well good to be back with you again today and what I would like to do is pick up a little bit from where we left off yesterday and what I would like to do is to go back through one more text of Scripture and and go through my notes and for us to talk and interact about this so rather than me just straightforward lecturing and going through the handout at this point I think that probably there's more to gain from us just like hands-on with a text of Scripture and with notes and again certain parts of this will resonate with you and and you'll incorporate this other things will not be quite you and that's fine I just want to help you have the tools to be a preacher of the word of God so if you have your Bibles and I'm sure that you do turn with me if you would to Luke chapter 16 let's go to a different genre a scripture and last Sunday I preached this text and I before I dashed to the airport I actually just still had my notes in something and they were in my briefcase and so let's look at what I preached last Sunday in Luke chapter 16 beginning in verse 19 this is the parable of the rich man and Lazarus and the literary unit extends all the way to verse 31 so it's a more generous portion of Scripture and so as I preached this passage again the first thing that I did really with this is I just took out a blank piece of paper like this and and got my pen and I just wanted to lay this out in a way that I could begin to see the structure begin to see what was dominant what was supportive what was in the center what was peripheral and so really not even knowing where all it would take me I just began to write now there was a rich man also just for whatever it's worth now often signals a new literary unit and it it's it's a it's like waving a flag that this now begins a new unit now there was a rich man and he so that lines up under rich man he habitually and that word immediately just leaps off the page to me lifestyle he habitually dressed and so in purple lines up under how he dressed and fine linen joyously living in splendor every day alright that modifies this man joy joyously living and splendor where's the L go there it goes right where I had it every day and so one thing that just jumps off my the page is every day habitually earlier this is a snapshot of this man's life that represents the whole now by way of contrast here I've got rich man and a poor man so as I write this out I you know I just want things to I can see the contrast a poor man named and really named Lazarus goes under poor man because that modifies specifies who he is named Lazarus was laid at his gate obviously the his refers back to the rich man not the poor man and covered with sores describes comes under laid at his gate and longing to be fed said not only laid covered longing I think it's a participle that will define the verb to be fed with the crumbs you know which we're following so you know I I just wrote all that out so I can just visualize kind of begin to shadowbox with it a little bit box around rich man poor man come in underline some of these verbs verse 22 again now all right so that obviously signals to me moving to the next level of this story the word the word now so I'll you know draw little double lines there and I'll know Roman numeral one that's going to be the first heading of the sermon and this word now signals the second heading of the sermon so I'm getting out ahead and I'm already beginning to think about an outline so now the poor man died and was carried away now by the Angels you know modifies comes under it's carried away - what's all that noise over there once you go ahead and get it thank you Abraham's bosom okay now now it goes at the end of verse 22 and the rich man also died so as I'm as I'm sizing this up I'm I'm going to come in with an outline whether I say this or not obviously rich man is a poor man is B I'm already seen here poor man a rich man B I'm beginning to see subheadings under headings he also died and was buried so he died and was buried okay then in Hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment comes under and modifies lifted up his eyes being in torment and now saw back to it's a compound sentence with a second main verb saw Abraham far away and saw is implied and saw Lazarus in his bosom so I just keep going down and I'm what's subject verb subject starts left poor man worked to the verb was laid and I'm beginning to line up modifiers underneath the word that it modifies so I can begin to just visualize structure and syntax and relationships of words because for the most part I'm going to want my sermon to come spiraling out of this so after I do this there there will be certain key words that I'll will want to look up with a parable it's not as tricky but I want to look up Hades I want to look up Lazarus and see what his name means some of these verbs probably are going to be very descriptive great chasm fixed I would like to know what those words are and make sure that I understand them after that then I've I will kind of begin to play with an outline then I've xeroxed my commentaries as xeroxed of my study Bibles and I'll sit down and I and I'll read all of them I'll Xerox Robertson's word pictures I'll Xerox Hendrickson's commentary all Xerox where's B I'll Xerox other commentaries on Luke and I'm just a beggar looking for crumbs I'll take any crumbs that are falling off tables and I'm underlining it and putting a little squigglies out in the margin air to draw my attention to what's primary so that when I come back through it I don't have to reread everything verbatim I can just go straight to what's underlined and straight to what I've drawn something to draw my eye and I will sit down now and begin to write my sermon now I used to would like