“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 side. 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 in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and 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 should rise from the dead.’” [1]
Perhaps you’ve never actually heard a sermon about hell. Tragically, it seems that few contemporary Christians have ever heard a sermon warning against hell. What is even more tragic is that the chances are great that those who may have heard a sermon concerning hell, heard a sermon quite divorced from reality. Sermons addressing the ultimate destination of the damned seem often to be filled with fanciful and gruesome portrayals of the tortures of hell, as though the one delivering the sermon sought to emphasise a desire to frighten people about the awful reality of separation from the love of God. Such “preachers” seem delighted to emphasise the pain, the torment, the grief that attends eternal banishment. However, if they present such a sermon, know that they speak out of their ignorance rather than speaking from personal knowledge.
I wish to be guided by the words Jesus delivered when I do speak of hell; and the Master never exaggerated the torture experienced. He didn’t focus on the torments other than to insist that they are severe. It is enough to say that those who die without Christ are separated forever from God—separated from His grace, separated from His mercy, separated from His love. This is not to deny that we are warned there are torments awaiting the lost, but we need not take licence when speaking of the torments of hell. Preachers should be constrained by their ignorance of what lies ahead for the lost.
We preachers do need to speak about hell with greater frequency if Jesus’ preaching is indicative of the issues we should address. Jesus spoke far more about hell than He ever spoke about heaven. More importantly still, if we model our preaching after the example of our great Saviour, we will speak realistically about hell.
“Scared Straight” is a 1978 documentary detailing how teenage boys were sent to Rahway State Prison in New Jersey to hear from lifers what prison life is like. The effort was an attempt to terrify young offenders, an attempt to “scare them straight.” Studies of this effort actually showed that the effort, and subsequent efforts, were not actually successful at deterring criminal activity in the youthful offenders. By the time the effort was made to change the path on which the boys were moving, they were fixated on pursuing evil. Something like that is true in the life of those who choose to reject Christ.
I would never attempt to frighten anyone into faith in Christ the Lord. I will, however, warn all who hear that we must never imagine that separation from God is something which one can readily endure. You may sometimes hear the flippant remark, “If I go to hell, I’ll be with my friends.” Tragically, there are no friendships in hell. There is no consolation, no comfort to be found when one is separated from God. Indeed, the dark signage Dante imagined above the gates of hell, which signage warned, “Abandon hope, all ye who enter here,” is a reality. What is more tragic still is that the friendless condition, the disconsolate state, goes on for endless ages without hope.
Years ago, Chuck Swindoll made a comment that has stuck with me throughout the ensuing years. He stated that a man could live without food for about forty days. He could live without water for about four days. He could live without oxygen for about four minutes. And a man can live without hope for about four seconds. There is wisdom in that assessment. The thought of a hopeless existence continuing throughout the timeless tracts of eternity seems unbearable when one allows herself or himself to think of that. Yet, that is the reality of passing from this life without the life of Christ the Lord.
A PARABLE … OR NOT — Jesus was delivering a message on one particular day. The message was not particularly well received by the religious elite of that day. These religious leaders esteemed money, and the Master had just discredited the thought that money defined the worth of an individual. So, Jesus told a story that confronted them.
This is the record of Jesus’ words with which He concluded the message He delivered that day. “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 side. 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 in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and 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 should rise from the dead’” [LUKE 16:19-31].
This story which Jesus told all those years ago has sometimes been referred to as a parable. If it is a parable, then the reality must be terrible indeed! However, I suggest that Jesus told this story because He had personal knowledge of the events. Among other reasons for this assertion is the fact that Jesus named names. When we tell a story, we may give those in our story a name, but you will notice that Jesus never used a name in the parables He delivered. His use of parables permitted those hearing what was said to be able to place themselves in the picture; or, if they were inclined to ignore Him, they could dismiss what was said as unrelated to themselves. In this particular account, Jesus identifies a man named Lazarus, a poor man who suffered terribly throughout these days we call life. One wonders whether there might have been some who heard Jesus speak at that particular time who knew Lazarus. If so, they were surely shocked at what Jesus was about to say.
Lazarus had genuine needs—identifiable deficits that he was unable to satisfy. Apparently, Jesus thought it was immaterial why Lazarus was in the condition described. What we can be certain to have been true was that this poor man suffered horribly. Perhaps Lazarus would have been homeless if he lived in this present day. It is easy to imagine that he would have been one of the street people who receive food packages from Saint Mark’s. If he lived in our community, perhaps he would have gone to the Nawican Centre for a meal and an opportunity to get in out of the cold; or perhaps he might have gone to Networks to find some clothing as a shield against our bitterly cold winter nights when temperatures can dip to minus forty-five.
