All right, if you have your Bibles, open your Bibles up this morning to the Gospel of Luke. The Gospel of Luke chapter 16 is where we're going to be in our text this morning. I've entitled this morning's message Heaven and Hell, Fact or Fiction. Now, as we listen to the teachings of Jesus, and for me, at this time in my life, I've been a Christian now for 42 years, 43 years coming up on Easter Sunday, what I find is they are so powerful in speaking to my heart even today, maybe way more than when I first read them. And why is that? Because I realize that the Christian life Being a disciple is a life of constant perpetual motion, constant change, constant learning. We never stop growing. We should not stop growing. And we never stop being transformed either, changed and sanctified. The key is to remain open and teachable. I was talking to someone this week about the difference between being justified and sanctified. When we give our lives to Christ, we come to him by faith. We bow our hearts before him and say, Lord, I surrender. I want to follow you from this day forward. And he comes in, seals us with the Holy Spirit. We're instantaneously justified before God, declared innocent. And our sins are forgiven. But then after that a process starts called sanctification. And that's where the Lord begins to really work in our lives or root things out of our lives. And that takes sometimes a long time or a lifetime even. And so we're always growing. And so on a personal level as a Christian, I find that God is always working in my life in different, not lives, I'm not schizophrenic, but my life in different areas. I don't think I am. But anyways, he's working on my character. A lot of times I find the Lord's working on my attitude. Sometimes the Lord is working on my use of the tongue. Sometimes the Lord is working in the area of patience in my life. There's just a lot of things I find that The Lord does, and as disciples, the really cool thing, you've heard me say this many times, but the word disciple simply means a pupil, a student, or a learner. So we're constantly learning. Now, and I would say this, for most of us, I think there's still room for growth and there's still room for repentance. And so as I find myself traveling down the Christian road on the way to the celestial city, if you've read that book, the Holy Spirit often convicts me and says, Joseph, you need to change this, or I want you to work on this with your words or your tongue and how you're using your tongue. And I'm often convicted about lots of different things. Sometimes I've been convicted about almost everything that we ever learn in the scripture. We've been learning about lately. Convicted about the use of money, material things, perhaps putting other things before the Lord in my life. I've done that a few times. Hobbies or hunting or golf or tennis or whatever. And there's been so many times when the Lord has convicted me because it's easy for us to get our priorities out of order. And so a lot of times as Christians we'll come under the conviction of the Holy Spirit, the correction of the Holy Spirit, and thus we learn that there are still things that need to be changed in our lives as believers. And I think that's a good thing because it's God's grace that teaches us and we need to have a humble, teachable heart. And that's really important when we come to, even to the service, that we would come here with a heart saying, Lord, I want you to speak to me. I want you to teach me. Lord, I want to bear fruit, the fruit of the Spirit in my life. That's something that I want. And so let's pray to that end as we get started here. Let's open up with prayer. Father, we do thank you for this time in the word. I pray that you'd prepare our hearts. And Lord, if there's things that need to be changed in our lives today that you, Lord, would just have your way, have your will in us, and bring about those changes that are gonna glorify you and honor you. So we commit our time to you now and ask for you to bless it. In Jesus' name, amen. Look at verse 19 in Luke chapter 16. That's where our text begins this morning. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and he 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 agony or torment in this flame. But Abraham said, son, remember that in your lifetime, you received your good things. And likewise, Lazarus received evil things. But now he is comforted, and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you, there was a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot. "'nor can those from there pass to us.' "'Then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, "'that you would send him to my father's house, "'for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, "'lest they also come to this place of torment.' "'Abraham said to him, "'They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.' "'And he said, no, Father Abraham, "'but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.' Now I've mentioned before that Jesus spoke about the subject of money, material things, more than any other subject that he ever spoke about. And he did that for good reason. And I think if we're honest, we know that money plays a huge role or influence in our lives, in our thinking, our motivation, why we do what we do. I've watched over the years people in our church, people that I've known that have said, Pastor, we're moving to such and such a place, and we're going to go move over there because I'm getting a real big raise. And so they end up moving. And then I've had them call me afterwards, Pastor, Pastor, it's horrible over here. We don't have a place to go to church. There's no good Bible-believing church. And I honestly think to myself, you should have probably checked on that before