Two Eternal Realities | July 13, 2025 AM

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message from God's Word will be a blessing to you.

Luke chapter 16 And when you find your place, if you would

Luke 16 · chapter mention

stand with me for the reading of the Word, as we honor that it is

the eternal, preserved, inspired, and infallible Word of

God this morning. Luke chapter 16 and our reading

Luke 16 · chapter mention

will be in verses 19 through 31. Luke 16 this morning.

All right, we found our place. All right, let's begin our

reading in verse 19. There was a certain rich man

which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously

every day. And there was a certain beggar

named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate full of sores, and

desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich

man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and

licked his sores. And it came to pass that the

beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

The rich man also died and was buried.

And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.

See if Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, he cried

and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me.

And. Send Lazarus that he may dip the

tip of his finger in water. And cool my tongue.

For I am tormented in this flame.

But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime

receive is thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things.

But now he is comforted, and thou are tormented.

Beside all this, between US and you there is a great gulf fixed,

so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot,

neither can they pass to us that would come from thence.

Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou

would send him to my. Father's House, for I have 5

brethren. That he may testify unto them,

lest they also come into this place of torment, Abraham saith

unto him. They have Moses.

And the prophets let them hear them.

And he said, Nay, father Abraham.

But if one went unto. Them from the dead.

They will repent, he said unto him, If they do not hear Moses

and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though 1 rose

from the dead title, the message this morning is 2 Eternal

Realities. 2. Eternal realities.

Let's bow our heads for a word of prayer once more.

So we ask the Lord's blessing on the message.

Father, I thank you for this passage.

Thank you for this church and their their faithfulness to you

over the years. Father, I'm thankful for all are

in the building today and I pray that you would help me help my

lips to speak, which you'd have me to speak today.

Would you use your word to minister to those that are here,

Father, an uncomfortable truth, but an important truth that we

must understand. And I pray you'd help me in the

delivery of the message. Would you allow us to leave

today, having been challenged and convicted and stirred in our

own Christian lives? And Father, there's someone here

who does not know Christ as their Savior.

I pray, Father, that you'd get a hold of their heart today, that

they would realize their need for you.

And I praise you for this. I ask you, bless Brother Rivero

as he's preaching away. Would you anoint him and help

him as he preaches today? And Father, would you have your

blessing on the service now? We ask in Jesus name, Amen.

Thank you for standing. You may be seated this morning

as we get right into the message to eternal realities to eternal

realities. There is perhaps no greater

contrast in. Society than a.

Beggar and a rich man. A beggar is powerless.

He is infamous and rejected by the world around him.

There's even a a certain attitude that we have when we

see beggars right? We we, we don't.

We don't look to them as favorably as we would a rich

man. He has no influence.

He has no family to help him and nowhere to live.

His clothes are old, ragged and torn.

He smells and he has poor hygiene.

And from the beggars perspective, worst part for him

is that it seems like nobody cares.

The rich man, however, has an entirely different experience.

He's powerful, he's comfortable. And.

Spoiled with the finer things of life.

He he doesn't just have what he needs, he has options, right?

Grants him options. He he has the options of exotic

sports cars and designer clothes and Rolex and gets to do what he

wants, when he wants, where he wants, with who he wants.

He's rich, he enjoys life. Now just imagine the shock it

would. Be if somehow.

The beggar and the rich man could swap roles.

That'd be quite a shock, wouldn't it?

You've seen perhaps maybe those TV shows or people swap roles

with one another and and while we know that's not reality in

one. Sense in our.

Passage Here we see the beggar and the rich man swapping roles

for all eternity. See we live in a culture that

generally values wealth and status in society.

I would say, and I think most of you would agree with that here

are some quotes on on wealth and money from from certain wealthy

individuals. Mark Cuban, he had the show

Shark Tank he had on the show not a particular individual that

I appreciate or like, but he he makes a statement here that I

think does sum up the way our culture thinks about wealth.

I don't care what anyone says, being rich is a good.

