Two men in eternity

I'd like to read tonight in Luke chapter 16, and I am really encouraged to do this by what Mr. McCandless has already spoken at the end of the last meeting, because there are two words that only occur once in our English Bible. One is the word that he read in Luke chapter 24, it is the word calvary. But there is another word that occurs in the Old Testament in the book of Isaiah, and it is the word eternity.

Now the word eternity is not found in the text that I am going to read, but it is very much in the foreground of what this story is all about. And so I want to read with you in Luke chapter 16, reading in at verse number 19. I will preface it by saying this, this is a story that the Lord Jesus told about two real men who lived on earth, and at this moment are both living, albeit in different conditions and different places, are both living at this moment in eternity.

Luke chapter 16 then, and verse number 19, there was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day, likely he was a king. Verse 20, 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 God will bless to us the reading of his precious word. Recently I was back home in New Jersey, it's not my home although I was born there, it's my wife's home, and I was in a shopping center actually at a Barnes & Noble bookstore, a place that's very dangerous for people like me, but as I came out of that store I looked across at the parking lot at a store that was recently put up there, and I took one look at the name of the store and I burst into laughter. It had great huge red letters you could read them all the way across the parking lot.

It was a store apparently for women who were expecting babies. I didn't know they had stores like that but apparently they do. But what was really humorous about the whole thing was what the sign said.

It just said this, it said destination maternity. You get that? Destination maternity. Where do you get a name like that? Some of these people are just demented, I don't know where they get names like that.

But you know as I looked at that sign and I laughed at that sign, it suddenly occurred to me, I wonder if the man that owned that store was actually a Christian. I'm going to tell you why I thought that. Because if destination maternity is a great name for people coming into the world, I want to tell you that destination eternity is something that all of us ought to think about because we're leaving this world.

I want to talk to you tonight about eternity, and I want you to think about the great after this. You know there's something, some things about being a preacher that I like. I gotta tell you there's some things I don't care for all that much, and one of them is preaching at funerals.

And I gotta tell you why that is. It's because I have trouble when I see other people weeping, I have trouble controlling my own emotions. So it's a difficult thing for me when I see people crying, I just want to cry, and it's hard to preach when you're crying, that's all.

But I tell you there's a great honor to speaking to people at a funeral. You know why? Because people go through the vast majority of their life focused on what they're doing today and what they plan on doing tomorrow, and there is very little thought about what happens after all this, when all of us take that step and into eternity. You say this is a hard way to start a gospel series, shouldn't you begin by preaching about God's love and telling folks about the wonderful joys of sins forgiven? I'm going to tell you something, no one will ever seek God unless they realize the magnitude of their need and their guilt and the fact that they are nearing eternity.

I want to tell you tonight that God is the great God of eternity. We're not talking tonight about some church leader or some famous man that lies in the background of our spiritual history. All of us are going to face someday the great God of eternity.

And more than that, you and I are creatures of eternity too. You know we're living in a funny world. When I was a boy, I know there were always atheists around and I know there were people who doubted the existence of God and questioned things, but we live in a world today where they've become very bold, haven't they? We have men like Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens and Daniel Dennett and others, and the telling people that they live like the animals and like the plants, and that when this little random meaningless experience is done, they simply go out of existence.

That is all there is. I'm going to tell you something, if for no other reason than the utter futility of trying to lead a life like that, I would reject what they believe. Deep within every human heart is a longing for something better and greater in the beyond.

We all hold to that hope. I think those men shout so loudly because they're trying to convince themselves and to salve their own guilty consciences, knowing that they are not right with God. And I want to tell you tonight that if there is a God of eternity, you and I are creatures of eternity.

And while we are not eternal in the same sense that God is, he has no beginning, we did. I want to tell you that God has no ending and neither do we, because God has made us all creatures of eternity. And ahead of us there is a timeless, changeless, conscious experience where we will exist forever.

And I told you it was going to be simple tonight, and I am. I have one question for the girls and the boys and the adults and everybody here. I'm not interested if you profess to be a Christian.

I don't care whether you're a part of the local fellowship or whether you just came into this building for the very first time. I'm going to ask myself this question, you ask it of yourself. Where are you going to be for all eternity? You see, until we establish that single most important point, all of the rest of the gospel means absolutely nothing.

