Let's open our Bibles tonight to Luke chapter 16. I've got it just about where I want it now. Luke chapter 16. And we'll begin reading with verse 19 and read through the end of the chapter. Jesus said these words and told this account, Luke 16 and verse 19. Jesus said 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 sowers 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, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great gulf fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house, for I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, that is, they have the Bible, let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." I'm going to use this passage tonight as our text and speak for a while on the subject, Lessons a Rich Man Learned at Death. Father, I need your help tonight and pray that you might help me as I try to preach your word to do so in the power of the Holy Spirit. I pray that the Spirit of God might take the word and apply it where it's needed if there are those who are not saved with us tonight. I pray that they might come to the Lord Jesus and trust him and be saved. And I pray that you might impress upon us the reality of this place called hell and help us to have a desire and a burden to see our loved ones saved and others as well. Please help, I pray tonight, in Jesus' name, amen. There could be no greater contrast than that between the two men that Jesus tells about in the account that we read from Luke chapter 16. And the contrast which existed between them existed both in this life and in the life to come, though in the world to come their roles were reversed from what they had been in this world. The story is of a rich man and a poor man. The rich man wore the finest clothes, ate the finest foods, and lived in the finest of homes, and there's nothing wrong with these things in and of themselves. The rich man's problem was that he had all this money and all this wealth, and thus he thought he didn't need God. The second individual in the story was a poor man by the name of Lazarus. In fact, he was not only a poor man, but he was a beggar. And this beggar lay out at the gate of the rich man's mansion, asking that he might be given the leftovers, the crumbs, from the rich man's table. And this beggar had some kind of terrible disease that caused lesions and sores on his body. And the wild dogs of the streets would come and lick his sores. And so then you have this contrast. The rich man with money to buy whatever he wanted. The poor man who had to beg just to survive. the rich man feasting on the finest delicacies, the poor man eating the leftovers that the rich man threw away, the rich man who wore Armani-type clothes, the poor man who wore rags, the rich man sleeping on silken sheets, the poor man sleeping on cobblestone streets, the rich man when he got sick being ministered to by the most expensive doctors and medicines, the poor man having the sores on his body licked by the dirty wild dogs of the streets and alleys, It would be difficult to imagine a greater contrast. These two men were on opposite ends of the spectrum socially, financially, and also, as we'll see in a moment, spiritually. Now evidently these two men had at some point met and Lazarus had witnessed to this rich man about his need to repent and be saved. Now somebody says, well, why do you say that, preacher? Well, because in the account the rich man asks, verses 27 and 28, that Lazarus be allowed to go and testify or witness to his five brothers And in verse 30 we see that the rich man understood that in order to keep from going to hell a person had to repent. And so based on these things it appears to me that he had confidence that Lazarus could be depended on to testify and witness to people and to tell them that they needed to repent, that is, they needed to turn from their way to the Lord Jesus Christ in order to escape hell. Well, how would he know this about Lazarus? Well, because evidently Lazarus had witnessed to him and had told him that he needed to repent. Now, I can just imagine this rich man, as the beggar tries to witness to him, thinking sarcastically, Oh, yes, beggar, you can certainly teach me a thing or two. You certainly have something that I need. And so these two men were completely different in this life, but ultimately, as is always the case, they came to the same conclusion as far as this life is concerned. You see this in verse 22. In the first part of the verse it says, "...and it came to pass that the beggar died." And then later in the verse we are told, "...the rich man also died." And so the rich man and the beggar met together in death But then as their circumstances in this life had been completely different, so in the life to come their circumstances are also completely different, only their roles are reversed. You see, the one who had been a beggar in this life is rich in the life to come, and the one who was rich in this life is a beggar in the life to come. For Lazarus, the beggar in this life, was taken to paradise in the next life while the rich man went to hell. Now, I want to make a statement that I always try to remember to make when I preach from this passage. And that statement is this, the poor man did not go to heaven because of his poverty, nor did the rich man go to hell because of his wealth, but rather the poor man went to heaven because he was saved and the rich man went to hell because he was not saved. As I mentioned a while ago, the rich man himself points out in verse 30 that the determining factor in whether a person goes to heaven or hell is not poverty or wealth but rather repentance. And repentance, when used in the context that it's used here, means for a person to turn their heart from their way to the Lord Jesus Christ and receive him as personal Savior. Now the beggar in this story had repented and that's why he went to heaven. The rich man refused to repent and that's why he went to hell and is in hell tonight. And so, dear friend, don't get the mistaken idea that you're automatically going to heaven just because you're poor or because you've had some adversity in this life. And you know there are people that think that way. I have asked people before, how do you know you're going to heaven? And on occasion I've had somebody say something like this, well, I know I'm going to heaven because I've had so much hell in this life. Now, friend, you may have had difficulty and adversity in this life, but that's not what will take you to heaven. People go to heaven because they've repented and trusted Christ as Savior, not because they've had difficulty in this life. Now, I want us to think for just a few minutes about several lessons that this rich man learned at his death that he never learned during his life. And the first lesson that this rich man learned at death is that death is not the end. