A Great Gulf Fixed

Temple Baptist Church - 9-12-2021

Luke 16:19-31

 

Introduction:

 

A.  Over the past couple of weeks, I have preached within the context of these verses, first on the reality of hell and secondly on the reality of heaven.  I have nothing new to add to that preaching.

 

B.  Our Lord Jesus Christ, in our text, sets forth truths concerning hell as well as Abraham’s Bosom or Paradise under the Old Covenant of Atonement

 

C.  The reality of hell.

 

1.  Hell is a real place!  There have been many attempts by men to ignore hell.  Hell is as real as heaven.  More is said by our Lord about hell than heaven because it is a place to be shunned.

 

2.  The horror of hell.  While many ignore or do not believe in hell, others have tried to put out the fire.  Hell is a place of torment.

 

The Orlando (Florida) Sentinel for April 10, 1983, asked Billy Graham: 
"Surveys tell us that 85% of Americans believe in heaven, but only 65% believe in hell. Why do you think so many Americans don't accept the concept of hell?" He replied: "I think that hell essentially is separation from God forever. And that is the worst hell that I can think of. But I think people have a hard time believing God is going to allow people to burn in literal fire forever. I think the fire that is mentioned in the Bible is a burning thirst for God that can never be quenched."

 

3.  The permanence of hell.  I have often said that the “heaven” of heaven is its eternality.  The “hell” of hell is its eternality.  No destruction of the soul; no second chances; and no escape or ultimate release from it.

 

D.  The reality of heaven.

 

1.  Heaven is a real place!  I thank God this morning that I will go to heaven and not to hell!

 

2.  The blessings of heaven.  I will not take the time to innumerate the message from last week, but heaven will be even more than I could ever hope for! 

 

3.  The permanence of heaven.  As hell is forever, heaven is also forever.  “Never grow old, never grow old, to a place where we will never grow old!

 

E.  This morning, I want to focus in on verse 26 which says:

 

Luke 16:26  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.

 

Gulf – A wide gap; a chasm; an abyss.

 

1.  It is great gulf.  Forever impassable.  The separation between saved and lost is one that can never be crossed without the finished work of Christ coupled with the New Birth.  The lost cannot be saved within themselves and neither can the saved be lost.

 

2.  It is a fixed gulf.  Forever immovable.  It has been placed there by Almighty God.  It cannot be either moved or can it be removed.  It is fixed.

 

3.  Those in both hell and heaven will never be able to cross over from one to another.  In the New Testament and eternity, no one will be able to see from one to another as there will be an eternal separation of the saved from the unsaved.

 

F.  Three things about the “great gulf fixed:”

 

1.  The Gulf of Sin.  A gulf created by man.

 

Genesis 3:6-9  And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  (7)  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  (8)  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.  (9)  And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

 

a.  Adam could not keep one rule for long as man’s choice is to sin.

 

Romans 5:12  Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:

 

Romans 3:23  For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;

 

b.  In our day, people have this misguided thinking that God is good with their sin.  He is not!  Where Adam and Eve hid their sin by hiding and covering, mankind in our day flaunt their sin and tell God that He must accept it.

 

c.  God will not!

 

d.  People love their sin more than they love God.

 

e.  GOD GAVE US A REMEDY FOR SIN.  THE GOSPEL: DEATH, BURIAL, RESURRECTION!  THE ONLY WAY ACROSS!

 

John 1:29  The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

 

John 10:1  Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

 

f.  There are a lot of thieves and robbers out there.

 

 

2.  The Gulf of Unbelief.  A gulf created by man!

 

a.  Unbelief is a personal choice.  You can either believe the gospel or you can refuse to believe the gospel.  Just that simple, the choice is yours.

 

2 Corinthians 4:3-6  But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:  (4)  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.  (5)  For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.  (6)  For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

 

b.  Satan did not blind mankind in general as many hear and believe.  The Bible says that He blinds them “which believe not.”  When man makes up his mind to “believe not,” Satan then uses that unbelief to blind them to further truth, the “glorious gospel of Christ!”  When the blind follow the blind, both fall into the same pit!

 

c.  The gulf of sin is too often followed by the gulf of unbelief.

 

d.  GOD GIVES US NO REMEDY FOR UNBELIEF! 

 

3.  The Gulfs or Sin and Rejection will ultimately lead to the Gulf of Rejection. 

 

a.  Rejection of the natural revelation (the universe: heavens and earth) and the rejection of supernational revelation of God (the light that is in thee and the light of the glorious gospel of Christ).  For those who ultimately reject, God has no remedy.

 

John 5:39-40  Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.  (40)  And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.

 

Luke 13:34  O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, which killest the prophets, and stonest them that are sent unto thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together, as a hen doth gather her brood under her wings, and ye would not!

 

b.  GOD GIVES US NO REMEDY FOR REJECTION!

 

Luke 16:26  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.