Don't you know that Jesus taught more about hell than he did about heaven? Because you can't argue and debate with a perfect judge who knows all things. Nobody likes receiving bad news. Yet there are times when hearing bad news is absolutely essential for our long-term well-being. If your finances are depleted, you need your bank to tell you.
If your health is failing, you need your doctor to be straight and honest with you. Similarly, hell is a topic that people find unpleasant. It's a topic we don't like talking about or even thinking about. In fact, some churches won't even talk about hell at all. For fear of offending people, and yet Scripture warns us repeatedly, so that we might not go there.
Thank you for joining us for this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind. We're studying the parables of Jesus this week from R.C. Sproul's 12-part teaching series. We'll give you downloadable access to this series when you donate in support of Renewing Your Mind. You'll also receive a digital study guide to help you go deeper in your study.
You can give today at renewingyourmind.org, or when you call us at eight hundred four three five forty three forty three. As you heard Doctor Sproul say, Jesus spoke more about hell than he did about heaven, so it's not a topic we can ignore. We've studied three of Jesus's parables so far, and today we come to the fourth, one that Dr. Sproul called terrifying. Here's our C with the parable of Lazarus and the rich man.
In our last session, we considered the parable of the rich fool, and how dangerous it is to put. Our trust in riches and to be obsessed with our possessions, and so I wanted to move to a lighter theme on this one. And so, in this session, I thought we'd talk about a parable that deals with hell. I'm going to be reading the parable that is often called the parable of Dives and Lazarus. Or sometimes simply called the parable of the rich man and Lazarus.
The reason why the word Diyes is in there is that that's really not a proper man. It's not that you have one man named Lazarus and the other man named Diyes. But Diyes, in certain forms in Latin, just simply means a rich man. And so he really is unnamed in this parable. But let's take a moment to look at this parable that Jesus gave.
We find this in chapter sixteen of Luke's gospel, beginning at verse nineteen. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores. Who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.
And so it was that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died, and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. Then he cried and said, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and 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 in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things.
But now he is comforted, and you are tormented." And besides all this, between us and you, there's a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us. Then he said, "I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house." For I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, "They have Moses, and the prophets. Let them hear them." And he said, "No, father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead." They will repent, but he said to them, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead." This is a terrifying parable. It's a parable that.
Focuses attention on severe contrasts. The characters in the parable include, in the first instance, the rich man called Diavus and the beggar named Lazarus. The rich man is described in the most opulent terms. He dresses like royalty. In purple and fine linen, and he fares sumptuously—not once a year, once a month—but his sumptuous style of living is a daily matter.
But in contrast to him, there was this beggar named Lazarus, who obviously had.
Some kind of incurable, chronic skin disease that left his body covered with sores. He was not even able to move himself to the gate of the rich man, but had to be carried there, presumably by friends. And there he was laid at the gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs that fell from the rich man's table. He was willing to live on the scraps of garbage, the leftovers that were thrown away from the sumptuous feasts of dives. Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores.
Now, let me remind you that in Israel and Palestine, the dog was not man's best friend. The dog was not a household pet. The dogs were basically feral, and they were seen as the worst of the scavengers, and were. Hated by people, and yet the dogs were kinder to this beggar than Davies was. I don't know whether you realize this, but I have to take medication that involves blood thinners, and so as a result, the slightest bump of my skin and I start to bleed, and I have blotches and spots all over my arms, so much so that my wife, one of her endearing nicknames for me is Spot, like the dog in our first grade primer.
She spot run.
Well, Vesta's concerned about that. She's always putting band-aids on my arms. And our German Shepherd every night comes beside me, and all she wants to do is lick my wounds, and I have to shush her away. But the dog is concerned to try to give me the kind of healing treatment that the dog would give to herself if she had a wound or an injury of sorts. And so these scavenger dogs come and give the only relief to this poor beggar that he can get by having the dogs lick his wounds.
And so we were told the beggar died, and as soon as he died. He was accompanied not by friends or by relatives, but by the angels of God.
So that in his dying breath, as his eyelids closed to life in this world, the first thing that Lazarus saw after he died was the refulgent glory. Of the heavenly host, who picked this poor, sorrowful beggar up in their arms, and carried him to paradise, and placed Lazarus in the bosom of Abraham. There's probably no more tender portrait of. The mercy of heaven that we find anywhere in the Bible than in this illustration of the death of Lazarus, who was transported to heaven personally by angels. Nothing is said of his burial.
Nothing is said of a monument to him in this world. But we read that the rich man also died, and he was buried. And where he went was not to the bosom of Abraham. He was not carried in glory by the angels of God, but was sent to be tormented in hell. And there, he lifted up his eyes, and he could see into the heavens, and he could see this miserable beggar now being grasped in the arms of Abraham in glory.
And he cried out. Notice, he doesn't cry out to God. There's no cry of repentance. He cries to Abraham and asks Abraham to do something to ameliorate his condition. He says, "Father Abraham, have mercy on me.
Send Lazarus. You know Lazarus. He's just a beggar. He's a servant and." You're the great patriarch Abraham. You have the authority to send servants like this wherever you want to send them.
