Church: Reformed Baptist Church of Franconia | Text: Luke 16:19-31 | Date: November 11, 2018 | Speaker: Fred Zaspel

We’re continuing now our studies on death and the afterlife. We have spent one of our times together with just some introductory matters, establishing or orienting ourselves to the biblical teaching that we are created body and soul—that the immaterial part of us, the soul, is something that survives death and lives on, whether saved or lost. We also established the distinctions between what’s called the intermediate state and the final state or the eternal state. The intermediate state being the condition of the soul between death and resurrection, and then the final state or the eternal state being the state of resurrection that we will experience eternally. We spent a couple of weeks then looking at the intermediate state of the redeemed. We saw that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, which is, the Apostle Paul says, far better.

This evening now, we’re going to look at a much more sobering subject, and that is the intermediate state of the lost. There are few passages in the Bible that speak to this issue with any extensive kind of teaching about it, but there are some that are very clear enough. And I want to start with just a brief mention in Deuteronomy chapter 32. This is called the Song of Moses. Moses in this section, actually from chapter 28 on, gives us an extended prophecy regarding Israel and her future: how Israel will turn away from God and not be faithful, how God will bring punishments, how God will bring her back, and so on. But here in this passage in Deuteronomy 32, verses 20 and following, he’s dealing with Israel’s unbelief and disobedience to the covenant.

Just notice now in verse 21: “They’ve made me jealous with what is no God. They have provoked me to anger with their idols, so I will make them jealous with those who are no people. I will provoke them to anger with a foolish nation.” You remember that’s picked up in Romans, where Paul says that God will provoke Israel to jealousy by taking the gospel to the Gentiles. But now notice verse 22. Here, speaking of his wrath: “A fire is kindled by my anger, and it burns to the depths of Sheol, devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.” There is some metaphorical language here, of course, but what is interesting here for our subject this evening is just that statement in the second line: “it burns to the depths of Sheol.” Even if you would take the fires here to be metaphorical of divine judgment, still you’re left with the fact that in Sheol—remember what that is, the realm of the dead—even in Sheol, the fires of God’s wrath burn. There’s a statement that those who have died apart from Christ, those who have died lost, the disobedient, the wicked, are now in Sheol under divine judgment.

All right, just a brief mention of that there. Now look over to the New Testament. We’re going to look at two major passages in the New Testament about this.

2 Peter Chapter 2

I’m going to take the time to read the first 10 verses. We’ll be focusing on verses 4 through 10, but I’ll start with verse 1:

“But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them to hell, and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment. If God did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly. If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly. And if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard. Then the Lord knows how to rescue the ungodly from trials and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.”

Sobering passage here. The Apostle Peter is speaking of the false teachers who will come in and bring in their heresies. He speaks of those who will follow them, and he speaks of the punishment that will come in the future of these wicked people. And notice we have here a series—well, in verses 1 to 3, we’ve got the false teachers and their following, their professed believers, many of them. But then in verse 3, the last half of the verse, the Apostle Peter affirms that their judgment is coming. That, he says, their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. God has decreed this, it will come, and it is not asleep. That is, it will come in its good time.

Now, after that, we have, in verses four through nine, an if-then—an if-then argument that the Apostle Peter gives. “If this, then surely this” is the sense of the argument. And in verses four to eight, we have the four if-clauses, and then in verse 9, we have the then-clause. So let’s look through that again.

Verse 4: “If God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until judgment.” Here he is speaking of the condemnation of the angels. The best guess here—well, I won’t say it’s the best guess, the best of many—is that this is the angels involved in Genesis chapter six. Doesn’t matter for our point here that these angels had sinned, they’d rebelled, and they had been cast to hell. So if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment, they’re being punished under judgment until the day of judgment. This is these angels who sinned. That’s the first if-clause, if God did that to them.

And then verse 5: “if he did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah, herald of righteousness, with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” So here we have the ancient world of Noah’s days. So if the angels were destroyed, and if that ancient world was destroyed under divine judgment.

And now another one in verse 6: “If by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly.” So if he did this to those angels, and if he judged and destroyed the world in Noah’s day because of its sinfulness, and now if he erased Sodom and Gomorrah because of their sin.

And now verse 7: “if he rescued Lot, who is righteous, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked.” Then he gives a parenthetical statement about how he felt about that in verse 8. So if he did this to the angels, if he did this to the ancient world of Noah’s day, if he destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, and if he rescued righteous Lot, and then the shoe drops, verse 9: “Then the Lord knows how to, one, rescue the ungodly from trials, and two, to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.”

