They Have Moses and the Prophets

Introduction

Have you ever had somebody just completely misunderstand what you said? Well, let’s turn that around. Have you ever completely misunderstood what somebody said? Isn’t it kind of cruelly ironic that as important as communication is, that all too often it’s difficult? And far too often we fail at communicating. This morning’s lessons for everyone, but for this beginning illustration, I want to just talk to the husbands. Particularly, I want to talk to you older husbands who had to make it through marriage without cell phones. You older husbands, and particularly your older husbands who’ve maybe have a track record of messing things up and forgetting guys like Rob and Mark and me. You ever gone to the grocery store for your wife? And with some false bravado said, I don’t need a list.

One, turn around and go back home and say, Can I have the list? But we’re too proud to do that. One is just get what you remember. My choice would be just get one of everything. And then surely some of this is what you ask for. Communication’s tough. And we fail at it too often, and it’s important. This morning I want to talk about God’s communication to us. If our interpersonal communication is important, and it is, there’s no way to measure how important it is that we understand what God is trying to say to us. And how God has said that to us.

1. They Have Moses and the Prophets

A rich man and a beggar. And actually, in this story, depending upon the timing of the story, each one was a rich man. And each one was a beggar. In this life, one was a rich man. It says he fared sumptuously, he had whatever he wanted. The other man, who we know by the name of Lazarus, was a beggar, who asked just for the crumbs that would fall off that rich man’s table. And the text says the great equalizer death happened to both of them. And now the beggar became a rich man. He was in paradise in Abraham’s bosom. The rich man now became a beggar. He is in torments, and he, the text literally says, he begs something of God. He asked two questions of God, two requests, neither one of which was granted.

The first request, you remember, is I just want just a drop of water in this torment. Can you see, send Lazarus the beggar? If just the tip of his finger in water might give me a little bit of relief.

The plaintiff cry of all the lost, surely. I don’t want anybody else to come here. And so read with me in beginning in Luke chapter 16, this second request, verse 27. Then he said, I beg you, therefore, Father, that you would send him, speaking to Abraham, would you send him, that is Lazarus, to my father’s house, for I have five brothers, that he may testify to them, lest they also come to this place of torment. But Abraham said to him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. But he said, No, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. But he said to them, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rise from the dead.

That second request was greater than the first one. Would you resurrect Lazarus like the previous Lazarus and send him back to my house, to my family’s house? Because if one would come back from the spirit realm, if a ghost or a spirit would appear to them and preach to them and tell them to turn and to repent, surely they would listen. But Abraham’s twice reply to that request was, they have Moses and the prophets. In other words, he’s saying, they have the word of God.

2. God Chose Preaching

The Old Testament and in our time consists of the complete revealed word of God, Old and New Testament. When Jesus said, or Abraham, Jesus through this story tells us that Abraham told the rich man that it was enough that they had the written word of God. I want us to contemplate that this morning. The first thing that I want us to recognize that whether it was Moses and the prophets under the old way, or whether it’s Jesus and the apostles under this new covenant, that God chose preaching. God chose a way and a means to communicate himself to man. Do you have your Bibles? I hope you do. Turn with me in the book of 1 Corinthians, in the New Testament to 1 Corinthians chapter 1.

God wanted to communicate himself to man, his will to man. And we may not think about it because we live in a time in which God has already done that. And as Christians who are present here this morning, you’re keenly aware and familiar with God’s revelation. So you may not spend a whole lot of time thinking about other alternatives, other ways God could have communicated. You know, God could have just implanted within us will.

God could have done it that way. There’s numerous ways God could have made himself known. But Paul is going to tell us in 1 Corinthians chapter 1 that he chose preaching. Read with me if you will. You remember this text, 1 Corinthians 1. Let’s just start in verse 18. For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are saved, it’s the power of God. For it is written, I’ll destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent. Where is the wise? Where is the scribe? Where’s the disputer of this age? Has God had God not made foolish the wisdom of this world? For since in the wisdom of God, the world through wisdom did not know God.

It pleased God through the foolishness of the message preached to save those who believe. For Jews request a sign, and Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified. To the Jews a stumbling block, and to the Greeks foolishness. But to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ, the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. Paul says, God chose preaching. And that preaching looks like foolishness to so many. But to those whose hearts are humble enough and attuned to God and seeking after God, it will not appear and come across as foolishness, but it will be to them through salvation and their obedience to that word, it will be to them the power of God.

God chose preaching. Skip down to chapter two, still in 1 Corinthians, chapter 2 now, and look in verse 6. Paul says, one of those original preachers of the message, he says, However, 1 Corinthians 2, verse 6, however, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom of this age, nor the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. The hidden wisdom which God ordained before the ages for our glory, which none of the rulers of this age knew, for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. But as it is written, I has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him.

