Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. And we're gonna spend some time in this chapter, Luke 16 verses 19 to 31. It will take us to the end. It'll take us about five weeks to get through it. Now I know what you're gonna think, or what you're even gonna say in your own mind. You know, your son came and preached through the book of Colossians one chapter a week. Why can't you do one chapter of Luke a week? We could be done in 24 weeks. I could do that, but you would miss out on all the little goodies that are in between each and every word, and the opportunity you have to be challenged by the Spirit of God.

And I would do you a great disservice if I just took one week and covered one chapter. Not that Drew did you a disservice. He only had four weeks. That's all I gave him, okay? So he did what he could possibly do with the book of Colossians. But we have the opportunity to spend time in God's Word. And we're gonna see a passage of Scripture that's gonna touch the heart of every man and every woman in this room. Because it's a passage that deals with hell. And I know people don't like to hear about hell, but that's, that's the next paragraph.

We have to cover the next paragraph. We would be, we would do a grave injustice, excuse me, to the text if we just skipped over it when we write to Luke chapter 17. We need to understand what the Bible says about hell.

Because you see, most people don't think they're going to go there. Most people think they're going to heaven. In fact, if you were to ask the average man on the street, are you going to heaven or are you going to hell? Most would say, well I hope I'm going to heaven. I think I'm going to heaven. After all, I've done some good things. I've been good to people and I've tried to live a good and, excuse me, righteous life. And yeah, you know, I think I'm gonna go there. I do. After all, God, He wouldn't send me to hell anyway.

He's a loving God, a God full of grace and God full of mercy. He wouldn't allow me to go there anywhere. Hell is for bad people. Most people believe in God. Most people believe that that God they believe in won't send them to hell. In fact, nobody ever goes to hell intentionally. They go unintentionally. Nobody wakes up and says, you know what, I think I'm gonna die and go to hell today. No one thinks that. And for those who say, well yeah, I might go in hell and be there with my friends. They don't really mean that.

They don't want to go there. They believe they're going to end up going somewhere other than hell. Most people don't even know what's going to happen when they die. But the Bible is very clear. The Bible makes us understand exactly what happens when you die. And in our story, we have a man who's completely surprised that he ends up in hell. Because most people, when they die, are surprised to end up in hell. And so Jesus addresses the Pharisees, who believed, by the way, in hell, who believed in heaven, who believed in judgment.

They just didn't believe they were going to hell. See, they had a religious system that was intact that would allow them to experience the glories of heaven. They were the sons of Abraham. They were the Jewish people. They, of all people, would go to heaven. And especially rich people. Because prosperity theology didn't begin with TBN. It began way back in the life of Job, with Job's friends. Prosperity theology is nothing new. It's always been around. And Judaism was built on a prosperity theology.

If you are blessed by God, you must be a righteous man. If you are not blessed by God, that is, you're poor, you're a beggar, you're crippled, you must have done something to God for him not to bless you. But the rich man, well, that's the God-blessed man. And in Judaism, the richer you were, the more blessed you were by God, the more righteous you were. That was their mindset. So Jesus is going to tackle that. He's going to destroy all of that by talking to them about a man who is rich, who doesn't go to heaven.

And a poor man, who in the minds of the Jews would be destined for hell, but he gets heaven. And so he is going to totally turn upside down the religion of Judaism, by helping explain to them who goes to heaven and why, and who goes to hell and why. Let me read it to you.

Luke 16 verse 19. Now there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gaily living in splendor every day. A certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table. Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking the sores. Now it came about that the poor man died. He was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom.

And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he is being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you there is a great chasm fixed, in order that those who wish to come over from here to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.

And he said, Then I beg you, Father, that you send him to my father's house. For I have five brothers, that he may warn them, lest they also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. But he said, No, Father Abraham. But if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to him, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, if someone rises from the dead. This is a story about a rich man and a poor man.

And the main character is the rich man, not the poor man. The rich man doesn't say anything. But the poor man, I mean the poor man doesn't say anything. But the rich man, he speaks. He speaks a lot. And the rich man is characteristic of the Pharisees, because earlier in the chapter, verse number 14, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees. Talking to them specifically. He will address the disciples later in chapter 17. But right now he's dealing with the Pharisees. And so he tells them this story about a rich man and the poor man.

And the rich man is surprised to be in hell. Hell is filled with people surprised to be there. Because most don't think they're ever going. That's why Jesus addressed it in his very first sermon, recorded in Matthew chapter 5, 6 and 7, the Sermon on the Mount.