Let me ask you as your friend, I'm not a preacher, I'm just your friend, where are you going to be for all eternity? I have three things I want to say very quickly about eternity tonight. You know this man, Dr. Luke, he saw lots of people go into eternity. I'm sure he did.

He didn't have penicillin and he didn't have x-ray machines and he didn't have physical therapists and all of the benefits of modern medicine. Dr. Luke saw many a person slip out of this world into eternity. And I want you to face this reality tonight.

You and I are headed for eternity. Where are you going to be? Three things then. I want to talk about the reality of eternity and I want to talk about the possibilities of eternity.

And last of all, I want to speak very solemnly about the finality of eternity. You know, I think all of us and I would say that I'm like this, I have trouble necessarily believing in things that I can't see. Now I know that I do believe in things that I cannot see.

I cannot see the air that I breathe. I cannot see my mother's love. I'm well aware that there are things that are beyond my reach.

This room tonight is filled with radio waves and television waves and all sorts of things that I cannot see. I'm well aware that unseen things exist. But I struggle really to understand something like this, that there is beyond us a great reality, greater than I can imagine, greater than I can describe.

I have to admit, I believe it. But I struggle even to describe it. A number of years ago, I'm not interested in science, I'm a reader, but I'm not interested in science fiction.

Some people love Isaac Asimov and Robert Heinlein and these sorts of men. I'm really not interested in that, but I had the opportunity to spend a couple of hours a few years ago with a man named Frank Herbert. Back in the 1970s, he wrote a bestseller called Dune and many people have read it.

I spent a couple hours in a hotel room talking to Mr. Frank Herbert. You know, one of the things that he told me, he said, the problem with science fiction is this, he says, it is impossible for us really to describe, to imagine or describe anything outside of our reality. He said, all we do when we write science fiction is just take things that we know and twist them around and make them into something that seems a little different.

But he said, I can't imagine or write about something that I can't get my arms around, that I can't see or understand. You know, that's a little bit of the problem of the gospel preacher. And that's why it is so essential tonight that you don't come here to hear what Mr. Schott or Mr. Topley think about eternity, but to turn to this majestic book and listen to what the God of eternity says about the eternity that lies ahead.

You know, in Luke chapter 16, where we have read, the Lord Jesus did an amazing thing. I want you all to just sort of come with me on a little journey and understand the greatness of this text. Because the Lord Jesus actually steps up and he pulls aside the curtain of eternity.

Something that we couldn't see, something that we couldn't grasp, something that we couldn't describe. And the Lord Jesus pulls away at her and shows us the lie to know. It's such an interesting story, as the Lord Jesus told it.

Because this issue of going into eternity cuts across our preconceptions. There is a rich man, and he's in eternity. His money could not pull him out of the great beyond.

And there's a poor man. And you know, together in this thing, these men are united. They couldn't have been more different in life, but at this single moment, they are absolutely alike at the end of their life.

Lies. I want to remind you today that all of us are going to be in eternity. And some of us simply are.

Did you know that, statistically, it's highly unlikely that the oldest person in this room is actually going to be the first person in eternity? Did you ever think about that? Going into eternity is a very complicated thing. A number of years ago, I was having gospel meetings in a little town in Arkansas with a dear friend of mine, a man named Mr. Matt Smith from Jackson. And in a little building, we preached the gospel for a couple of weeks.

There were a number of people from that community that came to hear the gospel preached, but there were a number of people that didn't. They had all sorts of problems. I remember Mr. Gustafson said, when people say, okay, that means only kidding.

And he kind of proved it through the course of those meetings. But you know, in that series, there is no one that professes the truth. That happens sometimes.

No one professes the truth. And at the end of those meetings, we packed up our things, we drove back to Michigan, and the gospel was voiced in that community. About a month later, I got a call from my father.

And when I picked up the phone, I discovered that he was very agitated. My dad, he just said, hello. He said, did you hear what happened? I said, yeah.

I thought he was talking to me. He said, did you hear what happened? He was beside himself. I said, what happened? He said, I don't know.

I thought it was some terrible thing that happened. He said, you won't believe. He said, last night, there was a line of thunderstorms that swept across Arkansas.

Minimum thunderstorms were powerful. He said, many of the people that came to those meetings, and some that did not. I hope that I have never preached the gospel.

He said, to realize that I am looking into the faces of people. And the next word I hear about people, will appear to you. All right.

