Are You Ready For The Judgement

Introduction

Good morning. Hope everyone has been pleased by the fact that this congregation seeks to simply do what the will of God is. Certainly that is our goal, that is our hope. And if we wish to please him, we should do what he says. Amen. We should praise God for giving us a chance to worship him. I hope you’re moved by how wonderful it is to have brothers and sisters here this morning. And in fact, I hope you’re you think maybe that this this is just a little bit of heaven on earth. And we say that, and yet we kind of think about it a lot, and you think, well, that’s a nice cliche, but what does it mean? Instead of examining what it means, perhaps this morning we should look at where did it come from?

Why do we say that? And more importantly, why are we living the way that we are? I like to issue a big challenge this morning in several ways.

Read with me, beginning in Luke chapter sixteen, beginning in verse nineteen. There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously 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 sight, 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 an anguish in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things in Lazarus in 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 cross 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 someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

He said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone would rise from the dead. I hope you’re moved by several facets to the story. I think there are the obvious ones, and it helps us understand why Christ is saying what he’s saying and why he’s telling the story he’s telling. And that’s in highlighting the difference in this life between the rich man who is clothed in purple in fine linens, and he dealt sumptuously every day, and the poor beggar man Lazarus, who was so poor that he was laid at the rich man’s gate. He was so rich and had so much that he even had his own gate for a beggar to be laid at. And he was so bruised and untaken care of that he perhaps couldn’t even move his arms enough to fend off dogs who are coming and licking his sores.

I hope you notice that because Jesus spent a lot of time making sure we understood that differential. The question I want to start with this morning is why? Why was this so important? Well, as is usually the case, to understand something, you have to understand more of it, and you have to go back to the beginning. So rather than going back to the very beginning of this chapter, look with me in Luke chapter 16 and verses 13 and 14. When Jesus has concluded telling the parable of the dishonest manager, he concludes this in verse 13 No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.

Now, you see, he’s making the point. You have to choose in our lives. You’re going to be faced with many choices. In this particular case. Watch out for greed. Watch out for the effects that money can have on you. It can take your purpose, your will. You can live for it instead of God. And this parable highlights how that can happen. In fact, it even highlights the consequences. But before going any further, look at verse 14. Look at the response. The Pharisees, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.

So understand this morning as we discuss this story, as we discuss this parable of Christ. God knows our hearts. It doesn’t matter how rich you are, how poor you are, where you’ve been, or where you’re going, if you follow God, he knows. And if you don’t follow God, he knows. Keep that in mind as we go through the story. Now, look back at verse 19. As we set the stage, as we’ve already noted, there was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores. Notice verse 21, though. Who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table? He would have been happy.

He was so poor. He was so destitute and hungry that he would have desired even the scraps of what the rich man would have ate. And in fact, you have to be struck by the fact that he was at his gate, and it doesn’t say he was cared for. It doesn’t say the rich man gave him his extra extra plates of food. He didn’t come out and make a plate for him. He desired that. That’s what he was hoping for. We think we’re poor a lot today sometimes, don’t we? When we get stressed, the bills get high, the bank account gets low. And you start thinking to yourself, how can I make more money? That’s what I need. That will solve my problems. Lazarus was truly poor.

That’s being destitute, brothers and sisters, not simply not having all that you want or all that your heart’s desiring at the time. But notice what Jesus says in verse 16 of Luke chapter 16, continuing in his direct response to the Pharisees. He says, The law and the prophets were until John, since then the good news of the kingdom is God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one dot of the law to become void. What is he saying there? Is he saying the law will never be replaced? Absolutely not. What he’s saying is to these Pharisees, to the lovers of money, all these traditions, all these little loopholes and things that you’ve added to the law to help you, to benefit you, to help you collect that money they so love in verse 14.

Those are not of God and he knows. You cannot change the law of God. You must simply obey it or choose to disobey it. Those are the options on the table. But notice, beginning in verse 24, this picture. A lot of people like to argue about whether or not this is a parable. I would say that there is some evidence for that, even by in Luke chapter 16 and verse 1. Notice how Christ starts something that is undoubtedly a parable. There was a rich man who had. And notice verse 19, there was a rich man who had, who was clothed in purple. In fact, he even calls out Lazarus by name. But regardless, the story is true, and certainly in Christ’s parables, he would not teach something that was not so.

