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Seven Lessons Learned Too Late
By Murray McLellan
I am no fountain of wisdom, but by the grace of God, I know who that fountain is. Our God is all-wise, and I bring you the words that he has given us. Jesus said of the Bible that every word is true (John 17:17). Thus, I bring you, not my own ideas (for they are not worth much), but the truth that God, in his goodness towards us, has revealed in his Holy Word—the Bible.
Our life is but a vapor and we do not know when God will require our souls of us. Therefore, it is crucial that we do not put off hearing the words of God himself regarding the issues of life and death. I want to warn you and to proclaim what the Lord Jesus Christ has revealed to us in his Word.
Consider the lesson that Jesus used in Luke 16:19-31. m this passage, Jesus describes a man who was rich on this earth (as far as material goods and family and friends), but who was poor in wisdom. He had a good life on this earth, but he learned his most important lessons after death, when it was too late. We will look at seven lessons from this parable. My prayer and heart's desire is that you will not learn them too late.
Please pay attention to the words of our Lord:
"There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. But there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, full of sores, who was laid at his gate, desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table. Moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. So it was that the beggar died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And being in torments in Hades, he lifted up his eyes and saw A braham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom
Then 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 in your lifetime you received your good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things; but now he is comforted and you are tormented. And besides all this, there is a great gulf fixed, so that those who want to pass from here to you cannot, nor can those from there pass to us.'
Then he said, 7begyou therefore, father, that you would send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment.'
Let us look at what Jesus wants us to learn.
Seven lessons learned too late: Lesson 1 - Death does not end all.
Abraham, Lazarus, and the rich man had conscious existence after death. Every individual has a soul that continues to exist even after the body is in the grave. Some of you have not yet taken seriously the question of our Lord, "What profit is it to a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? "(Matt. 16:26). The question is this: Will you spend eternity in the comfort, bliss, and glory of heaven or in the torments of the damned in hell?
Lesson 2 - There is a real place called HelL
Hell is as real as the towns in which we live. The rich man found out too late that hell is a real place and is not a myth. It did not matter what the rich man had believed when he was alive—what mattered was what was true! Jesus says that Hell is real. In fact, when we read the Gospels, we see that Jesus spent far more time warning sinners by teaching about hell than he spent speaking about heaven. We need to heed Solomon's words in Ecclesiastes 7:5, "It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise than for a man to hear the song of fools.'" Let us be rebuked by the all-wise Christ.
The truth is, not to warn sinners when you know the truth is not to love them. Jesus showed his love for sinners by warning them.
Lesson 3 - A holy God must and will punish sin.
God is so absolutely holy and just that when he found sin on his own dear Son, he poured his infinite wrath upon him. On that cross on Calvary, when the sky went dark, Jesus, the sinless Lamb of God became sin for those who would believe in him. There on the cross, the perfect and holy Son of God who knew no sin—whose ears had been filled with the pure praises of the holy angels extolling him as holy, holy, holy—now heard his rebellious and sinful creatures cry out, "Crucify Him! Crucify Him!" Jesus, as God, had rejoiced in the pure love of the Father and the Spirit, but when he was on the cross, not a ray of love fell upon him. Instead, he bore a stream of full wrath. He that once had said, "I was daily His delight" (Prov. 8:30), now cried, '"Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?' that is 'My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?'" (Matt. 27:46).
Jesus died, accursed of God, because the sin of his people was placed upon him. Since God punished his Son for sin, he most certainly will punish you for your sin if that sin is not removed by his Son. "God will not clear the guilty" (Num. 14:18). He will not overlook even the smallest sin, and we have not kept the first and greatest commandment. We have not loved him as we ought. We have not done everything for his honor and glory.
What you wish reality to be and what it actually is may be two entirely different things. God is judge, and when he raised Jesus from the dead and made him Lord, he committed all judgment to him. The man Christ Jesus will judge with righteous judgment. In fact, he has given the verdict already. He has stated, "There is none righteous, no not one" (Rom.3:10). He has declared the whole world guilty. In John chapter three, he says that you are condemned already. "He who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." We are not on probation, waiting to hear the verdict of how we will fare. We are already condemned. We are under the curse of God. That is why we die! "The wages of sin is death" and after death, "the judgment" (Rom. 6:23, Heb. 9:27).