In fact, he addressed it at the onset of his ministry. Because the majority of people in the world believe they're going to heaven and will never make it. And that's why Jesus said these words in Matthew chapter 7. He said, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of my father who is in heaven. Many will say to me on that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name cast out many, cast out demons and in your name perform many miracles.

And then I will declare to them, I never knew you depart from me, you who practice lawlessness. At the outset of Jesus's ministry, he concludes this great Sermon on the Mount by letting people know that there are going to be many people who will do things in the name of Jesus. Who claim to know the Lord, but will never see heaven. Will never make it. They were self-deceived. He talks about earlier in this chapter, chapter 7, about false prophets who come and deceive many, because narrow is the gate, few there be that find it, but broad is the gate that leads to destruction.

And that broad gate that leads to destruction doesn't say, come this way, this is the way to hell. It says, no, come this way. This is how you get to heaven. It's filled with all kinds of religious people. And he gives that warning about false teachers, because they lead people down the primrose path to hell. Although the path says heaven. And they wake up after death, surprised to be in hell. Jesus also addresses it in Matthew 25, in Matthew chapter 25. In fact, before that in Matthew 23, He gives His last sermon to the Pharisees and tells them, in verse number 29, woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for you build the tombs of the prophets that adorn the monuments of the righteous and say, if we had been living in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partners with them in shedding the blood of the prophet.

Consequently, you bear witness against yourselves that you are sons of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up then the measure of the guilt of your fathers. You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell? And in Matthew 25, Jesus talks about the great goat judgment after He returns to this earth and makes His way to the Mount of Olives and splits the Mount of Olives. And those of you who have been with me to Israel understand where the Kidron Valley is, the Valley of Decision.

It's called the Valley of Jehoshaphat, the Valley of Decision. It's in that valley where the judgment of the sheep, goat will take place. And it's there Jesus will say to the goats, when I was hungry, you never fed me. When I was thirsty, you gave me nothing to drink. When I was in prison, you did not visit me. When I was naked, you did not clothe me. And they will say, well, Lord, when did we see you in prison? When did we see you naked? When did we see you thirsty? And pray tell, when did we see you hungry?

And the Lord God will say, when you did not do it to the least of these, my brethren, in context, it's the Jewish nation. When you did not do it to the least of these, my brethren, you did not do it as unto me. And then He will say to them these words, and these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life. They'll be surprised, because they think they're doing the right thing. This story is a wake-up call to the church, the evangelical church in America, of the myriad of people who somehow think they're okay, and they're going to heaven.

Maybe that's you today, I have no idea. Maybe you think, you know what, it's going to all work itself out in the end. You know, I know that it's imperative that I address the topic of hell, because most preachers don't do that. We do it because it's biblical, it is the next paragraph, but it is the truthful thing to do. I mean, Jesus, who embodies grace and embodied truth, spoke more about hell than He ever spoke about heaven, simply because He didn't want people to go there, although people do go there.

And so if you're going to be truthful, you will speak the truth to people, because you want them to understand what that truth really says about heaven and about hell. On top of that, not only is it the truthful thing to do, it is the most loving thing you can ever do. The most loving thing you can ever do for your children is to warn them of the fires of hell. Let me ask you a question as a parent, have you warned your children about the fires of hell?

When was the last time you did that? That would be the most loving thing you could ever do, because if I really love you, I don't want you to go there. I don't want you to experience the torment that the Bible speaks of concerning the lake of fire. You say, well, doesn't in that chapter of Matthew 25 say that hell was prepared for the devil and his angels? Yes, it does say that. It was prepared for the devil and his angels. So why do those who are not devils or angels go there? How could that possibly be?

Well, the Bible tells us in 2 Thessalonians 1, 6, 7, and 8, that when Jesus returns, he deals out retribution to those who do not know God, and to those who do not obey the gospel of God, and they will experience eternal punishment forever, and ever, and ever. So it's imperative that we tell people the truth, even though it may cost us a relationship. We will tell them the truth about hell and hell's fire. It was J.C. Ryle, who a number of years ago recorded these words. He said, let others hold their peace about hell if they will.