He used real-life events so that it would be understood. If he broke the laws that men understood, or he told about things that didn’t make sense or didn’t compute, how would that help their understanding of anything? Jesus simply would take a story of something that men like us would understand and to give that physical tale some sort of spiritual meaning, some sort of spiritual application. So notice, keeping that in mind about verse 24. After he’s been the rich man has been in Hades, and the poor man was carried to Abraham’s bosom, the rich man called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. In just a few moments, I’m going to give you four things to take from this story.

Four points that we must understand, and I truly feel will shape our devotion to God. But notice first and foremost, as an aside, this man is in torment. He is so bad off. You know what it kind of reminds me of? How bad off Lazarus was.

What Abraham’s telling him is you had your choice, you had your life, and you blew it. Lazarus lived, and now he is comforted because God has mercy on him, and he was good. God knew what his heart was. Likewise, what Abraham’s telling the rich man is, You had your choice. You lived, you chose wrong, and you know what? It is final. Your life is over. The chance to move from here to there is over.

In fact, there was no even momentary bliss in this place of torment. Do you get that? Do you understand that? Fathom that with me, fathom that with me this morning. It was so bad, so vile, so finite and final. His torment was so final. Even just that one passing moment of cool would have been good. And in fact, but Abraham says, No. You had your chance. You could have done what you knew you should have. You could have been good. You could have chosen life, and instead you chose to fare sumptuously. You chose to clothe yourself in purple rather than care for people like Lazarus, who was sitting at your very gate. And because of that, there would be no more second chances. It was fixed.

Notice in verse 29, 27, then. He kind of resigns himself. And he says, 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. Can you imagine if you did something bad? If you were in such a terrible strait, wouldn’t you tell everyone you cared about how to avoid it? He was in such torment, such anguish. He who moved past the horrible, dreadful thought that he was stuck there. He said, Just send him to them. Let them have a chance. But what does Abraham say? What is the point? What is one of the two major points of this parable? And Abraham said in verse 29, they have Moses and the prophets.

Let them hear them.

And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. Do you get that? I hope you understand how ironic that truly is. Because wasn’t it the Pharisees? Wasn’t it many of the people who were around when Jesus died? Was buried? And was resurrected, who then almost immediately concocted a scheme to cover it up. It didn’t matter that Jesus rose from the dead. It didn’t matter that he had law. It didn’t matter that he worked miracles or that his disciples could heal as well. It mattered that their lifestyle was under attack if they had to submit to Christ. It meant a lifestyle change and it meant something they were unwilling to give up. A lot like the rich man in his life of luxury, isn’t it?

What is it for you this morning that you might be unwilling to give up? Because when we think about a passage like what Abraham just said in verse 30, when the rich man says it, I kind of gotta agree with him. If I saw someone die and come up from the dead, I would be pretty mind blown. I would want to say, What does this guy have to say? I want to see it. I want to hear it, I want to feel it, I want to be a part of it. But can I tell you this morning, somebody has? The Son of God came to this earth. He died on the cross for our sins, he was buried, and yet he was resurrected, freeing us from the bondage of death, freeing us from the bondage of sin, and giving us a hope of eternal life.

Perhaps it’d be similar and as wonderful as the comfort Lazarus was feeling in Abraham’s bosom. And Abraham says in verse 31 to that final plea. I just want them to see so that they will repent. If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead. And before I get to those four points this morning, realize that we have the word of God. Do you realize that this morning? You hold the key to eternity. We don’t like to think about death because we can’t. Mr. Bob gave an excellent lesson this morning on how God can do far more abundantly than we could ever ask or think. And death is one of those things that is hard for us to get our minds around.

But I can make it simple for you this morning. When you die, you’re going in one of two directions, towards God or away from him. It is that simple. And we think on this earth, we think, how can we, how can we teach more people? How can we help people avoid the rich man’s fate? How can we help people avoid torment? And we say, well, maybe if we can put on a carnival, if we can offer gas cards, or we can give them money, or if we build a gymnasium. Jesus’ story quenches that argument, fills it, destroys it from the start before we would even have it in the 21st century, before they even knew what a gymnasium would have been. See what he says? They have Moses and the prophets.