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27 declares, "...and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this," did you get that? Something comes after this. Something comes after death. and as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." The old Methodist preacher from 150 years ago, Sam Jones, was witnessing to a man who was on his deathbed, and Sam was trying to impress upon this individual that he was dying, that he would soon be in eternity. And this man, as he lay on his deathbed, he said, I'm not worried about death. And Sam Jones said to him, you may not be worried about death, but what about the judgment? And he said, well, Sam, I never thought of that. You see, he was under the mistaken impression that death was the end, but hear me, death is not the end. I have a book in my library by Dr. Bob Jones Sr. entitled Things I Have Learned. Dr. Bob was known for his spiritual philosophy and his wisdom. And Dr. Bob said in this book that the greatest thought that had ever gripped his heart was this, It was when he came to the conclusion, he said, that I have to live somewhere forever. And dear friend, the rich man in Luke 16 learned when he died that death is not the end, that he had to exist somewhere forever. And dear friend, so do you and so do I. We have to live somewhere forever. Many years ago, when I was in Bible college, I worked at the Oklahoma City Zoo. I worked from 11 at night to 7 in the morning, and so I was out there all night long with all of the animals, and so it gets a little freaky out there at night. In the middle of the night, you start hearing the monkeys go, and then you hear the lion down here, group group group and uh... so i go out in the security check but uh... at any rate you know right uh... i'll work there and uh... there were this was back in the early eighties so off things were like they are now but uh... they didn't have all night radio talk shows back then i don't know if they still have those are no uh... Radio in the daytime is a big thing, the talk shows, but back then they had all-night talk shows and they would have some guest from some area and the guy would interview this guest and then people could call in and ask questions of the guest that was there. Now, I remember one night I was listening, I don't even remember who the talk show host's name was, But one night I was listening to this radio program and the guy had on what this fellow claimed to be a hitman and that he had performed several murders. I've always wondered in situations like that. If the police want to catch the murderer, why don't they go down to the radio station where the guy is being interviewed and take him into custody. But anyway, he was on this radio program and he had been interviewed and had answered some questions. And then the interviewer opened up the telephone lines for people to call in and ask questions of this hit man if they desired to do so. And I remember a lady called in, very soft-spoken, and she said to this fellow who claimed to be a hitman, what are you going to do when you die? And the fellow answered, well, I'll be buried and that'll be the end of it. And I remember she said, Well, sir, you'd better hope that you're right and I'm wrong, because if I'm right and you're wrong, death is not going to end it. You'll meet God and give an account for all of your murders and for everything else that you've ever done. Now, I don't know if that man is still alive today. I doubt it, to tell you the truth. This was not so many years ago, but I do know this. If he is not still alive, he has already learned, and if he is still alive, he'll learn when he dies. just what this rich man learned when he died and that is that death is not the end but every person will live somewhere forever. The second lesson that this rich man learned at death is not only that death is not the end but secondly he learned that people really do go to hell Verses 22 and 23, the rich man also died and was buried and in hell he lift up his eyes. He learned that hell is not just a bit of religious fiction that somebody invented to try to scare people, but that hell is real and people who die without Jesus Christ really do go to this terrible place called hell. You know the most unpopular thing that a preacher can preach on today is the subject of hell, which is why most preachers never mention it. But people in America today are like the proverbial ostrich which, when danger approaches, sticks her head in the sand under the theory that if she refuses to face the danger, it'll go away and leave her alone. Many people in our country are like that today. They have the mistaken notion that anything unpleasant, if they'll just ignore it and refuse to acknowledge it and pretend that it isn't true, then it'll just go away, but the problem is that truth is still truth and reality is still reality. Whether we admit it, whether we acknowledge it, whether we face up to it or not, the truth is still the truth. I hear somebody once in a while say something, well, I don't believe in whatever, as though since they don't believe in it, that means it's not true. I got news for you. Whatever's true is true whether you and I believe in it or not. That's not in the determining factor about whether it's true or not. Now, might I say that personally I don't like the idea of hell? I really don't. I don't like the thought of it. But truth is not determined by what I like or what I dislike. I don't like cancer, but people still get cancer. I don't like heart disease, but people still get heart disease. And I would be dishonest if I claimed to be a man of God and a Bible preacher if I failed to warn you about hell just because I don't like the thought of