Five Frank Facts

Tonight, we're going to be in Matthew chapter 13, so you can go ahead and turn to that chapter! in the Gospel of Matthew, Matthew 13, and we're going to start in verse 24, just for tonight.

And this is kind of an introduction, not really an introduction, maybe a transition to a series of messages, or maybe we should call them teaching opportunities, that I'm going to be starting on Sunday night, that I'm entitled, The Gospel on the Go.

And what it is, is just the idea, the focus on evangelism not being a program of the church, but rather it being a part of its members' life, lifestyle, life.

And it's good, obviously, for a church to have a time set aside each week, like we do on Tuesday nights, and some of you are involved in that, to either do some canvassing around the area, like we've been doing, visiting people who have visited our church.

Good to have an outreach program of that type. And I'm not saying anything against that. But I am saying that at some point, at least among Southern Baptists, I've been one all my life, so I don't know what it's like in other denominations, but I suspect a similar thing has happened to many other denominations.

But at some point in our kind of life as Southern Baptists, evangelism became exclusively a program that you could sign up for and commit to and, you know, come down to the church house on a certain night of the week and go out and do it.

Or expand that to maybe other types of ministries that we have that are more outreach, evangelistic, like Vacation Bible School or something like that.

And so we have pretty much kind of defined evangelism as a program. Now, there's nothing bad about a program.

I know sometimes we preachers want to get away from that word because, primarily because program is something that starts and has an ending sometime, you know, and then we have to come up with a new program, a different program, and get kind of a shot in the arm, and then we start something new, and then pretty soon it's old, and we've got something new.

So in a sense, program has a negative connotation or has come to have it. Nothing wrong with programs. We do need to have an organized.

We do need to organize to do ministry and evangelize. We as individual believers have a responsibility to be evangelists ourselves.

We have a responsibility to be witnesses, to give testimony of our faith, to live out our faith in not just the practical ways, but in determined ways and premeditated ways to display the life of Christ in our lives.

And if that's the case, and I believe it is, then maybe we need some tools to help us with that, some instruction from God's word that would motivate us that way, but also give us, you know, an approach and a substance to our sharing of our faith to people we work with, family members, people we just come across, you know, and have an opportunity to share the gospel with.

And so this is my idea, the gospel on the go, really sharing the gospel as you go and being a witness as you go and everywhere you go. Now, I'm going to be borrowing a great deal from, in fact, kind of following the outline that's in this book.

Some of you have a copy of this. If you do, raise your hand if you have a copy of this. All right, I don't see very many. This is the Gospel and Personal Evangelism by Mark Dever. Anybody have this?

Okay. Well, we have numerous copies of it. And next Sunday, I'm going to be giving those out, one per family. So you can have it.

And I'll be kind of following the outline and the various subjects that Mark Dever touches upon in this book.

All right, so now tonight, we're not going to start with that. Tonight, again, this is kind of a transition to the subject. And my intent tonight is to open our eyes to some very disturbing realities.

Disturbing realities, truths, things that are true about the world in which we live. True, the sad truth about those we work with, many of them.

Family members and friends and neighbors and truths about this world that are quite disturbing. And in order for us to, I think, have a real motivation to be witnesses, we need to see what this world is.

And the destiny of the people who are in it. The very destiny of those people we know and work with.

And so what I'm going to do is bring a message tonight out of this passage, famous passage, about the wheat and the tares. And I've entitled it, Five Frank Facts.

I'll just tell you here on the front end that I have borrowed this from a man by the name of Bobby Welch. How many of you have been through faith? Faith evangelism, a number of you have.

I know this church did this here. And you may remember Bobby Welch. Bobby Welch, then, when faith first started and was kind of really in its heyday, he was pastor of First Baptist Church, Daytona Beach, Florida.

And he and his staff wrote, developed the program that is now called Faith. And he also wrote a book entitled Evangelism Through the Sunday School.

