Luke sixteen verse nineteen: There was a certain rich man who was

clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there
was a certain beggar named Lazarus who was laid at his gate, full of sores,
and desiring to be fed with the crumbs, which fell from the rich man’s table.
Moreover, the dogs came and licked his sores. 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, and in hell, he lifted up his eyes, being in
torments, seeing Abraham afar off and Lazarus in his bosom, and he cried
and said, “Father Abraham, have mercy on me. 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 thou in thy lifetime
received good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things, but now he is
comforted, and you are tormented. Beside all this, between us and you there
is a great gulf fixed so that they who would pass from here to you cannot,
neither can they pass to us that would come from there.” Then he said, “I
pray you therefore, Father, thou would send him to my father’s house for I
have five brethren that he may testify to them lest they also come into this
place of torment.” Abraham said to him, “They have Moses and the
prophets, let them hear them.” And he said, “Nay, Father Abraham, but if
one went to them from the dead they will repent.” And he said unto him, “If
they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though
one rose from the dead.”
May God open His Word to us this morning.
I’d like to put two questions to you; the first question is: what was the
rich man’s sin? Well, it would seem obvious he was sent to hell for not
feeding Lazarus. Therefore, would he have gone to heaven, Abraham’s
bosom, paradise, call it what you will, if he had fed Lazarus? Is salvation by
works, and not by grace? Did Jesus Christ shed His Blood in vain?
Now, the Bible says: not by works of righteousness, which we’ve done, is
to save us but according to His mercy. For by grace are you saved, through
faith, and that not of yourselves, it’s the gift of God, not of works, lest any
man should boast. So obviously this story has a deeper meaning. Which
brings us to the second question: Who is the rich man? Well, let’s look at his
clothing for a clue.
The Bible says he is clothed in purple, the Biblical color for royalty, and
fine linen, which is the righteousness of the saints according to Revelation
nineteen verse eight. I’m convinced the rich man is the church.
And the leper, as most Bible commentators agree he was, is a type of the
sinner. The foul sores of sin permeate his very being. He is as an unclean
thing. His righteousness’ are as filthy leprous rags. They that touch him are
commanded to hate even the garment spotted by the flesh. Unclean spirits,
like hungry dogs, feed at the wounds of his sin waiting to consume him at
death. He’s laid at the gate of the church; that rich, fat Laodicean church,
the royal priesthood of believers, clothed in fine linen, faring sumptuously
on the teachings of prayer, prophecy and providence, justification,
sanctification and purification. With its men’s camps, youth camps,
women’s camps, marriage seminars, ladies meetings, its worship, prayer and
praise; youth meetings, Bible studies, audiotapes, videotapes. Heaping to
itself teachers having itching ears. Ears so scratched by feastings that the
muffled cries of Lazarus, at the gate, go unheeded.
This is the sin of the church; not that it’s rich, but it hasn’t the
compassion to throw even a few evangelical crumbs to starving Lazarus at
the gate. The rich man’s thoughts are solely for himself. He’s filled with his
own ways.
We build big, beautiful buildings with cool, clear acoustics and colorful
carpets. For as cozy Christians, we sit on padded pews living in luxury
while sinners sink into hell. We say that we’re rich, but we’re poor, we’re
blind, we’re retched, we’re miserable and we’re naked.
What we do is we appease our conscience by giving the job of reaching
the lost to the evangelist, when the Bible says the evangelist is to equip the
saints for the work of the ministry.
Do you know who mostly attends our mass crusade, combined church
meetings? Combined churches, combining together for meetings; it’s called
preaching to the converted. All that’s really happening is the rich man is
having his relatives around for another feast. Meanwhile, Lazarus is still
starving at the gate.
But don’t those mass crusades reach the lost? Well, in September of
1977, a hundred seventy eight churches in the U.S. combined for a series of
evangelistic meetings and reported four thousand one hundred and six
decisions for Christ; unfortunately, ninety seven percent backslid.
In 1976, the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association reported a massive
eighteen thousand decisions for Christ. But according to Church Growth
magazine, ninety four percent failed to even become incorporated to the
local church.