Thing. I don't care what anyone says,

being rich is a good thing. Grant Cardone says money can't

buy happiness and poverty can't buy anything.

Isn't that right? Money can't buy happiness, but

poverty certainly can't buy anything.

But I, I, I like this quote here from Benjamin Franklin.

I think it really helps us as we prepare to, to start studying.

This passage says money never made a man happy.

Yet nor will it. There is nothing in its nature

to produce happiness. The more a man has, the more he

wants. You found that true in your.

Life that's true about. Women too, not just men, right?

The more a. Man has the more the.

More man wants, the more a woman has, the more she wants.

But listen to this, instead of filling a vacuum, it makes 1.

Instead of filling a vacuum. It makes 1 instead of satisfying

that craving that you. Have instead of feeling full,

it's like you're even more empty than you were before.

Suffice it to say, I don't want you to misunderstand me this

morning. There's no merit in poverty and

no vice and wealth necessarily in and of themselves.

There's no merit to being poor. God doesn't necessarily say

you're more righteous or you're a better Christian if you're

poor, and he doesn't necessarily say that.

If you're wealthy, you're a worse.

Christian or you're a poorer Christian.

But they that. Have riches are.

In danger of becoming materialistic.

I wonder if our in our country, in our culture today, people

have riches. And money and things and stuff.

And that we value those. Things that we're not in danger,

perhaps. Maybe even already.

There that we are materialistic, you say, Brother Brett, how do

you how do you define being materialistic?

Well, Merriam Webster defines it as a preoccupation with.

Or stress upon material rather than intellectual or spiritual.

Things OK here. Here's my version of that.

Is that you're so? Preoccupied with things, with

stuff. That you neglect thinking about

intellectual or spiritual things, so that you are so

preoccupied with what you have in this life.

That you neglect the most important things, such as the

intellectual. Or the spiritual that that is

materialism and and our culture has become more and more

materialistic because we've become.

More and more secular. Right to be secular.

Basically has the idea of. Separating life from anything

religious, anything spiritual, it's just, it's just material.

It's just the world around you and there are many people that

adopt that world. View in our lives that.

Particularly in this. Part of the country.

That are materialistic. They are secular.

They don't believe anything spiritual has any any.

Value. They don't believe that.

Anything in life is related to spiritual things.

It's just what we have. Now, and after this is all over,

that's it. There's nothing more, and thus

if you believe. That and that's your world view.

You would. Want to accumulate all the stuff

that you could, right you'd. Want to get everything that you

could in this life. You'd want to drive fast cars,

you'd want to live in a big house, you'd want to have the

best the best meals and fine dining, and you'd want to wear

nice clothes. And you would just live it up

while you're here. If this is all there is, and I

certainly. Don't want to make anyone.

Here feel guilty who has been blessed with wealth or with

property or with things. Things are not bad in and of

themselves, but it becomes bad. When we have a mentality that

our life is about the things we possess and not who we are, our.

Identity. You see in our text we see two

particular individuals on two different spectrums of society,

a beggar and a rich man. And materialism certainly was

was present there with the rich man, as I believe it can be here

with us today. And yet there is one.

Way that all, rich or wealthy, however you want to say it, will

one day lose their riches. They will die, and if you lack

material possessions one day you will die as well.

You ever thought about that? I I I think it's sad that many

people try to avoid uncomfortable subjects such as

death and life after death. Because it is uncomfortable,

because it is unknown to us, and because there are there are

things about acknowledging the reality of that that maybe

caused us to think of. Our loved ones who have gone on

or. Others that we know.

Or other uncomfortable experiences.

And and while I I would I would agree with you that it is an

uncomfortable subject and we should deal with it carefully,

you wouldn't want to neglect. It so that you're not prepared.

You wouldn't want to do that with your retirement, right?

You, we plan for retirement and we plan for, for what lies ahead

in the future because we know it's real, right?

Because we know it's coming. We know that one day we're going

to have to make those means necessary.

But when it comes to our life spiritually and and through all

eternity, we're going to exist in one of two.

