Lucas 16

John MacArthur · Citado em PreceptAustin

Lucas 16

MacArthur explains that "Jesus actually was very adept at doing that (USING ILLUSTRATIONS OR EXAMPLES OF SINFUL MEN). Jesus taught, as I said, from the expected and the unexpected experiences of life and life offers us both and both can be good places to learn from. In Luke 18, as we shall see in the future, he used an unjust judge as an analogy to God himself. Here the main character is a man identified in verse 8 as the unrighteous steward. There's no question that this man is unrighteous. He is evil. He is wicked. He is conniving. He starts out as irresponsible and ends up an embezzler. And some people have worked really hard to try to protect Jesus from using a bad man to make a good point, and so they have tried to read into this story some kind of stuff in the cracks and between the words and somehow cast this man in a different light and make him good. You can't do it because there's no way around the fact that he is called the unrighteous steward. And by the way there are no hidden details. This is fiction. This is a story Jesus made up. He created it. He invented it. There are no more components than the ones He gave. There's nothing more to the story. No secret explanation, no hidden details to uncomplicate it or complicate it.... And we are shocked as the audience of disciples would be when the master praises him. Punish him? We would understand that. Beat him publicly? We would understand that. They would understand that, but commend him? That's the surprise ending, but that's the whole point of the story. And it's really not unusual for Jesus to teach this way. Frequently Jesus followed a rabbinical pattern of teaching and the rabbis loved to teach from the lesser to the greater. The little phrase, “how much more,” if an unjust judge will do this what will God who is a just judge do? If an irritated man will open the door just to get rid of you what will a God who loves you do when you knock on His door with a need? If a wicked, evil man is shrewd in the use of money that he has access to, what will you do? It's from the lesser to the greater and the rabbis love to teach that way and so did Jesus. How much more, how much more? " (Luke 16:1-13 Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus) Steven

Lucas 16

MacArthur says "he had a sudden flash of inspiration; a “eureka moment,” or epiphany....The solution he came up with would provide all the things he would need: a place to live, income, and status. (See Commentary) Know (ginosko) describes acquisition of information as through sense perception. Without going too far in interpretation, the fact that this verb for know often speaks of experiential knowledge, it suggests this unrighteous manager is skilled in unrighteous handling of mammon. So that when (not "if") I am removed (methistemi) from the management (oikonomia - stewardship), people will welcome (dechomai) me into their homes (oikos) - So that (term of purpose) reveals his purpose was to propagate his prosperity as best he could. He is thinking of his future, knowing he is soon out of a job as manager. His scheme involves using his present position to perpetuate future profits. Will welcome speaks of the future fruit he expects to enjoy as a result of his present planning (or "plotting"), specifically that folks he had helped now would "put out the welcome mat" for him in the future after his present position was terminated.

Lucas 16

MacArthur - By reducing what they were obligated to pay his master, he put them under obligation to him. Reciprocation was an integral part of Jewish society (ED: “I'll rub your back if you'll rub mine.”); if someone did a person a favor, that person was obligated to do one for him...One hundred measures of olive oil was 875 gallons, or the yield of about 150 olive trees, and was worth about one thousand denarii—more than three years’ wages for a common laborer. The new deal, which cut the debt in half, created a significant loss for his master. (See Luke Commentary) NET Note - The bill was halved (sit down quickly, and write fifty). What was the steward doing? This is debated. 1) Did he simply lower the price? 2) Did he remove interest from the debt? 3) Did he remove his own commission? It is hard to be sure. Either of the latter two options is more likely. The goal was clear: The manager would be seen in a favorable light for bringing a deflationary trend to prices. Luke 16:7 "Then he said to another, `And how much do you owe?' And he said, `A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, `Take your bill, and write eighty.' BGT Luke 16:7 ἔπειτα ἑτέρῳ εἶπεν· σὺ δὲ πόσον ὀφείλεις; ὁ δὲ εἶπεν· ἑκατὸν κόρους σίτου. λέγει αὐτῷ· δέξαι σου τὰ γράμματα καὶ γράψον ὀγδοήκοντα. KJV Luke 16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore KJV Luke 16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, An hundred measures of wheat. And he said unto him, Take thy bill, and write fourscore. NET Luke 16:7 Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' The second man replied, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' The manager said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' CSB Luke 16:7 "Next he asked another, 'How much do you owe? ' " 'A hundred measures of wheat,' he said. " 'Take your invoice,' he told him, 'and write 80.' ESV Luke 16:7 Then he said to another, 'And how much do you owe?' He said, 'A hundred measures of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill, and write eighty.' NIV Luke 16:7 "Then he asked the second, 'And how much do you owe?' " 'A thousand bushels of wheat,' he replied. "He told him, 'Take your bill and make it eight hundred.' NLT Luke 16:7 " 'And how much do you owe my employer?' he asked the next man. 'I owe him 1,000 bushels of wheat,' was the reply. 'Here,' the manager said, 'take the bill and change it to 800 bushels. ' NRS Luke 16:7 Then he asked another, 'And how much do you owe?' He replied, 'A hundred containers of wheat.' He said to him, 'Take your bill and make it eighty.' YLT Luke 16:7 'Afterward to another he said, And thou, how much dost thou owe? and he said, A hundred cors of wheat; and he saith to him, Take thy bill, and write eighty. GWN Luke 16:7 "Then he asked another debtor, 'How much do you owe?' "The debtor replied, 'A thousand bushels of wheat.' "The manager told him, 'Take the ledger, and write "eight hundred!"' NKJ Luke 16:7 "Then he said to another,`And how much do you owe?' So he said,`A hundred measures of wheat.' And he said to him,`Take your bill, and write eighty.' NAB Luke 16:7 Then to another he said, 'And you, how much do you owe?' He replied, 'One hundred kors of wheat.' He said to him, 'Here is your promissory note; write one for eighty.' MIT Luke 16:7 The process kept being repeated. He asked another how much he owed, and the response was 100 units of grain. He said to him, "Take your invoices and adjust the amount to 80." NJB Luke 16:7 To another he said, "And you, sir, how much do you owe?" "One hundred measures of wheat," he said. The steward said, "Here, take your bond and write eighty." ASV Luke 16:7 Then said he to another, And how much owest thou? And he said, A hundred measures of wheat. He saith unto him, Take thy bond, and write fourscore. A hundred measures of wheat Luke 20:9,12; Song 8:11,12 Luke 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Luke 16:1-13 How to be Truly Rich - Steven Cole Luke 16:1-13 Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus - John MacArthur And how much do you owe (opheilo)? A hundred measures (kor) of wheat - Note that he is not "restructuring" the loan as we commonly see when a person or business is struggling to make payments on their loan, but reducing the amount owed. This is a large amount, equivalent to 8-10 years’ wages for a common laborer. Take (aorist imperative) your bill, and write eighty - The shrewd manager is laying up for his future good will with men on earth, a principle that Jesus will apply to exhort disciples to lay up for themselves "good will" in heaven (cf Lk 16:9). Andrus comments "It was a very clever thing to do. It was thoroughly dishonest, but it was also unquestionably shrewd. This rogue of a manager uses his head to make a couple of warm friends, before he has to walk out into the cold, hard world of employment." (Money–Godly Ways of Giving It: A Bad Man's Good Example) As Goettsche says "Suppose you went to the mortgage company and they offered to reduce the amount of your mortgage by 20%. Would you be grateful? Of course you would. And that is exactly what this guy was counting on. He probably did this with every customer. The result was that all these people felt they “owed” him. When he needed a job, a hand-out, or even a place to stay, they would be inclined to help the guy out." (Taking a Lesson from the World) Owe (3784)(opheilo from ophéllo = heap up) means to owe something to someone. Literally it speaks of financial indebtedness and thus means to owe money, to be in debt, or to describe that which is due (Mt 18:28, Lk 7:41, 16:5, 7, Phile 1:18). The verb opheilo was sometimes used to describe "the debt" itself. Luke's uses of opheilo - Lk. 7:41; Lk. 11:4; Lk. 16:5; Lk. 16:7; Lk. 17:10; Acts 17:29; Measures (2884)(kor) is used only here and is the largest Hebrew dry measure, holding 11 bushels (10-12) or about 390 liters. NET Note - The hundred measures here was a hundreds kors. A kor was a Hebrew dry measure for grain, flour, etc., of between 10–12 bushels (about 390 liters). This was a huge amount of wheat, representing the yield of about 100 acres, a debt of between 2500–3000 denarii. Take (1209)(dechomai) in this context means to take something in one's hand (used with this same sense in Lk 22:17, Eph 6:17). Luke 16:8 "And his master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the sons of this age are more shrewd in relation to their own kind than the sons of light. BGT Luke 16:8 καὶ ἐπῄνεσεν ὁ κύριος τὸν οἰκονόμον τῆς ἀδικίας ὅτι φρονίμως ἐποίησεν· ὅτι οἱ υἱοὶ τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου φρονιμώτεροι ὑπὲρ τοὺς υἱοὺς τοῦ φωτὸς εἰς τὴν γενεὰν τὴν ἑαυτῶν εἰσιν. KJV Luke 16:8 And the lord commended the unjust steward, because he had done wisely: for the children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light. NET Luke 16:8 The master commended the dishonest manager because he acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their contemporaries than the people of light. CSB Luke 16:8 "The master praised the unrighteous manager because he had acted astutely. For the sons of this age are more astute than the sons of light in dealing with their own people. ESV Luke 16:8 The master commended the dishonest manager for his shrewdness. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than the sons of light. NIV Luke 16:8 "The master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly. For the people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light. NLT Luke 16:8 "The rich man had to admire the dishonest rascal for being so shrewd. And it is true that the children of this world are more shrewd in dealing with the world around them than are the children of the light. NRS Luke 16:8 And his master commended the dishonest manager because he had acted shrewdly; for the children of this age are more shrewd in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. YLT Luke 16:8 'And the lord commended the unrighteous steward that he did prudently, because the sons of this age are more prudent than the sons of the light, in respect to their generation. GWN Luke 16:8 "The master praised the dishonest manager for being so clever. Worldly people are more clever than spiritually-minded people when it comes to dealing with others." NKJ Luke 16:8 "So the master commended the unjust steward because he had dealt shrewdly. For the sons of this world are more shrewd in their generation than the sons of light. NAB Luke 16:8 And the master commended that dishonest steward for acting prudently. "For the children of this world are more prudent in dealing with their own generation than are the children of light. MIT Luke 16:8 Yet his boss commended the immoral manager because he had acted astutely. In that respect secular people are keener as a whole, in their contemporary frame of reference, than are those who are enlightened. his master praised the unrighteous manager Luke 16:10; 18:6 because he had acted shrewdly Luke 16:4; Ge 3:1; Exodus 1:10; 2 Samuel 13:3; 2 Kings 10:19; Pr 6:6-8 for the sons of this age Luke 20:34; Ps 17:14; 1 Cor 3:18; Philippians 3:19 are more shrewd in relation to their own kind Ps 49:10-19; Mt 17:26 than the sons of light Jn 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; 1 Th 5:5; 1 Pe 2:9; 1 Jn 3:10 Luke 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Luke 16:1-13 How to be Truly Rich - Steven Cole Luke 16:1-13 Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus - John MacArthur A BAD MAN'S GOOD EXAMPLE! And his master praised (epaineo) the unrighteous (ESV, NIV, NLT - dishonest - adikos) manager because he had acted shrewdly - Note that it is the master in the story, not Jesus per se who is commending the shifty steward! Obviously the master is not saying the manager did a great job in reducing the income the master would receive from the debtors. But while the master did not approve of the manager's squandering the master's possessions, he praised for acting wisely and with insight and foresight. In short, he did not commend his method but his insight. Jesus clearly states that the manager is unrighteous. So Jesus is not suggesting believers follow this man's path of unrighteous behavior. The story is an example of prudence and not of methods. In essence the dishonest manager was "investing" in his future. In other words, the unrighteous steward was showing wisdom by using present opportunities to prepare for future needs. This begs the question, are you taking advantage of your opportunities for wise uses? THOUGHT - If you were told you had 6 months to live or if you discovered that today was the last day of your life, what effect would it have on your priorities? Freddy Fritz - There is a legitimate moral difference between saying, “I applaud the clever steward because he acted dishonestly,” and saying, “I applaud the dishonest steward because he acted cleverly.” The master was saying the latter, not the former, and this is the key to understanding the parable. (Stewardship: It's All Under Our Management ) Michael Andrus - Christians should be shrewd as well as good. Jesus states this principle negatively in Luke 16:8 as he laments the fact that "The people of this world are more shrewd in dealing with their own kind than are the people of the light." As we have previously stated, there is no hint that Jesus is commending the manager's dishonesty. It is taken for granted that Christians will be honest. But that is not enough–a Christian should also be smart. It's as though Jesus was placing a want‑ad in the paper: "Wanted: Good people with this bad man's business sense." Christians, wise up! God has never put a premium on ignorance, except in regard to evil (Romans 16:19 says, "I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent (or naive) about what is evil."). When it comes to the use of money, we need to be shrewd. Every Christian is ultimately going to be in the same boat as this manager. We, too, are facing the certain end of our material resources. Within a few years at best, each one of us will stand before God with no wealth, no money, no titles, no influence. All that will be left behind. We brought nothing into this world and there is nothing we can take out of it. Or can we? As a matter of fact, there is something you can take with you to the other side–friends! (Luke 16:1-9 Money–Godly Ways of Giving It: A Bad Man's Good Example) William

Lucas 16

MacArthur - Sons of this age, people in this world, not in the kingdom of God, part of this temporal world, this kingdom of darkness, the unrighteous, the people not in God's kingdom, who belong to this passing world, are more clever in securing their future than the sons of light. Take care of your future. We hear that incessantly pounded into us. We're subject to all that advertising all the time. Take care of your future, take care of your future, and you go through life and you live and you save and you save and you save and at 65 you quit working and there it is, there's your retirement and you die at 66. What a ridiculous deal that is. All those years of sending it forward and sending it forward and when you get there it's a year, or maybe you live three, or maybe you enjoy it for five and then you hit 70 and you can't see like you could see, and you can't hear like you could hear, and you can't taste anything and who cares, you know? Maybe you could buy the car of your dreams, but they take your license away. And you don't want to take a long trip because you don't want to go through the airport lines with a walker. (Luke 16:1-13 Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus) Brian Bell - The dishonest manager had not done a good thing. But he had been careful to plan ahead, using material things to insure a secure future. Jesus was not teaching that His disciples should be dishonest. He was teaching that they should use material things for future spiritual benefit. This was a good lesson from a bad example. Thus my title, “A Bad Man’s God Example!” Bruce Goettsche - "Alistair Begg tells the story of a couple who had their car stolen. In the morning the car was returned with a note of apology and two tickets to the theatre. The note invited the couple to enjoy a night out as their way of apologizing for stealing their car. The couple took the tickets, went to the show, and when they returned their home had been cleaned out by the robbers! Be honest. Don’t you just a little admire the creativity of the crooks? (Taking a Lesson from the World) Norman Crawford explains that "Worldly stewards use their influence and wealth to promote their own interests and to better their position for a future in this world. This is our lesson, but we must apply it to heavenly things. "As good stewards of the manifold grace of God" (1 Pet 4:10), we have had the Lord's treasures entrusted to us. Even our material blessings are Another's (Lk 16:2); they are held in trust against a day to come. In view of that day, when we must give account, we should use present opportunities to lay up treasure in heaven (Lk 12:31-34). (What the Bible teaches – Luke) NET Note - Is the manager dishonest because of what he just did? Or is it a reference to what he had done earlier, described in Lk 15:1? This is a difficult question, but it seems unlikely that the master, having fired the man for prior dishonesty, would now commend those same actions. It would also be unusual for Jesus to make that point of the story the example. Thus it is more likely the reference to dishonesty goes back to the earliest events, while the commendation is for the cleverness of the former manager reflected in Lk 15:5–7. NET Note - Where this parable ends is debated: Does it conclude with Lk 15:7, after Lk 15:8a, after Lk 15:8b, or after Lk 15:9? Luke 15:8a looks as if it is still part of the story, with its clear reference to the manager, while 8b looks like Jesus' application, since its remarks are more general. So it is most likely the parable stops after Lk 15:8a. The sons of light - This phrase describes believers, those who are righteous by grace through faith (Eph 2:8+). Jesus' pithy point is that the worldly (lost) are wiser in preparing for their temporal future in this passing world (1Jn 2:17+) than God’s people are in their spiritual pursuits focused on the eternal world to come! THOUGHT- Woe! Are you as convicted as I am? The unrighteous do it for TIME, and we should do for ETERNITY. There is no comparison regarding the potential harvest. The yield of the sinner ends with death while the reward of the saved "begins" with death and lasts forever! In John 15:16 Jesus declared the disciples' "fruit would remain or abide (meno in present tense = continually abice ~ eternally abibe!). Clearly believers should be profoundly motivated to "redeem their short time on earth." Why don't we see believers doing that? (i.e., as a general rule of life -- some are of course, but most of the true church is asleep!)? From this context one reason is clearly the fact that believers do not have a sense of need and urgency (like the unrighteous manager - cf the sense of urgency brought out by the phrase "do it quickly" in Lk 16:6). The Body of Christ needs personal and corporate revival that revives in us an "eternal vision" during this short time we each have left on earth (Ps 144:4, James 4:14+, Eph 5:16, Ps 90:12)! Do you need to have your "vision" renewed? Do you really believe the principle that Jesus is teaching? If you really believe it, you will act upon it. To hear it and remain unmoved is not acting upon it. What can you change in your lifestyle, your goals, your dreams, etc, that focuses not on this world but the world to come? If you are not convicted yet, then take 4'45" to listen to all the words in this provocative song by Keith Green from 1978...it almost makes you want to cry! Asleep In The Light Do you see? Do you see? All the people sinking down? Don't you care? Don't you care? Are you gonna let them drown? How can you be so numb?! Not to care if they come You close your eyes, And pretend the job is done "oh, bless me, lord! Bless me, lord!" You know, it's all I ever hear! No one aches, No one hurts, No one even sheds one tear But, he cries, He weeps, He bleeds, And he cares for your needs And you just lay back, And keep soaking it in Oh, can't you see such sin?! 'cause he brings people to your door, And you turn them away As you smile and say, "god bless you! Be at peace!" And all heaven just weep, 'cause Jesus came to your door, You left him out on the streets Open up! open up! And give yourself away You see the need, You hear the cries, So how can you delay?! God is calling, And you are the one But like Jonah, you run He told you to speak, But you keep holding it in Oh, can't you see such sin?! The world is sleeping in the dark, That the church just can't fight, 'cause it's asleep in the light! How can you be so dead?! When you've been so well famed Jesus rose from the grave, And you! You can't even get out of bed! Oh, Jesus rose from the dead! Come on, get out of your bed! How can you be so numb?! Not to care if they come You close your eyes, And pretend the job is done! You close your eyes, And pretend the job is done! Don't close your eyes, Don't pretend the job is done Come away! come away! Come away with me, my love! Come away from this mess, Come away with me, my love! Come away from this mess! Come away with me, my love! Come away, Come away with me my love! See related discussion of Vertical Vision. Who you are looking for will determine Who you are living for. Remember that 1 in 25 NT verses refer directly or indirectly to the Second Coming of Jesus. (cf 1 Jn 3:2-3, Titus 2:11-14). When Jesus comes, will He find you faithful? What would He find, should He come just now; A faded leaf or a fruitless bough; A servant sleeping, an idle plow; What would He find should He come just now? What would He find should He come tonight, Your garment soiled or a spotless white; Your lamps all burning or with no light; What would He find should He come tonight? Author Unknown In Exalting Jesus in Mark, Daniel Akin gives us words of exhortation that are appropriate for our present passage - Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be in the evening. Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be at midnight. Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be when the rooster crows. Stay awake! Stay awake! It could be in the morning. Bottom line, “He might come suddenly.” His coming is IMMINENT! It could happen at any time, including today. You don’t want Him to find you asleep, unprepared. Not doing the work He has given you. Oh, how tragic it would be for our Lord to return and find His church asleep at the wheel, neglecting her assignment, squandering her resources, deceiving herself into thinking He won’t come today. How tragic to say, “Tomorrow, I will get busy serving Him,” only to discover tomorrow is never coming. (See also Table comparing Rapture vs Second Coming) Adrian Rogers said it this way - Do you know what Napoleon said when he looked at China? Napoleon saw the vast teeming millions in China, and Napoleon said, "There lies a sleeping giant, and let him sleep, because if he awakens, he will shake the world." I really believe the devil says that about the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. There lies a sleeping giant. And, I believe that this church is just that, a sleeping giant. We're asleep, and the reason that we're asleep is that so many of us have been chloroformed by the spirit of this age. We're bombarded on every side by all kinds of amusement, and you know what "amuse" means. "Muse" means "to think," the alpha prefix in front of it, "amuse," means "not to think". We're a generation that is amusing ourselves into oblivion. We live in a day in which a "hero" is a sandwich, "Life" is a magazine, "Power" is a candy bar, "Joy" is a detergent, "My sin" is a perfume, a "Star" is somebody who is an actress been married three times, and "The real thing" is a soft drink. Those are the things that are in our minds, and we need to wake up. One deacon thought he would impress his pastor, he said, "Pastor, when I come into church, what would be a good prayer for me to pray?" The pastor, knowing his way, said, "Why don't you try 'Now I lay me down to sleep'?" And, I think sometimes it's the pastor's fault. Too many sermons are like bedtime stories, lullabies. God's alarm clock is going off around the world. Have you listened to the news lately? I mean, can you see the time in which we're living? If the Apostle Paul said in his day, "It is high time to wake up," how much more for us? My dear friend, you don't have to have eyes to see that we are living in the middle of moral, and spiritual, and social, and political darkness, but we need not to sleep in the night. The maps of the world are changing overnight, and nations are being shuffled like checkers on a checkerboard, and I believe that the stage is being set. I believe it with all of my heart, for the final act in the drama of the ages. Don't you feel that way? I mean, there's an ominous sense that we're living in the end time. But, the sad thing is that so many of our churches, like ol' Samson, have gone to sleep in the lap of Delilah. And, then because we are so powerless when we do rise up to shake ourselves, nothing happens because the Spirit of the Lord has departed. What time is it? Friend, it is time to wake up. Wake up. Don't let these days pass. It is high time to wake up. What time is it? My dear friend, listen, it is not only time to wake up, it is time to get up. Do you know another problem that we have? We come to church and listen to these choirs. We come to church and listen to our Sunday school teachers. We come to church and listen to the pastor, and he stirs us, and he wakes us up, but the problem is when we wake up, we don't get up. We just roll over in bed, yawn in the face of God, and go back to sleep until the next message. Now, the Bible says here that, "The night is far spent, and the day is at hand." (Ro 13:12+) Sons of light is used twice in the NT to describe believers John 12:36;“While you have the Light, believe in the Light, so that you may become sons of Light.” These things Jesus spoke, and He went away and hid Himself from them. 1 Thessalonians 5:5-note for (explains what Paul just stated in 1 Th 5:4) you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness; Compare Ephesians 5:8-note for you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light John MacArthur - What about the sons of light, those of us whose life is in the age to come are looking for that city whose architect and builder is God? What about us who live in the realm of salvation, the kingdom of light, the realm of righteousness and holiness, those of us whose home is in heaven, whose citizenship is in heaven, whose inheritance is in heaven, whose reward is in heaven? How can the sons of light be so foolish in their preparation for a future that lasts forever? Do you work as hard on the use of your material wealth and your possessions and your money for eternal purposes as you do for temporal ones? That's the question. Do you have an eternal perspective? Is that where you're investing your resources? (Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus) R Kent