If you went through faith, you no doubt have a copy of that. You might remember that. Maybe you have that tucked away somewhere and you've forgotten all about it. I don't know. I don't have any idea if that book was part of your curriculum here.

But in that book, Bobby Welch describes what he calls five frank facts.

That's a good alliteration. That's why I like it. Five frank facts. And what I want to do is take a little liberty as a preacher. And I'm going to do that also with this book. But I'm telling you up front that I'm borrowing some things that others have written.

But I'm going to take a little liberty concerning Bobby Welch's five frank facts. I want to use his title, but I also am going to use his five frank facts.

His facts tonight. Now, he won't mind. Now, I've not called him to find out. But he won't mind because he also admitted that these were pointed out to him by Oswald Chambers.

You've heard of him. My utmost for his highest. Some of you might have that devotional book. Maybe you've read through that. And maybe some of you are now. And it is an excellent devotional. And so he borrowed from him.

And I'm borrowing from Bobby Welch. All right. Is that okay? Everybody cool with that? And that's kind of passe. Anyway. Not only that, but I'm sure the brother Welch would say the same thing Adrian Rogers used to say.

When young seminary students would approach him and say, Is it okay if I preach your sermons? And he said, Well, son, if you can shoot the gun, I'll provide the ammo. You know.

And I've shot some of his ammo, too. So, you know, so I think it's okay. All right. Now, having said that, I want to share with you these five frank facts from the Word of God.

Now, these are not Southern Baptist facts. All right. That's not what I'm talking about. Southern Baptist or any other kind of Baptist. These are not facts that have been developed by any denomination, any church, any creed.

You're not going to find those articulated in any of those things. These facts are from the Word of God, from this passage, really. I think we'll see them here. And they are for all people.

That would include Baptists, Methodists, and Wesleyan, and Christian Church, and Church of Christ, and Presbyterian Episcopals. And, you know, we could go on down the list. It's Pentecostals, Catholics, non-denominational, or if a person is nothing at all.

These five facts, five frank facts, apply to every one of them. Bob Hope, one of the famous comedians, one of my favorites, and he used to use this in one of his monologues.

He would say, I joined the Catholic Church, a Protestant Church, and a Jewish synagogue because I didn't want to miss heaven on a technicality. And so, you know, I guess we could call these troubling technicalities if we wanted to.

And in regard to Bob Hope, I always liked him, but I don't know where Bob Hope stood on these five frank facts. I have a suspicion, but I don't know for sure. And I don't know where you stand on some of these, and you don't either yet because I haven't given them to you.

But you can jot these down. And I'm going to tell you that they're very simple, extremely simple. In fact, you're going to find yourself saying, well, I knew that. You know, this is just very simple.

So what are these five frank facts? Here's number one. Not all people will be saved. Isn't that profound? Not all people will be saved.

Did you know that? That's a fact. And it's, though it's so common sense, that we have a tendency to maybe soften the seriousness of that.

But not all people will be saved. And Jesus, in our text, in fact, I haven't even read it yet. Let's read it. And then we'll start looking at all these facts.

Starting with verse 24. No. Yeah. Yeah, 24. Another parable he put forth to them saying, The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field.

But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way. But when the grain had sprouted and produced a crop, then the tares also appeared.

So the servants of the owner came and said to him, Sir, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have tares? And he said to them, An enemy has done this.

The servants said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up? But he said, No. Lest while you gather up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them.

Let both grow together until the harvest. And at the time of harvest, I will say to the reapers, First gather together the tares and bind them in bundles to burn them, but gather the wheat into my barn.

Now skip over to verse 36. Jesus is about to explain this parable. And Jesus sent the multitude away and went into his house, the house, and his disciples came to him saying, Explain to us the parable of the tares in the field.

So he's going to explain it simply to the disciples. And he answered and said to them, He who sows the good seed is the son of man. The field is the world.

The good seeds are the sons of the kingdom, but the tares are the sons of the wicked one. The enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are the angels.