let's say do a rough draft and then go from the rough draft to the sermon but as I said I'm just going to go straight to to the sermon now here's one key and I can't remember if I said it a couple of days ago but I asked an author one time give me give me a key about writing a book what do I need to know about writing a book and he said the number one thing he said I would tell you is get it on the paper as soon as possible and maybe I said this the other day I think I did I'm not that age where I repeat myself and and I'm that way with my with with my sermon I'd rather just go ahead and get it onto paper I can visually see and work with it so let's take this and I'll start at the beginning I'll start at the introduction but I wrote the introduction last this and the conclusion I wrote last but as you can tell here I've got read verses 19 - I stopped at 24 because I didn't want to spend all of my time reading this entire parable so I chose a place where I felt it would be a dramatic ending just for the sake of time and so I ended at the end of verse 24 for I am in agony in this flame and that's a very dramatic place to conclude so you know I've got my title two men two deaths two destinies and as you can tell out in the left margin I came and added this at the end because after I reviewed the introduction I realized I don't know it just starts and not in a way that this being the first Sunday of the new year I don't know it just didn't have I need a little something before that so I just wrote out in the margin death is a subject that most of us would rather not address but nevertheless is a pressing reality for each one of us now I go in this being the first Sunday of the new year their lives before us an entire year that is known only to God for some of us there is the sober reality that this year will be the last year that we will have here some among us will die this year because of old age the natural consequence of having lived a full life others though will die this year seemingly prematurely due to an unforeseen tragedy for each one of us death is only a matter of time unless the Lord should come first whether it be in this year or a future year to come we are all going to die we need to think about the approaching inevitability of our death and what it will mean for us and our death there is the inescapable reality and I've drawn a box around this that is at the bottom to just isolate it's like a paragraph it from my eye I know I'm transitioning basically from the first paragraph of thought to the second paragraph of thought and we need to think about the approaching inevitability of our death and what it will mean for us now you can tell I I'm not wanting to get up and and kind of search for something to say or ramble I want my wording to be very tight I want there to be an economy of words and you'll notice each sentence starts flush left so that my I can immediately pick that up as I'm standing in the pulpit and I have an open Bible and our death I've already done that all right there is no purgatory there is no soul sleep only heaven or hell and as I said that people were nodding their heads I mean that connected with them I distinctly remember and I there were ladies out there who are married to Catholic men who come by themselves to church and that that was a point that connected with them and I intentionally said that that there is no purgatory there is no soul sleep there is only heaven or hell so the question that I would place before you is now here again is the a use of a question the question that I place before you is where will you be five seconds after you die will you be in heaven or will you be in Hell or to pose the question in another way if you're to die today and you stood before God and if he asked you why should I let you into my heaven what would you say and this is the question that you must address now before you die to address it after you die we'll be too late but not only must you address it now you must address it correctly and you must act appropriately I want to help us and so I'm wanting to kind of pull them in I've just kind of stiff-armed him a little bit and I want to now pull them in as I begin to go through this text I don't want them at kind of a relational distance so I want to help us address this approaching reality of death and do so rightly and I pray for some of you immediately before it is too late the writer of Hebrews wrote it is appointed for men once to die and after this the judgment are you ready for that day are you ready for that last day of your life on the third page I now train position they're just setting up the context before I move into this or just not so much the context just the overall big picture this account is a parable a parable as an earthly story with a heavenly meaning and I just wrote in the margin after I reviewed all this a picture is worth a thousand words I could just kind of hear myself saying that and so is a story and so it is here this is the story of two men one rich the other poor it is the story of two deaths one unnoticed the other opulent it is the story of two destinies one went to heaven the other went to hell the point of the parable now this for me that's why I've got an arrow out there this is a very important statement the point of the parable is to show the great reversal that death brings for many now I added for many after I reread it because it won't be the reversal for every man there are some rich people who will go to heaven there are many poor people who will go to hell so I added that qualifier for many many who are rich and famous and this life will be subject to eternal torment in the life to come and many who are nobodies in this life poor and begging will be ushered into