Boys, where are you going to be any time soon? Girls, this is a question that we must not debate tonight. Where will we be? Oh, it's a real place. And eternity is an endless place.

You know, somebody was already talking today, maybe it was Brother Murray, about the choices, I don't know what it was, the choices that we make in life. How many of us have choices, we make four choices, and we just do them over again. We just remake our decision.

I want to tell you that you try to fix your relationship with God. You know, men to every man, men to every man, men to every man. People who are in heaven, are there forever, and they're happy about it.

People who are in hell, may I help you to understand, that eternity is not just some wicked void that creatures use to stir up some emotional response. I'm not interested in emotions tonight, I'm interested in reality. You and I are going to a real place, a place where we will live for all eternity, heaven or hell, where you're going to be, for all eternity.

That leads me to my second point, and that is just simply, not only the reality of eternity, but the possibility of eternities. And you know, this is something that really, I like to preach about this, because God, at least as I see it, just stick with my little argument here for a minute, God is so incredibly gracious to us, in this way, that when you go to the grocery store, let's say your wife gives you a list, go buy salad dressing. Ever been to a store about salad dressing? What are they, 500 different kinds? Every movie star, every person, I think George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, Barack Obama, they're salad dressing, and you know, there's just endless choices.

Actually, a number of years ago, our community, the Soviet Union, I mean, she went to the grocery store, and she didn't believe that it was real. She thought it was something that the government had put up, to somehow, as propaganda, to persuade her about how great the United States was. She just could not tell her that this is the way we live.

Choice, choice, choice. God is so good to us tonight. I don't have to come here and give you some big, long, pallet of things.

One of the reasons I love this chart, you know, there's time and eternity, there's heaven and there's hell, there's an open door and there's a closed door. You know, it's pretty simple, isn't it? Very, very simple. God puts you choices.

It's become very simple. It won't take me an hour. The Bible says that people will... Eternity consists of two destinations.

Heaven and hell. Maybe you're bored with me already. You know, the Lord Jesus told this story so simply.

I did not read on, but we discover that just as these men were different in life, they were, for a brief moment, the same in death. But in eternity, there's a big difference in life. And the poor man was not in heaven because he was poor.

But the difference is where he hangs on one single thing. That was Pilate. What shall I do then with Jesus, with this low Christ? This man that stood before him in all his claims of being the Son of God from heaven.

This man who came from heaven to suffer and to die and to shed his blood. This man who came from heaven to be raised again from the dead. This man who tonight is a living Savior at God's right hand.

This man tonight who stands present in this meeting calling for sinners to come to Him. Everything about Peter. Satan.

Either you receive him or you leave him. Let me talk about the last one. And it is not now the reality of eternity or the possibilities of eternity.

It is the finality of eternity. There were two men in Christ's story. One trusted Christ.

One did not. There were two men in Christ's story. One went to heaven.

Two thousand years later. I'm a Christian, right? Not because I'm a good person. I'm not.

That's right. I'm not because I'm a Christian. I'm not because I'm a Christian.

I've saved because Christ has. And I've depended on that people for good reasons. And I'm not actually looking forward to eternity.

I don't have that wish. I know life. I enjoy everything.

And I'm not looking forward to dying. Nobody is interested in that process. That's mental illness.

You shouldn't be looking forward to dying. But I'm not really looking forward to dying. And I'm not afraid to do that.

And the longer that I live in this poisoned world longing for that day when I'm going to see the Savior. And I'm going to be with God. For all eternity.

But I don't want to putrescent. I don't want to putrescent. That's what I'm trying to do.

I don't want to swarm into the air. Sickness that I feel. Problems that we address.

What's the world about? It's a rich, under-controlled world. And I'm glad there's never going to be a day when the meter maid comes around and says, you've parked here long enough. It's a place where I'm going to be forever.

And forever. I don't want to putrescent. But if you think this world And if you think this world And if you think this world What will it be? What will it be? Mr. Topley is going to tell you about Christ.

I can tell you one thing. May God help you. To flee from the coming life.

To turn to life before God. I don't want to be sick. May God help you to turn to the Savior.

To flee to Him for refuge. Let me just close with the words of Elisha Hoffman's hymn. Where Will You Spend Eternity? This question comes to you and me.

What shall your final answer be? Who are you? Not the person next to you. Not the person around you. Where will you be for all eternity?