The sermon by Peter Allison focuses on the parable of the rich man and Lazarus from Luke 16, emphasizing the sufficiency of Scripture. It underscores the importance of using worldly resources with an eternal perspective and critiques those who are 'Christians in name only.' The sermon stresses that true repentance and understanding of God's word come only through Scripture, not through signs or wonders. It highlights the immediate consciousness after death, indicating that the rich man, despite being in torment, did not repent or show sorrow. The sermon underscores that God's justice is absolute and not subject to human interpretation. It warns against modern church practices that rely on gimmicks for evangelism, asserting that only the Scriptures are sufficient to warn of God's wrath and teach salvation. The sermon concludes with a call to evangelize urgently, recognizing the transient nature of life and the necessity of proclaiming God's word.

Our scripture reading is from Luke, chapter 16. We'll begin reading at verse 19. There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, the dogs came and licked this source, so it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom.

The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torment in Hades, he lifted his eyes and saw Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom. Then 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. But Abraham said, Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things and likewise Lazarus' evil things. But now he is comforted and you are tormented.

And besides all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to there to you cannot, nor can those pass from there, nor can those from there pass to us. Then he said, I beg you therefore, Father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. And Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent.

But he said to them, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise from the dead. May this word be hidden in our heart that we might not sin against him. Heavenly Father, May you give to us humility to submit to your word. May you give to us faith to believe your word and to obey all that you have instructed and commanded of us. And I ask that You would sanctify my sinful lips and anoint them that they may proclaim Your truth and that You would, Lord, drive away any chaff that comes from them and keep me by your grace from error.

In Jesus name, Amen. Well, these two counts that Jesus gives in this chapter of the unjust steward and the rich man are connected by the passage that we looked at last week, looking at the characteristics of people who we called Christians in name only. And Jesus exhorted us in the first account to be faithful with the mammon of unrighteousness, to make friends even with the mammon of unrighteousness, that when they fail we may be received into an everlasting home. In other words, we were to be using our, all of the things that God has given to us with eternity in view. That they haven't been given to us simply for this life on this earth, but that everything that we do here on earth counts for all eternity.

It has an everlasting impact. Jesus then lists some of the characteristics that we looked at last week of these Christians in name only that they were first, that they were lovers of money, that they justified themselves, that they did things to be seen of men that they hated what God loved or held in abomination, what God loved and abominated, and loved what God held in abomination. And then lastly, we saw, if you remember, that they corrupt the Word of God. And Jesus gave that example from adultery, the commandment against adultery, how they had corrupted that commandment to make it say something completely different. And then Jesus goes right into this account of a rich man and a poor man named Lazarus.

This rich man, Jesus tells us about, dies and is buried in the ground. But though he is dead and buried in the ground, he's dead in that his soul has been separated from his body. Even though he is dead in that particular sense, the torment of hell for him begins immediately. It doesn't wait until Christ's second coming when the dead are raised and the bodies are brought out of the ground and reunited with the soul. This torment, Jesus is saying, begins immediately.

While his body is yet in the ground while he's in that sense his flesh is destroyed, he is being tormented. And so if he is being tormented, it means that this dead man still has his senses. He feels, he sees, and he speaks. He was, Jesus is saying, a Christian in name only. Why do we say that?

Because he calls Abraham, Father Abraham. And Abraham acknowledges that family connection calling him son son Abraham calls him son son remember in your lifetime Abraham you see was his father after the flesh. He was this man, this rich man was a Jew outwardly. And his circumcision was only outward in the flesh. It wasn't an inward circumcision of the heart in the spirit just an outward one but because of that outward connection he was in the church He was what we would call somebody today.

He was a Christian, but he was one in name only, outwardly, only outwardly, not inwardly. The rich man went to hell because he was a lover of money. He didn't use his wealth for righteous purposes. He never once, according to Jesus, helped this poor man Lazarus with any of his money. It would have been easy for him to have made a great difference in Lazarus' life with a very small amount of money, to have relieved his suffering, to have relieved his hunger, to have relieved his being his sores being licked by the dogs, which means he didn't have a house to go into.

You never he didn't have a shelter. He never once used any of his wealth for any of that. He loved it too much. Even in hell, he only thinks of himself. He's being tormented.

See, even in hell, even in Hades, that's the word here, he's in Hades, which is sometimes translated or called hell. The word is Hades. Even in Hades, there's no repentance. He thinks that he can still, from Hades, order Lazarus around. And he actually orders Abraham to send Lazarus on an errand to help him to relieve some of his torment and discomfort.

