Three Things in Hell that should be in the Church
Luke 16: 19-31
Introduction: I have preached a message about people who like to play around with their salvation and cut it close with God. Eventually, there are instances where those types of people cut it too close and don’t make it. The rich man in this story was one of those people. Jesus doesn’t tell if this man knew about the ways of God, but we can infer it because of his actions in hell.
The rich man finally saw that he should have been living a life that he knew was right and in Hell he tried to do some of the things that he should have done on earth.
I. Three things the Rich Man tried to do
A. Repent
1. In verse 24 the man cries, “Father have mercy upon me,” which means that is sorrowful for the things he did on earth and wishes to be forgiven. Imagine this man. While he was being burned in that eternal flame he was crying out, no doubt screaming for mercy.
2. While he was on earth he was too busy having a good time, spending his money, treating his friends, partying, etc. He forgot about what he had been taught was right and he threw his life away for a season of pleasure.
3. Every time he had an opportunity to repent, he turned away. Every time conviction began to fall upon his heart, he ignored it. Every time someone asked him to come pray, he gave an excuse. And in the end it cost him his soul.
a. What profit it a man to gain the whole world and lose his own soul? This man found out very quickly that all he had on earth meant absolutely nothing in hell. He was tormented by the memories of all the riches he once had.
B. Pray
1. In verse 27 the man says, “I pray thee,” meaning he was trying to call upon something greater than himself to help him. He knew the way to be saved; praying.
a. This rich man was like a lot of people. They forget about praying until mom comes down with cancer or brother is in a car accident. Prayer is not a toy, nor is it something that we should take advantage of. Prayer is a sacred thing that the Lord has allowed us to have in order to commune with him.
2. The rich man had a chance for his prayers to be heard while he was on earth, but he threw it all away for sinful pleasure. He had many times to kneel somewhere and make things right with the lord. In Hell he cried out trying to pray. There are so many people in Hell right now crying out trying to pray, but it’s too late for them
C. Witness
1. The rich man finally realized that he had already lost out on heaven because of his failure to pray and repent, so he pleaded with Abraham to send Lazarus to warn his brothers about the place he was suffering in.
a. His love for his brothers was still in his heart and he felt failure because he neglected to witness to them about Hell. He was too busy being warned himself and wallowing in the pleasure of his sin that he forgot about telling others about Hell
2. It took Hell to remind this man about what he was commanded to do on Earth. Instead he wasted opportunity after opportunity to be a great instrument for God. Now in Hell, he tried to do his best to do what was right, but it was too late.
3. There are probably many people in Hell right now screaming, pleading, and crying for someone, anyone to go to their sinful families and warn them about Hell. They cry out for someone to deliver a message straight from Hell to all the friends they used to party with on earth
a. Their message would be: It’s not worth it. All my riches, all my glory, all the pleasure I had on earth aren’t worth what I’m feeling now in this hot flame of Hell.
II. Three things in the Church
A. Repentance
1. There’s a lot of things going on in churches today that we ought to be ashamed of because Christianity is slowly losing ground and becoming unpopular so people begin to fit in with the world.
a. There are things that are blatant sin coming in and sitting right in the house of the lord. The pastor gets up and preaches against it and he either gets thrown out or the people just ignore it
b. What happened to repenting? We’ve got to be wary of what kind of sin is in our lives. Even if I haven’t sinned, I repent and ask the lord to forgive me anyway. What happened to laying things on the altar and having personal convictions?
c. Those things were for the old generation. They only did that back in the old days. My grandmother preaches to me constantly about how important it is that as a young man I should do my best t live right for god and if I do slip and fall I will not hesitate to repent.
2. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. We are nowhere near perfect, which is why we have an advocate with the father who will cleanse out sins away with his pure blood.
a. There can’t be a spot or blemish on you in order to enter the kingdom of heaven. We have to be pure and holy before the lord and when we do slip and fall we’ve got to repent and go on.
B. Prayer
1. I’m going to add faith along with this one too because we can pray all we want, but without faith that the Lord will answer it is all in vain. Prayer has become more of a ritual in our services.
a. I think a lot of people have forgotten the true value and power of prayer. I think we fail to realize that prayer can move mountains. Think about that:
Mt Everest, the tallest mountain in the world, is 29,035 feet high. That’s five and a half miles high.
If we’ve got the power to move something like that, we can have a lot of power behind us. Of course we do because we can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens us.
b. No more crutch prayer, we need to make prayer something that is second nature. We can no longer afford to pray when it’s convenient.
c. You say well lord doesn’t wake me up to pray for anybody, well then pray and ask him to. Ask the Lord to give you a burden for something, anything.
C. Witnessing
1. Witnessing is just not getting out and knocking on doors, passing out tracts, or preaching on the street corner. We can witness to someone without actually saying a word.
a. People should be able to look at you and know that you are a Christian and that you know how to pray. The problem today is that everybody looks the same. You can’t tell who’s saved and who’s not. In reality none of them are saved.
b. The bible says abstain from the very appearance of evil. If it looks like a skunk and smells like a skunk, then chances are it’s a skunk.
c. My grandparents have an old dog that runs around up in the holler where they live. He got into it with a skunk and the skunk won. When everybody smelled that dog they knew where he had been.
d. If you’ve been playing around in the stink of sin everybody’s going to know it. Church people will know and most of all everyone else around you will know it and then your witness is ruined.
e. That’s the reason people can’t witness, because they’re just as much a sinner as the people they try to witness to. We’ve got to have a burden to see souls saved and we can’t do it and be just like the people who are lost.
III. Conclusion
A. The rich man realized it was too late to do all the things he should have done after he was in hell. He screamed out, but his cry fell upon deaf ears. Tonight you’ve got a chance for that scream to be heard.
1. Maybe there’s something in your life that you know shouldn’t be there and you know you need to repent. Come to this altar.
2. Maybe you’ve been lacking in a prayer life. Maybe you want a burden from the Lord. Come to this altar.
3. Maybe your witness isn’t as strong as it used to be. Maybe you want to do more for the Lord to reach out to the lost souls of this world. Come to this altar.