I dare not do so. I see it plainly in Scripture. I must speak of it. I fear that thousands are on the broad road that leads to it, and I would feign, arouse them to a sense of the peril before them. What would you say of the man who saw his neighbor's house in danger of being burned down, and never raised the cry of fire? Call it bad taste if you like to speak of hell. Call it charity to make things pleasant, and speak smoothly, and soothe men with constant lullaby of peace. From such notions of taste and charity may I ever be delivered.

My notion of charity is to warn men plainly of their danger. My notion of taste is to declare all the counsel of God. If I never spoke of hell, I should think I had kept back something that was profitable, and should look on myself as an accomplice of the devil. That's good stuff. If as a parent I never speak to my children about the fires of hell, you become the accomplice of the devil. And then that's a horrible thought, isn't it? If in your evangelism approach you don't talk to people about the fires of hell, you become an accomplice of the devil.

He doesn't want you to talk to them about that. And so we must tell the truth to people, because it is the most loving thing you can do when it comes to their eternal destiny. Where will they spend eternity? With God or away from God. So important. My concern though is that in the evangelical movement of today, there is a turning more and more away from talking about hell. In fact, there is a great majority of evangelicals today who say that there really is no eternal torment for man. It will all go away.

One book that was written not too long ago by a pastor named Rob Bell is entitled Love Wins. Now I don't know if you've read that book or ever heard of that book. He used to be the pastor of Mars Hill Church in Michigan. He has since resigned his pastorate, thank you Lord, and that he has now started a ministry in Southern California, unfortunately for us. But he's now in Southern California, started a new ministry. In this book, Love Wins, this is what he says. And I quote to you his words. A staggering number of people have been taught that a select few Christians will spend forever in a peaceful, joyous place called heaven, while the rest of humanity spends forever in torment and punishment in hell with no chance for anything better.

It's been clearly communicated to many that the belief or this belief is a central truth of the Christian faith. And to reject it is in essence to reject Jesus. This is misguided, toxic, and ultimately subverts the contagious spread of Jesus's message of love and peace, forgiveness, and joy that our world desperately needs to hear. He goes on to say the church has allowed the story of Jesus's love to be perverted by other stories. The story of an eternal hell is not a good story. He suggests that a better story would involve the possibility of a sinner coming to faith in Christ after death.

This book has become so popular, it's been used in churches across our country, in small groups and devotional readings for congregational members. He goes on to say, in a chapter entitled, Does God Get What He Wants? He says, or he espouses to the theory that those who have chosen something other than God, such as self, injustice, evil, greed, tyranny, will be given an eternity of opportunities to accept God's free gift of reconciliation. He presents the theory that God's gift is so good, so loving, so compelling that eventually hell will be closed and all people will be fully reconciled to God through the saving power of Christ's life, death, and resurrection.

He writes, and I quote, there will be endless opportunities in an endless amount of time for people to say yes to God. At the heart of this perspective is the belief that giving enough time, everybody will turn to God and find themselves in the joy and peace of God's presence. The love of God will melt every hard heart and even the most depraved sinners will eventually give up their resistance and turn to God. That's called evangelical universalism. He believes that the greatest time to give your life to God is after death.

That is the consummate false teacher who is leading you down the broad road of destruction that says it's okay. For a loving, forgiving, kind God will not allow you to be tormented forever, but you will accept the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ sometime down the road and escape the eternal torments of hell and hell's doors will be closed forever and all people will be with the Lord God. Can you imagine how that makes the sinner feel? Pretty good. The opposite of how Christ wants the sinner to feel.

And my concern is that because the lack of discernment in the evangelical churches in our country is so, so bad that people will be swept away into a belief that, you know, when it's all said and done, even after death, I could just say, okay, Jesus, you're right. I was wrong. I'm ready to go to heaven. Folks, that is not what the Bible teaches. That is completely contrary to what the Bible teaches. Oh, by the way, Rob Bell in his first book entitled The Velvet Elvis, okay, denies the authority of scripture as the only guide and practice for the believer.

He denies it outright. And so you see when it comes to the passages that speak about eternal torment and hell, he just passes and glosses over them as if they really don't matter that much, but they do. And that's what our story is about. And that's why Jesus addresses it. Let's go back to it and let's look at a couple of things here.

It's going to take us some weeks to get through it. There is so much here. We're going to look at the description of the rich man and the poor man, and then we're going to look at the transition where the rich man who thinks he's going to heaven ends up in hell, and the poor man who everybody thinks is going to hell goes to heaven.

