I want to begin reading in verse 19. Luke 16 and verse 19. There was a certain rich man which was clothed in purple and fine linen and fared sumptuously every day. And there was a certain beggar named Lazarus which was laid at his gate full of sores. And desiring to be fed with the crumbs which fell from the rich man's table, moreover the dogs came and licked his sores. And it came to pass that the beggar died and was carried by the angel into Abraham's bosom. The rich man also died and was buried. And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torment, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom, and 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 his flame. But Abraham said, Son, remember that thou in thy lifetime receivest thy good things, and likewise Lazarus evil things. But now he is comforted, and thou art tormented. And beside all this, between us and you, there is a great goal fixed, so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot, neither can they pass to us that would come from thence. Then he said, I pray thee, therefore, father, that thou wouldst send him to my father's house. For I have five brethren, that he may testify unto them, lest they also come into this place of torment. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, Nay, father Abraham, but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And Abraham said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." The title of the message this morning is, Is the Word of God Enough? Is the Word of God Enough? Not only is it a title for this message, but it is a question that I want us to consider today. Is the Word of God Enough? Is it sufficient? Is it really sufficient? Listen to what God says on this matter in Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 10. Isaiah chapter 55 and verse 10. For as the rain cometh down and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater, so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth, It shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it. Hebrews 4.12 says, For the word of God is quick, it is living, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and the intents of the heart. God, I don't know what you think this morning, but God declares loudly, and He declares often, His Word is sufficient. His Word is sufficient. But do we really believe it? Do we really believe it? This passage before us is a very unique portion of God's Word. It gives us a glimpse of life and death after we leave this world like nowhere else in the Word of God. Here this beggar man, this one who dogs licked his sores, Lazarus, has been given eternal life. And the once rich man is now enduring eternal death. The one who fared sumptuously every day upon this earth, now we see him revealed to us in God's Word that he is enduring eternal death. I want us to focus. of this morning on the conversation, especially the last three verses of this chapter, the conversation between the one called the rich man and Abraham. And as we approach there, we see first in verse 24, the rich man begging in hell in torments for mercy. He said, just send Lazarus. a drop of water to cool my tongue, for I am tormented in this flame." Tormented by the fires of hell itself. And then we notice that this request is denied. You know why it's denied? Because hell is a place where there is no mercy. That is a place where there is no more mercy. This morning, though, we're blessed. And we have been graciously given mercy by God this morning. As we assemble here, I don't know what state your life is in this morning. I don't know what your relationship is with the Lord. But let me tell you, we all sit under God's mercy this morning. Because short of this place, everything is mercy. But this place is a place where there is no mercy. is denied. He then begs for mercy, realizing that, upon his five brothers. Now, you might think that hell really changed this man. I mean, he had no sympathy for anyone on the earth. This poor beggar man, the one who had sores on his body, he came just asking for a crumb of bread, just what was raked off the table, dropped by accident off the table. That's all he wanted, but he would not even have that. He would not even give that to this man. So you might think when you see him here interceding on behalf of his brothers and see that he is worried about his brothers, you might think, well, hell's really changed this man. He's not that bad after all. Let me tell you, this man went from being a rich man who cares sumptuously every day to one who is begging for a drop of water. This man has been taken from his comfortable palace and has been cast into the fires of hell. A lot has changed. But one thing still has not changed. He still is a God-hating, rebellious sinner. He's still a God-hating, rebellious sinner. You might say, I'm not a preacher that strong. But I want to tell you something. He's begging for mercy here. He's begging for the salvation of his brothers. But he is still rejecting God's way of salvation. He's still rejecting God's way of salvation. In this passage, we have the arguments for two ways of salvation. The first is man's way. The last is God's way, and that's the only way. God's way and man's way. Though Lazarus and this rich man lived many years ago, this argument is still alive and well in this world. Not just in this world, in churches all across this nation, and all across the world, and those that have Baptists out on the sign. This argument is still alive and well in people's minds today. So first, let us see in verse 29, firstly, God's way. Verse 29. Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. Now, Abraham saith unto him, They have Moses and the prophets. My brothers need mercy, Abraham. Would you send Lazarus back to them? So that they might be spared from this awful judgment that I am now in. That they might be spared from hell. And he said, They have Moses, and they have prophets. Let your brothers hear them. What does that mean? It means that they have Moses and the prophets. They have the five books of Moses, and they have the books of the prophets. What does that mean today and right now? They have the Word of God. They have the Word of God. The Spirit of God accompanied all-powerful Word of God, His Word that always, it shall, we read, accomplish God's will, the Word that always, it shall prosper in that which it was sent, the Word of God that was sharper than any two-edged sword. They have the Word of God. They have the Word of God in Genesis that speaks as we've been looking at, of the Creator and the Sustainer. of all things. Those brothers, they have the Word of God in Exodus. It speaks of a God who graciously and mercifully delivers His people from bondage. They have the Word of God in Leviticus, which speaks of a holy God who desires in mercy and condescension to dwell in the midst of His people. They have the Word of God in Numbers, the Word which reveals a God who leads and provides for His people in the midst of even the wilderness. They have the Word of God in Deuteronomy that speaks of the covenant relationship between God and His people. Get this now, Jehovah pledging Himself to be their God and their Savior forever. Then they have the prophets. And who do they collectively point to? The Lord said, Lo, in the volume of the book, It is written of me. He said, you look into the Scriptures, and the Scriptures are they which testify of me. They speak and they point to over and over and over again the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. He is the seed that will crush the head of the serpent. There is none other. He is the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is. He is the sacrificial Passover lamb of God whose blood was shed. He is the manna from heaven. He is the smitten rock. The Lord Jesus Christ, He is the mercy seat and the ark of the covenant, the table of showbread, the altar of incense. He is the stand that the lamp casts its light upon, and He is the altar of sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ alone is the sacrificial lamb, and He alone is the scapegoat led off into the wilderness. He is the serpent that was raised up in the wilderness that the people were told to look to live. He is the cities of refuge that the guilty could flee to for deliverance from the avenger. of blood for their sin and their guilt. And as Moses sang in his final song, he is the rock. His work is perfect for all his ways or judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity, just and right. If you listen to the book of Moses, the five books of Moses, they point to and picture and shadow over and over and over again, one person, the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. And he is that one that was called Emmanuel in the books of the prophets. Wonderful Counselor, the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace. He was that One who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our inequity. He is that One by whose stripes we are healed. He is the Branch of Righteousness. He is the Lion from the tribe of Judah. He is the One that they will look upon whom they have pierced. The Lord Jesus Christ is the fountain for sin and uncleanness. He is God's Anointed, God's Christ. He is the Lord of Hosts. Jesus the Christ is the Eternal Son and Living God. He is the sum and the substance of Moses and the prophets. They have, Abraham said, Moses and the prophets. Your brothers have the gospel of the grace of God. They have the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The power of God unto salvation to them that believe. They have the word of God, he said. Let them hear it. Let them hear Him. Let your brothers hear God's word. You see, that's God's way of salvation this morning. His Word that speaks of the one Savior for sinners like us. From the first page to the last page. That's God's way of salvation this morning. Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. He is from the beginning. He is the Alpha and the Omega and ever since of it. From the first A of the book to the last Z of the book. It's Him in and of it throughout the whole thing. It's in Him and of Him and by Him and through Him. and for his glory. And what was the rich man's reply? Verse 30, nay, no Abraham, it's not enough. It's not enough, but if one went unto them from the dead, then they will repent. You see, that's man's way. That's man's way. The foolishness and arrogance of man here that is testified unto us in this book. The foolishness and arrogance of God hating rebellious sinners. Here this man, understand what's happening here. This man is looking up into heaven from hell. The place where he has been put because the judgment of God is upon him. And he thinks even in hell that he can tell God what the best way of salvation is. No, he said in pride and arrogance. It's not enough. We need to do more. He called him Father Abraham. Evidently, this man was a Jew. A Pharisee, probably. He'd been schooled in the books of Moses and the prophets. I guess he was thinking in his mind, what good had it done him? Well, you see, he'd been schooled, but he never heard. by the Spirit of God, the Word of God. No, he