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0:57Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham's bosom, and the rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus so he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. But Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus, bad things. But now he's being comforted here, and you are in agony. And besides all this, between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over here to you are not able, and none may cross over from there to us. And he said, Then I am asking you, Father, that you send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers in order that they may warn him, so they will not also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to them, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead.

2:16Question this evening is, Do you take Scripture seriously? Do you take scripture seriously? If we surveyed five of your closest friends or family members, would they say that you take scripture seriously? It's a precious thing in your life. And do you let scripture inform your conscience? Does it have authority over your life? Our lives should reflect the fact that God has spoken to us through his word. He has already given us wisdom and instruction, and we don't need to wait to receive anything else from him for salvation.

2:58This parable this evening, the parable. The rich man and Lazarus, the first question we're going to kind of get out of the way is: is this a parable? I surveyed a bunch of people before this, and we're about 50-50 split on is this a parable or is this something else? Now, people ask, is it a parable? Because this is real names in this. We have Lazarus, Abraham, Moses, even mentioning the prophets. It reads differently than a lot of the other parables. There's not a vineyard. There's not an anonymous master-servant here.

3:33In even church history, there's a lot of debate over this. A.W. Pink said he thinks that this is a real exchange of a condemned man. This is kind of like a peek behind the curtain, like we get with Job. You see the behind-the-scenes working. And Matthew Henry says this parable is not like the others in which spiritual things are represented by simultudes borrowed from worldly things. But he qualifies that as we don't need to call it the history of a particular occurrence, but it is a matter of fact that is true every day: that poor godly people whom men neglect and trample upon die out of their miseries and go on to heavenly bliss and joy, which is made the more pleasant to them by their preceding sorrows. And the rich who live in luxury and are unmerciful to the poor die and go into a state of insupportable torment, which is more grievous and terrible to them because of their sensual lives that they lived, and there is no gaining any relief from their torment.

4:31So let's set that aside as we go through these passages because we can get caught up and not see the message that Jesus is trying to give to us. Because either way, the message is the same, and we'll go through that here. We're hearing a message from beyond the grave from a man that did not listen to the scriptures, and he did not heed the warnings that God has given him. Now, to get the flow of thought, let's back up a couple verses. So, before this, on 16:1, is the parable of the unrighteous steward.

5:02And down in verse 14, after that, it says, Now the Pharisees, who were lovers of money, were listening to all these things and scoffing at him, scoffing at Jesus. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves in the sight of men, but God knows your hearts, for that which is highly esteemed among men is detestable in the sight of God. The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time, the good news of the kingdom of God is proclaimed, and everyone is forcing his way into it. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of the letter of the law to fail.

5:40So you think about his immediate audience that was also there, the Pharisees. He says, You guys are ones that love money, and you love to justify yourselves in the sight of men. You love to look good on the outside when you're corrupt on the inside. I think it's important to understand that they didn't seek to conform their lives to the word of God. That's the background for this. This is going to be a contrast between two men, one that was rich in this life and one that was poor. We have three sections. We have death, or life, death, and then the warning for us. Life, death, and then the warning. First, we're going to look at their lives. Verse 19. Now there was a rich man, and he habitually dressed in purple and fine linen, joyously living in splendor every day. But a poor man named Lazarus was laid at his gate, covered with sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table. Besides, even the dogs were coming back and licking his sores.

6:43So he was a rich man. He wasn't just middle class. He was very wealthy. It said he not only had fine clothes, but he habitually wore these fine clothes. He was living his best life now. He didn't have need of anything. And some of the hearers of this parable would understand this to mean, this means this guy is really blessed by God. God is happy with him because he is doing well. He is well taken care of. God's giving him all this stuff.

7:15The idea that God will give you health and wealth. And this isn't a new idea. This was alive and well when Jesus walked the earth. Even the disciples thought this way. In John 9, it says, as he passed by, He saw a man blind from birth, and his disciples asked him, Rabbi, who sinned? This man or his parents? That he would be born blind? They had the belief that if something, somebody was struck with illness or something, somebody must have sinned or done something wrong, and God is cursing him. He couldn't just be like that. They believed that the outwardly rich were getting God's favor.

