May we turn in our Bibles to Luke
chapter 16, please.
The 16th chapter of the gospel of Luke,
beginning with verse 19.
Luke 16, 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
swords, desiring to be fed with the crumbs
which fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover the dogs came and licked his sword.
And it came to pass that the beggar
died, and was carried by the angels into
Abraham's bosom.
But the rich man also died and was
buried.
And in hell, or Hades, he lift up
his eyes, being in torment, 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 thing, and likewise
Lazarus' evil thing.
But now he is comforted, and thou art
tormented.
And 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 sense.
Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father,
that thou wouldst 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 said unto him, They have Moses and
the prophet.
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 prophet, neither will they
be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
Shall we look to the Lord again in
a word of prayer?
Our Father, we pray thee that thy Holy
Spirit will brood in this meeting tonight.
We pray thee that he will speak to
hearts still outside of Christ.
We pray thee for a true Holy Ghost
conviction of sin.
We pray thee that for that desperation which
only thou canst produce, O God, we pray
thee that some might bow at the feet
of the Lord Jesus Christ and own him
to be Lord and Savior.
We think tonight of unsaved loved ones.
Lord, what a burden.
What a burden on thy heart, but what
a burden on our heart as well.
We think of those near and dear to
us, those with whom we live every day,
and yet if Christ should come tonight, it
would be the eternal separation of which we
have read in this portion of Scripture.
O Lord, we pray thee that souls might
do business with thee in great waters tonight.
We pray thee that thy great name will
be magnified in the sounds of the Savior's
worthy name.
Earlier this year, some of our students were
praying and talking over eternal things in the
dormitory of our school, and God met with
them in a very special way.
It wasn't a great crowd of them, just
a few as a matter of fact, a
few fellows.
And they were pondering Scriptures like the Scripture
that we have before us tonight.
The fact of hell.
And they said to one another, you know,
if we really believed that, our lives wouldn't
be the way they are.
They said, if we really believed that, that
a soul that dies without the Lord Jesus
Christ is doomed and damned forever and ever,
we wouldn't hold on to material things when
those material things could be used in the
salvation of souls.
And they went and they opened the door
to their closets and they looked in the
closets and they saw a lot of things
they didn't need, these fanatics.
And they said, God forbid that there should
ever be anything hanging in our closets that
would stand between a soul and eternal life.
And you know what those dear fellows did?
Well, they had a rummage sale.
The ones that I know about, I heard
that they got down to two suits and
two pairs of shoes and just the bare
minimum essentials really.
And they sold the rest.
And you know, some of the dear students
started coming in and picking up some first
class bargains.
And they went back to their rooms with
their newly acquired loot.
And then it began to prey on their
minds.
And they said, well, look, what are we
doing accumulating things if it's true that souls
are dying without Christ?
Jesus said, forsake, not accumulate.
And you know, before those students got through,
there was a spare room in the dormitory
that was filled.
At the end of one or two weeks,
I know that they were able to send
$200 across the ocean to a certain country
where there are some young people who are
really engaged in carrying the battle to the
front lines of the enemy.
But that isn't what I started off to
tell you.
After they got all through, they still had
about a roomful of materials left.
And so they were going to take some
down in Oak Park.
And they didn't have a car, shoes, and
suits.
And so we were going down.
And one of these young fellows was in
the car with me.
And he said to me, Mr. McDonald, he
said, the story of the rich man in
hell in Luke 16.
And I said to him, yes, Larry.
He said, Jesus told that story 1900 years
ago.
He said, would it be correct to say?
He said, but some people just say it
was apparent.
What he was doing was just leaving the
back door open in case I wanted.
And what that young fellow was saying to
me was this, Mr. McDonald, if this is
true, if the story of the rich man
in hell is true, if it's true that
he's still there, and if it's true that
he hasn't served a second of his sentence,
it's about time we started getting desperate.
I believe there are two subjects in connection
with the gospel that Satan hates with all
his heart.
One of them is the fact of hell.
The other is the fact of Christ.
And mind you, in evangelical circles today, I
find that these two subjects are being soft
-pedaled.
Sophisticated society doesn't talk so much about hell
today.
You want to preach the love of God,
you know, and woo people by love.
But you don't want to offend them and
preach about a never-burning hell.
And then as far as the subject of
the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ is
concerned, it's absolutely appalling how this subject has
been downgraded in recent years.
But I'm impressed as I turn to the
sacred word of God that it's the Lord
Jesus himself who tells us more about hell
than we would otherwise know.
It's the lovely Lord Jesus, the one full
of grace and truth, who gave us this
true account of the rich man in hell.
Just think of that.
Told by the Son of God.