He's being tormented in the fires of hell. Obviously these this is somewhat symbolic language not doesn't mean there aren't fire there it probably is, but it's obviously symbolic because his body, his flesh, is still in the grave. He was buried in the ground. So it's not a physical fire that is tormenting him at this point because his body isn't there. But he's still nevertheless being tormented even though he doesn't have a body to feel it.

He can still feel. And so he commands Abraham, that word there, send him, send Lazarus, that's in the imperative in the Greek, it's command. He's ordering Abraham to send Lazarus on an errand. And Abraham has to remind him that he has already received his good things during his life on earth, while Lazarus was being tormented by this by sores and sicknesses sores which the dogs left now Lazarus also dies I think It's interesting that Jesus names Lazarus, but he doesn't name this rich man. He is gone.

He's a nameless person. Remember Jesus says of these people, depart from me, I never knew you. A name is something by which we know people. It's a sign that we know people. A nameless person is somebody that we don't know.

This person here is a... This rich man was somebody that God didn't know. He's somebody that fits the description in Matthew 25 is, depart from me, I never knew you. But Lazarus has a name he's known by God and when he dies he is carried by angels into the bosom of Abraham His body was also put in the ground, we would presume. It doesn't say that though, because his reality is that of living, of being in the bosom of Abraham.

He is comforted. He experiences the peace and the blessings of heaven, even before he has his body reunited. Being in, being able then to experience this blessing and to be comforted means that there is a conscious existence after our death. Both Lazarus and this rich man are existing in a conscious state. Even though their bodies are in the ground, they're conscious.

Their souls are not existing in some kind of soul sleep, some kind of unconscious state waiting for the resurrection. There is a consciousness to their existence even though they are separated from their bodies. And that's really in the Old Testament what Sheol meant. To be in Sheol meant to be in this state of separation of the body and soul. Even the saints in the Old Testament speak of going down to Sheol and I and I believe some have pointed out that But you know this is before Christ's actual death.

The saints in the Old Testament are saved by grace just like in believing on Jesus Christ just like those in the New Testament are but Christ's sacrifice and payment of unsatisfaction of the wrath of God and payment for our sins hasn't actually happened yet. So in the Old Testament the saints are said to go to Sheol but it was a It was two different places in Sheol. They weren't tormented there. And then they were resurrected, I believe, although I would, Although I wouldn't be very dogmatic about it, but I think in Revelation, Pastor Kaiser has made a very strong point that there is a resurrection at that time, at Christ's resurrection, where all the Old Testament believers were raised and removed from from Sheol. And the Psalms say of Christ that his soul doesn't stay in Sheol.

And so we know that Hades is cast into the lake of fire at the final judgment. Hades is not exactly the same as the lake of fire or what we sometimes think of as hell. And so that can be, I admit that can be confusing. That Hades here is not the eternal punishment of those who do evil. That is the, that's spoken in the scriptures as the lake of fire and outer darkness.

And Hades, this place of the intermediate state, is cast into this lake of fire. And so this is speaking here of people who are in this state, this intermediate state. Notice though, there are some things that we can learn from this passage about what comes after death. And the first thing that we see is that there is no grace after death. There is no grace after death.

That means there's no opportunity to repent. There's no opportunity to receive God's grace in the forgiveness of our sins. This man is being tormented, And Abraham doesn't offer any solution for this rich man to escape the torment he is in. In fact, what he says is in fact just the opposite. There is no solution there's no remedy for you I'm sorry but he doesn't say I'm sorry there's no remedy for you there's no remedy there's no way to cross from one place to the other It is impossible for people in the bosom of Abraham to go into this place of torment or for those in the place of torment to go into the bosom of Abraham.

There's also something that he doesn't say as well. What is one of the greatest comforts to someone who is suffering in some way? Just little sufferings, right? Maybe it's a little one on a long trip who's tormented, just sitting for hours on end in their seat. Maybe it's a runner in a marathon who is experiencing the torment, the rigors of running at fast speeds for hours.

Maybe it's someone who has gone into intensive military training to turn them into battle-ready soldiers. Their greatest comfort is knowing that their torment will end. To the little child we say, well we're almost there, right, when it's time to comfort them. We're almost there. We'll be there soon.

And they want to ask, how long? How much farther? Because that is the end of their torment. That is the ultimate comfort to the long-distance runner. What is the coach and the teammates shout?