7:53It would have been understood that God blessed the rich man and cursed the poor man. And this is the same thing that goes on today. Prosperity gospel preachers teach the same kind of stuff. You never read the book, Costienne has one about prosperity gospel. And they really believe that wealth is proof that God is happy with you. If you are wealthy, you're in good status with God. And if you're sick, they would say, if you're sick and we can pray over you and you don't get better, you must have something wrong in your faith. There's something wrong with you that you're not able to receive the healing that they're giving.

8:35But that's not the case. That's what they believed, but that's not the case. Now look at this poor man. He was laid at the gate. Laid. The word there is like thrown down or cast. He might not have been able to walk or been disabled. Though you imagine back then, kind of in the Middle East today, they even have some, the houses would have walls around them and then a gate to go in and out. So, this man was laid at the gate, so the rich man would come in and out and see him. And the idea is that they would have compassion on him and take care of him. You know, if their family can't take care of him, he can't provide for himself, he's just stuck. Maybe he'll just sit outside the gate and be able to get leftovers and some kind of care provided to him.

9:23But the rich man didn't do that, he didn't pay attention to this poor man that he walked by. He just passed by him day after day, living out his self-gratisifying lifestyle. He appeared outwardly religious. He had money. He could have helped the poor man, but he just didn't. And this is kind of similar to the parable of the Good Samaritan. People passing by, and you think it's the guys that should be helping who would have inward the desire to help, and they don't. They just keep going by.

9:52It says he's covered with sores. So he's not just poor. He's actively suffering. He's actively in pain. And skin diseases often led to ritual impurity and exclusion from community life. Leviticus has a bunch of rules in Leviticus 13 about separating so they didn't spread these diseases. So this man was an outcast. He was poor and outcast because of his sores. You can think of similar plight in Job, where Job was covered in sores and just in so much pain that his wife says, just curse God and die. It's so bad. Just die.

10:31And he's desiring to be fed with crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table. So he just wanted some relief. He wanted some food. He wasn't asking for the world. He wasn't asking to come inside. He wasn't asking for a steak dinner. He just wanted whatever was left over to help get him through. And this phrase, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. So dogs were considered unclean animals. Unclean animals and scavengers. So in this picture, you have the unclean, lowly animals are the only ones paying attention to him, licking his sores. So the lowest animal is the only one taking care of him, even in a small way.

11:16This is an extreme contrast between the two men in this life. The rich man exceedingly rich, the poor man extremely poor. The rich are the rich and the poor of the poor. The rich man completely satisfied, had all of his wants and needs taken care of, and the poor man in suffering, agony. The rich man feasting inside, the poor man sitting outside, just wanting after crumbs. The rich man ignoring the poor man, passing by day after day. And this was them and their life, the tale of two men, extreme opposites. Now we're going to look at their death. Their death is the big reversal. Verse 22. Now it happened that the poor man died and was carried away by the angels to Abraham. Bosom. And the rich man also died and was buried. We have one great equalizer, and that is death. We all have that in common. We will not escape it. Ecclesiastes says it this way, 9.3, this is an evil in all that is done under the sun. There is one fate for all men.

12:23People die all the time around us, and we just don't see it. I thought that was one of the most shocking things when I spent a couple years as a police officer in College Station because I lived in the same area that I was working. And then as soon as I became a police officer, I found out there's people dying like all around my neighborhood all the time. You know, somebody dying in his car at the gas station three blocks from my house, or a dad coming to visit one of their daughters for parents' weekend and having a heart attack in his sleep, or people dying in car accidents. Death is all around us. We just don't see it anymore because it's taken away by the professionals. But it is all around us, and it is coming to us all. So now in this death, we see a reversal between the rich man and the poor man.

13:16The poor man here died and carried away by the angels. Man, what a change in fortune for him. He's sitting there, not being taken care of by anybody, just the dogs, and now angels are carrying him away. This term Abraham's bosom is interesting. It only appears this one place in the Bible. And whether you view this as literal or figurative, it's understood as a place of comfort with the righteous. This was the place you wanted to be. This was heaven. This is where, well done, good and faithful servant. This is where you wanted to go.

