Beauchamp Vick

NO SOUL -SLEEPING PERIOD
There is no halfway house; there is no place of probation; it is immediately out of this life into the next. To the Christian, it is out of this life into the presence of God, for “to be absent from the body’’ means to be instantaneously’’ present with the Lord’’

On the other hand, to the unsaved man, to the Christ-rejecter, out of this body means immediately into Hell, into conscious suffering and woe: “And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments.

Have you ever stopped to think why the Bible says, “The rich man also died, and was buried’’? Would we not naturally surmise that if he died, he should be buried? Yes, Nevertheless, I think God was here indicating that rich man must have had a very impressive funeral.
Perhaps had it been today, the stock market would have wavered when the news was flashed throughout the country that this rich man, this financier, had suddenly passed on. Perhaps the flags on the public buildings would have been lowered to half-mast. Perhaps even a holiday would be proclaimed.

Just before the time for the funeral, I see the procession of high powered, high polished automobiles as they drive up the door of one of the most wealthy, modernistic churches in the city. The people alight dressed in their decorous garb. They walk into the church. There the altar is banked with beautiful, expensive flowers. The coir sings with its well trained voices.

The preacher comes out and in a well-modulated voice tells of all the different clubs and lodges of which this man was a member. He tells of all the corporations of which he was a director. He tells of how this man known of his generosity- out of his bounty and out of his charity widows have been fed and orphans clothed. He tells how no worthy cause was ever turned away from his bountiful hand of charity. In beautiful language he places this rich man. as it were, in the front row of Heaven with a harp in his hand and a crown upon his head. And in closing, he tells of how our loss his Heaven’s gain.

But my friends, that good funeral did not fool God. For verse 23 says: “And in Hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments”.

Therefore, it is out of this body and immediately into Hell, into the place of torments.
“ and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.

“ And 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.”-Vs. 23, 24.

The rich man spurned the mercy of God when he was living here on the earth, when he was in good health and in prosperity; but in Hell he cried for mercy- but he cried too late.

THE RICH MAN RET AINED ALL HIS FACULTIES
This rich man retained all his faculties in Hell- even greatly intensified. The rich man could still see. He could still talk. he could still cry. He could still be tormented. He could still remember. Verse 25 tells us:
“But Abraham said, Son, remember .......”
O my friends, memory has been called the storehouse of the soul. What did Abraham tell him to remember? The things that happend in his lifetime.

“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,”
“Son, remember....”

Yes the memory that you will retain in Hell will be one of the awful horrors of that eternal inferno. Remember the good things, the good opportunities which you enjoyed in your lifetime, those wasted opportunities of years gone by.

“ Son, remember” how God let you be born in a land of open Bibles, in a land of open churches, in a land where the Gospel was just as near you as the radio or television dial in your living room, if you wanted to hear it.

“Son, remember” how a fellow by the name of Beauchamp Vick spoke to you week after week warning you to flee the wrath of God to come, how he repeatedly told you of the horrors of an eternal Hell for every soul that rejects Christ.

You will:
Remember every church service that you attended.
Remember that God has sent preachers of all kinds your way, yet you said “no” to all;
Remember every Gospel message which God let you hear, yet you said “no” to all;
Remember every personal worker who pled with you to receive the Lord Jesus Christ, but you said “no” to all;
Remember every prayer of a Godly Christian mother and every prayer of all your friends which you ignored.

Yes, my friend, some of you will remember every invitation hymn which you rejected.
You will remember every Gospel invitation in which you said “no”.

You will remember time after time when you sat as the claims of Jesus Christ were being pressed home upon your soul and you stiffened your neck and you said “no” to it all.

“ 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."
“ And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.”Vs. 25, 26.

Wait a minute, my friends! Do not lightly pass over this great solemn truth which God is impressing upon us here. That truth is that there is NO SECOND CHANCE AFTER DEATH.

Between those who go to Hell and all others there is a great gulf fixed. Oh, but somebody says, “Who fixed that gulf ? God?”

No. When man first sinned in the Garden of Eden, he caused a great gulf to be fixed between him - self-a wicked, sinful, guilty man and a just and holy God.

But God in his mercy said, “I don’t want man to have to stay separated from Me eternaly. I must provide a way whereby I can get to man and man can get to Me.”

My friends, God has spanned the gulf of sin with the cross of Calvary, and the cross of Jesus is the only bridge that has ever spanned the gulf. But when you reject the Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour, you at one stroke, tear from that gulf the only bridge which has ever
spanned it. Thereafter you make it impossible for God to get to you or for you to get to God.
“Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed.” I want to emphasize that there is no second chance after death.