In 1987, a million dollar Louis Palau crusade managed to obtain six
thousand decisions. But within the first three months, already nine hundred
and forty seven had backslidden despite $128,000 spent on follow up and
counseling.
In a recent healing crusade, five hundred decisions were obtained.
However, I heard from a reliable source that the pastor who instigated those
meetings, meetings, cannot find one of those five hundred decisions for
Christ. Not one has stayed with his faith.
Lazarus is still at the gate.
Well, what should we do? I mean what can we do?
I believe one answer is in the book of Judges chapter six verse twenty-
five. Perhaps you’d like to turn there with me.
“The Lord said to Gideon, take your fathers young bull, the second bull
of seven years old, and tear down the altar of Baal that your father has. Cut
down the wooden image that is beside it, and build an altar to the Lord your
God on top of this rock, in the proper arraignment, and take the second bull
and offer a burnt sacrifice with the wood of the image that you shall cut
down. So Gideon took ten men from among his servants and did as the Lord
had said to him, but because he feared his fathers household, and the men of
the city, too much to do it by day, he did it by night.”
When God commissioned Gideon, the first thing He told him to do was
to destroy his father’s idols, then rebuild on the rock in the proper
arraignment, and I believe we’re called to do the same. Gideon was told to
tear down his father’s idols then rebuild on the rock in the proper
arraignment.
With all due respect, I am convinced that our spiritual forefathers of the
last sixty years, sincere though they may have been, have handed down to us
an idolatrous understanding of the true nature of God.
Listen to these scriptures, which is somewhat difficult for us to reconcile
with our benevolent image most of us have of the nature of God.
Psalm five verse five, “The boastful shall not stand in Your sight, You
hate all the workers of iniquity.”
Psalm seven verse eleven, “God is angry at the wicked every day.”
Psalm eleven verse five, “The Lord tests the righteous, but the wicked
and the one who loves violence His soul hates.”
Psalm fifty verse twenty-two, “Now consider this, you who forget God,
lest I tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver. Whoever offers praise
glorifies Me.”
God is speaking to rebellious Israel, Leviticus twenty-six verse thirty
said, “I will destroy your high places and cut down your incense altars and
cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols and my soul shall
abhor you.”
The God of the Bible is coming in flaming fire to render His anger with
fury and His rebuke with flames of fire. And whether we like it or not, our
God is a consuming fire, and what’s more, humanity must face Him on the
Day of Judgment.
 The God of the Bible, the God revealed in scripture, kills people. In
Genesis thirty-eight, God killed two men because He didn’t like their sexual
activities. In the book of Numbers, God instructed Israel that only the sons
of Kohath were to carry the ark, and anyone else touched it, they would die.
No one touch it lest they die, say the scriptures. But in the book of Samuel,
we see that David, instead of doing what the scriptures said, in sincerity, he
took the ark and put it on the back of an ox cart. The ox stumbled, the ark
went to fall off and Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark and God
killed him. Uzzah considered his hand to be cleaner than the dirt. We serve
a God of uncompromising and burning holiness. You break the law of
gravity, you suffer the consequences; you break the law of electricity, you
suffer the consequences; you break the law of holiness, you suffer the
consequences.
The God of the Bible told Joshua to kill the Canaanites; every Canaanite,
man, woman and child without mercy.
The God of the Bible in the Noahic flood killed all of humanity but for
eight people because of the imagination of their heart, because of their
thought life; it was continually evil.
Ah, but that’s Old Testament. The God of the New Testament is a God of
love and mercy. Well, let’s see.
The God of the New Testament says, “Fear not him who can kill your
body and do no more, but fear him who can kill your body and cast your
soul into hell.”
The New Testament says, “Wherefore, knowing the terror of the Lord,
we persuade men.” True, the Old Testament law is harsh, but New
Testament judgment, under grace, carries with it greater punishment.