it. The rich man learned when he died that people really do go to hell. Do you know who preached on hell more than any other person in the Bible? Somebody might think, well, probably somebody like Moses. I mean, we think of Moses on Mount Sinai and the cloud and the lightning and the sound of the trumpet and all of that. and Moses just seems to be the type of fellow that would preach on hell. Or somebody might think of Elijah, this man, this prophet who could call down fire from heaven, this blustery, bombastic prophet of God just seems like the type of person that might preach on hell. Or somebody might think John the Baptist, this hellfire and damnation preacher that was the morning star for Jesus that announced and prepared the way for the Lord Jesus, somebody might think he would be the person who would preach on hell more than anybody else, or somebody might think it might be the apostle Peter. I mean, he was a pretty rough old boy, and people might think he might be the one who would preach on hell more than anybody else, or somebody else might think the apostle Paul. I mean, Paul didn't mince words about what he said, and so somebody might think it was him. But ladies and gentlemen, let me declare that the one who preached on hell more than anybody else in the Bible was none of these people. It was not Moses. It was not Elijah. It was not John the Baptist. It was not Peter. It was not Paul. It was the Lord Jesus Christ. The word hell is used 23 times in the New Testament. Sixteen of those times it's Jesus Christ who spoke of it. And then there are multitudes of other passages where he preached on hell without actually using the word hell. You see, Jesus understood the truth and the reality of hell more so than anybody else, and thus he warned people of it more than anybody else. It was R.A. Torrey, the great preacher of about a hundred years ago, who would often preach on the great themes of the Bible in his preaching engagements. and he had preached on hell at one service and after it was concluded, a fellow came up to him and said, Mr. Torrey, I want you to know that I do not believe that a loving God would send somebody to hell. And Torrey remarkably answered the question like this. He said, how do you know that God's a loving God? And the fellow was a little taken aback by that question and he said, well, doesn't the Bible say that? And Mr. Torrey said, yes, it does. And the same Bible tells us that this loving God will send a lost person to hell when they die. So when you remove the teaching of hell, you also undermine the only way that you know, the only assurance that you have, that God is a God of love. Yes, God's a God of love, but God's also a God of holiness and a God of judgment and a God of wrath, and people who die without Christ go to hell. I heard Bill O'Reilly some time ago. You know who he is? on uh... t v dot you know i i watch his news program pretty good program for the most part except when he decides he knows more and everybody else which is about everything but uh... at any rate uh... i've heard him say one time he was talking to uh... some preacher and they were talking about uh... dot how what god was like a and that bill o'reilly said well i do not believe in a god of vengeance Well, now let me say this to you. He may not believe in it, and by the way, you may not believe in it, but the Bible still teaches it. I can only imagine how shocking it must be for somebody who has spent their life denying the reality of hell. I can only imagine how shocking it must be for that person to die and find that people really do go to hell. I read about when the volcano Vesuvius erupted in 79 A.D. and buried the city of Pompeii in Herculaneum, and the people in Pompeii, the city was completely covered, was not uncovered until the 1800s. But I read of how some of these people that lived in the city when the volcano erupted were mummified with the volcanic ash and all of that. And they said that you could still see the shocked expression on the faces of these people from the sudden final realization that they were about to die. I can only imagine the shocked expression on somebody's face who has spent his life, every time he hears somebody say something about hell, I don't believe in that. And I can only imagine the shocked expression on that person's face when he finally dies and learns that this thing that he has scoffed at and mocked at and ridiculed and laughed at is a reality that he now has to face. This rich man learned at death that death is not the end. He learned at death that people really do go to hell. The third lesson that this rich man learned at death is this. Hell really is a place of suffering and torment just as the Bible teaches. In verse 23, Jesus said, And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment. In fact, in this account, the word torment is found four times. Now, just this passage tells us that hell is a place of torment, verse 23, that it's a place of thirst, verse 24, that it's a place of fire, verse 24, that it's a place of haunting memory, verse 25, that it's a place of unfulfilled desires, verses 24 and 25, that it's a place from which there's no escape, verse 26, and that it's a place where people who are there don't want their loved ones to come, verses 27 and 28. And other passages in the Bible tell us other terrible things about what hell is like, but we find the things I just mentioned just in this passage. Many cultists and false religionists have tried to soften the horror of hell by inventing various unscriptural theories about it. One group says, oh, hell is the grave. Not according to the Bible it's not. Another group says hell is instant annihilation. Not according to the Bible it's not. Another group says hell is being separated from God like being on a desert island somewhere. Not according to the Bible, it's not. Another says, well, hell is a place where me and my friends are going to party. Not according to the Bible, it's not. The rich man learned when he died that hell is a place of suffering and torment, that it is just like the Bible teaches that it is. Dr. Bob Smith tells, about a lady that he had preached to who had not trusted Christ and how that she was burned in a grease fire at her house. They rushed her to the hospital and Brother