eternal bliss in the life to come again I want to reinforce this again the point is to show the great reversal for many that death brings and now I want to get to the you what will it be for you my outline is very simple today to help us see this story I want you to see three things two men before death in verses 19 to 21 two men at death verse 22 and two men after death verses 22 and following let's now dig into the text and see what God has to say in his word I want you to note first with me in your Bible two men before death beginning in verse 19 as this story launches Jesus introduces us to two people and they could not be any more on the opposite end of the spectrum of life they are polar opposites the contrast could not be any greater and I remembered from having written out the set the block diagram rich man poor man I mean that's so obvious so I just wrote a rich man now I didn't announce that that was really just for my eyes I want you to note first and verse 19 now there was a rich man the rich man here is one who lived exclusively for this world and for the things of this world he is a one-dimensional man he is a natural man he is a worldly man amazingly enough this rich man is intended to represent the Pharisees those who although they were out outwardly religious in fact live for this world inwardly and so I I noted please note a few verses above in verse 14 now it would have been very easy with my eyes just to look up to verse 14 but I just wanted it here in my notes so verse 14 please note now the Pharisees who were lovers of money obviously Jesus tells this parable with an eye on these Pharisees who are lovers of money you wouldn't know that just by looking at them outwardly because they look so sanctimonious and they look so religious but God sees not as man sees man looks on the outward appearance God looks on the heart and God saw those who were lovers of money there's nothing wrong with having money what is wrong is loving money and living for money and by the way you can be a poor man with no money and still love money and so I would just give expression to that that their religiosity cloaked the covetousness and the greed that was inside their own hearts in fact if you'll note one verse earlier in verse 13 Jesus had already just stated no servant can serve two masters and I just paused right there and I said it is absolutely impossible for any of us here today to serve two masters so therefore you must decide your master well for him you will serve for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be devoted to one and despise the other you cannot you cannot you cannot serve God and Mammon and their sin is not that they possessed money their sin is that their money possessed them and so the Pharisees were those who served money loved money were devoted to money and they covered it up Jesus had his eye on these religious Pharisees and I want you to know Jesus has his eye on men and women today we continue to read in this verse back to the parable and he habitually the idea here is a life style a life pursuit he habitually day after day after day and dressed in purple that this purple represented wanton pleasure he lived in the lap of luxury purple was the color that was reserved for royalty because it involved a special dye that was obtained from shellfish and men would have to dive at expense of their own life and so when they brought up this dye from the depths of the of the sea it was very costly and so for you to be dressed in purple signified that you were someone who one had a lot of money and two wanted to show off your money to others also and fine linen this refers to the expensive garments that accompanied the purple garments layer upon layer upon layer of of just opulent living you notice it says joyously living in splendor every day this man was a strutting peacock showing off his money he wanted everyone to know just how rich he was he was utterly self-absorbed self-consumed self pampered it's been well said a man all wrapped up in himself makes for a very small package and that is what this man was but to top it off I do want you to note as worldly as he was it was also very religious and not to get ahead of myself but just to draw to your attention at this point in the parable in verse 23 we will see that he recognized Abraham he knows all about Abraham and when he sees Abraham he recognized Abraham this is not a pagan this is not a raw heathen this is a religious man and then in verse 24 he claims a relationship with Abraham who is the father of a faith and in so doing he is claiming to have faith in God just like Abraham says he said in fact he says father Abraham and he's clinging to his his nationality he is clinging to his religious heritage to give him a right standing before God but if that were not enough in verses 29 and 31 we will see that he knows the Bible he believes the Bible in fact he becomes evangelistic with the Bible this man is very religious and he is very lost and so I with this page right here I just wanted to almost blow this up and so I just sat down with my pen and I just tried to think about every different way I could further amplify this so that people can see this man because they may be married to this man they may live at home with this man they may work with this man so I just could hear myself preaching and this is what I was scripting out here is a double-minded man he is living with one foot in the world and one foot in the word he has a divided heart split loyalties now note again the parallelism divided heart split loyalty saying the same thing with different words he is outwardly religious but inwardly consumed with riches and and I'm trying to to lay out contrasts to help people see this person and the