When you take a look at God’s law, the first of the Ten Commandments
is: I AM the Lord your God, you shall have no other God’s before Me. God
commands that He be the focal point of our affections. We are commanded
to love the Lord our God with all our heart, mind, soul and strength and to
love our neighbor as ourselves. In fact, the love that you and I should have
for God should make all our other affections, for husband, wife, brother and
sister, for our own children, for our own life, should make it fade into the
background and seem as hate compared to the love we have for the God who
gave us life and gave us all these places. None of us have kept the first
Commandment. What we do is we hate that God of holiness; we hate Him
without cause. The Bible says that we hate the light. There is none that seek
after God. What we do is we shape a god to suit our sins. We say, “Oh, I
believe in a god of mercy and a god of love.” And we create a god who
wouldn’t judge unrighteousness, a spineless puppet. We say, “Oh, my god
wouldn’t create hell,” and it’s true; my god wouldn’t create hell ‘cause he
doesn’t exist, he’s a figment of the imagination, shaped to conform to my
sins.
There is one God. He said, “I AM the Lord, I change not. I’ll by no
means clear the guilty, no means forgive them.” God will judge
unrighteousness, He’ll bring to judgment every secret thing, whether it is
good or whether it is evil.
The Third Commandment says this, “You shall not take the Name of the
Lord your God in vain.” We say His name is holy but we don’t give Him the
worship due to Him. ‘Our Father, Who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy
Name.” And then we take the Name of God and use it to express filth as a
curse. ‘Oh God this…”, “God…” that. We substitute the Name of God; we
use the Name of God in place of a four-letter filth word beginning with ‘s’.
We take the Name that’s above every Name down to the level of that four-
letter filth word. That’s called blasphemy. Punishment under the Law is
death for blasphemy; death for idolatry; death for Sabbath-breaking, for not
setting aside one day in seven to worship God in spirit and in truth.
Death for violation of the Fifth Commandment: honor your mother and
father; value them. So many young people don’t honor their parents. Do
you realize your mother carried you for the nine months? I mean, my wife,
we, we, morning sickness they call it. It’s not morning sickness; it’s twenty-
four hour sickness for three months for many women. Nausea, vomiting, it’s
a horrible thing. Then she bore you in pain. And she nurtured you, gave up
her figure, gave up her finances, gave up food. Nurtured you through all
those duties that are just yeach, I wasn’t told about it when we had kids. I
called my mother, and I said, “Hey mother, thank you for not drowning me
when I was a kid.” [Laughter] Our fathers work and slave to give their
money freely that we might have clothing and food and shelter over our
heads; and so many young people despise their parents. They’re ungrateful,
unthankful, they don’t honor them, they don’t value them and they bring
upon themselves the curse of God. Honor your father and mother that all
may be well with you and your days may be long on the earth. Conversely,
don’t honor your parents? All will not be well with you; neither will your
days be long upon the earth.
Sixth Commandment, “You shall not kill.” All Christians need to thunder
from pulpits, pastor you thunder from pulpits this abortion issues an
abomination of blood and children shed in this land and our land cries out to
God for vengeance. We need to thunder, “You shall not kill,” from the pulpit
and echo it out in the streets; fire evangelism. It’s wrong to kill children;
what a terrible thing that we should have to say that in the 20th century.
Twenty million babies slaughtered in this nation. For the Bible says you get
angry without cause you’re in danger of judgment; you hate your brother,
you’re a murderer. Whoever hates his brother is a murderer and we know
that no murderer has everlasting life with God. Violation of the Sixth
Commandment: death sentence. Look, in our country, if someone commits
murder, it seems the whole world says, “His shoes were too tight as a kid.”
His mother… [Laughter] Stick him in a mental home for two years with a
color television, let him out, he’ll be fine. He’s not fine, he’s the same.
Death sentence for murder under God’s Law; death sentence for lack of
honoring your parents. Strike your parents? You’ll die. You become a
drunkard, you’re rebellious? Main gate, stoned to death by the elders of
Israel. Oh, the Law is harsh.
Commit adultery, you’ll die under the Law. But Jesus said, “Whoever
looks at a woman with lust has committed adultery already with her in his
heart.”
