SPEAKER_00: This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.
SPEAKER_01: Last year, the Journal of Medical Case Reports released a study about a gentleman with a broken neck.
SPEAKER_01: He came into a university clinic in Germany with pain and swelling at the base of his neck.
SPEAKER_01: He reported no falls nor collisions.
SPEAKER_01: But he had begun to notice this sudden pain.
SPEAKER_01: A 31-year-old male didn't use drugs, had no pre-existing conditions or any notable medical history.
SPEAKER_01: He had no fever or any other symptoms of the sort.
SPEAKER_01: No osteoporosis was present either.
SPEAKER_01: He was a perfectly healthy 31-year-old man.
SPEAKER_01: When they took him back for his photo op, the fancy cameras found a real deal fracture on his seventh cervical vertebra, C7, right at the base of his neck.
SPEAKER_01: He had a broken neck.
SPEAKER_01: They hospitalized the guy for a testing, and he was in a neck brace for six weeks after that.
SPEAKER_01: He's okay.
SPEAKER_01: In case you're worried about him, he's fine.
SPEAKER_01: But these medical scholars at this university clinic determined that the injury was caused by frequent and rapid movements with an additional weight on his head over a period of one to four hours a day.
SPEAKER_01: As the guy played video games in his virtual reality headset.
SPEAKER_01: You guys laugh, it's a perfectly respectable thing to do with your time.
SPEAKER_01: Folks, people do silly things when they cut themselves off from reality.
SPEAKER_01: The worst was a broken neck, but in the rigorous research I did for my sermon, I watched all sorts of videos of people running into walls, screaming uncontrollably, punching their loved ones, throwing the controller through their television set.
SPEAKER_01: People do silly things, even dangerous things.
SPEAKER_01: When they willingly choose to cut themselves off from reality.
SPEAKER_01: When for the love of our idols, we begin to fool ourselves about spiritual things.
SPEAKER_01: We start to get out of touch with the facts about who God is, the realities about heaven and hell and eternity, and the consequences of spiritual blindness are far worse than a broken neck.
SPEAKER_01: Today in our text, our Lord is going to paint for us a vivid parable, a vivid picture about spiritual blindness and its eternal consequences.
SPEAKER_01: Would you turn there with me to the Gospel of Luke, chapter 16, verse 19?
SPEAKER_01: Gospel of Luke.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: And verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: But as you turn, a little bit of extra context.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is on his way to Jerusalem, and on the way there, he's teaching all sorts of people.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 14 tells us that great crowds accompanied him.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 15 tells us that tax collectors and sinners were drawing near to him, and the Pharisees didn't think that was so cool.
SPEAKER_01: The disciples are there too, and all the way along he's teaching them as he goes, most often in parables.
SPEAKER_01: And here our text picks up yet another parable.
SPEAKER_01: Chapter 16, verse 19.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus says, There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every day.
SPEAKER_01: And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: And let me just say, Lazarus is a very, very common name in Jesus' day.
SPEAKER_01: It means God helps.
SPEAKER_01: It's the Greek form of the Hebrew name Eliezer.
SPEAKER_01: It's a Bible name.
SPEAKER_01: So it's a very common name.
SPEAKER_01: Don't assume this is Mary and Martha's brother.
SPEAKER_01: In fact, the name God helps means something.
SPEAKER_01: But more on that, more on that later.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table.
SPEAKER_01: But even the dogs came and licked his sores.
SPEAKER_01: The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.
SPEAKER_01: The rich man also died and was buried.
SPEAKER_01: And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off.
SPEAKER_01: 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.
SPEAKER_01: But Abraham said, Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things.
SPEAKER_01: And Lazarus in like manner bad things.
SPEAKER_01: But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.
SPEAKER_01: And besides all this, a great chasm between us, a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who had passed from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, Then I beg you, Father, to send him into my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also should come into this place of torment.
SPEAKER_01: But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.
SPEAKER_01: And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.
SPEAKER_01: And 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.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus gives this parable as part of a response, a rebuke to the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: In verse 14, he said to his disciples, You cannot serve God in money.
SPEAKER_01: It's verse 14 of chapter 16.
SPEAKER_01: And the Pharisees scoffed at him, they ridiculed him because, you see, they've served God in money just fine.
SPEAKER_01: They saw no problem with that.
SPEAKER_01: And they even thought he misunderstood the law because he challenged it.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees were lovers of money who justified themselves before men as they claimed to be experts in the law, and so Jesus, the God who knows the hearts of those Pharisees, pulls this parable together to show them what's in their hearts, to prove himself a better teacher of the law, and to warn them of the dire consequences of their spiritual blindness brought on by their love of money.
