Luke 16:27-31

This morning we want to turn once again in our Bibles to the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 16. I’m going to read verse 19 to 31. Our focus is going to be on 27 through 31 as we complete the story here of the rich man in Lazarus. Luke chapter 16 and beginning with verse 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. There was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in torments, and seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. 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 are tormented. And beside all this, Between us and you there is a great goal 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 wouldest 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. And Abraham said unto him, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, nay, Father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto them, if they hear not Moses and the prophet, neither will they be persuaded the one rose from the dead. Thank God blessed to us is sacred and holy word this morning. Most of you are familiar with the story of the Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. There’s an interesting part in that story where Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by three ghosts. The Miserer, Scrooge sees his former deceased business partner, Jacob Marley, all wrapped up in chains. And the ghostly Marley warned Scrooge, he might mend his ways or he’s going to end up just like him. Scrooge is very frightened by these visiting ghosts and changes his ways. He becomes cheerful and charitable to the amazement of everyone around. him. It’s something like this visit by Jacob Marley to Ebenezer Scrooge, which the rich man wants for his brothers still on earth, for he desires that Lazarus would return to earth, warn his brothers to that they too do not end up in hellfire. Now, Jesus, is teaching here the imminent danger of those who trust in Mammon and make Mammon their God. His ministry repeatedly emphasized the need to repent or you will perish. In this parable, we said that the rich man was a Jew, who like the Pharisees, had an outward religion, but was certainly inwardly covetous. and his servant of man. This inward sin became evident in his scorn for Lazarus, the poor beggar who once lay by his gate. After death, the rich man lifts up his eyes in hell. He beholds at a distance, far off, Lazarus and Abraham’s bosom. For Lazarus was a true son of Abraham, and he enjoys fellowship with the father of the faithful in the next life. Now, in reality, there is no discussion between those in heaven and those in hell. The rest of the righteous is undisturbed by the ranting of those in hellfire. But here we see Jesus laying out for us the circumstances. that plague the rich me. Now let me begin by saying this. You cannot escape the responsibility for your earthly behavior, even in hell. As we see in verses 27, 28, these words. Then he said, I pray thee therefore, Father, that thou would have sent 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. Now the rich man here makes a request, and he does this because you will be held accountable for your influence upon others. The rich man’s brethren evidently lived the same kind of life that the rich deceased man did, They too were Sabbath going, natural children of Abraham. They have Moses and the prophets read to them. They’re familiar with those Old Testament passages. And it’s obvious that the rich man now realizes they are following in his footsteps. And they will end up in hell just like him. Their lives have been closely. intertwined with the life of their deceased brother. They evidently knew of Lazarus because we see that the rich man here is thinking, if they see Lazarus, they’ll know he was that beggar that gathered the crumbs off my table at my gate. What the rich man learned in hell was that when he inherited his father’s properties, he is also had taken on their responsibility of being the head of the family. God had entrusted him with the souls of his brothers, his dependence, his household, but like the unjust steward, he was unfaithful to the task that he was given. While the rich man may have been genuinely concerned for his brother’s souls here, it seems to be a more important concern bothering him. Under his influence, his five brothers had grown up in his likeness, and he had been a bad influence upon them, making them, in a sense, twofold more the children of hell than they themselves were. He himself was. Scripture, is a second. speaks of those who are responsible for others, especially those who have greater, have responsibility for family and those that they have leadership over. They’re going to have the greater damnation, according to Matthew 23. And the one thing that can add to the agony of the loss is being shut up forever in hell with those that help to bring there. And so we see the rich man’s request here. It’s a selfish request. There is no good in hell. The wicked are totally absorbed with their dreadful suffering. Those torments do not somehow make the wicked good given