Let them hear them. They will not turn to the Moses and the prophets. They will also not care about someone being risen from the dead. How dead, how spiritually bankrupt must they be. And yet they were right. Jesus did die. He did come up from the grave. He was alive. His hands were nail scarred. And yet, if you look around, you know that by today there aren’t a whole lot of people that believe that. And if there are, there’s people who have gone their own way. And you know what’s the sad thing is people in that day and time also didn’t believe it when it happened right in front of them. And there’s some reasons for that. And I want to get to four things we can understand from this parable, but please, if you take anything else away from this parable, understand that the word of God is sufficient, it is total, and it is perfect, and it is all you need to salvation.

1. We All Will Die

But as we move forward, lesson, I want to make a first point with you. We all will die. Look in Luke 16, verses 19 and 20. When he talks about the rich man in verse 19 and the poor man of Lazarus in verse 20, get down to verse 22. It says, The poor man died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. But notice what it next says.

Now turn with me in your Old Testament to Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Look with me in Ecclesiastes chapter 2. Beginning in verse 14. The wise person has his eyes and his head, but the fool walks in darkness. And yet I perceive that the same event happens to all of them. Then I said in my heart, what happens to the fool will happen to me also. Why then have I been so very wise? And I said in my heart that this also is vanity. For of the wise as of the fool, there is no enduring remembrance, seeing that in the days to come all will have been long forgotten how the wise die just like the fool. Now notice with me in Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27.

Hebrews chapter 9, verse 27, please turn there. Please look at this. Look at this unbearable truth. If you do not have Christ, how unfortunate it would be. Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 27. And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes the judgment. But here’s the good news in verse 28. So Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time. Not to deal with sin, but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him. The good news this morning is that Jesus has already offered himself. The forgiveness of sins is out there on the table. Have you grabbed it yet? Have you taken advantage of the blood that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the beloved Son of God shed for you?

I want to make another point about this death. I want you to picture for a moment what death will be like. Because the bottom line in here is I don’t care if you’re uncomfortable with it. I don’t care if you don’t like it. I don’t care if you’re rich, I don’t care if you’re poor, I don’t care if you’re black, I don’t care if you’re white. You are going to die. And I will too. Will you be ready for it? We will all die. What’s your fate going to be? Are you ready? I don’t mean, is your bank account ready? Is your last will and testament prepared? Is your safe locked away in a place that your children know the access code to? I mean, are you prepared to meet your God?

And is it appointed for men to die once? And then the judgment. It’s coming. Whether you’re rich or poor, the rich man realized this. Lazarus benefited from death. And I stand to tell you here passages like Hebrews chapter 9 and verse 28, and even as we discussed, Brother Barfield talked about before the Lord’s Supper, passages like Romans chapter 5 and verse 8, but God demonstrates his own love towards us, and that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. That’s good news. Because it means you know what? Death isn’t scary, death isn’t unforeseeable. It’s good. God tells you, because of Christ’s death, you can be saved. You can be comforted, you can be in a place of wonderful, eternal rest, singing praises and being in the presence of our God.

Is there anything greater? Absolutely not. That is what we should live for. But conversely, that means by necessity, that there is someplace else. If there is a judgment, you don’t have a judgment if there’s just one answer. You just have a factual appearance. Is God just going to stand before you and go, in, in, in. That’s not what we read about in the scriptures. We read about discerning those to his left and those to his right. We read about those who do the will of God are those who will enter into the kingdom of heaven. We read about in passages like Matthew chapter 7 and verses 13 and 14, that the gate is wide, and there are many who enter the pathway to destruction. But the gate is narrow and hard to find, and there are few who find the path to eternal life.

2. Your Worldly Condition Does Not Illustrate Your State With God

Which path are you on? Which way will you find? Because I gotta tell you, sometimes that’s hard to determine. Look with me in Luke chapter 12 and verse 21. The second point I’d like to make to you this morning is that your worldly condition does not illustrate your state with God. Look at me in Luke chapter 12. In Luke chapter 12, we’re at the conclusion, beginning in verse 13 of the parable of the rich fool. You know about him, don’t you? This was the man who in verse 16 says, The land of a rich man produced plentifully, and he thought to himself, what shall I do? For I have nowhere to store my crops. And he said, I will do this. I will tear down my barns and build larger ones.