Lucas 16

MacArthur notes that Paul opens with a question and then follows up with another question - Paul immediately answered the question of what brought him joy with a rhetorical question that is somewhat surprising. One might think the answer should be the Lord Jesus Christ. But the apostle said, Is it not even you, in the presence of our Lord Jesus at His coming? Paul’s anticipation for the future was the assurance that he would be in the presence of his Savior (cf. 1:10; 1 Cor. 1:7; Rom. 8:19–20; Phil. 3:20; Titus 2:13), but a crucial element of the joy of that experience is that at His coming he would see all the believers to whom he had ministered, including the Thessalonians (cf. 2Cor. 1:14; Phil. 2:16). For the ministry of this service is not only fully supplying the needs of the saints, but is also overflowing through many thanksgivings to God (NLT = So two good things will result from this ministry of giving -- the needs of the believers in Jerusalem will be met, and they will joyfully express their thanks to God."). 13 Because of the proof given by this ministry, they will glorify God for your obedience to your confession of the gospel of Christ and for the liberality of your contribution to them and to all (NLT = As a result of your ministry, they will give glory to God. For your generosity to them and to all believers will prove that you are obedient to the Good News of Christ") 14 while they also, by prayer on your behalf, yearn for you because of the surpassing grace of God in you. 15 Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift! 2 Cor 9:12-15+ MacArthur - The Greek word for "supplying" (prosanapleroo) is a doubly intense term that could be rendered "really, fully supplying." This indicates the Jerusalem church had an extremely great need. Many of its members had gone to Jerusalem as pilgrims to celebrate the feast of Pentecost, had been converted through Peter's message, and had then remained in the city without adequate financial support. Many residents of Jerusalem had undoubtedly lost their jobs in the waves of persecution that came after the martyrdom of Stephen (Acts 8:1+). However, the Corinthians were wealthy enough (they had not yet suffered persecution and deprivation like the Macedonians; 2 Cor 8:1-4) to help meet the huge need with a generous monetary gift (see 2 Cor 9:5+). (Borrow The MacArthur Study Bible) 1 Timothy 6:17-19+ Instruct (present imperative - make this your lifestyle) those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches (cf Jesus' words when it fails), but on God, Who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. 18 Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, 19 storing up (present tense = as your lifestyle) for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future (making it your practice of laying up in store good works now that will provide rewarding benefits in the future life), so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed (they may experience true life. = NLT) Comment: "The idea is that the rich in this world should not be concerned with receiving a return on their earthly investment (ED: FATHER FORGIVE ME FOR FALLING INTO THIS TRAP!). Those who make eternal investments will be content to receive their dividends in heaven. See Lk 16:1-13." (Borrow The MacArthur Study Bible). Wealth (mammonas) of unrighteousness (adikia) (same description in Lk 16:11) - Why does Jesus call wealth or mammon unrighteous? What He is saying is that it is unrighteous in the sense that it belongs to this unrighteous world, this world which is passing away (1 Jn 2:17+). When this age ends (or when one's life ends), the usefulness of unrighteous mammon will end. As an aside, while the coins in America still have the phrase "In God we trust," our increasingly godless culture is doing everything they can to remove every vestige of God from every aspect of our society. I am afraid that many in America would be quite pleased if the government were to replace "In God we trust" with the phrase "In Mammon we trust," justifying their call for this removal with the ludicrous doctrine of "Separation of church and state!" MacArthur adds that this wealth is termed unrighteous because it is "an element of fallen society’s experience. It belongs to the unrighteous life among sinners. It burns up. It says in verse 9, "That when it fails,” when your time to deal with money is over, it will fail. It's only (useful) for here. It's only a part of this fallen (godless) system. It doesn't matter, as we saw in Luke 12:16-21-note, if you have huge crops and you build bigger barns....and stuff more...in those bigger barns, (because) the day is going to come when your soul is required and that stuff will disappear out of your life! (Luke 16:1-13 Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus) Steven

Lucas 16

MacArthur adds that "This is a wonderful and a gracious gift by God to us, a gift that transcends this world. You can use your money (now) to make friends who will receive you into heavenly dwellings, eternal dwellings. This is the foundation of our Christian giving." (Ibid) ESV Study Bible on unrighteous wealth probably refers to the way in which the pursuit of money may often involve: (1) unrighteous means in acquiring wealth by taking advantage of others; (2) unrighteous desires in the use of wealth for personal gratification and selfish purposes, rather than for the care and well-being of others; and (3) the corrupting influence of wealth that often leads people into unrighteousness. (ESV Study Bible - this resource can be borrowed) So that (terms of purpose) when it fails (ekleipo) - The word when means the time in which something is done or comes about, in this case failure of funds! Unrighteous mammon ceases to be of service. Notice that Jesus does not say "IF it fails," but "WHEN it fails," for it WILL SURELY fail! For every soul that dies without Jesus as their Savior, that is WHEN their money and retirement portfolio will utterly, abysmally fail! But even for believers our potential to use the mammon of unrighteousness will cease when our breath ceases. We need to have a sense of urgency (regardless of our current age, for no one can be sure of tomorrow!). Solomon alludes to the fleeting nature of fortunes writing "When you set your eyes on it, it is gone. For wealth certainly makes itself wings, Like an eagle that flies toward the heavens." (Pr 23:5) NET Note - The term "wealth" is not in the Hebrew text, but is supplied in the translation based on the previous verse. This seventh saying warns people not to expend all their energy trying to get rich because riches are fleeting (cf. Instruction of [even the pagan] Amememope, chap. 7, 9:10–11 which says, "they have made themselves wings like geese and have flown away to heaven"). In the ancient world the symbol of birds flying away signified fleeting wealth! What a contrast is failing mammon with our unfailing Messiah! "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8+)

Lucas 16

MacArthur says giving is a test of character - "The truth is circumstances don't determine faithfulness, character does. You hear people say, "If I had more I'd give more." No you wouldn't. It doesn't matter how much you have. The widow who had nothing gave everything. People who have everything give nothing. It's never about circumstances. It's a view of heaven and a view of earth. It's a perspective that has captured your heart." (Investing Earthly Finances with an Eternal Focus) Jesus alluded to the incomparable value of faithfulness in this lifetime “His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful slave. You were faithful with a few things, I will put you in charge of many things; enter into the joy of your master.’ (Mt 25:21) And he who is unrighteous (adikos) in a very little thing is unrighteous (adikos) also in much - A person who cannot be trusted with a little, cannot be trusted with much! Jesus seems to present faithful as the antithesis of unrighteous in this section. Nelson's NKJV Study Bible - A person who cannot handle money certainly cannot handle spiritual matters that are of much more value. Unrighteous (94)(adikos from a = without + dike = justice) is an adjective which in general generally describes that which is characterized by violation of divine law. It means acting in a way that is contrary to what is right (unjust, crooked). Adikos is what God is NOT (Heb 6:10-note, Ro 3:5-note). As in the Old Testament, the “unrighteous” (adikos) are a class of people who stand over against the “righteous,” or the people of God. The “righteous” will be “rescued” (cf. above Ps 18:48; 120:2; 140:1 and 2 Pe 2:9), while the “unrighteous” will be punished and judged (2 Pe 2:9-note; cf. 1 Cor 6:9 - referring to a lifestyle or continual behavior that is adikos) Friberg summarizes adikos - (1) as doing contrary to what is right, unrighteous, wrong (Mt 5.45), opposite dikaios = (righteous, just); (2) as characterized by disregard for God = ungodly, unjust (2 Pe 2.9-note), opposite = devout, godly; (3) as characterized by lack of integrity dishonest, untrustworthy (Lk 16.10), opposite of pistos (trustworthy, faithful); (4) of things obtained by wrong means - unjust, dishonest (Lk 16.11); (5) substantivally, of a person not a member of a Christian community = unbeliever (1 Cor 6.1) (Borrow Analytical Lexicon of the Greek New Testament) Gilbrant - This adjective was employed by classical writers from the time of Hesiod (Seventh Century B.C., see Bauer) (cf. adikeō, adikia). Classical definitions ranged from “unjust,” or “unrighteous” (either persons or objects) to being used to depict a “day on which the courts were closed” or of a “person who had failed to appear in court” (Liddell-Scott). These legal nuances continued to influence the term’s usage in the Biblical writings. Basic to adikos are its legal nuances: “the adikos is the ‘violator of the law’ in the widest sense” (Schrenk, “adikos,” Kittel, 1:149). Like adikia, adikōs, adikēma, and adikeō, adikos was a familiar term to the translators of the Septuagint. Nineteen different Hebrew words were replaced by adikos. If any single term dominates as a Hebrew counterpart it would have to be sheqer (“falsehood, deception”). Also figuring prominently is ‛awlāh (“wickedness”). Adikos may describe some “wrong, perverse, or unfair act,” from sexual immorality (e.g., Ge 19:8) to bearing false witness (Ex 23:1; Lev 19:12), the latter being a reflection of its frequent legal context (e.g., Lev 19:15,35; Dt 19:16,18). At times it is virtually synonymous with anomos, “lawless”. Frequently the victims of “injustice” are God’s people (Job 5:16,22; Ps 25:19), who wait for His salvation (2 Samuel 22:3; Ps 18:48; 120:2; 140:1). On numerous occasions adikos is linked to the “tongue” or to “testimony.” Perhaps this reflects its legal heritage (e.g., Ps 139:4; Pr 6:17; 10:31; 12:17,19). But the legal and religious were not so easily separated in Hebrew thought. Thus Jeremiah condemned the prophets who prophesied “unjust matters” (cf. NIV, “lies”; Jer 5:31; 27:14,16; cf. 28:15). To trust in them was to reject God (Jer 29:9,31). This reflects the belief that the world is essentially composed of two types of people—the righteous and the unrighteous (that is, those living in concert with God’s covenant and those rejecting it and Him). (Complete Biblical Library) Adikos - 12x in 11v - unjust(3), unrighteous(8), wicked(1). Matthew 5:45 so that you may be sons of your Father who is in heaven; for He causes His sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. Luke 16:10 "He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much. Luke 16:11 "Therefore if you have not been faithful in the use of unrighteous wealth, who will entrust the true riches to you? Luke 18:11 "The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: 'God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. Acts 24:15 having a hope in God, which these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. (cf "the living and the dead" 2 Ti 4:1-note, see also Da 12:2-note, John 5:28, 29) Romans 3:5-note But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? The God who inflicts wrath is not unrighteous, is He? (I am speaking in human terms.) 1 Corinthians 6:1 Does any one of you, when he has a case against his neighbor, dare to go to law before the unrighteous and not before the saints? 1 Corinthians 6:9 Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived; neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor homosexuals, Comment - The phrase not inherit the kingdom of God means they will not be saved. This is not taking about an occasional slip-up but a lifestyle of such behavior with never a hint of repentance! Hebrews 6:10-note For God is not unjust so as to forget your work and the love which you have shown toward His name, in having ministered and in still ministering to the saints. 1 Peter 3:18-note For Christ also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; Comment - Unjust here means falling short of the righteousness required by divine laws 2 Peter 2:9-note then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, Adikia - 117x in 112v in the Septuagint - Gen. 19:8; Exod. 23:1; Exod. 23:7; Lev. 19:12; Lev. 19:15; Lev. 19:35; Deut. 19:16; Deut. 19:18; Deut. 25:16; 1 Sam. 25:21; 2 Sam. 18:13; 2 Sam. 22:3; 2 Ki. 9:12; Job 5:16; Job 5:22; Job 6:29; Job 6:30; Job 13:4; Job 16:11; Job 16:17; Job 18:21; Job 22:15; Job 22:23; Job 24:19; Job 27:4; Job 29:17; Job 31:3; Job 36:4; Job 36:23; Ps. 18:48; Ps. 25:19; Ps. 27:12; Ps. 35:11; Ps. 43:1; Ps. 63:11; Ps. 101:7; Ps. 119:118; Ps. 119:128; Ps. 120:2; Ps. 140:1; Ps. 140:4; Ps. 140:11; Prov. 4:24; Prov. 6:17; Prov. 6:19; Prov. 10:31; Prov. 11:18; Prov. 12:17; Prov. 12:19; Prov. 12:21; Prov. 13:5; Prov. 13:23; Prov. 14:5; Prov. 15:26; Prov. 16:33; Prov. 17:1; Prov. 17:15; Prov. 29:12; Prov. 29:27; Isa. 9:17; Isa. 29:21; Isa. 32:7; Isa. 54:14; Isa. 57:20; Isa. 58:6; Isa. 59:13; Jer. 5:31; Jer. 7:9; Jer. 27:12; Jer. 27:15; Jer. 27:16; Jer. 28:15; Jer. 29:9; Jer. 29:31; Ezek. 21:3; Ezek. 21:4; Ezek. 33:15; Amos 8:5; Zeph. 3:5 POSB - Scripture says that the true heavenly riches and rewards are beyond comprehension: Rewards Dealing with Our Nature and State of Being ⇒ Being adopted as a son of God (Ga. 4:4–7; 1 Jn. 3:1). ⇒ Being made blameless and harmless (Ph. 2:15). ⇒ Being given eternal life (Jn. 3:16; 1 Ti. 6:19). ⇒ Being given an enduring substance (He. 10:34). ⇒ Being given a glorious body (Ph. 3:11, 21; 1 Co. 15:42–44). ⇒ Being given eternal glory and honor and peace (Ro. 2:10). ⇒ Being given eternal rest and peace (He. 4:9; Re. 14:13). ⇒ Being given the blessings of the Lord (Pr. 10:22). ⇒ Being given the knowledge of Christ Jesus (Ph. 3:8). ⇒ Being given durable riches and righteousness (Pr. 8:18). ⇒ Being made priests (Re. 20:6). ⇒ Being given a crown of incorruption (1 Co. 9:25). ⇒ Being given a crown of righteousness (2 Ti. 4:8). ⇒ Being given a crown of life (Js. 1:12). ⇒ Being given a crown of glory (1 Pe. 5:4). Rewards Dealing with Work and Position and Rule ⇒ Being made exalted beings (Re. 7:9–12). ⇒ Being made ruler over many things (Mt. 25:23). ⇒ Being given the Kingdom of God (Js. 2:5; Mt. 25:34). ⇒ Being given a position of rule and authority (Lu. 12:42–44; 22:28–29; 1 Co. 6:2–3). ⇒ Being given eternal responsibility and joy (Mt. 25:21, 23). ⇒ Being given rule and authority over cities (Lu. 19:17, 19). ⇒ Being given thrones and the privilege of reigning forever (Re. 20:4; 22:5). ⇒ Being given the privilege of surrounding the throne of God (Re. 7:9–13; 20:4). ⇒ Being made priests (Re. 20:6). ⇒ Being made kings (Re. 1:5; 5:10). Rewards Dealing with Our Inheritance or Wealth ⇒ Being made an heir of God (Ro. 8:16–17; Tit. 3:7). ⇒ Being given an incorruptible inheritance (1 Pe. 1:3–4). ⇒ Being given the blessings of the Lord (Pr. 10:22). ⇒ Being given durable riches and righteousness (Pr. 8:18). ⇒ Being given unsearchable riches (Ep. 3:8). ⇒ Being given treasures in heaven (Mt. 19:21; Lu. 12:33). (Borrow Luke Commentary) ILLUSTRATION - Sometimes people say that they would give more to God’s work if they had more money to give. But that is not always so. Dr. D. James Kennedy told a story of a man who came to Peter Marshall, former chaplain of the United States Senate, with a concern about tithing. He said: “I have a problem. I have been tithing for some time. It wasn’t too bad when I was making $20,000 a year. I could afford to give the $2,000. But you see, now I am making $500,000, and there is just no way I can afford to give away $50,000 a year.” Dr. Marshall reflected on this wealthy man’s dilemma but gave no advice. He simply said: “Yes, sir. I see that you do have a problem. I think we ought to pray about it. Is that alright?” The man agreed, so Dr. Marshall bowed his head and prayed with boldness and authority. “Dear Lord, this man has a problem, and I pray that you will help him. Lord, reduce his salary back to the place where he can afford to tithe.” Honor System Read: Luke 16:1-10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much. —Luke 16:10 Many homes near ours offer produce and perennials for sale by the road. Sometimes we’ll drive up to an unattended stand that operates on the “honor system.” As we make our selection, we put our money into a cash box or an old coffee can. Then we go home to enjoy the freshly picked fruits and vegetables. But the honor system doesn’t always work. My friend Jackie has a flower stand in front of her house. One day, as she glanced out her window she saw a well-dressed woman with a big hat loading pots of perennials into the trunk of her car. Jackie smiled as she mentally calculated a $50 profit from her labors in the garden. But when she checked the cash box later, it was empty! The honor system revealed that this woman was not honorable. Perhaps to her, taking the flowers seemed like a small thing. But being honest in little things indicates how we will respond in the big things (Luke 16:10). Honesty in all areas of our lives is one way we can bring honor to Jesus Christ, our Savior. Give of your best to the Master; Give Him first place in your heart; Give Him first place in your service, Consecrate every part. —Grose Honesty means never having to look over your shoulder. Here is a summary from Rod Mattoon on Principles for Faithfulness a) Surrender the Care of Your Life to God Faithfulness comes from total confidence in God's plan, God's will, God's care, and God's guidance in your life. A sweet peace comes from releasing this care to Christ and putting your life, your comfort, and your safety into God's hands. This is why Peter told us to totally load our worries upon Him. 1 Peter 5:7— Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. b) Settle in Your Heart That Serving the Lord Is Not a Waste 1 Corinthians 15:58— Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labor is not in vain in the Lord. If you believe you are wasting your time in living for God, you are heading for defeat. You are going to quit. On the other hand, if you will understand the truth that what you do for Christ has eternal value, and that He is using you, even though you may not see it, it will help you to be faithful. Our responsibility is to be faithful and obedient to Christ and leave the rest to Him. He will reward us for our steadfastness. Revelation 2:10— Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. c) Shield Your Heart From Fear by Walking with God Daniel 6:4— Then the presidents and princes sought to find occasion against Daniel concerning the kingdom; but they could find none occasion nor fault; forasmuch as he was faithful, neither was there any error or fault found in him. Daniel had a close, intimate relationship with God. It was real. His love and devotion to the Lord was so great that he could not be intimidated by the death threats of others. The three Hebrew children refused to be intimidated by the death decree of Nebuchadnezzar. They were not going to bow to his idol, even if it meant their death. Their love for God emboldened them to remain faithful. Daniel 3:16-18... Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter. [17] If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king. [18] But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up. d) Set Your Sights On the Promises of God and Shadow God's Leading in Your Life In spite of the wicked society that Noah lived in, Noah faithfully believed God's warning and promise of deliverance. Because he was faithful, he saved the Human Race. Hebrews 11:7— By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith. Caleb was another man that did not get discouraged and turn his back on God. He was not afraid to trust the Lord and obey His commands because he wholly followed the Lord and claimed God's promises. He walked in the shadow of the Lord, letting Him lead his life. Joshua 14:8— Nevertheless my brethren that went up with me made the heart of the people melt: but I wholly followed the Lord my God. The Bible energizes, enthuses, encourages, and excites us in doing the will of God. It gives us hope when our circumstances seem hopeless and it gives us joy in the midst of trials, enabling us to "keep on keeping on." Make it a part of your life each day. Romans 15:4— For whatsoever things were written aforetime were written for our learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. Jeremiah 15:16a— Thy words were found, and I did eat them; and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of mine heart:.... e) Be Sincere and a Serious About Doing Your Best All the Time Matthew 25:21— His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord. Luke 16:10— He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in much: and he that is unjust in the least is unjust also in much. Faithful people do their best all the time, no matter how big or small the task may be. When we are faithful with smaller responsibilities, God will entrust us with greater responsibilities down the road. Faithfulness breeds more faithfulness. One reason why people do not get the promotion at work or are not given leadership responsibilities is because they are not faithful or dependable. You are asking for problems if you put people into leadership positions who are not faithful, whether it is work, school, or church. Proverbs 25:19— Confidence in an unfaithful man in time of trouble is like a broken tooth, and afoot out of joint. Let me ask, "Are you responsible? Do you show up on time? Are you prepared when you show up? Do you do your best when you perform your tasks?" f) Shun and Strip Your Life of Sinful Weights Hebrews 12:1— Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Sin is the boulder that bogs down the believer. Instead of strengthening you, it sponges the spiritual strength out of you. It does not lift you up; it drags you down. Sinful living damages and tears up your testimony for Christ, your tenacity in serving Him, your temperance or self control, your tenderness for others and the souls of men, and your tongue as what is truly in your heart comes out of your mouth. Sin takes, and takes, and takes. King David lost the joy of his salvation and the harmony in his home. Samson lost his freedom and his life. Achan lost his family and his life. The Prodigal Son lost his possessions and his purity. Lot lost his family and his peace as he was vexed by the wickedness of Sodom. These folks paid a price for being unfaithful. On the other hand, Moses was faithful and used of God because he shunned the sinful lifestyle of Egypt. He avoided the weights of sin that would have hindered him from doing what God was telling him to do. Hebrews 11:24-25... By faith Moses, when he was come to years, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; [25] Choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God, than to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season; g) See in Your Mind the Final Outcome of Your Faithfulness Men like Abraham and Moses were faithful and greatly blessed because they saw by faith what God had promised them. They saw Him who was invisible. Hebrews 11:8, 10— By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. [10] For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. Hebrews 11:13— These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Hebrews 11:27— By faith he (Moses) forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king: for he endured, as seeing him who is invisible. Jesus faithfully endured the cross because of the joy He saw in the future. He saw the salvation of the souls who would trust in Him and the joys of Heaven with His bride, the Church. Hebrews 12:2— Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. We too, can have the same joy as we see the Lord bless our giving, our labors for Him, and answer our prayers. Hearing His "Well done" and receiving His reward will motivate us to be faithful. Moses was faithful and looking forward to God's reward for him. He thought it was better to suffer for the sake of God than to own the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking ahead to his great reward. Hebrews 11:26— Esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt: for he had respect unto the recompense of the reward. Paul also was looking forward to the reward that the Lord had for him. 2 Timothy 4:7-8... I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: [8] Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. Beloved, you have only one life. Make it count for Christ. h) Squelch Any Distractions That Will Hinder You From Serving the Lord Nehemiah 6:3— So I sent messengers to them, saying, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down. Why should the work stop while I leave it and come down to you?” Nehemiah had the task of rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem. He faced all sorts of opposition in this project. As he began to accomplish what the Lord led him to do, men attempted to distract him from his goal. Nehemiah refused to be distracted and kept his focus on God's will. Beloved, if you are going to be faithful, you will have to deal with your distractions and not allow them to get you sidetracked or stop you from serving the Lord Jesus Christ. You will find that some of your greatest or most powerful distractions will be close friends or family that are not committed to the Lord at all. Paul was a great Christian because he knew how to remain focused on doing the will of God. Philippians 3:13-14... Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, [14] I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Demas, on the other hand, was a man that was distracted by the delights of this world. He is remembered as a quitter. 2 Timothy 4:10a— For Demas hath forsaken me, having loved this present world, and is departed unto Thessalonica;.... i) Set Your Sites On the Second Coming of Christ Knowing the Lord could come at any time will be a great motivator to remain steadfast and faithful in serving Him. The committed Christian does not want to shame his life by living in sin. If the Lord returns today, he wants the Lord to find him faithful. John, Peter, and Paul urged us to be alert and keep our eyes open for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The return of the Lord was a key factor in their faithfulness to Him. 1 John 2:28— And now, little children, abide in him; that, when he shall appear, we may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. Titus 2:13— Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; 2 Peter 3:12— Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat? [13] Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. [14] Where fore, beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace, without spot, and blameless. 2 Timothy 4:7-8... I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith: [8] Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also that love his appearing. j) Be Saturated or Filled with the Spirit of God Ephesians 5:18— And be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess; but be filled with the Spirit; The filling or control of the Holy Spirit of your life will do more for you in being faithful than anything else. Yield to His leading each day. Submit to His guidance. If you let Him pilot your life, He will not steer you in the wrong direction. The Holy Spirit will give you what you need to be faithful: peace and patience in times of pandemonium confidence, courage, and calm in chaos tenacity in times of trial or temptation submission and surrender to the scheme of God for your life The Holy Spirit is the flame of our passion and zeal. Warmed like a dove fledging in its downy nest, the Holy Spirit warms our heart like sunbeams on an October morning. His fragrance is like the breath of flowers blooming on a summer day. You cannot see Him, but you know His presence is near. His whisper in our soul is gentle like morning light. He offers calming assurance and strength that are as sweet as a fresh spring to a weary wanderer in a barren wilderness. His direction is clear, hopeful, and beautiful like sunbeams that peak through puffy, pewter clouds after a summer storm. Yet, His power should not be underestimated. Like gale winds from a rolling sea that shake and fill homes with its breath, I have seen the Spirit of God invade and sweep a church service in the same powerful manner, rattling the cages of men's hearts and moving them to brokenness and repentance. Beloved, when we finally become conscious and aware of the presence of God and His holiness, it is then we will enjoy revival in our own life, home, and church. What a valuable friend is He, who is frequently ignored, snubbed, spurned, or shunned by those believers He indwells. Yet, the Spirit of God is patient with us like a gentle stream that flows day by day through rolling hills and deep valleys. Though grieved and quenched, He still gently pleads with us to yield to His direction and His summons for fellowship with Him. He is our best friend, but unfortunately, we are not a best friend to Him. He is the key to our success at focusing and finishing what God leads us to do. When we fall in love with Him, when we fall in love with Jesus Christ all over again, we will see revival in our own lives. (Treasures from the Scriptures) Steven