You're almost done. Hang in there. You're near the end. And what about the person going into the military training? What do they have on their calendar?

The end date, the date, their goal, and how many days until that goal? Why? Because that is a source of comfort, that knowing it's going to end at some point, this torment that you're in, this rigorous training that you're in, it's going to come to an end. But Abraham offers no such encouragement to the rich man. Because as Scriptures teach elsewhere, there is no end to his torment.

But also, we can note that the wicked continue to sin after their death. The rich man never acknowledged his guilt or his sin. He never exhibited any sorrow. He simply attempts to order Abraham around as he did in the day of his wealth and luxury and to have him send Lazarus on an errand. You See, there is no grace beyond the grave, beyond after death.

Because there is no grace, then they can only continue to sin. Because it's only by the grace of God that we are ever enabled not to sin. And because there is no grace, there is no opportunity for repentance. So the wicked continue to sin. And in that they continue to sin After their death, they continue to heap up for themselves punishment for that sin.

Note also then that even the experience of the torment of hell does not move people to repentance. Terrors of hell do not move people to repentance. You cannot scare people into believing in Jesus Christ. Even the torment of hell did not cause the rich man to repent or even express a longing to repent and to know the grace of God. He couldn't.

Without grace, he couldn't. The demons in Revelation nine that are released from this torment for a time. They're released out of the pit where they've been held in torment, they don't show any desire to repent of their evil. The experience of the torment of hell does not move people to repentance. Only the grace of God is only the kindness of God that moves people to repentance.

Notice also that God's justice is glorified in the punishment of the wicked. Abraham said that the rich man had a time of comfort in this life, and that it was only just that now Lazarus should be comforted. You see, in God's moral economy, every sin is punished and receives its just due. Many people who have been greatly sinned against in this life, sometimes with life altering consequences because of the sin against them. Struggle with the question, where is the justice for the perpetrator?

Where is justice for the one who has done this great evil against me? Where is it? Because sometimes they don't see it in this life. And they think am I supposed to turn the other cheek to forgive those who sin against me in the sense of releasing the obligation they have against me to forgive these people. Where does the perpetrator get his justice?

We see when we turn the other cheek to those who wrong us and that's speaking of those times where we are unable to resist tyranny. We turn the other cheek when we do that or when we forgive those who have sinned against us. We need to remember that we are leaving the punishment in God's hands. And the fact that we are not to take vengeance ourselves, that we are not to do to people that have wronged us what they deserve to have done to them. It's because God has reserved that vengeance for himself.

And it is a punishment that he will exact. And when we turn the other cheek and when we forgive those who have sinned against us, we are simply leaving to God what he says belongs to him. And God is faithful. This parable, this story, I don't know that it's even a parable in the sense of a figurative this account Shows the reality of God's justice He will take justice and the God's Word says that many other places especially in in first in Thessalonians where he speaks of taking justice with flaming fire on all those who do not know Him and do not obey the Gospel. You see, not only is it something that God has reserved for Himself, but we really aren't qualified to make people pay for their sins.

Because we are guilty sinners too. And we are in no place to stand in judgment of others and exact vengeance upon others for their sins against us. You know, we're just not capable of just judgments. When we see someone do something wrong we most likely, most often will attribute it to something internal in that person. Something about them like their character or their intentions or their and so on.

When however if we do something wrong, maybe even the same thing, we often want to attribute it to external things, the circumstances around us, the world, the devil. Not our own character, not our own sinful intentions. You see, we're just not qualified as just judges. Only God is qualified to bring justice and his wrath on the wicked. Vengeance is mine, God says.

I will repay. But I think some of the most important lessons for us in this account are in regard to the scriptures and what this passage teaches about the scriptures and the sufficiency of the script of the word of god the scriptures are sufficient to warn people of the wrath of God. The rich man wants Lazarus specifically to go warn his brothers. Because he thought if he could go warn his brothers, if somebody could rise from the dead, well then his brothers would listen. And Abraham says, no.

Just no. That's not right. The scriptures are sufficient. They have Moses and the prophets. If they're not going to listen to them, they won't listen to anybody even if they rise from the dead.

See, if people don't listen to the Scriptures, the problem is not the Scriptures. The problem is not that the Scriptures are somehow insufficient to warn them of the wrath to come. The problem is the people. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God. No one is ever saved by people rising from the dead.

People are saved only through the hearing of the word of God. The scriptures are sufficient to make us wise unto salvation. And the Scriptures alone are sufficient to warn people of the wrath to come. The scriptures are sufficient, but they alone, they are the only thing that is sufficient to warn people on the wrath to come. Right, even if someone rises from the dead, that's not gonna help.