So he’s looking at history, the history of God’s dealing with sinners. If he’s done this, if he’s done this, if he’s done that, and if he’s done the other, then one, he knows how to rescue the righteous, and number two, he knows how to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment. Now this is one of the clearest statements you can find in the New Testament, that in the intermediate state of the lost, they are kept under punishment. The day of judgment has not yet come, and yet they are kept under judgment, under punishment, until the day of judgment when it comes. I don’t see how there can be any question here, but that the intermediate state of the lost is one of punishment under divine judgment.

Luke Chapter 16

One more, and we’ll spend the rest of our time there. Look at Luke chapter 16. This, of course, is the most notable one in the New Testament. Luke chapter 16, Jesus tells about the rich man and Lazarus. Luke 16, verses 19 to 31. Again, I want to take the time to read:

“There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, and who feasted sumptuously every day. And at his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man’s table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried, and in Hades, being in torment, he lifted his eyes and saw Abraham far off and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, ‘Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.’ But Abraham said, ‘Child, remember that you in your lifetime received good things, and Lazarus in like manner bad things. Now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish.’ 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. And he said, ‘Then I beg you, Father, to send him to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.’ But Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them.’ And he said, ‘No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent.’ And he said to him, ‘If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.'”

A sobering passage of scripture. What is the point of the parable? Clearly it is not to champion poverty and to vilify wealth and condemn wealth. The Bible has plenty of rich men who were blessed and made rich by God’s blessing to tell us that can’t be the right understanding of the parable. And I don’t think it’s a mere reversal kind of theology, that if you’ve got it good here, you’re going to have it bad there, and if you have it bad here, you’ll have it good there. I don’t think that’s what’s going on either.

If we read this parable with any eye to the context at all, I think we have to say two things. One, yes, it is written to warn of the danger of riches. We have to see that, not only in the parable itself, but also in the context. It is written to warn of the danger of riches. That topic is already prominent in the context. If you’d like to look back at verses 9 through 11, for example: “I tell you, make friends for yourselves by means of unrighteous wealth so that when it fails, they may receive you into eternal dwelling.” Here in the context, he’s speaking of using your money in a right way so that you reap the benefits in the next life. Verse 10: “One who is faithful in very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is dishonest in much. If then you have not been faithful in the unrighteous wealth, who will entrust you with true riches?” And if nothing else is going on here, at least you have to see that there are true riches that are of value rather than monetary riches.

And then we come to verse 13, and we have the warning about the danger of wealth. “No servant can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and money.” There’s a danger associated with wealth. The Bible never condemns wealth as such, doesn’t condemn money, doesn’t condemn having a good job where you can make good money, but it does warn repeatedly of the danger of wealth. Jesus uses elsewhere the phrase, “the deceitfulness of riches.” There’s something about riches that is deceitful. You tend to put your hope and trust in that and feel confident because you’re wealthy. So there’s a danger associated with wealth and with riches, and the Bible has plenty of warnings along those lines.

And then right on the heels of that, he gives us verses 14 and 15: the Pharisees, who are quite satisfied with themselves, who were lovers of money, heard all these things and they ridiculed him. And he said to them, “You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your hearts. For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God.” So here we have the Pharisees who are quite satisfied with themselves. And they loved money, and it just might seem to be the implication here that part of their self-justification is their wealth. Maybe it was health, wealth, and prosperity gospel kind of in the old days: “I am wealthy, God has blessed me, look how well off I am.” And they were pretty much happy with themselves because of the blessings that they enjoyed. And then it is in that context we come then to verses 19 and following with this warning about money and wealth and the reversal that occurred between the rich man and Lazarus.

So on the one hand, yes, you have to say that there is in this passage a warning of the danger of riches. I don’t think we can go right by denying that. However, I think we miss the point of the parable if we don’t see also that the ultimate purpose of the parable is to warn with respect to the contrasting conditions of the afterlife. To warn with respect to the contrasting conditions of the afterlife. And that is very simply the point of the parable: there’s a heaven to be gained and a hell to be feared. I think that’s the point of the parable. I think that’s why the parable ends as it does in verses 27 to 31 with the discussion of hearing the word of God and responding rightly so as to avoid hell and to find heaven. There is a heaven to be gained and a hell to be feared. That’s the climax of the passage in verses 27 to 31, and I think that’s the point.

Now then, more to our point. What does this passage teach us about the afterlife for the lost? Well, first of all, it is described for us as Hades. That’s verse 23: “In Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham afar off.” Hades, again, being the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament Sheol. This is the realm of the dead. Many people say always, but at least most always, Hades is the place of the unbelieving dead in punishment. Hades is the place in Matthew chapter 16 which is the abode of Satan. You remember the statement, “the gates of hell shall not prevail against the church.” That’s Hades there. It’s the abode of Satan. And here, notice how he describes it. It’s not only called Hades, but in verse 23, Hades is a place of torment. It’s a place of torture, a place of agony, and a place of pain. That’s what the rich man says, and that’s what Abraham says back in response. In verse 24, he expands a little bit. He’s thirsty. He’s in anguish. And then in verse 26, he’s in isolation. There’s this chasm between him and the blessed.