Therefore, as the tares are gathered and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of this age. The son of man will send out his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all things that offend, and those who practice lawlessness, and will cast them into the furnace of fire.

There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Then the righteous will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father. He who has ears to hear, let him hear.

All right, there's the parable and the explanation, and I go back to fact number one. Not everyone, not all people will be saved. In Jesus' explanation of the parable there in verse 37, he explains some things, and it becomes very clear.

He explains that he who sows the good seed is who? The son of man, and who is that? That would be Jesus, the Messiah.

And the field, Jesus says, and we can figure that out on our own, I think, the field is the world. It's this world, all right? And what is the good seed? Well, Jesus explains.

The good seed are the sons of the kingdom. Some translations have the word children, and that's interpretive. It's huios in the Greek, and it generally refers to male offspring, male children.

But don't worry, ladies. In the wider sense of the word, it is used in the Bible to refer just simply, generically, to descendants. Descendants. That's why some versions use the word children.

Descendants. So we're talking here about descendants or generations of those born to a certain one or a certain family. Like in the Bible, you have the sons of Abraham.

That would include male and female, all right? The huios of Abraham. That would be his descendants. And so in this sense, he's talking about generations of those born into the kingdom of God, all right?

That's the good seed. These are the saved. The born again. Believers. John 1.12 describes them, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become what?

Children or sons, it says in the King James. Sons of God or children of God to those who believe in his name. And so you see, the Lord Jesus plants his children in this world.

He's the one who plants the seed, all right? He's the one who plants his children in this world. He saves them. And they are scattered throughout the entire world.

And there are children of the kingdom, children of God in all parts of the world, right? Absolutely. And they have been planted to grow.

Obviously so. That is to mature spiritually. But they have been planted, though. And here's the idea here, the context here. They've been planted to become fruitful plants.

To produce fruit unto righteousness. And that means to be witnesses in a world that also has a good many tares in it.

So what are tares? Who are the tares? Well, it's not hard to understand. Jesus explains it. Verse 38. The tares are the sons of the wicked one.

Again, phios. The descendants of, or sons of, children of. The wicked one. And who's the wicked one? Well, he doesn't leave us to imagine that either.

It's simply the devil. That's what he says. Verse 39. We're not just interpreting this. He's telling us plainly. Verse 39. The enemy who sowed the tares. Who is he?

He's the devil. All right? This is straight out of the mouth of the Lord Jesus. All right, now, having said that, pay attention because Jesus mentions here no other kinds of plants.

There aren't any others. Just these two kinds or types of plants in the world. People are either wheat or tares.

That is, according to his explanation of those terms, either children of the kingdom or children of the wicked one. There is no other type.

No in-between. No third kind. There are children of the kingdom or children of the wicked one. Wheat or tares. And so the frank fact is, not all people will be children of the kingdom.

Not all people will be saved. Not all people will be saved. Not all people will be saved. Now, this brings up an issue that probably is not an issue with you. Though, I think, if we would be honest with ourselves, we do have some degree of an issue with what is called universalism.

Universalism. Some of us are closet universalists. Universalists. What is universalism? It's the idea that says that people will, all people will ultimately go to heaven or whatever heaven may mean to them.

Or ultimately, everybody is going to be saved. It's universalism. Universalism. And universalism is a lie. It's a damnable lie. That really comes directly from the wicked and vile heart of the devil himself.

Universalism is not true. And yet, I must admit to you that I would love to believe in universalism. Wouldn't you? I'd love to believe in it.

I would love to believe that God, as it's normally put, very typically put, believe that God is too loving a God to send anyone to hell. Wouldn't you like to believe in universalism?

Everything in my human heart wants to believe that there is no hell, no eternal punishment for the lost, no divine retribution, condemnation toward unbelievers.

I would like to believe that. And so would you. You'd like to believe that. I'd like to believe that we are all God's children on this planet.

And you hear that, don't you? You hear all people referred to as God's children. We're all God's children. I'd like to believe that. And so would you. You know, there are believing parents.

