Surprised to Be in Hell, Part 4

If you have your Bible, turn with me to Luke chapter 16. Luke chapter 16. I'm sure that throughout this past week, from last Sunday till now, you probably didn't think much about heaven or hell. Unless you had a friend who died and you went to their memorial service, or an acquaintance who died and there was a memorial service and you went to pay your respects. But for the most part, we don't think much about our eternal destiny. It's not on the forefront of our minds. Unless, of course, someone dies.

Someone close to us. And usually when someone dies, our minds are not on where that person is. Our minds on what our loss is. What we have experienced. What life will be like now that this loved one is gone. But very few of us ever think about where that loved one is and what that loved one is doing. A lot of times at a memorial service, I will speak about heaven and what that person who knew the Lord was now doing in heaven based on what the book of Revelation tells us. But for the most part, we go to a memorial service and only think about how life will be for us now that our friend or our family member is gone.

And the Bible says, you're never to fear the one who can kill your body. Only fear the one who can kill body and soul in hell. That verse should be read probably in every memorial service so people are able to get the right perspective. Because once someone goes to hell, there are certain things you need to understand. Listen to what the Lord God says through the pen of the Apostle John in Revelation chapter 14.

In Revelation chapter 14, there are three angels that give a promise. One is about salvation. The other is about destruction. And the other is about condemnation. One is about salvation because during the tribulation, there will be an angel that flies around in mid-heaven proclaiming the gospel. Now that's going to be quite a sight to see. I'm not going to be here, I'm going to be in heaven. But can you imagine an angel flying in mid-heaven? It's not an airplane. It's not TBN. It is actually an angel that flies around in mid-heaven proclaiming the gospel.

Has the eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people. He says with a loud voice, fear God, give him glory because the hour of his judgment has come and worship him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters. That's the message of the angel in the tribulation that flies around in mid-heaven. It's the promise of salvation. Then comes the promise of destruction. Another angel, a second one, followed saying, fallen, fallen is Babylon the great.

She who has made all the nations drink of the wine of the passion of her immorality. It's a promise of destruction to Babylon, which is a city as well as a system. If you're with us in our study of the book of Revelation, you'll understand that. Although I did receive two phone calls this past week about Revelations chapter 17 of regular radio listeners who refused to listen anymore to our radio program based on what I said about Babylon, the mother of harlots. But that's to be expected. Then verse 9, in another angel, a third one, followed them saying with a loud voice, if anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or upon his hand, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of his anger.

And he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever receives the mark of his name. That verse or that passage tells us about the promise of condemnation. A condemnation that, number one, is unalterable.

It's unalterable. If anyone worships the beast, he will drink, he will be tormented, he will have no rest. Those are words of finality. So we know that man's eternal destiny for those who do not worship God, but instead worship the beast, in this case, or have refused to honor God, their future will be unalterable. They will experience the wrath of Almighty God and nothing will change that. Not only is hell unalterable, it is undiluted. It's undiluted. It says, he will also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength.

Most wines are diluted with water. When wine wasn't diluted with water and you wanted to make it a special harsh drink, they would mix it with spices. Well, the Bible says that hell is undiluted, because it's mixed yet unmixed.

It's mixed with the anger and the wrath of God, which makes it more unbearable. So not only is hell unalterable and undiluted, it is unbearable. Why? Because you are tormented with fire and brimstone. Same word used of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah in Luke 17, back in, as Christ refers to it in Genesis 19, when it actually happened. And then it says that hell not only is unalterable, not only is it undiluted, not only is it unbearable, it is unsympathetic. There is no sympathy for those who are in hell.

Listen to what it says. They will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the Lamb. In other words, those in hell will suffer while purity watches on, with no sympathy. Now understand this, because it does pose a question. How is it that the Bible says that these people will suffer in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb, when 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 says these words, that those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus, those who do not know God, will pay the penalty of eternal destruction away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power.

So how do you reconcile that? If 2 Thessalonians chapter 1 says that God will deal out retribution to those who do not know God and to those who do not obey the gospel of God away from the presence of the Lord, yet the book of Revelation says that they will experience torment, unrelenting torment, in the presence not only of the Lamb, who is the Lord, but in the presence of the holy angels. How do you answer that? Simply this, is that God is omnipresent. There's not a place He is not. Psalms said it this way, if I ascend into heaven, behold, thou art there.