You steal one thing, you’re a thief, you’ve violated God’s Law you can’t
enter God’s kingdom.
You tell one lie, a white lie, or a fib, you’re a liar and the Bible says that
all liars will have their part in the lake of fire.
The Tenth Commandment, “You shall not covet.” It means to be
materialistic, or greedy of gain. And who of us has not coveted something
that belongs to someone else?
Oh, the Law is harsh and it will judge humanity on the Day of Judgment.
It’s a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God. God is going to
judge humanity in holiness, purity, and righteousness, justice and truth. Not
one jot nor tittle of the Law shall fail. It will be God’s standard on the Day
of Judgment. And as many as have sinned in the Law, will be judged by the
Law.
Now look at judgment under grace, it’s harsher. Hebrews 10:28, “He that
despised Moses’ Law died without mercy under two or three witnesses. Of
how much sorer punishment suppose ye shall he be thought worthy who has
trodden under foot the Son of God, and has counted the Blood of the
Covenant, wherewith he was sanctified, an unholy thing, and has done
despite to the Spirit of Grace.” And then the Bible says, “It’s a fearful thing
to fall into the hands of the living God.” Oh, despise Moses’ Law, you died
without mercy, but despise the mercy of the Cross, and punishment will be
far greater.
But the message of the 20th century church has not been, “It’s a fearful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God,” but “God loves you and has a
wonderful plan for your life.”
 Now, I have searched the Scriptures high-and-low for this God-loves-you
gospel, and I cannot find it, and if it’s there I’ll gladly preach it. Sure, the
Bible does say, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten
Son.” But, every reference I can find to the love of God is in direct
reference to the Cross of Jesus Christ. “Herein is love, not that we love God,
but that He loved us and sent His Son to be a substitute for our sins. God
commended His love toward us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life.”
The Cross is not only the display of God’s fathomless love and mercy, it’s
evidence of His righteous fury against sin. The Cross should be the focal
point of the message of Christianity. And, yet, I’ve lost count of the number
of preachers, whom I have heard, preach the message of God without
reference to the Cross, or sin, or Law, or righteousness, holiness, judgment,
repentance, or hell. And I don’t know how they do it, but they give fifty
minute faith message, fifty minute healing message combined with faith and
healing, and they go straight into grace, fifteen minutes of ‘ask Jesus into
your heart.’ That is the recipe for false conversion, stony ground hearers
who receive the Word with joy and gladness, but they’ve got a stony heart!
The soil is bedrock; shallow soil, big rock underneath it. The roots go down,
they hit the rock so the goodness that should be under the roots go up and
make lots of leaves and branches but no fruit. The sun comes out, the sun of
tribulation, temptation, persecution and causes that plant to wither and die.
And our churches are full of stony ground hearers. One way to clean out the
church is to let persecution come to it. That way we’ll clean it up, clean it
out and find out those who truly love God. Those who are prepared to lay
their lives down for the kingdom of God.
Jesus said to the Pharisees, “You have omitted the weightier matters of
the Law: judgment, mercy and faith.” Now that’s the order we should be
preaching in. It’s because of judgment we need mercy, and the way to
obtain mercy is through faith in Jesus Christ.
How can we tell an impenitent sinner of God’s love without mention of
the Cross? The Bible doesn’t do it. And how can we make mention of the
Cross, without speaking of sin? And how can we speak of sin, without
mentioning God’s Law? For the Bible says, Paul said, “I had not know sin,
but by the Law.” Paul said, I didn’t know what sin was until the Law told
me what sin was.
“If they’ll not hear Moses,” that is the Law, “neither will they be
persuaded though One rose from the dead.”
 We’ve brought the ark of the Gospel in on a new cart. We can’t say our
God is a consuming fire, when our god has become nothing but a mass of
smoldering sentiment; a god who smiles upon the mafia; a god who smiles
at rape and murder; an idolatrous god.