SPEAKER_01: And so I would submit to you that this rich man, then, is very much a stand-in for a spiritually blind person who thinks he can serve two masters.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, look at the guy.
SPEAKER_01: He's completely out of touch.
SPEAKER_01: He's dressed in garments fit for a king, even in fancy underlinens is the implication of the word.
SPEAKER_01: Underlinens of high value.
SPEAKER_01: Every day is a big party, each as sumptuous and as extravagant as the day before.
SPEAKER_01: Constantly reveling in what his money can buy him.
SPEAKER_01: Notice, notice though.
SPEAKER_01: He doesn't take the Sabbath day off to cease from his partying.
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, no.
SPEAKER_01: He's so rich he takes every day off, right?
SPEAKER_01: All of them, every day.
SPEAKER_01: But he certainly doesn't give his servants the Sabbath.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, this guy is just totally insulated, totally cut off from the world around him because of his wealth.
SPEAKER_01: And really, you guys, that's that's the problem here.
SPEAKER_01: Not just his wealth, but what it does to him and how he uses it.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham was rich.
SPEAKER_01: Solomon was rich.
SPEAKER_01: We get to Acts, and Lydia had wealth.
SPEAKER_01: It's not having the money that causes the problems, it's loving it so much.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe loving yourself so much that you go blind, that you lose your grip on reality, and you either hoard your wealth or you waste it on some other idol.
SPEAKER_01: Before we get too far into this parable, let me just warn you.
SPEAKER_01: There are plenty of not rich people.
SPEAKER_01: Most of them, frankly, all of them, I might even say, who love material things so much they go blind to the world around them.
SPEAKER_01: People love fame so much they'll give anything to chase it, or do nearly anything to protect their reputation.
SPEAKER_01: This is how drugs work, right?
SPEAKER_01: Addicts love their fix so much they don't care what it costs them anymore.
SPEAKER_01: They're blind to their consequences.
SPEAKER_01: They're blind, they're cut off.
SPEAKER_01: Gamblers, drinkers, smokers, internet lusters all go blind like this.
SPEAKER_01: They all do.
SPEAKER_01: But frankly, it's even worse than that.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees, Jesus addresses, thought their wealth was a sign of God's favor and blessing upon them, right?
SPEAKER_01: They would say, Of course we're living right.
SPEAKER_01: Look at all this wealth God has blessed us with.
SPEAKER_01: We're doing it fine.
SPEAKER_01: And so you and I need to think of the things that we take to be signs of a righteous life, right?
SPEAKER_01: That's what's at stake here.
SPEAKER_01: Stuff that looks good.
SPEAKER_01: Financial stability and financial independence fit here, don't they?
SPEAKER_01: What about personal appearance?
SPEAKER_01: Righteous people take care of their bodies, can quickly turn into people with good bodies, they are probably righteous.
SPEAKER_01: Successful careers, successful children.
SPEAKER_01: Oh, don't run me out.
SPEAKER_01: But how about how about biblical knowledge?
SPEAKER_01: Sincerely, show me the verse that says you have to know what the sacrifice of the red heifer in Deuteronomy 19 accomplished in order to be righteous.
SPEAKER_01: You can't find it, it's not there.
SPEAKER_01: Is everybody who can give an accurate description of King Josiah's reforms a righteous person?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, of course not.
SPEAKER_01: I have met people who hate God.
SPEAKER_01: Hate him.
SPEAKER_01: Who can do a better job of parsing the history of Israel than most of us?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: So hear me, friends.
SPEAKER_01: I certainly think knowing the history of Israel is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: A righteous thing.
SPEAKER_01: Frankly, it's the best thing I could think of.
SPEAKER_01: One of the best things I could think of.
SPEAKER_01: Financial stability is a good thing, a righteous thing, wealth is a good thing.
SPEAKER_01: But when these good things become idle, such that we try to serve both God and blank money, whatever it is, the very things we love become the very things that blind us.
SPEAKER_01: And they blind us so much that we lose touch with reality.
SPEAKER_01: And wealth, or maybe just wealthy living and the lie that his wealth was a sign of his right standing before God consumed this rich man so that he couldn't see what was right in front of his face.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 20.
SPEAKER_01: At his gate was laid a poor man.
SPEAKER_01: In other words, the people of the city or the people of the village, we don't know how big the hypothetical made-up community of the parable is.
SPEAKER_01: It's a parable.
SPEAKER_01: The people, somebody, carried Lazarus to the rich guy's gate.
SPEAKER_01: It's a gate, it's not a fence, big yard, big house, it's not a door.
SPEAKER_01: It's a gated community all to himself.
SPEAKER_01: They either dumped Lazarus there callously, which maybe could, which maybe could be true.