Lucas 16

MacArthur - People’s perspective on money and their resulting faithfulness or unfaithfulness has implications for their eternal reward.

Lucas 16

MacArthur comments "Do you think God is going to reward you in eternity if you have frittered and wasted your opportunity, your stewardship? You can buy yourself endless junk and trinkets and creature comforts and earthly possessions, all the shallow, corrupting temporary things that burn up and when you come into the presence of the Lord do you expect Him to give you the true riches, literally the true things, that eternal reward that comes to those that are faithful?" See list of eternal rewards above. Stein - Since it is the use of this worldly wealth, not the possession of it which is condemned, worldly wealth is in itself neutral. The rich fool in the next parable is not culpable because he was wealthy but because he did not use his wealth to love God and his neighbor, Lazarus. (New American Commentary – Volume 24: Luke). Who will entrust (pisteuo) the true riches to you - The point as alluded to above is that God will not trust you if you put your trust in worldly wealth. In context "true riches" are riches that will endure forever! This makes me think of men like R.G. LeTourneau to whom God entrusted a great amount of the wealth of unrighteousness, for He trusted LeTourneau's character and attitude toward earthly wealth. (Read Why RG LeTourneau Gave 90 Percent - Woe! Are you as convicted as I am?) NET Note - Entrust you with the true riches is a reference to future service for God. The idea is like 1 Cor 9:11, except there the imagery is reversed. True riches - These are riches that belong to God's kingdom and thus endure forever, in contrast to "worldly wealth" which endures at best only for one's lifetime (and even here sometime gives out before we die). Jesus has already alluded to one of the most incredible riches any person could ever imagine and that is the glorious prospect that others with whom you have had some role in their salvation will be at the "gates" to "receive you into the eternal dwellings." Steven

Lucas 16

MacArthur explains "if you're sinful in the use of your money, who then is going to entrust to you the true riches? You're going to forfeit your reward and if you haven't been faithful in using what is God's, then who will give you that which is your own, which is another way of saying you're also going to forfeit your eternal reward. That which you look forward to you won't receive. We will all be in heaven, but we are all not going to have the same "welcome committee" nor are we all going to have the same reward.

Lucas 16

MacArthur - How do you describe hell? Conscious torment. A believer who dies is immediately in the conscious fellowship and joys of the heavenly experience. The damned are immediately in the conscious experience of pain, torment, torture. That the rich and Lazarus are where they are and experiencing what they are is a major point of Jesus' story. This is how it really is! (ED: THIS IS AN INTERESTING COMMENT BECAUSE MACARTHUR THINKS IT IS JUST A STORY). (Sermon - A Testimony of One Surprised to Be in Hell, Part 2)

Lucas 16

MacArthur says "Close to the host is the place of honor. They all knew it. They all sought the chief seats (Ed: See Lk 14:7-11-note). They knew what that was about. Close to the host is where you want to be; and when the Pharisee threw a dinner, the closer you were to the Pharisee who threw the dinner, the more the honored person you were; and, here, when you go to Heaven, you can’t get more honored than to be next to Abraham....Shut out from every table on earth, Lazarus is the guest of honor in the table of God." Jesus is making the contrast between the rich man's eternal fate and the poor man's eternal fate as striking as possible in an attempt to arrest the attention of His hearers and all who read this parable! He does not anyone to suffer the fate of the rich man! He knows that worldly wealth can deceive a man to such an extent that he fails to sense his desperate need for repentance and belief. The rich man thinks he has heaven on earth and surely will have heaven in heaven, but he will die and immediately realize his tragic mistake. But then it is too late. Paul citing Isaiah 49:8 applies the passage to stress the urgency of accepting God's grace and salvation in Christ without delay (cf Proverbs 27:1; James 4:13,14). He (God) says, “AT THE ACCEPTABLE TIME I LISTENED TO YOU, AND ON THE DAY OF SALVATION I HELPED (boetheo) YOU.” Behold, now is “THE ACCEPTABLE TIME,” Behold, now is “THE DAY OF SALVATION”. (2 Cor 6:2) Comment: Dear reader, if you have not accepted Christ as your Savior, do so TODAY, for you may not have a tomorrow (James 4:14). How tragic for you to read these fearful words of warning and yet still stubbornly refuse to repent and believe! To do so is to be foolish like the rich man in this parable! And you will be tormented in your conscience forever for having made such a foolish choice! Life has many choices, but eternity has only two! Choose wisely! Hades (86)(hades) is the transliteration of the Greek word Hades (from a = negative + eido = to see) literally means "not seen" or "unseen". The understanding of Hades is somewhat confusing, as it changes meaning somewhat from as one moves from the uses in the Old Testament into the uses in the New Testament . That said, in the OT Hades was used most often to describe the region of ALL departed souls. Everyone who die, whether righteous or unrighteous, is described as departing to Hades. But as we move into the NT, we see the progressive revelation of the term, so that Hades gains a more restricted sense and refers not to the place of ALL who die (believers and unbelievers as in the OT) but only to the abode of unbelievers. In other words, in the NT Hades comes to be synonymous with what we refer to as Hell. But to confuse the picture a little, you must realize that even in this sense of meaning "Hell" Hades is only a "temporary holding tank" so to speak, because as shown in Rev 20:14 (see below) Hades ceases to exist for it is thrown into the Lake of fire. Don't be confused. Hell is permanent and in Scripture is clearly described as such. The unrighteous dead will be resurrected in their bodies (The "Second Resurrection" - see Births, Deaths, and Resurrections.) at the Great White Throne judgment in Revelation 20:11-15-note and after being judged for their deeds in the body (to determine the degree of punishment in Hell), they are thrown into the Lake of fire which is synonymous with Gehenna. And as discussed below, Hades is also thrown into the Lake of fire (thus the reason it is referred to as temporary) and is never again described in Scripture. Other thoughts on Hades - In Homer hades is spelled Haides and means obscure, dark, invisible. Hades is used in the Septuagint where it translates the Hebrew words for Sheol and for death, once for silence (Ps 94:17, 115:17). Hades was the name of Greek god of underworld and then the term for the underworld itself. Hades is pictured as a prison for which Jesus holds the keys (Rev 1:18-\+). Many interpret Luke 16 as supporting the teaching that there are 2 compartments to Hades/Sheol. This may have been the arrangement before the time of the Cross, but note that if that is so in this verse we read "in Hades" contrasted with "far away". The question is this - is "far away" another side of Hades? It could mean that, but one wonders why the Spirit did not inspire Luke to record something like "far away… on the other side of Hades"? In other words, the location of "far away" is not unequivocally stated. And this is one reason many writers are not dogmatic about the compartmentalization of Hades. See note above for interesting OT uses of Hades for Sheol - the question is do these passages suggest that there were 2 compartments to Sheol/Hades? After considerable study on this subject, I cannot offer a dogmatic statement, which can be supported from Scripture. Hades - 10x in 10v - Every use of Hades in the Gospels is by Jesus. All 10 NT uses of Hades refer to the abode of the damned with the EXCEPTION of the the two uses in Acts 2:27 and Acts 2:31 which are quotes from the OT. These two uses in Acts use Hades in the same sense as it was most commonly used in the OT. In other words in Acts 2:27, 31 Hades refers to the "grave," or to the abode of the departed dead, not the abode of the damned. Note that if you read the King James Version, you may become confused because this version translates all the uses of hades as "Hell" with one exception (which it translates "grave" - 1 Cor 15:55KJV - but the Greek word Hades is not found in the more modern Greek manuscripts which have "O death" [Greek = thanatos] in place of "O grave" - 1Cor 15:55). So the KJV confuses the temporary location of the damned in Hades with the permanent location gehenna which is synonymous with the Lake of fire. Matt. 11:23; Matt. 16:18; Lk. 10:15; Lk. 16:23; Acts 2:27; Acts 2:31; Rev. 1:18; Rev. 6:8; Rev. 20:13; Rev. 20:14 Revelation 20:14-note Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. This verse makes it clear that Hades is temporary and is separate and distinct from the Lake of fire which is described as eternal as "forever and ever" in Rev 20:10. Tony

Lucas 16

MacArthur adds that the rich man "knows that his lineage is from Abraham. The Jews celebrated their lineage (Lk 1:55+, cf Lk 1:73+, Lk 13:16+, Lk 19:9+). They were the (physical) children of Abraham (ED: "We are Abraham's offspring" - Jn 8:33, 37, 39, 40. 52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59) They claimed their lineage over and over, and they used that as an argument against Jesus to validate their supposed legitimacy before God (Mt 3:9, Lk 3:8-note, Jn 8:33). But Jesus countered by saying, “There will be weeping and gnashing of teeth there when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being cast out." (Lk 13:28+) Father Abraham - Abraham was the father of the Jewish people (Lk 3:8; 13:16; 19:9; Ge 12:1–3). This phrase is found 12x in Scripture - Ge. 26:3; 26:18;26:24; 28:13;32:9; Jos. 24:3; Lk. 16:24; 30; Jn. 8:53, 56; Acts 7:2; Ro 4:12. Andrus writes - He calls to Father Abraham because he believes, as all Jews did, that being Jewish gave him automatic access to the father of the Jewish faith. Not so, says the Apostle Paul. "Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham." (Gal. 3:7-note) Shedd writes that "The principal deviation from the doctrine of endless retribution was in the Alexandrine school, founded by Clement and Origen. The position taken by them was that “the punishments of the condemned are not eternal, but only remedial, the devil himself being capable of amelioration...The strongest support of the doctrine of endless punishment is the teaching of Christ, the Redeemer of man....He took it upon himself to sound the note of warning. He, the judge of quick and dead, assumed the responsibility of teaching the doctrine of endless retribution: “But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him (ED: WHO? HIM WHO HAS THE AUTHORITY = JESUS HIMSELF. THE IRONY IS THE JUDGE WARNS OF THE HORRIBLE PENALTY. READ John 5:26-27)!.” (Lk 12:5-note) “Nothing,” says Dr. Arnold, “is more striking to me than our Lord’s own description of the judgment. It is so inexpressibly forcible, coming from His very own lips, as descriptive of what He Himself would do” Christ could not have warned men so frequently and earnestly as he did against “the fire that never shall be quenched” and “the worm that dies not” (Mk 9:48-note) had he known that there is no future peril fully corresponding to them. That omniscient being who made the statements respecting the day of judgment and the final sentence that are recorded in Matt. 25:31–46 could neither have believed nor expected that all men without exception will eventually be holy and happy.” (Systematic Theology) MacArthur makes the point that "Hell is not remedial. (Ed: Think "remedy") It’s punitive. (Ed: Think "punishment") Hell does not fix anybody. It doesn’t purge anybody. It doesn’t make anybody better. It has no remedial function. It is pure punishment....The rich man is not asking anything from God. Sometimes people think that when you got to hell, all of a sudden you want to love and serve God. No, there’s no interest in God, no interest in Christ. The merciless one now wants mercy, and he wants the mercy at the hands of the one to whom he was merciless! (ED: IN OTHER WORDS HE STILL VIEWS THINGS AS HE DID DURING LIFE. LAZARUS WAS HIS SERVANT...EVEN THOUGH HE IS IN HELL! TALK ABOUT SELF-DECEPTION!)...There’s no remorse in hell. There’s no humility in hell. There’s no brokenness in hell. All he wants is one thing. He’s not even asking to get out. His conscience would never release him from that. He knows he cannot. He knows he doesn’t deserve it. He only wants one thing. “Send Lazarus that he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue, for I am in agony in this flame. Couldn’t you send him to give me just a little relief?"...He wouldn’t give Lazarus a crumb, but he wants Lazarus to give him a drip....The souls of the damned know they’re doomed to suffer. They know they are suffering justly. All they ask for in the lips of this man are small moments of relief in this eternal, unending horror.... Real water is not going to sooth an eternally tortured soul. That is not the point. The message is the desperation of the damned for just the smallest moment of relief. This is the image of hell." (A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 2) This rich man was the same wretched, sinful man in hell that he had been during life! He had definitely not been remediated! So that (purpose clause) he may dip the tip of his finger in water and cool off my tongue (glossa), for (term of explanation) I am in agony (odunao) in this flame - So the rich man knew Lazarus as did his brothers. Note the dramatic shift regarding the way the rich lived during his life and now lived after his death (but still "alive", still conscious)! During life he could have anything he wanted to eat or drink but now he says he would be satisfied with just a single drop of water! I would call that a major shift in his perspective! But isn't that what death does to every soul? It forces us to shift our perspective from the temporal to the eternal, for all are either eternally in hell or eternally in heaven. There is no in between. There is no such thing as "Purgatory." (see note) Notice also how the rich man who had disregarded and failed to help Lazarus in life, now confined to hell sought Lazarus' help (recall his name means "God helps")! Since the rich man knew Lazarus' name, it implies he was aware of his plight. For I am in agony (odunao) in this flame indicates the rich man was in real torment even though he was dead. While it is not likely that his cry for water refers to a literal drop of water, Jesus' use of this figure of speech does point to the reality that the horror of hell is so terrible that this portrayal of even licking water from a fingertip would bring some relief. This is not about a real drop of water, but is about real relief. There will be no relief from the eternal torment of Hell! That's a horrible thought! Not even one drip from a fingertip of relief will ever hit the tongue of a soul eternally tormented in hell. While some interpret flame as literal, most commentators take it as a figure of speech. They reason how can Jesus say there is "outer darkness" in this place that also has fire which would suggest it has light? Another question is can a flame burn without consuming? Moses writes "the angel of the LORD appeared to him in a blazing fire from the midst of a bush; and he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, yet the bush was not consumed." (Ex 3:2+, cf the 3 Jewish boys where "the fire had no effect on the bodies" - Da 3:27+) Of course in this context, even a "figurative flame" speaks of intense suffering and pain for those who refuse to repent and believe in Jesus! And so we can argue over literal or non-literal fire and totally miss Jesus' main point here and that is that Hell is a place of torment. And if the symbol (fire, darkness, etc) is so terrible, how awful must be the real thing? Stedman on water and cool off my tongue - The water, of course, is a symbol of relief. His desiring to have Lazarus touch the tip of his tongue with a finger dipped in water is a symbol of some kind of relief for which he hopes. (The Main Thing) But in hell all hope is lost, for hope speaks of a present assurance that God will do good to one in the future. That will not come to pass in hell where their torment is forever and ever. Fire is frequently associated with final judgment of the unsaved Isaiah 66:24 “Then they will go forth and look On the corpses of the men Who have transgressed against Me. For their worm will not die And their fire will not be quenched (Lxx = geenna); And they will be an abhorrence to all mankind.” Tony

