CRY FROM BENEATH

LUKE 16:19-31

  I. Contrast (16:19-22)

      A. Life (19-21)

          1. Rich (Lk. 12:20-21, 18:24-25)

              a. Apparel

                  (1) Outside (Rev. 18:12)

                  (2) Inside (Ex. 25:4)

              b. Appetite (Mt. 24:38; Lk. 12:19)

                  (1) Lifestyle (Lk. 11:3)

                  (2) Luxury

          2. Poor (Lk. 6:20; Jas. 2:5)

              a. Dumped (Jn. 5:7; Acts 3:10)

              b. Diseased (Rev. 16:11)

              c. Desired (Lk. 15:16; Jas. 2:16)

              d. Dropped (Mt. 15:27)

              e. Dogged (Rev. 22:15)

      B. Death (22; Heb. 9:27)

          1. Poor

              a. Angels (Mt. 13:41, 24:31)

              b. Abraham (Lk. 23:43)

          2. Rich

              a. Both (Lk. 6:24)

              b. Buried (Acts 5:6)

 II. Consciousness (16:23)

      A. In hades (Rev. 20:14)

          1. Sight (Lk. 13:28)

          2. Sensory (Phil. 2:6)

              a. Pain (Lk. 8:28; Rev. 20:10)

              b. Partition (Eph. 2:13-17)

      B. In paradise

          1. Saints (Mt. 8:11)

          2. Souls (Rev. 6:9)

III. Conversation (16:24-31; cry–Lk. 23:46; Jn. 12:17)

      A. Water (24-26; Ps. 22:15; Jn. 19:28)

Prov. 25:25 [HCSB]. Good news from a distant land is like cold water to a parched throat.

          1. Dives– Mercy (Lk. 18:38)

              a. Tongue (Rev. 16:10)

              b. Torment (2 Th. 1:8; 1 Tim. 6:10)

          2. Abraham (child of Abraham– Lk. 3:8, 13:16, 19:9)– Memory (Lk. 23:42; Heb. 10:17)

              a. Reward (Lk. 23:41)

                  (1) Good in life but pain in death (Ps. 73:12-18; Lk. 12:15)

                  (2) Evil in life but comfort in death (1 Th. 4:18)

              b. Region (Rev. 9:2)

                  (1) Unable to pass over from paradise to hades

                  (2) Unable to cross over from hades to paradise (Heb. 11:29)

      B. Witnessing (27-29)

Rom. 10:15 [ESV]. And how are they to preach unless they are sent? As it is written, "How beautiful are the feet of those who preach the good news!"

          1. Dives– Prayer (Rom. 10:1; 1 Jn. 5:16)

              a. House (Mk. 5:19)

              b. Brothers (Jn. 1:41; Rom. 9:3)

2 Cor. 5:11. Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are made manifest unto God; and I trust also are made manifest in your consciences.

          2. Abraham– Scripture (Lk. 24:27)

      C. Warning (30-31)

          1. Dives– sign (1 Sam. 28:15; Mt. 12:39)

              a. Resurrection (Mt. 28:11-13; Acts 22:9)

              b. Repentance (Mt. 11:20; Rev. 9:20)

          2. Abraham– sufficient (Jn. 11:53, 12:10; Acts 26:27-28)

Heb. 4:2 [GNB]. For we have heard the Good News, just as they did. They heard the message, but it did them no good, because when they heard it, they did not accept it with faith.

      In Luke 16:19-31 the Word of God revealed the hereafter. The authoritative truth on the after-life does not appear in popular books on who goes to heaven or from positive testimonies of near-death experiences. The One who holds the keys of death and hades is the authority on life after death (Rev. 1:18).

      Jesus, the preacher who most often spoke of hell, told this actual story of a literal hell (true account of a real man–biblical account of a real place). Robert Murray McCheyne, a Scottish preacher who died in 1843, once stated, “A preacher ought never to preach on hell except with a broken heart.”

      John Wesley reserved his sermons on hell for educated and indifferent Christians. Wesley preached the love of God to the poor.

      The subject of heaven comes easier to any preacher. One of D. L. Moody’s early publications was entitled “Heaven.” One day on the railroad train he heard the newsboy, with a bundle of books under his arm, shouting, “Here you are, ‘Ingersoll on Hell!’” He caught the boy, and placed a copy of his own book in his hand, saying, “Here, my lad, here is another book; give them that at the same time.” The boy went on through the car, shouting, “‘Ingersoll on Hell’; ‘Moody on Heaven!’ ‘Ingersoll on Hell’; ‘Moody on Heaven!’”