You see, this is the problem with tampering with the message or the method in order to reach more people. The problem is not the message. The problem is not the sufficiency of the scriptures. That's not why people are not saved when they hear them. And so when we want to add a more exciting time, when we want to add more exciting music, or we want to add something more exciting in an effort to make the gospel more effective, we're going in a completely wrong direction.

The problem isn't in the sufficiency of the Scriptures. Several years ago a coworker talked about the attraction at their large church at the previous Lord's Day. Some stunt man performed a motorcycle jump, apparently on their stage, and it was quite popular and apparently brought a lot of people. And the goal was supposedly honorable. The pastor's goal was, well, he's just going to attract more people so that they can hear the message of the gospel.

The problem is if you attract more people with a motorcycle jump to hear the gospel, that's called a what? A bait and switch. And when people use a bait and switch on us, we say, well, they're not honest. They're less than honest in their approach to us. And so we can't preach the truth with some dishonest means.

That's the epitome of hypocrisy. To be saying we're proclaiming a message of truth, but doing it with a bait and switch. It's no surprise then that so many people in our day accuse the church of hypocrisy. Others want to add more music, performance, more drama, or dance, or some other gimmick to enable people to better hear, they suppose, the message that this rich man wanted his brothers to hear. But Abraham said the word of God, the word of God, the scriptures, Moses and the prophets is all they need.

It's the only thing they need. And notice, Moses and the prophets is sufficient to teach the way of salvation. All the apostles did when they taught about Christ, all Christ did when he taught of himself was to go to Moses and the prophets, the Old Testament. Because everything, every truth that is contained in the New Testament is taught in some form in the Old Testament. When Jesus wanted to teach about the resurrection, he went to the Old Testament.

God is not a God of the dead, but of the living. And God is if the God is a God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, then these people, though they were dead, yet they were living. Paul told the Corinthians regarding this very same thing that Christ did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel not with wisdom of words lest the cross should be made of no effect for the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing but to us who are saved her are being saved it is the power of God for it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe?

Where is the disputer of this age? Has God not made foolish the wisdom of this world? And all these gimmicks and methods. For since in the wisdom of God the world through wisdom did not know God it pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached and the message preached was always Jesus Christ through Moses and the prophets It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For the Jews request a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom.

The Jews want somebody to rise from the dead. The Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified to the Jews a stumbling block and to the Greeks foolishness, but to those who are called both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men and the weakness of God stronger than men for you see you're calling brethren that not many wise according to the flesh not many mighty or not many noble are called But God has chosen the foolish things of this world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame those which are mighty. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. See, It is the work of the Holy Spirit through His Word that sinners need to repent.

And these things we also speak not in words which men's wisdom teaches us, but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. For the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, nor can he know them because they are spiritually discerned." Now, the last thing that we see in this passage this morning is that about the sufficiency of the scriptures is that the scriptures are sufficient to define the standard of justice. The scriptures are sufficient to define our standard of justice. In times of the Vipostacy one of the first doctrines to be challenged is the sufficiency and inerrancy of the Word of God. Just as we saw last week that those who are Christians, and name only one of the things that they do is to try to corrupt the word of God.

This is the very attack that Satan brought against Eve. Has God said? He challenged the accuracy of what God had said. And this is what people do when they don't accept the Genesis account of creation that the earth is about 6, 000 years old. They're challenging the truth of the Word of God.

It's also what people do, ultimately, when they challenge the justice of the scriptures. The scriptures are sufficient and the scriptures alone are sufficient to define the standard of justice. Herman Bavink, who was a Dutchman born in 1854 in the Netherlands, and a minister of the word says, quote, the grounds on which people argue against the eternity of hellish punishment always remains the same. He said eternal puni, and here he lists these five reasons that he said are always the same. Eternal punishment is incompatible with the goodness, love, and compassion of God, and makes him a tyrant who takes pleasure in inflicting pain and prepares praise for himself out of the everlasting moans of millions of unfortunate creatures.

That was the first reason he gave why people reject or argue against the eternity of the torment of hell. Secondly, he says, eternal punishment is incompatible with the justice of God since it is unrelated and in no way proportionate to the sin in question, which is limited and finite in character. And he goes on to list three more reasons why people reject this. But I wanted to look at and he goes on to answer their objections but I want to answer point this morning to the answer those first two objections lies in the sufficiency of the scripture to accept and to define what justice is The acceptance of those two ideas that eternal punishment is incompatible with goodness of God and eternal punishment is incompatible with the justice of God only comes when we deny the sufficiency of the scriptures to define justice. And we want to substitute our view, our human view, of what we and our human sympathy Want the view of justice instead of God's standard of justice.