you left and made sure that That was gonna be the priority. And a lot of times we put the material things above the spiritual things in our lives and we make bad decisions. And so the dollar shouldn't be the deciding factor in why we do what we do. We should be saying, Lord, what is it that you want me to do and how is this gonna be beneficial to me and my family spiritually? So we know that money can really move us sometimes in directions maybe that we shouldn't even be going. But the Pharisees, they had, remember, an issue with money. And that's why this story that we're going to read is tied into money. It's tied into what Jesus already was talking to them about in the context. And the context is so important. Look back at verse 13 and verse 14. No servant can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon. Mammon means worldly gain or it can mean money. Verse 14, now the Pharisees, now notice where their heart was at, who were lovers of money. also heard all these things, and they derided him." So when they hear what Jesus is talking about here concerning money and a correct view of money, they get mad about it. They deride him. They scoff. They attack him. And so they didn't like what he had to say. And so this story, it's not misplaced at all. This story about the rich man Lazarus is not misplaced at all because in our context, Jesus is dealing with the Sadducees and the Pharisees and those in the crowd that did have a problem with money. Look at verse 14 and verse 15 together now. Now the Pharisees who were lovers of money also heard all these things, and they derided him, and he said to them, you are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is highly esteemed among men, to them it was money and wealth and material things, what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Now keep in mind that the religious teaching of the day of Jesus at that time was not too much unlike what we might hear today in some church circles. Because what was being taught back then by the Pharisees, by the scribes, by the rabbis is that It went like this, that if you were wealthy, that meant this, that meant if you were wealthy, that God had blessed you and God's favor was upon you. And because his favor was upon you, then that's why you had lots and lots of bucks. They were connecting these dots. But they also taught this, that if you were poor or you were sick, things weren't going well in your life, and you weren't financially well off or healthy, then you were not blessed by God, therefore there must be something wrong in your life spiritually, and that's the reason that you are poor or that you are sick. Now obviously they said that you were under God's disfavor. Today it's preached just like that in many churches. Now the question is did, you know, Any of you get taught that? I hope you didn't, but if you have, well then we're going to address that. But there's another question, and this is a little bit different, but there's another question I want to ask you this morning, just to kind of tie this in with a little illustration. How many of you guys ever remember watching the show, or do you remember the show? It was on from 2003 to 2016. It was a show called Mythbusters. Did anybody ever see that? It was pretty neat. It was kind of a cool show. It was about these two guys and they would learn about all these different myths and then they would decide to put them to the test. Sometimes it was scientific experiments, sometimes all kinds of different things. And so they would see if it was a myth or it could be substantiated by a reenactment or an experiment. And I remember one of the ones that they did is they had heard about this urban legend about this guy in Los Angeles who decided to fill up a bunch of helium balloons and then tie them to his lawn chair and see if he could fly. And he supposedly flew over Los Angeles, and he took a BB gun with him so he could shoot the balloons and let the air out and then come down softly. And so that was the urban legend, and they put it to the test. Now, I wanted to look it up because I remember them doing that, but I wanted to see if I could find any details. And come to find out, there's now a guy who has done this. He does it on YouTube all the time. He flies all over the place with balloons like that. And he's done it with an office chair. He's done it with a lawn chair. He's done it with a... like a big dollhouse. He did it like that. I mean, he's done all of it. I think his record is 400 or 500 miles flying, you know, and it's just crazy. And so the myth of that, you know, myth buster thing is, yeah, that's possible. Well, Jesus, he comes along here and there's a biblical myth that was being taught by the Sadducees and the Pharisees. And the thing is that he's basically busting their theology and changing, hopefully, their view or their thinking because it was totally wrong. And Jesus did that often. He would come along and he would teach something that just flipped everything upside down, or what I say, right side up. So this story, and remember, many believe that this is not a parable. This is a real story. And what this does is it It contradicts or corrects a wrong teaching or a wrong mindset that they were saying if you were blessed of God and you had a lot of money, or that means you were blessed of God and you had a lot of money, that means you were good with God and that you were obviously a holy person. But if you were poor and things weren't going well in your life, then you were under God's disfavor. That was the mindset that was there. But what we're going to learn about this story, because in this story, Lazarus, who was really, really, really poor, he ends up in heaven. The rich man ends up in hell. And this totally, I'm sure, shocked those that were listening, because when they looked at everything from an outward perspective, from a worldly perspective, it shouldn't have been that way. Now, we know that Lazarus obviously was a man of faith, even though he didn't have much in life. But here's the thing, if you have faith in the heart, that's what makes a person truly rich. And it's not how much money you have in your bank account or the kinds of clothes that you wear or the kind of house that you own or the kind of car that you drive. That's really not what real riches are about. Let's look at verse 19. Let's start picking this story apart. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. Now, at first glance, we might look and say, man, this guy, he had it made, right? You think about it. He had everything in life that men esteem. He had everything that men desire and lived for or live for and often will strive to attain. And it says that he lived in luxury. He had a bank account. He had riches. He had the best possible duds or clothing, right? He wore purple and fine linen, which spoke in that culture of the best of the best. Purple was a very, very expensive thing, clothing that was purple, because it came from a shellfish, and it took a long process and a lot of these little shellfish to make. this purple and to dye their clothing that way. And so it was a long process. And so the color purple was the color that kings wore of royalty. It was worn by princes and nobles or the very, very wealthy. They also wore fine linen. And it was imported from Egypt. It was made from flax that grew on the Nile. And it was very soft, real, real white. And it was worn, once again, by the extremely wealthy of that day. It was kind of like, if you wore those clothes, it was kind of like showing off. You were strutting around, look how wealthy I am, like a peacock or something. Now this man was dressed in the finest that money could buy. We're also told that he fared sumptuously every day. He had the best of the best food. He didn't have to eat ramen noodles or bologna sandwiches. I call them sandwiches just to make my wife mad. Sandwiches. And so he didn't have to do that. You come over to my house, my grandkids come over. Grandpa, what are you going to make us for dinner? Ramen noodles. And I get them out of there and they come in that little package and I pour water in there and put it in the microwave. That's my specialty. So anyway, he didn't have to eat that kind of stuff. He fared sumptuously. He probably ate ribeye and prime rib and filet mignon and caviar. He didn't have anything his heart desired, he had. The best of the best. So on the surface of things, we would say, or the world might look at this guy, or that theology would look at that guy and go, man, he had the blessings of God. He was under the favor of God. He must really, really be a godly man. Because look at what he has. That probably was going to the Pharisees who loved money and who taught that very teaching, that money equaled blessing. Now, look at verse 20 and verse 21. Now, we notice something here right off the bat that teaches us, and many scholars believe this, when we look at this verse 20, it says there was a certain beggar named Lazarus. And that's why many believe this is a real story, this was not a parable, because Jesus never used proper names or people's names in parables. But here is a beggar named Lazarus. I don't know if you guys like movies based on true stories, I really like those. when they're true stories and they're usually heart-wrenching or they just bring you to tears. Well, this is a true story, I believe. Now, what I love is that the Lord calls Lazarus by name. On earth he was a nobody, but in heaven he's a somebody. And Jesus calls each of us his sheep by name. and he belonged to the Lord, but the rich man, he didn't belong to the Lord, and his name isn't even, he's not even named, he's nameless in the story, right? He had a name on earth, but not in the life after. Now, Lazarus is in the exact opposite predicament in life, or place in life, that the rich man was because Look at how he's dressed, probably clothed in dirty, stinky rags. Instead of having everything in life that his heart desired, he had nothing. He was reduced to begging. He was so poor. He was probably a horrific sight to look at. When you saw him, you probably just want to turn away from looking at him because he was covered, Jesus said, with sores. And apparently his health was so bad, he was so ill, he couldn't even walk. He had to be carried and laid at the rich man's gate to beg. He was disabled. And if you were in that condition in Israel, according to the law of God, if you had some sort of skin disease, you weren't even allowed to go worship in the temple. And if you had leprosy or something, you would be actually ostracized from the community, so that his life was in shambles. Plus, we learned that he was so poor that he was starving, right? I mean, he was put there to beg, but he was starving, because look what it says in verse 21. Desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. So here's this guy, Lazarus, and he's starving. And the idea of crumbs here is interesting because in our culture, whenever we're eating, we don't eat with our hands most of the time. We use forks and spoons and all that, right? Or chopsticks or something. In that culture, they ate with their hands or their fingers. most of the time. And in our culture, when our hands get dirty, we grab a napkin, you know, I know at my house, on the grocery list often, the day that I have this thing on our phones, and I'll say, do we need anything for the house? And she says, it's on the grocery list. And so I'll go over there, yep, you know, and there's a list. And so I go to Walmart or Albertsons or Food Basket