Lucas 16

MacArthur explains that Judas "was in it because he thought Jesus would bring the kingdom and he would be wealthy and rich and prominent in it. Pretty typical; he was moved by avarice." Another reason the Pharisees who were lovers of money were scoffing at Jesus is because He had just taught in Luke 16:9 to "make friends for yourselves by means of the wealth of unrighteousness, so that when it fails, they will receive you into the eternal dwellings." In other words Jesus was saying invest in God, not in yourself, which clearly would have convicted the greedy Pharisees. They had no interest in or intention of using their money for purposes that Jesus had just brought to their attention. Like they lover of money Judas, they were in religion for the money for themselves, not for God and His Kingdom. And so they were exposed and convicted by Jesus' words which motivated them to mock His words. They were like those people Jesus described in John 3:19-20+ “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. 20 “For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed." Jesus was the Light of the World (Jn 8:12) and His truth stirred up hostility, anger, animosity. In short, as Jesus taught in John 3:20, the Pharisees hated the Light! Why? Because their deeds were evil and they knew it! Wayne Barber defines lovers of Money as "prosperity seekers – they pursue and cherish money. A person working overtime to get wealthy qualifies as a lover of money. It doesn't matter if you are wealthy or not. The key is what is your motivation and how you got there. A lover of self will love money because money is what does for self what humanly speaking nothing else can do. Whereas Christianity seeks to put self on the Cross, money builds self up in the world's eyes. Application: How do you handle money? This will tell you where your heart is "for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also" (Mt 6:21-note) And we can find this in the ministry – "Name it and Claim it", "Get right with God and get rich." This message works in America but try preaching it in Romania. This message is like poison which will start with the dead ones and move eventually into the living ones and paralyze the things that God is wanting to do." The corresponding noun (philarguria) occurs in 1 Ti 6:10, where Paul explains that "the love of money is a root of ALL sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs." Indeed, the Pharisees wandered from the Truth of God's Word (missing the personification of Truth standing and speaking in their midst warning about money) and ironically would end up piercing their souls with many griefs, even as they cheered on the piercing of the Son of God on the Cross! TURNING UP THEIR NOSE TO JESUS! Were scoffing (ekmukterizo) at Him - Scoffing is imperfect tense indicating that they were deriding Jesus again and again. One pictures Him declaring profound truths and them scoffing each time.The contempt of the Pharisees for Jesus was visible! Woe! These religious bigots understood full well what Jesus was saying about money. But as with all who are of their "ilk" (lovers of money), they did not appreciate nor appropriate what He was saying. In fact to the contrary they mocked the Son of God! What began in Luke 15:2+ as grumbling and complaining had escalated in chapter 16 to open scoffing and mocking of God! And clearly their open mocking was intended to deter any of those following in the crowd from accepting that Jesus was the true Messiah. THOUGHT - Beloved, every false religion will target Jesus in one way or another. They may not do it openly (e.g., the Mormons claim to believe in Jesus), but their teachings will distort the truth that Jesus is the Son of God and that He Alone is "the way, and the truth, and the life" and absolutely "no one comes to the Father but through" Him. (John 14:6) It is only logical that, like the Pharisees, EVERY false religion must somehow attack the claim that "there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.” (Acts 4:12) So the next time someone tries to sell you a false religion, press them about what they believe the Bible teaches about Jesus! The Pharisees understood what Jesus was claiming and thus did all they could to invalidate His claims, until finally they were forced to kill Him! Bob

Lucas 16

MacArthur comments on the phrase those who justify yourselves - "People in false religion that they are self-justifying. This is absolutely unmistakable and is really one of the great definitions of false religion. Pharisaic Judaism is a system of self-justification, making your self-righteous by ritual and by maintaining certain standards and laws and ethical codes and traditions, making yourself acceptable to God by your works. (Why False Teachers Mock the Truth, Part 1) Self-justification before God is impossible as Jesus taught in the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 11 “The Pharisee stood and was praying this to himself: ‘God, I thank You that I am not like other people: swindlers, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 ‘I fast twice a week; I pay tithes of all that I get.’ (NOTICE HIS EMPHASIS ON HIS WORKS = "THOSE WHO JUSTIFY YOURSELVES") 13 “But the tax collector, standing some distance away, was even unwilling to lift up his eyes to heaven, but was beating his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, the sinner!’ 14 “I tell you, this man went to his house justified (dikaioo) rather than the other (THE PHARISEE); for everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:10-14+) THOUGHT - Let's pause a moment and apply this section which was directed primarily at the Pharisees - Is Jesus' statement not also directed at every soul that seeks to justify himself or herself by their own works? Have you ever asked a person "Where are you going when you die?" And if they respond, as many do, "Well, I think I'm going to heaven." And you follow up with the question of "Why do you think you're going to heaven?" One of the most common replies I hear is "I'm a good person and try to do more good than bad." (Watch this 2 minute video in which men and women on the street were asked "How does a person get to heaven?") They may even say "I believe in Jesus," but they still place their emphasis on their good works meriting God's favor when they die, which is same approach of the self-justifying Pharisees. Paul addresses this false belief in Romans 10 writing Brethren, my heart’s desire and my prayer to God for them (THE JEWS) is for their salvation. 2 For I testify about them that they have a zeal for God, but not in accordance with knowledge. 3 For not knowing about God’s righteousness (IN OTHER WORDS THEY DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW HOLY GOD IS AND THAT HE REQUIRES ABSOLUTE PERFECT RIGHTEOUSNESS IN SINFUL MEN) and seeking to establish their own (LIKE THE PHARISEES IN Lk 16:15), they did not subject themselves to the righteousness of God. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes (IN SHORT GOD ACCEPTABLE RIGHTEOUSNESS IS RECKONED ONLY TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST, NOT TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN THEIR "RIGHTEOUS" WORKS OR EVEN TO THOSE WHO BELIEVE IN CHRIST PLUS THEIR WORKS. SALVATION IS BY BELIEF IN CHRIST ALONE!). (Romans 10:1-4-note) Jesus speaks to the self-justification of the Pharisees in Matthew 23 “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from people (WHY? BECAUSE THEY REJECTED CHRIST AND FAILED TO TEACH THE PEOPLE ABOUT THEIR NEED TO BELIEVE IN HIM - THEY DID NOT HAVE THE "KEY" WHICH IS THE GOSPEL); for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in. (Mt 23:13) But God knows (ginosko) your hearts (kardia) - But is a strategic term of contrast. Whenever you encounter a BUT, consider the "5P's" - Pause to Ponder the Passage then Practice it in the Power of the Spirit. What's the clear contrast in this case? The contrast is between outward or external (in the sight of men) and in inward or internal reality (in the sight of God), because God knows what is in every person's heart. What's Jesus saying? While we might see the "religious acts" of the Pharisees as having a form of righteousness (cf 2 Ti 3:5), we cannot see their hearts. We can't know what motivates them. Jesus is saying that God is not fooled by their external acts, for He Alone can judge the motives, thoughts and intentions of a man's heart (see 1 Cor 4:5+, Heb 4:12+). This of course includes Jesus for John 2:25+ says "He did not need anyone to testify concerning man, for He Himself knew what was in man." Bob

Lucas 16

MacArthur adds a pithy comment on these men who desire to make a good showing in the flesh - They’re trying to appear righteous...noble....virtuous. You know that's what is behind all the garb that ministers, priests and sometimes preachers wear? There's no priesthood anymore, for we are all a kingdom of priests (cf 1 Pe 2:9)....None of us needs to go around with funny clothes and weird hats and setting ourselves apart as if we're some kind of transcendent human being....It is all about show...about what people think (about a desire to make a good showing in the flesh). In the Sermon on the Mount Jesus was very clear when He warned "Beware of practicing your righteousness before men (WHY? WHAT WAS THEIR MOTIVATION?) to be noticed by them; otherwise you have no reward with your Father who is in heaven. So when you give to the poor, do not sound a trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets (AGAIN WHAT IS THEIR MOTIVE?), so that they may be honored by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full.... 5 “When you pray, you are not to be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners (MOTIVE?) so that they may be seen by men. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full....16“Whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face as the hypocrites do, for they neglect their appearance (MOTIVE?) so that they will be noticed by men when they are fasting. Truly I say to you, they have their reward in full. (Mt 6:1-2+, Mt 6:5+, Mt 6:16+) For that which is highly esteemed (hupselos) among men is detestable (bdelugma) in the sight of God - Jesus is God and so He knows their hearts (cf Jn 2:25) and that all of their religious activities were a facade to impress men. Detestable is a strong word indicating God's utter hatred of religious hypocrisy, an "art form" which the Pharisees had mastered (before men but not before God!) Bob

Lucas 16

MacArthur explains "The Old Testament era, the era of promise, concluded with the ministry of John the Baptist, the last of the Old Testament prophets. In addition to being the final representative of the Old Testament era of promise, John was also the first representative of the New Testament era of fulfillment; his ministry bridged the two eras. He not only predicted Messiah’s appearance, but also witnessed it. Because of his unique position and his privilege to be Messiah’s forerunner, Jesus declared John to have been the greatest person who had ever lived up until his day (Mt. 11:11). In his outpouring of praise to God, John’s father, Zacharias, had noted the fulfillment of the Old Testament promises in the coming of the Messiah (Lk 1:67-79). John’s ministry reached its climax when he baptized Jesus the Messiah. The transition from John to Jesus, from the Old Testament era of promise to the New Testament era of fulfillment was complete. “He must increase,” John said of Jesus, “but I must decrease” (John 3:30). Not long afterward, John was imprisoned and executed by being beheaded (Mt 14:3-12). (See Luke Commentary) (Bolding added) Leon

Lucas 16

MacArthur comments on Matthew's use of biazo which as emphasized above is not the same context as Luke's use - The form of biazō (from which suffers violence comes) can be read as either a Greek passive voice or middle voice. As a passive voice, it would carry the idea of being oppressed or treated violently, which would indicate that violence is brought on the kingdom of heaven by those outside of it. The Pharisees and scribes had attacked John verbally, and Herod had attacked him physically. The kingdom was being violently denied and rejected; and because it was being rejected in its spiritual dimension, the kingdom would not come in its earthly, millennial dimension. Soon the enemies of the kingdom would kill not only John but even the Messiah Himself. They would destroy both the herald and the King. In the middle voice the verb carries the active idea of applying force or of entering forcibly—in which case the translation would be, "The kingdom of heaven is vigorously pressing itself forward, and people are forcefully entering it." With its focus in John the Baptist, the Kingdom moved relentlessly through the godless, sin-darkened human system that opposed it. The first (passive voice) of those two interpretations is negative and the second is positive (middle voice); but both are true. As already seen, the negative is illustrated by the persecution of John. The positive is illustrated by the many people that John's preaching led to the Lord, just as the angel predicted: "He will turn back many of the sons of Israel to the Lord their God. And it is he who will go as a forerunner before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers back to the children, and the disobedient to the attitude of the righteous; so as to make ready a people prepared for the Lord" Lk 1:16-17. Although both interpretations are possible and true, the second seems preferable in the context. Jesus had already taught that the few who enter the kingdom do so by first finding and then entering the narrow gate and walking the narrow way (Mt. 7:13-14). He also said that citizenship in His kingdom requires denying self, taking up one's cross, and following Him (Mt 16:24; cf. Mt 10:38). Following the Lord demands earnest endeavor, untiring energy, and the utmost exertion (ED: CLEARLY THIS IMPLIES THAT SUCH A PERSON IS ENABLED SUPERNATURALLY BY THE SPIRIT TO CARRY OUT SELF-DENIAL, ETC. IN OTHER WORDS "SELF" IS NOT GOING TO DENY SELF!). To be a Christian is to swim against the flow of the world, to go against its grain, because the adversary—Satan, his demons, and the world system—are extremely powerful. Those who enter the kingdom of grace through faith in Christ do so with great effort through the sovereign power of the convicting and converting Holy Spirit (ED: AND SUCH CONVERTS MUST THEREAFTER CONTINUALLY RELY ON THE SPIRIT'S POWER - SEE Galatians 3:3+). (See Matthew Commentary) (Bolding added) Walter Kaiser - Forcefully into the Kingdom? - See page 444 Hard Sayings of the Bible Matthew (Mt 11:12) and Luke (Lk 16:16) appear to present us here with two versions of one and the same original saying. We have to try to determine what each of the two versions means in the context in which either Evangelist has placed it; then, if possible, we have to determine what the original saying meant in the context of Jesus’ ministry. Both versions agree on this: the ministry of John the Baptist was an epoch marking the end of one age and the approach of a new. “All the prophets and the law prophesied until John” (Mt 11:13 RSV). John himself belonged rather to the old age than to the new. He is viewed as being the last and greatest of the “goodly fellowship of the prophets”; while he was the herald of the new order he did not actually participate in it. When his public ministry was forcibly ended by his imprisonment, that was the signal for Jesus to embark on his ministry in Galilee, with the proclamation that the kingdom of God had drawn near. “Since that time,” says Jesus in Luke’s version of his words, “the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached.” That was a statement of fact, which his hearers must have recognized. But in what sense is everyone forcing his way into it, or “enter[ing] it violently” (RSV)? Luke includes his version in a series of sayings inserted between the story of the dishonest steward and the story of the rich man and Lazarus and linked together by the general theme of law. “Everyone forces his way in,” says the NEB; the TEV has the same wording. This might suggest something like a universal gate-crashing, which does not tally too well with some other sayings of Jesus on the relative few who will enter the kingdom, such as “Make every effort to enter through the narrow door; because many, I tell you, will try to enter and will not be able to” (Lk 13:24; Mt 7:13–14). But perhaps the meaning is “Everyone who enters must force his way in,” which implies the same kind of determined and vigorous action as “Make every effort to enter” or “Strive to enter” (RSV). So far as the Lukan version of the saying goes, this could well be its meaning. It was no doubt this interpretation of it that moved an eighteenth-century hymn-writer to say, in language which probably sounded less strange in his contemporaries’ ears than it does in ours: O may thy mighty word Inspire each feeble worm To rush into thy kingdom, Lord, And take it as by storm! But Matthew’s version now demands our attention. Where Luke says, “The good news of the kingdom of God is being preached,” Matthew says, “The kingdom of heaven has suffered violence.” But there is an ambiguity in the particular form of the Greek verb in this clause; it may have passive force, meaning “has been treated with violence” or “has been suffering violence,” or it may have intransitive force, meaning “has been acting violently” or “has been forcing its way in.” It could be said in favor of this last interpretation that in the ministry of Jesus the kingdom of heaven was on the march, taking the field against the forces of evil that held the souls and bodies of men and women in bondage. The mighty works that were an essential part of his ministry were the “powers of the age to come” invading the present age and establishing a beach-head on its territory that was destined to expand until nothing of the old order was left. If the passive force of the verb be preferred, then Jesus says that from the time of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven has been violently attacked. This meaning too could fit the setting of the words. Matthew records them among several of Jesus’ sayings about John (including the description of him as unsurpassed among those born of women), which he appends to the incident of John’s messengers who were sent to question Jesus. It could be said that the imprisonment of John the Baptist (with his ensuing execution) was one instance of a violent attack on the kingdom of heaven by forces opposed to it—whether one thinks of human forces or demonic forces using men as their instruments. Further attacks were to be experienced until they reached their climax in the arrest and crucifixion of Jesus himself. The same meaning could be attached to the following clause: “and men of violence take it by force” or “men of violence seize it.” In that case, the two clauses say very much the same thing. But the “men of violence” need not be those who violently attacked the kingdom which Jesus proclaimed. There were other “men of violence” around at the time—those who came to be known as the party of the Zealots. They were passionately devoted to the bringing in of the kingdom of God, but their methods were clearly contrary to those which Jesus practiced and recommended. The kingdom of God, as they understood it, was a new order in which the Jewish people would live in freedom from Gentile rule, subject to no king but the God of their fathers. This new order could be introduced only by the forcible expulsion of the occupying Roman power from Judea. Many of Jesus’ hearers could remember the revolt of one such “man of violence,” Judas the Galilean, in A.D. 6. That revolt was crushed by the Romans, but the spirit which inspired it lived on. It could be said that men of this outlook were trying to take the kingdom of God by force, and on the whole it seems most probable that Jesus was referring to them. Matthew’s wording, then, seems to mean that, despite the setback which the cause of God might have seemed to suffer by the imprisonment of John the Baptist, his kingdom has in reality been advancing irresistibly ever since. Men of violence may attempt to speed its progress by armed force, but that is not the way in which its triumph will be assured. When Luke’s account and Matthew’s are compared, it appears that Matthew’s wording is more relevant to the immediate circumstances of Jesus’ ministry, while Luke’s wording generalizes the application of the saying, showing how its principle continued to work itself out in the worldwide proclamation and progress of the gospel. The good news was still being made known, and it still called for courage and resolution to enter the kingdom of God. Luke 16:17 "But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail. KJV Luke 16:17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. But it is easier for heaven and earth to pass away Luke 21:33; Ps 102:25-27; Isaiah 51:6; Mt 5:18; 2 Pe 3:10; Rev 20:11; 21:1,4 than for one stroke of a letter of the Law to fail Isaiah 40:8; Ro 3:31; 1 Pe 1:25 Luke 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Luke 16:14-18 Scoffing or Submitting? - Steven Cole Luke 16:16-18 Why False Teachers Mock the Truth, Part 3 - John MacArthur THE DURATION OF GOD'S LAW Jesus gave a parallel teaching in the Sermon on the Mount “For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke (= keraia, the same word used here in Lk 16:17) shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished." (Matthew 5:18-note) John MacArthur explains that "No other statement made by our Lord more clearly states His absolute contention that Scripture is verbally inerrant, totally without error in the original form in which God gave it. That is, Scripture is God’s own Word not only down to every single written word, but down to every letter and the smallest part of every letter. (MacArthur, J: Matthew 1-7 Macarthur New Testament Commentary Chicago: Moody Press) But - He had just spoken of the coming of the new era of preaching the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. The "but" introduces a contrasting thought that the new had come but the old was not thereby invalidated. "His point is that what God spoke through Moses and the prophets will be fulfilled, down to the very minutiae. God’s Word, as Jesus says in Jn 5:39, bears witness of Him." (Cole)