And mind you, I think that adds significance
to it when we think that he came
into the world to save men and women
and boys and girls from ever going to
that place.
You know, people don't think it's very important
today.
People can take a very light attitude toward
it today.
But I want to tell you, the Savior
of the Bible didn't take a light attitude
toward it.
It cost him all he had.
It cost him his life, his very blood
to save men from the pit.
I'd like to look at it with you
tonight just briefly.
I think first of all it's of tremendous
interest to us because of the contrast that
we have here.
You have a tremendous contrast here between riches
and poverty.
Just think of this rich man who said
he fared sumptuously every day.
Anything that heart could desire, he had it.
If he had just gone over to the
window of his front room one day and
pulled back the drapes, if he had just
looked down to the gate, down to the
front gate where he was living, he could
have seen Lazarus there.
Lazarus, a beggar, a little known as far
as this world is concerned, a man whose
body was covered with sores, and apparently he
was in quite a helpless condition, and the
compassionate God came and licked his sore.
That was his day.
What a picture.
Riches and poverty.
You'd never guess from the outward appearance who
was going to end up in Abraham's bosom
and who was going to end up in
hell, would you?
It isn't exactly the way men would paint
the picture.
But I see something else behind those riches
and that poverty, and that is this.
And incidentally that man never went to hell
because he was rich.
And Lazarus never went to heaven because he
was poor.
There was something else that lay behind that,
and that's this.
That rich man, when you say it, doesn't
say that in the passage.
No, it doesn't have to say it in
the passage.
It's all there behind the black and white.
Because this is the crucial issue.
This is the issue, and this is why
souls are doomed for all eternity, because they
fail to put their trust.
And this rich man, like many other rich
men down through the history of the ages,
his trust was in his riches.
Pray?
Why should he pray?
He didn't need anything.
At least he thought he did.
He had everything he wanted.
All he wanted to happen to him was
to be left alone, that's all.
And I suppose if you had tried to
witness to him and tell him about the
Savior, who would save him from sin, he
wouldn't be interested.
Probably slam the door in your face if
you ever got that.
His trust was in material things.
And of course the tragic part of this
was that there came a time in his
life when he needed something or someone.
The tragedy was that the very thing he
trusted.
This is true no matter what men and
women are trusting in tonight.
If it isn't the Savior, if it isn't
the Lord Jesus, the moment you need it
most, that moment is the moment when you
go to meet God.
Then I see something else here.
I see the contrast between nearness and distance.
It says the beggar lay at his gate.
Boy, that's pretty near, isn't it?
Here are two people so close together, and
one who found faith.
That's what makes me think of a lot
of families.
Families
represent...
You can be awfully close in a
saved wife, sharing the things of life, a
Christian mother and father, an unsaved boy or
an unsaved girl.
So close.
So close in life.
Mind you, many home ties are very, very
close.
And yet it says in eternity there was
a great...
You could hardly think of greater nearness in
a sense in this life, and yet in
eternity.
And notice how the scripture handles it.
It says in verse 22, It came to
pass that the beggar died and was carried
by the angel into Abraham's bosom.
And it says the rich man also died
and was buried.
This interests me.
The Spirit of God gives Lazarus...
And mind you, that wasn't exactly the way
it was when they died.
When that poor beggar died, I hoped that
maybe they did.
What kind of a casket do you think
he was buried in?
What kind of an embalming process do you
think they go through?
I have no reason to think that conditions
were different in that day than they are
today, and I have no doubt that they
were able to...
The Spirit of God knows how to describe
it.
He says that Lazarus died, the beggar died,
and was carried by the angel into Abraham's
bosom.
Simple narrative.
With regard to the rich man, it said
the rich man also died and was buried.
You know, the restraint of scripture is wonderful.
It really is.
The Bible, in an emotional way, the
Spirit of God didn't do it.
He lifts up his eyes.
You know, in just a moment of time,
the tables were reversed.
The one who was rich, the one that
was poor, and
that Lazarus was rich for all eternity.
You know, I'm impressed as I read this
narrative of this man in hell, seeing Abraham
afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, and
of the conversation that went on between them.
I'm impressed by this fact that there was
no change in that man.
You know, I've heard people say, and I
think I've said it myself.
If I did, I was wrong.
I think I've heard people say that this
man became an evangelist in hell.
He wanted somebody to go and tell his
five brethren so that they wouldn't come into
this place of torment.
But dear friends, he didn't become an evangelist.
You say, why didn't he?
Well, there was no essential change in his
character.
All that man in hell was a saint.
Not a single mention of faith in the
Lord, or of redemption on the ground of
sin.
This man's character was untamed.
As the tree falls, there are those today
who speak of the purifying, to
be that same person, unpurged from sin.