I suppose it would be easy for us preachers to argue that God should not have allowed Lazarus to suffer—we’re pretty good at charging all who need assistance as not really wanting to help themselves. If we adopt that view of things, I suppose we could voice our opinion and move on. However, we would be lying, and we would surely do a grave disservice to those who listen to our carefully-crafted sermons.
The poor often prove to be a conundrum for Christians. While we are convinced that people with genuine needs are all around us, we know there are some presenting themselves as poor who prey upon the churches. These professionally impoverished people muddy the waters for those who are truly in need. It is far easier for us to write a cheque than it is to teach a young woman how to cook a meal. Teaching meal planning and sound dietary habits will require time. And there is no guarantee that our effort will be met with gratitude. It is far easier to give a donation than it is to take the time to teach a man how to write a budget or to actually begin to administer limited funds wisely.
We are busy people, and taking time to invest ourselves in the life of another person, especially an individual who is needy, takes time. Some among the professed saints of the Lord undoubtedly use money as a means of avoiding getting their hands dirty with life. Perhaps some professed Christians feel guilty at their good fortune when compared to those living about them who are in need. Still, a good beggar can make a respectable living peddling a sob story from a location that has good traffic patterns.
We’ve done a rather poor job of balancing Paul’s instruction to expect industry from those among us even while showing kindness toward those in need. Our tendency is to go to one extreme or the other. We are either prepared to ignore altogether those in need, or attempt to make them the primary focus of our service before the Lord. We are to balance these two responsibilities. The congregation is to show compassion to those in need and hold one another accountable for how we conduct our lives before the world.
In his second missive delivered to the Thessalonian Christians Paul instructs us, “We command you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you keep away from any brother who is walking in idleness and not in accord with the tradition that you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to imitate us, because we were not idle when we were with you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with toil and labor we worked night and day, that we might not be a burden to any of you. It was not because we do not have that right, but to give you in ourselves an example to imitate. For even when we were with you, we would give you this command: If anyone is not willing to work, let him not eat. For we hear that some among you walk in idleness, not busy at work, but busybodies. Now such persons we command and encourage in the Lord Jesus Christ to do their work quietly and to earn their own living” [2 THESSALONIANS 3:6-12].
Elsewhere, Paul cautioned, “Let the thief on longer steal, but rather let him labour, doing honest work with his own hands, so that he may have something to share with anyone in need” [EPHESIANS 4:28]. Sharing with those in need is a responsibility for each of us who share in the community of faith. Christians are charged, “to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, thus storing up treasure for themselves as a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is truly life” [1 TIMOTHY 6:18-19].
Nevertheless, James’ challenge has left us humbled. James wrote, “What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace, be warmed and filled,’ without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead” [JAMES 2:14-17].
Honesty compels me to note, however, that there are many people throughout Canada who prey upon the poor. There is a particular class of individuals in our world who use the poor to push their political agendas. These people have a socialistic bent that impels them to spend other people’s money on the policies they favour. They claim to be compassionate, but they appear to be especially compassionate with other people’s money. They aren’t on the hook for funds that they eagerly spend, enriching themselves in the process of “helping” the poor.
And if there aren’t enough poor, there are agencies designed solely to create “victims.” The “victims” seem always to be socially disadvantaged. We have had programs for decades that were meant to end poverty. Since 1964, when President Lyndon Johnson declared a War on Poverty, the United States has spent trillions of dollars, and yet that nation still sees the poverty rate remain essentially unchanged. American taxpayers spend through federal programs $10,425 per person in poverty; and that doesn’t include health care costs! [2] How can government spend that much money per recipient and have no effect on poverty? The answer is—it can’t! The census counts a family as “poor” if income falls below a certain level. However, the census ignores almost all of the more than one trillion dollars in annual welfare spending. Of course, this information I’ve cited is for the United States, but the situation in Canada mirrors the USA. We are spending billions of dollars and have nothing to show for our expenditure.
The following information comes from census reports provided in 2013. In the United States, government surveys show that eighty percent of poor households have air conditioning. Nearly two-thirds have cable or satellite television. Half of all poor households have a personal computer. Forty percent have a wide-screen HDTV. Three-quarters own a car or a truck. Nearly a third of those counted as poor have two or more vehicles. Ninety-six percent of poor parents state that their children were never hungry at any time in the year because they could not afford food. Some eighty-two percent of poor adults reported that they were never hungry at any time in the prior year. [3]
I do not deny that there are genuinely impoverished people about us. However, it does appear that many of the poor we see require us to redefine “poor” in order to make the appellation work. If Canada and the United States are filled with vast numbers of impoverished people, why are these nations so highly desired as destinations for those immigrating from truly impoverished nations? Having spoken of this lack of poverty, let’s admit that there are genuinely poor people about us. And we must not permit our pique at those who play at being poor turn us from compassion for the truly needy.