or something and I go down the list and I check it off as I get it. Well, often on our list is napkins, right? Because we have a lot of grandkids. Napkins and paper towels, because when you have grandkids, there's messes, right? Spills almost every single time. But they didn't have that back then. They didn't have washing machines and all the conveniences that we have. So what they would do, instead of having napkins and all that, what they would do is when they were eating and their hands got greasy or whatever, their culture, they had bread, bread, bread, bread everywhere. So they ate bread all the time, but what they would do is they would take the bread and they would wipe their hands and get the grease and stuff off of their hands, then they would throw the bread under the table. So that was called the crumbs. And so Lazarus was desiring, starving, and it says, the desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Now imagine that you were so hungry that you desired to eat, you know, what was from someone else's dirty hands even. You know, that would have been for you a feast. And so poor Lazarus, right? Stomach constantly growling. You know, people will say today, man, I'm starving. Any of you ever said that and you're guilty of lying? You're not really starving, right? You're just hungry, and so you say you're starving. He was probably really starving, right? Stomach constantly growling. Now, what we shouldn't miss, though, about this story, and I want to point this out, is that sin comes in different forms. There is what is called the sin of commission. The sin of commission means doing what you're not supposed to do. You know that something's wrong and you do it anyway. That's the sin of commission. But there's another sin and it's a sin that probably a lot of us get guilty of without thinking about it. It's the sin of omission. And the sin of omission is knowing the good that you ought to do, but you don't do it. This is probably the rich man's sin here in this story, the sin of omission. Because it seems like he just ignores the poor man Lazarus and does nothing when he could have done something to help him. Turn with me, and this was part of the law of God, by the way. God commanded the children of Israel to be sensitive to those that were way less fortunate than themselves, and in the law, they were commanded to do something. Let's turn over and I'll show you what the Lord commanded to Moses to the children of Israel. And so if you'll turn with me over to the book of Deuteronomy, and we're gonna be in chapter 15, beginning at verse seven. Deuteronomy 15 verse 7, it says, is there any among you, if there is any among you, a poor man of your brethren, within any of the gates of your land which the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart nor shut your hand from the poor brother. But you shall open your hand wide to him and willingly lend him sufficient for his need, whatever he needs. Beware lest there be a wicked thought in your heart saying, the seventh year, the year of release is at hand, and your eye be evil against your poor brother, and you give him nothing. And he cry out to the Lord against you, and it become sin among you. You shall surely give to him, and your heart should not be grieved when you give to him, because for this thing the Lord your God will bless you in all of your works, and in all to which you put your hand. For the poor will never cease from the land. Jesus even said that, the poor you'll always have with you. He says, therefore I command you, saying, you shall open your hand wide to your brother, to your poor and needy in your land. So this was a command to the nation of Israel, to the people of God, to do that. They were commanded to be compassionate and share with the poor. And I'm gonna say this, as a PS, God still cares about this issue. Now, verse 21 tells us, moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. Obviously, he's covered with sores, they're oozing, gross, right? The bad gross, not the good gross, the bad gross. They're oozing, you know, and so this sounds gross, doesn't it? A dog coming and licking the sores. Now, I know a lot of you are dog lovers, right? But I wanna say this, dogs do gross stuff sometimes. Not your dog, but other people's dogs, right? So anyway, but in particular, this poor guy, even the dogs, the dogs are caring more about him than the rich man was. The rich man apparently was indifferent. The rich man was so self-absorbed, self-indulgent, self-centered, self-consumed, that he just ignored Lazarus. He paid no thought to the plight of Lazarus. To him, Lazarus was like non-existent even. He was like one of the dogs of the neighborhood. Why should he worry about Lazarus when he himself had everything that he needed? Now sadly at this point, the Pharisees who viewed, remember, anyone in Lazarus' condition as being cursed by God or under the curse of God were probably tracking perfectly in the story up till now. Right? But now Jesus, the myth buster, he shows up and he says something in verse 22 that literally probably blew their minds. Because look what he says in verse 22. And so it was that the beggar died. and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried, and being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Now at this point, there was probably, when Jesus says this, it was probably like a short circuit in their minds, right? Because they're like, what, wait, wait, wait, wait. I think you got it backwards, Jesus. You must be mixing up the two. Because in the Pharisees' minds, it was the rich man that was obviously blessed of God that was going to go to heaven after he died. And the poor man, not being blessed of God, under the curse of God, was not going to end up in heaven. So they're