Places according to God's Word. And there is only one way that

you can. Be prepared to face eternity.

Sadly, I believe most. People are unprepared as this

rich man was, but we see that the beggar who had a miserable

experience here on earth. Who had a?

Horrible experience on Earth. He was prepared.

Isn't that incredible? Someone that people looked at

with disdain. Every day people that rejected

this beggar, they thought they thought nothing of him.

They thought what a miserable existence, who would?

Ever want to be that? Man, and yet he was the one that

was ready. And the rich man, the one who

dressed in purple and fine linen, we were talking about the

best of the best clothing. He was, he was extremely wealthy

in in his time and in his day. He woke up into a reality he had

no idea was coming and he wasn't ready for it.

And I want to remind you this morning that he's still there.

Today it's a place called Hell. I don't enjoy talking about

hell, but as a as a. God called preacher.

I have no choice but to preach on the subject of hell because

it isn't God's Word and because if it's a subject that we

neglect and shame and woe to the preachers in our day, that will

not preach about hell and rue the day in which we live in a

country where people are afraid to talk about the most important

subjects of God's Word. You need to know about hell, you

need to know about heaven and you need to know about what

Jesus is teaching in this passage.

I want to I want to say just just right off the top here in

the in the early in the beginning of the message that

one day you will enter eternity. You will go off into eternity

one day and that you may live a nice long life here on earth.

You you may get in a horrible accident and die what we might

call. A premature death, It really

doesn't matter. You're going to face eternity

one day. And I'm asking you if you're

prepared. I'm asking if you've given

preparations, if you've given any thought to it.

And do you really know what's going to happen when you die?

And don't you think we ought to consider it?

But more than just consider it and more than just brainstorm,

we have an authoritative word from Almighty God who says this

is what's going to happen after death and this is what's going

to happen in eternity. We have divine revelation from

God to know exactly what's going to happen and exactly how we can

prepare ourselves for what's coming.

This is not an opinion. This is the inspired word of

God. The the scriptures are are like

God breathed out his words. He revealed to us what we could

not know otherwise. And shame on those that would

mock God's word in our day and time and say, oh, that's just an

ancient book. And I can't believe that people

would put their trust in an ancient book.

It's not just an ancient book, my friend.

It is a timeless truth that God has given to humanity, and He is

preserved for you to day, even now, so that you can hear His

word concerning the most important subject.

That anyone could consider eternity.

Eternity. We don't understand eternity.

Our minds can't comprehend eternity.

It's, it's endless. There's, there's, there's no

time there. God is eternal.

And by the way, God made you to be eternal.

You are eternal. You're you're not just going to

die one day and then you're. Dead as a dog.

You will live, you will. You will exist for all eternity.

And only one of these two places, heaven or hell.

And I want to remind you this morning.

That that there is a there's a reason why for all eternity.

Some people will be comforted. And they will enjoy everlasting

life and some will be tormented forever and ever and ever that.

That's a that's a sobering thought.

It's the reason why we have missions.

It's the reason why we have a all in visitation.

It's the reason why we leave tracks at Walmart.

It's the reason why we tell people about Jesus.

It's the reason why we do something so uncomfortable as it

seems to talk to people about their soul.

Why? Because there's an eternity

awaiting them. They're going to go to hell if

they don't trust Jesus Christ and believe the Gospel.

There's no Plan B. There's just one plan.

So, so let's let's look at this passage and see what Jesus

Christ. Taught about eternity.

I find it interesting that he spoke very little about heaven

and spoke very much about hell. It says that there's.

Two men. Live these two different

experiences. And and I want to.

Back up a little bit in the context.

Because he is talking about. Money.

He's talking about wealth. And it it may seem strange that

he, he seems to talk about wealth in the first section of

this chapter to his disciples in a mostly positive way, how you

can use wealth or you can use money for eternal things or the

Kingdom of God. But notice that it says in verse

13, he makes his very, very important point.

No servant can serve 2 masters. He he's talking about slaves and

that that a slave can't have two masters.

