A GREAT GULF There are two great texts of scripture found in the gospel of Luke and nowhere else in the Bible.  The story of the prodigal son, and the rich man and Lazarus.  Read them with me as if you were reading them for the very first time: “There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared Sumptuously every day:  and there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was Laid at his gate, full of sores, and desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from The rich man’s table:  moreover the dogs came and licked his sores.  And it came to pass That the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham’s bosom:  the rich man Also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.  And he cried and said, Father Abraham Have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and Cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.  But  Abraham said, Son, remember That thou in thy lifetime receivedst thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things: But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented.  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.  Then he said, I pray thee there- Fore,  father, that thou wouldst send him to my father’s house:  for I have five brethren; That he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment.  Abraham Saith unto him. They have Moses and the prophets;  let them hear them.  And he said, Nay, father Abraham:  but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.  And He said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded Though one rose from the dead.”                                                Luke 16:19-31 There are four things in this story I want us to think about seriously (1) WE DO NOT HAVE THE WHOLE STORY OF THE RICH MAN AND LAZARUS. We don’t have the entire story of their lives.  The rich man was not condemned to be lost merely because he was rich.  He was condemned to be lost because he had misused his riches.  His life was one of pride; one of being self- centered, worldliness.  There was absolutely no thought of, or about God.  Basically, there were three things wrong in this rich man’s life.  (a) He was self-indulgent.  You can almost see him as he rides through the gate attached to the big fence out in front of his house.  He rides in a fine carriage and he eats sumptuously, wears the finest linen, and as he carriage turns inside the gate he looks down and sees the beggar, repulsive because of his sores and being hungry.  (b)  He was indifferent to the needs of others.  And finally, he was unmindful of God.  There is no indication in this whole story that he even thought about God until he found himself in torment. You will also notice that in this story there is nothing said about the rich man that indicates he was guilty of some great crime.  He had done nothing wrong that the laws would prosecute him for.  In fact, he Was quite prominent in the community, and highly respected.  But, these three things in his life, a self-centeredness, and indifference to the needs of others and a lack of concern for God, these caused him to be lost. As the rich man, we do not have the whole story of Lazarus.  The fact that he was poor and that he was afflicted is not enough to indicate why he was saved.  There have been millions of poor people, some of them have been afflicted to such a degree that they were miserable and wretched who have been lost.  Salvation is not meted out because a man is poor, or because he is afflicted.  There is something else in the life of Lazarus that caused the angels to carry him to paradise.  In his poverty there must have been patience, a willingness to accept whatever God sent without complaining.  In his affliction there must have been resignation, an absence of rebellion against God. When we read this context with all the others things that are taught in the New Testament, we can know something at least, of the kind of man that Lazarus had to be in order to be saved.  Men are not lost because of their riches; and are not saved because of their poverty.  The Bible tells us that men are saved because they are obedient to God’s Word.  They are willing to listen to Him, love Him and submit their will to Him through obedience to the gospel.  They do not center their lives on this world or the things therein.   (2) THE SECOND THING IN THIS STORY IS THAT MAN’S DESTINY, IMMEDIATELY AFTER HE DIES IS FINAL AND IRREVOCABLE. There is no changing man’s destiny after he dies.  While there is life, there is opportunity to change one’s destiny eternally, but when death comes, it is all over.  It is final forever.  Heb. 9:27  There is no change of a man’s status before God after that last breath has been taken. In this story, the part that cuts deepest into our conscious is the part where Abraham said:  “Between us and you thee is a great gulf fixed, that they that would pass from hence to you may not be able, and that none may cross over from hence to us.”  When death comes, the saints cannot go down and comfort the sinners; neither can the sinners come up and associate with the saints.  When death comes there is a division that never can be crossed. It is not a division between the rich and poor.  The great gulf does not separate those who have been blessed in this life from those who have not been blessed.  The great gulf come between those who have centered their lives on the things of this world to the neglect of God, and those who have loved God and lovingly obeyed His Will.  This is why the story comes so forcefully to us.  There is not one of us who does not need regularly to realize how easy it is to center one’s life in the here and now and crowd God into the background.  Men so often give an hour on Sunday and lip service occasionally when the subject come up.   Dedication to God and His Word means more than an hour on Sunday; it means a life lived twenty-four hours a day seven days a week in service to God. (3)  THE THIRD THING IN THIS STORY IS THAT THE RICH MAN’S CONCERN FOR HIS BRETHREN CAME TOO LATE. Oh, how he yearned for them.  There is certainly something commendable in his life because, though he was lost himself, though he was in torment, yet he remembered them.  That word REMEMBER is a little disturbing.  Abraham looked down at him and said, “Son remember…”  This means that on the other side of death men do remember.   They do remember this earth.  Here was a man who was conscious of the wayward, lost condition of his brothers.  He remembered.  In this surely there ought to be an incentive to us to so live our lives and to discharge our responsibilities that we will have no regrets when we are on the other side of death.   This action on the part of the rich man, being concerned about his brothers, is wonderful, yet, it is pathetic.  It is wonderful because he did it when he himself was suffering.  It is pathetic because it did no good.  It was too late.  It is even more pathetic because like the love he had in life, it was a selfish love.  “Father, Abraham, send Lazarus to my father’s house, and tell this to my five brethren…”  Even in torment he did not realize that he had a responsibility to the people at his gate, the neighbors who lived near him or worked with him.  It was MY five brethren that he wanted to save from the suffering he was undergoing.  The answer came back across the great gulf.  “They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.”  There was in the writings of Moses and the prophets everything that those brethren needed. For example, Deut. 6:4, “Hear, O Israel, Jehovah our God is one Jehovah:  and thou shalt love Jehovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”  There it is right from Moses in the Old Testament.  Then again in Lev. 19:18, to the surprise of some Christians, there is the statement,  “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”  Later on Christ said that this is the second commandment.  There thy are.  These men, the brethren of the rich man, had been taught.  The disturbing thing is that we have also been taught.  We know, yet it is easy to become so preoccupied that the Lord gets only the crumbs. (3) THEN FINALLY THIS STORY TEACHES US THAT IT’ A TERRIBLE THING TO BE LOST.                                                                                                                                                                                                  It ia not popular in our age to preach on hell and the torment and suffering that comes to men who are not God’s people, but that emphasis is needed.  Too many people are complacent, not realizing that they may be only a heartbeat away from eternal damnation.  The rich man said, “I am in anguish in this flame.”  He begged for a finger dipped in water to touch his lips. Several times on other occasions Christ used the expression, “There shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth”.  This is the grinding of teeth--- anguish beyond anything that you and I know.  In the 25th chapter of Matthew Christ described the end of time and the judgment, He pictured a moment when those who are not God’s faithful servants will come before him and will hear him say  “Depart from me, ye cursed, into eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels.”  It is almost certain that some that are reading these very words now will hear those awful words.  I hope not.  Obey Christ today.  Right now.  At other places on this web site you will find God’s plan of  Salvation.  Go to it.  Don’t put it off.     -------Bill Young