But Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let your brothers listen to them.’“But Abraham said to him, ‘They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them.’Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.But Abraham saith, They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.
4 sermons cite this verse
… them so that they will not also come to this place of torment. He speaks from hell. He says, Go back and give them a special warning. And Abraham replied, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them listen to them. In other words, they have their Bibles. Let them pay attention to the Bible. Oh, no, Father Abraham, he said. But if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent. If somebody goes and does something really dramatic, you see, then they will believe. And he said to them, If they do not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if someone rises from the dead. And that is the story of Judaism to this point. If they will not listen to Moses and the prophets, they will not be convinced, even if the Messiah was to rise from the dead. Well, we've got about seven sermons in one here. Let me stop. Go back to the 39th verse of John 18. But it's your custom, says Pilate, having had him shipped back from Herod now, you see, they're playing ping-pong with the creator of the universe, sending him up the street and then back up the street. And everywhere he goes, there's a slap on the face. They're spittle on his beard. There's a gut-wrenching kick in the ribs. And back he comes. And it's Pilate's problem all over again. And he sees one last opportunity to weasel out of it. …
… Warn them lest they come to this place that I'm in of torment. Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. In other words, they have a Bible. They can read the Bible. Let them hear what Moses and the prophets have to say. They said, no, no, but if you send him, they'll believe. And he says, no, they will not be persuaded even though one rises from the dead. So faith is a powerful force. Unbelief is a powerful force. Faith will produce blessings, salvation, joy, peace, purpose, meaning. Unbelief will rob you of all of those things. It has devastating results in this life and in the life to come. You all know John 3, 16, right? Everybody knows that. Unbelievers know that. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life. But do you know John 3, 18, two verses later? He who believes in him is not condemned. …
so a number of years ago i uh read this book i've talked about it before but uh in it it talks about this uh this shinto japanese concept of misogi so the idea came out of the shinto religion that is you would do this if you wanted to like be purified you would go into like a frozen river or freezing river or like frozen like ocean that kind of situation and you'd go in one way and the idea is you'd be so enter into this discomfort to such a degree that you would emerged change, like the idea, right? The idea is that you do this difficult thing and it purifies you somehow. So that's the Shinto idea. In the West, we got a hold of that. And in the West, people kind of changed it. And they made it into like any kind of like physical or emotional or even like mental challenge. So the author of this book, he said that he and four of his friends, one of their masogis was, they went to the Pacific coast and they would dive down and pick up a rock that was really heavy, and they would walk on the ocean floor for five miles. …
… that they also, lest they also should come to this place of torment. Abraham said to him, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them. In other words, the word is clear. And he said, no, Father Abraham, but if one goes to them from the dead, they will repent. He said, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets the word, neither will they be persuaded though one raise from the dead. you really don't want to go to hell. The beggar died and was carried. The rich man died and was buried. The first point I want to make is the poor man did not go to heaven because he was poor. The rich man did not go to hell because he was rich. That is not what the scripture teaches. If anybody goes to heaven, they do not go because of anything they bring to the picture. The reason the poor man went to heaven is because the poor man loved God, served God the best he could with what he had. …