He only has one and and it's. Impossible to serve 2 masters.

For either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he

will hold to the one and despise the other.

You cannot serve God and mammon. That word Mammon is just an old

English word for money or material.

Things he's saying you. Cannot be a servant to God and.

Money. Your money's supposed to be a

servant to you. You're not supposed to be

serving your money. He's telling that to his

disciples, but apparently there was another.

Crowd there that overheard the Pharisees.

You ever heard of the Pharisees? They were the religious.

Elite in their day and they were, they were very wealthy,

they were opulent, they were businessmen, they were religious

leaders. They were the types of people in

that society that like the rich man is embodying the the

Pharisee in his opulent lifestyle.

And, and we, we learn about the Pharisees from what Jesus

taught, that that much of everything they did was a show.

They looked for the applause of men.

They looked for the recognition of men.

That's why they displayed their wealth and they, and they

created this fence around the scriptures of their own rules

and their own laws so that they could essentially become the

religious authority over God. And it was no longer about the

word of God. It was about the traditions of

the elders and the, the scribes and the Pharisees and the

religious elite in their day. And as they overheard Jesus

teaching, notice it says in verse 14, and the Pharisees also

who were covetous. You know what it means to be

covetous, right? It means that you have, you have

a craving or a desire for more and more and more.

They they were materialistic, we could say.

They were covetous, they heard all these things and they

derided him, they mocked him, ha ha ha.

Ha, you hear what he's saying? Who would listen to Jesus?

Jesus says this to them. He said unto them, Ye are they

which? Justify yourselves before.

Men that they would, they would. Actually tell you how righteous

they were. They were, they were so proud.

They were so proud, so prideful that they would actually present

to the world. Look at us.

We are the gold standard. If you want to be religious, if

you want to be righteous, if you want to be right with God, just

be like us. They justified themselves.

But God knoweth your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed

among men is an abomination. In the sight of God, OK.

Verse 16 is key for our text. The law and the prophets were

until John. Since that time the Kingdom of

God has preached and every man presseth.

Into it, and it is easier for heaven and earth to pass than

one title of the law to. Fail.

It's the. Smallest stroke in Hebrew.

He's saying all of it's going to be fulfilled, none of it's going

to be left out. God will fulfill all of His.

Word. And he says, Whosoever putteth

away his wife and marieth another committeth adultery.

Whosoever marieth her that is put away from her husband

committeth adultery so. He's going to go on through a

series of lectures. Addressing the Pharisees here,

but the very. First thing he he tells is this

story that I would say is not a parable, but a true story about

two men who really lived. And there are those in our day,

the liberal scholars and theologians who try to say, oh,

this is just a parable. This is not a literal teaching

because they want to diminish the doctrine of hell from the

Bible. And they say, well, it's not

literal flames. It's just a place of separation

and it's not a place of eternal torment.

It is a place of eternal torment and literal flames.

That's what Jesus said here and he did.

He noticed he doesn't. Call it a parable, for one

thing. You see that I need you to look

at your Bibles. To see double checked me there.

But he doesn't call it a parable and notice that he uses proper

names. Lazarus was a real person and

Abraham was a real person that really lived.

Jesus is not telling a parable here.

He's telling a literal happening to real people who literally

existed and literally died and literally went to hell and went

to and eternity in heaven. Now I'll get I'll get into that

a little bit more because Lazarus didn't technically go to

heaven. He went to Abraham's bosom.

We'll deal with that just a little bit later in the message.

But I want to make this very clear up front.

This is not just the story, this is a literal account.

Notice that he talks about a certain rich man.

This rich man is meant to embody the materialistic lifestyle of

the Pharisees, and Jesus teaches this to them.

Through this true story, we'll see that the the contrast

between these new men, two men, is a warning.

It's a warning to those who live for the pleasures of this life,

to those who live materialistic lives.

To those who put all their value in right here and right now.

Because one day right here, right now is not going to be

what it is today. This world's going to change.