Perhaps you will recall Jesus cautioning, “The poor you always have with you” [JOHN 12:8a]. The suffering of good people is one of the great mysteries of this moment. Why should God permit the innocent to experience need, to pass through deep waters, to feel pain and to be injured? We can never offer a full explanation that can satisfy. For the follower of the Christ, it is sufficient to confess, “We walk by faith and not by sight” [2 CORINTHIANS 5:7]. Though such a response cannot be considered a comprehensive answer, the one following the Master knows that there awaits a day when the perfect shall have at last come, and the partial will have passed away [see 1 CORINTHIANS 13:7].
CRYING OUT — “In Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out…” [LUKE 16:23 NASB95]. Let’s refocus on the text. Many will have read in an older translation that the rich man was “in hell.” Some have been confused when they read this since the Bible does appear to speak of at least two separate abodes of those who die without God’s salvation.
It may help to clarify the matter if I point out that the Bible uses at least three separate words that have been translated by our English word “hell.” The first of those is found but once in the New Testament; it is a hapax legomenon. In his second missive, the Apostle to the Jews has written, “If God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment…” [2 PETER 2:4]. The word translated “hell” in this verse is the Greek word tartaroo. In Greek thought, this was an abyss of torment and suffering for the wicked.
According to what is revealed through the Word, only fallen angels are incarcerated in this place. Jude seems to speak of this hold of the wicked angels when he writes, “The angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day—just as Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities, which likewise indulged in sexual immorality and pursued unnatural desire, serve as an example by undergoing a punishment of eternal fire” [JUDE 6-7].
Perhaps this place is equated with the “bottomless pit” of which John writes in the Apocalypse. The Greek term that is translated “bottomless pit,” would be transliterated into English as “abyss.” Out of this bottomless pit will come horrid, frightful demonic powers that torment people during the days of the Great Tribulation. The Revelator writes in REVELATION 9:1-11, “The fifth angel blew his trumpet, and I saw a star fallen from heaven to earth, and he was given the key to the shaft of the bottomless pit. He opened the shaft of the bottomless pit, and from the shaft rose smoke like the smoke of a great furnace, and the sun and the air were darkened with the smoke from the shaft. Then from the smoke came locusts on the earth, and they were given power like the power of scorpions of the earth. They were told not to harm the grass of the earth or any green plant or any tree, but only those people who do not have the seal of God on their foreheads. They were allowed to torment them for five months, but not to kill them, and their torment was like the torment of a scorpion when it stings someone. And in those days people will seek death and will not find it. They will long to die, but death will flee from them.
“In appearance the locusts were like horses prepared for battle: on their heads were what looked like crowns of gold; their faces were like human faces, their hair like women’s hair, and their teeth like lions’ teeth; they had breastplates like breastplates of iron, and the noise of their wings was like the noise of many chariots with horses rushing into battle. They have tails and stings like scorpions, and their power to hurt people for five months is in their tails. They have as king over them the angel of the bottomless pit. His name in Hebrew is Abaddon, and in Greek he is called Apollyon.”
Again, John informs us that the key to this bottomless pit is held by the Lord God, and Satan himself will be incarcerated in this foul hold throughout the entire Millennium. John writes, “I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key to the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he might not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were ended. After that he must be released for a little while” [REVELATION 20:1-3].
Another word speaks of the final place of incarceration for the lost, the Greek word geenna. Jesus frequently used this word when speaking of the final location of those who were cast out from God’s presence. This noun is used in Mark’s Gospel, where we see Jesus’ warning, “Whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were hung around his neck and he were thrown into the sea. And if your hand causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life crippled than with two hands to go to hell, to the unquenchable fire. And if your foot causes you to sin, cut it off. It is better for you to enter life lame than with two feet to be thrown into hell. And if your eye causes you to sin, tear it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than with two eyes to be thrown into hell, ‘where their worm does not die and the fire is not quenched’” [MARK 9:42-48].
The term “Gehenna” is the Greek translation of the Hebrew phrase meaning “Valley of Hinnom.” This area served as the garbage dump for Jerusalem. Jesus adapted the name of that place to speak of the eternal woe of those who die without receiving God’s grace. Israel had practised human sacrifice in the valley, and Jeremiah prophesied that it would be known as “The Valley of Slaughter” [see JEREMIAH 7:31-32; 19:2; 32:35].
