this first major point, but the first major point of about three.

Hell is a real place Hell is a real place Now it not pleasant to preach about hell It not pleasant to sit out there and hear about hell You know, I like Andy Griffith's show. I mean, I shouldn't throw this in here, but Andy Griffith's... There's an episode where a traveling... not a traveling, but a guest speaker, a guest pastor comes. You've probably seen it, those of you who know who Andy Griffith is.

Came to the little town of Mayberry to preach in this church, okay? So he gets up to preach, and he's got a real low voice, real solemn, low voice. And he's talking about, you know, living life easy. Don't be in a hurry. Life's too fast. Sit back and enjoy.

Enjoy your life. Don't be in a hurry. It's much too fast here. And, of course, the people is out there going to sleep. Barney was going to sleep, and he had to keep nudging him in his eye. But the funny thing is, after the sermon, which they don't show all of it.

That's a good thing. Anyway, after the sermon, they're walking out the door shaking hands with this pastor, and Barney comes up to him and says, Pastor, that was a great sermon. you can never speak enough about sin. Everybody looked at it. He didn't preach about sin today. Barney slept through it. You know that.

But the point is, a lot of places don't preach sin. They don't preach hell. You know, I don't know all of your hearts today, but I'm sure there are some here that have never ever come to the point of where they need Jesus Christ. And we know the end of that, of never coming to Christ, is hell. It needs to be taught once in a while. We teach it here.

Tim preaches the word every week. He always, always preaches the gospel in some way every Sunday. Many places don't do that. They want their ears tickled. They want to hear what's pleasing to them. They don't want to hear the true word.

Okay? So real quickly, we're going to talk about hell for a few minutes. And who's telling this story? Jesus. Do you think He knows what hell is about Hell is not what the world thinks it is or hopes it is People like to joke about it, paint pictures in their minds what they think it's like, if it even exists. And you've heard them say, you know, I don't mind going there, my friends are going to be there.

That's a stupid thing to say. and again Jesus is telling this terrible this parable Jesus himself God in the flesh and he describes hell to us in his word his word is truth we can believe what he says his word is truth we can't change it to fix our lifestyles or add to it to excuse our sin it's God inspired unchanging absolute truth so when Jesus describes hell we know it's true and how does he describe it in this passage verses 28 and 23 a place of torment verse 24 he's so thirsty he wants something to drink he'll never receive it he'll never get relief it's unquenchable thirst forever and ever People think, well, if I go to hell, I'll suffer, then I'll die. No, you'll never die. You'll always suffer.

The worm never dies. So we've got to get that out of our heads. Those of you who think it's just going to be a temporary place where God's finally going to take us out, no more worry. No, it's not going to end. We all try to think of eternity. We can't.

I can't imagine what eternity is because everything on this world and this earth is temporary. There's an end to everything. Think about eternity. Everybody's going to go through eternity forever, either one place or the other. You've got to think about that once in a while. At least I think about it all the time.

Okay. So it's a place of torment, fire, unquenchable thirst. he begs for water to have relief. Jesus also says, I think he quotes Isaiah 66 I'll have to turn there. I forgot what it says real quick. Isaiah 66, verse 24. and they shall go out and look on the dead bodies of the men who have rebelled against me, for their worm shall not die, their fire shall not be quenched, and they shall be an abhorrence to all flesh.

I guess I did hit that one. But that's a description of hell. Also in Revelation 14, hell is eternal. The wicked are not annihilated and put out of existence at death. There's no end. Okay, we got that.

We all understand that. We also heard people say, my God would never send anyone to hell. Have anybody ever heard that before? You know why? Because they don't know the true God. such a statement is possible only if you ignore all that the Bible has to say and just impose your own thoughts on the subject. This attitude is responsible for what is possibly the greatest sin a person can commit, reduce God to terms that are acceptable to us.

We can't do that. We can't alter God. He never changes. I listened to R.C. Sproul say one thing about the water on your finger to give relief to the rich man he said, in fact his professor was preaching on this subject he said the sinner in hell would give everything he had and do everything he could to make the number of his sins of his life one less just to get one ounce less of torment.

Picture that. Okay? There's no relief. So why is a rich man here? Because he was wealthy? Because he was rich?

Is that why he's in hell? No. You know, Justin read for us in 1 Timothy, the verse we are all so familiar with, the love of money is the root of all evil. Not money in itself. The love of putting money before God. Now let's even take money out of the equation.