So I'm asking you, Abraham, send that servant Lazarus over here to me, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water. And cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame. All I want is just the tip of his finger dipped in water, that it might touch my tongue to give me that much relief. The professor once said to me that the sinner in hell. Would give everything he had and do everything he could to make the number of his sins in this life one less, just to get one ounce less of torment.
That is more horrible than any of us. Can ever contemplate, but here is the man who fared sumptuously every day, begging for a drop of water— one drop of water— on his tongue. But Abraham replied.
Son, do you remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things? But now he's comforted, and you are tormented. The situation has reversed itself, hasn't it, son? But diabetes—it's too late. You should have done this while you were alive.
You didn't care at all about the suffering of this man, and now you want this man to come and minister to you in the midst of your torment. It's too late. Not only that, he says, and this I think is perhaps the. Heaviest part of the whole parable. Besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.
Don't you understand, Diobes, that between? You, down there, and us up here in the bosom of Abraham. There is a immeasurable chasm, an unbridgeable chasm. There's no material in the world strong enough to build a bridge. Over this chasm, you are where you are, and you're there forever.
And there's no way that you can come here from there, or Lazarus can leave here and go to you. Don't you understand? That on your side of this gulf, on your side of the chasm, there are no provisions for parole. The sentence that has been given to you is forever. There is no hope of future probation.
You had your probation. There is no hope for a court of appeals that'll get you out of there and free you for another place, and don't even entertain the idea of a second chance. But Abraham isn't everybody entitled to a second chance. Abraham said, "I, I don't read anywhere in Scripture that God gives such an entitlement program to anybody. But even if He did, how long ago did you use yours up?
You've been living on second and third and fourth chances all your life, and you've had no repentance, no compassion, totally self-absorbed." And self-centered, and you scoffed at the idea that there might be a day of accountability, and that God, this good and loving and gracious God, could be so mean and nasty as to put you in this place of torment. That has not His only begotten Son. Warns you again and again and again. Don't you know that Jesus taught more about hell than he did about heaven? Don't you know that the Lord Jesus Christ?
Said that at the judgment, every idle word that we've ever spoken—not every sober word, not every practiced word, not just every intentional word—but those things that just roll off our tongues so easy, those idle, frivolous things that we say, every one of those words will come in to the judgment, and not one thing. Will escape the Father's notice, and at that judgment, every tongue will be stopped, and you will realize that any excuse that you tried to give will be a waste of air, because you can't argue and debate. With a perfect judge who knows all things, but I'm sorry, my son. But you just can't get here from there, and Davy's understood, and now he becomes the beggar. This parable started identifying Lazarus as the beggar, now.
It's Davies who doesn't just ask a question; he starts to beg. He said, "I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him—that is, Lazarus—to my father's house. If you can't send him to me, and that there's an unbridgeable chasm between you and me, and Lazarus can't cross it, at least send him to my father's house." I have five brothers. I don't want to meet them here, and let Lazarus testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. Abram said, "You want me to send Lazarus?" On a mission trip from heaven, go to your house and give a special revelation to your brothers.
I should interrupt his felicity that he enjoys here in his father's kingdom, so we can go to your house and talk to your brothers. Are you kidding me? What do they need Lazarus for? They have Moses, but don't you have a Bible church? They have the prophets.
Let your brothers hear them. Davy says, "No, no, that's no good." That won't do it. That's not going to convince my brothers. Don't you know my brothers are worldly? They're hardened in their heart.
They're not tuned into spiritual things. They think that the law of Moses and prophecies and the prophets of the Old Testament just so much bunk. They're not going to pay any attention to that. But if somebody comes to them from the dead, somebody who's been there. Like Lazarus, maybe they'll listen to him, and they will repent.
He obviously understood that his brothers needed to repent, and if they didn't repent, they were going to end up exactly. Where he is, Abraham answered him and said, "If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded that one rise from the dead." Jesus is telling the people who are listening to this: You don't listen to Moses. You don't listen to the prophets. And when my Father raises me from the dead, you still won't listen. And the reason you won't listen.
It's because you don't want to listen, and you don't have ears to hear. And the reason why you don't have ears to hear is because you don't want to have ears to hear, because you don't want God in your thinking, and you certainly don't want hell in your thinking. Scares me to death. This is one of the most sober warnings that we ever receive from our Lord in this passage, warning us that now is the time for us to seal our eternity, because once we die. It's too late, and it's too far.
Messages like this get our attention and remind us that this world is not all there is. We will not be here forever, and yet there is hope in Jesus Christ. If you have questions about what happens after death. Or about salvation in Christ, let me encourage you to speak with your pastor or even a trusted Christian friend. You can also download R.C.
Sproul's e-book, What Is the Gospel. Just go to renewingyourmind.org/gospel. That was Dr. R.C. Sproul on this Thursday edition of Renewing Your Mind.
His series on the parables of Jesus has been our focus this week. To help you go deeper in your study, we're making a digital study guide for this series available to you for a donation in support of this program. We'll also give you lifetime downloadable access to the series in the Liganiere app. Visit renewingyourmind.org or call us at 800-435-4343 to make your gift and receive both of these resources. If you found a treasure of great worth, what would you do with it?
Friday on Renewing Your Mind, Doctor Sprole will tell us about a hidden treasure here, on Renewing Your Mind.