Everything in this world that we live in now is transitory.

It's just. Temporary, but there is a one

final eternity that's coming and you need to prepare.

Yourself for it, friend. Verse 19 He says there was a

certain rich man. Which was?

Clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day,

he he lived a lavish and luxurious lifestyle.

We see that he lived a completely different lifestyle

than Lazarus. Did they live?

2 completely different lives on earth.

Notice that he was clothed. In purple and fine linen.

Purple was the color of royalty. It was the color of that was

very rare in. Society, it was made.

From these clam shells that they got in the Phoenician seafaring

trade. And so to get one of those

purple dyed garments was not only.

Extraordinarily expensive and extravagant.

It was a display. It was a statement.

That you would make in society. We see the trade.

Wars going on with. The the US right now and the

rest of the world. And some wouldn't call it a

trade war. Whatever you want to.

Call it tariffs and. Trade well in their day that to

to get purple, you had to get it through trade.

It was very expensive and he wore that.

He wore that not not just because it was available and it

was what he bought in the store. He wear it to make a statement

and he had that fine linen. Which probably came from India

and. Egypt, again, it was, it was

very expensive and it was a rare combination that showed that he

was wealthy, he had money and he wanted.

Everyone to know says he fared sumptuously everyday that that

ideas. That he he was continuously

feasting in luxury. I mean, it was, it was non-stop

he fared that that idea that he fared was that it was a

continual feast of. Banquets and extravagance means.

Splendid luxurious lifestyle. The rich man was was faring

sumptuously every day. But then look at the next

individual. There's certain beggar named

Lazarus which was laid at his gate.

Can I remind you that that the rich man had a gate?

That was not something that that was common in their day.

He had a gate. And Lazarus was laid there at

his gate and and Lazarus, the fact that he was laid there at

his gate, the idea is probably that he was crippled or that he

had some type of bottle bodily physical problem that he

couldn't walk or he couldn't help himself or move himself

along. So the idea was that he was

thrown there and that he was. Put there by someone else.

And so he's, he's a, he's handicapped, we might say.

And and on top of that, he has this problem with his.

With his body, he's full of sores and it says he was

desiring to be fed. With the.

Crumbs. The crumbs.

Imagine. Asking for crumbs.

How hungry are you that you just want crumbs?

So just give me the crumbs. That fell from the rich man's

table. The idea that he was desiring to

be fed does somewhat imply that he never got.

Anything. And so here we we see these two

different men. Lazarus here's at the gate, he's

full of sores and he's begging for for food.

He's begging for just a little bit of sustenance.

And then you have the rich man who is clothed in the most fine

linen and the purple, and he's fairing sumptuously every day

and he's just gorging himself constantly.

And he's totally indifferent to the needs of.

Lazarus, These dogs came and licked his sores.

I'm not. I'm not sure if that's meant to.

Show that he was being comforted by the dogs licking the sores.

That actually made it worse. But I think what we can see is

that the dogs treated Lazarus better than the rich.

Man, but one day an event happened which dramatically

changed their experience. It's an event that will happen

to you one day. They both died.

This, this experience of death, is what John Donne calls.

The great leveller, the great. Leveller It's the inevitable

appointment of death. Death brought to both of them a

great reversal of circumstances. So it came to pass in verse 22

that the beggar died. Notice it doesn't.

Say he was buried. You see that he wasn't buried.

Now I want to remind you, these were Jews and that burial was a

symbol or a token of what would come in the future, that there

would be a resurrection. That's why why, why Christians

and Jews buried, because there was an understanding that by

planting this, this dead body into the ground, that one day

new life would come. And Lazarus didn't even get that

burial. And probably to the Pharisees, I

can imagine they would think, well, if you don't get buried,

you don't get resurrected. And so they didn't they.

He didn't even get a burial. But notice what it says.

He was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom.

Now I want to talk about this a little.

