What if those from the grave could talk?
What would they tell us?
Well, the Apostle Paul apparently went to heaven,
but he refused to say a word about what he experienced.
He talked about it in 2 Corinthians chapter 12.
In 2 Corinthians chapter 12, beginning in verse 2, he says this,
I know a man in Christ who 14 years ago was caught up to the third heaven.
Whether in the body or out of the body, I do not know.
God knows.
And I know that this man was caught up into paradise,
whether in the body or out of the body, I don't know.
God knows.
And he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter.
The first heaven, to explain what he's talking about when he speaks of the third heaven,
the first heaven is what you see today in the sky.
If you go outside and look right after worship, don't go yet,
look right after worship and look up in the sky,
what you see is what's described as the first heaven.
The second heaven is what you see on a clear night.
I walked the dog last night about 1030.
I saw stars in the sky.
That's a second heaven.
The third heaven is the dwelling place of God.
Now, Paul is most likely talking about himself here.
However, he is so overwhelmed by the glimpse that he would not speak of it.
He said he cannot tell it.
It looks like it took him 14 years to even bring it up.
And I think that's the best account of a first-person look at heaven.
Paul, you understand, Paul wasn't trying to sell books.
There's a lot of people that talk about what they experience when they almost die
that love to sell you a book.
And some of those things have been proved to be not true.
Years ago, they were written about a child that supposedly went to heaven
and come to find out after they sold a million copies,
the child didn't have any experience like that.
The parents had fed it with them.
So be warned, those who talk about what they saw in heaven
many times have books to sell.
But in today's passage,
Jesus gives us a first-person testimony
of a man that went to hell.
And I believe the advice that he gives is worth taking note of.
It's found in Luke chapter 16.
Luke chapter 16, beginning in verse 19, and it says this.
There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen
and who feasted subtly every day.
And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus,
covered with sores who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.
Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores.
The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
The rich man also died and was buried.
And in Hades, being in torment,
he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side.
And he called out,
Father Abraham, have mercy on me
and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue.
For I am in anguish in this flame.
But Abraham said,
Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things.
And Lazarus is like manner, bad things.
But now he is comforted here and you are in anguish.
And besides all this,
between us and you,
a great chasm has been fixed
in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able
and none may come from there to us.
And he said,
Then I beg you, Father,
to send him to my father's house.
For I have five brothers so that he may warn them
lest they also come into this place of torment.
But Abraham said,
They have Moses and the prophets.
Let them hear them.
And he said,
No, Father Abraham.
But if somebody goes to them from the dead,
they will repent.
And he said to them,
If they do not hear Moses and the prophets,
neither will they be convinced
if someone should rise from the dead.
Let's pray together.
Lord Jesus,
I am fully aware that the devil
does not want
this message
to clearly be preached today.
Because of the difference that it makes
when we realize
what's at stake
for our souls
beyond this life.
God, I pray
that the sweet Holy Spirit of God
will work and move
in such a way
today
that there will be no distractions
that will be clear
what you would have
for each and every one of us
in Christ.
In Jesus' name.
Amen.
If the lost,
that is those
as Scripture describes them,
who reject Christ
could speak
from the grave,
what would they say?
Well, here you have
a situation
with two completely
different men.
You had one man
who was poor
and begging for crumbs
like a dog
at a lavish gate
of the rich man.
The man was covered
with sores,
which speaks
not only to hygiene issues,
but it also speaks
to health issue.
But in the first century,
yeah,
that gate,
I don't know
if we had a show
or not this morning,
that gate
must be something
like it looked
for that man,
okay?
Now, that's not the gate
that Lazarus
laid outside of.
That's a gate
outside of Buckingham Palace.
But I thought
I'd give you
some insight
into what it must
have been like.
So this man's laying
out in front of this gate
with sores
about his body
which is a first century,
to the first century audience,
speaks of a curse
from God.
Do you remember Job?
When Job went
through all of his difficulty,
he was scratching
his boils
with the shards
of pottery
as he lay
on an ash heap.