And I'm not singling anybody out. I don't have anybody in mind. But I'm just saying in a general sense. Sometimes parents will have a child that's grown now and is rebellious.

Cares nothing about Christ. Cares nothing about the church. They have no desire for righteousness. No desire for the word of God.

And some of those parents, some of them, will hope against hope that God is going to make some exception and allow them into heaven without being saved.

You say, surely not. Oh, yes. Oh, yes. You see, the more lost people you have close to you that you love, the more you would love to be a universalist.

Even though you know that it's not possible. You know that it can't be true. And there are just some parents who are hoping against hope that maybe some childhood decision that was made maybe at a vacation Bible school or some children's camp or youth camp.

And they, you know, kind of walked an aisle and they parroted back kind of a standard sinner's prayer and went through all the motions in baptism and so forth.

They're hoping that was a real born-again experience even though nothing in that child's life expresses the reality of that now.

That's kind of a closet universalism. Though we know in our heart of hearts it can't be true. And there are moms and dads who need to face up to the fact that maybe their son, maybe their daughter is lost.

You see, we've got to come to grips with some frank facts before we will take steps in the right direction to pray and to share the gospel.

And we would rather assume that everything is all right and rather hope even though we wouldn't, we would say this can't be true. But in our minds thinking that God will make some kind of exception and maybe they're all right because really they're basically good, you know, and so forth.

And we need to pray for our children. And there are godly born-again wives who have husbands. Husbands who are lost.

They're just lost. And instead of praying for them and instead of weeping for them, agonizing over them spiritually and even sharing the gospel when they have the opportunity, it's not always easy.

Rather than that, they're looking for their husband's good life and good works and honesty and integrity and generosity and as a good provider and loving nature and on and on the list could go.

And so sometimes there's a tendency to try to find some solace with God that surely he will have mercy on their husband. And because of his basic goodness.

I don't know how many times I've been to a funeral visitation or viewing, you know, and standing there and people are going by the body of this guy who has passed away.

And you'll hear someone say something like this. Well, if anyone was a Christian, he sure was. I mean, he was a good man. Give you the shirt off his back. I mean, listen, he's in a better place now.

Have you ever heard anything like that at a funeral? And yet it's a funeral of someone that really expressed no real outward observable fruit of Christianity.

But that person was a good person. And so they'll say, well, he's in a better place now. I've even heard preachers preach that. At a funeral about someone I knew their profession was quite the opposite.

And yet we just can't help ourselves. We're in a better place now because we have more of a desire to help people feel better about things than we do about speaking the truth. Now, I'm not trying to be hard-nosed here.

But we need to come to grips with this very frank fact. Not all people will be saved. And the fact is that that good old boy may not be in a better place.

It may not be. Salvation, you see, is never a matter or never a question of goodness. Never. We've got to get that out of our thinking. Now, there's nothing wrong with being good.

And I think even lost people ought to be good and be encouraged to be good people. We have laws that are designed to try to keep our society and our culture moral.

So it's a good thing to be good. But salvation is never a matter or a question of goodness. The question is, did that man, did that woman have a conversion experience where he or she repented of sin and trusted Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior?

Some have not done that. Many will not do that. Not all people will be saved.

That's frank fact number one. Frank fact number two. And again, these are very simple. And frank fact number two follows kind of the same line of thought.

The majority of people will be lost. And I said majority. Will be lost. That's why these are called frank facts.

It's not just a cute little title. It is descriptive of some very serious things, serious realities that we need to come to grips with.

And it's not what we want to believe. All right? I'm with you on that. It's not something I want to believe. But I just know it's true. This is what the Bible very frankly reveals is the truth about mankind.

Most people will die and go to hell. Are you out there? Mad at me yet? It's a frank fact.

And we need to come to grips with that. And that fact is found, I think, right here in our parable as well as other places in the Bible. Verse 25 again. But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way.

Sowed tares among. That's the key word in this verse. This preposition among. And it literally means to sow tares on, in, and around each grain of wheat.