SPEAKER_01: Again, they're not real.
SPEAKER_01: Or they lovingly put him where they thought he might occasionally get some food to eat.
SPEAKER_01: I don't think Jesus is trying to push us to one side or the other here.
SPEAKER_01: But Lazarus is there just to get the scraps meant for the dogs.
SPEAKER_01: Here's a man and the rich man wealthy enough to provide for himself a kingly clothes and a wedding feast every day.
SPEAKER_01: And he just ignores the guy.
SPEAKER_01: He just ignores Lazarus.
SPEAKER_01: Your Bibles may say, moreover, even the dogs came.
SPEAKER_01: Just put a butt there.
SPEAKER_01: It's cleaner.
SPEAKER_01: I get what they're doing, but who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table, but the dogs came and licked his sores.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus, as Jesus portrays him, is that poor, that starved, that close to death.
SPEAKER_01: He couldn't walk himself to the rich man's gate anymore.
SPEAKER_01: And once he's been laid there, he can't even beat the dogs to the fresh garbage.
SPEAKER_01: Dogs get there faster.
SPEAKER_01: And worse, after this, the hungry dogs of the ancient streets turn around and lick at his ulcers and sores.
SPEAKER_01: Some commentators think the dogs are compassionate.
SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe.
SPEAKER_01: But I don't think that the ancient dogs of the streets were necessarily nice puppers.
SPEAKER_01: I don't just saying.
SPEAKER_01: These dogs ate the scraps and turned and licked at Lazarus, and nobody took notice to drive them away.
SPEAKER_01: They left him there.
SPEAKER_01: And that's our first consequence of spiritual blindness.
SPEAKER_01: The rich man is completely absorbed.
SPEAKER_01: So much so that he doesn't even pay attention.
SPEAKER_01: He's self-absorbed.
SPEAKER_01: He's caught up in his parties.
SPEAKER_01: He can't see what's right in front of his face.
SPEAKER_01: Look back just a few verses in your Bibles once again to verse 14.
SPEAKER_01: Notice how the Pharisees ridicule Jesus as he teaches about God and money in the previous parable.
SPEAKER_01: And how Jesus responds, I think, is interesting.
SPEAKER_01: First, he undercuts their hypocrisy by calling them out.
SPEAKER_01: And then he turns, and in verse 16, he gives a teaching of the law, right?
SPEAKER_01: He starts talking about the law.
SPEAKER_01: But isn't that the Pharisees' game?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't that the whole point of this parable, Jesus?
SPEAKER_01: Isn't he saying that it's better to love people than to be all nitty-gritty about the Old Testament law?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Far from it, friends.
SPEAKER_01: That's not what Jesus is teaching.
SPEAKER_01: Surely not a dot of the law will become void.
SPEAKER_01: Let me read to you something from the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: If among you one of your brothers should become poor, and any of your towns within your land that Yahweh your God is giving you, you shall not harden your heart or shut your hand against your poor brother.
SPEAKER_01: But you shall open your hand to him and lend him sufficient for his need, whatever it may be.
SPEAKER_01: Take care, lest he cry to the Lord against you and you be guilty of sin.
SPEAKER_01: That's the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: And yet Lazarus, a guy with a Bible name, lies hungry and destitute outside the gate of a man who calls Abraham his father?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: This is the teaching of Moses, and yet Lazarus' sores go unbandaged and unclean dogs come to lick at him.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: What's wrong with the rich man is not just his self-absorption, he's transgressing the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: The Pharisees thought they were righteous.
SPEAKER_01: The rich man thought he was righteous.
SPEAKER_01: But he's breaking the law of God, and that's our second consequence for spiritual blindness.
SPEAKER_01: Transgression.
SPEAKER_01: When your sins cut you off, your eyes grow dim.
SPEAKER_01: You become self-absorbed, and you sin against your brother.
SPEAKER_01: As you sin against your God.
SPEAKER_01: Torment.
SPEAKER_01: That's what awaits him.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 22-ish.
SPEAKER_01: The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades being in torment, 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.
SPEAKER_01: For I am in anguish.
SPEAKER_01: When's the last time you said you were in anguish?
SPEAKER_01: For I am in anguish in this flame.
SPEAKER_01: But why is he there?
SPEAKER_01: What does Abraham say?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 25.
SPEAKER_01: Child, it's a tender term.
SPEAKER_01: Child, it's what the father and the prodigal son calls the older brother.
SPEAKER_01: Child, remember that you in your lifetime received your good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things.
SPEAKER_01: But now he's comforted here, and you are in anguish.
SPEAKER_01: Notice Abraham is not saying that all rich people go to hell because they had their good things already, and all people go to heaven because that would even out something in God's economy, and God wants to be fair.