probably thinking, this is not plausible. This is not true. Now, we see some very stark contrast in this story. Only this time, they're not in this earthly life. But they are in the life after this earthly life. Dare I say this to remind all of you, that every one of you are going to live eternally. We are eternal beings. We're gonna live eternally, as one preacher said, in glory, or eternally in flames. Those are the two choices. So there's a life that will continue eternally after this life. A lot of, sad today, how many people commit suicide, isn't it? You hear it all the time. And I think they think to themselves, man, my life's so horrible, so miserable, I'm just gonna get out of this life and go to a better one. That's not necessarily true, especially if you're not saved. It's not gonna be better in the next life. You know, so we're going to continue to live for eternity somewhere. So Lazarus dies, the rich man dies as well. Now we're not told anything about either of them too much, but we see that, you know, obviously Lazarus, when he dies, there probably was not, you know, a big old funeral. There was a place that was used to bury people, not even bury them, but a place where, for people like Lazarus, it was called the Valley of Gehenna, or Gehenna. It was outside of Jerusalem, and it was there that the bodies would be dumped in a ditch to be burned. There was no fancy funeral, there was no mourning, there was no playing music, there was no eulogy probably at his funeral, no nice words, nothing. He lived alone and pretty much he died alone. Now he did have somebody that would take him and lay him at the beggars, I mean at the rich man's gate, but we don't know, like was that a family member, was it a kind neighbor, we don't know. But pretty much death comes now to, and I say pretty much mercifully to Lazarus because he lived a life of hardship, a life of misery, of suffering. He had it rough, he had it lonely, he was unloved, uncared for by humans at least. Even the dogs cared for him more it seems like than humans did. One person put it like this about this story. He says, one gives up his sorrow to enter joy. The other gives up his joy to enter sorrow. Now, notice the rich man also dies. And the book of Ecclesiastes says this. It says that death is the destiny of every man. And I'll quote this guy in a minute, but death is really the great equalizer, isn't it? Because Solomon says the living should take this to heart. Hebrews 9.27 says, it is appointed unto men once to die and after that to face judgment. So the rich man's riches didn't keep him from dying. His nice clothes, his affluence, none of that could save him from death. And how true it is. The book of Proverbs says, wealth is worthless on the day of wrath. So it was a guy named John Doane that said, death is the great equalizer, the great leveler. Psalm 49 verse 16 says, do not be overawed when a man grows rich, when the splendor of his house increases, for he will take nothing with him when he dies. His splendor will not descend with him. He too will join the generation of his fathers in death. So the rich and poor. They have this in common, that death is their destiny, and when they die, they don't take anything with them. So both the rich man and the beggar have this now in common. They both died. And death is no respecter of persons. Now, they have something in common. Ecclesiastes 5.15 says this. It's a sober reminder to all of us about our worldly goods, our worldly stuff. It says this. Naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. He takes nothing from his labor that he can carry in his hand. So when we come into this world, we come in naked, and when we leave, same thing pretty much. We leave naked, right? We take nothing with us. Now granted, the rich man when he died, he probably had a nice, large, expensive funeral. No expenses were spared, probably had a big to-do, probably had mourners there mourning his loss. Now by the way, in case he wasn't very well liked, the rich could do this. They could actually hire professional mourners. So they would come, so let's say you were having this big old funeral and no one's crying. These people were hired just to come cry and wail and weep at your funeral so it seemed like people cared. So they would do that. But he probably had somebody giving a eulogy and talking about his life and how blessed he was of God and obviously he's with the Lord because look how the Lord blessed his life here in this world. But behind the veil of death, Jesus takes us behind that. And something totally shocking happens because Jesus removes the veil and Lazarus, who was considered God-forsaken, he is carried. When he dies, man, it's so cool. He gets carried. It's like the Lord says, go pick up Lazarus in the angel limo, you know, or whatever. And the angels carry him to Abraham's bosom. How cool is that? Getting carried by angels? And then it says, you know, you talk about an awesome after-death experience, escorted to paradise by angels. Now, however, there's a stark contrast and it's kind of like just real blunt. It says that the rich man, we're told, he went directly to Hades and that he was in sorrow. He was in agony. He was in torment. I can almost see the Pharisee's eyes getting bigger and bigger, right? As Jesus is telling this story, there's jaws dropping. They're probably thinking, no way, how can this be? Surely this rich man, he's the one that should be in paradise. And Lazarus should be in Hades. That was their wrong theology. And Jesus is busting that myth. And so he, Jesus tells a whole different story. And a lot of times people have it wrong, don't they, about life after death. Admittedly, there's a lot of myths and speculations about death. And a lot of it is just stuff that men make up. I