      Everyone would rather hear of heaven, but the preacher who never warns of hell will give an account to God for handling the truth unfaithfully. Charles H. Spurgeon, preaching in an open field to 12,000 people on heaven and hell, told of a minister who would not preach the unpleasant truths. That minister once said to his congregation, “If you do not love the Lord Jesus Christ you will be sent to that place which is not polite to mention.” Spurgeon responded, “He ought not to be allowed to preach again.”

      C. S. Lewis listened to a young preacher’s sermon on the subject of God’s judgment on sin. At the end of his message, the young man said: “If you do not receive Christ as Savior, you will suffer grave eschatological ramifications!” After the service, Lewis asked him the question, “Do you mean that a person who doesn’t believe in Christ will go to hell?” “Precisely,” was his response. “Then say so,” Lewis replied.

      D. A. Carson spoke, “It is getting harder and harder to be faithful to the ‘hard lines’ of Scripture. And in this way evangelicalism itself may contribute to the gagging of God by silencing the severity of His warnings and by minimizing the awfulness of the punishment that justly awaits those untouched by His redeeming grace.”

      In 1992 John Patten, Britain’s Secretary of State for Education and Science, argued that crime is rising because the fear of hell is declining.

      In Job 14:14 Job asked the question, “If a man die, shall he live again?” The Bible showed that at death the soul will live forever in one of two real places.

 1. Speculative arguments against hell

∙          Annihilationist (destruction for all)

∙          Universalist (heaven for all)

      Yet, even the innate moral conscience distinguishes between good and evil even in the present existence.

∙          Conditionalist (heaven for the saved and annihilation for the lost)

∙          Religionist (heaven for the good without the sacrifice of Christ)

        J. L. Dagg wrote, “If wrath and damnation had been trivial matters, the sending of God’s only son into the world, the laying of our sins upon Him, and the whole expedient adopted to deliver us from these inconsiderable evils, would have been unworthy of infinite wisdom.” A Christian will never appreciate the salvation purchased at the cross without a knowledge of hell. Jerry L. Walls said, “If hell is not perceived to be a serious threat, it is hard to see how salvation can have the same meaning it used to.”

∙          Humanist (heaven according to the creation of one’s mind– presuming to be wiser than God)

∙          Sentimentalist (punishment for none)

      Millard J. Erickson stated that the emotional factor (hell as morally indefensible) overwhelmed the rational or biblical teaching in the minds of those teachers who reject hell. Erickson wrote, “Emotion cannot be the primary consideration in settling theological issues. In this case the biblical and theological data weigh strongly on the side of eternal conscious punishment of the wicked.”

      God cannot be accused as unmerciful if one rejects His grace (Mt. 25:41; 2 Pet. 3:9). C. S. Lewis said, “Hell is the greatest monument to human freedom.”

      God cannot be accused of being unjust since holiness requires eternal consequences for earthly guilt. God cannot make heaven a home of perfect love without hell to demonstrate His holy hatred of sin.

 2. Scriptural authority for hereafter

∙          Between death and the resurrection. Paradise for the saved (Lk. 23:43; Abraham’s bosom–Lk. 16:23; with the Lord–2 Cor. 5:8; Phil. 1:23) and hades for the lost (Lk. 16:23; Rev. 1:18, 6:8, 20:13-14)

∙          At the second coming. Glorified bodies for the saved (1 Cor. 15:51; Phil. 3:21) and corruptible bodies for the lost (Rev. 20:13)

      Jesus contrasted two men, Dives (Latin for “rich”) and Lazarus, before and after death (Lk. 16:19-22). This is the only parable where Jesus told a man’s name (real account).

      In this parable Jesus taught the poverty of the rich who died lost and the riches of the poor who died saved. Jesus showed the complete reversal in eternity for those rich in life but bankrupt in death (Jas. 2:5).

Lk. 6:24 [GW]. But how horrible it will be for those who are rich. They have had their comfort.

Rev. 18:17 [NIV]. In one hour such great wealth has been brought to ruin!

      Lazarus lived with constant hunger (Lk. 15:16). Lazarus could only think of silencing the hunger with crumbs from the table (Mt. 15:27; Jas. 2:16). Dives missed the voice of Jesus calling him to heaven by missing the opportunity sitting at the gate (Acts 3:10).