SPEAKER_01: No, that would be silly.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham's not saying that.
SPEAKER_01: It's not that an eternity in torment or paradise can even out 80 years of wealth or poverty.
SPEAKER_01: It's not what Abraham's saying.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham is saying that the rich man chose his good things.
SPEAKER_01: He chose his earthly goods.
SPEAKER_01: He got his good stuff because he picked it.
SPEAKER_01: And when he clung to his money instead of the law of God, the rich man chose to serve God in money, and God refuses to share his glory with mammon.
SPEAKER_01: He refuses to share his glory.
SPEAKER_01: The true God, his judgment will not be swayed.
SPEAKER_01: His opinion will not change because of your service to some dumb or deaf idol.
SPEAKER_01: No matter how righteous that idol might be.
SPEAKER_01: Do we really think we'll fare better at the judgment than the rich man?
SPEAKER_01: Do we?
SPEAKER_01: This man's wealth didn't save him.
SPEAKER_01: His reputation in the community didn't save him.
SPEAKER_01: His fancy friends and fancy clothes and fancy parties couldn't save him.
SPEAKER_01: His Jewish heritage didn't save him.
SPEAKER_01: The man calls Abraham father from Hades.
SPEAKER_01: What are we supposed to do with that?
SPEAKER_01: Your daily quiet times cannot save you.
SPEAKER_01: Your consistent and faithful service at church cannot save you.
SPEAKER_01: Not even Pastor Jason's can save him.
SPEAKER_01: Where does that leave the rest of us, friends?
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe you don't think of yourself as a Christian yet.
SPEAKER_01: Let me warn you: your community service cannot save you.
SPEAKER_01: Your academic progress will not save you.
SPEAKER_01: Your political activism cannot save you from the torment to come.
SPEAKER_01: It can't.
SPEAKER_01: Your kindness towards other people won't save you.
SPEAKER_01: As if holding a door for somebody or handing a 20 out your car window was going to atone for your sins.
SPEAKER_01: It's too late for that.
SPEAKER_01: We have all broken the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: Hear me, folks.
SPEAKER_01: All who, for love of themselves, become so self-absorbed that they neglect others, transgressing the law of God in the process, will face eternal judgment from God for their sins.
SPEAKER_01: All.
SPEAKER_01: Now this parable is multifaceted and it's deep and it's rich, and you should study it more this week.
SPEAKER_01: You should do that every week.
SPEAKER_01: It's kind of a cheap thing for me to say that.
SPEAKER_01: But I really do encourage you.
SPEAKER_01: This parable is rich.
SPEAKER_01: And while this parable is about self-righteousness and spiritual blindness, and it's not about the relationship between Gehenna and Hades.
SPEAKER_01: But even while that's not the point of our Lord's teaching here, he does say a lot about heaven and hell.
SPEAKER_01: So let's survey those things quickly together.
SPEAKER_01: The torment, the torment that awaits sinners, all sinners, will be conscious.
SPEAKER_01: The rich man knows who he is, he knows where he is.
SPEAKER_01: He remembers his life well enough that he doesn't argue with Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: When Abraham says, You and your life received your good things.
SPEAKER_01: He knows Lazarus' name, guys.
SPEAKER_01: The torment will be painful.
SPEAKER_01: He's in anguish in this flame.
SPEAKER_01: His torment will be irreversible.
SPEAKER_01: Note this.
SPEAKER_01: The chasm has been fixed that cannot be crossed.
SPEAKER_01: And that means there is no such thing as purgatory.
SPEAKER_01: It does not exist.
SPEAKER_01: You only get one shot.
SPEAKER_01: You only get one life.
SPEAKER_01: Will you serve God alone or God and you must decide today?
SPEAKER_01: Do you want your earthly life to be your heaven and eternity to be your hell?
SPEAKER_01: An eternal dying without death?
SPEAKER_01: Or will you trust the Lord?
SPEAKER_01: You now live is just the prelude to a life without end.
SPEAKER_01: That's the choice before us.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, in the eternal judgment of hell, God's righteous decree of punishment leaves the rich man blind still.
SPEAKER_01: He's still blind.
SPEAKER_01: Hear the self-delusion and the stupidity in his voice as he thinks he can order Abraham around.
SPEAKER_01: As he thinks he can order Lazarus around.
SPEAKER_01: Make him bring me water.
SPEAKER_01: Make him go warn my brothers.
SPEAKER_01: Who does he think he is?
SPEAKER_01: He thinks he's still the richest guy in town.
SPEAKER_01: In Hades.
SPEAKER_01: He's totally out of touch.
SPEAKER_01: He's clueless.
SPEAKER_01: And even worse, when he demands a sign for his brothers, the rich man accuses God of not warning him well enough.