That will be one of the torments.
Mind you, he did acknowledge Abraham.
He called Abraham Father.
And you know, a lot of people in
the world today are willing to do that.
They're willing to do that.
They're willing to call somebody else Father.
Anybody but God.
But there he was.
There he was, and his doom was fixed.
And he's crying out for somebody, first of
all, to go and dip his finger in
water and cool his tongue, he says, because
I am tormented in this place.
Now, I know that people today read this
portion of Scripture, and they raise all kinds
of theological arguments there.
How can a disembodied soul have a tongue?
Dear friends, the Lord Jesus never spoke these
words to excite theological arguments.
He quoted these words.
He spoke these words because of a true
man, or a woman, or a boy.
He really thought of the reality of hell.
Of that terrible eternity of torment apart from
Christ.
And of the fact that a person can
be saved from that.
And that it's a free gift.
Not something you work for, but something that
you receive as a gift.
And that you're going to have it in
a moment of time, I say, if a
person really thought about it, really thought about
it, and used his God-given intellect, and
exercised his faith in the Lord Jesus, God
has blinded hearts that he doesn't want people
to think about this.
You say, well, a man did want somebody
to go and tell his five brethren so
that they wouldn't come to this.
Well, that's true.
I don't see that that indicated any change
in his character.
He could have been like that on earth,
and still be a fool.
Notice verse 26.
It says, Besides all this, between us and
you there is a great gulf fixed, that
they which pass from hence to you cannot,
neither can they pass to us, which would
come from sin.
What does that mean?
Well, it means here is Abraham's bosom, the
place of blessing, heaven itself, and here is
hell.
And there's a great gulf fixed between the
two.
And it says that they which are up
there, they can't pass there.
It says that they which would pass from
hence to you cannot.
And those where you are, they can't pass
there.
Did you ever stop to think, why would
any, it says that they
which would pass from hence, that is from
here, to you, those
believers, why
should we believe that there are
no more evangelistic appeals going from heaven?
What I think the thought was that even
if they, even if they could, they wouldn't
be, even if they would.
He said, they have Moses.
What does that mean?
Well, it means that if you've gone into
the living room of their home, you'd have
probably.
But anyway, it's a certainty that those five
brothers had a copy.
There it was, and it was in their
home.
And Abraham said to them, look, they have
a copy of the sacred.
Those scriptures contain a way of salvation.
All they have to do is open the
Bible and read it.
Oh, the man, he still had his arguments
at his knees.
And he said, no, no, no, no.
And he said, if something supernatural, something spectacular,
if somebody would just rise from the dead,
then they'd believe.
And the answer came back, and he said,
no, he said, if they hear not Moses
and the prophet, neither will they be persuaded.
The one should rise.
You know, that's a calm thing.
What does that mean?
It means that God is going to hold
men and women and boys.
You know, the Bible teaches, and teaches very
consistently, that the difficulty in belief does not
lie in the human mind.
It doesn't lie in the human intellect.
People say, they don't say that twice a
minute.
They say, I wish I could believe.
I'd give anything if I could believe like
you.
They don't say it twice a minute.
Jesus told the men of his day, it
is not, it is not, it's not a
matter of convincing the intellect.
It's completely a matter of his will.
He said, ye search the scriptures because ye
think that in them ye have eternal life.
These are they that testify of me, and
ye will not come unto me.
You don't want to come unto me.
That gives you an insight into the same
thing.
I want to say that to any who
are here tonight.
The reason you're not, and
there's absolutely no use to say, well, if
I saw this, if I had that miracle
presented, some supernatural, no, no, no.
He said here, if one rose from the
dead, then he would, they would be persuaded.
Proof of the fact that the Lord Jesus
Christ has risen from the dead to die
no more, does that change your mind at
all?
Of course it doesn't.
If you won't believe the Bible, you, and
I want to tell you tonight, dear friend,
that that's what the Holy Spirit of God,
that's what the Holy Spirit
of God will do.
Step over that wall.
That's what it is.
It's not just believing a lot of intellectual
facts about Jesus.
It's surrendering your will to him.
You know, that boy I was telling you
about that was speaking to me about Luke
16, when he was on the service, he
was a paratrooper, and I've talked to him
about that.
You mean you stood at the door of
a plane, and you stepped out into nothing,
into air?
And you know, people that can do that,
he isn't one of them.
But I'd like to ask you, what, what,
what is there about the Lord Jesus that
makes it impossible?
And if you track that down, it was
a will that God had to conquer, and
it's your will tonight.
And I beg you, on the basis of
the death of Christ to save you, the
Lord Jesus told this story 1900 years ago.