But God revealed them to us through his spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the Spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things which have been fully and freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man wisdom teaches, but with which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. Your translation may say spiritual things with spiritual words. And so Paul continues his treatise by saying, God chose preaching.

Now we need to pause here and contemplate what he meant when he said preaching. It doesn’t include me and what I’m doing today. Although I hope you can call this preaching. But that’s not really the preaching that he’s talking about. The preaching that he’s talking about is the preaching that was done, the original declaration of this message, that was done by inspiration. When Paul says we received the things of the Spirit of God, he’s meaning we apostles, we inspired preachers, and we, he turns around and say, We have declared it to you. Let’s look at him explain that in another place. Turn with me to the Ephesians chapter 3.

Ephesians chapter 3. Let’s just pick up with the first verse. For this reason, I, Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus, for you Gentiles, if indeed you’ve heard of the dispensation of the grace of God, which was given to me for you, how that by revelation he made known to me the mystery, as I’ve briefly written already, by which when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ. You see how Paul is using the term preaching and preachers. He’s saying, I, Paul, an apostle, received the message from God, and I wrote it down so that you can know God’s message. God didn’t send it directly to you, God sent it to me, Paul says, an apostle, and I’m communicating it to you. That’s the means that God chose to communicate himself to man.

Of all the options that he had, which are numerous, he chose preaching. He chose these ambassadors, these witnesses, these apostles and inspired men to communicate his message. And God emphasized that.

3. God Chose an Earthly Messenger

Acts chapter 2. You remember on the day of Pentecost? Acts chapter 2, when God first declared that new gospel message of Jesus Christ and him crucified and risen from the dead. That on that day, the day of Pentecost, in fulfillment of what we’ve been talking about in our minor prophets’ class, in fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel, chapter 2, God poured out his Holy Spirit on that day. The Holy Spirit was there in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost, the day God wanted to communicate his message to man. Why not use the Holy Spirit to communicate that message directly to everybody in the audience? But he didn’t do that, did he?

So you see, God chose preaching.

Turn over to Acts chapter 8 to find another example of that. Maybe a more poignant or clear example of that is found in Acts chapter 8, verse 26. We are introduced to a man, an Ethiopian man, who’s on his way back from Jerusalem to Ethiopia. And notice what it says in verse 26. Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down to from Jerusalem to Gaza, it’s its desert. And so he arose and went, and behold, of Matthew of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace, the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning and sitting in the chariot. He was reading Isaiah the prophet.

Philip said to him, or the Spirit said to Philip, Go near and overtake his chariot. Now I want us to pause there and think about here is a man that obviously, this Ethiopian, here’s a man that God wants to hear the gospel message. And the text has told us in verse 26, an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip. Verse 29 says, the Spirit spoke to Philip. And so here on this scene on the road between Jerusalem and Ethiopia is an angel of the Lord and the Holy Spirit. And God wants to communicate to this lost soul his word. But although the angel and the spirit are there, they don’t communicate directly to the recipient of the gospel message.

Now, we’re thankful Philip didn’t have this attitude. But what if Philip had said, Angel, you tell him.

What if Philip had said to the angel to the Spirit? Spirit, you. What if he hears the voice of the Holy Spirit in his chariot? Won’t that mean more to him than Moses and the prophets or a man named Philip? But God used an earthly messenger. God chose preaching. Go one more chapter. It’s chapter nine. In chapter nine, we have a record of the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. Jesus confronts Saul. You know this story. We don’t even have to read it. You know it so well. Jesus confronts Saul on the road and speaks to Saul. Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? And he tells Saul to go into the city, and there it will be told. And again, the Spirit comes, this time not to Philip, but to a man by the name of Ananias and tells Ananias to go.

Now again, bear with me. We’re glad Ananias wasn’t a smart elic, but Ananias could have said, Why didn’t Jesus tell him when he had his ear? And Spirit, why are you sending me? It’s going to take, he’s going to be a hard nut to crack. This is a persecutor of Christianity. He he studied. Wouldn’t it make a greater impact if the Holy Spirit went rather than just the guy named Ananias? But God chose preaching. God chose a heavenly message to be delivered by an earthly messenger. And that’s repeated over and over again in Scripture, isn’t it? Now God would use the Spirit, the angels, God Himself to communicate to man, but when He was communicating His message to mankind, to the lost world, God chose an earthly messenger.