Some preachers of the past supposedly went too far in warning of God’s
wrath, we have swung the pendulum too far the other way. Our eyes have
lost the glory of the coming of the Lord. We’ve watered down our message,
now the gospel is ignored. No longer is it warning of a swift and flaming
sword, that truth is almost gone. The Law is just and holy, it is perfect, right
and good, but the church has failed to use it as the Bible says we should. It’s
to show how God is holy and to reach them, if we would. That truth is
almost gone. He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat. Oh, be swift
my soul to answer Him, be jubilant, my feet, such truth is almost gone.
Gideon was fearful. He had to destroy his father’s idols at night, but at
least he did it, and I believe we must do the same: destroy every idol of the
mind; every idolatrous understanding of God – dash it to pieces; and then
rebuild, in the proper arraignment, on the rock of the nature of our holy
creator. I believe that’s the first thing we must do if we want to get on our
feet as the church of the living God. And secondly, I believe what we must
do is order our lives in the light of the true character of God.
Within our text, the rich man’s problem was that he was idolatrous; his
understanding of God was wrong. And because he lacked the knowledge of
God, the knowledge of God is what produces fear of God, because he lacked
the knowledge and understanding of God, he didn’t fear God. And because
he didn’t fear God, he didn’t obey God. He didn’t love his neighbor as
himself. He couldn’t see Lazarus starving at his gate because he was
blinded by the dollar signs in his eyes.
After a number of trips overseas, my wife, Sue, and myself, are very
familiar with television evangelism, with it’s, “Send your best check or we
won’t be here next week.” And I say, oh, hear that, Lord, please don’t let
them be here next week. [Laughter] Slowly my prayers are being answered.
Now, we’ve dealt with that by switching the program off. Yet, it seemed
wherever we travel, churches have the same message. This time, it wasn’t
the television program that needed the cheerful giver, but the building
program. And we dealt with it the same way, by switching off, quietly
disillusioned.
Now in November, when we first met Gary, I liked him right from the
moment I met him. So I decided I’d send him this teaching session when he
was teaching submission to the will of God. And, ah, I couldn’t believe it as
I sat there ‘cause it’s the same message, God loves a cheerful giver, but with
a twist, it was different. At the end of the message, he got out his wallet,
took out ten ten-dollar notes, ten one-dollar notes and said, “How many of
you got financial needs?” A forest of hands went up; there was about twenty
hands went up. And he got out ten ten-dollar notes; ten one-dollar notes and
he gave eleven dollars to ten of those twenty people who raised their hands.
So we had ten people hold onto eleven dollars made up of the denomination
of ten-dollars and one-dollar. Then he said, “Look around you and see God
has not yet met the needs of one of your brethren. Go and give them one of
your notes.” So each person had the choice of giving away a one-dollar note
or a ten-dollar note. And it was a real lesson on how tight-fisted we can be
with money. But for me it was something special, it really was; it was like a
bright light in a dark place. It was something I had never seen before,
money flowing from the pulpit, like water running uphill. [Laughter]
While I was preaching in our local square, I was accused of having the
same money-oriented message of televangelism. So I told the crowd, I’d
preached in that place 2,500 times, never once had I publicly solicited funds
off the crowd, but action speaks louder than words so I took out my wallet, I
gave away everything in it except for one one-dollar note. It was my
“widows mite” of apology. I preached on the fact that faith, ah, that faith
without works was dead and to come and receive that money that wasn’t
theirs. That was my “widows mite” of apology, my embarrassment that the
church is continually begging for money. But before I got back to my car
that day, you know that God had more than replaced what I’d given from my
wallet? And I am absolutely sure that if the church emptied its depleted
wallet to the world, God would fill it and our pews to overflowing. In fact,
let me prove the point: make me the treasurer of the protestant church, and
the Vatican for that matter, for three minutes and I’ll write out checks so fast
to feed the poor and reach the lost.
Do you know that by conservative estimate, the church in the United
States spends eighty seven million dollars on church newsletters? Now, I’m
not knocking newsletters, but what I’m saying is, wouldn’t it be better for
the rich man to spend that money on feeding Lazarus at the gate, rather than
on a table napkin on itself?