This is in verse 18, and there I will store all my grain and my goods. Verse 19, and I will say to my soul, soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years. Relax, eat, drink, and be merry. Notice verse 20 and 21. But God said to him, Fool, this night your soul is required of you in the things you have prepared. Whose will they be? So is the one who lays up treasure for himself and is not rich towards God. There are plenty of rich people who are not rich in God.

What are you going to say when you get there? Are you going to say, well, I I was rich. I lived a good life, God. I I was building newer barns so I could give more away. I don’t know what God will say. I wouldn’t judge if I could. I couldn’t judge if I wanted to. But I do know this. Laying aside all, picking up our cross, Luke chapter 9 and verse 23, and following after him is what he’s looking for. So if that means that you’re poor in the process, then by golly, be poor. If it means you are rich and you have much to give away, you can help your poor, destitute brothers and sisters, because there are those like it here in this world, here in this life, then do so.

Use your funds as God would have you. Take what God has blessed you and use it for him, not for you. That’s the difference in the rich man. The rich man was not condemned. He was not in a place of torment because he was rich, but because he ignored people like Lazarus who were right in front of him. And the saddest part, brothers and sisters, is there are people right in front of us today. We are rich in this nation. I don’t care if you’re rich in money, you’re rich in time, you’re rich in opportunity of some sort. What are you doing with it? Are you walking past the poor beggar? Are you walking towards him, giving him what God has blessed you with? Because we will give an account for it.

Are you building bigger bonds? Are you building a stronger faith in God through study of his word? Or are you spending your time scheming to make more money? Relaxing, saying, Soul, I’ve done a good work this day. I deserve to relax and lay down on my couch until the evening slumber. What do you choose to do with your time? Because your condition is given to you by God. I am not suggesting that we have received anything that is not from God. In fact, quite the contrary. So if you are rich, use it. Don’t assume that because you’re well off, you don’t need God. I think that’s our biggest problem with prayer, isn’t it? Sometimes we think, you know what, we’re doing good. I don’t need to stop to pray.

We don’t think that. We just do it. We don’t think to pray when we’re doing good, when we’re doing well. And yet when that hurricane comes, when that brother or sister of ours gets into the hospital, or you yourself are in a car wreck, or someone breaks into the building you’re working at. It’s not hard to find a place and time to pray then, is it? Don’t be confused with the wonders of this life, making you content. Don’t be content until you’re in heaven. Work. Live. Prepare for the judgment, for it is coming to all people. And the fact of the matter is, looking in verse 23 and 24 back in Luke chapter 16. We touched on this. Luke chapter 16 and verses 23 and 24.

3. Hell Is Very Real

Notice what it says about the rich man, and it says, 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. Send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame. Hell is real. Hell is very real. It’s a place. It’s a place people will go. Look with me in Hebrews chapter 10. Look in verse 28 of Hebrews chapter 10. Beginning actually in verse 26. Hebrew writer warns of a severe course of action to avoid. He says, For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.

Anyone who has set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy on the evidence of two or three witnesses, how much worse punishment do you think will be deserved by the one who has trampled underfoot the Son of God and has profaned the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace, for we know him who said, Vengeance is mine, I will repay. And again, the Lord will judge his people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of a living God. How are you living? Understand heaven is very real. It is very important that we press on to be with God, but at the same time, if we slip up, verse 26, if we go on sinning deliberately after the knowledge of truth, understand vengeance is mine.

I will replay, I will repay. It’s not mine, it’s God’s. It is coming. Where will you be for eternity? So we understand from those points that we will all die, that our world and condition is not representative of our eternal state, and that hell is very real. The question is, what will you learn and do because of it? The fact is, we will all die.

4. Luke 16 Carries an Important Warning

But Luke chapter 16 carries an important warning. Look there one more time with me. Notice in Luke chapter 16 and verse 27, when he’s begging, when the rich man is begging Abraham, he says, in verse 27, 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. I am warning you, brothers and sisters, it is coming. Whether you believe it or not, it is coming. You can choose not to believe it, you can choose to think it won’t happen to you, but death comes to all of us. The only question is when. If you are delaying in obedience to God, you are playing with an eternal consequence.

There are eternal stakes in life. Because how you live here is how you will live there. That’s the mechanism for judgment. You cannot go back. There is a great chasm between the two worlds, between comfort, between eternity with God, and between anguish and torment away from him.