13:53I like John MacArthur's quote on this. The angels would minister to a person, that angels would minister to a person. The Pharisees viewed as an outcast, would have shocked them. The belief that disease and poverty signified God's curse on a person was deeply ingrained in their thinking. To the Pharisees, this would have been stunning, incomprehensible, and a direct frontal assault on their theological assumptions. This man who was humiliated on earth, a man whom no self-respecting Pharisee would have anything to do with, was honored in heaven because the Lord helped him and had the angels deliver him.

14:31The righteous, the poor man, went immediately to a conscious enjoyment with the saints. His suffering is over the minute he died. And we're going to contrast this now with the rich man. The rich man here, you see, not carried by the angels, not with Abraham. He probably had a big earthly burial like you have for rich people or heads of state. His body carried around lots of people giving their respects, but his soul was not going to be carried. Off to the saints. Verse 23, and in Hades he lifted up his eyes, being in torment, and saw Abraham far away, and Lazarus in his bosom.

15:13Word Hades here, Old Testament Sheol, the equivalent, which was used in a general sense to refer to the realm of the dead. And this is where the unrighteous soul goes. So it says here, he lifted up his eyes, being in torment. So he was fully aware of his surroundings. He had conscious torment. He knew what was going on. This rich man was not living his best life anymore. He woke up after death to found himself being tormented.

15:46This destroys the idea of there's nothing after death. I know a lot of people like that idea that, well, we just die and that's it. And that's not the case. The unrighteous are immediately subjected to the conscious torment. And in this state, he now sees Lazarus and Abraham. So not only is this rich man in torment, he sees the beggar that was sitting at his gate that he didn't take care of with Abraham, the hero of the faith. That's where he thinks he should be. Talk about a reversal of fortune.

16:25Verse 24, and he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send Lazarus that he may. May dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. So you notice here, he calls him Father Abraham. Father Abraham. This is an appeal to his Jewish lineage. There was a big belief that you were just going to go to heaven because you were Jewish. They were trusting that they didn't really have to listen to what God said because they were Jewish. They were good to go to heaven. We see this in Matthew 3, 7 through 10. John the Baptist talking here. But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, You offspring of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance, and do not assume that you can say to yourselves, We have Abraham our father.

17:26For I tell you that God is able from these stones to raise up children for Abraham. The axe is already laid at the foot of the root of the tree, therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is being cut down and thrown into the fire. This was a common belief that they would just go to heaven because of their lineage. And that's what the rich man is appealing here, crying out to Abraham. And this is also how Paul thought before his conversion. In Philippians 3, 4 through 5, he says, I myself might have confidence, even In the flesh, if anyone else has a mind to put confidence in the flesh, I far more. Circumcised on the eighth day, nation of Israel, tribe of Benjamin, Hebrew of Hebrews, as to the law, a Pharisee. So that was a generally understood idea that your lineage could save you. But let's look back at how Abraham was justified. Was Abraham justified by his lineage?

18:28Romans 3:4 says, But for what does the scripture say? Abraham believed God, and it was credited to him as his righteousness. Abraham was justified by his faith in God. Not according to the flesh. It was nothing he did, it was his faith in the Creator. God does not have spiritual grandchildren. God does not have spiritual grandchildren. That's what the rich man is appealing to. We must all have our own faith in the Lord. And Jesus made this clear.

19:01Hebrews 11 talks about this in extent 11:8. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to a place that he was to receive as an inheritance. And when he went out, not knowing where he was going. By faith, he went to live in the land of promise, as in a foreign land, and living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, heirs with him to the same promise. For he was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God. By faith, Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, and she considered him faithful who had promised. Therefore, from one man, and him as good as dead, were born descendants as many as the stars of heaven, and as many as the innumerable grains of sand by the seashore.

19:48Abraham was counted righteous by his faith, and his faith produced action in his life. Same thing in the New Testament. We see that in Romans 1, 17, for the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith, as it is written, but the righteous one will live by faith. The rich man didn't have this. He was counting on his lineage. He was counting on his Jewish background to save him. Back to verse 24. And he cried out and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me and send me Lazarus so he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I'm in agony in the flame.