I was at an airport recently, four punks sat next to me, that is petted
unwanted nobody kids, sat next to me, and were typical punks. They had,
uh, big leather boots on, leather pants, girls had leather boots, chains,
earrings. Their language was very foul and very audible ‘cause that means
they’re corrupt and obviously the usual outstanding hairstyles. So I began
chatting them, I, I just started with a little bit of plain talk, talked about
planes for awhile, and then I thought, well, ok, I’ll give them one of our little
No Greater Love comic books. They’ll probably rip them up and throw
them back at me but I’ll do it anyway. Do you know what they did? They
started reading them! Really! It’s very odd, so I thought I’d witness to
them. I said, “What do you think of God’s Law, I mean the
Commandments? Do you think it’s alright to kill an abortionist?” Yeah, no
problem. Do you think it’s okay to steal? As long as you stole off someone
who could afford it. [Laughter] They were Lawless. I said, “Common, you
know right from wrong. God has written His Law upon your heart and the
tendency of the Law working greatly upon your heart, your conscience bears
witness.” The conscience is God’s Law, the word ‘con’ means ‘with
knowledge’. Con, conscience, ‘con’ means ‘with,’ ‘science’ means
‘knowledge’. I said, “When you do wrong, you know you do wrong. When
you steal, you know in your heart it’s wrong.” So he began to justify
himself. He says, “Hey, listen, if I was hungry I’d steal to satisfy my
hunger.” I says, “If you were hungry, you’d call me and I’d come and buy
you something to eat until you got on your feet.” I said, “Are you guys
hungry?” They said, we really are; I said, “Common, I’ll buy you something
to eat.” So we went down and we bought, and they began helping
themselves. [Laughter] “Why are you doing this?” I said, “Because I like
you.” And we sat down at the meal, and you know what began to manifest?
Manners. [Laughter] Polite punks. [Laughter] I said, “This, this is real
good.” You know they took eleven of these little No Greater Love comic
books to share with their friends to read them.
Oh, that the church would order its priorities and take the world to lunch.
The way to a man’s ear is through his mouth. See the close proximity? Huh?
[Laughter] If you want to speak to someone, stuff something in their mouth.
It’ll keep their tummy happy and keep their mouth shut while you speak to
them. [Laughter]
Why on earth do we spiritualize the feeding of the five thousand? The
good Samaritan not only opened up his heart, but he opened up his wallet for
his neighbor. If only they could dare to believe that we love them, and not
their wealth, we’d win their hearts, surely.
Now, I’ve had the privilege, and I mean this, I’ve had the privilege of
preaching in million dollar church buildings. But I far prefer the open-air.
You know why? ‘Cause that’s where the sinners are. I don’t like fishing
from the vestibule. Sinners are out on the streets; I love open-air preaching.
Catherine Booth said, regarding church buildings, “A barracks is meant
to be a place where real soldiers are prepared and equipped for war, not a
place to settle down in, or a comfortable snuggly in which to enjoy
ourselves. I hope that if ever they, our soldiers, do settle down, God will
burn their barracks over their heads.”
Powerful words! What we need is electrified pews! In fact, we’ve just
wired the seats up this morning! [Laughter] It’s ironic that with the help of
God, I can reach more sinners with one gospel service in the open-air, in
open-air preaching, than I can find in one year in these structures we call
‘churches’. And, what’s more, I can say with I feel without fear of upsetting
the life’s blood of many a local church: the regular tithers.
Listen to A. W. Tozer, he said, “I began preaching on a street corner. I
began on a soapbox, and I would rather end my last feeble years preaching
on a soapbox and telling the truth than to be caught in institutionalized
Christianity and paralyzed so I don’t dare tell the truth. I want the prophetic
spirit on me, or I want to die.”
The truth is, those churches who are overly money conscience, wouldn’t
have to publicly plead for finance, if their prayer life were half as deep as
their collection bags. God only knows how many converts have been
seriously hindered from entering God’s Kingdom because we have shouted
from the pulpit what should have been whispered in the closet.