He looked cursed
even to the point
that Job's own wife
told him to curse God
and die
because that's
what it looked like.
It says this man
was licking,
the dogs were licking
this man's wounds.
Now that,
that,
I got a dog
and I love my dog
but we're not talking
about a good dog
that's worried
about your boo-boo
here, okay?
That's not what
we're talking about.
We're talking about
scavenger,
they didn't have
pet animals,
pet dogs.
That's what we're talking
about a scavenger dog
that's licking
ready to take a bite
is what we're talking about.
He looks cursed.
Surely he had to be.
And then there's
the other man.
The rich man
had a lot in life.
He was rich,
lavishly so.
Purple and fine linen
clothing is the finest.
A robe of fine linen
as is described here
was said to be worth
six times its weight
in gold.
This man was feasting
subtly daily.
This is an ostentatious
flamboyant kind of living.
I mean he's living
like a five star athlete
with an IL money,
you know?
He had all the frills
that you'd want
and that's exactly
what he was concerned with
and that's exactly
what his downfall with.
Life's luxuries
became a curse for him.
They spoke too loud
to him.
Now listen,
it's not always about money.
Jesus brings up
this particular situation
because he's speaking
with the Pharisees
and the Pharisees
that he's speaking with
that Jesus addressed
in verse 14 earlier,
that's what they particular,
that was their particular situation.
But in reality,
some people can be caught up
with so many other things
that make up
the pride of life.
Some people are caught up
with their looks.
I'm going to tell you,
it's not easy to look like this
every day, you know?
Some people are really,
I mean, they're caught up
with their looks, you know?
Some people are caught up
with their education.
Some people are caught up
with their family,
who they're from,
their heritage.
Some people are caught up
with their influence
and they're so,
they're so caught up
in these things
that they become a hindrance
to them
in really seeing reality.
All of these matters
can easily busy our lives.
They can drown out
the desperation
of our hearts.
And his focus
was on the importance
of things that rust
and wear
and do not last forever.
He loved his stuff.
And he prioritized
his life around it.
And the result is,
as Christ put it
about someone else,
that this man
gained the whole world,
yet he lost his own soul.
But Jesus then gives us
a view
of both of them
in eternity.
Now I want you
to notice in the passage
that it says
that the rich man
was buried.
Now he was buried
and surely it was
an extravagant gathering.
But there's no mention
of the burial for Lazarus.
There's no mention
of his burial
because beggars
typically didn't get a burial.
If their bodies
were not claimed,
they were thrown
in the trash dump.
The trash dump
was in the valley
of Hinnom.
Also called Gehenna.
Which is the very name
that Jesus used
to describe hell
throughout the Gospels.
It's not mentioned here,
but it's mentioned often.
So people didn't expect
for eternity
to be different
than life was
for these two men.
But Jesus is a table flipper.
I mean,
he upsets stuff.
I always like to say
God throws curveballs.
He lands in a place
that you don't expect
it to land.
And he does that here as well.
For the poor man here
is not cursed.
The poor man here
is not in hell.
The poor man here
is at the bosom
of Abraham.
Now understand
the significance of that.
In the bosom of Abraham,
that means that
that represents him
being in heaven
at the right side
of the father
of the nations.
Abraham.
The greatest pillar
of faith
in the mind
of the Jews
was Abraham.
And Abraham
is surely seated
close to God
in eternity.
A place of eternal splendor.
This poor man
was put
in a place
of privilege.
Now based on this account,
if this rich man
who's not in heaven
but in hell,
if he were speaking
to us this morning
from hell,
he would give us
some advice.
Hear the advice
from one in hell.
I believe
if he could speak
today to us,
he would tell us,
don't spend eternity
in regret.
Don't spend eternity
in regret.
It's alarming to me
that not only
can this man
see his brothers,
but he can see
their need of salvation
in hell.
He can not only see that
but he can also see
into heaven.
He can see that
there's this great chasm
that has been fixed.
In other words,
what he means by
great chasm
that's been fixed
is what's done
is done.
There's no returning,
there's no changing,
there's no difference
anymore.