fact is his pursuit of money has crowded out any room for God in his life his real love is gold not God his real desires for silver not for a savior his sin is not that he has money but that his money has him he acknowledged God but adored his money his entire focus is the here and now not eternity all that he is living for is wrapped up in the things of this world he gives no thought to death and no thought to the final judgment no thought to his eternal destiny he assumes that his present status will somehow take care of him in the world to come and I think I just looked up and said do you know anyone like this you live with anyone like this do you see anyone like this when you look in the mirror all I want us to know the other man and this parable what a master communicator our Lord is he says in verse 20 please note and a poor man named Lazarus you talked about a contrast there couldn't be a greater contrast juxtaposition Donne the opposite extremes of the social spectrum there's a poor man he is a man so poor that he has absolutely nothing he is reduced to a life of begging as one who is entirely dependent upon the mercy of another and the name lazarus means God has provided help this is obviously a man that Jesus would have us to know by his mere name is someone who has recognized that he has nothing that he is nothing and that he has looked by faith to God and God has provided and God has helped this is a man who has put his trust and has put his faith in God and although he has nothing he has everything because he has God and please note he was laid at his gate covered with sores notice he was laid at his gate he couldn't even walk there he had to be laid that means someone had to carry him and someone had to lay him at his gate this poor man did what he could and all he could do was beg as he is laid at his gate he is obviously assuming a posture of of begging that when the trash would be brought out when the scraps and leftovers of food from the luxurious banquets of the rich man when they would be brought out to the curb that if he could just beg somehow for any crumb that has fallen off at the table of the rich man and as he is laid there we read that he was covered with sores his entire body is wasting away from this skin disease and verse 21 tells us and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table hunger was his constant companion he would take anything scraps crumbs and at this point I literally pulled my word finder off my desk and looked up crumbs and just to give me some words scraps crumbs leftovers rubbish remains and besides even the dogs were coming and licking his sores well I knew I needed to give a little background on that and so I said dogs just roamed wild through the streets of ancient cities they were scavenge attract an to trashcan just looking for scraps and leftovers and no wonder they found Lazarus as he was laid where the trash was taken out and no one was paying any attention to Lazarus except these dogs that were coming and licking his sores can you imagine a more humble self-deprecating posture in which to be and so because I had developed the poor man in my notes as I sat here I wanted to develop now or because I'd done the rich man I wanted to do the poor man and so I just wrote this and just tried to in my mind think of what I could say though this man had nothing in this world he was rich in faith and rich toward God he was poor in spirit but rich in grace he had nothing here no health no wealth no possessions no prosperity no money no food all he had was God and eternal riches and treasure in heaven so I need to wrap up this first heading I've come to the end now a verse 21 and so I just ride what a contrast we are are given here between those rich men in this poor man one was on the top of life the other on the bottom one was living for this world the other without anything in this world one was looking to himself the other was looking to God is this not how everyone lives you're either looking to yourself or you're looking to God and there is no halfway house in between you are either living for this world are you living for the world to come every one of us please note I'm trying to be as inclusive as I can be here to get to the you to make the application to connect to where people are everyone can be found in one of these two categories whether or we are rich or poor we are all either living for this world or living for God and this final question which man the rich man are the poor man which man represents your life and by that I do not mean rich in this world or poor in this world I mean poor towards God or rich towards God well I want you to note now with me secondly we have seen two men before death I want you to see now in the text two men at death in verse 22 as different as were their lives so their deaths were equally different in verse 22 we read now the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom and the rich man also died and was bear now before I go into this contrast I wanted to first establish there is one similarity between these two polar opposites and so I wrote before we see the differences in their death please note their similarity and here is their similarity both men died death is not a respecter of persons some die rich some die poor some die old son die young some die six others die healthy some die married some die single but all die this is the only similarity and this is the similarity between every one of us in this room today it's appointed unto man once to die and after this the judgment that day is coming for you my friend and it may be closer than you realize I said that the newspaper recently reported a startling new statistic that one out of every one person dies every hour five