20:33He's asking for mercy. Have mercy on me. He didn't protest being in hell. He didn't try to say some kind of mistake has been made. He was looking for mercy. I think it's interesting here, he doesn't appeal to God. He appeals to Abraham for help. He doesn't suddenly love the Lord with all his heart because he's in hell. MacArthur talks about this. Those who rejected God in life will not suddenly desire to love and serve him when they find themselves in hell. Now, this is quite different. I remember David in the Psalms when he sinned and he realized he was on the wrong side of God, what does he do? He cries out to the Lord, God, have mercy on me. God, I have sinned against you. God, you are righteous. I am not. Please have mercy on me. Give me a new heart. But that's not what the rich man does here. He's asking Abraham to try to help him alley his current suffering.

21:35Dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. The rich man had no expectation that he was going to be released from hell. He doesn't ask, get me out of here. He asks for some temporary relief from his suffering. What a reversal of the two men. Imagine in life, this poor man, the beggar, hoping for some kind of relief from the rich man as he's coming and going every day. Now in death, the rich man is the beggar. He's the one stuck in suffering and hoping for just a tiny bit of relief from his pain. And now the rich man is seeking mercy from the one guy he denied mercy.

22:20Sometimes I think about this when I see the Joel Olstein book, Your Best Life Now. Now there's over 8 million copies. Of this sold. It's really more of a self-help book than a Christian book, but it's about positive thinking. And this is the rich man. He is living his best life now. He was inward focused. He was all about himself. But it's only his best life now because what's coming after is hell. But for the faithful, even our best day on earth is not even going to compare to what is to come.

23:00Your favorite day on earth is not even going to be comparable. Look at Revelation 21:3. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is among the people, and he will dwell among them, and they shall be his people. And God Himself will be among them, and He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and there will no longer be any death. There will no longer be any mourning, or crying, or pain, as the first things have passed away. Has anyone had a day even close to this?

23:35Dwelling with God, no tears, no death, no mourning, no crying, no pain at all? That's like going back to Eden before the fall. This is what the righteous have to look forward to on the other side. It doesn't even compare to our earthly days. You can't, as a Christian, as a follower of God, live your best life now because the next life is so much better. Back to our text, verse 25. But Abraham said, Child, remember that during your life you received good things, and likewise Lazarus bad things. But now he's being comforted here, and you are in agony.

24:16So Abraham's calling him child. He's acknowledging that lineage claim, right? He called him father, now he's calling him child. But that did not save him. The rich man chose his things over God and life. He chose the life of self-indulgence. He walked past. The suffering man chose not to help with the ability to do so. He loved the gifts and not the giver. And we can do the same thing. We can get so focused on the gift, we can forgive the one who gives.

24:54Verse 26, and besides all this, between us and you, there is a great chasm fixed, so that those who wish to come over from here to you are not able, and none may cross over from there to us. There is a great chasm, a great intervening space. Now, here, Abraham's saying, it is fixed, fixed, it's not possible to do what he's asking. There is no movement back and forth, because there are two fixed places after death: Hades and Abraham's bosom, hell and heaven.

25:30I think it's interesting here. There is no purgatory. He woke up immediately in torment. There is no middle space between the two and the chasm. Hebrews 9, 27 tells us, it is appointed a man to die once, and then after this comes judgment. There is no purgatory. There is no holding place where we can do penance, live our best life now, and then make up for it, and then go to heaven. There's no opportunity to redeem yourself later. And the rich man doesn't even try.

26:07I think it's significant to notice in this parable: the rich man is unnamed. He's unnamed. He's just the rich man. I think in the life of the poor man, he would be the one without a name. Nobody knows who that is. He's just the poor beggar sitting outside. But the rich man, his name would be known by all. He would be known by all. He'd be spoken of. He'd be lifted up by others and counseled and everything that comes from being a rich man. But Lazarus would be the one that no one knew about. But the reversal here, in death, Lazarus is the one with the name. The rich man has no name. Is it important that people know your name? How much effort do we make to puff ourselves up in this life? In the end, there's only one question: Does God know you?

26:59Matthew. Matthew 7, 21, not everyone who says to me, Lord, Lord, will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father, who is in heaven, will enter. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and in your name cast out demons, and in your name perform many miracles? And then I will declare to them, I never knew you. Leave me, you who practice lawlessness.