Lucas 16

MacArthur adds that 'Unbelievers flippantly (idea of inappropriate levity) and frequently tell people to go to hell. Unbelievers don not seem to have any hesitation to talk about hell and to verbally threaten people with it, but on the other hand the church is reluctant to warn people NOT to go to hell! The church avoids hell ostensibly out of love, compassion, concern and a desire to be accepted by unbelievers. So while unbelievers frequently have the word hell on their lips, believers rarely have it on theirs, but it is the fearfulness and horror of hell that is exactly the point of its Biblical revelation. God's purpose in telling us about hell with such detail and repetition is to produce in sinners a sense of fear, terror, and even panic. In other words, the truth of hell is taught in Scripture to frighten and horrify unbelievers, so as to produce in them a fear of spending forever in hell (cf Jesus' words in Mt 10:28), a fear which in turn drives them in the direction of repentance and faith in the Gospel. (A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 2) Homer Simpson said, “I’m not a bad guy! I work hard, and I love my kids. So why should I spend half my Sunday hearing about how I’m going to hell?” (One wonders which church he is referring to as few churches preach on this topic!) See the Simpson's absurd trivialization of Hell where he says "I'd sell my soul for a donut!" Is it any wonder that our culture laughs away the doctrine of Hell as if it were a joke! MacArthur - Most people, certainly most people in the Western world who've had any exposure to Christianity whatsoever, think they're going to heaven; and that is largely affirmed by clergymen and religious leaders. Ninety percent of Americans believe in God; 85 percent say they believe in Jesus. Certainly, these people all think they're headed for heaven. I'm quite sure that hell is populated mostly with people who are shocked to find themselves there. People typically answer the question, "Are you going to heaven?" with, "Well, I'm a good person. I'm a religious person. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I'm going to heaven. God certainly wouldn't send me to hell." Hell is full of surprised people. That's really what this story is about — a man who was shocked to find himself in hell. Equally shocking to those who listen to the story was the idea that the other man was in heaven. This was contrary to all of their expectations. (Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1) John Lennon was sadly mistaken when he wrote a popular song in the 1970’s called "Imagine". What if the Biblical pictures of hell as a place of endless punishment and suffering are true? Sadly I don't think John Lennon has to imagine today! Imagine there's no heaven It's easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today. USAGE OF THE WORD "HELL" OVER TIME Our society is now using the word "Hell" so frequently and flippantly that the majority of people (even believers) have in effect become "desensitized" to the true meaning of the word as used in the Bible! The subterfuge of Satan surely has some part in this "cover up!" An old Puritan writer had a good antidote for modern malaise concerning hell "Meditate much on hell. Let us go into hell by contemplation that we may not go into hell by condemnation! (see complete devotional) George Sweeting writes that "One of the greatest paintings of all time is Michelangelo's The Last Judgment. The action of the painting centers on Christ as He raises His arm in a gesture of damnation (see picture). Though some elements of the painting appear unbiblical, at that time its message reminded people of God's holy presence, which had been forgotten in the humanism of the day. The painting pictures the dead as they are resurrected to be judged (Rev 20:12). As hell releases its captives, the Judge of Heaven reviews their works (Rev 20:13). The entire painting reflects the despair of that generation. When the painting was unveiled, a storm of conviction fell upon the viewers. All Europe trembled as the story of the power of The Last Judgment traveled from city to city. (Great Quotes & Illustrations) We need to be sure to understand the cultural context of the Jews in Jesus' day to really be able to fully understand the impact of Jesus' words. In other words we don't want to read this story with "modern eyes" in an attempt to make it relevant to modern life. The Bible is always relevant to all of life. So it behooves us to "put on our toga and sandals" and go back to the cultural context of Jesus' day. Remember that context is always king in interpretation and in this case we need to set the CULTURAL context. Toward that end many of the notes that follow will give the cultural background to aid your understanding. As you begin this section remember that Jesus is directing this parable about a poor man (Lazarus) and a rich man (unnamed) to the Pharisees (cf Lk 17:1 where He turns to address His disciples) who were lovers of money (Luke 16:14). The Pharisees had a theology which accommodated their health and wealth doctrines, for they believed (as did most of the Jews of that time) that the more wealth one possessed, the greater he was blessed by God! If the Pharisees were alive today they would undoubtedly be adherents of the modern "prosperity Gospel" propounded by the false teachers on television! In short, the Pharisees had the contorted belief that loving and pursuing money was equivalent to loving God and pursuing blessing. It follows that the Pharisees would (at least initially) readily identify with the rich man, who to them was a symbol of a life richly blessed by God! They would see the poor man as one who was in his condition (to which they were indifferent and uncaring, cf Lk 15:1-2-note), because he was not blessed by God. To establish the context which will help us grasp the truth of this parable, remember that the theology of the Pharisees included a belief the following: life after death, a divine judgment, a place called Heaven and a place called Hell. And of course because of their external "devotion" and works based righteousness, NO GOOD PHARISEE would have expected there was even the slightest chance they would end up in Hell! And so while they would have identified with the rich man in this story, you can imagine their shock when the rich man ended up in hell! One the major points of Jesus' parable is that many who think they are on the road to heaven, will tragically find themselves in hell when they die! And so while some readers might react negatively to Jesus' words in this parable, the truth is that this parable reflects Jesus' great mercy and compassion. Why? Because Jesus is clearly warning people who hold to a deceptive, dangerous doctrine that they will go to heaven when they die based solely on their "good" life. In stark contrast Jesus is saying that when they die, they will be shocked, because they will find themselves in hell! The rich man no more expected to find himself in eternal torment than the Pharisees who were lovers of money. They were among those who gained the world and lost their soul. This recalls Jesus' piercing question in Lk 9:25-note "For what is a man profited if he gains the whole world (LIKE THE RICH MAN OR THE PHARISEES), and loses or forfeits himself (HIS SOUL - Mt 16:26, Mk 8:36)?" Jesus gave a similar warning about one's eternal destiny in Lk 13 when He commanded His listeners (and all men) to "Strive (present imperative - command to continually strive) to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; 27 and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; DEPART (aorist imperative - command to do this immediately) FROM ME, ALL YOU EVILDOERS (ED: THIS IS THE KEY - THEIR LIFESTYLE WAS ONE OF EVIL. THEY HAD NEVER EXPERIENCED INNER TRANSFORMATION THAT COMES BY GRACE THROUGH FAITH).’ 28 (NOW JESUS PROCEEDS TO GIVE A DESCRIPTION OF THE ETERNAL TORMENTS OF HELL) “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out. 29 “And they will come from east and west and from north and south, and will recline at the table in the kingdom of God. 30“And behold, some are last who will be first and some are first who will be last.” (Lk 13:24-30-note) Comment: Notice that in this passage Jesus is giving the same warning as in Lk 16:19-31. Clearly those who said "We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets" assumed that they would find themselves in the Kingdom of God at the great banquet with the Patriarchs when they died, but in fact they would be shocked to find themselves outside the glorious Kingdom of God! THOUGHT - How should we as followers of Christ react to Jesus' words of sober warning? Clearly, we who are stewards of the Gospel of Christ and filled with His Spirit (and supernatural boldness - Acts 4:31) must "be found trustworthy" (1 Cor 4:1-2+, cf 1 Pe 4:10+ = "stewards of the manifold grace of God." = YOU HAVE A STEWARDSHIP WHETHER YOU KNOW IT OR NOT!) and must not shy away from warning others about the unimaginable terrors of hell, for that is the most loving, compassionate, gracious and Christ-like thing we can do during our short stay on earth. Imagine those who have lived next to as our neighbors for years, those who have been our close associates at work or business for years, those special folks we went to school with and still celebrate reunions with (Suggestion - send your testimony to your high school reunion email list which is what I did several months ago but got not a single response!) and then they die without repenting and believing in Christ and find themselves in shock and in hell, wondering "Why didn't my Christian neighbor/associate even warn me about the divine, righteous wrath to come?" ILLUSTRATION - Many years ago the great Southern evangelist John R. Rice preached in Waxahachie, Texas, just south of Dallas. As was his custom, Dr. Rice preached hard against sin and hell (see Dr Rice's excellent, Biblically based 36 page pamphlet entitled "Hell What the Bible says About It" - see reviews), especially against the bootleggers bringing illegal liquor into that small Texas town. Eventually the powers that be decided that this pesky evangelist must be silenced. They sent a message to stop preaching or they would kill him. “You can’t threaten me with heaven,” he replied. (And all God's people said "Amen!") (ED: RICE ONCE PREACHED A SERMON ENTITLED "Diseased, Decaying Bodies with Undying Maggots and Unquenched Fire in Hell"! WOE! THAT MAY BE A BIT TOO HARSH! I AM NOT SURE BODIES DECAY IN HELL AND SEE NO PASSAGES ON MAGGOTS - WE NEED TO REMEMBER TO BE BIBLICAL IF IT IS TO BE BELIEVABLE!) Related Resources from Radio Bible Class to encourage you to be a Spirit-filled, faithful, bold witness of Christ (Acts 1:8+): Truth with Love- Sharing the Story of Jesus How Can I Break The Silence? - Strategies for sharing faith in Christ How Can I Share My Faith Without An Argument? - Letting God do the work of evangelism (Or here) What If It’s True? Examining Four Important Spiritual Questions Life to Come (Or here) Beyond Reasonable Doubt: The Truth About the Bible (Or here) Why Does It Make Sense To Believe In Christ? - Evidence for the reasonableness of Christian faith (Or here) What Is A Personal Relationship With God? - Conditions for knowing God What About Those Who Have Never Heard? - The plight of those without the gospel Why We Believe - Evidences for Christian Faith What Does The Bible Say About Hell? Rescue the Perishing -- Fanny Crosby Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Snatch them in pity from sin and the grave; Weep o’er the erring one, lift up the fallen, Tell them of Jesus, the mighty to save. Refrain Rescue the perishing, care for the dying, Jesus is merciful, Jesus will save. Though they are slighting Him, still He is waiting, Waiting the penitent child to receive; Plead with them earnestly, plead with them gently; He will forgive if they only believe. Refrain Down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter, Feelings lie buried that grace can restore; Touched by a loving heart, wakened by kindness, Chords that were broken will vibrate once more. Refrain Rescue the perishing, duty demands it; Strength for thy labor the Lord will provide; Back to the narrow way patiently win them; Tell the poor wand’rer a Savior has died. Refrain Fanny Crosby tells the story of how she came to write Rescue the Perishing... It was written in the year 1869, when I was forty-nine years old. Many of my hymns were written after experiences in New York mission work. This one was thus written. I was addressing a large company of working men one hot summer evening, when the thought kept forcing itself on my mind that some mother's boy must be rescued that night or not at all. So I made a pressing plea that if there was a boy present who had wandered from his mother's home and teaching, he would come to me at the close of the service. A young man of eighteen came forward and said, 'Did you mean me? I promised my mother to meet her in heaven, but as I am now living that will be impossible.' We prayed for him and he finally arose with a new light in his eyes and exclaimed in triumph, 'Now I can meet my mother in heaven, for I have found God!' (Ed: He had entered through the strait gate that leads to heaven. Hallelujah! May his tribe increase. Amen) A few days before, Mr. Doane had sent me the subject “Rescue the Perishing,” and while I sat there that evening the line came to me, “Rescue the perishing, care for the dying.” I could think of nothing else that night. When I arrived it my home I went to work on it at once; and before I retired the entire hymn was ready for a melody. The next day my words were written and forwarded to Mr. Doane, who wrote the beautiful and touching music as it now stands. In November, 1903 (Ed: year hymn written = 1869), I went to Lynn, Massachusetts, to speak before the Young Men’s Christian Association. I told them the incident that led me to write “Rescue the Perishing," as I have just related it. After the meeting a large number of men shook hands with me, and among them was a man, who seemed to be deeply moved. You may imagine my surprise when he said, “Miss Crosby, I was the boy, who told you more than thirty-five years ago that I had wandered from my mother’s God. The evening that you spoke at the mission I sought and found peace, and I have tried to live a consistent Christian life ever since. If we never meet again on earth, we will meet up yonder.” As he said this, he raised my hand to his lips (Ed: as you doubtless know Fanny was blind); and before I had recovered from my surprise he had gone; and remains to this day a nameless friend, who touched a deep chord of sympathy in my heart. It is these notes of sympathy that vibrate when a voice calls them forth from the dim memories of the past, and the music is celestial. (Fanny Crosby's personal testimony) Comment: Please take a moment to watch and listen to the vocal rendition of Rescue The Perishing based largely on Fanny Crosby's famous hymn (Hint: Select Full Screen view for maximum impact). Beloved I will be amazed if you can watch and listen to this youtube video of Fanny Crosby's classic hymn without weeping. May our hearts break for what breaks our Father's heart and may His Spirit so fill us that His Good News "becomes like a burning fire" (Jer 20:9 23:29) in our bosom and we cannot hold it in for the sake of Jesus Who is Mighty To Save. (Hillsong version) Amen In his book The Doctrine of Eternal Punishment, Harry Buis writes "That keen European thinker Berdyaev says, "It is remarkable how little people think about hell or trouble about it. This is the most striking evidence of human frivolity." Schilder makes a similar and more detailed analysis of the situation when he says, "What is hell? When you place this question before the modern cosmopolitan man of our day, who is satiated with hyper-culture, then his answer is ready: Hell is a figment of the imagination! Hell? Well, this shadowy frightfulness which is implied in the word, as man says, can't be anything other than a notion of founders of religions and of priests and lying prophets, wherewith they deceive the masses, and the world which wants to be deluded, in order to fill their empty pockets in this life with the preaching of the total emptying of the sinner in the hereafter...they tell you bluntly, that the world doesn't believe any more in hell." (Preface) Keep in mind that Jesus, Who we are called to imitate (1 Cor 11:1, 1 Peter 2:21, 1 Jn 2:6, etc), repeatedly warned about Hell. In fact, because of His infinite love and boundless compassion for mankind, He spoke more about the horrors of Hell than any other person in Scripture! God's primary desire is not to destroy us but to save us as the Scriptures clearly attest... “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. (John 3:16) The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing (boulomai in present tense = continually not desiring) for any to perish (apollumi) but for ALL to come to repentance (metanoia). (2 Peter 3:9-note) (God our Savior) who desires (thelo in present tense = continually desires) ALL men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Ti 2:4) To summarize, this parable is about 2 men, a poor man who goes to heaven and a rich man who goes to hell. And note that most of the text in Lk 16:19-31 focuses on the fate of the rich man with only minimal attention being given to the poor man. Clearly, the purpose of this parable is to serve as a warning to the rich Pharisees and all of their ilk who also are deceived and hold the false belief that they are going to heaven when they die but instead will find themselves in hell! Jesus knows this is not a comfortable subject to address, but He also knows it is absolutely necessary so that men might understand the grave danger they are in when they reject Him and refuse to believe His Gospel. As horrible as this subject is to talk about, it is sorely needed that it might cause all readers to contemplate their eternal destiny and to repent and believe in Jesus while today is still called today (cf Heb 3:13). It is only fitting that the Lord Jesus Christ Who is the Judge of the living (born again believers) and the dead (unregenerate) (2 Ti 4:1), is the One Who to give this parable two men and two destinies. Jesus employed the most graphic language to describe what hell is like: fire (Mt 5:22; Mt 18:9); eternal fire (Mt 18:8); destruction (Mt 7:13); away from his presence (Mt 7:23); thrown outside (Mt 8:12; 22:13; 25:30); blazing furnace (Mt 13:42); darkness (Mt 22:13; 25:30); eternal punishment (Mt 25:46); weeping and gnashing of teeth (Mt 8:12; 13:42; 13:50; 22:13; 24:51). Jesus twice used the word eternal (Mt 18:8; 25:46) to convey that the punishment of nonbelievers would continue forever. John MacArthur says that this parable "Could be called “The Great Reversal”, “A Reluctant Witness From Hell,” “How to Think You’re Going to Heaven and End Up In Hell.” Most people in the Western world who have had exposure to Christianity, think they are going to Heaven; and that is largely affirmed by clergymen and religious leaders. (A recent survey revealed that virtually all the people who believe in heaven also believe they will go there - Gallup poll survey, 10-13 May 2007) I’m quite sure that hell is populated mostly with people who are shocked to find themselves there. People typically answer the question, “Are you going to Heaven?” with, “Well, I’m a good person. I’m a religious person. I believe in God. I believe in Jesus. I’m going to Heaven. God certainly wouldn’t send me to hell.” Hell is full of surprised people. That’s really what this story is about—a rich man who was shocked to find himself in hell. Equally shocking to those who listened to the story was the idea that the poor man was in Heaven. This was contrary to all expectations. Related Resources: Pie Chart surveys on "Who Can Go to Heaven," Another survey; Survey of belief in God; Heaven and hell; 2014 Pew poll on heaven/hell Why is the idea of eternal damnation so repulsive to many people? MacArthur goes on to give a description of hell - To live life without this hope would make life excruciating and unbearable. But what if everything in your life was as bad as it could be. Take everything bad that has ever happened in your life, roll it all into one experience, and make it permanent. All the pain, all the disappointment, all the failure, all the hatred, all the bitterness, all the fear, all the anxiety, and experience that to the full, and then add the fact that you have no hope. It will never get better. Such knowledge would compound and exacerbate your suffering exponentially. If you were in the severest torture and the most profound, relentless torment physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally, and you were suffering in all those things at the same time and knew there would never be one moment of relief, and that nothing would ever change....I just described hell. It is the place of the most profound suffering, compounded infinitely by the realization that it lasts forever, and nothing will ever change. (A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1) As Rod Mattoon says Jesus' "story provides great comfort for those who know Christ as their Savior. It should instill terror in your heart if you have never put your faith in Christ because it describes what will happen to you after your death." (Treasures from the Scriptures) A recent survey revealed that virtually all the people who believe in heaven also believe they will go there (Gallup poll survey, 10-13 May 2007). Such was the case with the rich man in this story. Both to himself and to others, he would have seemed like a lock for heaven. The Jews believed that riches were a sure sign of God’s blessing. Therefore the more money a man had the greater his blessing from God. When Jesus said to the disciples, “How hard it will be for those who are wealthy to enter the kingdom of God!” (Mark 10:23), “the disciples were amazed at His words” (Mk 10:24). And when the Lord “answered again and said to them, ‘Children, how hard it is to enter the kingdom of God! It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God’” (Mk 10:24-25) “they were even more astonished and said to Him, ‘Then who can be saved?’” (Mk 10:26), if not the rich. The disciples’ response reflected the common belief of the Jewish people—especially the money-loving (Luke 16:14) Pharisees to whom Jesus directed this story. The rich man symbolizes them, both in their love of money, and in their assumption that their wealth was a sign of God’s favor. Like him (vv. 27-30), the Pharisees demanded signs from Jesus before they would believe. And like him, they would one day be shocked to find themselves in hell. They are tragic examples of those who gained the world, but lost their souls (Mark 8:36). (MacArthur New Testament Commentary – Luke) W H Griffith-Thomas calls this a parable and says it is "intended to be a searching application of all the preceding section to the callous Pharisees in their indifference to the poor and outcasts (as shown in their reaction in Lk 15:1-2) Let us be careful that we apprehend Christ's primary object -- not to teach the details of the future life, but to drive home the awful danger of making wrong use of this life, thus leading to eternal misery." (Outline Studies in the Gospel of Luke, page 255). Brian Bill - Jesus pulls back the curtain to help us catch a glimpse of life on the other side of death. This story is unique to the Gospel of Luke and is the only one to name any of its characters. Some commentators believe that this is not a true parable but rather a specific story much like the account of the Good Samaritan. (What Happens When You Die?) Gene Brooks - While Luke 15:1-32 focused on God’s love for the lost and the poor, Jesus turns in Luke 16 to the spiritual dangers of the wealthy and powerful. Jesus tells two parables directed against the Pharisees’ love of money. The first, traditionally called the Parable of the Unjust Steward, makes the simple point that the value of money in this world is to make preparation for the next (Luke 16:1-12). Jesus’ second parable draws back the veil for the sneering Pharisees to see the seriousness of the issue. In the hereafter, the roles the rich man and the beggar play in this life mean nothing. What means something is repentance and faith, and only those who respond to God’s Word will be blessed (Luke 16:19-31). With the parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus, we see two persons (Luke 16:19-21), two different places (Luke 16:22-23), and two prayers (Luke 16:24-31).... Jesus is issuing a warning to these wealthy and powerful, self-righteous, self-fulfilled, self-centered religious people. He warns them of a great reversal if they are not careful for themselves. God designed hell to be sufficiently frightening to motivate the worst sinner (and the most self-righteous hypocrite) to flee to the grace of Christ and live with him in heaven eternally. (The Rich Man and Lazarus) Ray