Anything. that takes your allegiance and puts it before God is an idol. It's idol worship. It draws us away from God. Anything, you know, we could take sports. We could take your job. I know we've got to have jobs, but is that the most important thing in your life?

Does it take away from your family, your wife? Does it keep you at work 16 hours a day, weekends? think about it anything in life not just money but money is the love of money is the big culprit we've got many verses that say that and I'm not going to go through them all and remember Abraham was one of the richest men that ever lived his cattle his silver and gold he was a wealthy wealthy man but he believed God right and was counted him as righteousness. He believed God.

And another story. What about Joseph? You ever remember Joseph of Arimathea? Came to take the body of Christ and to bury him in his tomb. You know, his tomb was a special tomb. Had to be hewn in rock in a certain way, certain kind of rock, and the boulder to cover the tomb was made a certain way and it was only made by the people that had money to have it made that way.

But Joseph, or just Joseph, man, was also a member of the Sanhedrin, but he did not go along with the rest of the group that, you know, was for putting Christ to death and didn't believe Christ. Joseph was a man of God. Joseph had money. So money in and of itself is not bad. It how we treat it So a heart that loves money is a heart that pens its hopes and pursues its pleasures and puts its trust in what human resources can offer.

So the love of money is virtually the same as faith in money. Okay, enough about money. And also, I can't go without saying this. if you're serving money you can't serve God you cannot serve two masters you cannot serve two masters either you'll hate one or you're going to hate the other so he's not there because he's wealthy the rich man he didn't believe he had good things in life he had what he had chosen he could have spent time with the things of God delighted in his word.

He could have given aid to Lazarus. So, let's go back to Luke 16. After he says, remember child, you received the good things in your life and Lazarus bad things. Now he's comforted here and you're in anguish. Besides this, between us is a great chasm that has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able to and none may cross from there to us.

A fixed chasm. Final. It's the end. There's no going back. There's no crossing over. He had his chance.

It's too late. It's an unbridgeable gap. And now here he is begging, begging Abraham for relief. You know, it's not like court. It's not like you're going to get a second chance. You can't go to a court of appeals to get yourself out of hell.

No, it's not going to happen. Okay, there's a great chasm there. Even if Joseph wanted to go help him, he couldn't. Okay. So what's the rich man's next appeal? He finally realizes he there There nothing he can do about it So what he asking Abraham to do He says in verse 27, I beg you, Father, send Lazarus to my house.

Again, he's looking at Lazarus, still looking at Lazarus as a servant to him. He said, I beg you, Father, to send Lazarus to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment. So his brothers come into the picture. And what does Abraham say to that request? He said, No, Father Abraham. No, excuse me, that's the wrong one.

Abraham said they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. What's he mean by that? What's he mean by that? They have everything they need to know about salvation. They have the whole Old Testament.

They have all 39 books of the Old Testament. They have the prophets. What did the prophets preach? You need to repent. There will be a Savior that will take your sins. Their sins can be forgiven and remembered no more, buried in the deepest sea.

All that. They had the prophets or the five brothers and the rich man all had the knowledge of who God was. They had Moses. What about what Moses went through? Moses, the Red Sea, the ten plagues, everything that happened through Moses from God. They knew all about this.

But still they said, no, it's not for us. They had all they needed. But they still had to believe in faith, what the Scriptures say. The rich man thought there was another way to save his brothers as we look on to the next part. Before that, I want you to just name a few things here. The Old Testament.

You can learn in the Old Testament They could have learned in the Old Testament to heed God word and understand it Everything they needed to know about the true God is there Their own sinfulness and the need to repent. You see that in Ezekiel. They could have learned the truth of salvation by grace alone, by faith, through faith. God offers complete forgiveness of sin and escape from judgment and his wrath and his condemnation.

They could have learned there was coming a sacrifice, a Messiah, a Savior, that would crush the head of Satan and provide redemption for his people. They could have learned all of that. They could have believed that. But they didn't. And you know what? What's he asked for next? for his brothers.

After he says, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them, which they didn't, the man said, no. He refuses the word of God. He refuses God and everything the Bible says about God. He refuses that. That's not enough for him. It's not enough for his brothers.

But if someone goes from them to the dead, they will repent. He said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. So, today, what do people think? Are they still looking for a sign? Are they still looking for someone to come back? Will Jesus come back from the dead?