He can clearly know
for all of eternity
the opportunities
that he had
and that he neglected
and that he ignored
and that's one thing
to suffer
of knowing of the missed
opportunities.
It's another
to know
that you didn't have
to suffer
and to constantly
be reminded
about what you missed.
I want you to think
about this for just a moment.
Based upon this passage,
people that go to hell
for failing to acknowledge
that God is pursuing him.
They sensed it,
they felt it,
but they never surrendered
to it.
Now let's personalize that.
So once in hell,
you are constantly
reminded of the loved ones
that tried to share
the truth with you
that you didn't listen to.
You are constantly
reminded of the messages
that you heard,
the conviction in your heart
that you ignored,
the opportunities
for your life
and for your eternity
that would change you forever
that you walked away from
for whatever reason.
Lost,
caught up in this world,
rolling through your mind
constantly
without any resolve
and without any type
of recourse,
without any hope at all.
Here,
sometimes in this life,
we get a second chance.
In hell,
there is no second chance.
It is eternal.
There's no going back.
And the regret
of eternity
without the Lord
must be a lot
of what hell's about.
I mean,
we could stop there
and it'd be enough,
but Christ didn't stop there
when he described it.
So nor should we.
I believe that man
was standing here today
and would tell us
about hell.
I believe he would tell us
don't spend eternity
in agony.
Nowhere in Scripture
do we gain a fuller
understanding
of the agony of hell
than we do here.
In verse 24,
he says,
tell him
to just get a wet
finger of water
on my tongue
to bring me
some relief.
He speaks of
two kinds of agony
in hell.
For one,
it speaks of a physical
agony in hell.
There's no doubt
that hell
is not on earth.
It is beyond us.
And if you ever say
in gist,
it's like a hell on earth,
I got news for you.
We don't have a clue
in this life.
To imagine it
in our terms
is only a slight glimpse.
It's much worse than that.
Christ is very clear.
There is torturous
agony in hell.
He describes it
again and again
in the New Testament.
He speaks of weeping
and gnashing of teeth.
That speaks of
a tremendous emotional
and physical pain.
He refers to
being thrown
into outer darkness.
That is a paralyzing fear
that I'll speak of
in just a moment
that I don't really think
we can imagine.
And then he describes it
as a fire,
a lake of fire
and brimstone,
an eternal place
with constant punishment.
Now,
this weeping
and gnashing of teeth
that he speaks of
so often about hell
is spoken of
in response
to the agony
of the eternal darkness
in Mark chapter,
excuse me,
in Matthew chapter 8
verse 12.
The weeping
and the gnashing
of teeth
is spoken of again
in Matthew 13
verse 42
and it's spoken of
in reference
to the furnace
of fire
as it is described
in the New Testament.
You cannot be biblical
which is my priority
by the way.
You can't be biblical
and hide the fact
that hell
is a painful,
physically torturous
place.
But see,
that's only the physical agony.
Then there's also
the spiritual agony.
The weeping
and the gnashing,
the darkness
and the thirst.
No doubt
that that only,
not only to speak
the physical pain,
it speaks of spiritual pain.
Weeping and gnashing
speaks of pain
as mentioned
but it also speaks
of eternal grief.
Never being able
to break loose from it.
The darkness
that it speaks of.
Utter loneliness
with no help
of a break.
With no companionship.
So much
for being in hell
with your friends
like a country song
kind of theology.
The reality is
it won't be like that.
In reality,
we don't quite
understand
darkness.
Some of you
may have had an occasion
to do that
to understand
real darkness
but most of us
are surrounded
by street lights.
Most of us
are surrounded
by night lights.
Most of us
have motion
detecting lights.
and if you wonder
in the dark
these days,
you do it by choice.
It's because you didn't
want to bother
to have light.
In a much
greater weight,
the folks that first
heard this story
from Jesus,
they understood
the real darkness
because real darkness
is desert
kind of darkness.
it is unsettling.
It is lonely.
Due to the fact
that often
you're in the desert
in the dark
not by yourself,
it is absolutely
horrific.
