Life is all about choices, about the decisions you make. In America we have unprecedented freedom – but in reality we all serve someone or something. If you choose to serve the wrong something, this can bring terrible and eternal consequences. Jesus said:

Luke 16:13-22 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon. 14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him. 15 And he said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God. 16 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail. 18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery. 19 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 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. 22 And it came to pass …

God Calls Us To Choose His Love Or His Wrath

We choose how we will live our lives. We choose to be the master of our story, or to let someone or something else be the master of our lives. The best life is to choose to serve God. Our Lord Jesus said:

Luke 16:13 No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

It is best to serve God. It is best to pattern your lives after Jesus Christ. It is the highest sort of life to hear the words of God and to obey them and do them. Why? Because God is love. The best life is to love God, and be loved of God. Anything God requires of us is, of necessity, for our good. God does not make us love Him, but calls to us in love to repent and come to Him.

If you believe that “God is love”, then you also believe that God wants US to love. The scripture says “He that will not love does not know God, for God is love” (1 John 4:8). We are all made in the image of God, and as such are called to imitate God in love. We are to love God first as our Creator. “God is love, and the one that dwells in love dwells in God, and God dwells in them” (1 John 4:16). God is love. But God gives us choice. We have free will. We choose whom we will love. “No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other.” The call of salvation is to CHOOSE. Do you choose to serve God, or to serve Mammon?

Word Study: What is mammon? The Greek μαμωνᾶς mamōnas means “treasures of this world”. It is not just a reference to money – as some translations make it out to be. No, mamōnas is anything that you treasure above God your Creator. In America today there are many gods that entice people – though we may not consider them as gods. YOU are a god when you treasure yourself above all else. Your bank account, your looks, the opinion of others, your stuff – anything that you love above God can be mamōnas. Your spouse, your children, your sexuality and sexual expression. Mamōnas. That which you cling most to can be mamōnas. Food, comfort, self satisfaction, mamōnas. Charles Stanley wrote:

“When Paul arrived in Athens, he found religious people seeking to please their various gods. To make sure all their bases were covered, there was even an altar inscribed to an unknown god. The Athenian religious culture may seem totally foreign to us, but today people are likewise seeking to please false gods. Some who claim to follow the True God are actually worshiping an image of their own making”.

God has free will, just as we do. He can choose to love,
or choose to parcel out wrath.

I have heard people say, “I can believe that God is Love – but God is wrath? No, I can’t believe that. Beloved, God is indeed LOVE and is also WRATH. I can prove it in just two words.

The Cross

When we look at the Cross, we see and preach the love of God to us. But the Cross IS ALSO WRATH. The Lord Jesus – God manifest among us – hung on that Cross, beaten and bloodied, pinned by nail and thorn to rough wood – because of the WRATH of God. God despises sin. God cannot be in the same room with sin. Sin is mamōnas, the false god so many follow after. Sin is to ignore the Creator, and satisfy the created. Sin exalted the created and minimizes the Creator.

Is hell real? Is Heaven real? As God is indeed Love, there must be a Heaven. As God is indeed wrath, there must be a Hell.

God plans no one to go to Hell, but we choose hell by rejecting Him. The Scripture says:

1 Thessalonians 5:8-10 But let us, WHO ARE OF THE DAY, be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and for a helmet, the hope of salvation. 9 FOR GOD HATH NOT APPOINTED US TO WRATH, BUT TO OBTAIN SALVATION BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST. 10 WHO DIED FOR US, that, whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him …

Word Study: We do not have to be under the wrath of God. God calls us to REPENT. REPENT is CHOICE. John the Baptist preached:

Matthew 3:2 … REPENT (μετανοέω metanoeō): for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.

The Messiah was coming, the King of glory. R-E-P-E-N-T. Turn from mamōnas, and turn to God. Jesus preached the same message (Matthew 4:17). “REPENT (μετανοέω metanoeō). The Greek metanoeō means to change the direction of the mind. Jesus warned:

Luke 13:3, 5 … unless you REPENT, you will all likewise PERISH …

If you keep following mamōnas, whatever treasure that is for you, you will find your life falling apart, and in shambles. Religion will not help you. Religion cannot save you. Right after Jesus warned of following mamōnas or God, we read:

Luke 16:14 And the Pharisees also, who were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided {Jesus}.