thousand four hundred and seventeen people dying go to meet their maker before the sermon is finished over five thousand people will die and one day so will you get to the you and so will you now I want you to note these two deaths the order is reversed here please note the death of the poor man first in verse 22 now the poor man died there's no mention of a burial the the burial is mentioned for the for the rich man but there's no burial of the poor man and the reason is he cannot even afford a burial he cannot afford a funeral and even if he could who would come not only the dogs knowing he was too poor to even be buried but would you please know he was carried away by the Angels though he died without any notice from those on the earth God noticed and God saw and God commissioned his angels to come for him and the reason God did so was because this man was to be taken home to the mansion that had been prepared for him in heaven then note the rich man died and the rich man was oh the rich man also died and was buried and his death it was totally different and his death he had a funeral that no doubt was commensurate with his lavish lifestyle it was surely an elaborate funeral and and very ornate and surely it was attended by many families and friends rich people have lots and lots of friends because they like hanging out with what he has and sharing in his lifestyle and surely his five brothers to whom we will be introduced later in verse 28 surely they are here as well but there is no mention of angels attending him in his death the rich man died notice by this world but he was anonymous to heaven he was honored by this world but was abandoned by heaven can you not hear the preacher as he's giving the eulogy now he was loved by all what a successful businessman he was what what a respected community leader he was what a charitable man he was and how religious he was as we remember this rich man so I want to summarize this this main heading I don't want to go to the next heading until I put a bow around this heading and so I just and I know I have many verses yet to and so it's just a short little succinct summary but I want to get to the you I'm going to keep driving home you and will it be at your death and with my pin I underlined your will you be noticed by heaven will you be attended by angels or will you be merely eulogized by man once you continue to look with me now at verse 22 yet again because I want you to see now third not only two men before death not only two men at death but I want you to note two men after death and is different as their lives and their deaths were I want to assure you their destinies were even a far greater difference notice first the poor man who went to heaven the poor man died and went to Abraham's bosom that's a figure of speech for heaven Abraham's bosom represents the eternal home of the Saints the term bosom was an oriental expression for close fellowship it it pictured reclining at a banquet and leaning your head upon the chest of the person next to you and and and laying back and and just enjoying the close proximity of friendship and fellowship with the one who is next to you as recall it was used to represent the disciple whom Jesus loved John when he laid his head upon the bosom of the Lord in the upper room that is what we see here it's the place of sweet repose well if Abraham Abraham is in heaven and we know that a Matthew 8 verse 11 Jesus said many will come from the east and the West and recline at the table of Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven Abraham's there and if you're at Abraham's bosom you're there too you're in heaven both feet are in heaven you're breathing Heaven's air in Genesis 15:6 abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness in Galatians 3 7 be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham in Galatians 3 9 those who are of faith are blessed with Abraham for ever jesus unmistakeably is wanting us to know that by faith alone by grace alone through faith alone this poor man is now in heaven he is pictured as being an a joyous banquet with close fellowship and laughter and joy and pleasures and happiness and bliss and this is what heaven will be like for believers a place of intimate fellowship with God in Christ with loved ones with Abraham with David and we will truly know one another in heaven there's Abraham but the story doesn't end there Jesus has much more to say and all of that was simply to bring us to this because not everyone goes to heaven not everyone is in heaven five seconds after they die and Jesus said many are on the broad road that are headed for destruction beginning in verse 23 we see the other destiny it is a place called hell and that is where the rich man went and I want you to note several truths with to me about hell and as I preach as I preach now verses 23 to the following because it was so many verses I felt like I needed some headings some some hooks to hang our thought on some some pegs to hang truth on to help us walk through all of these verses now what I have are eight truths about Hell but I knew if I said eight that would overwhelm people so I just have several truths about Hell and my note I want to keep you with me and so the first thing we learn about Hell is number one hell is a real place we read in verse 23 in Hades not in a figment of his imagination not in someone else's just imagination it's not here on the earth he went to Hades which is the place of the wicked at that place prior to the final judgment it is a real place on God's map you go to hell there's a real place and is a place prepared for the devil and his fallen angels it is a place just as real as New York City and Los Angeles and Mobile Alabama this could not be any more