Luke 16:19-31 KJV
19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day:
20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores,
21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.
22 And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
24 And 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.
25 But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: but now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.
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.
27 Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house:
28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.
29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
30 And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.
31 And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.
The rich man and Lazarus... It's a story Christ tells that is familiar to most of us. When I say story I mean a truth told in story fashion for His audience. I have no doubt these events and conversation happened just as the bible says it did. Before Christ came to earth He was in Heaven and saw all of this transpire. What I had never took note of until now was that last line.
Christ is God ,in human form, come to earth so we know He has past, present, and future in His eyes. He knows what is, was, and shall be.
There comes a time when you say something will happen : When you watch a movie and call the ending, watching football and call a td in advance.
Well this was a "called it" moment for Christ and Abraham.
Abraham is in paradise with Lazarus, Whereas the rich man was in hell in torment. The rich man begged Abraham to send Lazarus to his brothers so they wouldn't come there.
He was told that they had Moses and the prophets, and yet they failed to listen. In fact it says they would not listen even if someone raised from the dead went to them.
How true that statement is and was. We have a world lost and dying going to a hell that the rich man begged for his brothers not to come. We have a people with greater access to the Word of God than ever before and we have a singular lack of interest in God's Word in the world today.
We have a record of a Man raised from the dead sending people out to a world and that world not wanting to hear it. We have a record of men dying to get the Word of God printed and into the hands of the ordinary person so they can read the Word for themselves. We have a record of people dying to spread the gospel, who have refused to give up their faith even in the face of immediate and painful tortuous death.
We have more bibles in the hands of people than ever, we have print, tv, radio, internet access to the Word of God and yet pornography is the most prolific content on the internet.
Today we have ,at least here in America, a refusal to listen to the Word. We have an outright push to get it out of our society as a whole! We have a man ,Christ Jesus, who was and is God Incarnate and we are refusing to recognize Him! We have more people wallowing in their sins, trying to bring more people to hell with them than we do those of us who are trying to get the Word out.
We are told in this account of the refusal of people to hear even if one raised from the dead told them.
We have that realization, we have that truth happening today.
Do not be the one in torment wishing you could have a drop of water. Do not be the one wishing you could have someone sent to your family so they would not join you there. Do not be the one to live your life here in the "pleasures" of this world, just to wake in the eternal flames of torment that is hell.
There is a Man raised from the dead bearing record to you of these things. Listen to Him, learn from Him, Christ died for you, bore your sins to mount Calvary so you could escape the punishment of spiritual death.
We have that One raised from the dead bearing record. Learn from History and someone else's mistakes. The rich man would tell you to heed the call of the Spirit. He would tell you "Do not reject the Word of God. Receive it. Own it."
Listen to The rich man, you can not afford the cost of not listening.
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