27:32In death, all that is hidden comes to light. Does Jesus know you? The two outcomes in death, two men, heaven or hell. That was death, and now we're going to move on to the warning that comes. The rich man has finally resigned himself to his current condition. Now he wants to try to warn his family of what's coming. Verse 27, and he says, Then I'm asking you, Father, that you send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers in order that they may warn them, so they will not also come to this place of torment. He wants to go and have his family warned. They probably all believe like he does. They're going to heaven because of their lineage.

28:21They're wealthy because they have favor with God. Everything is good. They're very religious on the outside, but dead on the inside. Thinks if they get some special message, they'll change their ways. As believers, we can even fall into this trap when trying to reach others for Christ or our family. Like, if I just say things a certain way, it'll click and then they'll accept, they'll accept God, they'll believe the gospel. See how Abraham answers it, though. Verse 29, but Abraham says, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. There's only one reason that this rich man and the unredeemed end up in hell. They do not believe in and act on the truth of Scripture.

29:16Heaven is for those who believe God, what God says, and act on it. Abraham here is affirming the sufficiency of Scripture. Salvation is in the word of the Lord. This book has everything you need to know to be saved. You don't need a special revelation. You don't need a miracle. You don't need anything else. So, question from the beginning: Do you believe that Scripture is sufficient? Do you take scripture seriously? Do you let it inform your conscience? Do you let it have authority over your life? Abraham is pointing back to Scripture as our instructions. Structure to keep us from going to hell.

30:04Is it authoritative? If you have an idea about something, but the Bible says something different, who wins that battle? This past Friday, the evangelism team went out first Friday. We got to pass out a bunch of tracts and talk to lots of people. I mean, it was just a wide variety of people. We had communists and Buddhists and transgender people and agnostics and Catholics and everything in between. And this one girl we were talking to professed a faith in Christ. We started asking more questions, and she thought, well, I believe in Jesus, but I believe that there's many ways to God.

30:49And we kind of pushed back and said, well, Jesus says he is the way, the truth, the life. No one goes to the Father except through him. And then she also said, oh, well, I don't think there is any hell at all. We all go to heaven. Everybody goes to heaven. I'm not going to judge anybody. I think we'll all go to heaven, and that's it. And we brought other Bible verses to bring the points that, well, this is how Jesus has revealed himself. He says there is a hell. He spoke more about hell than he did heaven. He was warning people about it. Why would he warn people about something that doesn't exist? Why would he say he is the way if there are other ways?

31:34Do you accept Christ as he's revealed himself or as you wish he was? If you just pick and choose the parts that you like, then you don't know Christ. You know a version of Christ that you make in your own mind, which is what she did. Think about the sermon this morning. Pay attention to Jesus. Pay attention to him as he's revealed himself. Abraham is reinforcing this point. He's pointing us back to the scriptures. Verse 30, but he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. This is a complaint. The scriptures are not sufficient. They need more. This reinforces his belief. Maybe if he had something extra, he would be in heaven right now and not sitting here in hell. What God said is not enough. God hasn't done enough to inform people properly. Something's gone wrong here.

32:33Jesus addresses this in Matthew, Matthew 12, 38 through 39. Then some of the scribes and Pharisees say to him, Teacher, we want to see a sign from you. But he answers and says to them, An evil and adulterous generation craves for a sign, and yet no sign will be given to it, but the sign of Jonah the prophet. Give us something extra, even though Jesus already performed miracles. The blind see. The lepers are healed. The paralyzed walk. Still, they ask for more miracles. It's never enough for a hardened heart.

33:13I like the witnessing question, asked people: Would you become a Christian if it's true? Because there's a lot of arguments. Oh, well, I don't believe this, or maybe the Bible's corrupted in this thing, or there's too many copies. There are just a million reasons people bring up. But that one question: Would you become a Christian if it's true? And a lot of honest people say no, because they know what it means. It means that they will have to give up the sin that they love, they will have to take themselves off the throne of their life and start serving God, and they do not want to do that.

33:48It is not another miracle they're looking for. Abraham continues in verse 31. But he said to them, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be persuaded, even if someone rises from the dead. Abraham again reiterates the sufficiency of Scripture. John MacArthur talks about it like this: Since unbelief is at heart a moral, not an intellectual issue, no amount of evidence can alone turn unbelief into faith. The word of God has the power to do so.