real second excuse me hadn't gotten a second yet have I I just threw in at the end these little cross references out in the side lest someone in their mind be you know some hyper dispensationalists all these different compartments Matthew 11 23 and you Capernaum will not be exalted to heaven will you you will descend to hades and so i said clearly there is the contrast between heaven and Hades Hades is Hell Hades is the place of the wicked as they wait for the final judgement not only is hell a real place but I want you to know it second hell is an immediate place we continue to read the rich man at the end of verse 22 also died and was buried in verse 23 in Hades he lifted up his eyes being in torment this all happened so quickly so rapidly he died he was buried boom he was in hell five seconds after he died he opened his eyes in hell he was immediately in torment there is no delay no holding position no halfway house he is immediately instantly in hell before even his family knows he's dead before his friends even know he's dead he is already in the flames of hell there's no time to repent there's no time to get right with God and there's no time to say God I'm sorry no time to say God I did not mean to go to hell just immediately boom boom boom he dies he is in hell so it'll be with everyone here today who dies without faith in Jesus Christ you will die and go immediately to hell third hell is a conscious place it could not have been any more awake we read he lifted up his eyes he saw he cried out the mere fact that he lifted up his eyes his eyes weren't closed he wasn't asleep there is no soul sleep he is not unconscious he has never been more awake and more alert than he is this very moment he's not in limbo he's not annihilated his awake is alive he is alert it's the most the most conscious moment of his existence forth I want you to know it's a seperated place in verse 23 we see that he saw Abraham now please note these next two words he saw Abraham we're far away and Lazarus in his bosom the emphasis here that I want to make with you is on far away the damned in hell are very far away from the Saints they are very far away from heaven in fact in verse 26 we'll see that quote a great chasm was fixed close quote it is an impassable gulf an uncrossable abyss and so i drew this little box here just to try to to amplify this idea of separation how can I spell this out more hell as far away from heaven it's far away from all joy it's far away from all happiness in all love this rich man is now separated from all God's blessing now I didn't want to say separated from God because the case can be made from revelation 14 that God is in hell administering the wrath himself and so I wanted to be theologically precise and say not separated from God but separated from all God's blessing separated from all pleasures as he once enjoyed them it's far removed from the smile of God he's far removed from the grace of Christ and the blessings of the Spirit he could not be any more removed from all good things he is he is far off cut off as distant as anyone can be from Abraham from Lazarus from all believers we cannot even imagine how separated a place hell is but v it's an agonizing place verse 24 says and he the rich man he cried out and said father Abraham have mercy on me and send Lazarus so that he may dip the tip of his tongue in water and cool off my tongue for I am in agony in this flame hell is a place of eternal fire real fire and I just got out my cross-references and just looked up every verse that I could find in the New Testament through and one from the Old Testament in which fire is used as it describes hell and I just line them up because I want to so impress upon the listener the reality of hell and I have all of the cross references meaning Matthew 3:12 Matthew 13 40 I just need to leave aside every little citation because nobody can write this down this fast and at this point that's not even the point I want to impress you with the word fire not where it's found in the Bible but with fire itself so I just said listen to how the Bible describes hell it is a place of unquenchable fire those there are burned with fire it is a furnace of fire it is fiery hell it is the eternal fire it is where the worm never dies where they are salted with fire those they are tormented with fire and brimstone the lake of fire which burns with brimstone lake of fire and brimstone and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever it is pick as a lake of fire at the lake that burns with fire and brimstone the consuming fire with continual burning no wonder hell is a place of the weeping and the gnashing of teeth eternal punishment no wonder jesus said fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell this Hellfire will never go out not in six years not in sixty years not in six thousand years not in six million years not in six billion years not in six trillion years never will this fire go out and neither will those in this fire ever come to an end now in my mind I could anticipate someone who would say well they're going to come up to me after the service some visitor say well don't you think it's symbolic fire you want to ask Noah if that was symbolic water so I did being like Paul in Romans nine anticipating the objector and cutting them off you'd only need to come up and talk to me about that point someone may say well I think that this fire is only symbolic and is not real fire so I don't want to say that kind of argument does not lessen the agony of Hell any symbol never fully represents the full reality of what it pictures for example a mere picture of a sunset never fully conveys the stunning beauty of the sunset itself the symbol is always weaker than the reality right