Lucas 16

MacArthur summarizes fourteen striking contrasts between the poor man and the rich man in Luke 16:19-31: The poor man then becomes rich; and the rich man becomes poor; and the poor man becomes richer than the rich man ever was; and the rich man becomes poorer than the poor man ever was. You have a poor man on the outside of the house, and you have a rich man on the inside. Then comes death, and you have a poor man on the inside and rich man on the outside. You have a poor man with no food, and a rich man with all the food he can possibly need; and then you have a poor man at the great heavenly banquet, and a rich man with absolutely nothing. You have a poor man with needs, and a rich man with no needs; and then you have a poor man with no needs, and a rich man with needs. You have a poor man who desires everything. You have a rich man who desires nothing, and then you have a rich man who will never have his desires fulfilled, and a poor man who has all his desires fulfilled. You have a poor man who suffers, and a rich man who is satisfied; and then you have a rich man who suffers, and a poor man who’s satisfied. You have a poor man who’s tormented, and a rich man who’s happy; and then you have a poor man who’s happy, and a rich man who’s tormented. You have a poor man who is humiliated, a rich man who’s honored. Then you have a rich man who is humiliated, and a poor man who is honored. You have a poor man who wants a crumb, a rich man who feasts; and then you have a poor man who’s at a feast, and a rich man who wants a drop of water. You have a poor man who seeks help, a rich man who gives none. Then you have a rich man who seeks help, and a poor man who gives none. You have a poor man who is a nobody, a rich man who is well-known; and then you have a poor man who has a name, and a rich man who has none. You have a poor man who has no dignity in death, not even a burial. You have a rich man who has dignity in death. Then you have a poor man who has dignity after death, and a rich man who has no dignity after death, not even a name. You have a poor man with no hope, and a rich man with all hope. Then you have a rich man with no hope, and a poor man who is hope realized. (A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1) THE GREAT REVERSAL RICH MAN LAZARUS IN LIFE AND IN DEATH Nameless Named Lazarus Rich Poor Healthy Disabled Lived in luxury Lived as a beggar Clothed in purple Covered with sores Died and was buried Died and escorted to Paradise His misery just begins His misery ends forever LIFE AFTER DEATH IN ETERNITY In Hell In Paradise Saw glory Was in glory Alone Had fellowship Burning sensation Had water Tormented Comforted Remembered former life Was silent Was fixed in hell Was fixed in Paradise Agonized for loved ones Was settled in eternity Begged for another chance Was silently at peace Unable to intercede for his family At rest in God's promises John Blanchard in his fascinating book Whatever Happened to Hell? writes "Hell seems to have fallen on hard times. A poll taken in the United States in 1978 revealed that over seventy per cent of those interviewed said they believed in hell. Eleven years later a Newsweek survey, again taken in the United States, produced a figure of just fifty-eight per cent. A poll conducted in Australia in 1988 indicated that only thirty-nine per cent believed in hell, while in 1989 a Gallup Poll taken in Britain for the Sunday Telegraph revealed that no more than twenty-four per cent of those questioned did so...When the American church historian Martin Marty, a professor at the University of Chicago Divinity School, was preparing a Harvard lecture on the subject, he consulted the indexes of several scholarly journals dating back over a period of a hundred years to 1889, and failed to find a single entry. His conclusion was that ‘Hell disappeared and no one noticed.’ (Cited in Newsweek, 27 March 1989.) Gordon Kaufman, a professor at Harvard Divinity School, says that hell has been in decline for 400 years and is now so diminished that the process is irreversible: ‘I don’t think there can be any future for hell.’ Another theologian says, ‘Talk of hell started to fall off in western countries about the same time science began to make an impact, about the late nineteenth century.’ (The Bulletin, 24 May 1988.) Speaking on BBC television, Richard Cavendish, author of Visions of Heaven and Hell, commented, ‘In our century there has been a kind of double development. We have created hells on earth on a bigger scale and perhaps of a more horrible kind than any previous century has done. Yet there has been a very general retreat from the idea of hell.’ This retreat is reflected in theological literature. One volume of Christian doctrine, with nearly 800 pages, and edited by three highly respected Christian leaders, has only eight lines on hell; yet even this is eight lines more than in another major work entitled Hand-book of Contemporary Theology. In 1957, an American religious writer researching the subject had difficulty getting hold of a particularly important book published towards the end of the nineteenth century. When he eventually found one in a seminary library he discovered that it had been loaned out only twice in fifty years! In the course of preparing this present book I asked the manager of a large Christian bookshop in Australia how many titles he stocked on the subject of hell. He replied, ‘None. We had only one, but nobody wanted to buy it, so we had to give it away.’ On another occasion I asked a minister with several thousand books in his library how many he had on hell and was told, ‘I did have one, but I seem to have mislaid it.’ Yet if hell no longer exists, or is on its deathbed, the word ‘hell’ may never have been more active or popular; it is certainly in no danger of becoming unemployed. It is often used to convey images of violence or aggression. In the Second World War, the United States 2nd Armour Division, led by General George Patten, was nicknamed ‘hell on wheels’ because of the havoc it caused on its way to becoming the first American unit to enter Berlin. During the popular revolution against Communism in Romania in December 1989 there was a last-ditch battle on the streets of Bucharest between the Securitate Secret Police and units of the Romanian army. One observer said, ‘All hell has broken loose.’ When fifteen people were killed and 186 injured in a collision involving seventy-five vehicles near Chattanooga, Tennessee in December 1990, a fireman described the scene as ‘three miles of hell’. On the first night of the war in the Persian Gulf in 1991, Cable Network News reporter Bernard Shaw described the American bombing of Baghdad by telling viewers, ‘This feels like we’re in the centre of hell.’ Later in that extraordinary year, when there was a coup d’ é tat in the USSR, the British politician Paddy Ashdown said, ‘The gates of hell are going to open on the Soviet Union.’ People also use the word ‘hell’ to speak of a particularly painful experience. The British comic actor Terry Thomas was once a millionaire, yet died in sad and lonely poverty after contracting Parkinson’s Disease, something he described as ‘hell to live with’. Another millionaire, the Marquess of Bristol, was jailed for a year in 1988 for smuggling cocaine into Jersey aboard his private helicopter. Asked what it was like for a man of his social standing to live in a prison cell smaller than any room in his own palatial home, he said, ‘It was sheer hell.’ Talking of the effects of taking cocaine, disgraced American football star Dexter Manley confessed, ‘I went through hell.’19 Sometimes, the word is used in situations not nearly so serious, yet in a way that expresses very strong emotions. When the England team reached the semi-finals of soccer’s World Cup competition in Italy in July 1990, millions in Britain watched the match on television. There was chaos around London as hordes of people left work early to be home in time for the kick-off. In the words of one reporter, ‘Heaven was anywhere there was a screen. Hell was a faulty fuse.’ Earlier in the same competition, England’s captain had to return home because of an injured Achilles tendon, and the team manager commented, ‘We miss him like hell.’21 Then there are times when the word is used to mean a great deal of power or effort. When England’s cricketers were being humiliated during the 1990–1991 tour of Australia, the Chairman of Selectors defended them by saying, ‘They are all trying like hell.’ In his book How to play your best golf all the time, Tommy Armour, the famous Scottish golfer and teacher, advised his readers to ‘whack the hell out of the ball with the right hand’. The word is also used to mean something difficult or dangerous. When my stepmother faced critical surgery in July 1990 the surgeon warned me, ‘It’s a hell of an operation.’ About the same time, the Church of England asked advertising company Cogent Elliott to come up with slogans for a campaign to recruit new clergy. One of the proposed posters read, ‘The money’s diabolical. The hours are ungodly. It’s a miracle anybody does it. C of E clergy. It’s a hell of a job.’ At other times those who use the word seem to be coming at it from two different angles at once. In 1990 an Australian newspaper carried an article on the holiday resort of Pattaya, in Thailand, where ‘foreign tourists can stagger from go-go bar to brothel in a drugged stupor for as little as ten dollars a day’. The story was carried under the heading ‘A Holiday in Hell’. The word ‘hell’ can also mean something good, enjoyable or exciting. In December 1990, Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein suddenly announced the release of all foreigners held against their will since Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait four months earlier. When hostage David Dorrington telephoned his wife in Britain to ask whether she had heard the good news, her reply was, ‘Yes, all hell’s breaking loose over here.’ On another page, the same newspaper reported that Durham County Cricket Club had been granted County Championship status by the Test and County Cricket Board. The club’s treasurer told a reporter that it was strange to feel so calm because ‘I thought I’d be as excited as hell.’27 At a funeral service for the extravagant American millionaire Malcolm Forbes, held in March 1990 and attended by 2,000 mourners, his son Robert addressed his dead father with the words, ‘It’s been a hell of a party—thanks for the trip.’....Yet even with all these illustrations we have hardly dented the mass of idioms which make use of the word ‘hell’. To move ‘like a bat out of hell’ is to move very quickly; to go ‘hell for leather’ means much the same thing; to have ‘a snowball’s chance in hell’ is to have no chance at all; to ‘raise hell’ is to cause trouble; to say, ‘There will be hell to pay’ means that there will be serious trouble later on; to be ‘as angry as hell’ is to be furious; to give a person ‘merry hell’ is to make things unpleasant for him.(Whatever Happened to Hell?) MULTIPLE ARTICLES RELATED TO HELL Journal articles, sermons, books How can I not go to hell? | GotQuestions.org (THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT QUESTION TO ANSWER!) Eternal Punishment - In depth article on site Jesus' View of Eternal Punishment (Mt 25:31-46) - Robert L. Thomas - 31 pp Hell: Never, Forever, or Just for Awhile - Richard Mayhue - 16 pp Paul’s Concept Of Eternal Punishment - James Rosscup - 24 pp Eternal Punishment In John’s Revelation - Trevor P Craigen, 13 pp A Kinder, Gentler Theology Of Hell? - Larry D. Pettegrew, 17 pp Wrath That Endures Forever William V. Crockett - JETS 34.2 (1991): 195-202 The Horrors and Habitat of Hell - Chris Gee (short, pithy, painful read) What Does The Bible Say About Hell? - Booklet from Discovery House Publishing A Horrible Place Called Hell - Alan Carr One Hour After Death - James Smith Eternal Punishment - Eryl Davies, Foundations 13 (Autumn 1984): 34-44 Jonathan Edwards & Hell - Christopher W.

Lucas 16

MacArthur comments that "He was the no-name as far as the rich man was concerned; but as far as God was concerned, he had a name; and the rich man had no name. You have to have a name in Heaven. Nobody needs a name in hell." Lazarus - 15x in 15v - not found in the Septuagint. Lk. 16:20; Lk. 16:23; Lk. 16:24; Lk. 16:25; Jn. 11:1; Jn. 11:2; Jn. 11:5; Jn. 11:11; Jn. 11:14; Jn. 11:43; Jn. 12:1; Jn. 12:2; Jn. 12:9; Jn. 12:10; Jn. 12:17 The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia has an interesting note on Lazarus commenting that "since in Christ's kingdom of truth names indicate realities, this (name) was probably given because of its significance (Ed: Helped of God), suggesting the beggar's faith in God and patient dependence upon Him. It was this faith and not his poverty which at last brought him into Abraham's bosom. Not one word does Lazarus speak in the parable, and this may also be suggestive of patient submission. He does not murmur at his hard lot, nor rail at the rich man, nor after death triumph over him. The parable is related to that of the Rich Fool (Luke 12:16-21-note). This latter draws the veil over the worldling at death; the other lifts it. It is also a counterpart of that of the Unjust Steward (Luke 16:1-13-note), which shows how wealth may wisely be used to our advantage, while this parable shows what calamities result from failing to make such wise use of riches. The great lesson is that our condition in Hades depends upon our conduct here (ED: CAUTION! OUR CONDUCT PER SE DOES NOT DETERMINE OUR DESTINY. FAITH IN CHRIST DOES. OF COURSE FAITH THAT IS GENUINE AND SAVING SHOWS IT'S "COLORS" BY ONE'S GENERAL CONDUCT - "TOWARD HEAVEN RATHER THAN TOWARD HELL" SO TO SPEAK - SANCTIFICATION IS ABOUT DIRECTION, NOT PERFECTION. WE ARE CREDITED WITH THE PERFECTION OF JESUS AT JUSTIFICATION WHICH IS REALIZED AT OUR GLORIFICATION. IN THE MEANTIME, PROGRESSIVE SANCTIFICATION FOLLOWS HIS EXAMPLE, ALBEIT WITH SLIP-UPS, FOR ALL OF US BECAUSE OUR BODIES STILL HARBOR THAT OLD ADAMIC "REBEL" THE SIN NATURE)....Thus, Lazarus represents the pious indigent who stood at the opposite extreme from the proud, covetous, and luxury-loving Pharisee (JESUS NEVER CALLS HIM A PHARISEE, BUT HE IS SPEAKING TO THE PHARISEES AND SO CLEARLY THESE LOVERS OF MONEY WERE IN VIEW IN THIS STORY). The parable made a deep impression on the mind of the church, so that the term "lazar," no longer a proper name, has passed into many languages, as in lazar house, lazaretto, also lazzarone, applied to the mendicants of Italian towns. There was even an order, half-military, half-monastic, called the Knights of Lazarus, whose special duty it was to minister to lepers. Lazarus is the name of two men in the NT and both received help from God for both received life from Jesus - The poor man in Lk. 16:20,23-25; Mary and Martha's brother who was brought back to life by Jesus in Jn. 11:1-2,5,11,14,43; 12:1-2,9-10,17. How interesting that the same adjective ptochos is used to describe the first beatitude in Jesus' Sermon on the Mount - clearly not only was Lazarus physically poor but he was poor in spirit and thus became far richer in death than the rich man was in life! “Blessed are the poor (ptochos) in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. (Mt 5:3-note) Was laid (better = "was thrown"!)(906)(ballo - English "ballistics") in all its applications retains the idea of impulse (the idea of force and/or effort). Ballo is in the "Past perfect passive of the common verb ballō. He had been flung there and was still there, “as if contemptuous roughness is implied” (Plummer)" (Robertson) Marvin

Lucas 16

MacArthur writes "I hear it frequently said, "You can't just preach the Bible. You can't just explain the Bible. You can't just do expositional preaching. You can't just go verse by verse through Scripture. People don't understand that. They don't live in a paradigm to apprehend that. We've got to get beyond that. We are not going to reach them. We have to figure out ways to get to their felt needs. We've got to come up with other methodologies." The Bible knows nothing of any methodologies. All the Bible knows about is the message." (A Testimony of One Surprised to Be in Hell, Part 5 ) Don't miss what Jesus is teaching in this parable. The reason people go to hell is because they do not listen to the Scripture! Scripture alone tells us the way to Heaven. What sends people to hell? How they respond to Scripture. Heaven is for those who believe the Gospel, who believe the Good News that Jesus saves penitent sinners who believe in Him. That is why it is so important to preach the Word of God. As Paul explains "faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the Word of Christ." (Ro 10:17-note). Peter explains "you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and enduring Word of God." (1 Pe 1:23-note) James adds that "In the exercise of His will He brought us forth by the Word of truth, so that we would be a kind of first fruits among His creatures.(James 1:18-note) Erwin Lutzer on if they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets - How true! When Christ told this story, He had not yet been put to death and resurrected. Yet He taught that His resurrection was the only sign that He would give to the world. But today, even though the evidence for His resurrection is overwhelming, many men and women still do not believe. As the saying goes, “A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.” (Borrow Lutzer's book - One Minute After You Die). MacArthur explains that "Since unbelief is at heart a moral, not an intellectual issue, no amount of evidence alone can turn unbelief to faith. The Word of God has the power to do so (Heb. 4:12+; 1 Peter 1:23+, cf "The Gospel is the power of God for salvation" = Ro 1:16+)....Like the rich man, as noted above, the Jews demanded signs from the Lord. But they rejected the convincing signs that they did receive (John 12:37)—including the resurrection of a dead person...For the rich man, Israel, and all who arrive in hell, the issue is not lack of information, but rejection of the truth: “This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).(See The MacArthur New Testament Commentary) ESV Study Bible - the refusal to repent and the corresponding refusal to believe the Gospel is not primarily due to lack of evidence but to a hardened heart (cf. Mark 8:17; John 11:37–40; Heb. 3:7–11, 15; 4:7). (ESV Study Bible - this resource can be borrowed) Brian Bell on they will not be persuaded even if someone rises from the dead - Life which is not affected by moral considerations will not be affected by the miraculous. A little later another Lazarus died, and Jesus raised him from the dead, and we are told specifically that these same men tried to kill him. Then came the day when they put Jesus to death, and He rose from the dead, but His resurrection from the dead made no appeal to men who lacked moral sense which puts God Acts 10:40,41+ “God raised Him up on the third day and granted that He become visible,not to all the people, but to witnesses who were chosen beforehand by God, that is, to us who ate and drank with Him after He arose from the dead.” If someone rises from the dead - Abraham is referring to Lazarus who would return from the dead. If the living Word did not convince them, neither would a living being! Arises (450)(anistemi from ana = up, again + histemi = stand, to cause to stand) means literally to get up, to stand up, to stand again, to cause to rise (thus "to raise"). The most important use of anistemi is to raise up from the dead or to bring back to life. Here are Luke's uses of anistemi that refer to resurrection - Lk 9:8, 19, 16:31, 18:33, Lk 24:7, 46, Acts 2:24, 32, Acts 9:40, 9:41, 10:41, 13:16, 34, Acts 13:33. J C Ryle said "The saddest road to hell is that which runs under the pulpit, past the Bible and through the midst of warnings and invitations." (Luke 16 Commentary) Ian Paisley - The saddest road to Hell is to pass by the Word of God. The saddest road to Hell is to close your ears to the warning of the blessed Holy Spirit, your eyes to the Son of God, and pass from the Gospel message to the blackness of darkness forever. It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for a man or a woman who reads this Gospel tract and said, "NO" to Jesus Christ. These are my final words to you, and I say to you, as we gaze out into the darkness of Hell, into the loneliness of Hell, into the restlessness of Hell, and into the endlessness of Hell, "Make haste to Calvary, wash in the Saviour's Blood, come this night to the Saviour and in God's Name be in time." Michael Andrus - this parable teaches that everyone has had sufficient revelation and sufficient evidence to make a responsible decision about his or her relationship to God and to His Son, Jesus Christ. I won’t address this morning the case of the pagan who has never heard the name of Jesus (ED: SEE RELATED RESOURCES BELOW); clearly no one in this story or in this room fits that category. The rich man had been exposed to Scripture; his predicament was due to his neglect of God’s Word. And everyone in this room has heard enough to be held accountable. And Jesus seems to imply that anyone who does not respond to the truth he has will not be convinced even by a miracle. Sometimes we tend to think, “If only they could prove that Noah’s ark is really on Ararat, or the Shroud of Turin was the actual burial cloth of Jesus, then people would flock to church.” Hogwash! Jesus says it wouldn’t make a hill of beans difference. (Sermon) Related Resources: What happens to those who have never heard about Jesus? Can a person be saved through general revelation? I Howard Marshall - the law and the prophets are insufficient to call the rich to repentance, even the return of someone resurrected from the dead will not achieve the desired effect. Miracles in themselves cannot melt stony hearts. Here again there is a link with the earlier part of the chapter in which the validity of the law and the prophets during the era of the gospel is upheld. (NIGTC) Michael Andrus - The rich man is not denied his request because God is unwilling to give his brothers as much opportunity as possible. The request is denied because it will not work. You want proof? Not long after Jesus told this story the other Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, died, and Jesus raised him from the dead. Did the religious leaders of Israel fall on their faces in repentance? No, they renewed their conspiracy to kill Jesus. A very short time later Jesus Himself died for the sins of the world, was buried in a guarded tomb, but was raised by God, appearing to hundreds in His resurrection body. Did the religious leaders of Israel, or even the common people, fall on their faces in repentance? No. Oh a few did. But most went right along with their everyday lives ignoring the clear message that what we do with Christ in this life determines where and how we spend the next. (Sermon) Ray