The Pharisees Thought The Law Could Save Them

The Law was never meant to save, but to convict us that we need the Savior. “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good” says Romans 7:12. The Law of God points out how we all fall short of the glory of God. No one has ever been saved by keeping the Law apart from faith in God. The Apostle wrote:

Galatians 3:24 … the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Every person ever saved was saved by loving and clinging to God.

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Daniel, the Hebrew Children, Jeremiah, Isaiah, Elijah, John the Baptist … every warrior of faith was saved not by law but by faith. Salvation is to fall in love with Jesus. Jesus said:

John 14:15, 21 If you love Me, keep My Commandments … 21 He that has My Commandments, and keeps them, he loves Me: and the one that loves Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love Him, and will manifest Myself to him.

John 15:10 IF you keep My Commandments, you shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father’s Commandments, and abide in His love.

God is love, and He saves souls from Hell when we come to and fall in love with Jesus. Billy Graham preached in a crusade several years ago,

“I am going to Heaven totally and completely upon the basis of what Christ did on that Cross. Salvation is not by works, it is by the Grace of God. … You must receive by faith, and believe, and then you must be willing to follow Him and serve Him. It means you start living a disciplined life under the Lordship of Christ. It means that you serve Him in every little thing every day.”

If you are a Child of God, you love God. You love Jesus. The Pharisees, however …

Luke 16:14 … were covetous, heard all these things: and they derided him.

Word Study: They did not love Jesus. They “derided” (ekmyktērízō, ek-mook-ter-id’-zo, to “turn up the nose” to, to sneer or scoff) Him. The Pharisees were “covetous”. Their god was themselves. They wanted things for themselves. They lived for themselves. Though they knew the Law said “Thou shalt not COVET” (Exodus 20:17), they ignored this Law, while keeping all the rituals of the Law. The Pharisees followed the parts of the Law that was appealing to them. Jesus said of the Pharisees, they are like whitewashed mausoleums(Matthew 23:27). They rejected Jesus as Lord and Savior. Jesus told them:

Luke 16:15 And {Jesus} said unto them, Ye are they which justify yourselves before men; but God knoweth your hearts: for that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God.

With the Pharisees they “justified themselves before others”. They outwardly kept the Law – at least, the visible portions of the Law that were ritualistic. But they were only mimics. The Apostle Paul – a Pharisee named SAUL before he met Jesus – writes:

Romans 13:8 (ESV) … whoever loves others has fulfilled the law …

Galatians 5:14 (ESV) For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: Love your neighbor as yourself.

The Ten Commandments are all about LOVE. The first four speak to the love of God. The last six speak to the love of others. God calls us to love. The Pharisees only had love for themselves. They made a show of giving, of prayer, of service. They fed their own egos. They had no concern for others. If you are saved, the scripture says …

1 John 4:18-19 There is NO FEAR IN LOVE; but PERFECT LOVE {love to Christ Jesus} CASTETH OUT FEAR: because fear hath torment. He that FEARETH is not made perfect in love. 19 We love HIM …

No Christ follower need fear death or hell. You are loved.

We love God our Father, Who sent His Son to appease the just wrath of God.
We love God the Son, Who took the wrath on Himself for us.
We love God the Spirit, Who indwells us because of the Blood of Christ.

because He first loved us …

The Pharisees would not love God, because they loved mamōnas, the false gods of this world. Return to verse 15. Jesus told them “that which is highly esteemed among men is abomination in the sight of God”. An “abomination” {bdélygma, [pronounced bdel’-oog-mah]}, “the DETESTABLE thing”. What are the “highly esteemed” things which God considers “abomination”. The world DESPISES the Law of God, but LOVES sin. The Christian loves Jesus, and hates sin. Why? Once saved, God “writes His Law in our hearts” (Jeremiah 31:31-34). When we come to Jesus Christ broken, He touches us, and begins to mend us from the inside out. He changes out heart from following mamōnas to following God. Once our hearts are changed by salvation, we begin to – because we love God – to follow His Law. Jesus said:

Luke 16:16-17 The law and the prophets were until John: since that time the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it. 17 And it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

“The law and the prophets were until John”. Animal sacrifices and feasts are finished. The Blood of Jesus Christ covers the sin of the believer.