This awful place is identified as the final hold designated for lost people. As the Revelator writes of the end of the Millennial reign of Christ, he includes an extended portion that points to the purpose of Gehenna. John has written in REVELATION 20:4-15, “I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom the authority to judge was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for the testimony of Jesus and for the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is the one who shares in the first resurrection! Over such the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ, and they will reign with him for a thousand years.
“And when the thousand years are ended, Satan will be released from his prison and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea. And they marched up over the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, but fire came down from heaven and consumed them, and the devil who had deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur where the beast and the false prophet were, and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
“Then I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”
Finally, we will recognise the word “hades,” which has often been translated into English as “hell.” In Greek mythology, Hades was considered to be the realm of the dead; it received its name from the god who was thought to reign over this unseen world.
Here is what I would have you focus on at this moment. In our text, we are introduced to a man in hades, and we are provided opportunity to hear what he has to say. If you were given opportunity to speak to someone in hades, what would you say? What conversation with someone in hell would you imagine to be meaningful?
Imagine that you are given a few minutes to speak with someone who has died; and now, in hell, they are allowed to speak with you. Do you suppose you would begin by asking, “Hot enough for you?” That wouldn’t be a great starter. The person is in hell. There is no reason to even speculate that things will get better for them. You would be foolish to attempt to make small talk because your time is limited and he is in torment.
I would think that the best thing we could do would be to move quickly to encouraging him to speak. What the individual has to say would probably gush forth as they speak. First things first! He will speak of his situation, asking for a measure of relief. That was certainly the case with this man who had been rich and careless about responsibility for others during the days of his earthly pilgrimage. He cried out, pleading, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me! Send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water to cool off my tongue, because I am suffering in this fire” [LUKE 16:24 ISV].
This man was acutely aware that he was suffering. He realised that there would be no deliverance from his situation; but perhaps there would be mercy, perhaps someone whom he had known on earth would wet a finger and touch that wetted finger to his tormented tongue. Even a small drop of water would provide momentary respite from the suffering he was experiencing. Something, anything, might break the agonising monotony. What brought this man to this place?
What does Jesus reveal to us about the abode of the lost at this time? According to Jesus’ words, when a lost person dies, that man or that woman goes to hades. From this brief glimpse which we are given in the Lord’s statement, we are told that hades is a place of torment. This man at the centre of the story Jesus told was known to have lived without concern for his relationship to God or how his lifestyle choices impacted others. He had lived without concern for the malign influence he exerted on those whom he loved. I’m not questioning that he had genuine love for his family, only that he was unconcerned for whether that family would look to God as result of his life. He never considered the influence he exerted on those who were closest to him.
Fathers may be listening who have given no practical thought to the impact of their life on their children; and those children have at best played at church, or they have chosen to gratify their own desires rather than serve the Lord Who gives them their being. They were more concerned to have the finest snowmobile than they were with worshipping the True and Living God. They were taught by their dad that acquiring more toys was the summum bonum of life. Though acquisitions never satisfied that dad, they knew only to attempt to accumulate more and more things—things that must perish with the act of using.
Mothers may hear what I say this day, and yet they have no concern for the fact that their children are teetering on the brink of hades. These women never prayed with their children, never read the Scriptures with them, though they assured them that they are okay before the Lord since they are nice. “Nice” is the diplomatic way of saying “inoffensive.” They make no eternal difference in the lives of others, but they are “nice.”
At death, sweet family ties will be broken, as mothers and fathers, as children, as siblings slip away into hades. When the last breath has been taken, no one can see where the soul goes, and those whom we say we love are no longer among us. And those who leave this life without true knowledge of the Lord God, as was the case with this man who was rich on earth, will discover the awful truth that hades is a place of woe.
One truth that I find disturbing concerning the revelation Jesus provides is that in hades, the lost are conscious of their past, they understand the consequences of their failure to believe. Oh, they are tormented and they are suffering, for hades is not meant to be merely a place from which they are excluded from the mansions of the blessed, it is a place of reflection. I find the most dreadful aspect of what Jesus said to be the knowledge that this man who was once so rich remembers everything.
Listen to the response he receives when he asked for a momentary respite from his suffering. “Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things; but now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish” [LUKE 16:25]. This man remembered, and though he might have tried to block from his memory all that had taken place in his former life, he could not shove the memory of how he had lived. Moreover, he was conscious that those who chose to honour the Lord, despite their situation on earth, were comforted in the presence of God’s mercy.