That's the expanded translation of this word among. That is, the parable, of course, pictures an enemy sneaking in under the cover of night, which was a very common thing in those days in ancient times.

That's what they would do. Sabotage the crops of, of their enemies. And so, under the cover of night, and because it, they could not see very well. I mean, it is night.

They didn't go out there with torches lit. Because they couldn't see, you know, where to sow everything. So, they ultimately did not sow the tares in any kind of organized pattern like the farmer would in the light of the day.

Instead, he scatters the tares everywhere. Literally, we could even use that. It would be interpretive.

But instead of the preposition among, we could say everywhere among the wheat. On top of the wheat, beside the wheat, all around the wheat, on the rows, in the rows of the wheat, between the rows of the wheat, every single place.

And the point then is this. The tares, remember who they represent. They represent the lost. Throughout history, the tares have always outnumbered the wheat by enormous percentages.

In fact, some parts of the world today seem to be totally sown with the seed of the enemy. With tares. There are some Middle Eastern countries where the population of Muslim is as much as 90, even close to 100%.

And they're tares who not only deny the Lord Jesus Christ, the gospel of Jesus Christ, but many are militant toward those who are Christians.

Militant toward Christianity. Tares outnumber the wheat in many places in the world today. The majority of people in the world are lost. They're lost.

Now, in the seventh chapter of the gospel of Matthew, Jesus is even more specific about this, I think, about this second frank fact.

He says in Matthew chapter 7 and verse 13, wide is the gate. You remember this parable. Wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads where?

To destruction. And there are many who go in by it. Many. And when you put many with the next verse, when he's talking about those who enter the narrow way that leads to life, few, few there are that go that way.

Many, in contrast to few, means that most go the broad way, the easy way, the way that leads to destruction. Most are not saved.

Most are lost. And you can do a word study if you want to and try to squeeze in some argument that Jesus doesn't mean many. But I've got news for you. When Jesus says many, do you know what he means?

Many. That's right. Many, actually most, most, the majority are going to be lost and spend eternity in hell. That's a perspective, isn't it?

That maybe we don't like and maybe we would rather kind of put aside and say, well, yeah, over there in those Muslim countries and communist countries and so forth.

Yeah, I agree with you, but I don't live there. But how about right here? I would suggest to you that most people you know, outside your circle of Christian friends, that is, people who work, people that you play, you know, where you do recreation with, ball games and such, most of the people there are not saved.

They're not saved. They're not true born-again believers. Now, someone will say, I don't like that kind of preaching. Well, I don't either. I don't either, but it's a frank fact, frank fact of the matter.

Most people you meet in the grocery store, at Walmart, at the ball games and soccer games and civic and community and school events, at work and on and on, most of those people are lost and headed for a Christless eternity.

Some of your family members, and in some cases, most of your family members are not saved. And you may have friends, lifelong friends maybe, who have never had a genuine conversion experience.

They've never truly repented and trusted Christ. The majority of the people in the world are lost. We need to come to grips with that frank fact. And not all the programs in the world that a church might be able to develop is going to answer that fact.

But we have seated in the pews a pretty large missionary force that can answer that very frank fact.

Frank fact number three. Many will perish, eternally perish, who expect to be saved.

It's not that most of the lost people you meet know they're going to hell and they're just okay with it. Most are convinced they're going to heaven or whatever they may conceptualize heaven for them.

Many people will perish who expect to be saved. They're lost, but they don't really know it. The word tares here in the parable is the Greek word that describes a plant that looks like wheat.

You probably assume that and know that about this story. Why would the enemy sow tares? You know, he wants to ruin the crop by planting things that look like wheat.

So that when they go in and try to get the weeds out, they take out the good crop as well. That's the whole idea. So these tares look like wheat. They're called, some pronounce it darnels and others darnels.

And it's a kind of a weedy, kind of ryegrass type of thing, a weed. And those who know about this kind of thing, they say it's almost impossible to tell the plants, these plants, apart from the wheat.