time. So we need to realize that. It’s not as if the rich, man now began to obey God’s command to love thy neighbor as thyself. No, this is a totally selfish request. His own life was a bad example. And he had never condemned the sin of his brothers, never tried to warn them, never spoke to them. Rather, he no doubt encouraged them in their selfishness in miserly way. It appears here then that the rich man is concerned that if his brothers, whom he’s greatly influenced, join him in hell, it will increase his torment. Their presence will make the fires of hell hotter, the bitter remorse, more dreadful, the horror of God’s justice more deeply felt. The last thing the rich man wants is for the hellfire to be made seven times hotter than it was before. There is a dread of great suffering behind this prayer because of what he’s done. We see responsibility for others here. There is a grave danger of neglecting your responsibility of the souls of others. We can’t dismiss that responsibility like Kane and say, Am I my brother’s keeper? As a boy, Dr. John Mitchell was familiar with the mountains and the mining pits around his house. And one night, the Boy Scout troop that he was in took a midnight hike in and since Mitchell knew that he was, the mountains and where the dangerous pits were, he took several private jaunts away from the group. The scoutmaster admonished him, saying, although you know where the mine pits are and how to avoid them, where you go leaves a path. And one of these other boys, in their ignorance, may follow that path, not knowing where the pits are, and fall into them to their death. Others will have problems if you’re not careful. So in like manner, your life on earth leaves a path behind you. And that path may lead to eternal destruction, which the rich man’s path did. No one lives to himself and no one dies to himself. You have an influence as you go through this life, and God will hold you accountable for your godly example or lack of one. You could stroke the fires of hell a bit hotter. You who are fathers and mothers, if you don’t train your children to seek the things of God first, and you, your path is to seek the things of this world, you’re having an influence on those children. When children see the Lord’s day isn’t treated any differently than any other day of the week, well, they’re going to cast aside the things the Lord. They’re not going to hold that day special. When you fail to pray before meals, when you neglect family worship, your children will fail to realize the duty. and serve the Lord every day. Think of pastors, having to face the congregation, to whom they never proclaim the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ, where they put all kinds of other things like entertainment in the place of faithful preaching of the gospel. That’ll be a horrible thing as well. You be held accountable for your influence on others. Now, notice that. this. You cannot blame God because you did not receive a miraculous sign. The rich man here, in a very shy, I guess, in a subtle, and a subtle way, is making an accusation against God. A covert attempt at self-justification. He is saying, in effect, that his brothers live, the way they do because they have not been sufficiently worn. Surely, if more was done, they would repent. If that’s true for the brothers, it would also have been true for the rich man. The rich man hints that the fact he hasn’t been sufficiently worn of what his lot would be. A supernatural sign would be. surely have deterred him from his course of evil in this life. There were circumstances beyond his control, which led to his present punishment in hell. God could have done more for his soul, is what he’s saying, but he didn’t. If only you had sent a dead acquaintance back to visit me, Lord, I would have changed my ways for sure. The Israelites of old complain that the way of the Lord is not equal. It’s not fair. It’s not just. So the rich man suggests, God hasn’t been fair to him. He could have done more. And so we see some self-justification here. It’s common to blame others. The excuse of the rich man is very often. Fused. Children Believing parents, they go astray, often blame their parents. Well, they were too strict. They pushed me over the edge. Too demanding. Wayward husbands often blame their wives. Well, she really didn’t really show any interest in me. And so he became wayward. Wayward wives blamed their husbands for being boring, maybe uninterested. or something. The church is blank. Ah, that preacher, he’s always preaching over my head. It’s too doctrinal. It’s too dry. It’s too hard to understand. It doesn’t hold my interest. The church is too small. The people aren’t friendly enough. It’s too far away. I don’t have any special programs for the children. They don’t have a gymnasium. They don’t have a youth group. They don’t have it. as though if the circumstances are only improved, we’ve not ended up as a hellbound sin. All of these excuses echo all the way back to the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve sin and look at the excuses they