think men make up stuff like this just to make themselves feel better. For example, there's a teaching called reincarnation. It's popular among some of the major religions, I think, Buddhism, Hinduism, but it's popular just in the world as well. And for example, there's a lady named, you probably remember this lady, her name's Shirley MacLaine. Remember her? She was a famous person. She became famous because, well, she was sort of a person that was into writing books and preaching at seminars and all that about reincarnation. And I looked her up, and she's still alive, actually. I thought she was a goner already. I thought she would have discovered that reincarnation is not real. But not yet. But anyway, and so that's what she taught. It's popular. And a lot of people think that. Oh, yeah, I'm going to die, and then I'm going to come back again, and live again, and then I'm going to come back again, and live again, and blah, blah, blah. I'm going to come back. If I wasn't that good, I'm going to be a dumb elk, and Joseph's going to kill me and eat me or something. Whatever, and so, not that elk are dumb, they usually outsmart me, so that's the bad part. But anyways, you know, that's one of the popular teachings of today. And people will say, you know, there's, you die and you go through this tunnel and it's warm and it's gonna be beautiful and everyone is gonna go there. Well, just read Matthew chapter 25, verse 31 through 36, and there's the sheep and the goats and the sheep get taken into heaven and they're in eternal life in heaven, the goats are in eternal punishment. So it's not gonna be the way some people think it's gonna be. You see, when people die, that doesn't mean you automatically go to heaven. And there's another teaching called universalism. It's popular today. That if you die, don't worry about it, because in the end, God's gonna let everybody go to heaven. And that's another lie that people hold onto. I think it's a red flag. When men are left to their own imaginations, they'll fall prey to all kinds of crazy, weird speculations, but what we need is a divine revelation of life after death, and that's what we find in this book, and that's what we find in this story, because it tells us what happens. Jesus tells us. We can trust Jesus because Jesus died and rose again, and He is the Son of God. He is divine, and He tells us what's going to happen in this literal story, that both heaven and hell are real places. Lazarus, his heart was right with God, obviously. He was saved by faith, and he was carried to Abraham's bosom. And in Abraham's bosom, in the Old Testament, the way they described it in the Old Testament, there was a place called Sheol, or the grave, or Hades. And in that place were two different places separated from one another. They were separated by this impassable gulf. The rich man went to a place of suffering. He was in a place of torment where the wicked went. Lazarus was with the righteous in paradise. So let's look at verse 23 through 26 as we continue. He says, and being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and he saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and he said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. And said Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue for I am in torment in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us." Now, what a different situation they are in now, right? Their earthly life versus the life after are so, so different. In his earthly life, Lazarus had it rough, man. He had it difficult. But he, even though he had that difficulty, he still lived a life of faith and belief, obviously, in spite of how difficult life was for him. And he gets rewarded with paradise or with heaven. The rich man lived a life of self-indulgence, luxury, opulence, living totally for the here and the now only, indulging in everything that he could indulge in to comfort himself and enjoy life. But now, in the next life, he's in torment. And he cries out in the midst of this place he's at, and there's this great gulf fixed between him and Abraham and Lazarus. He can see them. And I wanna say this, there's this gulf that's fixed, and I wanna say this very clearly. Once you die, your fate is sealed. There is no intermediate state spoken of in the scripture. There's no second chances after death. Purgatory, if you're trusting in purgatory, you're trusting in a man-made myth. That was made up by men centuries after Jesus spoke about heaven and hell. And there's no Bible evidence of purgatory. It's a false hope. So the bottom line is this. You are now either the Lord's or you're not the Lord's. Lazarus was the Lord's. The rich man wasn't. And now they're separated from one another. One went to paradise. The other one went to hell. And there's no crossing over. There's no getting out. Once you're there, you're there for eternity. That is it. And so there is eternal life in heaven or there's eternal suffering in hell or eventually the lake of fire. And that's all there is. And I'm telling you, no amount of prayer is going to get you out of hell once you get there. They can pay a million masses and pay all the money in the world to pray you out of purgatory so you don't go to hell, and if you're already dead and you've decided against Jesus, you're already in hell, and there's no such place as purgatory, so your family's getting ripped off. That's all that's happening. Or if you're a Mormon. I asked my father-in-law one time, Mr. C, hey, Mr. C, you ever been baptized? Yeah, 100 times. What? He must have been a really big sinner, you know, whatever. No, he wasn't baptized a hundred times because he was a big sinner, although maybe he was a sinner like all of us, but he was raised Mormon. And so they would baptize for the dead, thinking