SPEAKER_01: The man is so spiritually blind he thinks he can correct God.
SPEAKER_01: His actions demonstrate he thinks and he acts as if he is God unto himself.
SPEAKER_01: He acts that way, even when the true God has cast him into outer darkness.
SPEAKER_01: In the midst of all that, the rich man is still lying to himself.
SPEAKER_01: Friends, no repentance will be granted to those in eternal fire.
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: The rich man is just as spiritually blind as he always was.
SPEAKER_01: Hell is full of people who are still in their sins.
SPEAKER_01: Why do you cling to yours?
SPEAKER_01: And this isn't this isn't the only rich guy Jesus dealt with harshly.
SPEAKER_01: Remember the rich young ruler who claimed sinfulness for himself?
SPEAKER_01: Remember that guy?
SPEAKER_01: What did Jesus do?
SPEAKER_01: What did he do but remind him of his failure before the law of God to care for the poor?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus said to him, If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven, and come follow me.
SPEAKER_01: When the young man heard this, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions because of the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: A perfect Jew.
SPEAKER_01: One who listened to God's word would have been totally broke.
SPEAKER_01: Totally broke.
SPEAKER_01: Because the consequences of Israel's sin had put the nation in such a predicament that keeping the law required more of a man than he could give.
SPEAKER_01: There was no king in Israel to oversee a social program to care for the poor.
SPEAKER_01: There were more poor people than they could handle.
SPEAKER_01: And so absolute and perfect faithfulness to the law of God would have rendered every Jewish man and woman totally devoid of money as they tried to meet the commands of God that went beyond them.
SPEAKER_01: They would have lived on locusts in the wilderness, like John the Baptist.
SPEAKER_01: Like the Son of Man.
SPEAKER_01: And when the disciples realized that, when they watched Jesus turn away one of the most righteous people they had ever met, it shook them.
SPEAKER_01: It rattled them and they said, Who then?
SPEAKER_01: Who then can be saved?
SPEAKER_01: So let me ask you, have you emptied your savings account to print Bibles?
SPEAKER_01: Have you taken a pay cut to work fewer hours and spend more time teaching the Bible at church?
SPEAKER_01: Have you given all you have to fund international missions?
SPEAKER_01: Who then can be saved?
SPEAKER_01: Who can avoid this place of torment?
SPEAKER_01: Have you ruined your reputation or risked your job to preach the gospel?
SPEAKER_01: Jesus preached heaven and hell until his peers crucified him.
SPEAKER_01: What are we doing with our lives?
SPEAKER_01: Who then can be saved?
SPEAKER_01: If we're all so blind that the wrath of God is stored up for us, if we're all the rich man's brothers, how can we avoid this eternal torment?
SPEAKER_01: How?
SPEAKER_01: Is there no cure for spiritual blindness?
SPEAKER_01: Look at your Bibles.
SPEAKER_01: What does Abraham say in our text?
SPEAKER_01: How may the rich man's brothers escape?
SPEAKER_01: Verse 28.
SPEAKER_01: And then Abraham says in verse 29, they have Moses and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: Let them hear them.
SPEAKER_01: So mark that.
SPEAKER_01: Write that.
SPEAKER_01: If you're taking notes, write it down.
SPEAKER_01: The cure for spiritual blindness is the word of God contained in the Old Testament scriptures.
SPEAKER_01: Abraham says so.
SPEAKER_01: Moses and the prophets, that phrase, it describes the entirety of the Old Testament that you hold in your hands right now.
SPEAKER_01: And Abraham says, that is the cure for spiritual blindness.
SPEAKER_01: But didn't we just do that?
SPEAKER_01: Didn't we just listen to Moses and the prophet?
SPEAKER_01: The laws of God, the law of God says care for the poor, and we can't do it.
SPEAKER_01: The laws of God say love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and we can't.
SPEAKER_01: Moses and the prophets say to love our neighbors as ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: How are you doing?
SPEAKER_01: God says through the law, have no other gods before me, but I love my career.
SPEAKER_01: He says, have no other gods before me, but I can't put down my cell phone.
SPEAKER_01: No, it is the law of God given through Moses that sealed the rich man's condemnation in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: But do you know what else?
SPEAKER_01: Do you know what else Moses and the prophets say?
SPEAKER_01: Turn with me to the law of God.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus chapter 26.
SPEAKER_01: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, the third book in your Bible, and we're near the end of it.
SPEAKER_01: If you have your Bibles, I would encourage you, turn that with me.
SPEAKER_01: Leviticus chapter 26.
SPEAKER_01: As the Lord speaks to his people, those children of Abraham at the foot of Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: These are the things he says.