Lucas 16

MacArthur - Now, the Pharisees would treat that poor man the same way the rich man treated him, which is another indictment of them; and that’s the point of this story. The rich man is wicked, because he is so self-indulgent. He has no love, sympathy, interest, or compassion toward this suffering man. How religious are you if you do not love your neighbor as yourself? (Lev 19:18-note, Mt 19:19, 22:39, Mk 12:31, 33, Lk 10:27-note, Ro 13:9, Gal 5:14, James 2:8) He is like the priest in the Levite in Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk 10:32-note). Do you remember, the man was all beat up on the road; and the priest came by? Never did a thing for him. Then the Levite came by. Never did a thing for him (see Lk 10:30-37-note). This is another indictment of religious people who are indifferent to those in need, because their hearts have never been transformed by grace. Phony religion is detestable to God. The Pharisees were really into unrighteous mammon (Lk 16:9-note). When you go back into the earlier part of the chapter, at the end of Lk 16:13-note), Jesus said, “You cannot serve God in money.” The Pharisees were serving money, not God; and the rich man provides a representative picture of these religious phonies. And so the rich gave Lazarus no help, even though he had to be aware of his suffering. Covered with sores (only used here in Scripture)(1669)(helkoo from helkos = ulcer, sore in Lk 16:21) means to be afflicted with ulcers and sores. This verb which means to be ulcerated is common in the writings of Hippocrates and other ancient Greek medical writers. The perfect tense signifies that at a point in time he had become afflicted with these ulcerating sores and that this was his present, permanent condition! How did he become covered with sores? While we cannot be absolutely certain, the fact that he had been thrown there suggests he was paralyzed (see same verb ballo in Mt 8:6 describing the paralyzed servant) and unable to move. This state would have predisposed him to the horrible decubitus ulcers ("bed sores") I remember seeing when I did my Physical Medicine rotation. I saw sores the likes of which I have never seen since! Did you notice the dramatic contrast? The rich man was "covered" in purple, while the poor man was covered with oozing ulcers! The former is oblivious to the latter who is lying in the very shadow of his fine estate. The implication is that surely the rich man must have seen Lazarus (and we know he did because he uses his name in Lk 16:23-24), but he was simply without any compassion. This reminds me of the famous passage in Micah 6:8-note (Note - These characteristics do not "earn" salvation which no one could do, but they should characterize all who have been saved through faith in Christ.) He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the LORD require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God? Luke 16:21 and longing to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table; besides, even the dogs were coming and licking his sores. KJV Luke 16:21 And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. longing to be fed 1 Cor 4:11; 2 Cor 11:27 with the crumbs Mt 15:27; Mark 7:28; Jn 6:12 Luke 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Hell in W G T Shedd's Dogmatic Theology - one of the best on the subject of Hell Luke 16:19-31 A Great Chasm Fixed - Steven Cole Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 2 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 3 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 4 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 5 - John MacArthur Related Passage: Luke 15:16+ “And he would have gladly (epithumeo) filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. LAZARUS LONGING DOGS LICKING! And longing (epithumeo) to be fed with the crumbs which were falling from the rich man's table - Longing (epithumeo) is a strong impulse toward something so that one's passions (desire, even desperation) are directed toward that object, thing or person, in this case crumbs. The present tense indicates that Lazarus was continually in a state of longing, continually sensing an gnawing emptiness in his stomach. We see this same verb used in the story of the prodigal where Jesus says "he would have gladly (epithumeo) filled his stomach with the pods that the swine were eating, and no one was giving anything to him. (Lk 15:16+) "but the pods did not satisfy his hunger." (Vincent) Crumbs is added as there is no Greek word for "crumbs" but it is implied. The Greek literally reads "the things falling." So it refers to whatever fell off of the rich man's table. He was longing to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table, but the text does not tell us whether or not he actually received the crumbs–only that he longed for them. In fact other than the poor man being laid (thrown) at the rich man's gate, the only help described for this man was from the dogs licking his sores! MacArthur "sets the table" for us giving us some cultural context - Now, remember, the ancient world was not a sanitized world. The historian Jeremias writes “Guests at a meal used pieces of bread to clean their hands.” In those days they ate with their hands, as most of the world has done for most of its history; and, typically, you took bread and you dipped it in some kind of stew or thick soup and you ate that way. It is a little messy; and they didn’t have paper napkins so they used bread that was stale...So they would use the bread to clean their hands and then throw it under the table. You say, “Not at my house, they wouldn’t."...They also had a built-in cleanup crew. Mt 15:26, Jesus says this, ““It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” What did Jesus mean “Throw it to the dogs”? In Mt 15:27 “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table.”” Who’s the cleanup crew? Dogs. (A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1) Beggars can't be choosers is the old saying that was literally true for Lazarus! Even the dogs (kuon) were coming and licking his sores (helkos) - Even (alla kai) is literally "but even."

Lucas 16

MacArthur - the angels that are serving God in the care of believers, always look at the face of God, so they can read His concern for His own children and be dispatched to their aid when necessary. Are they (ANGELS) not all ministering spirits, sent out to render service (diakonia) for the sake of those who will inherit salvation? (Heb 1:14+) Imagine the shock of the Pharisees as Jesus described this beggar instead of having his body picked up by the the garbage collectors and thrown into the Valley of Hinnom, (1) was transported by angels (2) to Abraham's bosom! These two things would be unthinkable in their mind, for as noted they considered the poor to cursed by God, not blessed (see the question from His own disciples as they passed a man blind from birth - Jn 9:1-2 - they ascribed his condition to sin which is what the Pharisees surely thought explained Lazarus' condition)! Notice how Jesus does not yet reveal the fate of the rich man immediately but simply states and he was buried (so far so good). It is as if He is letting the Pharisees be shocked by degrees, so to speak. He knew the next statement would illicit an even greater degree of shock from the Pharisees. Keener writes that "Jewish lore often speaks of the righteous being carried away by angels; Jesus spares his hearers the traditional corresponding image of the wicked being carried away by demons. Every person, no matter how poor, was to receive a burial, and not to be buried was seen as terrible (e.g., 1 Kings 14:13). But Lazarus, having neither relatives nor charitable patron, did not receive one, whereas the rich man would have received great eulogies. True Israelites and especially martyrs were expected to share with Abraham in the world to come." (IVP Background Commentary) To Abraham's bosom - This is the only use of this phrase in the Bible. Some interpret this a figurative language which speaks of where Abraham the believer went after he died. MacArthur on the other hand explains that Jesus is "saying that when this despicable outcast died, he went immediately to the side of Abraham; and Abraham, in the Jewish thinking, was the most elevated person who’d ever lived. The father of the entire Jewish race, and the father of faith and the faithful, the greatest hero in Judaism." The words of Bliss' hymn "I Will Sing of My Redeemer" (Play Fernando Ortega's beautiful vocal version) would be apropos to Lazarus... I will praise my dear Redeemer, His triumphant power I'll tell, How the victory He giveth Over sin and death and hell. Vincent on Abraham's bosom - A Rabbinical phrase, equivalent to being with Abraham in Paradise. “To the Israelite Abraham seems the personal centre and meeting-point of Paradise” (Goebel). Brian Bill on Abraham's bosom - True Israelites were expected to share with Abraham in the world to come ( The Jewish people believed that they were saved by virtue of their descent from Abraham, which constituted them the chosen people.). Abraham is regarded in Scripture as being not only the great patriarch (Hebrews 7:4) but also the father of all believers (Romans 4:11). To be considered a friend of Abraham was the highest honor possible and true happiness would be to spend eternity at his side. Some of your Bibles indicate that he went to “Abraham’s bosom.” In that culture the most honored seat in a banquet would be nearest to the host, reclining in such a way that one’s head was near his chest. The one who had yearned to receive crumbs and scraps is now feasting at Heaven’s table. (What Happens When We Die?) Gotquestions says that Abraham's bosom means "that Lazarus went to a place of rest, contentment, and peace." (What is Abraham's Bosom?) Gary Inrig on Abraham's bosom - the expression is a vivid way of saying that Lazarus is exalted to a position of the highest honor and intimacy in the heavenly fellowship of the saints. No greater reversal of fortunes can be imagined. Lazarus has been transported from the gutter to heaven’s head table. Marvelous as this description is, it pales alongside later revelations about the destiny of believers. We do not depart to be with Abraham and the righteous saints, but to be with the Lord Jesus (Philippians 1:23). We do not enter the home of Abraham, but rather are “at home with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8) in the Father’s house (John 14:2). We share the very highest place a creature can experience Bosom (lap) (2859)(kolpos) refers to the front of the body between the arms and so the bosom, breast, or chest (Jn 13:23 = a place of honor and close fellowship at a meal. cf Lk 16:22-23 = a place of honor among the righteous dead and Jn 1:18 = close beside the Father). Abraham’s bosom is an expression Jews used to refer to God’s presence, where the privileged enjoyed God’s feast with Abraham. The image also refers to the Jewish custom of reclining at a banquet on couches. Lazarus finally got to enjoy that meal that he had longed for so long (Luke 16:21; John 13:23). Lazarus is next to the host, the place of honor. Steven

Lucas 16

MacArthur: Saved Beyond a Doubt) PERIGOOD-TALLEYRAND (1754-1838), the renowned French statesman, best remembered as Foreign Minister under Napoleon and later Foreign Minister to Louis XVIII, was likewise known for his infidel leanings. At his deathbed, King Louis asked Talleyrand how he felt and he replied: "I am suffering, Sire, the pangs of the damned." VOLTAIRE, the noted French infidel and one of the most fertile and talented writers of his time, used his pen to retard and demolish Christianity. Of Christ, Voltaire said: "Curse the wretch!" He once boasted, "In twenty years Christianity will be no more. My single hand shall destroy the edifice it took twelve apostles to rear." Shortly ,after his death the very house in which he printed his foul literature became the depot of the Geneva Bible Society. The nurse who attended Voltaire said: "For all the wealth in Europe I would not see another infidel die." The physician, Trochim, waiting up with Voltaire at his death said that he cried out most desperately: "I am abandoned by God and man! I will give you half of what I am worth if you will give me six months' life. Then I shall go to hell; and you will go with me. O Christ! O Jesus Christ!" ROBERT GREEN INGERSOLL (1833-1899), famous American lawyer and prominent agnostic, lectured on Biblical inaccuracies and contradictions. His famed lecture The Mistakes Of Moses led one defender of the Bible to say that he would like to hear Moses speak for five minutes on The Mistakes Of Ingersoll. Standing by his graveside, his brother exclaimed: "Life is a narrow vale between the narrow peaks of two eternities. We strive in vain to look beyond the heights. We cry aloud, and the only answer is the echo of our wailings." JOHN WILHOT, who became the second Earl of Rochester, lived a life of sin and infidelity. But God met and saved him from his sin and skepticism. When he came to die in 1680, he laid his hand upon the Bible and said with solemnity and earnestness: "The only objection against this Book is a bad life! I shall die now, but oh what unspeakable glories do I see! What joys beyond thought or expression am I sensible of! I am assured of God's mercy to me through Jesus Christ. Oh, how I long to die!" COLONEL CHARTERIS, another infidel who at the end was not so blatant in his denial of an after life, said as he died, "I would gladly give L30,000 to have it proved to my satisfaction that there is no such place as hell." KAY, the infidel was the one who cried at the end: "Hell! Hell! Hell!" His family could not stand his groans and oaths and fled from the room until he was dead. CASANOVA, renowned for his self-indulgence, ended his life in self-deception. On his death bed at the age of 73, he said: "I have lived as a philosopher and die as a Christian." Borrow Lockyer's book - Last words of saints and sinners - THIS IS A FASCINATING BOOK TO READ! There's No Place Like Hell! A Sermon by Ian Paisley A SERMON PREACHED IN 1988 IN THE MARTYRS MEMORIAL CHURCH ON THE OCCASION OF THE RESURGENCE OF THE "NO HELL THEOLOGY" AMONGST SO-CALLED EVANGELICALS. THE TEXT WAS LUKE 16:24 "AND IN HELL HE LIFT UP HIS EYES." ILLUSTRATION - ON AN AMERICAN TROOPSHIP during World War II a new Chaplain came aboard. The rank and file of the sailors met him and they put to him this question, "Do you believe in Hell?" The Chaplain was a modernist and an unbeliever, and he said, "Men, certainly not." The men looked at him and said, "Sir, we would like you to resign as Chaplain of this troopship. If there is no Hell we do not require your services, but if there is a Hell we are not going to be deceived by the like of you." Those sailors were speaking solemn truth. If there is no Hell, then there is no need for you to come to the House of God, there is no need for you to read the Bible, there is no need for you to be concerned about your soul's Eternity. But if there is a Hell then you need to ask yourself one solemn question, "Is that where I am going to be forever? How can I escape from its worm which never dieth, and its fire which is never quenched?* Five Lies About Hell In Luke's Gospel chapter sixteen, I want you to notice how in a few short sentences the Lord Jesus Christ demolished the devil's lies and man's falsehoods concerning Hell. (1) The first great lie and the first great falsehood that the devil propagates and man accepts is this, that Hell is what you make of life down here. Hell is in this life. The Lord Jesus demolished that lie, for He said, (and look carefully at it,) "The rich man" verse 22, "also died and was buried, and in Hell he lifted up his eyes..." So Hell is not what you make in this life. It is the after-life. (2) The second lie of the devil and the second falsehood that men embrace is, "Hell is annihilation. When you die that is the finish." I remember hearing the late Lord Brookeborough interviewed about his beliefs, and he said, "When I die that is the end." What a fool he was! When he died he unlearned that lie very speedily in Eternity. God says in His Book that After death in Hell the rich man lifted up his eyes, being in torments. Hell is not annihilation. (3) The third lie of the devil and the third falsehood men embrace is, "Hell is soul-sleep in absolute unconsciousness." The Lord Jesus Christ demolished that lie as well, for He shewed the consciousness of the rich man in Hell. He said he was in torments. He was totally and absolutely conscious. (4) The fourth lie of the devil and the fifth falsehood believed by men is, "Hell is a purgatory that fits the soul for Heaven." The Lord Jesus demolished that lie. He said that between Heaven and Hell there is a great gulf fixed, and no one ever passed from Hell to Heaven. The unbridgeable gulf between Heaven and Hell! So Hell is not a purgatory from which sin is cleansed from the soul, and the soul is prepared for Heaven. (5) The fifth lie of the devil and the fifth falsehood believed by man is, "Hell is a place where departed souls can communicate with their loved ones on earth." In the rising tide of demonism and witchcraft today we are told by so-called spiritualists, who are not spiritual at all but are spiritists, that the dead can communicate with the living. If this rich man could have communicated with his living brethren then he would not have asked Abraham to send Lazarus to talk to them. The Lord demolished those five colossal lies propagated by the devil and accepted by men, and those five lies form the basis of all anti-Hell theology and the beliefs of all those who oppose the plain teaching of the Bible about the doctrine of Hell. There's No Place Like Hell... For There Is No Darkness Like the Darkness of Hell Firstly, there is no place like Hell, for there is no darkness like the darkness of Hell. Hear it, there is no place like Hell, for there is no darkness like the darkness of Hell. The Lord Jesus Christ issued three solemn warnings about the darkness of Hell. He spoke, first of all, in Matthew 8:12 and said, "But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness." Notice the words, "outer darkness". In Matthew 22:13 he said, "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away and cast him into outer darkness." In Matthew 25:30 He said, "Cast the unprofitable servant into outer darkness." It is darkness which is completely beyond any ray of light. Outer darkness! It is outside all light, all natural light, all man-made light, all spiritual light, all God-given light, all the light of the gospel, all the light of hope, all the light of peace and all the light of pardon. It is outer darkness. It is outside all light. In Jude 13 we read of the "blackness of darkness forever". That is where the ungodly go. Not only into outer darkness but into the blackness of darkness forever. As I sat in my study I thought of the darkness into which my readers would most certainly go if they died outside Jesus Christ. I said to myself, "Did the shadow of that darkness ever fall upon this world? Did ever the darkness of Hell overshadow this world?" As the darkness of Hell is the result of God's inflexible and God's unchangeable and God's Holy judgment, I thought upon judgment days. If you go back to a time of judgments in the Book of Exodus you will remember that one of the judgments in Egypt was darkness. For three days, God decided to allow the darkness of Hell to rest upon Egypt. In Exodus 10:20 we read of that darkness "And the Lord said unto Moses, Stretch out thine hand toward heaven that there may be darkness over the land of Egypt, even darkness which may be felt. And Moses stretched forth his hand toward heaven, and there was a thick darkness in all the land of Egypt three days. They saw not one another, neither rose any from his place for three days, but all the children of Israel had light in their dwellings." It was a darkness that could be felt. It was such a blanket of intense outer black darkness that they could see absolutely nothing. All they could do was lie in terror upon their beds for nothing could be seen. God permitted the darkness of Hell for three days to settle upon Egypt. Then I thought of that place called Calvary. I thought of that day when God judged His Well Beloved Son. Luke records it in his Gospel Lk 23:44, "And it was about the sixth hour, and there was a darkness over all the earth until the ninth hour." The darkness of Hell into which Jesus went at Calvary, was so intense and widespread that it spread over all the world. There was not a country, there was not a village, there was not a people not overshadowed in that terrible darkness. It was a warning to the world and it was a warning to sinners that there is no darkness like the darkness of Hell, for there's no place like Hell. Your unsaved soul will be cut off from light forever, never again to see anything. You will be in a blind darkness, wrapped up in the impenetrable folds of God's doom and damnation forever. There is no darkness like the darkness of Hell. There Is No Place Like Hell... For There Is No Loneliness Like the Loneliness of Hell Secondly, there is no place like Hell for there is no loneliness like the loneliness of Hell. The lost soul, Christ says, will be bound hand and foot, and then cast into the outer darkness, the blackness of darkness in his lonely eternal prison cell forever. Hell is a place of eternal isolation. Hell is a place of everlasting separation. Hell is a place of never ending unrelieved and unrelievable loneliness. The fool laughs and says, "Oh, I will have plenty of good company in Hell. All my sinful companions will be there. All the people I have lived in sin with and enjoyed the pleasures of earth with, preacher, will all be there. So I will have plenty of company in Hell." Friend, Hell does not want you, and Hell will not welcome you. There will be no reception committee of your old companions at Hell's gates to welcome you when you arrive in the place of the damned. Every damned soul is so tormented in the flames of Hell and in the agony of the torments of eternal doom, that he or she cannot spare a moment to think of others in Hell, to speak to others in Hell, or to communicate with others in Hell. Like in the darkness of Egypt the lost cannot see one solitary thing. Every cell in Hell is built for eternal solitary confinement. Just think about that. The bars on the cell of Hell shut out all prisoners and the prisoner does his eternal sentence alone, alone, alone! The only thought for others which enters the mind, the memory and the heart of the damned is a cry for their loved one still on earth. Who did that damned rich man cry for? He cried for his brothers at home. He cried for his family. He cried for his relations that they would not come to this place of torment. He had not one word to speak of any who were already in Hell, for Hell is a place of loneliness. We do not like to be alone. There are some things that cheer our hearts. There is nothing so happy as to take a little one upon your knees and hear the childish prattle and the childish talk. There are no children in Hell for you to talk to, for Hell is a place of loneliness. The only children in Hell are the children of the devil and the children of everlasting wrath. When we want to tell someone we are thinking about them to cheer them in their loneliness, we send them flowers. Flowers are beautiful things. We live in a day of imitation. Men try to make flowers. Did you ever put a man-made rose beside the real thing? You take an imitation rose, anoint it with the scent or perfume of the rose and then take the real thing and smell the scent of that beautiful rose, and you will exclaim, How poor and hopeless the imitation is! The only flowers in Hell are the ashes of lost hope, lost joy and lost opportunities of Gospel pardon. The only flowers you will have in Hell, will be such ashes. There is loneliness in Hell. There is nothing relieves loneliness like music. We all have our choices in music. To hear someone sing or to hear some particular instrument chases away loneliness and brings back thoughts of society and friends, and pleasantly stirs the memory. There is no music in Hell. The only thing you will hear in Hell will be the signs and the groans of damned souls (ED: I DO NOT KNOW OF A REFERENCE THAT SUPPORTS THIS STATEMENT). There is loneliness in Hell. I like the mountains. I like the valleys. I like the rivers. I like the lakes and the seas and the oceans. The only mountains in Hell are mountains of everlasting flames. The only valleys in Hell are the troughs of the brimstone fire. The only lake is Hell itself for Hell is a lake of fire. The only sea in Hell is the sea of the everlasting burning. In Hell there is not one drop of water. It is a place of intense loneliness, and all they have to drink is the wine of God's wrath. To that Loneliness unconverted one, you are most certainly headed. "Knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men," II Cor. 5:11. There Is No Place Like Hell... For There Is No Restlessness Like the Restlessness of Hell Thirdly, there is no place like Hell, for there is no restlessness like the restlessness of Hell. Hell is a place of darkness, yes, of loneliness, yes, and of restlessness. Revelation 14:10-11 is a solemn word. It is the Word of the Living God. We read there "The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation, and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever, and they have no rest day nor night." Young people do not appreciate what a wonderful thing it is to rest. Young people never want to go to bed, and then when they go to bed they never want to get up. They do not appreciate rest. But when you are busy, especially in the service of God, you thank God for the blessing of rest. Jesus said to His hard worked disciples, "Come ye apart and rest awhile." "He giveth His beloved sleep." Oh, how sweet is the rest of God! Heaven is described in the words, "There remaineth, therefore, a rest for the people of God." The great Puritan Richard Baxter wrote about this and called it "The Saints' Everlasting Rest." There is no rest in Hell. You know why there is no rest in Hell? Because Hell is the place of Separation from God, and the only place man can find rest is in God. As David Brainerd rode the bridle trails of the forest seeking the Indians to whom God had called him to preach the Gospel, he used to cry as he rode his horse, "There is no rest but in God." What a message! Thank God there is rest in Him. Hell is the place of separation from God, and there cannot be any rest. The only Person that can give you rest is Christ. "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." If you have not got rest in Christ, some day you will witness and experience the restlessness of Hell. There is no rest in Hell because of the Sin in Hell, and sin breeds restlessness. Where sin is there is no peace. Where sin is there is no rest. Where sin is there cannot be any stillness. There cannot be any rest where sin is. Isaiah verses 20 and 21, "But the wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mire and dirt, There is no peace," saith my God, "to the wicked." Over Hell God has said, There is no peace to the wicked. There is no rest in Hell because of the Shame of Hell. In Revelation chapter 21 and verse 8 we read of the Shame of Hell. Hell is a shameful place, "The fearful, the unbelieving the abominable, murderers, whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." There is no rest in Hell because of the Sufferings of Hell. You say to me, "Do you believe in literal fire in Hell?" Yes, I do! "Why do you believe that?" Because that is exactly what Jesus Christ taught, and He is the only One that knew and could tell us. In Matthew 13:3-23, He told the story of the tares of the field and He gave the interpretation thereof. He interpreted who the sower was and What the field was, "the field is the world". What the good seed were, "the children of the kingdom". Who the tares were, "the children of the wicked one." Who the enemy was, "the enemy was the devil." When the harvest was, "it is the end of the world." Who the reapers were, "they were the angels." Then He said, "As therefore the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so shall it be in the end of the world." My friend, if that fire was not fire, Jesus was duty bound to have finished the interpretation and told us what it was. But there is fire in Hell, and forever, lost soul, you will be tormented in that flame. You ask, "How could there be darkness in Hell if there is a flame of fire?" The hottest flame known to man, scientifically, is a flame that is dark. How dark is that flame that will scourge lost souls and take away their rest in Hell. There Is No Place Like Hell... For There Is No Endlessness Like the Endlessness of Hell We sing the hymn concerning grace, "When we've been there ten thousand years, Bright shining as the sun, We've no less days to sing God's praise, Than when we first begun!" What is true of Heaven is true of Hell. When you have been in Hell ten trillion years in the darkness, the torments will have just begun. There is endlessness in Hell. It never ends. If we could say to the damned, "After ten million, trillion years these doors will open, this burning and this darkness will give place to light, this loneliness to society, this endlessness will have its end," then hope would spring eternal even in the breast of the damned. But there is no such thing as this torment having an end. Every century there is always controversy about Hell. In the last century the controversy was in Scotland about the doctrine of Hell. At that time there was a great scholar and a great Evangelical minister called Dr James Morison. He said, "I'm going to find out, I'm going to find out if there is any hope for a soul who goes to Hell." He made a thorough study from Matthew to Revelation, and one day he got up and closed his Greek Testament, and said, "There is no hope, for Hell has no ending." The saddest road to Hell is to pass by the Word of God. The saddest road to Hell is to close your ears to the warning of the blessed Holy Spirit, your eyes to the Son of God, and pass from the Gospel message to the blackness of darkness forever. It will be more tolerable in the day of judgment for Sodom and Gomorrah than it will be for a man or a woman who reads this Gospel tract and said, "NO" to Jesus Christ. These are my final words to you, and I say to you, as we gaze out into the darkness of Hell, into the loneliness of Hell, into the restlessness of Hell, and into the endlessness of Hell, "Make haste to Calvary, wash in the Saviour's Blood, come this night to the Saviour and in God's Name be in time."