Bit, and I don't want to get too bogged down in this, but

Abraham's bosom is not heaven. It was it was part of what the

Old Testament called hell or the word Sheol in Hebrew, which was

2 compartments of the unsaved dead that were in the the

torment. The place of hell where there

was suffering and where there was torment, but also those that

were believers in the Messiah would be in the, in the part

called Abraham's bosom or paradise.

So you see these two having this discussion back and forth one

another, right? And there's, he says that

there's this great gulf fix. So somehow they can't get to

them. They, they can't go to the other

place. Those that are in Abraham's

bosom can't go to hell and those that are in hell can't go to

Abraham's bosom. But we understand this, that

while they're in that place of comfort, they are experiencing

bliss, comfort. Those over here are being

tormented, they're burning, they're, they're crying out for

mercy and there's, there's no mercy.

And so Lazarus went to Abraham's bosom.

Now we know this and I'm, I'm going to say this up front so we

can move on with the message that when Jesus died, was buried

and resurrected and went to heaven, that all the Old

Testament Saints that were in that place were then able to go

to heaven because Jesus put the blood on the mercy seat.

And because he died, was buried and rose again from the dead.

Now we can, we can be in the presence of God, we can, we can

actually be in the presence of God because of what Jesus did.

But at this time Jesus hadn't done his work yet.

And so those that died went to Abraham's bosom if they were

saved, if they were believers. And those that were unbelievers

who rejected God went to hell. And, and hell is a temporary

place as well, because one day it says in the Book of

Revelation that God will take all that are out of hell and

they will stand at the great white throne of judgement.

Why don't you turn there with me?

Revelation, Revelation chapter 20, verse 11, Revelation chapter

Revelation 20:11 Revelation 20 · chapter mention

20 and verse 11. And I saw a great white throne

and him that sat on it from. Whose face the earth and heaven

fled away, and there was found no place for them.

And I saw the dead, the dead, small and great.

That rich man is going to be here.

The dead, small and great stand before God, and the books were

opened and another book was open.

Which is the book? Of life and the dead were judged

out of those things which were written in the books according

to their works. This is a judgment in which may

will be judged according to his works, but the but the whole

point of the judgment is not to determine where they're going to

go. It's to determine their level of

punishment based on what they did.

Not all sin is the same. And God records all the sins of

mankind and he will have a righteous just judgment against

all sin. And, and it says here that he's

going to judge them according to their works.

And notices that the sea gave up the dead which were in it and

death in hell. Hell delivered up the dead which

were in them. They've been in hell for however

many years, hundreds of years, thousands of years, however long

they've been there. They would be conjured up and

stand before God, and then they will be cast in the lake of fire

for all eternity. Death and Hell were cast in the

Lake of Fire. This is the second death, and

whosoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast

into the Lake of Fire. So those that are in Abraham's

bosom, they were able to go to heaven.

Now when a believer dies today, they're in Christ.

They go straight to the presence of the Lord.

But those that are in hell are still there.

They're they are crying out for mercy.

They're crying out in torment. They are not getting any relief

and they will never get any relief.

And one day they're going to be called up out of hell and stand

before God at the great white throne judgment.

And God is going to read to them all of their works and they will

be sentenced for eternity to the lake of fire.

This is a real thing. Wow, sobering.

So Lazarus is comforted, but I want you to see what happened to

the rich man. It came to pass.

The beggar died and was carried by the angels in Abraham's

bosom. The rich man also died.

He was buried. See that he was buried.

And in hell he lift up his eyes. It's the word Hades.

It's the it's like the underworld is what the word

terms. He woke up in hell being in

torments. That's present tense torments.

And you see, if Abraham afar off, and Lazarus, and his bosom,

he. Recognizes.

Them again, this must be literal and he cried and said, Father

Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may dip the

tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am

tormented in this flame. I just want to say this right up

front that this is not a revival that he's having in hell.

The rich man in his pride and in his arrogance, even as he's

there in hell, is crying out for Lazarus to serve him like he's

just his servant still. He's he's not realized yet that

you're no longer a rich man. You don't have power over people

anymore. Now you're a beggar and that's

all you're going to do for all eternity is beg and beg.