now the picture is always less than what it rep presents and then I just kind of threw in on top of my head baptism never fully pictures the death burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ does it it's only a small little picture the reality is far beyond so what if hell fire is only a symbol and then whatever hell is is far worse than hell it's then fire itself hell would be far more painful than being burned in the flames of an eternal fire now I want to pivot here at this point with a but but I don't want anyone to leave here thinking that I'm capitulating to this symbolic fire but I believe that the fire is real and it has to be taken as such as a furnace of raging fires a towering inferno of blazing fire as an incinerator of consuming fire and I I pulled out my word finder and and looked up the word furnace and just tried to come up with Inferno incinerator a place of torment and anguish and suffering now here's the summary sentence to put a bow around this hell is a real place with real fire inflicting real pain but I want you to know sixth if this were not enough its sixth hell is a haunting place it is a place of haunting memories that will torment everyone in hell they won't be able to hit the off switch on their memory verse 25 says but Abraham said child remember remember that during your life you received your good things and likewise Lazarus bad things but now he is being comforted here and you are in agony do you see this word remember in hell men and women will be able to remember and they will remember far better than they ever remembered here upon the earth they will remember back over their entire life they will remember every sin that they have ever committed and I just paused for a moment and I said you and I can't even remember right now all the sins that we committed when we were five years old and six years old and when we were in junior high school and then when we were in high school some of you can't even remember the sins that you committed when you were in college and then you joined the military and you went off with the guys and you just committed sin upon sin upon sin and you have long since forgotten it in hell you will remember forever all of those sins but more than that you will remember every gospel presentation that was made to you every day of opportunity that you spurned you will remember your mother forever begging you to give your life to Jesus Christ but you were too busy you will remember this sermon and my little nasal voice will haunt you forever as you will remember me pleading with you to kind of Christ but there's more number-7 hell is an inescapable place once you're in you're never coming out once you're in there's no parole there's no appeal to a higher court once you're in you're in forever and I remember I then just added before I even read the verse I said some of you are claustrophobic and you have a panic about being in an inescapable place where you can't get out think of the paranoia and the panic of those in hell when they realize they are in an inescapable place notice verse 26 and besides all this between us and you there is a great chasm fixed so that those who wish to come over from here to you now why would what someone want to do that will a loved one in heaven if they could see and know of the perishing they would want to to come to hell in order to rescue you in order to to bring you out of the fire and God is saying no one will be able to come there is no second chance there is no one who will come after you to spring you loose and conversely and that none may cross over from here from there to us hell is in an inescapable place the permanent prison of the Damned there is no escape from hell no one who has ever entered hell has or ever shall escape the English poet I got out a little quote book and just looked up hell and just tried to find something to insert into my notes the English poet John Milton wrote in Paradise Lost that the sign over the gate of hell should read abandon all hope there is no second chance after death there is no reincarnation there is no purgatory and proverbs 10:28 says the expectation of the wicked perishes and the only thing that will be annihilated will be any hope proverbs 11 7 when a wicked man dies his expectation will perish and the hope of a strong man perishes fathers and mothers there may be a day when your son or daughter is dead in hell and you will want to go and save them from their flames the flames of torment and you will not be able to reach them if you're gonna reach your children now for Christ you must reach them now but finally I want to say that hell is a desperate place this rich man in Hell now suddenly becomes burdened for others regarding their eternal destinies he gave no thought to his own eternal destiny but now he becomes evangelistic now he wants to reach others for Christ lest they come to such a place so verse 27 and he the rich man said I beg you speaking to father Abraham that you send him Lazarus to my father's house and I drew circles around all those pronouns simply because it was becoming confusing for me as to who is what and if I could identify it in my notes I could read it better and not stumble over my own words in verse 28 for he says for I have five brothers in order that he may warn them lest may warn them so that they will not also come to this place of torment in other words he is saying in these little equal marks that I have adhered from my own notation just simply means this is another way of saying what he's just said in this text in other words someone must go to them and warn them not to come here it's to tormenting us two it's to agonizing do not let them end up here like me and I thought of a quote that I had once heard