Saints, we’ve been called to be fishers of men, and if, by the will of God,
there be a coin in the fish’s mouth, let’s spend it on seeking more fish for
God, rather than on luxurious structures for lazy landlubbers. We’ve
brought the ark of the gospel in on a new cart, and as it begins to rock, as
church leaders begin to fall, from tele-evangelist to pulpit to pew, I for one
won’t be reaching out my hand to steady the ark. No, I’ll let it fall to the
ground, and then I’ll do it God’s way: rebuilding, on the rock, in the proper
arraignment.
Now, in one sense, there’s a sad irony about this rich man. In verse
twenty-four of our open text, he cried out, “Send Lazarus, that he may dip
the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this
flame.” His tongue, which should have burned with the fire of God’s love
on earth, now burned with the fire of God’s judgment in hell. Then, in verse
twenty-seven, he said, “Send Lazarus, to warn of hell.” The guy waited until
he was in hell before he began his evangelistic endeavors, somewhat too
late.
If we love them, and if we love God, you can’t love one without the
other, you can’t say I love God without loving your brethren, and you can’t
say you love your brethren, other people, non-Christians, without warning
them. What would you think of someone who sat, reading a book, while a
child drown beside them? You’d say that person’s got a heart of stone;
they’re guilty of the blood of that child.
 Well, can you feed on God’s Word, let your soul delight itself in fatness,
enjoy the abundant life of Christianity, while sinners sink into hell daily?
A hundred and forty thousand people pass through the jaws of death every
twenty-four hours. If you have no compassion for them, then you have a
heart of stone; you’re guilty of their blood! If you’ve got a stony heart, then
you must be unconverted. God said He would take your heart of stone and
give you a heart of flesh. He that loves not knows not God for God is love.
We have a moral obligation, moral responsibility, to warn them to flee from
the wrath that’s to come.
Turn to Psalm fifteen as we begin to draw to a close. [Pages turning]
I don’t know if you know that, but that saying is a meaningless preachers
statement. “As we begin to draw to a close.” It means absolutely nothing.
[Laughter] Philippians chapter three begins with, “Finally my brethren…”
and has two more chapters! [Laughter]
Psalm fifteen; I believe this is a description of the Godly character.
“Lord, who shall abide in thy tabernacle? Who shall dwell in thy holy hill?
He that walks uprightly, and works righteousness, and speaks truth in his
heart. He that backbites not with his tongue, nor does evil to his neighbor,
nor takes up a reproach against his neighbor. In whose eyes a vile person is
contemned; but he honors them that fear the LORD. He that swears to his
own hurt, and changes not. He that puts not out his money to usury, nor
takes a reward against the innocent. He that does these things shall never be
moved.”
You see, if you have a God of compassion and love living within you, the
God that is burning holiness, God of righteousness, then you’ll love your
neighbor as yourself.
He that swears not to his own hurt, or he that swears to his own hurt and
changes not, should I say. What does that mean, strange statement? It
means if you are a Christian, when you give your word, you’ll keep your
word, even if it hurts you to keep your word. He that puts not out his money
to usury, or he knows, the Godly man knows that he cannot serve God and
mammon; cannot serve God and mammon.
You see, when God gave His Law, when He gave His Ten
Commandments, He began with the words, “I AM the Lord, your God. I
AM the Lord, your God.” God is the God of all humanity. He’s the God of
the atheist, the God of the agnostic; God is the God of the Godly person.
He’s their creator, but He’s not their Lord until He makes them so, until they
make Him so. “I AM the Lord, your God.” And that phrase is used right
through scripture, literally hundreds of times. “I AM the Lord, your God.”
Right up until Thomas fell prostrate at the feet of the Son of God and cried
out, “My Lord, and My God.” Some of you may need to do the same.
You’re a stranger to holiness. You name the Name of Christ, but you have
not departed from iniquity. That means ‘lawlessness.’ You have no regard
to the Divine Law. Your understanding of God is idolatrous, evidenced by
your lack of concern for the lost. Lazarus is starving at your gate, and you
couldn’t care less. You have no evangelical zeal.