      Each of the two men experienced sudden death and swift judgment. One second after death both men consciously entered two different eternal states (Heb. 9:27).

      The rich man offered no place at the table for Lazarus, and then Abraham offered no place in heaven for him (Jn. 14:2). David Smith wrote (Lk. 16:9), “Well for the rich man had he befriended the beggar at his gate and won his gratitude! When he passed into the unseen world, Lazarus would have met him and welcomed him to the Heavenly Feast.”

      Heaven’s angels welcomed Lazarus home (Mt. 24:31), while funeral directors celebrated the rich man’s burial. The dogs licked the sores of Lazarus in life, but in death the hounds of hell (Lk. 8:28) tormented the rich man (Rev. 20:14).

Rev. 20:10 [NIV]. And the devil, who deceived them, was thrown into the lake of burning sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet had been thrown. They will be tormented day and night for ever and ever.

  I. Place for suffering

      Stagg wrote, “In Hades, the rich man was the same self-centered man, complaining about his personal lack and crying out for attention and help.”

      Immediately in death, the rich man asked for everything he did not give in life. Dives experienced unfulfilled desire (Lk. 16:24-27; no mercy, water, passing over, or message to brothers). In hell Dives begged for a thimble full of water, but in life that rich man did not share a crumb. The rich man did not know any pain back at home but now in hell suffered the pain of a place without God’s mercy.

      In this parable Jesus revealed the sorrows of hell.

•          Having no angel to carry you to Jesus (16:22)

•          Lifting up your eyes in a place you never expected to be (16:23)

•          State of never-ending pain (16:23)

•          Seeing what could have been yours (16:23)

•          Being a child of God in name only (16:24)

•          Prayers unanswered (16:24)

•          Unfulfilled desire (16:24-27)

•          Memory of a wasted life (16:25)

•          Receiving what you really deserve (16:25)

•          Eternal separation (16:26)

•          Knowing others are headed to hell (16:27)

      The rich man already experienced in life all the comfort he would ever know. In life the rich man filled up the cup of God’s wrath and now tasted its bitter end.

1 Tim. 6:17 [NIV]. Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment.

      The rich man made money in life (Jas. 4:13) but now would trade the brevity of that pleasure for an eternity with God. His wealth on earth seemed like pennies compared to the innumerable blessings now enjoyed by Lazarus.

Jas. 5:1[NIV]. Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you.

      James M. Boice wrote, “Death for him was a shock, the rudest of all awakenings.”

“The rich man may have thought that dying was itself a hell, his only hell. But when he died he discovered that, far from being hell, even death was heaven compared to what he was now suffering.”

      Matthew Henry said, “The day is coming when those that make light of divine mercy will beg hard for it.”

      Abraham spoke to the rich man of the suffering in hell.

∙          Spiritual pain (separation from God)

•          Physical pain (second death; rich man’s eyes–see, tongue–speak, body–feel)

∙          Mental pain (memory of sins, opportunities to receive Christ)

      Boice wrote, “To miss the greatest opportunity of all–the opportunity for life with God in heaven–is terrible. But to miss that forever and to know that you have missed it is a tragedy almost beyond endurance.”

      The horrible images fail to completely describe hell’s pain just as the figures to describe heaven’s wonder. The same Greek word (αιων– Mt. 25:46) to describe the duration of heaven as eternal defines the duration of hell as eternal.

      A. Fire (γεεννα–Mt. 10:28, 18:9, 23:15-23; Jas. 3:6; valley of Hinnom–2 Kg. 23:10)

          1. Lake of fire

Rev. 20:14. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death.

          2. Unquenchable fire

Mk. 9:44. Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.

          3. Furnace of fire

Mt. 13:42. And shall cast them into a furnace of fire; there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

          4. Everlasting fire

Mt. 25:41. Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.

      In June of 1977 at the Beverly Hills Supper Club outside Cincinnati, 161 people died. A reporter recounted, “A bus boy. . . interrupted a comedy act. . . where at least 700 people were waiting for. . . singer John Davidson and told the guests there was a fire. At first there was no rush to the exits. . . . The fire department had not been called.” The reporter continued, “The alarm finally came. . . . By then, flames had surged. . . . Flames pushed dark clouds of gaseous smoke into rooms and corridors, enshrouding the crowds. . . . People began to panic and stampede for the exits. . . . Still others were trampled.” Why did the people trample each other? They were trying to get out of the fire!