from William Booth who was the founder of the Salvation Army and he said I would that my workers could spend a weekend in hell and hear the shrieks and the groans of the Damned and smelled the burning flesh and they would come back to this earth and be evangelistic with a passion for souls let them speak up spend a weekend in hell and they will come back persuading and pleading and urging and begging and I said maybe that's what needs to happen to us to shake us loose from our lethargy maybe we need to spend a weekend in hell and maybe we will become concerned for our brothers and our sisters who do not know Christ verse 29 but Abraham said they have them they have Moses and the prophets let them hear them in other words it wouldn't matter what miracle what sign was performed they have the power of the Word of God and that's all that anyone needs in order to be saved verse 30 but he the rich men in Hell said no father Abraham but if if someone goes to them from the dead they will repent in other words they just need one more miracle and then they will repent and believe let them see Lazarus raised from the dead and I thought you know what is amazing is that they actually that people did actually see Lazarus raised from that at a different Lazarus and it had no effect on them and does this not speak to the total depravity of the human heart and the bondage of the will apart from grace and verse 31 but he father Abraham said to him if they do not listen to Moses and the prophets referring to the power and the sufficiency of the word of God to save neither will they be persuaded if someone rises from the dead and it's pause for a moment and I said it may be that here today some of you are just waiting for some kind of a feeling or some kind of a sign or some kind of a circumstance or just something to finally bump you over the line with God and I want you to know that it will have no effect on you you're a fool to be waiting for that all you need is the Word of God and it says to you to believe upon Jesus Christ and you shall be saved and if you will not believe the Word of God you will not believe anything else so conclusion this man never intended to go to hell he never made it his life goal to go to hell he never decided as a young man I want to go to hell but he went to hell nevertheless I'm afraid that this will be true of some of you here today get to the you some of you and I've underlined you just so in my own notes I see this some of you never mean it will never mean to go a hell but we'll go there anyway hell is populated with countless Pharisees who never intended to go but did could this be you I pray not it will be there there'll be unconverted spouses of believers it will be in hell there will be unconverted children of believers who will be in hell there will be procrastinators who just keep putting it off and putting it off in one of these days I'll be saved and one day never comes the pleasure seekers who never gave serious thought to God or the gospel eternity are heaven oh they will be there so here's the final little page where will you be five seconds after you die when you lift up your eyes and see the next world around you we use be looking at God will you be beholding Christ will you lift up your eyes and see the Saints and the angels around you or will you lift up your eyes and see the flames of hell I point you this moment to look to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ where the sinless Lamb of God was lifted up and was slain for sinner upon Calvary's cross in him who knew no sin God made to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in him you shall call his name Jesus for he shall save his people from their sins for the Son of man has come to seek and to save that which is lost Jesus Christ has come to save sinners just like you and me I call you this moment this day to turn from the world to turn from the pleasures of the world they are bankrupt they are empty to turn to the only hope that there is for sinners to receive for forgiveness of their sins that is to believe upon Jesus Christ to commit your entire life your entire being to him who is mighty to save if you've never committed your life to Jesus Christ I plead with you I urge you before it is too late to believe in Christ this moment and then I would say let us close our eyes and a word of prayer and then go into a prayer so this is what I preached what four days ago five days ago whatever as you can see all I'm doing as I go through this is basically whatever else is not on this page is basically being added and it's basically exhortation 'he's an application and reinforcement and sometimes if it's the explanation it's only saying it may be in a catchy er way than what i wrote it down in my paper but whatever i have to say by way of explanation has already been dug out of the commentaries has already been pull out of my study of the text and I want my notes to be laid out in a way that I can I can preach and I want this is obviously an evangelistic type message although the effect upon believers is extraordinary extraordinary and every one of us needs to be periodically under a sermon like this and be sobered and be burdened and be broken and be grateful and be humble and be dependent even an evangelistic message has an extraordinary effect for good upon believers and it also encourages our own people to invite people to church that they know that they're not going to just hear a lecture they're not going to hear just a rambling commentary they're going to hear a presentation of the gospel whether throughout the whole or in simple portions of that message and it helps cultivate a church where people are inviting people to come to where they can hear the gospel of Jesus Christ