It's called the great reversal, the reversal of fortunes. And from that transition, we will then look at the supplication of the rich man in hell and the response that Abraham gives him.

And then we'll look at the conversation between Abraham and the rich man. And then the conclusion that will allow us to draw a proper understanding of the reality of hell. The rich man in Israel is a symbol of righteousness. That's why he's rich in their minds. The poor man is a symbol of unrighteousness. And therefore, Jesus will use the story to explain to the Pharisees how misguided they are, because their prosperity theology would lead them to hell and not to heaven. If you recall back in Luke chapter 13, Jesus did say these words, because Jesus is constantly warning people about hell.

He says in verse 22, and as he was passing from one city and village to another teaching and proceeding on his way to Jerusalem, someone said to him, Lord, are there just a few who are being saved? He said to them, strive to enter by the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door saying, Lord, open up to us. Then he will answer and say to you, I do not know where you are from.

Then you will begin to say, we ate and drank in your presence and you taught in our streets. And he will say, I tell you, I do not know where you are from. Depart from me all you evildoers. There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out. He tells them again that there are so many people who will be surprised, but Lord, we ate with you. We had a meal with you. You were in our streets.

You were in our synagogue. You were in our city. We walked behind you. We ran beside you on the sea as you were in the boat. We were sometimes even in the boat with you. We were right there with you and we engaged in conversation. You even healed maybe my mother or my brother, my sister, my father, my grandfather. Lord, we were with you. He says, I'm sorry. I have no idea who you are. I don't know who you are. Depart from, depart from me. And you religious people who think you're going there, you'll see Abraham.

You'll see the prophets and you'll realize big mistake, biggest mistake ever. You trusted in yourselves and not me and you will be separated for eternity. He gets another warning in the parable about the virgins. Remember the 10 with the oil, the 10 with no oil and the ones without the oil banging the door to get in and says, sorry, door shut. Can't get in. It's over. It's done. It's too late. It's too late. They're surprised. They're surprised because hell is filled with people who are surprised that they end up there because they thought that throughout their life, they were going to heaven.

They thought that their good works were good enough or they thought that somehow the good would outweigh the bad in the end and the scale would tip in their favor. They thought that God would look because he's a God of love and grace and mercy and kindness would look upon them, extend that to them at the judgment seat and they would be allowed to go into his presence. That's just not the case. It's not how it works. And Jesus makes that point here very clear. The story will tell you why the rich man went to hell.

The story will tell you why the poor man went to heaven. And thus it will tell you how it is you can escape the fires of hell. It will tell you how you can live a life with no surprises when you die. That would be the worst surprise ever, would it not? But the story, you know, Jesus is a master teacher and how he gives this story is a story of great contrasts. Great contrasts. And so just look at it with me for a second and we'll point them out to you.

There's a poor man and there's a rich man. When the poor man dies, he becomes a rich man. When the rich man dies, he becomes the poor man. It's a great reversal. There is a poor man who is outside the palace. There's a rich man who lives inside the palace. But when death happens, the poor man on the outside is now the rich man on the inside. And the rich man on the inside is now the poor man on the outside of the kingdom of God. You have a poor man who has no food. You have a rich man who eats anything he wants.

But when death happens, the poor man is at the banquet with Abraham eating whatever he wants and the rich man has nothing. You have a poor man with every need possible and a rich man with no needs. So when death happens, the poor man now has no needs and the rich man has every need. See the great reversal? You have a poor man who desires anything. You have a rich man who desires nothing. But when they die, the poor man has no desires. They've all been met. And the rich man has every desire imaginable.

You have a poor man who suffers greatly. You have a rich man who is satisfied tremendously. When death happens, the poor man's satisfied and the rich man suffers. You have a poor man who is tormented. You have a rich man who is happy. But when death happens, the poor man's happy and the rich man's tormented. You have a poor man who is humiliated. You have a rich man who's honored. But when death happens, the poor man now is honored and the rich man is humiliated. It's a great reversal. You have a poor man who would just love to feed on the crumbs that fall from the table.

You have a rich man who feasts at his table. But when death happens, the poor man feasts and the rich man just would like Abraham to touch the tip of his finger in water that he might cool his tongue. You have a poor man who seeks help and gets none. You have a rich man who needs no help. He doesn't even seek it because he has everything. But when death happens, the poor man doesn't need any help and the rich man does. You have a poor man who has no dignity and a rich man with all dignity. When they die, it's the poor man who is dignified and the rich man has no dignity.