And that's the picture
that is drawn here.
There's no hanging out
with you buddies.
Just because you know
somebody
because they've never
given their heart
and life to the Lord Jesus
and because they live
in a way
that does not honor
the Lord
and you know
good and well
they've never given
their heart and life
to the Lord Jesus
and they will die
and go to hell
unless something changes.
Just because
you may see that
and feel that,
don't believe
that you
will have companionship
by your friend
in hell.
There's no evidence
of anything like that
in scripture.
scripture.
What I see
is this man
pining for the
relationships
that he lost
on earth.
That's just
a perversion
of the devil.
People have
killed themselves,
prided themselves,
and failed to
surrender themselves
because of the
devil's lies.
Don't believe them.
And the way
you ascertain
what's the devil's
lies and what's
the truth
is you invest
your life
in the word
of God.
You feed off
of it.
I want to be
clear today,
there'll be no
friends in hell.
The thirst
that it speaks
of, I'm sure
it's a physical
thirst, but it's
more than that.
It's a thirst
for relief.
It's a thirst
for a break.
It's a thirst
for help.
I believe
if this man
was standing
here today
based upon
this account
of scripture,
that Christ
gives us,
he would tell
us to tell
all the truth
of hell.
Tell all
of it.
It's sad
to know
that many
are more
concerned
about entertaining
others
and keeping
their friendships
than they are
about the souls
of those friends
and loved ones
and where
they'll spend
eternity.
We so often
fail to
acknowledge
the eternal
things.
Evie Hill
was an
African-American
pastor from
Los Angeles
who had a
wonderful outreach
ministry in his
church, a feeding
ministry that he
called, and only
the way Evie can
do it, the
Lodge Kitchen.
And every time he
said it, I wanted
to go to the
Lodge Kitchen.
Evie had a
wonderful, powerful
ministry.
I'm sure through
YouTube today you
can pick up on
that and catch up
on that.
Don't do it now.
You can do it this
afternoon.
Man, what a
blessed preacher of
the gospel.
One of the most
touching things that
I've ever heard is
him preach his own
wife's funeral.
What a blessing
Evie was.
He said he had a
friend named Jack.
He was an evangelist.
And he said Jack
was all about soul
winning, soul winning,
soul winning.
He always wanted to
reach somebody else
for Christ.
Every conversation
that he had, every
message that he
preached, everything
that he did was
soul winning, soul
winning.
He just wanted to
win somebody to
Christ.
So finally he asked
him one day, he
said, Jack, why all
the soul winning?
That's the only thing
you got.
You're always talking
about it.
He said one night
my sister called me.
And she told me
about a dream about
daddy.
She told me, she
said Jack, daddy's
in hell.
He was looking
through a gate.
Fire was all around
him.
Tongue parched,
swollen and cracked.
And he said to me,
please help me.
Save me from these
flames.
He said Evie, when
she told me that, it
got in my head and
it's never left me.
And ever since she
told me about her
dream, I must do
everything and
anything that I can
that all may know.
For I am convinced
that if we could
experience 15 seconds
of hell or 15
seconds of heaven, it
would change our
lives.
us.
But we can't.
The reality is,
folks, that I
believe if you were
exposed to 15 seconds
in heaven, we
couldn't do
anything but wait.
Paralyzed in
anticipation for what's
to come.
I believe it's
glorious beyond our
comprehension.
I did my best over
several weeks to try
to describe the way
the Bible shows us.
But I really believe
even the word of God
puts it in a way that
we can somehow
understand because it
is just beyond us.
I believe if we spent
15 seconds in hell, it
would drive us insane by
the horror of the scene.
But a piece of advice
from one in hell is, tell
all the truth of hell.
Don't hold back a thing.
Friend, let me tell you
something.
If you're not careful, you
will friend somebody right
into hell because you
never wanted to bother to
disrupt your relationship to
share with them the hope of
Christ for them.
I believe that if that man
could stand before us today,
I believe he would tell us,
listen to the word.
Listen to the word.