At most funerals we attend, the minister proclaims, "peace, peace"—even when there is no basis for such a proclamation. This tends to dull our minds to the reality that we are sinners condemned in the sight of God.
Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14, "'Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.'"
Then, in verses 21-23, he clearly states, "Not everyone who says to Me, "Lord, Lord," shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, "Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?" And then I will declare to them, "I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!""
Oh, how we, as sinners, need this warning, because in most churches the message is peace, and ministers proclaim God as if he loves and needs everybody, and everything is fine. It is implied that God will overlook your sins. But the Scriptures clearly reveal the condition of man. Everything is not fine, and there is nothing you can do to change the situation. No good works or religious rituals can make you right with the true and living God, who is holy, holy, holy, and who is angry with the wicked every day (Ps. 7:11). Turning over a new leaf cannot help you. There is one Savior, and that is God himself in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. To come to God on any other basis than the blood and righteousness of Jesus Christ is to be forever damned (no matter how moral you are or how well you compare to other sinners).
Today, I want to warn every one of you. You cannot play games with God. God will not be mocked. Though he suffers long with you, continuing to give you life and breath, your day, too, will come. And it will come upon you suddenly, like a thief in the night. Awake to your plight now, so that you might flee from the wrath to come. Jesus Christ is the only refuge for those who see their deserved condemned state.
God would be perfectly just to condemn us all. After all, who is without sin? He does not need us to complete him. He did not need to forgive anyone. We are completely at God's mercy. Unless God himself desires to redeem us, we are without hope. There is only one who is righteous who was born of a woman. Jesus Christ the righteous, God the Son, took upon himself the form of a man. He alone is perfect. He alone is acceptable to the holy Father. Your plight is not whether you accept him, but how the holy God of heaven and earth can accept you, a sinner. If you are to be accepted by God, you must come to him on the merits of another. You must come in another's name. You must come on the merit and righteousness of the Father's own beloved Son—Jesus.
May we learn the first three lessons:
1) Death does not end all.
2) There is a place called Hell.
3) A holy God must and will punish sin.
And fourthly:
Lesson 4 - Hell is a place of endless torment.
There are many jokes about hell, but Jesus speaks of it with horror. He describes it as a place of utter loneliness—-in the darkness of blackness forever. The rich man cried out, "I am tormented in this flame." Jesus said it is a place of "weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matt. 8:12; 13:42, 50; 22:13; 24:51; 25:30). Hell is a place of unfulfilled lust and desires that never are fulfilled.
In contrast, the Lord says of the blessing of the redeemed in the presence of God, "Lord, in Your presence is fullness of joy and at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore" (Psalm 16:1 l).The Lord says that here and now,
sin has its pleasure, but it is passing away. Eternity is a long time! That day is coming when men will seek death and will not find it. They will desire to die and death will flee from them. In hell, God's enemies will have all the usual human desires, such as thirst, but they will never find fulfillment for those desires, because their iniquities have separated them from their God, who alone is the source of all goodness.
Thus, Jesus says in Matthew 13:41-42, '"The Son of Man will send out His angels, and they will gather out of His kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth.'" Later in Matthew, he continues, '"And these will go away into everlasting punishment...'" (Matt. 25:46) It is a place of which Jesus says, '"the fire [...] shall never be quenched—where their worm does not die ...'" (Mark 9:43-44), and '"they have no rest day or night'" (Rev. 14:11).
Do not ignore this warning or one day you will wake up dead and find out it is all too true. God, in his great wisdom and mercy, has made a way for repentant sinners to be saved from this place of torment.
Lesson 5 - Christ is the only way of salvation.
The rich man's wealth, religion, and works were of no value to him in hell. Missing Christ, he lost all! God tells us in his Word that there is a way that seems right to a man, but the end thereof is death.
Seek the LORD while He may be found, call upon Him while He is near. Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the LORD, and He will have mercy on him; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. "For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, " says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts." (Isa. 55:6-9)
You must forsake your way. This is the next lesson. Lesson 6 - Except a man repent, he will surely perish.