Smith went to see her and he tells about the agony that this woman was in in the hospital and that while he was there the lady died from her injuries. And somebody standing by said, Well, her suffering is over now. Well, Brother Smith stood there knowing that her suffering was not over. Her suffering was just beginning. This rich man learned at death that death is not the end. He learned at death that people really do go to hell. He learned at death that hell really is a place of suffering and torment, just as the Bible teaches. Number four, he learned that once a person dies and goes to hell, there is no escape. The rich man had of course wanted to get out of hell, but Abraham said to him in verse 26, and beside all this, between us and you there's 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 thins." Some people have the idea that they'll wait until they die and then they'll try to fix things up with God, but dear friend, that's not what's going to happen. I heard one infidel who laughed at the Word of God And he said, if I die and learn that I'm wrong, why, I'll just go up to God like a gentleman, shake His hand like a gentleman and admit that I was wrong. That would be nice if you could do that, but dear friend, once you die, your destiny for eternity is settled. There is no post-death salvation. And so this rich man learned when he died that once a person dies and goes to hell, there is no escape. That means, by the way, that this same fellow that was in hell when Jesus told this account almost 2,000 years ago is still there right now. And by the way, he hadn't got that drop of water yet and he never will. And then the fifth thing that this rich man learned at death, he learned that his wealth in this life did him no good in the next life. You see, the danger with wealth is that people get accustomed to being able to buy anything, and they have the idea many times that that carries over to the next life, but, dear friend, it doesn't. Peter told us this in 1 Peter chapter 1, verses 18 and 19. Peter said, Forasmuch as ye know that ye were not redeemed with corruptible things as silver and gold from your vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers, well, what were we redeemed with then, Peter?" He said, verse 19, "...but with the precious blood of Christ as of a lamb, without blemish and without spot." I don't care how much money you have or how much money you get. That's not going to buy your way into heaven. It's only through the blood of Jesus Christ that a person goes to heaven. And so this rich man learned at death that death is not the end. He learned that people really do go to hell. He learned that hell really is a place of suffering and torment, just as the Bible teaches. He learned that once a person dies and goes to hell, there's no escape. He learned that his wealth in this life did him no good in the next life. And then finally, this rich man learned at death that those who refuse to listen to the Bible will not get saved because of anything else. Notice in verse 27 that then he said, the rich man said, "'I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou wouldst send him, send Lazarus, to my father's house, for I have five brethren that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.'" Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them." In other words, they have the Bible. Let them hear what that says. And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. and he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, if they refuse to listen to the Bible, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. And by the way, you know why Jesus could say that? Because he was one who was going to rise from the dead and the people who rejected him on the testimony of the Bible continued to reject him on the testimony of his resurrection. He said if he won't listen to the Bible, he's not going to be persuaded if somebody is raised from the dead once in a while. People get the idea, or some people do, that they need to see some kind of a miracle or something. You don't need that. And by the way, if you won't listen to the Bible, you'd figure out some way to explain away the miracle as well. Some people sometimes get the idea that— that they'd get saved if maybe not a great miracle, but if somebody could do some kind of a wondrous thing, if somebody came back from the past, if some great Peter would come back or if Paul would come back, then they'd get saved. Now, if you won't listen to Peter and Paul in the Bible, you wouldn't listen to them behind the pulpit either. See? And so, if I'm witnessing to somebody, sometimes they'll tell me, well, I don't believe the Bible. What do I do? I say, have a nice day and go on my way. If they don't believe the Bible, I have nothing to deal with them about. We have no basis to deal with them. Now, if they'll listen, I can try to convince them of the truth of the Bible. I think I can do that. But most of the time, that's a way of saying, I'm not interested. Leave me alone. So I do. And so this rich man learned some lessons at death that it would have been good if he had learned them in this life. If he had learned them in this life, then he would have gotten saved and wouldn't have had to have learned these lessons by experience at death. Now, if you're here tonight and there's never been a time in your life when you repented and turned to Christ and trusted Him as Savior, I urge you tonight that This is not something that is to be put off. This is not something you can take care of somewhere down the road. Now, you might be able to, but you don't know that you'll have a place down the road. You don't know when your time to go out into eternity will come, nor do I know when my time will come. But I do know this, whenever my time comes, I've received Jesus Christ and I'm ready to go where He is. Now, if you've never trusted him, I urge you to do so tonight. And then those of us who are saved, we should try to grasp hold of the reality of these things, and it might motivate us to try to see our loved ones come to Christ and receive Him and be saved. Lessons a rich man learned at death. I hope that we'll all learn them before death comes. Father, would You bless the things that we've brought forth tonight? from the Word of God.