      B. Outer darkness

Mt. 22:13. Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

          1. Chains of darkness

2 Pet. 2:4. And delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.

          2. Blackness (mist) of darkness

2 Pet. 2:17. To whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

      In 1970 the United States and the space program faced a crisis. A reporter wrote, “The time was 10:08 P.M. EST on Monday, April 13, and suddenly astronaut Jack Swigert’s voice crackled out sharply. ‘Hey!’ he said, ‘We’ve got a problem here.’” He continued, “With this short cry of alarm, Apollo 13 was instantly transformed into a suspense-riddled mission that gripped the world through three and a half anxious, prayerful days. For now, as some realized instantly, and others later as the magnitude of the disaster signaled by Swigert became apparent, the three astronauts faced the prospect of a death no man had ever died before–death in space, cold and alone, outward bound into the blackness of the void.” A person going to hell will go into the blackness of the void.

      C. Bottomless pit

          1. Abyss (Lk. 8:31; Rev. 9:1-11, 11:7, 17:8, 20:1-3)

Rev. 9:2. And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace.

          2. Deep (ταρταρος)

2 Pet. 2:4a. God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell.

      In 1980 Washington’s Mount St. Helens exploded–the first volcanic eruption in the United States in sixty years. The blast, which was as powerful as the largest hydrogen bomb tested, killed eighteen people and more were missing. A writer reported, “At 8:27 and 8:31 on a bright Sunday morning, Mount St. Helens was shaken by a pair of earthquakes 3 miles below the peak. . . . A mushroom cloud soared 63,000 feet. . . .” He continued, “Magma was spilling out. . . not lava but a mixture of superhot (up to 800 degrees Celsius) fragments of glass, gas and ash moving as fast as 100 miles an hour. . . . The sky was darkened not only by the geyser of earth and ash but by a chemical reaction in which sulfurous gases combined with water to form a mist of sulfuric acid. . . . Scientists calculated the force of the eruption as equal to 10 to 50 megatons of TNT. . . .” After the explosion eighty-three year old Harry R. Truman, who refused to be evacuated, could not be found. A person in hell will be cast into an abyss of fire and sulfuric brimstone like the bottom of Mount St. Helens.

      Spurgeon said, “The angel binding you hand and foot, holds you one single moment over the mouth of the chasm. He bids you look down-down-down. There is no bottom: and you hear coming up from the abyss, ‘sullen moans, and hollow groans; and shrieks of tortured ghosts.’”

      D. Unpassable chasm (separation)

Lk. 16:26. And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed; so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence.

      E. Closed door

Lk. 13:24-25, 28. Strive to enter in at the strait gate; for many, I say unto you will seek to enter in, and shall not be able, when once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door and you begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence you are.

 28. There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth, when you see Abraham, and Isaac, and Jacob, and all the prophets, in the kingdom of God, and you yourself cast out.

      Adoniram Judson, the first American foreign missionary, did not become a Christian until a shattering event after college. When Judson entered Brown, the future missionary drifted from the faith of his parents and followed the unbelief of his college friend Jacob Eames, a confirmed deist. Following graduation, Judson adhered to the doctrines of deism (which rejected hell) and left the home of his father, a minister.

     During this prodigal journey, Judson spent the night in the home of his uncle Ephraim Judson, also a pastor. A young minister was taking the uncle’s place for a brief time. Courtney Anderson wrote, “The two young men–close enough to the same age to talk as equals–spent several hours in conversation. Adoniram was struck by the fact that, although his host was as pious as his father, there was a warmth, ‘a solemn but gentle earnestness.’” Judson rode away in the morning deeply impressed at the peace the young minister possessed.

     The biographer then related the event that changed Judson’s life. He wrote, “As night drew on he found himself passing through a small village. Finding the local inn, he stabled his horse and asked the innkeeper for a room. The house was nearly full, said the landlord apologetically. But he had one next to a young man who was critically ill, perhaps dying. He might be disturbed, but. . .? No, said Adoniram, still wrapped in his own thoughts, he would not let a few noises next door deny him a night’s rest. After giving him something to eat, the landlord lighted Adoniram to his room and left him. Without further ado, Adoniram got into bed and waited for sleep to come. But though the night was still, he could not sleep. In the next room beyond the partition he could hear sounds, not very loud; footsteps coming and going; a board creaking; low voices; a groan or gasp. These did not disturb him unduly. . . . What disturbed him was the thought that the man in the next room might not be prepared for death. Was he, himself?”