If I descend into Sheol or Hades, behold, thou art there. So how do you reconcile that with 2 Thessalonians chapter 1, where they are outside the presence of the Lord, but in Revelation 14, they are in the presence of the Lord? Simply this, God is wrath. And those in hell will be in the presence of His wrath, in the presence of His justice, and in this case, the presence of His holiness. You're outside His presence in terms of His grace, His sympathy, His love, His mercy, His joy, because that's reserved for those who are in the kingdom of God, who are in heaven.

But you are in the presence of His wrath. You are in the presence of His justice. You are in the presence of His holiness. You are in the presence of His indignation, because He is the keeper, the Lord of heaven and hell. And because He is omnipresent, He is the guard and watcher of all things. So hell is that which is unalterable, undiluted, unbearable and unsympathetic. And lastly, unending. The smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever, and they have no rest day and night. It's unending.

Now I know there are some people who will say, doesn't Matthew chapter 10 tell us that we are not to fear the one who kills the body, but we are to fear the one who can destroy both body and soul in hell. And people who believe in annihilationism will use that verse to prove that those who fear the one who can kill both body or destroy both body and soul in hell, they will be ultimately annihilated and go out of existence. The problem with that is apolymy, which is the word for destroy, is never used that way in the New Testament.

It's always used to be translated perish, lost, ruined. Okay? In fact, it's used of wineskins in the book of Matthew, which speaks that they are, apolymy, ruined. It speaks of the lost sheep in Luke 15, that was lost, the word used, apolymy. Never as Thayer, the great Greek lexicon tells us that it never means going out of existence. It always means to perish, to be lost, to be ruined forever. That's what apolymy means. And so that's important because hell is unending. It's eternal, aionios, like heaven is eternal, hell is eternal.

I tell you that because that is the fate of the unbeliever. That is the fate of the Pharisees in Luke 16 that Jesus is addressing because they believed they were on their way to heaven. They believed because they were the descendants of Abraham, they had an entrance into glory, that they would automatically be there because of their Jewish heritage. And Christ says, no, you're not.

In fact, the poor man, who's not even a Jew, goes to heaven. And the rich man, who is a Jew, an Orthodox Jew, a moral Jew, doesn't make it. Instead, he goes to hell. And so the shock of all shocks is for these religious people to realize that they're not going to make it. And Jesus wants to shock them now so they don't wake up surprised one day in hell, having not heard the truth about their eternal destiny. And so Jesus addresses that by giving us a description of the rich man and the poor man. And then he gives us that transition.

They both died. The great reality of man, everybody dies. The great transition from life to death, which is really life after death. And from that transition gives us a conversation between Abraham and between the rich man to tell us more about the eternal suffering of the soul. And in that conversation, the rich man makes a request and Abraham gives a response. This is his request. He says, after he'd asked that he would send, that is Abraham would send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool his tongue.

Remember, he never asks why I'm here because everybody in hell knows why they're there. He never asks, can you ease up on the relentless fire so that I can have a little bit of relief? No, he doesn't do that because he knows he's getting exactly what he deserves. Everybody in hell is fully aware of why they're there and what they're getting is what they deserve. There are no questions about that. But what he does ask is very unique. He says, I beg you, father, that you send him, that is Lazarus, 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 very important. It's very important to the Jewish people who are listening to understand the conversation between the rich man and Abraham. Because the question is, why did the rich man go to hell?

Was it because of his workspace system? Partly. Was it because of a sin? Maybe. But no one goes to hell because of their sin. Because once you're saved, you still sin. You're just clothed in the righteousness of God. Nobody necessarily goes to hell because of their workspace system. They go to hell simply because they don't believe what God says.

That's why they go to hell. John 5 verse 24 says it this way, truly, surely I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life. People go to heaven because they hear what God says and they believe it.

People go to hell because they hear what God says and they don't believe it. That's why they have a workspace system. That's why they sin and keep on sinning. That's why they do what they do. They refuse to believe what God says.