SPEAKER_01: It is glorious.
SPEAKER_01: Like the glory of God is nowhere, I shouldn't say nowhere, very rarely on display.
SPEAKER_01: As wonderfully as it is in this chapter.
SPEAKER_01: But look at verse 40.
SPEAKER_01: Look at verse 40.
SPEAKER_01: But if they confessed their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers and their treachery that they committed against me, and also in walking contrary to me, so that I walked contrary to them and brought them into the land of their enemies.
SPEAKER_01: If then their uncircumcised heart is humbled and they make amends for their iniquity, then I will remember my covenant with Jacob.
SPEAKER_01: And I will remember my covenant with Isaac and my covenant with Abraham.
SPEAKER_01: And I'll remember the land.
SPEAKER_01: But the land shall be abandoned by them and enjoy its Sabbaths while it lies desolate without them, and they shall make amends for their iniquity, because they spurned my rules, and their soul abhorred my statutes.
SPEAKER_01: Yet for all that, when they are in the land of their enemies, I will not spurn them, though they spurned his rules, right?
SPEAKER_01: Neither will I abhor them, though they abhorred his statutes.
SPEAKER_01: I will not spurn them, neither will I abhor them, says the Lord, so as to destroy them utterly and break my covenant with them, for I am the Lord their God.
SPEAKER_01: But I will, for their sake, remember the covenant with their forefathers, whom I brought out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the nations, that I might be their God.
SPEAKER_01: I am the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: These are the statutes and rules and laws that the Lord made between himself and the people of Israel through Moses on Mount Sinai.
SPEAKER_01: If their uncircumcised heart is humbled, then God promises to remember his side of the covenant, even after they broke theirs.
SPEAKER_01: You get that?
SPEAKER_01: If their uncircumcised heart is humbled, then God promises to keep his side of the promise, even though they turned their back on theirs.
SPEAKER_01: What grace.
SPEAKER_01: This repentance that God commands them and promises to reward, this repentance became a pattern for Israel, right?
SPEAKER_01: Think of David, Bathsheba, Nathan, and Psalm 51.
SPEAKER_01: Think of King Manasseh in a Babylonian prison cell, right?
SPEAKER_01: Daniel and Daniel 9 or Ezra and Ezra 9, the Pharisees had great examples in Moses and the prophets of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And so if Abraham says that Moses and the prophets contain the cure for spiritual blindness, if listening to Moses and the prophets will save the rich man's brothers from Hades, it's at least partly because Moses and the prophets say, repent.
SPEAKER_01: Repent.
SPEAKER_01: Because the law of God contains both God's laws and the promise to accept their repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And so there is hope.
SPEAKER_01: There is hope for the rich man's brothers.
SPEAKER_01: In Moses and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: For if they would but listen to the law, they would see their transgression in neglecting the poor men like Lazarus at their gates.
SPEAKER_01: They would turn from their wicked ways, they would repent, they would participate in the sacrifices of atonement, they would repent again, and they would on and on and on and go.
SPEAKER_01: And likewise, my friends, you may be tempted at this moment to think that there's a similar hope for you.
SPEAKER_01: Just read your Bible, know your sins, repent of your sins, come to church, read your Bible, know your sins, repent of your sins, go to church.
SPEAKER_01: No, the cycle of sin, discipline, or instruction from the law, repentance, more sin, discipline, repentance.
SPEAKER_01: That cycle led Israel to exile, not heaven.
SPEAKER_01: Not heaven.
SPEAKER_01: No, please hear me, my friends.
SPEAKER_01: All I have done so far is given you another law.
SPEAKER_01: One you cannot keep.
SPEAKER_01: Don't deceive yourself into thinking you can uphold the law of repentance.
SPEAKER_01: Who then can be saved?
SPEAKER_01: The chasm between God and separated, far-off, and alienated mankind in this life is just as wide as the chasm between Lazarus and the rich man in the next life.
SPEAKER_01: It's a chasm, it's a gap that you simply cannot repent your way across.
SPEAKER_01: I promise.
SPEAKER_01: If you try, you'll go nuts.
SPEAKER_01: You really will.
SPEAKER_01: And so with Paul in Romans 7, we find it to be a law.
SPEAKER_01: That when we want to do right, evil lies close at hand, for we delight in the law of God and our inner being.
SPEAKER_01: But we see in our members another law waging war against the law of our minds and making us captive to the law of sin that dwells in our members.
SPEAKER_01: Wretched people that we are, who will deliver us from this body of death?
SPEAKER_01: Hear me, friends.
SPEAKER_01: The good news, the good news is not the coming of repentance, but the coming of a redeemer who would hear Moses and the prophets.
SPEAKER_01: That's what you have to hear in the Old Testament.