That is, until they both come to maturity, or especially the wheat comes to maturity at harvest time. Then you can tell the difference. And that's why when the servants came to the householder and said to him, Do you want us then to go and gather them up, gather up these darnels, these tares?

And the householder said, No. Verse 29. He said, No, lest while you are gathering up the tares, you also uproot the wheat with them. And so what's he saying? In effect, he's saying, Your servants do not have a trained eye to be able to distinguish between the tares and the wheat.

But later, at harvest time, the experienced reapers will then come and separate the tares from the wheat. In verse 39, he identifies those experienced reapers.

He calls them holy angels. Now, the fact is, we cannot always identify the tares. And I would say it's really not any business of ours to identify the tares from the wheat.

Now, I think we have a responsibility within the body, within the local church, to be concerned about tares that might be in the church, people who are here, people on our membership rolls, but maybe they're not saved.

Not for the purpose of getting these guys out of here, but for purposes of sharing the gospel with them, being concerned about their eternal destiny and so forth. So we ought to pay attention to that and judge fruits and so forth.

But when it comes to the world, and that's what we have here, the world scene, we can't tell the tares from the wheat always because they look very much alike.

There are those in the world who are lost today, who not only look like saved, the saved or the wheat, but they think they are.

They think they are. And there are church members, for example, who somehow got on the church roll and yet have never truly repented of sin and trusted Christ, and they think they're going to heaven because they're members of the Highland Park Baptist Church.

Seriously. And if you were to ask them, I don't know who they are, but ask them, are you going to heaven when you die?

Yeah. How do you know? Well, I'm a member of that church. I was baptized in this baptistry. You know, and they remember, you know, Pastor So-and-So, you know, down at Church Such-and-Such, who, you know, that church I grew up in and was baptized there and, you know, baptized as a child.

And many people, that's as far as they can go in their testimony of faith in Christ. And they're banking on that for their eternal security, their eternal destination.

Ever met anybody like that? There are loads of people like that. They are lost, but they think they're saved. And so there are good, moral men and women who have never told a lie, never cheated on their income tax, never gone over the speed limit, though it's a little hard to believe, never said a crossword to anyone, you know, people who are good people and great people and moral people and giving people.

But there are people who have never had a salvation experience where they repented of sin and trusted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. They've never truly been converted. And yet these people one day will stand before Jesus Christ at His throne and be outraged and even offended, not to mention totally shocked out of their minds when He looks at them and says, Depart from Me, I never knew you.

Somebody will say, Well, you know, they're good, moral people. We're talking about good, moral people. Well, that's right, we are. But show me in the Bible where it says anything about God saving people on the basis of their goodness or morality.

You'll not find it in the Scripture. You say, But, Pastor, those people must be saved or they wouldn't be so good. Really? I think you'll find that the Bible mentions a number of people who did good things but they were not saved.

Not saved. It's a frank fact. Many will perish who expect to be saved. Frank fact number four. Need to hurry along here. Got two more frank facts.

Frank fact number four. There is no salvation after death. You say, Well, I knew that. A lot of people who don't know that. There's no salvation after death.

Many people who have heard the gospel and know what the gospel demands. Repentance. Faith. And yet they'll wait.

They'll wait until it's too late. Procrastination. Every one of us are procrastinators to some degree or another. Some of us are more than others.

Me. With some people, it's kind of like this. Their life's philosophy is ready, aim, aim, aim, aim.

And they never get around to doing it. They just aim to. But never, ever get around to doing it. Frankly, procrastination is not a good response to the gospel of Jesus Christ.

In fact, it can be devastating. Eternal devastating. Eternally devastating. Because when lost, when lost people die, they do not sleep in the grave for some second chance.

There's no such thing like that in the Bible. They do not go to some holding area or purgatory, as some would call it, until someone prays them out of there.

Prays them into heaven somehow. These concepts are absolutely foreign to the Word of God. Remember in the parable, Jesus explains that the tares represent who?