that if they baptize someone that wasn't a believer in life, and now that they're dead, if they baptize them, it'll get them out of wherever they're at, the third heaven or wherever they're at. And that's not gonna happen. So there's a lot of myths about life after death, but here's the thing. We look at these two guys, and they're both awake. They're both conscious. The Jehovah's Witnesses deny a literal hell. They teach soul sleep and then annihilation. It's also a farce, it's a man-made teaching. I asked a Jehovah's Witness one time, hey, why do you guys don't believe, why is it that you don't believe what the Bible says about a literal hell and a place of torment? And you know what their answer was? Well, how could a God of love do that to anybody? I'm like, that's your answer? Well, yeah, you know, and I'm like, well, whatever, okay. But the Bible tells us there are two places and that we will be there eternally. Now, hell was spoken of and warned of, like I said earlier, against by Jesus more than anyone else. He calls it a real and a literal place. And so if Jesus says that it is real, it is literal, and it is everlasting, just like heaven is, well, who am I gonna believe? What men say or what Jesus says? I'm not gonna believe anyone that contradicts what Jesus says. Now, I know that hell is not popular. Right, there's even pastors, I've heard pastors say, well, I don't really talk about that. I'm talking about hell. Because it makes people uncomfortable, and they won't wanna come back to church, and you know, whatever. And I'm like, no, it's better to tell them now, so they can get ready, and know Christ, and avoid hell, than lie to them, and then they live however they want, and end up in hell, and curse you for not telling them for the rest of eternity. And so, yeah, I remember when I got saved, Hell was a big catalyst in it. And I thought to myself, man, I don't want to end up in hell. And I knew that I was headed there. The Lord made it clear to me I was headed there. I read Galatians chapter five. There's a list of sins. I was doing almost everything in the list. And it says, I warn you that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. And I saw that and I was like, man, I'm going to hell. And I was like, Lord, please, how do I get out of this? And the Lord said, repent. Turn away from your wicked life. Turn to me and follow me and start to obey me and live for me and trust me. And that's what I did. And man, I'm so thankful for the Lord's mercy. And so notice what the rich man says. We're told he had his own confession, his own testimony. He's testifying and he says this, I am tormented in this flame. The NIV says, I am an agony in this fire. So hell is a place of horrible suffering, horrible agony. And I hear people say stupid stuff like, I'm gonna go to hell and party with my friends. No, you're a ding ding. You're not gonna go to hell and party. You're not gonna have Budweiser's in hell. Charles Spurgeon describes hell like this and the torment of it and your body. He says your body will be prepared in such a way that it'll burn yet ever burn, but never be consumed. Your nerves will be laid raw with searing flame, yet never desensitized for all eternity. You will suffer agonizing pain and experience all the raging fury sin deserves. There will be Acid smoke of the sulfurous flames searing your lungs and choking your breath And you will cry out in agony for mercy of death, but it will never no never come And it sounds horrible doesn't it you know why it sounds horrible because it is It is that's why and don't go there. You don't want to go there so the rich man in Conscious agony is in torment, it is so acute, so painful, that he has a request, and he says, send Lazarus, that he might dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for it is an agony in this fire. It's interesting, James says something about the tongue. He says, the tongue is a fire, a world of evil amongst the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole person and sets his whole life on fire. and is itself set on fire by hell. So he's in agony, man, just put water on my tongue. But someone, Matthew Henry, that old preacher, he said, he who denied a crumb is now denied a drop of water. Heavy, huh? So look at verse 25. So he says, but Abraham said, son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is comforted and you are tormented. Proverbs says this. Whoever shuts his ears to the cry of the poor will also himself cry out and not be heard. What's ironic about this story? The rich man is now the beggar. He's now the one begging. But it's a little different here. And someone wrote this. I don't know who said it, but it's so amazing. He said, it is better to beg bread on earth than to beg just a drop of water in hell. So hell will be a place of begging, but there'll be no help. There'll be no answer. And I want to say this again, and I've heard people say this, oh, the Catholic Church just made up hell just to scare people. No, they didn't. Jesus speaks about hell. The Catholic Church might have made up purgatory to think that you're going to be OK. But hell is what Jesus warns us about. And you know what? It ought to scare us. If hell doesn't scare you, hold on, Aliso. I told you I was gonna say these words. Hell should scare us, and if it doesn't scare us, you know what we are in Bernalillo? You know what we call people that don't listen? Tontos. Or sonsos. What else? Bobo? I never heard that. What? Okay, yeah. That's a new one on me. We didn't use that in Bernalillo. That's too sophisticated for me. But if you don't listen to these warnings from Jesus, you really are being dense. Because every single one of us, and I wanna ask you, where will you live eternally? That's the most important question