LOOKING AT HELL THROUGH THE EYES OF A RICH MAN LUKE 16:19-31
Last week while watching the news I was watching the weather and somewhere in TX a man was swept away in a flash flood and holding on a fence post for 5 hours until first responders could get to him and save him from certain death.
How many here this morning if you saw your family member or friend in trouble yea about to die and will die unless someone helped them, would do all in your power to bring them to safety.
We all have a family member – a friend who is hopelessly in trouble and if you and I do not do something they will spend eternity in a place called hell.
Even though the word hell has become a normal word in our vocabulary it is not a normal place.
And Jesus literally opens the earth in the Word of God to give us a glimpse through the eyes of a rich man who dead without Jesus and is in this place called hell
So this morning with the Power and the Presence of the Holy Spirit I would like to preach on this topic LOOKING AT HELL THROUGH THE EYES OF A RICH MAN.
LUKE 16:19-31
PRAYER
Here is a text that most Baptist has heard read and told many times in their lives, yet it is a story that is not preached much anymore.
We are in desperate need of catching a glimpse of hell. The everyday Christian has forgotten the reality of hell.
You are considered mean and uncaring and harsh if you preach on the subject of hell and eternal damnation.
It is more important to make people feel good than to share with them the truth of eternal separation from God.
I pray by looking at our text we will not be stirred but broken, that we will not be touched but changed. It is my prayer that through this sermon we will once again weep for those who are lost and are standing at the door steps of hell.
So looking through this Rich Man eyes what do we see?
I. VS 22-23 WE SEE 2 PREPARED PLACES
A. HELL
MATTHEW 25:41
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:
MATTHEW 13:41-42
The Son of man shall send forth his angels, and they shall gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity; 42 And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
You might be saying Hell is a prepared place but for the devil and his angels not me.
JOHN 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.
You are right hell was prepared for the devil and his angels but if you have never received Jesus Christ as your Savior just like this rich man, you will go where Satan will go.
B. HEAVEN
JOHN 14:1-3
Let not your heart be troubled: ye believe in God, believe also in me. 2 In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also.
REVELATION 21:4
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away.
Heaven is totally opposite of hell. Heaven is a tremendous place a glorious place.
And the only way you or I can go to heaven and escape hell is through Jesus Christ.
JOHN 14:6
I TIMOTHY 2:5
It is your choice where you spend eternity. God has already sent His only begotten Son Jesus to this sin cursed world for one reason and one reason alone and that is to pay your sin debt.
Your sin debt is paid in full it is free, so you must choose to receive this free gift or reject God’s gift.
As we look through the eyes of this Rich Man:
II. VS 24 WE SEE HIS PRESENT PAIN
As soon as this rich man took his final breath and his heart beat for the final time on the earth, he was in immediate pain and suffering and still is presently.
MATTHEW 8:12
But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
TURN TO MARK 9:43-48
Listen to what Jesus says about this place called hell.
And if thy hand offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter into life maimed, than having two hands to go into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 44 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 45 And if thy foot offend thee, cut it off: it is better for thee to enter halt into life, than having two feet to be cast into hell, into the fire that never shall be quenched: 46 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched. 47 And if thine eye offend thee, pluck it out: it is better for thee to enter into the kingdom of God with one eye, than having two eyes to be cast into hell fire: 48 Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.
III. VS 25-26 WE SEE PASSING FROM HELL TO HEAVEN IS IMPOSSIBLE
The way you leave this earth will be the way you spend eternity – there are no second chances – there is no such thing as purgatory hoping someone lights enough candles and prays enough to get you out
MATTHEW 25:46
And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.
IV. VS 27-28 WE SEE THE CONCERNS AND HERE THE PRAYERS FOR THE UNSAVED
*A. MOSES – THE WORD OF GOD
B. PROPHETS – THOSE WHO PROCLAIM THE GOSPEL
MATTHEW 7:13-14
Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
56 million people in our world die every year. And scholars tell us that out of that 56 million people only 560,000 have received Christ.
Which leaves 55,440,000 people die without receiving Jesus Christ as their personal Savior every year.
151,894 every day
6,329 every hour
106 every minute
And about 2 every second, take their last breath and die to spend eternity in hell. This is why we read in
ISAIAH 5:14
Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
Hell is a temporary hold place for all those who have rejected Jesus Christ.
Then there is something worse than hell!! The Sentencing phase. Called the Great White Throne Judgment.
TURN TO REVELATION 20:11-15
And I saw a great white throne, and him that sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away; and there was found no place for them. 12 And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it; and death and hell delivered up the dead which were in them: and they were judged every man according to their works. 14 And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. 15 And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.
V. BUT JESUS DOES NOT WANT YOU TO GO THERE
II PETER 3:9
VI. GOD HAS GIVEN US THIS PASSAGE OF SCRIPTURE TO WAKE US UP
I CORINTHIANS 15:34
Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.
In the time we were in here during the worship hour 6,329 people died and woke up just like this rich man
If you are here and you have not received Christ as your personal Savior, you have seen your future.
Saved person time is short – will you get busy doing God’s business.
LOOKING AT HELL THROUGH THE EYES OF A RICH MAN
THERE WAS A CERTAIN RICH MAN
THE RICH MAN ALSO DIED, AND WAS BURIED AND IN HELL