You have a poor man with no hope and a rich man with all the hope imaginable. But when they die, the reversal of fortune. It's the poor man who has all the hope and the rich man who's hopeless. And Jesus masterfully parallels the two accounts and shows you the great reversal of man. To drive home to the Pharisees that you think that what you have and what you have done has reserved a place for you in heaven. And you think that this poor man, this despicable, lousy poor man who has nothing in your mind is nothing to you and nothing to God, but at death's opening of the door.

It's the poor man who is the rich man and it's the rich man who is the poor man. It's a marvelous story. But before we get into the description of the rich man, the poor man, let me answer this question with you because this is important.

I've done a series on the parables called Searchlights for the Soul in the library, Tate Ministry. You can look at them if you want.

And one of the parables I did not cover was this one. Because at the time I said that it wasn't a parable. And the reason I gave you was the reason that pretty much everybody gives when it comes to saying this is not a parable. It's simply because in the parable there is someone who has a name. And the argument for saying that this is a real true story and not a parable is because there is an individual with a name. That's the poor man. His name is Lazarus. But having studied in detail over the last several months, I've come to realize that I was wrong, that it is a parable.

And let me tell you why. The story begins as Jesus begins his other parables in Luke with the phrase, now there was a certain rich man. If you go back to Luke chapter 10, Jesus says it this way, verse number 30, a certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho.

That's the parable of the good Samaritan. Over in chapter 14, verse number 16, Jesus says these words, chapter 14, verse number 16 of Luke.

He says, a certain man was giving a big dinner and he invited many guests. Chapter 15, verse number 11, a certain man had two sons. Chapter 19, verse number 12, says something very similar about a certain noble man. And that's how Jesus begins this story with the phrase, there was a certain rich man. So that would give me the idea or the belief that this is also a parable. But it goes beyond that. If it is a true story, the main character doesn't have a name. The main character is the rich man. So you'd think that if it was a true story, listen carefully, that the main character would have a name, not the character that never speaks.

Also, there is no history of city or location or recognition of who these two people are. Well, some would say, well, because he has a name, Christ would give the name because everyone would know who the beggar was. Maybe, that could be a stretch. But note this, the text in its circumstances make it so it cannot be true. For instance, never in scripture are we told that people in hell can see people in heaven. Think about it. When could people in hell ever see people in heaven? Where in scripture does it ever speak about that?

Or, where is it that anybody in hell could see Father Abraham? Oh, by the way, even recognize Abraham because he'd be in a glorified body. How would you recognize him? Because Jesus wasn't even recognized his glorified body. How would they recognize Abraham to even stop him and speak to him? Nowhere in scripture is that ever recorded. There is nowhere in scripture where the Bible says that the people in hell can see the activities in heaven.

Why? Because hell is always described, listen carefully, as outer darkness and the blackness of darkness. Now, if you understand those terms in scripture, that means you can't see anything. You can't even see the hand before your face. You say, well, there's fires in heaven. Don't the fires light up heaven? Oh, the fires of hell, excuse me. There's fires in hell. Won't that light up hell? No, no, no. The fires of hell are not like the fires that you and I experience. Fires of hell are not a consuming fire.

They are a fire that torments you forever and ever and ever and ever. But you never die because you're already dead. By the way, when you die, you're still alive. That's important. Nowhere in the Bible does it say that angels carry your body to heaven. Does it? No. But the Bible says, absent from the body, present with the Lord.

Right? You ever been to a funeral? What's in the casket? Your body. Right? Because it hasn't been resurrected yet. But so nowhere in the Bible does it say that angels carry your body to heaven. When you die, your body remains here and your soul goes to heaven. And then Christ will resurrect that body at the rapture of the church. And that spirit and body will be united in the glorified body in a perfect state for all eternity. You say, well, wait a minute. What about the name? Because people get hung up on that.

I did. What about the name? He's got a name. Listen, Jesus is so good. There's a reason He has a name. If you know why He has a name, you know why He's in heaven. If you know what the meaning of the name is, you understand the meaning of the story. Lazarus is from the Hebrew Eleazar, which means God is or God has saved me or God has helped me. That's important to the story. Because no man could ever help the poor man. No man ever did. That's why he was laid at the rich man's gate. No one paid any attention to him.