Hebrews 10:12, 14 … THIS MAN, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God … 14 For by one offering {Jesus} has perfected for ever them that are sanctified.

The King of Heaven has come. John the Baptist is gone. “Since that time {as John’s ministry has ended} the kingdom of God is preached, and every man presseth into it”. Here is the One Who has the keys of Heaven. Here is the Son of God, Eternal Deity, come to earth to make payment for our sins. Here is the One Who will show us what God expects. As God is LOVE, God expects those who have been changed by HIS LOVE to LOVE others, to LOVE our enemies, to LOVE the indifferent, but to LOVE GOD MOST. The Pharisees turned their noses up at Jesus. They mocked Him. They plotted against Him. They told lies about Him. And yet, Jesus went to the Cross, dying for their sins as He died for the sins of the whole world. The Pharisees twisted the Law – but the Law of God cannot change. Jesus said:

Luke 16:17 … it is easier for heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail.

Word Study: What is a “tittle”? It is a tiny mark used in the Hebrew Bible, very small, that changes the meaning of a word. The Law of God will never fail. What was sin in Jesus’ day is sin today. What was sin at Mount Sinai is sin today. We cannot make sacrifice for our sins by killing an animal, nor can we, by penance, make the wrath of God go away. That part of the Law has not passed, but has been fulfilled by Christ Jesus. When Jesus died on the Cross, He died for every sin, past, present, and future that I and you would commit. At the Pastor’s conference I just attended, Pastor Gene Mims illustrated it this way:

“How many of you were alive when Jesus died on the Cross? No one. So the sins He died for were – for you – all FUTURE sins.”

I love that. Now Jesus illustrates, making an application that the Pharisees twisted in the Law. He said:

Luke 16:18 Whosoever putteth away his wife, and marrieth another, committeth adultery: and whosoever marrieth her that is put away from her husband committeth adultery.

When God made man in His image, God “made them male and female” (Genesis 1:27). It was God’s design that marriage be a trusted, and permanent institution. The Pharisees had allowed – and even encouraged among themselves – divorce for any cause. What this entailed was that a man could marry a woman and, after she bore his children and increased in age, that man could then “put away his wife for every cause”? (Matthew 19:4). Sacrificial and godly love are taught in the family, particularly in the marriage relationship. Jesus told the Pharisees,

Matthew 19:4 … have you not read {in the Scripture} that {God} Who made them at the beginning made them MALE and FEMALE. 5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to His wife, and they two shall be one flesh? 6 Wherefore they are no longer two, but one flesh. What God has joined together, let no one put asunder…

Jesus did not wipe out or minimize the Law of God. “The Commandment of God is a lamp; and the Law is light; and reproofs of instruction are the way of life.” (Proverbs 6:23). “Great peace have they which love Thy Law: and nothing shall offend them” (Psalm 119:165).

What God has made Law, the God Who is love made it Law. We bask in the love of God when we obey His Law, when we, from the heart, live so as to please Him and Him alone. The Pharisees allowed divorce for every cause, but God wants us to sacrificially love in our marriages, in our families, putting others first as He has done.

Who Is Condemned To Hell Under The Wrath Of God?

As Jesus is teaching the Pharisees, He turns to the subject of the present life and of the after-life. As we look at the story Jesus is telling, we need to remind ourselves that Jesus has not yet went to the Cross. Jesus told Nicodemus:

John 3:11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

Before Jesus made payment for our sins, the righteous dead went to be with Abraham. Abraham was not properly in Heaven, but in a temporary place until the Blood of the Lamb was shed. When Jesus died on the Cross, the Bible says:

Hebrews 9:12 Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

Once Jesus died on that Cross, for the three days His Body laid in that Grave, He ascended into glory, presenting Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of His people. His BLOOD satisfied the wrath of God, a wrath justly deserved against all sin and sinners. The Scripture tells us:

Hebrews 9:24 Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

Before Christ paid the wrath of God, the Old Covenant Saints went to “Abraham’s Bosom”. But after His death the Scripture says in

Ephesians 4:9-10 {Jesus} ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth? 10 {The Jesus} that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.

