“There was a certain rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously (in luxury) every day.” Some identify this man with the term “Dives”; and some also suggest that he is the same with the man in Luke 12:16-21. The traditional name Dives is not actually a name, but instead a word for “rich man”, found in the text of the Latin Bible, the Vulgate. Mr. Spurgeon preached a sermon, The Bridgeless Gulf: in trying solemnly to speak upon this matter I, with Mr. Spurgeon, shall begin with this - THERE IS NO PASSAGE FROM HEAVEN TO HELL vv.25-26, “They which would pass from hence to you cannot.” Glorified saints cannot visit the prison-house of the damned. Like the tares and wheat both grow together until the time of the harvest; but when harvest has come, they lie together no longer. Those who are nearest and dearest must be divided from you if they perish in their sins. As we cannot go from heaven to hell, so the text assures us, those that are banished to hell cannot come to where the righteous are. “Neither can they come to us that would come from thence.” The sinner cannot come to heaven for many reasons; first, his own character forbids it. A poor unconverted sinner would be totally miserable in the eternal state of the righteous. He experiences this at family occasions, where neither he nor they are comfortable. Not only does the man’s character shut him out, but also his doom. What is his doom? “These shall go away into everlasting punishment.” If it is everlasting, how can they enter heaven? The sinner also can not go out of the prison-house because God’s character and God’s word are against it. Shall God ever cease to be just? It is a matter of justice to send the unconverted to hell. While no persons can pass that bridgeless chasm, so no things can. Nothing can come from hell to heaven. Rejoice ye saints in light, triumph in your God for this. No temptation of Satan can ever vex you when once you are landed on the golden strand, Hallelujah. You are beyond bowshot of the arch-enemy; he may howl and bite his iron hands, but his howling cannot terrify and his biting cannot disturb. As nothing can come from hell to heaven, so nothing heavenly can ever come to hell. There are rivers of life at God’s right hand – those streams can never flow to the damned. Not a drop of heavenly water can ever cross that gulf. Between us and you there is a great gulf fixed. The fundamental difference between the Rich Man and Lazarus lies not in their conditions but in their characters. The moral distinctions which exist in this life become more pronounced (fixed) in the next world, and the gulf is impassable in the sense that a change of condition will not necessarily produce a change of soul. There is no communion with God in hell. Heaven is rest, perfect rest, but there is no rest in hell; only an unceasing tempest. Heaven is a place of joy, there happy fingers sweep across celestial chords; joyful spirits sing hosannas day without night; but there is no joy in hell.
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