Children of the wicked one. They're children of the devil. They're the lost. And when the harvest comes, something very permanent, I mean very permanent, happens to the tares, but also to the wheat.

Something very permanent takes place. Jesus says in verse 39, the harvest is the end of the age. I think we could call that the end of the age of grace. And the harvest then speaks of the end of opportunity for tares to respond to the gospel, to respond obediently to the gospel of Jesus Christ, which is repentance and faith in Jesus Christ alone.

The tares, the opportunity for that, one day will end. It's just be over one day. And Jesus said in verse 40, the tares will be gathered and burned in the fire.

He says in verse 42, they shall be cast into the furnace of fire. There will be wailing and gnashing of teeth. Now that, of course, is a reference to hell.

A real place. An eternal place. An eternal place of punishment. That's where all tares are going to go one day. Verse 43 says, the wheat on the other hand, the saved, will shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father.

This, of course, is heaven. The eternal state of the believer. Now, someone might say, you mean there's no second chance after we die? No.

None whatsoever. And we know that, don't we? No second chance. Someone will say, are you sure, preacher? Well, yes.

Just ask the rich man in Luke 16. Jesus tells a story. Remember about a poor beggar named Lazarus and a rich man?

We don't know his name. And the rich man was lost and he died and he went where? To hell. Poor beggar Lazarus, he died and where did he go?

Went to heaven. And the rich man is down there. He's in torment. Kind of a description of hell. Though a very, very mild description of it.

That's kind of interesting. You know how the rich man's perspective changed on a number of things. When he got to hell, he started praying. Should have done that before. And also, when he got to hell, he was concerned about lost souls, too.

He's asking for someone to go and preach the gospel to his brothers, his family, so that they don't come to this place. Interesting how his perspective changed on things, but it's all too late for him.

See, there's no salvation after death. There is not one slim glimmer of hope for those who die without Christ.

None whatsoever. Here's the last fact. One day, the last gospel message will be preached. One day, the last gospel message will be preached.

And I don't mean just the end of the age. But for some people, today may be the last gospel message they ever hear. There will be a last gospel message preached.

Ultimately, the last one will be preached. These old tares were growing alongside of the wheat. You know, just kind of rocking along in life and everything was looking good and seemingly they had no care in the world.

We're just kind of thinking about what the tares might be thinking and suddenly, whew, they're cut down. The harvester's sharp sickle cuts them down to the ground.

And so now, separation from the good friends, their good friends, the wheat, separation from them, also bundled up now with all the other tares, all other unbelievers, thrown into the fire.

What's this, they might be thinking. I thought I had another chance. I thought I still had time. Is this it? No second chance?

I mean, I was going to, but... See, at some time, the last gospel message will be preached.

The Bible says in Proverbs 27, 1, Do not boast about tomorrow, for you do not know what a day may bring forth. And so you see, when Jesus explained the meaning in this parable, He did so to His disciples only.

And here's where I think it applies to us, where we need to get... Where I think what we need to do with these frank facts is come to grips with them. Have us realize the truth about many of those who are all around us and the desperation that that represents and the urgency that ought to instill in us.

You see, I think Jesus explained the parable to His disciples because He wanted to give them a burden for the tares. To kind of, as it were, light a fire in their bosoms, their hearts, to win the lost for Christ before it is too late.

I mean, when your friends, your lost friends and family members die, they have lost forever their opportunity to come to Christ, right? Of course. But let me tell you something else.

We too have lost the opportunity, the last opportunity to share the gospel with them. Have you thought of it in those terms?

Five frank facts. Not all people will be saved. Most, the majority of people will be lost. many will perish who thought they expected to be saved.

And there is no salvation after death. And one day, the last gospel message will be preached. It will be. Now, where do you stand in relation to those gospel facts?

What do they do to you? They change anything about your outlook on life and your, maybe even some of your goals for how you live it in relation to those all around us.

How will you respond to these five frank facts? That's the point of all of this. you