And so this man comes, this rich man says to Abraham, send Lazarus back. Send him back from the dead. Because if you send someone back from the dead, they'll believe. And Abraham says, no, no, they won't. They have Moses and they have the prophets. If they don't believe them, they won't believe the one be raised from the dead. He could have said, hey, talk to Jairus's daughter. Send them to Jairus's daughter. She was dead. She experienced a resurrection. Or how about sending to the widow's son at Nain?

He was dead. He got a resurrection. Because the supernatural doesn't save anybody. The miracle doesn't save anybody. Only the message saves people. You see, it was a problem then. It's a problem today. We think that if we do something spectacular, people will believe. No, they won't. If they refuse to believe what the Bible has already said, they won't believe though someone be raised from the dead. That's important to realize. Because the rich man is saying, you know what, we don't have enough proof.

We don't have enough evidence. We can be convinced if there's a miracle. We can be convinced that there's something supernatural. We can be convinced that there's something spectacular. If something great happens, so and so will get saved. No, they won't. Because faith cometh by hearing and hearing about a word about the Christ. Romans 10 17. First Peter 1 23, we're born again by the living and abiding word of God.

James 1 18, we have been brought forth by the word of truth. Nobody ever got saved outside of hearing the message of the gospel. No one was ever saved because of Jesus's miracles. He didn't perform miracles so people would get saved spiritually. He performed miracles to affirm his messianic credentials. People were saved because of the message he preached. It's the power of the word of God. And this, this parable that Jesus gives is a parable that emphasizes the powerful truth of the word of God.

If they would believe what Moses said, if they would believe what the prophet said, in other words, the old Testament, it's just another phrase for the old Testament. You can't say the old Testament because there was no new Testament then, right? Jesus said, I will just believe the old, the old Testament. No, it's the law and the prophets. It's Moses. And, and it's what they said. So the question comes for us is what did the rich man not believe? And what did the poor man believe? In order for the poor man to go to heaven and the rich man not to believe and go to hell.

That's got to be the question. What did they know? How could they know? I mean, we know Romans 10, 9 and 10. If you confess with your mouth, Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you shall be saved. But that is post cross. What about pre-cross? What about pre-birth of the Messiah? What did they believe that would allow them to get into heaven? That's important because you're going to realize that they believe or believed the same thing you believe. Pre-cross believe the same thing you believe post cross.

Let me explain that to you. This is important. You need to get this, especially if you have Jewish friends, because in order to get to heaven, you had to believe what Moses, the law and the prophets said. The question is, what did they say? Well, let me give you a series of things they had to believe.

This is important. Number one, they had to believe in the identity of God, the identity of God. That's the same thing you got to believe in, right? Who is God? You can't go to heaven if you don't know God. That's why way back in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord God said these words, let not the wise man boast of his wisdom and let not the mighty man boast of his might. Let not the rich man boast of his riches, but let him boast of this, that he understands and knows me, that I am the Lord who exercises loving kindness, justice, and righteousness on earth for I delight in these things declares the Lord.

You got to know me. You must know God. He is sovereign. He is creator. He is Lord. He is holy. Do you not think that a Jewish person had to believe in the holiness of God? Isaiah and Isaiah six spoke of the fact that he is holy, holy, holy. The whole book of Leviticus was about to be as holy as God himself is holy, right? God's a holy God. If God is a holy God, he is a pure horizon to behold evil. So you know that to believe in God meant to believe in his holiness, to believe in the fact that he was the creator and sovereign ruler of the universe, hero Israel, the Lord our God is one, right?

They had to believe in who God was and what God did. The nature of God is essential to saving faith. The identity of God. Who is he? And when Adam leaves sin, what did God do? He punished sin. Had to. Had to. Because he's a holy God who acts righteously. And all throughout the Old Testament, whether it be Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Genesis, it's all about God's holiness, his character, his nature, his righteousness, who he is. That's why when Moses said, oh Lord, show me your glory, show me your nature, who are you?

And the Lord passed in front of him and proclaimed, the Lord God compassionate and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness and truth, who keeps loving kindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin, yet he will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Every Jew had to believe in the identity of God. Who is he? What does he do? Every Jew believed in the necessity of repentance. The necessity of repentance. I mean, all you got to do is read the prophets. That's what they said, that they had to repent.