In Hades, the rich man realized that without repentance, there is no salvation. That is why he desired that his brothers might hear and repent and not come to this place of torments.
Apart from repentance, you have no part with Christ who is the one way of salvation. Apart from repentance and faith in Christ, you cannot claim that Jesus died for you or redeemed you. If you continue in your lawlessness— even if you call him Lord—Jesus will say, "Depart from Me. I never knew you."
You must forsake your own way:
- your own way of pardon
- your own way of trying to get peace with God
Man's way always includes some self-righteousness:
- hoping his good will outweigh his bad
- or his religion
- or baptism
- or prayer
Man's way is to DO something to merit salvation. God says you cannot, and you do not merit anything but hell and damnation. But, God proclaims that he has a way and his way is higher than your way. God's way of justifying a sinner (where he declares him righteous and treats him as such), is by the obedience and death of his Son. God's way is for you to forsake your "doing" and to cast yourself under the doing and dying of his Son, Jesus Christ. "By the works of the law no flesh shall be justified" (Rom. 3:20). Salvation and eternal life are found in Jesus Christ himself. Forsake your way—God's way is higher.
God's only way is Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me " (John 14:6).
Jesus is a sufficient Savior for ungodly sinners. In fact, the Bible says that Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. He died under the judgment of God as a substitute for all who come to Jesus in repentant faith. All who look away from themselves to Jesus Christ find a Savior who will save them to the uttermost. Salvation is of the Lord. It is all of grace, so that God receives all the glory!
Sinners, this Lord you have offended is great in mercy and very gracious. Turn from the sin of going your own way. Look to Christ—the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Oh, why should you perish? In Christ, through his atoning blood, though your sins be red as scarlet, you can be washed as white as snow.
I am like the prodigal son in Luke 15:11-24; forgiveness is more than I ever could have hoped for. But God receives me as a son, whereby I can call him "Abba, Father!" I am exalted on high—justified—declared legally righteous and treated as such, because Jesus was declared guilty (though he was perfectly righteous) and was treated as such. He was condemned in my place.
The Scripture speaks of the condition of the believer in Christ:
And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with [Christ], having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Col. 2:13-14)
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. (Rom. 8:1) Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.... having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (Rom. 5:1,9)
This is the love of God to sinners. Will you suppress the truth and spurn such love and such a glorious salvation? Will you not learn these lessons from God's own Word?
Lesson 7 - No one can ever be saved without hearing and believing the gospel.
Be wise now and believe the gospel. Trust Christ, lest you also perish under the wrath of God. All the promises and blessings of God are yes and amen in Christ Jesus (2 Cor. 1:20). If you are not a partaker of Christ, the precious promises of this book are not for you; you receive only indignation and wrath.
If you do not "hear Moses and the Prophets" (the Word of God), you will not be persuaded even though one rose from the dead. You cannot say, "I would believe if God appeared to me or did a miracle. Then I would believe that what he said is true." One did rise from the dead! He is Lord of all! One day, every knee shall bow and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. Believe the Word of God, he says, or there is no salvation for you.
Do not harden your heart in unbelief. If you do, a thousand years from now, you will remember reading this message. You will remember this warning and that you neglected your soul. You will remember how you cast the truth aside as religious foolishness. You will learn these lessons, but just as it was for the rich man, it will be too late for you.
Today is the day of salvation. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. Come to God on the merits of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the ark—the only place of refuge for guilty, hell-deserving sinners. Jesus
Christ is the only Savior for sinners. Between God and us is a great, fixed gulf. Only Jesus can "CROSS" that gulf by means of the cross. He is the only mediator between God and man. He alone can reconcile us to our Creator.
Today, I call you to repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Do not add the direct forsaking of the gospel truth to your already guilty state. Oh, think of the rich man and many others in hell. What would they give for such an opportunity as you have this day? It is probable that some of your friends or companions, now in hell, are wishing they could come back to tell you about the lessons they learned too late—that you might repent, lest you also go to that place of torment. The Word of God is clear: hear it. The Son of God has spoken: hear him!
Jesus declares through the prophet Isaiah, "Besides Me there is no Savior. Look to Me and be saved" (Isa. 43:11; 45:22). Look on him who was pierced for sinners like you and like me.
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