of all. Now notice the word that's used here, and I gotta hurry. I'm doing better than first service though, but look at verse 25. Verse 25, he says, But Abraham said to him, he asked for just a drop of water. But Abraham said to him, son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things. That word remember is an important one there because someone said one of the torments of hell, the horrors of hell will be remembering that you messed up and misspent and your life was missed opportunities. You should have, you could have, but you didn't. And the lesson is strong here. Don't waste your life knowing what you should do and then not doing it. Because what we do now or do not do now will touch on a string that will reverberate for eternity. Eternity. Now don't miss then that opportunity, the opportunities that God gives you in this life. And I want to exhort you, I mean with all of my heart, and I do love you and I'm exhorting you, that today is the day of salvation. If you haven't got right with God, get right with God today. Don't play around. Don't play spiritual Russian roulette. And if you haven't accepted Christ, if you don't know him and you die, you'll be where the rich man is at. You'll end up there. You will perish and be lost for eternity without the blood of Christ washing away your sins and forgiving you for what you've done. You will perish in your sins. So what we do and do not do now, especially when it comes to Jesus, is going to determine our eternal existence. And so the rich man, he realizes now he's beyond help, he's beyond hope, so he comes up with another idea, a second request. And this one is also denied, and I wanna say this, that the cries and the prayers in hell all go unanswered. But look at 27, verse 27 down to verse 31 as we finish off. Then he said, I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. And so the rich man thinks, man, Abraham, if you just send Lazarus back to talk to my five brothers, I know they'll listen to him. I don't want them to make the same mistake I made and end up here. And what irony, once more, the rich man is begging Lazarus Has it made? And now nothing that he begs for is being answered. And so what does Abraham say to him? Listen, your brothers have the Bible. Your brothers have the testimony of Moses. They had the Old Testament. Now we have way more, right? We have the full counsel of God, the Bible. So I'm telling you, everybody should know what's in this book. Everybody should be reading this book because you need to prepare for finals. And so there's gonna be a final time that we meet the Lord, and if we're not ready, we're in big, big trouble. And so without the Lord, or without what this Bible says to us about the Lord and our relationship with him that's real, you will be lost, you are hopeless, and you will be doomed, period. There is no hope apart from Jesus Christ. And if you think you're going to come back as reincarnated, you're going to be in for a huge shock. Or if you think that you can be a good person and earn your way to heaven, you're gonna be in for a big shock because if that were possible, there was no reason for Jesus to die on the cross. if we could save ourselves somehow, some way. But you know what Jesus said? I'm the resurrection, the life. He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. And so the question comes back, do we believe this? Look at verse 31. But he said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead. So Jesus wants no one to perish or to go to hell. And I wanna say this, if you end up in hell, you're gonna have to climb over Jesus's dead body, if you will, to get there. Because Jesus died so that you could be saved from going there. He shed his blood so you could be forgiven of your sins and not be condemned. And that's so important, but we have to respond to what Jesus says. Because if we don't respond and we ignore it, we ignore that, his message to our own peril. Let's pray. Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the things you teach us. We thank you for these hard stories, Lord. But Lord, we thank you that you don't sugarcoat your word to appease the fancies or the desires. the crazy ideas that men come up with. In fact, Lord, a lot of times you bust those myths right up because you want us to know the real truth. And Lord, your word's very clear. There's a heaven where believers go that have trusted you, that will be with you forever, where there's no more death or mourning or crying or pain. All things are new. And there's also a place of separation, of torment, of weeping, of gnashing of teeth, of eternal suffering, where the worm doesn't die and the flame never goes out, it'll be a place of complete and utter regret and loneliness. Lord, may none of us in this room end up there, especially since you did what you did for us to save us. I pray that every person in this room would respond to you, Jesus. and none of us would perish eternally. I ask for your mercy to be poured out on us and your Holy Spirit to convict us if we need to get right today. In Jesus' name, amen. If you need prayer for any reason and especially if you need to give your life to Christ, there'll be some folks in the prayer room to pray with you, to talk with you. Don't leave here if your life is not right with the Lord because no one knows what's gonna happen when you drive out of here. No one knows how many more chances God's gonna give to you. None of us knows that. What we do know is God gives us today. He gives us now, and we have a decision. If we haven't made a decision, I encourage you to make the right decision, not the wrong one. God bless you, I love you. Have a great week. Have fun watching football today. I am. Because of something that I cannot say. God bless you guys. I love you.