Every sin is a sin against God. Who are we to say what the standard of justice is and what that sin, the punishment of that sin deserves. Just think what is the scriptural standard of justice? Well think about Lot's wife in Genesis 19. Lot's wife was killed, turned into a pillar of salt because she looked back at Sodom.

Human sympathy would say, well, how could that be just? Capital punishment for looking, turning around and just looking. In Leviticus 10, God killed Nadab and Abihu for an irregularity in their worship duties. They used the wrong fire when they tried to offer a sacrifice. And Aaron was not even allowed to show any emotion about God's justice.

He was not allowed to uncover his head or to tear his clothes, lest he also die at showing grief and in God's justice. See, that goes against our human thoughts about God's justice or what is just and right. Or what about numbers 15 God ordered a man to be executed for picking up sticks on the Lord's Day all he did was pick up a few sticks so he could cook a food and have a meal or what about Joshua 7 where God ordered Akin's entire family to be executed all his house to be stoned because they stole some silver and clothes and hid them in their tent. Or in 2 Samuel 6, God killed Aziah because he reached out his hand to steady the ark so it wouldn't fall. We would say honorable intention.

He meant well. All he did was reach out and touch it. And God killed him. You remember, even David had trouble with God's justice at that point. In second Samuel.

Six. Even David, the sweet psalmist of Israel, the one whom the Lord used to write much of the Psalms. Psalms. David, in verse eight says, after God struck him and killed there, God says the word says David became angry because of the Lord's outbreak against us. David became angry at God's justice because it offended his own sense of what was just and right.

He's saying, how can you kill this person? He was angry with God, unjustly angry with God, because he was trying to substitute his human view of what was just for what God's justice, God said was just. Or what about Acts 5, where God struck down Ananias and Sapphira for lying to Peter? Peter said they were lying against the Holy Spirit. Or what about God condemning the entire human race with physical death and condemnation simply because Eve ate a piece of fruit that she wasn't supposed to eat?

If any parent inflicted such a punishment on their child because they ate a piece of fruit that they weren't supposed to eat, we would think that most unjust according to our standard. But this was a sin against God. You see, in human terms, we would say none of those punishments fit the crime. But we have to submit our standard of justice to the Word of God. The Word of God alone is sufficient to define what is just and what is unjust.

God is just in all of His judgments. And we have to believe the word of God against whatever we might think in ourselves. As Paul told the Romans, indeed, let God be true, but every man a liar as it is written that you may be justified in your words and you may overcome when you are judged. But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath?

I speak as a man. Certainly not. Certainly not. There is no injustice with God. God is not unjust in any of those cases where he inflicts wrath.

And if we think it's unjust of God, If we are like David become angry at God's sense of justice, if it offends us, then we are offended, the living God. And we are the ones that need to repent. David did. David acknowledged his error and he responded in faith and he brought the ark into the city the way God commanded it to be brought. This whole account should urge us or should move us to the great urgency of evangelization.

The great urgency of proclaiming the Word of God because this day of grace that we all live in now doesn't last forever. That rich man did not know the day of his departure and neither do we, none of us do. Not one of us. And so it oughta move us, it oughta move us to great urgency that we bring God's word to these to those who are yet in their sins. The day of grace does not last forever.

Let us pray. Almighty Heavenly Father, we thank you for your Word. We thank you that you are just in all of your judgments and in all of your ways. And though we may not think of them as just, Lord, help us to submit our sinful and sin-clouded judgments and perceptions and sympathies and empathy. To submit all of that to your word and to the standard of justice that you teach us in that word.

That it might be said, let God be true and every man a liar. Lord, I pray that you would use your word to move us to greater obedience of the faith, that you would move us to greater faithfulness and to greater love of you and to greater adoration and praise of you who are so exalted above us so holy holy holy that you are completely separate from anything that you have made. And yet, Lord, you dwell with us. And we thank you for that. We thank you that you do reveal to us in Christ yourself.

And we praise your grace and Lord, we ask that you would move us and give to us a great urgency to be faithful witnesses to the truth of your word and to its gospel of salvation by the grace of God in Jesus Christ, in whose name we pray, Amen.