Jonah preached repentance to the Ninevites. They had to turn from their sin over in the book of Ezekiel, Ezekiel chapter 18, verse number 30. Therefore, I will judge you, O house of Israel, each according to his conduct, declares the Lord, repent and turn away from all your transgressions so that iniquity may not become a stumbling block to you. Cast away from you all your transgressions which you have committed and make yourselves a new heart and a new spirit. For why will you die, O house of Israel?

Repent and turn away from your sins. Even Joel, the prophet Joel said this way, Joel 2, verse number 11, the day of the Lord is indeed great and very awesome. Who can endure it? Yet even now declares the Lord, return to me with all your heart and with fasting, weeping and mourning and rend your heart, not your garments. Now return to the Lord your God for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness and relenting of evil. It was all about the message of repentance.

That's why, that's why the rich man says, if you send someone back from the grave, they will repent. He understood about the necessity of repentance because he understood the identity of God. God is a holy God and if I'm a sinner and he is holy, I have no access to him unless I repent of my sins. So they had to believe in the identity of God who he is. They had to believe in the necessity of repentance and number three, they had to believe in the receivability of grace.

Nobody has ever been saved apart from the grace of almighty God. Nobody. And the most potent illustration of that is found in the very first book of the Bible.

Genesis six, verse number five, then the Lord saw the wickedness of man was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart. And the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from animals to creeping things to birds of the sky, for I am sorry that I have made them. But Noah was graced in the eyes of the Lord. That's the first time the word grace is used in the Bible and it shows that every intention of every man's heart was only evil continually, including Noah's.

But God decided to grace Noah. He didn't grace anybody else. Millions of people were slaughtered in the flood. God chose to grace one man and save him and his family. That's God's choice. But Noah was saved by what? Grace. That's why the God, the Psalms would say that God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger. The receivability of grace. I mean, after all, how would someone ever, ever be saved outside of God's gracious gift of grace? And Noah is that classic example. He deserved to die like everybody else.

But for the grace of God, he lived. And so you think they knew that story? Oh yeah. Believe me. They knew the story. They know the history of Israel. They knew the history of their Jewish roots. They knew the history of the world because that's all they studied in the synagogue. That's what they learned. They believed in the identity of God. They would have to believe in the necessity of repentance. They would have to believe in the receivability of grace and they have to believe, listen carefully, in the centrality of the new covenant.

The centrality of the new covenant. Listen carefully. Everybody in the Old Testament was saved by the new covenant. Everybody. The new covenant didn't just come into existence when Jesus died. Jesus ratified the new covenant. But Adam and Eve were saved by the new covenant. Noah was saved by the new covenant. Abraham was saved by the new covenant in Jeremiah 31, Ezekiel 36, where God will sprinkle on their hearts the blood that will cleanse them and wipe them clean. Listen, the new covenant is about transformation.

And nobody was ever saved without transformed life. Ever. Old Testament or New Testament. The promise of the new covenant for Israel nationally, remember there's the Abrahamic covenant. There's a, there's a, there's a Davidic covenant. There's a new covenant. And in Zacharias' song in Luke chapter one, he talks about those three major covenants because the Davidic covenant was, was political. The Abrahamic covenant was national, but the new covenant was spiritual. You see, Israel will be saved spiritually as a nation in the end.

But salvation is a personal relationship with the living God. And the new covenant spoke about a personal relationship that God would do a great and mighty work in the hearts and lives of those who came to him and believed in him, understood his identity, understood the necessity of repentance, understood the availability of grace, and they would throw themselves upon the mercy of God. He would save them. Number five, they would have to believe in the beauty and the liberty of forgiveness. I mean, isn't that how we're saved?

Sure. The beauty and the, and the liberty of forgiveness. Psalm 103 says it this way, the Lord is compassionate and gracious though to anger and abounding in loving kindness. He will not always strive with us, nor will he keep his anger forever. He has not dealt with us according to our sins, nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are from above the earth, so great is his loving kindness toward those who fear him. As far as the East is from the West, so far has he removed our transgressions from us.

And just as the father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him. Then over in the book of Micah chapter seven, verse number 18, who is a God like thee who pardons iniquity, who passes over the rebellious act of the remnant of his possession. He does not retain his anger forever because he delights in unchanging love. He will again have compassion on us. He will tread our iniquities underfoot. Yes, that will cast all their sins into the depths of the sea. See, they had to believe in the beauty and the liberty of forgiveness that there is a God.