Charles Finney said, “It is the great business of every Christian to save
souls. People often complain they do not know how to take hold of this
matter. Why, the reason is plain enough. They’ve never studied it. They’ve
never taken the proper pains to qualify themselves for the work. If you do
not make it a matter of study, how you may successfully act in building up
the Kingdom of Christ, you are acting a very wicked and absurd part as a
Christian.”
John R. Rice said, “I believe any Christianity without a burning
evangelism, is hypocrisy, and an abomination to God.”
You see, you don’t swear to your own hurt. That is, you give your word
and you don’t keep your word. You know what that’s called? That’s called
lying. You say, “I’ll be there at seven o’clock.” You’re not there. You say,
“I’ll do this, I’ll help with that.” You don’t keep your word. You have debts
that you haven’t bothered to pay. You know what that’s called? Debt. And
you have a wandering eye when it comes to the opposite sex. Lust. And on
the Day of Judgment you’ll be found to be a worker of iniquity, a worker of
lawlessness, because God will judge with no respect of persons.
God’s Law is impartial. God’s Law will see you on the Day of Judgment
when you are tried, by the Commandments, as a lying, thieving, adulterer at
heart. You’ve never fallen prostrate at the feet of Him Who died for you
crying out, “My Lord, and my God.” You’re a worker of iniquity. You have
no grounds for assurance of salvation, unless you obey the gospel from your
heart.
You’ll find yourself cast from the very gates of Heaven into the very jaws
of hell. You will cry, “Lord, Lord,” that is, “Master, Master.” Only to hear
those fearful words, “Depart from Me, you worker of iniquity, you worker of
lawlessness. I never knew you.”
Don’t put it off further. Be zealous and repent.
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear My voice and
open the door, I’ll come in to him, and will sup with him and he with Me.
To him who overcomes will I grant to sit with Me in My Throne, even as I
also overcame, and sat down with My Father in His Throne. He that hath an
ear let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.”
 Let’s just bow. Father, today we just come to You as the Psalmist cries,
search me, oh God, know me, try my heart, see if there be any wicked way
in me. Father, we would obey that command to examine ourselves to see if
we be in the faith.
Dear person, if you’re sitting thinking, “Hey, what does that mean
‘examine yourself, see if you be in the faith?’” It doesn’t mean to say, “Do I
belong to this church?” It doesn’t mean to say, “Do I believe, do I read my
Bible?” It means, by their fruits ye shall be known. The fruit of holiness;
the fruit of righteousness; the fruit of praise; the fruit of thanksgiving; the
fruit of the Spirit; love; joy; peace; patience; goodness; gentleness; faith;
meekness; temperance; the fruit of repentance. Bring forth fruit worthy of
repentance. Every tree that brings not forth good fruit, not ordinary fruit but
good fruit, will be cast down, will be cut down and cast into the fire.
Oh, my heart trembles. Not only for those who are unsaved, but more so
for those who think they’re saved when they’re not; stony ground hearers,
false conversions, who have a parachute sitting on their lap, who think they
have assurance because they believe in the parachute, because they can see
the parachute, but they haven’t put the parachute on and when they jump,
they’ll see their folly exposed, and the law of gravity will do it’s thing.
The Bible says, “Put on the Lord Jesus Christ.” That means become
yoked to Him, obedient to Him. “If you love Me, keep My
commandments.” And His command is to take the gospel to every creature.
“I beseech you brethren, present your bodies as living sacrifices, holy,
and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. Be not conformed
to this world; be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may
prove what is that perfect and acceptable will of God.”
What’s God’s will is no mystery. God is not willing that any should
perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Father we do that this day, we off ourselves as fresh and living sacrifices.
You see every heart. We just lay ourselves upon the altar, we tie ourselves to
the altar, we bind ourselves with cords to the altar.
Say, oh, God, use us, put a burning flame of zeal for evangelism in our
hearts. Let compassion swallow the fear of man. And let us reach out to
sinners, pulling them from the fire, hating even the garment spotted by the
flesh.
In Jesus’ precious Name we pray.”