SPEAKER_01: The law of God that leads to repentance promised a redeemer.
SPEAKER_01: Moses writes in Deuteronomy chapter 18, I have it for you.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers.
SPEAKER_01: It is to him you shall listen, just as you desire to the Lord your God at Horeb, that is Sinai, on the day of the assembly when you said, Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.
SPEAKER_01: And the Lord said to me, They are right in what they have spoken.
SPEAKER_01: That is, they should not hear me.
SPEAKER_01: They're right.
SPEAKER_01: But I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers, and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Christ fulfilled the law of God because he himself was the word of God made flesh.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus is the faithful, the faithful and true.
SPEAKER_01: He walked by faith in the word of God and not by sight.
SPEAKER_01: His eyes were never dimmed or dulled by earthly pleasures or distractions.
SPEAKER_01: His spiritual eyesight was 2020 perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Perfect.
SPEAKER_01: Think about it, friends.
SPEAKER_01: Was the king of heaven descending to a manger self-absorbed?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: Did the one who broke the loaves by the sea neglect the poor?
SPEAKER_01: No.
SPEAKER_01: No, the bread of heaven, the bread of life was broken on a cross for other people.
SPEAKER_01: He was not spiritually blind.
SPEAKER_01: He was not self-absorbed in his blindness.
SPEAKER_01: He committed no sin, neither was deceit found in his mouth.
SPEAKER_01: He was never alienated from his father, but he crossed the chasm.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus could not, because Jesus is the one who put it there.
SPEAKER_01: And now nobody comes to the Father except through him.
SPEAKER_01: Him.
SPEAKER_01: And he endured the wrath of God for you.
SPEAKER_01: The torment, the torment deserved by countless men and women throughout the ages was placed upon him a multitude of hells without number in the span of three hours.
SPEAKER_01: Oh wretched people that we are.
SPEAKER_01: Who will deliver us from this body of death?
SPEAKER_01: How then can we be saved?
SPEAKER_01: Who will save us from spiritual blindness and its consequences?
SPEAKER_01: What does Paul write?
SPEAKER_01: But thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord, who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.
SPEAKER_01: You and I were dead in our trespasses and sins against God's law, having eyes we did not see, we could not see.
SPEAKER_01: We had not deserved to see.
SPEAKER_01: Because God in his holiness and wrath would not open our eyes so long as sin separated us from him.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus of Nazareth lived a perfect life before the law of God, so that he would be a perfect sacrifice before the wrath of God, so making atonement for our sins by nailing them to a cross.
SPEAKER_01: With sin atoned and wrath satisfied, God can now make us alive together with Christ by forgiving us all the trespasses of those who through faith in Jesus have turned from our wicked ways and repentance.
SPEAKER_01: And on top of it all, on top of it all, this Jesus, this Jesus, God raised from the dead to tell you about it.
SPEAKER_01: Lazarus didn't go back to warn his brothers, the rich man's brothers.
SPEAKER_01: But Jesus rose from the dead for you.
SPEAKER_01: Will you listen to him?
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus Christ, the word of God made flesh, he alone is the cure for spiritual blindness.
SPEAKER_01: And he's the cure for unbelievers, for new believers, and for old believers alike.
SPEAKER_01: And so if you've never put your faith in Christ before, oh how I pray that today your eyes will be opened to behold the matchless wonder of Christ's atoning sacrifice.
SPEAKER_01: It is true.
SPEAKER_01: It really happened, and you will not be given another sign.
SPEAKER_01: Oh friend, do not be like the Pharisees.
SPEAKER_01: Do not be like the Pharisees, for when they heard of Christ's resurrection, they tried to cover it up by lying to themselves and other people.
SPEAKER_01: And they paid off the guards as they staged their lie.
SPEAKER_01: So stage no cover up in your soul, my friend.
SPEAKER_01: You are a lawbreaker, just like the rich man.
SPEAKER_01: You have chosen yourself and your pleasure over the right thing to do, time and time and time again, when you lie, when you cheat, when you steal.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus taught that even when we get angry, we're no better than murderers in his sight.
SPEAKER_01: So cry out to him.
SPEAKER_01: If you've never done so before, cry out to the one who died for sinners and beg him for mercy before it is too late.
SPEAKER_01: Because once you die in this life, you will either live forever or die forever.
SPEAKER_01: This is the judgment of God.
SPEAKER_01: He decided it was that way.
SPEAKER_01: And he has given each man and woman ample time to repent.
SPEAKER_01: And hear me.
SPEAKER_01: When you see him with your eyes, because you heard this sermon, you heard Moses and the prophets, and you will have no more excuse than the rich man.
SPEAKER_01: Not that you did before.