Conclusion

Warren, read the words of Christ. He is warning us. If you knew someone who died, if you had a family member who has passed away, who has not believed in God or chose not to obey him, you know the pain of losing that loved one. Let me ask you a question. If they could come back to you, whether they died as a faithful servant of God or a faithful servant of the world, what would they say?

Where are they? What are they wanting you to know? And if they want you to know something, what is it and how will you do it? It is appointed for men to die once. And then the judgment. Brothers and sisters, the judgment day is coming. And I’ve got to tell you, in addition to living at ourselves, why aren’t we sharing it? Because unlike the rich man who could go to his brothers, you can. I can. We all can go tell everybody about it. You can tell them it’s coming. But more importantly, tell them Christ died for you. God wants you to be saved. He wants you to be his. Choose life this day. Obey Him. Submit to Him. Make your soul right with God today. I’m telling you, life is but a vapor.

If you are sitting here this morning, you may have come up with an abundance of reasons why you have chosen not to obey God, but I assure you, at the judgment, you will give those to God. And I wonder what God will say to those. Judgment Day is coming. What is your reason? What would your answer be to God? Because I could give statistics and I thought about it, giving a whole lot of statistics about a whole how a whole lot of people die every day. Choose life. Make the most of what God has blessed you with. Choose it today. If you wish to make your life right in any way, be on God’s side this morning. Come forward now as we stand and as we sing the invitation song.

But are you ready for the day to come? Oh, are we ready?

Are you ready for the judgment day? Are you ready? Are you ready?

For a judgment. There’s a bright day coming. A bright day coming. There’s a bright day coming by and by pride that shall be unto them of the Lord. Are you ready for the day to come?

Are you ready? Are you ready for the Santa? Are you ready? Are we ready?

There’s a sad day coming. I am the sin.

Are you ready?

Are you ready for the judgment day? Are you ready? Are you ready? For the judgment day like to thank Brother Gregory for that fine lesson. Amen. I tell you, that young man is tremendously blessed. And as I was sitting there listening, I was saying to myself, if you find yourself outside of the body of Christ, you should not be sleeping tonight. You should be on edge. We want to thank all of those that were visiting in our area that took this opportunity to come out and be with us. And we ask that you stick around for a few minutes and so we can get to shake your hand and perhaps get to know you a little bit better. In a minute, we’re going to ask Brother Wally Babierra to lead us in our closing prayer.

I do have a few announcements that I need to get through before we are dismissed. If you have not, we’d ask that you pick up a bulletin out in the vestibule as it has a lot of good information regarding our family here at Bumby and in the local community. To that end, be we want to be mindful that there’s a gospel meeting that starts today in Claremont, Florida, Brother Wilson Adams.

And if you have an opportunity to go up this evening or the next couple of days, it would be a great uh advantage, a blessing to be able to go and uh support them in that effort. Let’s also remember um Sharon Poinier’s uh sister Carla, who’s married to Dan Terray uh they under he underwent uh surgery and according to uh Sharon that he came through the surgery okay and looks to be on the uh road to recovery and also Nancy Sowers Hart’s father uh I believe had an MRI and it was some good news with that and we often take the time and if you ever listen when some of the sick are called out I know sometimes I listen people say so and so is in the hospital they fell they had this diagnosis and we go oh oh but brethren when we hear good news that somebody’s had an MRI that somebody we ought to be like praise God you know because again that’s a it’s a it’s a blessing to get that kind of news and so we we have evidence of prayers answered in in terms of something that we prayed for and asked let’s remember also Wanda Frazier who fell and she is I believe she’s she went to ORMC and she is fine she just asked for us to keep her keep her in her prayers and a Marcot fell and I believe has a concussion so let’s remember her many of you um about a year or so ago remember uh sister uh her name is Jean Hayward in uh Sumter South Carolina this was Valerie’s cousin uh they grew up together and uh this congregation opened up its its prayers and even financial uh support for her as she was waiting a heart transplant and uh that did not necessarily come through and she had uh believe pancreatic cancer and was operated on and when the doctors operated they basically told her that uh she it was kind of 50 50.

Well she passed away the other day and uh Valerie will be traveling there when the funeral arrangements are made and we just asked that you keep my wife and her family and uh those in your prayer uh in her in in prayers as at this time