What can we derive from all of that? One, in the afterlife, in the intermediate state, the lost are conscious—obviously conscious of their surroundings. This is not some kind of soul sleep, very obviously. Lazarus is in Abraham’s bosom being comforted, and the rich man then, by contrast, is in Hades being tormented in anguish, and that even while being aware of the blessedness of Lazarus. Obviously, this is conscious existence after death in torment.

Also, we can say about Hades from this, or hell in the intermediate state, that it’s a place where memory still remains. The rich man is instructed by Abraham to recall the earlier circumstances. He also, in the following verses, remembers his family. So he has conscious existence. He still has memory of his life that was lived before death. Verse 30, actually verses 29 and 30, it seems clear enough to say that the unrighteous dead retain their capacity of reason. He reasons this out: “send Lazarus to my family, they’re lost, I don’t want them to come here.” There’s something a little ironic though in verse 30. Here the rich man in hell—now get this—the man being punished by God in hell, is arguing theology with Abraham. That’s what’s happening.

Well, we have then conscious existence, we have memory, we have the capacity of reason and rationality. It’s, of course, as we’ve seen, the same for the redeemed in the intermediate state as well. Is there any hint here of repentance on the part of the rich man in hell? And the answer again is no, there’s no hint of it at all. If you’re really strained for it, you might want to argue that in verses 27 and 28, he has compassion for his family members who are lost. Is that some indication of repentance? Well, I don’t know that it is. You might just as well argue, why isn’t he concerned for anyone else who is lost and why just his own family? In verse 30, he’s still arguing theology with Abraham. Even in verse 24, you might wonder, “Father Abraham”—is he still justifying himself? “Hey, Father Abraham, I’m one of yours. I belong to you.” And even the statement, “send Lazarus. Send Lazarus with some water.” Can you imagine? What would make him think that Lazarus would want to go to hell for him? And is he still so full of himself that he thinks Lazarus is still his servant? I don’t see any hint here of repentance or anything like repentance at all.

In other places, in Jesus’ famous warnings about hell, he uses the expression “the gnashing of teeth”—weeping and wailing and the gnashing of teeth. And many have suggested, and it may well be right, that the gnashing of teeth implies that, even if it entails other things, it implies bitterness and resentment of the lost in their punishment. And there’s another feature of hell. That’s really the whole drift of the parable, and that is that it’s final. This is the intermediate state, but that’s it. It’s over. Verse 26, the whole drift of the story: you’re there, you can’t get out.

Well, there’s the parable. There is its teaching on what hell is like in the intermediate state. This is what makes for the urgency of the gospel. And that is what is emphasized then in verses 27 to 31. Send someone back to tell my brothers. They’ve got Moses and the prophets. They have the scriptures. Yeah, but if somebody went back from the dead, they’d hear that. No, they can hear Moses and the prophets. And of course, you’ve read the rest of the book. You can’t miss the irony of that, that one did come back from the dead. It made no difference either. Again then, the purpose of the story, the purpose of the parable, is a warning. After death, there are two contrasting destinies. There’s a heaven to pursue, there’s a hell to be shunned, to be feared, and to be avoided. And that in the intermediate state.

Sighs From Hell

Many years ago I read John Bunyan—the Puritan, John Bunyan’s famous sermon, “Sighs from Hell.” It is just one of the most sobering, one of the most moving things you can ever read. I looked it up again this week in preparations for this, and I would love some time just to read through the whole. It would take too long; it’s a very lengthy exposition. But it is an exposition and application of this parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Let me just highlight for you a few of his applications. You can find this online. I’d very much encourage you to look it up and read it. It’s just a sobering application that we all need to keep in mind.

But here are some of his applications from this parable of the rich man and Lazarus:

Number one: “one part of your torments in hell will be your memory.” Now Bunyan presses details of the passage and presses on it, writing to the lost what hell will be like for you if you go there. And the first one is: one part of your torment will be your memory. You have full sight of your life that is ill-spent. Here today, you can sin today and forget about it tomorrow, but there you will be made to remember all that you have done that brought you to this place. One part of your suffering will be your memory, and you will be reminded by your own memory that you are there at your own fault.