Then, there is this revelation of memory as it is related to lost opportunities to influence others for good and for God. The tormented soul remembers his loved ones. In this instance, he remembers his brothers, and he begs for a second chance to turn them away from following in his footsteps. Thus, the Lord reveals that this damned soul begs, “I beg you, father, to send [Lazarus] 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” [LUKE 16:27-28]. The love for family is still there, but it cannot be requited; it is a one-way affair, and there is no comfort for the lost in hades to receive even momentary comfort of familial love.
Atop all these dark revelations must be the knowledge that all the warnings of hell, all the warnings of eternal damnation, are true. Awful as hades is, something more awful still awaits the final judicial act of the Great Judge of all mankind. Recall those frightful words that the Revelator has written of the final great assize. “I saw a great white throne and him who was seated on it. From his presence earth and sky fled away, and no place was found for them. And I saw the dead, great and small, standing before the throne, and books were opened. Then another book was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead were judged by what was written in the books, according to what they had done. And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, each one of them, according to what they had done. Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire” [REVELATION 20:11-15].
What are all these statements of what awaits lost people save expressions of mercy delivered by a God who seeks what is good for you? Surely, this is the message we are given as Peter looks to that terrible day when this universe is at last destroyed. “The Lord is not slow to fulfil His promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, no wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance” [2 PETER 3:9].
THE DAMNING RESPONSE — “If they do not hear Moses and the Prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead” [LUKE 16:31]. The abrupt rejection of the rich man’s plea is startling. The words with which his plea is turned away reminds us that there is a day when the mercies of God will no longer be accessible. The Lord calls to each of us now, pleading with us to receive the grace that is offered and to be delivered from the awful prospect of eternity without love and without mercy that looms ahead for all who do not know God.
How tragic is this statement. You have the message of the Word. If you will not hear what has been given, neither will you be convinced if someone should come back from the grave. If you should argue that God never spoke to you and you don’t read the Bible, and therefore you couldn’t know what was coming, I would say that you are ignorant of what is before you. There is a preacher who is telling you now that God is just, and that He shall call all mankind to account. It is unlikely that I am the only preacher that has spoken in your presence of God’s eternal justice. Loved ones have warned you, and friends who are deeply concerned for you have attempted to warn you; you were not interested to turn from your own self-centred life to receive the grace of God. And if somehow the messages that were delivered were somehow insufficient, there lies within you an awareness of divine justice. You know that those who appear to escape justice now, must surely face justice in the next life.
This is the truth, however inconvenient that truth may be for you: if you will not hear what is written in the Word of God, you will not hear even should someone whom you knew, rise from the dead to plead with you. If you will not believe the Word which God has given, you will not believe anyone. All the fanciful stories spoken by religious charlatans as they declared that those who die are now singing in God’s choir, all the inventive suppositions you fostered as comfort when your loved ones died, become meaningless when compared to the reality of the revealed Word of the Living God.
If there is no hades, if there is no condemnation, then why was it necessary that God should send His Son to die because of your sin? If there is no accountability to the Lord Who has given you life, then why does that nagging knowledge of standing before Him to give an account of your life gnaw at your soul? You know that in the dark moments when you allow your thoughts to turn where they will, you peer into the darkness and you are disturbed at what lies ahead. Surely you realise that this is nothing less than the Spirit of Christ pleading with you to turn from your own self-centred life to receive the grace that He now offers.
Know that God sent His Son to provide a sacrifice for your own broken, sinful life. Christ the Lord sacrificed His life because of your inability to redeem yourself from the sentence of eternal death. The Good News is that Jesus did not remain in the grave. Jesus, crucified and buried, conquered death by rising from the dead. Now, He calls you, pleading, “Whoever calls on the Name of the Lord shall be saved” [ROMANS 10:13].
Permit me to make this abundantly clear so that no one can miss the grace of God. You are called to believe this message of life. These are the words with which God now pleads with you to avoid the sentence of death. If you openly agree with God that Jesus Christ is Master over life, believing that He has been raised from the dead, you shall be delivered from death. It is through believing this truth that one is given a right standing before the Father, and through agreeing with Him that one is set free from death. Amen.
[1] Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2016. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
[2] Poverty and Spending Over The Years, http://www.federalsafetynet.com/poverty-and-spending-over-the-years.html, accessed 28 December 2021
[3] Robert Rector, “The War on Poverty: 50 years of failure,” The Heritage Foundation, Sep 23rd, 2014, https://www.heritage.org/marriage-and-family/commentary/the-war-poverty-50-years-failure, accessed 28 December 2021
