You Have Moses and the Prophets

(Luke 16:19-31 KJV) There was a certain rich man, which was clothed in purple and fine linen, and fared sumptuously every day: {20} And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus, which was laid at his gate, full of sores, {21} And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table: moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. {22} 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; {23} And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom. {24} 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. {25} But Abraham said, 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. {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. {27} Then he said, I pray thee therefore, father, that thou wouldest send him to my father's house: {28} For I have five brethren; that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. {29} Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them. {30} And he said, Nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. {31} And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.

From this text of scripture, today, we want to study with you the expression "They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them". Today you have Moses and the prophets and are you hearing them? Do you understand God's plan for your salvation? You can be saved from the torments of hell, by listening to Moses and the prophets. You have opportunity to hear God's word preached. You have opportunity to study God's Word. You have opportunity to get Godly counsel. Take it and make the most of it; it is God's plan and mercy for you. You do not have to wake up in hell. You can be carried by the angels into heaven.

Study with us today how God and God's people have gone out of their way to offer hope to you. God created a plan of salvation for you. God's ministry have given their lives to minister to you. God's people have given of themselves so that a storehouse of help is available for you. All heaven is on your side and waits to help you with your every need of life.

Let us consider what you have at your disposal to save you from the torments of hell. First you have Moses. Moses was the lawgiver. It was he that received the ten commandments. He set in place the expectations of God. The first five books of the Bible are attributed to Moses. He set in place the writing of God's Word. The basic commandments of God have never changed and never will change. Jesus reminded us that the first and great commandment was to love God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength. The Bible teaches us that God created a plan so that you could be redeemed from sin. Jesus came into this world, lived, and died on the cross as a sacrifice so that you would have opportunity to repent of your sin and be received be God, the Father as a child of God. This is a wonderful opportunity.

You have the rest of the Bible to teach and instruct you about God and God's plan for your life. You can read it and study it and learn how God is holy and how He has provided everything for you that you too can be holy. You will learn how it is that God will place power in your lfe to be a real Christian. You have the Bible. Are you taking advantage of it? Do you read it? Do you study it? Of what value is the Bible to you?

Too many of the people in our time are just like the rich man in our text. They are busy faring sumptuously in life and take no time to bother with the Bible. They have things to do, places to go and pleasures to pursue. Reading and studying the Bible has a low priority in most people's lives today. People are too busy living the good life and chasing the pleasures of this world to spend their time in learning about God. As if God was unreasonable or something that He would expect a few minutes a day and one day a week to honor Him.

Where does God find you today? Are you making use of His Word? Or are you like the rich man just going about faring sumptuously wrapped up in the cares of this life? Remember that someday and you have no idea what day, you will wake up in eternity. Then what? It will then be too late to intercede for yourself and your family. Now is the time, Today is the day of salvation. Today you have opportunity to seek the Lord. Today you can right your soul and life with God.

Not only has God given you Moses; but He has also given you the prophets. Down through the ages of time, God has called, prepared and commissioned prophets to proclaim His word to the people. Their messages have been recorded for your admonition and learning to profit withal. Once again, what a wonderful opportunity you have to hear the warnings of God again and again so that you have so many opportunities to repent of your sin and receive forgiveness while in this life. Today, God has inspired me to preach this message to you. It is another example of God's mercy to you that he would send this message to your ears in the hope that you will repent of our sin.

(Rom 10:13-17 KJV) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. {14} How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher? {15} And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things! {16} But they have not all obeyed the gospel. For Esaias saith, Lord, who hath believed our report? {17} So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

And so we see that God, in His mercy, wants you to be saved. He wants you to have faith in Him. He wants you to call upon Him and so He calls, prepares and send preachers to preach the Word of God to you so that you can hear it and have faith in God. The preacher brings glad tidings that you can be set free from sin. God will empower you to break the habits of life. He will empower you to live free from sin. That is the good news of the Gospel.

God reminds us that no preacher can be successful unless God sends him. To preach the Word of God is the most responsible position in all the earth and no one can do it without the power of God. This is the method that God has chosen to give you opportunity to be saved. It would be wise of you today to take advantage of this opportunity and go out to church where you can hear the preaching of God's Word. It would be wise of you to take heed to God's Word and construct your life according to God's instructions so that you can really enjoy this life and the life to come.

God called me to be a preacher many years ago. I understood from God that my life would never be the same again. I accepted my Lord's call and prepared to spend the rest of my life ministering to the needs of others. To that mission I continue and stand ready to help in any way that I can any one that God sends my way. It is the mercy of God that would take a selfish sinner and make out of him a servant of righteousness and yet that is just what God does again and again so that every soul will have opportunity to hear again and again the preached Word of God. What a blessed people we are to have this opportunity in abundance in our community today. It is God's plan to have a spiritual leader for every soul to help us along life's way. Abraham, the father of our faith, was the spiritual leader in his time:

God had called Abraham out of Ur of the Chaldees and Lot a nephew had gone with him. After some years of living together, they had separated and Lot went to live in Sodom. While he had lived with Abraham he worshipped with Abraham for the Bible tells us that abraham often built altars and worshipped God. Now Lot was in Sodom a city known for its wickedness and Sodom was captured in a battle:

(Gen 14:11-16 KJV) And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. {12} And they took Lot, Abram's brother's son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed. {13} And there came one that had escaped, and told Abram the Hebrew; for he dwelt in the plain of Mamre the Amorite, brother of Eshcol, and brother of Aner: and these were confederate with Abram. {14} And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. {15} And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. {16} And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

Here we see an example of the love and devotion of a pastor. Abraham risked his own life and the lives of his household to fight for Lot even though Lot had gone away from him. A concern for others is the overwhelming burden of a real Pastor. Our account of Lot and Abraham goes on as God planned to destroy Sodom:

(Gen 18:22-33 KJV) And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before the LORD. {23} And Abraham drew near, and said, Wilt thou also destroy the righteous with the wicked? {24} Peradventure there be fifty righteous within the city: wilt thou also destroy and not spare the place for the fifty righteous that are therein? {25} That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? {26} And the LORD said, If I find in Sodom fifty righteous within the city, then I will spare all the place for their sakes. {27} And Abraham answered and said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord, which am but dust and ashes: {28} Peradventure there shall lack five of the fifty righteous: wilt thou destroy all the city for lack of five? And he said, If I find there forty and five, I will not destroy it. {29} And he spake unto him yet again, and said, Peradventure there shall be forty found there. And he said, I will not do it for forty's sake. {30} And he said unto him, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak: Peradventure there shall thirty be found there. And he said, I will not do it, if I find thirty there. {31} And he said, Behold now, I have taken upon me to speak unto the Lord: Peradventure there shall be twenty found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for twenty's sake. {32} And he said, Oh let not the Lord be angry, and I will speak yet but this once: Peradventure ten shall be found there. And he said, I will not destroy it for ten's sake. {33} And the LORD went his way, as soon as he had left communing with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place.Here we see Abraham, the pastor, interceding for Lot. God has revealed to Abraham that He is going to destroy the city. Abraham begins his plea with 50 souls. No doubt he expected that by this time, Lot should have influenced fifty people of his family and friends to repent of sin and worship the true and living God. However, as Abraham plead with God, it became evident that not even ten were righteous. And no doubt Abraham's heart sunk as he realized this. One of the most devastating things in the ministry is to observe people's failure to pay attention to the clear warnings of God and go on their way rushing to destruction. I have often wept over the conditions that I have observed people in while they rush on to grief and destruction. I often am amazed at the patience of God to again and again send warning to them in an effort to get them to turn to righteousness. Abraham left off pleading with God and early in the morning we find him looking out over the plain no doubt hoping and praying that somehow Lot and his family has been spared from the awful destruction that is taking place.

(Gen 19:27-29 KJV) And Abraham gat up early in the morning to the place where he stood before the LORD: {28} And he looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and beheld, and, lo, the smoke of the country went up as the smoke of a furnace. {29} And it came to pass, when God destroyed the cities of the plain, that God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow, when he overthrew the cities in the which Lot dwelt.

And God honored Abraham and spared Lot from the destruction of Sodom. God cares so much for you that He provided you a Pastor.

(Jer 3:14 KJV) Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

(Jer 3:15 KJV) And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

Yes, when you repent of sin, God will give you a Pastor that will feed you with knowledge and understanding. It is the Pastor's job to feed you knowledge and understanding of god's word.

(John 21:15-17 KJV) So when they had dined, Jesus saith to Simon Peter, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me more than these? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my lambs. {16} He saith to him again the second time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? He saith unto him, Yea, Lord; thou knowest that I love thee. He saith unto him, Feed my sheep. {17} He saith unto him the third time, Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou me? Peter was grieved because he said unto him the third time, Lovest thou me? And he said unto him, Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee. Jesus saith unto him, Feed my sheep.

Yes, the primary mission of the Pastor is to feed the Lord's sheep.

(Acts 20:28 KJV) Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

And so it is that God has gone to great lengths so that you can be saved, strengthened and live a righteous life. You have the Bible and the prophets; hear them and live. Many today are hearing only with their ears but the Word of God goes in one ear and out the other. They do not really hear; they are like those of old.

(Mat 13:13-15 KJV) Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. {14} And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: {15} For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Yes, seeing they see not and hearing they hear not. Or in other words they pay no attention to the instruction given to them in the Word of God. And so it is with many today. They have a head knowledge of the Word of God, but they don't live according to its' instructions. They have a love of God, but they love pleasure more. What does God's Word mean to you? Is it something that you take to your heart and do your best to live according to? Or is it something that you pick and choose from taking only the parts that you like and discarding the rest?

Jesus taught us that man must live by every Word of God. This is not something that you can pick and choose from. Either you accept and live by every Word of God or you reject the very basic teaching of your Lord.

(Mat 4:4 KJV) But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.

What a blessing today that we have the Word of God, we know how to read, we have preachers called and sent by God to feed us with knowledge and understanding, we have the church to provide for our every need, we have the Holy Spirit to guide us and to empower us, we have no excuse to go to hell. In fact to die and wake up in hell, we have to do as the rich man. He walked past the man of God every day right by his gate. You have the Bible all over the place, and Godly preachers nearly every where you turn and churches galore. You have to walk by them every day and ignore them completely to end up in hell. As you go about your walk of life today, will you be so foolish as the rich man in our text to ignore the need of your soul? Will this be just another day to revel in the luxury of this life? You have Moses and the prophets; why don't you hear them?