So who helped him? God helped him. God saved him. There's a reason He has the name that He has. It's a name that means God has saved me. That's why you go to heaven, right? God saves you. Can't save yourself. Can't earn your way there. And that's why the man is given a name. Now, if you want to debate with me and say, well, I think it's a real story. I mean, you can do that if you want to. But there are so many discrepancies here when it comes to realizing what the Bible says about hell and the characteristics of those who are in hell.

It's a story that Jesus tells, like He tells many stories, many parables that have a meaning, a spiritual meaning that goes right to the heart of the religious establishment of Israel, that they would know the truth about heaven and hell. Yes, the Pharisees believed in heaven. Yes, they believed in hell. Yes, they believed in the judgment of God. They just never believed they would experience God's judgment, nor do they believe they were ever going to go to hell. So Jesus has to correct all that.

Having said that, let's look at the description of the rich man and the poor man. Now, there was a certain rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, gay living in splendor every day. Now, the language is over the top. It's over the top on how this man dressed. Listen, you know that there are days you don't want to get dressed up, right? You want to dress down. You want to relax. This man had no downtime. There was no casual Friday for this guy. Everything was dressed to the nines.

He was clothed in fine linen and purple. The fine linen being the finest Egyptian, made out of the finest Egyptian cotton there was, and the purple, it would be dyed, the color purple, which signified his royalty, which signified his richness, see? And the reason he lived gaily, the reason he lived splendidly, is because he wanted everybody to know how much God had blessed him. And so never was there a casual time. Never was there a downtime. It was always an uptime. So everybody would see him always dressed to the nines, because God had blessed him so much he wanted everybody else to see how much he himself had been blessed, gaily, merry, joyously.

He was the party guy. He had parties for everybody, except for the poor people. For his kind of people, he dressed in splendor. He was, as we would term, filthy rich. That's a term poor people use for rich people, right? Filthy rich. In contrast, it says, and a certain poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate covered with sores. Covered with sores. Same word used in Revelation 16 of the malignant sores that are a result of one of the bowls being poured out upon man. These were horrible sores. And the text says that he was laid at the gate.

Bad translation. He was thrown down at the gate. He was plopped down at the gate. No one came and gently placed him there. They kind of like threw him there, because it's from the word bala, which means to throw. So they threw him at the gate. Nobody wants to take care of him. Nobody wants to mind him. So they throw him at the gate. Maybe the rich guy will take care of him. Maybe the rich man will give him some need. Maybe the rich man will take care of him. But the rich man never did, because the Pharisees had no concern for poor people.

It was beneath their dignity to even speak with them, let alone pick them up and help them. So the rich man, having this poor man laid at his gate. The gate in the original is a big gate. It's not a small gate. It's a huge gate. He would have to go in and out of his establishment every day through this huge gate. Those who came to see the man would have to go in and out of the same huge gate. And there would lie the poor man, filled with sores, filled with sores. And the text says, and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table.

Besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. You know he just wanted a little bit of the crumbs that would fall from the rich man's table. Now let's look at this for a second.

You know when you interpret the Bible, you must interpret it in terms of the context in which is written, in terms of the history of that time which it was written. And you and I, we have crumbs that are on our tables. And sometimes we sweep them on the floor. Sometimes we pick them up. But that's not the crumbs we're talking about. This is very important to understand this. You see in those days they did not use utensils. Okay. They ate with their fingers. Now it might sound barbaric to you. And if your children go home and say, well I want to be like the Bible times.

And I want to eat with my fingers. You can correct them and say, no we have utensils. You're going to use those. But in those days they used their fingers. And a lot of what they ate was bread. And they would use the bread to dip into the soup or the stew. And they would you know soak it up and then they would eat it. Okay. But also note there were no napkins. So how would they ever wipe their hands? Do you ever think about this? Of course not. But how do they wipe their hands? They would use stale bread.

And so there would be a section of stale bread that they would reach over, grab, break open, and rub the stew and the soup off of their hands. Okay. And then they would throw that bread away on the floor. A little different than your house and mine. I hope it's different than your house. Okay. And remember earlier in the book of Matthew, Matthew chapter 15, the woman talks about the crumbs that fall from the table that dogs even eat. Those aren't dogs, fufu dogs like we have in our house. They were scavenger dogs.