The man who lives without Christ and who dies without Christ will spend eternity yonder where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth. There is NO SECOND CHANCE AFTER DEATH. The Bible says, ‘as the tree falleth, so shall it lie.’

I care not how many prayers may be prayed for you after you are dead, how many masses may be said for you by some priest; that will in no wise change your eternal destiny nor alter your awful state, for “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 hence.”

Now notice verses 27, 28:
“ Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father thou wouldest send him 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.”

Evidently this rich man did not believe in personal work while he was living here on the earth. Certainly he must have not believed in sensational evangelism; but now he is praying, begging for a personal worker to go back from the dead and to plead with his brothers and warn them not to come to that place of torment.

What would be more sensational than for a man to go back from the dead, to walk into the expensive, palatial homes of those five brothers and say, “I have a message for you from Hell. Your brother who has been dead a short while asked that I come back and warn you not to go there?” My friends, those rich brothers would have called their servants to kick out that tresspasser.

No, the rich man in Hell believed in personal work; he believed in
sensationalism; he believed in anything that would keep men from spending eternity in Hell.

Verses 29, 30:
“Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
“ And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.”

Abraham was in substance telling him , “They have all that they are going to have. They have the Old Testament Scriptures; they have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them!”
You who reject the Lord Jesus Christ, You have every thing you are going to have. You have the Gospel preached to you. You have people praying for you. You have personal workers to warn you. You have churches-real, true Bible believing churches-where you may go and hear the Gospel.

You have God’s Holy Spirit to convict you of sin and of righteousness and of judgement, the Holy Spirit to show you your need of salvation and then point you to Jesus as the only remedy for your lost, undone, Helldeserving condition. You have all that you are going to have. If today you are waiting for some special revelation from God, you’II still be waiting when the fire bells of God’s judgement ring. You have all that you are going to have. It is time for you to do something about it. It’s your move next.

O my friends, this prayer prayed out of the depth of the anguish of Hell seems to haunt me day and night: ‘that he may go and tell my brothers.’

Now for many years I have been going up and down the land searching for the brothers of this rich man to warn them not to go that place of torment.

Now this important question: Why did the rich man go to Hell? It was not because he was uneducated or ignorant, not because he was wise or otherwise. The rich man tells us himself why he went to Hell: “If one went unto them from the dead, they will repent.” In other words, “ I didnot repent, and that is why I am here.”

And my friends, that is why you will also spend eternity in Hell. You will not repent and trust Christ!

“for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

I believe one other thing caused the rich man to go to Hell.

PROCRASTINATION
He didn’t plan to go to Hell. I did not think any man in his right mind does; but he just put it off, like many of you do.

Tomorrow, he promised his conscience,
Tomorrow I mean to believe;
Tomorrow I’II think as I ought to,
Tomorrow my Saviour receive.
Tomorrow I will conquer the habits
That hold me from Heaven away,
But ever his conscience repeated
One word, and one only, “Today”
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow
Thus day after day it went on.
Tomorrow, tomorrow, tomorrow,
‘Til youth like a vision was gone,
‘Til age in his passions had written
The message of fate on his brow
And forth from the shadow came Death
With a pitiless syllable- “Now!”
What will ye do with Jesus?
The call comes low and clear.
The solemn words are sounding
Now in your listening ear.
Immortal life’s in the question
And joy through eternity
Then what will ye do with Jesus?
Oh, What will your answer be?

EDITOR URGES YOU TO TRUST CHRIST TODAY
I know of no reasonable, rational person who would consciously choose to go to Hell rather than Heaven. Yet, dear friend, if you refuse Jesus Christ as your Saviour, that is the choice you are making.

Jesus died on the cross for you, paying your sin debt by suffering your Hell on the cross; and now He turn to you and says, “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” The only thing that keeps you from being saved and on your way to Heaven instead of Hell is your own will. Jesus said to a group of people on one occasion, “ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.”

I urge you now to say yes to the Lord and tell Him that you will trust Him as your own personal Saviour to forgive your sins and to give you a home in heaven.

Pray this simple prayer telling the Lord that you will trust Him:
Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner deserving to go to Hell to pay for my sins. But I understand that you died on the cross in my place to pay my sin penalty, and right now I trust you as my personal Saviour.

Thank you for loving me and providing a way for me to go to Heaven. Amen.