Lucas 16

MacArthur: In referring to this verse, Jesus referred to the Valley of Hinnom—i.e., Gehenna—where a continually burning trash-heap pictured the never-ending pain of the lost (Mk 9:47, 48). (Borrow The MacArthur study Bible ) Gary Smith: The servants of God will know “what has happened” to the wicked, but there is no morbid fascination with those who suffer God’s severe judgment. The text does not say that the righteous will repeatedly watch these people suffer or laugh and mock them. Neither would the righteous Israelite of Isaiah’s day go down to look at or mock the dead bodies of the children sacrificed to the pagan gods Baal or Molech in the valley of Ben-Hinnom, but they knew what had happened to those who rebelled against God and followed these pagan practices. Even today many churches have cemeteries beside them which function as a silent reminder that every individual needs to make the right choices before their end comes. This final verse has the rhetorical effect of causing the readers, who may be enthralled with the glorious thoughts of being in the new earth where God will dwell among his servants, to focus their attention on the diametrically opposite destinies that God has prepared for the evil people on this earth. Every reader must decide what destiny is most desired: (a) the joy of living in the wonderful kingdom of God before the very presence of his glory or (b) enduring the sword, fire, and worm of God’s judgment. The first choice comes with life-changing challenges and requires a complete commitment to trust God. Only those who love and serve God are able to enter his kingdom. (New American Commentary) Matthew 5:22 "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever shall say to his brother, 'Raca,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever shall say, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell (geenna). Matthew 18:8-9 “If your hand or your foot causes you to stumble, cut it off and throw it from you; it is better for you to enter life crippled or lame, than to have two hands or two feet and be cast into the eternal fire. 9 “If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and throw it from you. It is better for you to enter life with one eye, than to have two eyes and be cast into the fiery hell (geenna). Matthew 25:41 “Then He will also say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, accursed ones, into the eternal fire which has been prepared for the devil and his angels; Comment: Note that God did not originally prepare Hell for mankind but for the fallen angels. Mark 9:48+ where THEIR WORM DOES NOT DIE, AND THE FIRE IS NOT QUENCHED (sbennumi). Luke 3:17+ “His winnowing fork is in His hand to thoroughly clear His threshing floor, and to gather the wheat into His barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable (asbestos) fire.” Revelation 14:9-11+ Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, 10 he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented (basanizo) with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. 11 “And the smoke of their torment (basanos) goes up forever and ever; they have no rest day and night, those who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name.” Keener - Jewish literature often portrayed hell as involving burning. The formerly rich man hopes for mercy because he is a descendant of Abraham, but the judgment here is based on a future inversion of status. Jewish people expected an inversion of status, where the oppressed righteous (especially Israel) would be exalted above the oppressing wicked (especially the Gentiles), and also believed that charitable persons would be greatly rewarded in the world to come. But this parable specifies only economic inversion, and its starkness would have been as offensive to most first-century hearers of means as it would be to most middle-class Western Christians today if they heard it in its original force. (See The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament) Hell is presented as a place of endless torment, agony, separation, with no hope and no relief. While there is agony in hell, the question arises as to what is the nature of the agony? Daniel Wallace writes "On the one hand, I would emphatically insist that the fundamental nature of hell is separation from God and his goodness. 2 Thessalonians 1:9 refers to it as “exclusion from the face of God.” It is as if God turned his back on non-believers. Just as we only know about God on earth by what he reveals, hell makes a theological statement: only the justice of God is revealed there. That is its fundamental nature....Although it is an intriguing notion to think that hell is a place merely of spiritual separation from God, we must reckon with the biblical teaching that this is the fundamental nature of hell, but that such a description does not account for all the particulars. Further, one has to answer the question: Why, then, are non-believers resurrected if hell is only spiritual? The whole point of the resurrection is to reunite body and soul. God could easily send souls directly to hell. But he does not. He raises all people from the dead and then sends that person to hell." (Hell: Spiritual or Physical or Both?) THOUGHT - What this truth should do to Spirit filled believers is not cause us to minimize it, but to motivate us to passionately share the Gospel! Does this horrible truth not make you want to tell everyone you know about Jesus?! That's rhetorical. The great dividing line in life Is what we do with Christ, God's Son; Rejecting Him will lead to hell-- Receiving Him is heaven begun. --Hess What you decide about Christ determines your destiny.

Lucas 16

MacArthur - Lazarus is being comforted in the presence of God, and you are in agony, a fire that burns forever, but never consumes. A fire that burns forever, but never purifies. A fire that burns forever in an everlasting darkness that only punishes. What Lazarus was, you are, miserable. What you did not provide Lazarus, he cannot provide you—relief. Don’t choose to spend eternity Where pain will never dim; Instead decide to trust in Christ And choose to follow Him. —Sper You are in agony (torment) (3600) see discussion on odunao . To be in severe or great pain, suffer greatly, suffer anguish As John Blanchard says "It is never true to say that something 'hurts like hell'. Nothing hurts like hell." And this "hurt" is forever! Thomas Brooks - The damned in hell may weep their eyes out of their heads, but they can never weep sin out of their souls....Could every damned sinner weep a whole ocean, yet all those oceans together would never extinguish one spark of eternal fire. Vance Havner - The most gruesome details about the future state of the wicked come from the lips of our Lord Himself. Call it imagery, symbolism, what you will, it is a fearful picture and we dare not tone it down or call it an accommodation to the prevailing ideas of the time. Dives in hell was a personality in torment and anguish with memory intact. The word lost has almost disappeared from our vocabulary and any mention of eternal punishment is smiled away as a leftover from a dark theological past. There will be tears throughout eternity in remorse and regret for the lost opportunity to have been in heaven instead of hell. Brian Bell - The world measures people by how much they get, but God measures them by how much they give.The rich man didn’t go to Hades because he was rich; he went there because riches were his god. Abraham was a wealthy man, yet he was in paradise. What was this man’s sin? – It’s clear; he was selfish with his wealth. Origen said, “in fullness of bread and overflowing of abundance he had not pity for the man who lay at this gate wasted by sores.” “He never took account of either the suffering of his inferiors or the common rights of humanity.” Brian Bill - Abraham tells this rich guy to remember how he lived his life. His mind fills with images of poor Lazarus lying by his door with stray dogs licking his wounds. He remembers those who tried to tell him about God. He recalls sermons he heard. He remembers those who warned him about the coming judgment. Memories come swimming out of the oblivion. There is no torment greater than an accusing memory. It is impossible to forget when you’re in Hell. The rich man could not take his money, but he did take his memory. (What Happens When You Die?) Brian Bell's lessons on this section - Money can help send people to heaven (cf Lk 16:9-note) or it can help send people to hell. Money and possessions are gifts and trusts from God. God loans us these with the expectation that we’ll use them to help others. Again, Jesus teaches us about important principles on Stewardship. As Christians, we are stewards, not owners responsible to God for what we do with His gifts put in our charge! Luke 16:26 `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 will not be able, and that none may cross over from there to us.' BGT Luke 16:26 καὶ ἐν πᾶσι τούτοις μεταξὺ ἡμῶν καὶ ὑμῶν χάσμα μέγα ἐστήρικται, ὅπως οἱ θέλοντες διαβῆναι ἔνθεν πρὸς ὑμᾶς μὴ δύνωνται, μηδὲ ἐκεῖθεν πρὸς ἡμᾶς διαπερῶσιν. KJV Luke 16:26 And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence. NET Luke 16:26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us, so that those who want to cross over from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' CSB Luke 16:26 Besides all this, a great chasm has been fixed between us and you, so that those who want to pass over from here to you cannot; neither can those from there cross over to us.' ESV Luke 16:26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there to us.' NIV Luke 16:26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.' NLT Luke 16:26 And besides, there is a great chasm separating us. No one can cross over to you from here, and no one can cross over to us from there.' NRS Luke 16:26 Besides all this, between you and us a great chasm has been fixed, so that those who might want to pass from here to you cannot do so, and no one can cross from there to us.' YLT Luke 16:26 and besides all these things, between us and you a great chasm is fixed, so that they who are willing to go over from hence unto you are not able, nor do they from thence to us pass through. between 1 Samuel 25:36; Ps 49:14; Ezek 28:24; Mal 3:18; 2 Th 1:4-10; James 1:11,12; James 5:1-7 pass Luke 12:59; Ps 50:22; Mt 25:46; Jn 3:36; 2 Th 1:9; Rev 20:10; 22:11 Hell in W G T Shedd's Dogmatic Theology - one of the best on the subject of Hell Luke 16 Resources - Multiple Sermons and Commentaries Luke 16:19-31 A Great Chasm Fixed - Steven Cole Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 1 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 2 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 3 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 4 - John MacArthur Luke 16:19-31 A Testimony of One Surprised to be in Hell, Part 5 - John MacArthur In Depth Study of Eternal Punishment - on site FATES FIXED FOREVER! And besides all this - literally "and in all these things." In other words, not only was the rich man's request in Lk 16:24 not granted, Lazarus could not have carried it out because of the great chasm. "Exit is not a word found in the vocabulary of hell." -- Robert E Lee There is a great chasm (chasma) fixed (sterizo - perfect tense = fixed forever!)- Sadly, there are no "exit signs" in Hell! Or as R E Lee said "Exit is not a word found in the vocabulary of hell." There is no escape hatches, no second chances! There is gulf that is fixed forever and separates unregenerate rebels from the regenerate redeemed. As John Blanchard says "In hell, the sinner’s situation is quite literally hopeless. As one writer (John Donne) has put it, ‘Despair is the damp of hell, as joy is the serenity of heaven.’" (Whatever Happened to Hell?) Andrus writes 'The message here is clear: one’s eternal destiny is established at the time of death and there is no possibility of change. The notion is pure fiction that after death one can negotiate with St. Peter to get into heaven. It can’t be done." (Sermon) Although Jesus does not use the word "eternal" in the description of this great chasm, the word fixed (as noted below) clearly points to the fact that this is a permanent state, indeed a state that endure eternally. There are many voices today (even some in the evangelical church) who say that eternity does not mean eternity! Jesus used eternal (aionios) to describe the duration of the fire in hell (Mt 18:8-9, Mt 25:41). In Mt 25:41 aionos is used to describe the duration of one's existence either in hell and heaven... “These will go away into eternal (aionios) punishment, but the righteous into eternal (aionios) life.” (Mt 25:46) Passages such as Mt 25:46 from the lips of our Lord Jesus, make it crystal clear that hell is eternal. Jesus directly refute those who falsely teach that Hell is not eternal (especially those who hold to some form of annihilationism, including men like John Stott). It is interesting that most of Jesus' uses of eternal (aionios) refer to eternal life rather than eternal death (see below). Clearly our Lord desires that His hearers attain the former state rather than the latter (2 Pe 3:9, 1 Ti 2:4). MacArthur adds that you say hell is not eternal "you have just done it with Heaven, because the same word is used to describe that state! If there is not an everlasting hell, then there is not an everlasting Heaven! The same word eternal (aionios) is used to describe God; and so if there is not an everlasting hell, then there is not an everlasting Heaven, nor is there an everlasting God. It is clear that God is eternal; and, therefore, that Heaven is eternal, and so is hell. This is what is on the heart of the Lord Jesus when He talks to the Pharisees." Eternal fire - 3x - Matt. 18:8; Matt. 25:41; Jude 1:7 Eternal life - 41x in the NT Matt. 19:16; Matt. 19:29; Matt. 25:46; Mk. 10:17; Mk. 10:30; Lk. 10:25; Lk. 18:18; Lk. 18:30; Jn. 3:15; Jn. 3:16; Jn. 3:36; Jn. 4:14; Jn. 5:24; Jn. 5:39; Jn. 6:27; Jn. 6:40; Jn. 6:47; Jn. 6:54; Jn. 6:68; Jn. 10:28; Jn. 12:50; Jn. 17:2; Jn. 17:3; Acts 13:46; Acts 13:48; Rom. 2:7; Rom. 5:21; Rom. 6:22; Rom. 6:23; Gal. 6:8; 1 Tim. 1:16; 1 Tim. 6:12; Tit. 1:2; Tit. 3:7; 1 Jn. 1:2; 1 Jn. 2:25; 1 Jn. 3:15; 1 Jn. 5:11; 1 Jn. 5:13; 1 Jn. 5:20; Jude 1:21 Hell is described as: A furnace of fire Matthew 13:42,50 This passage teaches that Hell is one's eternal abode and is literally inescapable. No one leaves. The only ones who enter are the unrepentant unbelievers. Crawford - The great gulf formed in Eden that separated man from God because of sin, and bridged at Calvary (1 Tim 2:5, 6) is here eternally fixed so that it can never be bridged or crossed. The soul in hell is beyond salvation, beyond mercy; there is no second chance; no verse in the Bible makes this more clear. (What the Bible teaches – Luke) NET Note - The great chasm between heaven and hell is impassable forever. The rich man's former status meant nothing now. (ED: Dear reader if you have never truly placed your faith in Christ as your Substitute, to pay your sin debt, then all of your wealth and status will come to naught as you will be forced to "pay your sin debt" for eternity, because you can never fully pay it off! Only Christ can do that for you! It sounds so simple, but it is supremely profound! Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ today and experience heaven with Him forever!) Chasm (5490)(chasma from chasko = to yawn) is literally a yawning, hence a gaping opening, a chasm,a gulf, a deep open pit, a ravine, an unbridgeable space between two parts of a place, in this case between Abraham and the place of eternal torture. In English a chasm is a deep opening in the earth's surface. There is a single use of chasma in the Septuagint in 2 Sa 18:17 where two words are used with reference to Absalom's body - "cast him into a great cavern (chasma) in the wood, into a deep pit (bothynos as in Mt 12:11)." (English Translation of Septuagint) Fixed (4741)(sterizo from histemi = to stand) means to fix firmly in place and in the perfect tense signifies this chasm is a permanent "fix" which will last forever! There are no "Exit" signs in Hell. No one in hell will ever go to Heaven, and no one in Heaven will ever visit hell. A chasm is set fast for the very purpose of keeping the tormented in the place of torment, and keeping the blessed in the place of blessing. It can never change. No relief will ever be sent to assuage the ongoing, everlasting torment! No escape! No relief! Fixed forever! Woe! If this horrible picture does not motivate you to preach and share the Gospel with the lost, then I don't know what will! There should be a deep soberness in our soul, a gnawing ache in our heart, as we encounter people every day who are headed for this horrible destiny! And then to realize that hell will people most of whom did not think that they would end up there!

Lucas 16

MacArthur adds that "The implication is that he and his brothers had insufficient data; that they lacked a sufficiently convincing sign. The Pharisees did exactly that: they repeatedly demanded a sign from the Lord (Matt. 12:38; 16:1; Luke 11:16; John 2:18), which He refused to give them (Matt. 12:39; 16:4)." NET Note - The irony and joy of the story is that what is denied the rich man's brothers, a word of warning from beyond the grave, is given to the reader of the Gospel in this exchange. The rich man has sinned according to Isaiah 58:6-7 “Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? “Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Gary Inrig writes "His sin is clear. But ultimately the rich man is in hell because he has not listened to the Word of God and repented before it. He has not believed God’s truth. It is not wealth that excludes from heaven, but unbelief. And, although we are not explicitly told so here, it is not Lazarus’s poverty that has qualified him for “Abraham’s side.” The clear, consistent witness of Scripture is that salvation is by faith alone." (The Parables : Understanding What Jesus Meant - Borrow) They will repent! (metanoeo) - It is passages like this which literally demolish the arguments of some evangelical writers who claim that repentance is not an integral part of salvation. A T