He is a creator. He is a sovereign sustainer of the universe. He is holy and he is just. And when man sins, there comes the necessity of repentance. But what happens when I repent? I have to believe in the availability of grace or the receivability of grace that God will somehow be gracious and compassionate and kind toward me that I might receive that gift of grace based on the centrality of the new covenant. And, and the opportunity and the beauty and the liberty of forgiveness that comes when God forgives me of my sins.

But was that it? Is that everything they had to believe? Is that everything that the law and the prophets said? Oh no, it said a lot more. Now you might be sitting there saying, how do they know all this? Remember, you're not a Jew and Jews are well-versed in the Old Testament. The Old Testament is their life. See, we were kind of New Testament people. We don't have that much knowledge of the Old Testament, but if God didn't give them everything they needed to know in the Old Testament about salvation, they'd have no hope.

But their hope was based on what God had already said, which leads us to our next point. They had to believe, listen carefully, in the victory of faith. What is faith? Believing in what God has already said. Faith is believing in what God has already said. That's why the book of Habakkuk says that the just shall live by faith. That was quoted by the apostle Paul in the New Testament. The just shall live by faith, Genesis 15. Abraham believed God and it was credited to him, accounted to him as righteousness.

What did Abraham believe? He believed in what God said. Abraham was on the other side of the Euphrates. He was in Ur of the Chaldeans and God called him. And God called him to be a father of a great nation. He crossed over that river. The day he crossed over the river, the Hebrew people were born because the word Hebrew means to cross the river. And he crossed over that river that day. And when you tell a Jew, listen, you were a Gentile before you were ever a Jew. They have a problem with that, but that's the truth.

That's the absolute truth. I used to tell my Israel guide all the time, listen, believe it or not, you were a Gentile before you were a Jew. He used to say, no, I'm not. I said, yes, you are. You all were because Abraham was a Gentile in Ur of the Chaldeans and God called him to cross the river. And of course, my, my, my guide in Israel knows that the word Hebrew means to cross the river. So he knows that when he crossed the river, the great river Euphrates, he came to the promised land. The Jewish nation was going to be born based on a man that crossed the river who used to be a Gentile.

So we had all this stuff in common anyway. So what are we arguing about? And so the bottom line comes is that you got to believe in the victory of faith. Abraham believed that he believed everything God said. And because he believed what God said, it was credited to his count. And it talks about in Romans chapter four, the faith of Abraham, the victory of faith. I've got to believe what God says.

You see the man in hell, the rich guy did believe what God said. He didn't believe the Old Testament. He believes some, he believed in his work system. He believed in his self-righteousness. That's what he believed in. He did not believe in what God said in the Old Testament, the victory of faith, but that's not all. Listen, to be saved, they had to believe in the certainty of a substitute. Had to believe that the certainty of a substitute. And when God killed those animals way back in Genesis chapter three and clothed Adam and Eve with those animal skins, he clothed them as symbolic of his righteousness.

Just like in the book of Isaiah, it talks about the garments of salvation, the robes of righteousness. Why do you think Israel slaughtered millions upon millions and millions upon millions of lambs all throughout their lives? And especially on the day of atonement, because they believed in the certainty of a substitute. Someone had to pay the price for the sin. And it was best illustrated in the life of Abraham in Genesis 22, where God told Abraham to take his son, his only son, the one whom he loved upon to the Mount Moriah and to kill him.

And God stopped him and God provided a substitute. And God said on that day, I will provide myself as lamb. Don't think for one moment that the Jewish people don't believe in the certainty of a substitute. There had to be, there had to be someone who paid the price for the sin. And there was this anticipation of the ultimate sacrifice that would come. So there would be no more sacrifices to take place because the blood of bulls and goats just covered their sin. But the sacrifice of the ultimate lamb would take away their sins.

And that's why John the Baptist said, behold the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. See, that's important. They believed in the certainty of a substitute, but that's not all they believed in. Are you ready for this? They had to believe in the deity and the humanity of the Messiah. Had to believe that. The humanity and the deity of the Messiah, that the Messiah was not just a man, but he was God. Isaiah 9, 6, a child will be born. A son will be given. The son won't be born. Why won't the son be born?