Number two, he says: there you will be made to feel the guilt of your sins. There you’ll be made to know that the cause of your punishment is you. You justify yourselves here, you make excuse, you try to forget about it, you say it’s not that bad. There, part of your punishment will be the realization that you have brought this on yourself and that you deserve this punishment that you are receiving.

Another application he makes: you will also in hell be made to remember how in this life you slighted the gospel. Now that’s implicit, I think, in verses 27 to 31 in the discussion of Moses and the prophets. They have them, so did you. And so part of the punishment was that you will be made to remember how in this life you slighted the gospel. You’ll recall how you’ve been told that Christ was willing to have you if you would come. You will remember how you had been told about all of this, that you considered those kinds of things not worth your time. You’ll be forced to remember that you considered it unimportant. You’ll be forced to remember that you preferred your sin. You’ll remember that you had access to the gospel, that you heard the gospel appeals, and you refused them. And that will be part of your punishment as well, realizing that this torment is brought on yourself.

Another application he makes, he says: you will see—and I might say here in parenthesis, at least be aware of—you will see or at least be aware of believing friends, neighbors, acquaintances, maybe even father and mother who are blessed in paradise. He gets this, of course, from seeing Lazarus afar off. So he makes this application: you will see believing friends, neighbors, acquaintances, father and mother in their blessedness in contrast to your suffering. You’ll recall how you considered their faith naive. You’ll recall how you didn’t think their faith was worth your time. You’ll recall how they talked to you about Christ. You’ll recall how the appeals were made to you. And you’ll recall how you thought their appeals to Christ were not worth your time, and here now they rest in the kingdom of God, and you are in suffering by your own choice.

Another application he makes: the only company you will have will be the company of demons and other damned souls. You may say mockingly now, “I want to go to hell, all my friends will be there.” It may well be that all your friends are there and all of you together will be writhing in pain and in torment under divine judgment. And that will be the only company you have.

Another application he makes: you will know that you will be in this condition forever. You will know that you will be in this condition forever, and part of your suffering will be this feeling of absolute despair that there is no hope, and no hope forever.

The last couple of weeks I was reminded twice of a song that I haven’t heard in decades. When I was a kid, my dad sang the song in church. I think maybe some others did as well. And it’s interesting, the music doesn’t have a whole lot to commend it; it’s not a great piece of music. And even the words themselves—there are a few places where some things in the Bible are jumbled, the events are put together that don’t really belong together. It borrows some imagery from Revelation and things like that. But it gets it right in the main, and it gets it in such a way that when you hear the song sung, it’s not one of those songs you hear and you go, “amen, that was a blessing.” It’s one of those songs you hear and the congregation just sits quietly, just sobered by the weight of it. It’s called “The Great Judgment Morning.”

“I dreamed that the great judgment morning had come and the trumpet had blown. I dreamed that the nations were gathered to judgment before the white throne. From the throne came a bright shining angel, and he stood on the land and the sea, and he swore with his hand held to heaven that time was no longer to be.”

And then the chorus: “And oh, what a weeping and wailing as the lost were told of their fate. They cried for the rocks and the mountains. They prayed, but their prayer was too late. The rich man was there, but his money had melted and vanished away. A pauper, he stood in the judgment. His debts were too heavy to pay. The great man was there, but his greatness, when death came, was left far behind. The angel who opened the records, not a trace of his greatness could find. And oh, what a weeping and wailing when the lost were told of their fate. They cried for the rocks and the mountains. They prayed, but their prayer was too late. The moral man came to the judgment, but his self-righteous rags would not do. The men who crucified Jesus had passed off as moral men, too. The souls that had put off salvation—not tonight, I’ll get saved by and by. No time now to think of religion. At last, they had found time to die. And oh, what a weeping and wailing as the lost were told of their fate. They cried for the rocks and the mountains. They prayed, but their prayer was too late.”

Brothers and sisters, this is reality. This is the urgency of the gospel. You young people, you children here, don’t think that because your parents have faith that that’s a good enough thing for you. Don’t tell yourself, “tomorrow I’ll talk about that. I’ve got life ahead of me.” Don’t boast yourself of tomorrow; you don’t know what a day will bring forth. We’ve seen then that there is a heaven to be gained, and the bliss of it is wonderful, in the intermediate state even—far better. And there’s a hell to avoid, and to be shunned. There’s a gospel that we preach, there’s a gospel that we must embrace, and all eternity depends upon it. Let’s stand together and be dismissed in prayer. Pastor Greg, would you pray for us, please?

“Lord, we pray that none here tonight who have heard of this disturbing declaration will one day reflect on it in memory of the claims of this man. And instead, everyone who is unsure will retreat in prayer to their fathers tonight and will make certain that they have had heart-to-heart dealing with the great God of heaven and be safe.”