made. The woman that thou gaveest me, she gave me this fruited. The serpent that you let in to this guard, he be gole. me. And I did he. Indirectly, however, the blame was always brought to the feet of God. And if you lift up your eyes and how you’ll probably argue to say, anyway, as the rich man. Oh, if only this had happened. Only if that had happened. If only others had done more. Including the Lord, I would not have ended up in this place of torment. As if God owes you some type of angelic or special visit. change you and bring you to repentance. You cannot escape the responsibility of your earthly behavior, even in hell. Secondly, we look at this passage. The scriptures are sufficient to keep you from hell. Let’s look at verses 29 through 31. In Abraham set unto him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. And he said, nay, Father Abraham. But if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. So you may complain that the scriptures aren’t enough. The response of the rich man here was, or the response, excuse me, to the rich man was, let your brother heed the word of God. Moses and the prophets. Let him, Here are the Old Testament Scriptures. There was available, certainly a full and sufficient testimony concerning the Lord Jesus Christ as the Savior of sinners in the Old Testament Scriptures. The great subject of Moses and the prophets is indeed Jesus. As Jesus said, Moses wrote of me. The prophet spoke of Jesus. The great doctrine of Moses and the prophets. is substitution. All those sacrifices. What were they all about? Substitution. Something or someone dying in the place of the sinner bearing the consequences of the broken law. Thus we read about Jesus in Isaiah 53 that he bear our trespasses as a substitute. the whole spirit of of the scripture is the testimony of Jesus Christ. It was written to testify of Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Now look with me at 1 Peter Chapter 1, verse 9 to 12, if you would. 1.1 1.1 verses 9 to 12. It says here, receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls, of which salvation the process, the prophets have inquired and searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you. Searching what or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow. Unto whom whom it was revealed that not unto themselves, but unto us, they did minister the things which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, which things the angels desire to look into. Peter says to us here that what the prophets and Moses wrote about was Christ and his suffering and his sacrifice to come. Thus Paul writes, but now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God, which is by faith of Jesus Christ. Do we understand that the Old Testament scriptures talked about faith in the Messiah? talked about believing on Christ, talked about righteousness being granted to people on the basis of the work of Christ. Abraham was justified by faith in the coming Savior, as Scripture reveals to us. Jeremiah spoke of the Lord our righteousness, knowing that his righteousness would come from the Lord, not from Himself. It’s not as if the brothers as Jews never heard God’s word. They were there every week when the word of God was read at the synagogue. The Bible is still the world’s most purchased book. The problem is people don’t listen to it. It gathers dust in a million homes. It is explained away in 10,000 pulpits. The rich man isn’t so. satisfied with just the word of God, as we see from verse 30. That’s not good enough. He wishes some miracle, some special sign from God to be given to his brothers. This despite the fact that Jesus declared that a wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign. What you find in the rich man’s response here is the great lie. which in many forms is now proclaimed by the Roman Catholic Church, Pentecostalism, and a host of others. A denial, a denial, that if a man has a Bible, he is the only teacher he needs. You see what the argument is? The scriptures aren’t sufficient. The signs will cause a person to repent. Well, our passage tells us no, it won’t. No, it won’t. Several years ago, I was leading a Bible study, and someone raised a point that there was a sensational report about a so-called Christian who was taken by the Lord and given a visit of hell, like a tour, if you would. And he was going around to various churches, you know, describing in some detail, how the loss were being tormented. and he was supposedly providing an eyewitness account just how horrible hell really was. And his account was being praised for bringing people to Christ. And the discussion of the Bible study was whether or not this was real. Would God do this? And my answer was the quote, verse is 29 and 31 here of our text. The whole account of the visit to hell here is absurd. God has already given his answer to such a request like this. Besides, repentance is a gift of God. It is not something that the natural man is capable of doing without the regeneration work of the Holy Spirit. No matter how much. he sees or how much many signs he