SPEAKER_01: For I have even told you of a man named Jesus who rose from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: It is in his name alone that you can be saved.
SPEAKER_01: You haven't called to him, do so now.
SPEAKER_01: Cry out to him.
SPEAKER_01: And if you've only just begun to walk with the Lord, if you're new to the faith, oh, I pray that you would be careful not to deceive yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Please don't.
SPEAKER_01: It is so dangerously easy to believe that God is pleased or displeased with you because sin is present in your life or devotion is lacking, and that somehow we earn his favor and blessing for good deeds, like the Pharisees who thought that wealth was a sign of his good deeds, or that we deserve unduly difficult circumstances because of our sins.
SPEAKER_01: You have enough sin to deserve hell over and over and over again.
SPEAKER_01: Don't fall into this trap.
SPEAKER_01: Don't make yourself the determiner of God's decisions.
SPEAKER_01: Because, my friends, that is the same arrogance that almost destroyed you in the first place.
SPEAKER_01: And you will either become self-righteous or you will lose all hope along those prideful paths.
SPEAKER_01: Don't be easily deceived.
SPEAKER_01: I love you who are just beginning to see these things.
SPEAKER_01: Cling to the promise that Christ alone will complete his work in you.
SPEAKER_01: For he is the one who began it, and you cannot finish it any more than you could start it.
SPEAKER_01: Cling to him.
SPEAKER_01: But at the same time, do be wary of the sin that easily entangles, and of the dimness that can darken your once formerly blind eyes, flee from idols and youthful passions.
SPEAKER_01: Because the life you now live, you live in the flesh and you live by faith in the Son of God who loved you and gave himself for you.
SPEAKER_01: It is no longer you who live, but Christ who lives in you.
SPEAKER_01: Right?
SPEAKER_01: And for all of us, I've neglected one important facet of this parable.
SPEAKER_01: Left one thing off.
SPEAKER_01: Forgive me.
SPEAKER_01: Let this be your point of study this week.
SPEAKER_01: This parable intended to teach the disciples that some self-righteous people will never listen.
SPEAKER_01: They will never hear.
SPEAKER_01: And so hear me, it's not up to you to convince them.
SPEAKER_01: It is very likely that some of these same Pharisees who heard Jesus here, who listened to the Lord give this parable when they later heard of his resurrection, they still sought to put the disciples to death in the book of Acts.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus Himself stood before them and they didn't repent, and he asked no more of any of us than he did himself.
SPEAKER_01: Proclaim the good news faithfully.
SPEAKER_01: Proclaim the good news faithfully, and endure with perseverance whatever sufferings may come.
SPEAKER_01: And finally, you old believers, if with Christ the Lord has brought you through many deep valleys in your long walk with him, he has likely already stripped you of that delusion that your sin can undo what his mercy won.
SPEAKER_01: And he's strengthened you with the hope that in Christ your good deeds are not in vain.
SPEAKER_01: Nonetheless, press on.
SPEAKER_01: Press on.
SPEAKER_01: Don't grow weary with doing good, but forgetting what lies behind, chased after that upward call in Christ Jesus, counting whatever gain any of us may have in our self-righteousness as loss for the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus your Lord.
SPEAKER_01: By any means possible this week, my friends, count stuff as rubbish, in order that you may gain Christ and be found in Him.
SPEAKER_01: Not having a righteousness of your own that comes from the law, as Paul would write, but that righteousness which comes through faith in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Because it is in him that your heart has found its treasure.
SPEAKER_01: Oh my friends, this week, wake from your slumber.
SPEAKER_01: Cast out your idols.
SPEAKER_01: Take off your virtual reality headsets.
SPEAKER_01: Repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray together.
SPEAKER_01: Oh Lord Jesus, like sheep, we're prone to wander.
SPEAKER_01: Father, we we go astray.
SPEAKER_01: We confess with humble and contrite hearts that the desires of our flesh still grab our attention and blind our eyes to the glory of your word, the glory of your son.
SPEAKER_01: Too often we chase after idols, Lord, as if as if you hadn't shown us the immeasurable riches of your glory.
SPEAKER_01: Too often, Father, we're blind, we're foolish, foolish, and faithless.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we ask that for those of us who believe, help our unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: And for those who've heard this sermon who have never believed, Oh Lord God, help their unbelief as well.
SPEAKER_01: Delay not for your own sake, O my God, and make for yourself a people called by your name, who sing your praises with glad hearts.
SPEAKER_01: Because we love your Son.
SPEAKER_01: It is in His name we live.
SPEAKER_01: May it be in His name that we die.
SPEAKER_01: For it is in His name we pray.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_00: That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.
SPEAKER_00: Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.
SPEAKER_00: You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.