And Lazarus is not here to help you anymore.

You're the beggar now. In his.

Arrogance. And in his pride, he cries out

to Abraham to be treated like he's a rich.

Man. But he's not a rich man anymore.

He's a beggar. All he wants was the notice.

All he wanted was a drop of water.

Remember Lazarus? All he wanted was some crumbs.

What he's getting is just we have to fight the temptation to

think that. Hell is too cruel and that

somehow the righteous God of the universe has miscalculated.

By punishing people in hell, he is not miscalculated.

He's giving them exactly what they deserve.

Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receiveth

is thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things.

But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.

And beside all this between US. And you there's a great Gulf fix

so that they which wouldn't pass from hence to you cannot neither

can they pass to us that would come from thence.

Now we may be tempted to think at this point in the message

that the reason that the rich man went to hell was because he

was rich, and the reason that Lazarus went to heaven was

because he begged. But that's not why I said at the

beginning of the message, there's no poverty, there's no

merit in poverty. And there's no vice in wealth.

We see in this next section exactly why.

Exactly why? They ended up this way in

eternity, he says to Abraham. Still dictating the way things

should happen as. A a proud Sinner in hell, he

said. I pray thee therefore, Father.

That that would have send him to my father's house, for I have 5

brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come

into this place of torment. You know what he said?

Could you have someone go to my family and tell them so they

won't come here? And this is what Abraham said.

Abraham saith the name. They have Moses and the.

Prophets let them hear them. God had already spoken.

Did you, did you catch that God had already spoken through the

Scriptures? He says they have the

scriptures. Let them hear them.

He said, nay, father, you see, he's still wrestling with God's

plan. He he does, he doesn't get it at

all. He says nay, father Abraham.

But if one went from unto them from the dead, they will repent.

Can I remind you that Jesus rose again from the dead and not

everyone repented. Jesus rose Lazarus from the dead

different Lazarus from this text, Lazarus from the dead.

And what did they do? They didn't repent and and say

God have mercy on our souls. They said we got to kill Lazarus

because if we don't kill Lazarus, people are going to

start believing in Jesus and then we'll lose our power.

He. Says no, you're not going to,

You're not going to change the way God's designed it if they

don't. Listen to Moses and the

prophets. They're not going to listen if

someone rises. Again, from the dead.

They hear, not Moses and the prophets.

Neither will be persuaded, though. 1 rose from the dead

there's. Listen to me this morning,

folks. There's no amount of miracles

God could do for you that will change.

If you will not respond to the eternal revelation of God's

Word, then you're not going to respond to anything else God

does, because what He's given to us is sufficient to understand

the things of God and the things of eternity and His plan for

salvation. And, and, and this is the main

truth that I want to get across to you this morning, is that

Lazarus was comforted in Abraham's bosom and the rich man

was tormented hell. Because of their.

Response to divine revelation because of how they.

Responded to the truth of the Word of God and I I'm very

concerned. This morning.

That there are a lot of people that sit in.

Church on a regular. Basis and think that they're

good with God because they're hearing scripture preached.

And taught, but they're not responding.

That's a dangerous place to be, folks.

When you get to a place where you can hear God speak and

respond negatively, So what? Yeah, that's just what the

preacher says. That's not just what the

preacher says, it's what God says.

You will spend eternity either tormented in hell or comforted

in God's presence based on how you respond to the truth of

God's Word. The gospel message is so clear,

folks. It's so clear that a child can

understand, but it's so humbling that adults often reject it.

Jesus died as a substitutionary sacrifice in the place of

sinners. I mean, upon him was placed all

the sins of the world. And and I'm not just talking

about the elect, I'm talking about all because we're not

Calvinists. We believe God died for all

people. We believe he would have all men

to be saved and that he made a way for all people to come into

the knowledge of the truth and understand the truth.

And this is what he's saying is that you have Moses.

What is Moses? Moses would be the law and the

10 commandments to show you that you have, you have not met God's

moral standard. You are a Sinner.