This man was desperate to
let his brothers know the
reality of eternity.
He was desperate.
He wanted to do anything he
could to let all know.
But in reality, it made
little difference.
If people can see the work
of God in his people,
if people can hear the
message of the prophets
and know the message
and death and resurrection
of Christ and not accept
him, they never will.
The sharing of that message
is what he wanted us to do,
Christ wanted us to do,
and it's the sharing of that
message that we are
responsible to do,
and it is by the sharing
of that message that the
Holy Spirit sparks in
people's lives and salvation
comes to them.
That's what Christ
commissioned us to do.
Christian, we have no
excuse.
The last thing he said to us
was tell somebody.
And the only unpardonable
and unforgivable sin
is to refuse to answer
God's pursuit of you
in his message of grace
and to instead
say no
to his offer.
Sometimes again and again
results in eternity
without him.
If you don't want the
Lord in your life,
you'll get what you want
in hell.
You will.
Take advice from one
in hell.
Listen to the message
of God's word.
Now listen.
I'll be completely honest.
I don't want anybody to go
to hell, nor does the
Lord.
However, in the freedom
of our decisions,
he gives us a choice
to surrender to him or not
because our sin
has separated us
from him.
There is that chasm
between us and him.
But it does not have
to separate us
forever.
If you've never
surrendered your life
to the Lord Jesus Christ,
never acknowledge the sin
that is within your life
that separates you
from God
and ask him to forgive you
and to cleanse you
and to come into your life
and change you,
I got good news for you
today.
Today's the day of salvation.
He'll work in you
and move in you.
All you have to do
is respond to his
speaking to you.
Don't live
an eternity
in regret.
Don't live
an eternity
in agony.
Don't live
an eternity
in hell.
hear the truth
of hell.
Christian,
share the truth
of hell.
If hell could talk,
well,
through Christ,
it has.
The question is,
are we listening?
with every head bowed
and every eye closed,
it is always
the nature
of my sermons
and my effort
behind them
to try to take
on the personality
of the way
the scripture
was originally
presented.
to understand it
in the same dire
way in which
it was to be
understood
in the day
it was first
spoken.
And honestly,
today,
folks,
through my
prayerful preparation,
I don't believe
I've exaggerated
any of the agony
of hell.
I don't believe
I've left
anything off
that scripture
would point out
about us.
I don't believe
I've exaggerated
that at all.
I've not tried
to play off
your emotions today.
That's not been
my effort.
My effort is
to be clear
to you
that this is
not all there is.
When they throw
dirt on your coffin,
there's more
left for you.
And if you don't
know the Lord Jesus,
you'll spend
eternity apart
from Him.
If you're here
this morning
and you've never
accepted the Lord
Jesus Christ,
we're going to
stand in just a
moment and we're
going to sing,
but more important
than singing,
I want you to do
what God tells you
to do.
Maybe there's
an uncertainty
in your life
and you're
struggling
with that.
You want some
guidance.
That's the time
to come.
Maybe you're
here this morning
and you know
that you're
a Christian,
but you know
that you've never
publicly acknowledged
that.
The biblical way
to publicly
acknowledge that
by Christ's
commission and
by His example
is to do that
through baptism.
And we're going
to celebrate
baptism in a
couple of weeks.
And if that's
a pending matter
in your life,
I encourage you
to respond to that.
Maybe God's
drawing you
to this congregation.
You know
this is the place
that God would
have you to serve.
And you just want
to follow His lead.
In just a few
moments when we
stand to sing,
that's the time.
We'll be happy
to guide you
in that process.
Or maybe you just
need to do business
with God.
you got lost friends
that you ain't
shared with.
You haven't taken
seriously the time
in which God's
given us,
the commission in
which He's charged
for us.
Maybe there's
hindrances in your
life that are
in the way,
just like this man's
money was in the
way for Him.
And you need to
lay those things
down at the foot
of the cross.
I'll never
pretend to know
how God is
speaking to you.
I have no idea.
But I never
want to leave
without giving you
the opportunity
to respond as God
speaks.