And they would come and they would feed the crumbs. And the crumbs that would fall would be the crumbs from the stale bread that you would use to wipe your hands and dry your hands, toss on the floor and the dogs would go over there and eat it up. See. He wished, the poor man did, if he could just be under the table for just a little bit to get this little piece of stale bread that had been used to wipe maybe the rich man's hands to have a piece of that. He was so hungry. He was famished. He couldn't get up and walk over there because evidently he was unable to walk.

That's why he was thrown down at the gate. So supposedly he must have been paralyzed. That's why the sores were oozing. Because when you lie on the same place for a long period of time, you get bed sores, you get all kinds of sores. And maybe those are the sores that began to go throughout his body and the dogs would lick. We don't know. But evidently he couldn't get up and walk to crawl under the table. But he longed to have the crumbs that would fall from the table. Wow. So you have this rich man.

He's got everything. He got the clothes. He's got the gate. He's got the house. He's got the dogs. He's got friends. He's got money. He's got everything. Everything he's got. You got the poor man who has nothing. He has no friends. He has no money. The only clothes he has are the clothes on his back where the dogs come and lick his sores. He has nothing. He longs just to eat a piece of stale bread used by somebody else to clean their hands. If he could just get ahold of something like that, boy, that would make his day.

And then the great reality. They both die. You know what? That's the great equalizer, isn't it? Death. We're all going to die. In case you didn't know that, you're going to die. Hebrews 9 says, it's a point in a man who wants to die. After that, the judgment, everybody dies. Unless the Lord comes, we're raptured out of here. We're all going to die. That's the great equalizer, right? So here it comes. The rich man's thinking that it's okay to die because he's going to heaven. But when he dies, he ends up in hell.

Hades, the place of the dead. The poor man is carted off by the angels to Abraham's side. And there he resides for all eternity. Let me ask you a question.

If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity? You see, the poor man has a name because in heaven you need a name. In hell you need no name because you're all alone. There's nobody to talk to, nobody to converse with. You are all alone in hell's fire. You need no name because a name in scripture is a reference to what? Character. Character. Lazarus has a name because he has character. And let me tell you what the book of Revelation says in Revelation 3 verse number 12.

He who overcomes, remember the overcomer? It's the name in the book of Revelation that describes the believer, the one who believes that Jesus is the son of God. First John 5, 4 and 5.

The overcomer, right? We are overwhelming conquerors according to Romans chapter 8. We are so over the top when it comes to victory because of God. We're called the overcomer. And Christ says, he who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God and he will not go out from it anymore.

And I will write upon him the name of my God. Can you imagine that? I'm going to write upon him the name of my God and the name of the city of my God. Wow. How many names you need in heaven? You need one more. Which comes down out of heaven and from my God and my new name. Wow. I'm going to write on them the name of my God. That's ownership. That's ownership. Not only that, I'm going to write on them the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem. Why? Because that's citizenship. We're pilgrims.

This is not our home. We're just passing through. We are citizens of heaven. So the Lord says, I'm going to write on them the name of my God because that's ownership. I'm going to write on you the name of the city of my God because that's citizenship. And then on top of all that, I'm going to write on them my new name. What's that? I have no idea. Revelation 19, verse number 12. He has a name written on him that no one knows. What is that name? I have no idea. That's why it says no one knows. But that new name, he's writing on you.

He's writing on me. See, in heaven you need a name. In hell you need no name. That's why Lazarus is named. Because he was helped by God. He was saved by God. Only way to get to heaven is by the grace and mercy of God. There's nothing you can do to earn it. Nothing you can do to get it. No way you can make enough money to buy your way in. It's all about the grace and mercy of God. And the question for us today, as we look at the description of these two people, is where are you?

Because death is going to happen in your family. It's going to happen in your life. I don't want you to be surprised. I want you to know for certain that when you die, you're going to heaven. No questions asked. None whatsoever. These things are written that you may know that you have eternal life. 1 John 5. Do you know that? I would pray that you do. And ask God to do a mighty work as we study this text together. Let's pray. Father God, we thank you for today and the great study of Scripture and the opportunity you give us to look at what your Word says.

I pray, Father, for everyone in this room that there would be no one here who does not know where they will spend eternity. They don't need to be surprised. They just need to know. And I pray, Father, as we go through this text, you would do a work in all of our lives that none of us would think anything differently of hell than what your Bible says. And realize, Lord, that we have family and friends that need not go there. We only need to tell them the truth about heaven and hell. So we pray, God, that you do a mighty work in and through us as a church.

That you might be honored and glorified. We pray in Jesus' precious name. Amen.