Jesus is not speaking of Heaven proper, but Abraham’s bosom. This may confuse you, but let me say that now because of Christ “absent from the body, {we are} present with the Lord” (2 Corinthians 5:8).

The Master’s Illustration Of Heaven & Hell

Luke 16:19-21 There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: 20 And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, 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.

Here are two people. Jesus doesn’t give us many particulars on “Lazarus”, other than the is poor and suffering. We can learn something about Lazarus from his NAME. The name “Lazarus” means “The one whom God helps”. Jesus had a friend named Lazarus (see John 11:11) that He often visited in Bethany. This poor beggar has nothing in life by the Lord. Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor, for you shall have the Kingdom of God” (Luke 6:20). Lazarus had no home to speak of, no job, no decent income, and little food.

Then there was the rich man. The rich man worshiped mamōnas, mammon. He had no love in his heart for anyone but himself. He had the finest clothes, the finest food, the finest home. This poor friend of Jesus laid in the gate of the rich man’s home, and that man had to step OVER the body of Lazarus to get to his riches. Periodically the rich man would allow Lazarus into his mansion to sit under the table like a dog, eating a few scraps of bread. I can see the rich man and his children taking a little meat from their plates, and tossing it on the ground, watching Lazarus wrestle with the dogs just to survive.

Luke 16:22-23 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; 23 And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

There’s several things we can see Jesus teaching about the afterlife. Though Lazarus suffered in life, because he loved the Lord, he was loved in the next life. He was taken to “Abraham’s bosom”, embraced by the father of faith. Though Lazarus had no friends in this life outside of dogs, when he entered the next life he was escorted into glory “by the angels”. Lazarus was comforted, though he passed through death’s portal. What about the rich man? Though Lazarus was unknown in life to all but God, the rich man was unknown by God in the next life. Though in this life the rich man never looked up, “in hell he lift up his eyes”. Some modern Preachers have told us that – if you die as an unbeliever – that you burn up in Hell. Is that true? Not according to Jesus. Jesus said that the rich man was “being in torments”. He was suffering, but not burning up. The Bible says of hell and eternal punishment:

Isaiah 66:24 … their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.

When Jesus spoke on the horror of hell, He warned that it is a place where “their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched” (Mark 9:44-48). Jesus said that it would be better if you maimed your current body if it would keep you from entering the horror of hell. Hell is where the wrath of God is poured out. Hell is an unspeakable horror that those who will not repent shall go. Hell is not where God put you, but where you, in your godlessness, have parked yourself. The Bible says:

1 Thessalonians 5:9 For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ …

Who is in hell? The IMPENITENT. The rich man is in hell. He is in torment. Does he repent, calling on the name of the Lord? Absolutely not! He doesn’t cry out to God, but to Abraham:

Luke 16:24 … 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.

The man is still chasing after mamōnas. He wants Abraham and Lazarus to wait on him, so he asks for just a drop of water. He follows the pattern of Satan, who encouraged Adam to take “just one taste, just one fruit”. The rich man cares nothing for Lazarus, Abraham, nor God. He just wants what he wants. Abraham replies:

Luke 16:25-26 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. 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.

God treated this man like he was a son in this life. He was given so much good from God’s Common Grace. The Bible says that “the goodness of God leads us to repentance” (Romans 2:4). God’s Grace is clearly evident all around us, and yet, he ignored the Provider of that Grace. While in this life “the goodness of God continues”. It is His goodness that brought you to this place today. Finally, the rich man asks:

Luke 16:27-29 I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father’s house: 28 For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. 29 Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.

Jesus gave us a clear teaching on Heaven and Hell. God revealed the coming of the Messiah in the Old Testament. This rich man – and the Pharisees Jesus is talking to – have heard the truth. The truth is the truth. If you leave this life without Christ, there is no second chance in the next life. It is your choice. God wants to love you, and has allowed His Son to absorb all of the just wrath of God for you. Will you come to Him? Will you give your life to Jesus? Will you trust that He died for your sins, and rose from the grave to lead you from this life and into glory? The choice is yours. Make the right choice. Call on Jesus and be saved. Follow Jesus, and be blessed. May Christ Jesus and the Spirit of God draw you close to God. Amen and Amen.