34:27They had enough information. God Revealed himself not only through creation, but specific revelation that they had access to. They knew that God is a holy God, and judgment was coming for sin. Ezekiel the prophet, the soul who sins will die. They knew this. They knew God called them to repentance with the many prophets that came. They knew they needed salvation by God's grace. They had Psalm 51, where David sins, and then he cries out to God. He acknowledges his sin. He repents. He asks for a new heart. They knew all of this. Scripture is sufficient. We don't need extra signs. We don't need extra miracles. And we even see this in Jesus' ministry. Did the Pharisees bow down when Jesus raised someone from the dead?

35:18No. When Jesus was resurrected, did everybody repent? No. This is an exact example of the rich man's requesting. Somebody come back from the dead. Somebody came back from the dead, and this didn't happen. And we see this same sufficiency of Scripture echoed in the New Testament. The scriptures point to Jesus, 2 Timothy 3:15. And that from childhood you have known the sacred writings, which are able to make you wise unto salvation through faith, which is in Christ Jesus. The sacred writings, the scriptures, are enough to teach us salvation.

36:01In John 5, 39, 39, 40, and then 46 through 47, says, You search the scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life. It is these that bear witness about me. And you are unwilling to come to me so that you may have life. Or if you believe Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote about me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? Scripture is sufficient, the entirety of scripture. We don't get to pick and choose what we like and don't like. This isn't Burger King. You don't get to have it your way.

36:38If you read Scripture and are never challenged, you might be deceiving yourself. You might have blinders on or a lens. My God thinks exactly like me. He's all love, no judgment, all heaven, no hell. He doesn't ever challenge me to repent from sin. He doesn't ever call me out because I've created a God in my own image that I'm comfortable with. Do you accept God as he is, as he has revealed himself in the scripture? Rich man and the poor man, through the life, death, and warning from this parable, we get a glimpse of what happens after we die.

37:19Now, what does this mean for us? What does this mean for us 2,000 years later? It means judgment is coming. Rich man was trusting in his lineage for salvation. I think for us, I think it's important to understand: you are not saved if you grew up as a Christian. Like, you grew up in a Christian home, you are not saved any more than sitting in a garage will turn you into being a car. It doesn't matter how much time you spend out there, you will never turn into a car.

37:49God does not have spiritual grandchildren. If you don't know the Lord, today is the day of salvation. There's good news. Bad news is that you're like the rest of us. You've sinned. You've fallen short of the glory of God. God will punish sinners like we're talking about here. Judgment is coming. We will all die. And that punishment will get us to hell. But the good news is that Jesus came, lived the perfect life that we could never live, fulfilled the law perfectly, died on the cross for our sins. If we repent and believe in him, then we can have eternal life. We can go to Abraham's bosom.

38:33You have enough information to be saved. There are people who get saved on little gospel tracks like this that teach people about the law and the gospel. They don't even have to read the whole Bible. God provides us with enough information to be saved. We need to take it seriously that death is coming for us all. Think back to September 10th, September 10th. That's the day that Charlie Kirk was killed. He got up just like any other day, talked to his family just like any other day, didn't think anything was out of the normal.

39:12But he would not go back to his home. He would not see his wife and kids again. He would instantly enter eternity. But he was ready for it. And his message before and after would be: repent and believe the gospel. There is an afterlife, and it's been a tough year for big names Christians dying. We lost MacArthur and then Charlie Kirk and then Bodhi. I like this quote from Vodie. Same kind of idea: warning people: there is an afterlife. Don't you dare pity me. One day, someone will tell you a lie: that Vodie Bawkham has died, that he is no more. Look them in the eye and tell them this: you are a liar. He may have died, but he is some more.

40:06There is a life after this. We will all be physically dead, but we will be somewhere. 120 years from now, everyone in this room will be in the next life. So don't wait. Today is the day of salvation. I'm going to close with a quote from Tozer: Tomorrow is the devil's day, but today is God's. Satan doesn't care how spiritual your intentions are or how holy. Your resolutions, if only they are determined to be done tomorrow. Let's pray.

40:38Dear Lord, we thank you for this day. We thank you for your word. We thank you for our church. We thank you for all those who have gone before us to show us the way. I pray that you soften our hearts and help us receive your words. Help bring us all to a saving knowledge. Accept the sacrifice that Jesus made on our behalf. I pray that you encourage us to reach to others with that same message. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.