4. God’s Only and Final Revelation to Man

He chose preaching. God chose preaching. And again, in this context, preaching was that work done by these inspired authors. It is now what we know as the written word of God, the New Testament. That’s how God communicates to us. And it’s important that we understand this. But if God chose that means of communicating his word to the world, then that’s his means of communicating his word to the world. That’s his only means. That revelation, this preaching, is God’s only and final revelation to man. Turn with me to Jude, the book of Jude.

Got one chapter. So we’re just going to look at the third verse. Jude 3. You know this verse. Jude says, Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I find it necessary to write to you, exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith, which was once for all delivered to the saints. I think we’ve talked about this before, and I know you probably know this, but but bear with me in repeating something, reminding you of something you already know. The word faith is used in a couple senses in the New Testament. Broadly, sometimes it refers to something that we have. We have faith in the Word of God. Sometimes it’s referred to our faith. But when you see the qualifier, the faith, most of the time, it’s not talking about our belief in the Word, it’s talking about that in which we believe, the faith, the Word of God.

That in which we have faith. And so he says, I exhorted you to contend earnestly for the faith. And he goes on and again qualifies that faith even more when he says, which was once for all delivered to the saints. God chose preaching. We have that preaching. We have everything that God wanted to communicate to us. We have everything. Paul would say he’s not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That’s the faith, the gospel, for it is the power of God to salvation. We have everything revealed to us through this message, this means of communicating of God to himself, to our to mankind. We have everything we need for salvation. And so there’s two fallouts from that. One is we need to value it as such.

5. Don’t Wait for God to Communicate Another Way

Recognize that when you open your Bibles, you’re opening up the very words of God. Treat it with that awe and respect. Treat it with that curiosity that it deserves. This is God’s way of speaking to me. Shouldn’t we want to know it? Know more about it? To become experts in it. And secondly, another fallout from the fact that this is God’s means of communication, his only full and final revelation to man, is don’t look for, or don’t wait for God to communicate to you in some other way.

I want to hear that still voice that the prophets heard. I want this guy to open and Jesus to talk to me as he did to Saul on the road to Damascus. But I need to recognize that God has already spoken to me. He chose preaching. He chose Paul and the apostles to deliver his message to me.

Because some questions should, just some logical questions, should come to our mind. How do I know that is God speaking? And not Satan. Or my own mind saying that. Several years ago, met a lady who came to find out was afraid of flying. And she was about to take her first flight. And she was talking to me about it, knowing that I was a preacher. She said, I’ve decided not to fly, and God told me not to fly. And I said, Really? How did God tell you not to fly? And she said, This morning, I woke up and rolled over and looked at my digital alarm clock, and the time was 7.47. And she said, I know that was God telling me not to fly. Well, you know me, I couldn’t leave that alone.

I said, I’ve got two things about that. Number one is maybe that was God telling you to fly. And I said, I might buy into your theory. If you rolled over and looked at your digital alarm clock and it said 747 and it sprung off your nightstand and fell and crashed and burned into flame, I probably wouldn’t fly either. But we need to be careful in interpreting something that we think we see or hear and saying, that’s God talking to me. And another caution is raised in Scripture. Look in Galatians chapter 1. This will be our last text. Galatians chapter 1. One of those men that God chose, one of those preachers that God chose, issued this caution. Galatians 1, verse 6, when he says to his brethren, I marvel, Galatians 1, verse 6, I marvel that you’re turning away so soon from him who called you into the grace of Christ to a different gospel, which is not another.

But there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ. And so Paul issues this strange, let’s just be honest, strange warning. But even if we are an angel from heaven preach any other gospel to you than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed. Paul says, you’ve got the message. It was delivered to you. In fact, if we skip down, he’ll say, It was delivered to you by me later in the chapter. But he says, You’ve got the message. Don’t listen for something else. In fact, he says, even if an angel comes, maybe that angel that appeared to Philip on the road to Ethiopia, if he comes to you and gives you a different message, then don’t listen to it.

In fact, let that angel be accursed. Now, really, Paul, I’m not supposed to. If an angel comes, Lazarus comes back from the dead, I’m not supposed to listen to him. If an angel comes, I’m not supposed to listen to him. I think what Paul is telling us, he has to be telling us, an angel’s not going to come. Because if an angel did come, he’s not going to deliver a different message, is he? And so what Paul is saying is an angel’s not going to come. And a true messenger of the gospel is not going to come and tell you something different than what’s already been delivered to you through the means that God chose to communicate. God chose preaching. He chose his word.

Conclusion

Will we treat it with the respect and the submission and the obedience that it, as the word of God, deserves? Would you listen to that word? Don’t wait for another still voice to speak to you, even a booming voice to speak to you. You have the word of God. God has spoken to you. Will you obey it this morning? Can we help you in your obedience to that gospel? Let it be known right now as together we stand and as we speak.