     Anderson continued, “When Adoniram woke. . . . He dressed quickly and ran downstairs, looking for the innkeeper. It was past time to have breakfast, pay his reckoning, saddle his horse and be on his way. He found his host, asked for the bill, and–perhaps noticing the man somber-faced-asked casually whether the young man in the next room was better. ‘He is dead,’ was the answer. ‘Dead?’ Adoniram was taken aback. There was a heavy finality to the word. For an instant, some of his fear of the night made itself felt once more. Adoniram stammered out a few conventional phrases common to humanity when death takes someone nearby, and asked the inevitable question: ‘Do you know who he was? ‘Oh yes. Young man from the college in Providence. Name was Eames, Jacob Eames.’”

      Judson did not hear his unbelieving friend die by coincidence. God warned Judson of what it was like to die as a lost man. Adoniram turned his horse around and went home to become a Christian. False hopes vanish when you hear a lost man die!

 II. Plea for soul-winning

      Boice stated, “No genuine, heart-rending, honest, God-seeking prayer had ever fallen from his lips.”

      A. Visitor

      The rich man requested that Lazarus visit his brothers. The rich man uttered a plea from hell for evangelism on earth only to hear that citizens of heaven like Lazarus could not cross over to witness. At death God forever closed the opportunity for one to traffic from hell to heaven.

      Arthur Travis said, “Heaven will not send an ambassador for the work we are to do–must be done before they die, before we die.”

      In life the rich man never noticed the poor beggar at the door. Now, in death the rich man begged the beggar to go to his door. Would brothers listen to a poor beggar coming to witness at their door?

      B. Brothers

      If only the rich man listened to the witness at the gate in life, then eternity would be different for a whole family. By refusing God’s witness, the rich man influenced five brothers to follow him to hell.

      The rich man never listened to what Moses and the prophets said. If a person will not hear the Scripture, even a “death visitor” cannot persuade that person to receive salvation. God revealed the way of salvation in the Word of God.

      Boice said, “Do not wait for signs. Do not wait for miracles. . . . You have the Scriptures, the Bible. . . .” Stagg wrote, “Abraham corrected him, saying that the problem was not that the warnings were insufficient, but that they were unheeded. . . .”

      The resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is God’s final sign to repent. Where will your soul be five minutes after death?

•          The rich man saw Lazarus too late.

•          The rich man looked up too late.

•          The rich man prayed too late.

•          The rich man witnessed too late.

      When a fire erupted in the first Apollo spacecraft on 27 January 1967, the blaze killed Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee. A NASA official recalled, “It was horrible. We could hear it happening and we were powerless to do anything.”

III. Plan for salvation

      A. Cross instead of hell

      Jesus suffered the punishment of hell on the cross in order that all who received Him would not go to that place. Jesus suffered once for sin on the cross (1 Pet. 3:18).

∙          Jesus hung in the darkness of hell (Mt. 27:45).

∙          Jesus uttered the cry of hell (Mt. 27:50).

∙          Jesus suffered the pain of hell (Jn. 19:28)

∙          Jesus endured the separation from God (Mt. 27:46).

      A person may receive Jesus who suffered hell on the cross or reject Jesus and endure hell without God. C. S. Lewis wrote that the most characteristic aspect of hell is not the physical flame but the absence of God. Spurgeon said, “Hell itself has for its fiercest flame the separation of the soul from God.”

      B. Concern inside of hell

      If the citizens of hell articulate concern for those on earth, then hell must be a horrible place to go.

      Dr. Maurice Rawlings of Chattanooga reported a negative near-death experience after resuscitating a forty-eight year old mail-carrier from Georgia during 1977. The man quit breathing during an EKG. The doctor administered CPR while inserting an emergency pacemaker. Rawlings wrote, “Whenever I stopped pushing on his chest in order to adjust the pacemaker, the heart would stop. . . . With bare hands. . . I would reach over and start him up again. But this time he was screaming the words, ‘Don’t stop! I’m in hell! I’m in hell!. . . . For God’s sake, don’t stop! Don’t you understand? Every time you let go I’m back in hell!’”

      Jonathan Edwards, the brilliant and unequaled American theologian, preached the sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God on the 8 July 1741 in Enfield, Connecticut. Edwards stated the principal theme of this message from Dt. 32:25: “There is nothing that keeps wicked men at any one moment out of hell, but the mere pleasure of God.” Do not neglect the opportunity to receive Christ another minute. Receive Christ and escape hell forever.