You are guilty before God judicially and that God as the

judge must punish you because of your sins.

But here's the message of the prophets.

The message of the prophets is that no, there's good news

because one day there's someone coming who's going to save all

mankind. He's going to die on the cross.

He's going to be buried, taking all our sins away to the grave.

Oh, but up from the grave, he's going to rise again.

And all who place their faith and trust in Him.

Will be saved. Have you done that this morning?

I can't tell you if you're saved or not.

All I can tell you is that if you've.

Placed your faith. And trust in Jesus Christ and if

you've repented of your sins. You're saved on the authority.

Of the Word of God, not the preacher.

But if you've never done that, my friend, you are in danger of

eternal torment in hell and then in the lake of fire.

So if you're if you're not born again this morning, the

application to you is clear. You need to get saved.

You need to place your faith in Jesus Christ.

You need to turn from everything else in this world that you're

trusting in, the materialism or other gods or whatever it is,

and you need to place your faith in Jesus Christ.

That's your only hope. But I I see a lot of great

application here for Bible believing Christians who come to

church every week. Don't you?

Because we can. We can be so materialistic.

We can be like the rich man in a sense to where we live, like

there is no eternity coming. God preached this to me first

before He had me preach it to you.

Because we can live and go about our lives like good Americans

and go to the grocery store and go to the restaurants and do

what we want to do with our lives and not be a witness to

people and not give ourselves to telling people about this very

important message. Because we don't want to be

accused of being radical or we don't want to be accused of

being a fire and brimstone preachers.

You don't need to be a fire and brimstone preacher.

You just give them a track, just be a witness.

Tell people about what Jesus did for you.

Tell people about about the hope that he has for their souls.

But but please listen to this. Your family that's not saved are

going to go to hell if they're not saved.

Your Co workers, those people that you, that you live next to

your neighbors, every person is going to face eternity.

What are you going to do as a Christian?

Are you going to live in light of these two eternal realities?

Or are you going to buy into some?

Of the ideas that are out there. Well, it's all kind of the same

Muslims. Are sincere, probably more

sincere than most of us this morning, but they're going to

hell because they're placing their faith and trust.

Outside of Jesus Christ, Catholics are sincere.

They are. I was one.

God saved me at 18 years old as an altar boy out of Catholicism

through the power of the gospel message.

But they're lost. They need a savior.

And those who just they, they don't have any.

Concern. They're indifferent.

One day they're going to face eternity folks.

So I want to I want to leave the message with you at this point

that you would consider. How am I living in light of

these two? Eternal realities and is.

There is there a need for me to perhaps get more serious?

About my Christian faith. Or, and I, and I can just say

this as I, as I minister Grace Bible Baptist Church in

Connecticut and I've, I've heard people talk and, and you know,

we, we go out on visitation and I've, I've seen this and, and

I'm not accusing anyone in particular.

I myself can be subject to this, but this idea, oh, we have to go

out and knock on people's doors. That's so inconvenient to my

schedule. Not in light of eternity.

Not in light. Of an eternal hell to give a

person a track to knock on their door, to talk to them for a few

minutes. It's really not a lot to ask, is

it? And I want to remind you, it's

not your pastor asking you to do it.

It's God asking. You to do it because the Great

Commission is not an option to be considered.

It's a. Command to be obeyed.

So I'm going. To ask that you stand with me

and as we prepare for invitation.

Would would you? Would you seriously consider

this message? Not because I'm.

Preaching it. Because it's God's word.

Would you? Seriously consider your part in

reaching souls for eternity. Would you seriously consider if

you yourself? Have made this decision to trust

Christ as Savior and if not, I want to encourage you today.

You can. You can get right with God

today. Thank you for listening to this

sermon from the pulpit of Liberty Baptist Church.

If this message was a blessing to you, or if there's any way we

can serve you, please let us know by contacting us at

[email protected]. Or you can visit us this Sunday

at 800 Washington St. in Easton, MA.

May the Lord bless you as you grow in His Word.