They still don't believe him. when Jesus raised Lazarus from the grave? What did they plot to do after? They plotted to kill Jesus. They didn't want people to believe what he had done. They plotted even later to kill Lazarus to take away the proof that he had been brought back to life. And what about when Jesus rose from the dead?

They conspired to cover up his resurrection to deny it even happened, to cover it with a lie. They've hardened their hearts toward God. John MacArthur says, miracles, no matter how great they may be, have no special power to convince those who reject the message. Scripture, the message itself, according to Romans 1.16, is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes.

That's all you need. The signs are in the Bible. The Word is in the Bible. You don't need anything else. so if you're here today and you're looking for a sign to repent turn to God and believe by faith in Christ are you waiting for a sign well you know if God will bring down a bolt of lightning in front of me when I'm driving that will be a sign to me that God's really up there and I need to believe in him you don't need that sign you got God's word?

Or what if, you know, if you're going through a difficult time, your sickness, you may have a terrible disease and you think, I've never prayed before, but God, if you'll get me through this, I will believe in you. I believe you are who you say you are. I will repent. No, that won't happen. It usually doesn't happen. You know, I've seen people during this COVID thing come back to church for a while.

Those that had even had a bad case that would come, they're here for a while, they're gone. You know, it woke them up for a while. Didn't stay. It didn't stick. They're not willing. Now, maybe another sign will come to earth.

They think a sign, they'll come back. What do they need? The promise of the Word of God. Maybe you're here today and you say, yeah, I'm not good enough yet. I've got to make things right. I've got so much baggage and bad things in my life.

God could never forgive me for this. That the time He will forgive you for that Don wait until you better As we just sang a few minutes ago if you tarry if you linger you never come at all Come. You know God's going to forgive you for whatever it is you've done. You can't clean yourself up. If you can, it'd be a work salvation, right? You wouldn't need God if you could clean yourself up.

God does that for you. Christ has done that for you. remember a sign in the scriptures in Romans Romans 10 we're all sinners we've all sinned we've all fallen short of the glory of God there's no one righteous not one but there is one who is righteous who became our righteousness by going to the cross you know even this was spoken to prophets of old 700 years before at least Christ even came to earth you can believe the word the prophets what they prophesied happened we can believe God's word everything we need to know to receive salvation to be forgiven even to live godly righteous lives is in the scriptures that's the second point where he talked about it the second point of this parable God's word is sufficient for all things of course it's sufficient to save us from our from hell and it's also sufficient for us to live our daily lives the word God's word is sufficient Okay, I know most of us here are all believers. We know there's a hell.

We know there's a heaven. We know God Word is sufficient What are we supposed to do with this message What the application for us as believers in this word Teach it. Teach it to your children. Teach it to your children's children. Teach it to your friends, your co-workers, or loved ones that you know of that are not believers in Christ. We're instructed to teach the Word of God as I just said in Deuteronomy 6, 7.

And these words I command you that today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children. You shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, when you lie down, when you rise. Teach them to your children. Be an example to your neighbors of who Christ is. Do they see a hope for Jesus, a hope for eternal life, a hope for a Savior in the way you live next to them?

Even without, before you share the Scripture with them, do they see that in your life? take that opportunity to talk to them about scriptures God's people are the light of the world the kingdom life within them is a living testimony to the ones who yet have the light are you living a life pleasing to God showing hope to the unsaved again Romans 10 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved. How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him who they have never heard?

And how are they to hear without someone preaching? So this parable though as a warning that hell is a real place and what it like it's also a lesson about the sufficiency of God's word. And it's also a plea for all who hear to take the message of the Bible seriously. because it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes. Let's pray. Father, we're so thankful for your word.

The power of salvation for all who believe. Let us look nowhere else, Father. let us always be conformed to you to your word to grow to nurture your word to learn it so that we can share it to an unsaved world Father we all have family and friends that are right now out of your grace in need of your salvation in need to repent oh God help us to go to them we know that we can't save them but we know Father through your word presenting the word that is what will convict their hearts let us be diligent to do that and to remember your words that we're going to sing about next Father your ancient words long preserved for us in this world. Words that save.

Words that brings us to You. May we always trust in Your Holy Scriptures as our only hope in Jesus Christ. We pray these things in His name. Amen. Thank you.