Can't be, because the son's eternal. How do you know that? Same verse, Isaiah 9, 6 and 7 says, he is the everlasting father. He is the originator of eternity. How can you be the originator of eternity unless you are eternal, right? He's also called El Gabor, the mighty God. The son that's given, the child that's born is El Gabor, the mighty God, who is the originator of eternity. So Micah 5 verse number 2 says that when Messiah will come to the birthplace of Bethlehem, he is from everlasting to everlasting.

He is eternal. You see, you can't be a Jew and not believe in a Messiah that's God and man. Can't be, and be a true Jew, because every Jew believed. That's why Simeon, that's why Anna in Luke chapter 2, when they behold the Messiah, they knew salvation had come. Zacharias in Luke chapter 1, all knew about the birth of the Messiah and what his son was going to be, the forerunner to that Messiah who was God in the flesh. It was all very real to them. They didn't necessarily know all the ins and outs about it, but that's what faith is about.

It's believing in what God says. You don't have to get it all. You just got to believe it all. And that's what they had to believe in the divinity and the humanity of Messiah. But there was one more thing that they had to believe, and that was the essentiality of forsaking everything for God. Listen to what Isaiah the prophet said, seek the Lord while he may be found, call upon him while he's near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man, his thoughts and let him return to the Lord.

He will have compassion on him to our God for he will abundantly pardon. Do you think that forsaking everything and following Jesus is just New Testament stuff? Oh no. Folks, that's the way it's always been. So it's always been. And there's nothing that I've told you this morning that we don't believe. We believe in the identity of God. We understand the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We understand who he is and what he does. We believe in the necessity of repentance. We believe in the receivability of grace, that it's only by grace through faith that one is saved.

We believe in the centrality of the new covenant because that's how God would save man and transform his heart and recreate it in a way that would honor him. We believe. We believe in the beauty and liberty of forgiveness that can only be granted by God who's compassionate. We believe in the victory of faith. There's a song, faith is the victory, right? We sing that song all the time. Why? Because we believe in what God says.

The man in hell didn't believe it. Evidently the poor guy, the poor man Lazarus did, he believed. Because the Bible says, the Bible says, the reason he has a name is because God saved him.

That's what Lazarus means. God's helped me. God saved me. That's how we got to heaven, by the work of God, not by the work of man. And so when you look at these things, you realize this is what the poor man Lazarus believed, the rich man didn't.

See, he went to hell simply because he did not believe what the Bible said. He didn't believe what Moses said. Didn't believe what the law said. He didn't believe in what the prophets said. And they said the exact same thing that Paul says, Peter says, John says, James says. There's no disparity between the Old Testament and New Testament. They're congruent. The New Testament just completes the Old Testament. The New Testament tells us about the mysteries that weren't revealed in the Old Testament.

They were just concealed there, but now they're revealed fully for us. So post cross, we're able to see the fulfillment of all those things. But they believed, had faith that what God said was true. And that's how a Jew was saved. And that's why the rich man was in hell. He refused to believe what Moses said in the law and what the prophets said. Let me ask you this question.

What have you refused to believe the Bible says? Are you still ingrained in a workspace system, thinking that you could earn your way to heaven? The Bible says you can't do that.

Are you still ingrained in some kind of religious system that has got you enslaved to all of its rituals, that you feel that somehow you're going to gain acceptance from God by doing these things? The Bible says it's by grace through faith alone in Christ alone.

Are you still enslaved to your sin, believing that your sin will satisfy you, that your sin will honor you, that your sin will get you what you ultimately want? It won't. It won't. For what should a prophet of man if he gains the whole world? He loses his own soul. Will you today believe what the Bible says, what Christ said, what Moses said, what the prophet said about the Messiah, the King of Israel, the Lord of the universe, and the way he saves men from the sin?

I would trust that would be the case for you today. Let me pray with you. Father, thank you, Lord, for this day and the joy we have of studying your word. Our prayer, Lord, is that you'd open our eyes and that there would not be one person today among us that doesn't know you, but today would be the day of their salvation, that they would come to know the greatness of your mercy, the kindness of your compassion, and receive the free gift of eternal life. We pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.