is given. When Jesus raised a different Lazarus from the dead, Mary and Martha’s brother, did the Pharisees believe? Did they trust in Christ in that point? What a miraculous sign. He raised somebody from the dead. What were they trying to do? Let’s put Lazarus to death. That’s not repentance. That’s a hard-heartedness. It didn’t change. them at all. Don’t assume that man is capable of believing if given enough inducement. Signs and miracles are not the answer to man’s problem. Any clamoring for a sign is essentially rooted in discontentment with the Word of God. The Word God’s not enough. Yes, it is enough. It displays a rebellious spirit which seeks to find fault. with God if we have that attitude. God tells you the scriptures are enough. The principle laid down in these words is of deep importance. The scriptures contain all that you need in order to know how to be sick. It is fully sufficient. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God. 1017. Faith doesn’t come by signs. It doesn’t come by miracles. It comes by hearing the word of God. A messenger from beyond the grave could add nothing to the scriptures. The Jews require a sign. The Greeks seek after wisdom. But we preach Christ unto them which are called both Jews and Greeks. Christ, the power of God and the wisdom. Christ, the is the book. What is Paul relying on? The preaching of the word. So if you have a Bible and can read it and yet expect more evidence like a visit from Gabriel or some dead believer returning from the grave, you’re deceiving yourself. You will die in your sins. The scripture’s testimony concerning the Lord Jesus Christ’s savior of sin. is what God command you to believe. God binds himself to the use of means. We read in Psalm 19. Listen to this. The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul. Words Paul writes, or excuse me, John writes, or I should say peer, actually. Being born again by the Word of God, I should say peer, being born again by the Word of God, 1. Peter 123. Sadly, sometimes the veracity of Scripture is made to rest on some type of empirical proof, the senses. The discovery of the ark on Mount Ararat will, some think, prove the flood of Noah and cause people to believe the scriptures and thus the gospel. Is that the answer to what natural man’s situation is? If we just found the ark on Mount Ararat, would that make it be enough to persuade him to believe? Sometimes in dealing with unbelievers, we resort to rationalistic arguments. For example, if you were arguing with an evolutionist, you may point out the silliness of the whole convoluted evolutionary theory, on scientific grounds. You could argue that the second law of thermodynamics teaches that everything runs down over time and becomes less efficient. So how could something as complex as man evolve from a simple organism when it breaks down as time goes on? Now that argument is fine as far as it goes, but it’s not going to convert a soul. You must always appeal to the scriptures and demand that man believes what God has said. While I am not opposed to pointing out flaws in my opponent’s position, unless the word of God is brought to bear upon their souls, there is no hope of filage. In the final analysis, the parable is about your need to heed the word of God. particularly in response to the terms of faith in Christ. Jesus summed up this distinguishing mark of the kingdom very clearly in John 847. He that is of God heareth God’s words. Ye therefore hear them not, because you are not of God. Are you looking for a design of divine sign? Or are you trusting in the scriptures? Charles Dickens’ Christmas character? Harold Jacob Marley returns from the dead to warn his business partner, to mend his ways. That’s what the rich man wanted. However, that’s pure fiction. God isn’t going to provide some ghostly visit to persuade you to repent of your sins and believe the gospel. You will never be able to claim you’re justified in not believing because God didn’t send a miraculous sign to convince you. The scriptures are completely sufficient. The citizens of the kingdom of God heed the message of Scripture. Thus is the message we have before us in this text. Let’s close with the word of prayer. Heavenly Father, we thank you for the sufficiency of Scripture. We thank you for its purity, its preservation, its preservation. and its power. We pray, Lord, that you would work in our lives by the Word of God and help us to put so much confidence in the Word that we would put it above any other sign or any other thing that we would think might be helpful. Make your Word effectual for it. It is the power of God under salvation to those who believe. your people as we witness to those around us and make your gospel potent, we pray. In the name of Christ, our Savior. Amen. Let’s stand for the benediction. May God’s blessing rest upon His people. Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God, even our Father, which hath loved us and hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace. Comfort your hearts. and establish you in every good word and work. Amen.