| “The rich man also died, and was buried; and in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments … then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him [Lazarus] 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” (Luke 16:22-23, 27-28). |
| This is one of the most serious stories in the Bible. Please read it in Luke 16:19-31. It concerns two men, one who was saved, and one who was not. The rich man was not saved, and he ended up in hell when he died. How awful! He was in torments, because he knew that he was there for all eternity. But he was concerned about his five brothers, and wanted Lazarus, the man who had died but who knew the Lord Jesus, to go and warn them. But this was impossible; those men needed to read their Bibles, for everything that they needed was written for them there. |
| I remember a true story about a man who was clearly not saved, and who had no interest in the things of the Lord. Eventually he died, and since he had never attended any place of worship, a Christian man was asked to speak at his funeral. The Christian did not know either the man who had died, or his family; he knew only that the man had not been saved. |
| When he asked the Lord for the right message, the Lord laid this story on his heart. As you may imagine, he was reluctant to speak on this story, and asked another believer about it. The other believer gave good advice; he said, “If the Lord gave you this story to preach from, you had better do it.” So he preached the gospel, and faithfully warned all those at the funeral about the seriousness of dying without Christ. |
| He did not know that the man who had died also had five brothers, all of whom were sitting there at the funeral. The message made a tremendous impact on them, and all five of them got saved that day. Even though it was a very solemn message, they were all thankful that the preacher was faithful with them. |
| Sad to say, today there are some preachers who will not preach this way, but pretend that everyone goes to heaven. Or they avoid the matter entirely by speaking only about the person, how good he was, how much he did in this world, etc. They avoid the question of sin, and God’s judgment of it. |
| If you are not saved, I hope that this story speaks to you too. And if you are saved, do not be afraid to talk to unbelievers about hell and what it means. They need to be warned. |