said, the Word of God is not enough. You might say, well, how do you know he never heard it? If he'd heard it, he'd have never said that. If he'd have heard it affectionately by the working of the Spirit of God in his heart, he'd have never said it's not enough. There must be more. If he'd ever seen Christ revealed from page to page and page and picture and picture and picture, how the Lord is so jealous of those types and how they line up so perfectly to the workings of His Son and to the person of His Son and to the beauty of His Son, he'd never said, this is not enough. But he'd bow before his Creator and say, oh, I'm a sinner. Lord, thank You for sending a Savior to save me from my sin. He'd never said, There must be more. Something that will grab their attention is what he wanted. Some great miracle or emotional event. No, Father Abraham, let's give them something that will really dazzle them. We don't want that old dried up word. No, let's give them something that will really dazzle them. Something they can see and feel and touch. You see, that's always man's way. And so, man, In our day, just like this depraved sinner in hell, in our day also, man tries with all he can to enhance the Word of God, to add to it, to excite it, to emotionalize it, to round the rough corners off. But in reality, you know what they really do, what they desire to do? They desire to replace it. And they desire to replace it with whatever they think will work in their wisdom. Whatever they think that will bring the most success. Whatever will fill the building. Whatever will pay the bills. And so today in places called churches all over this land we have program on top of program. Don't we? We know it's true. You don't have to listen to a Christian radio for a minute and you'll see that it's true. We have programs for kids, singles, seniors, divorced, widow, contemporary, casual, drama, plays. They don't even preach anymore. They just put on a play. Rock bands and orchestra. Praise services and faith healings. Preachers with great swelling words that make people cry and silly stories that make people laugh. Big fancy buildings. Overflowing crowds. But so much of the time, they lack one thing. And it's the most important and most essential thing, because it's God's ordained thing. The unadulterated gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Because by man's standard, the word of God just is not enough. Nay, they say. But notice, that God's man, heaven here, has the last word. And he said unto him, If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. Without the effectual, irresistible power of the Spirit of God, the hearing upon the preached word of God, there is no hope for these five brothers. And I want to tell you today, without the effectual, almighty, irresistible power of the Spirit of God, the hearing upon God's preached word in this age, this age of technology, but also this age of sin, there is no hope for man today. You understand we can have program on over program. We can please people and appease people. We can fill buildings. But if we do not preach God's Word, we have done nothing but bring a curse upon them and upon ourselves. The truth of the statement is not changed. All these other things will come and go, but God has and will today use His Word. I see these movements come on. The last big one was the purpose driven life or whatever well it's gone now they come in somebody trying to come in with another new age movement that's what it's all about that's the basis of the whole thing somebody else come in with something that works a little better and we'll build this and they'll build that but you know all those things come and go but you know one constant that has remained and stood the test of time is this book right here God's Word the Gospel the Gospel of Lord Jesus Christ It's what God uses to call His people unto Himself. It is His appointed means. It is His way. Unless they hear the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead. We know that's true, don't we? Man's way doesn't work. Understand that today. Man's way does not work. Listen to this. Matthew 7.23 says, Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name, and in thy name cast out devils, and in thy name done many wonderful works? You notice the emphasis. I, I, I. Haven't we done all these things? But then hear what the Lord says, And then I will profess unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work iniquity. Let us learn the lesson. Man's way does not work. It does not work. But God's way, it works, doesn't it? The apostle to the Gentiles, he said in Romans 1.16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is It is, not it might be, not it may be if they can do something else, but it is. It alone is the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believeth. To the Jew first, and also to the Greek. God's way works. Listen, 2 Timothy 3.15, And that from a child thou hast known the holy scriptures. Does it work? Well, listen. Which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. He was talking to Timothy there. Guess what? Timothy was a child of God, a born-again saint. You know why? Because his mother and grandmother taught him the Word of God and preached it to his heart. The Lord preached it through them to his heart. We must give up on our ideas and stick to the plan that God has ordained. The Word, His Spirit, and Power is the means He still uses and will use to save sinners. His word, the simplicity of the gospel, the true gospel of Jesus Christ. Because it is enough. It is sufficient. It is God's way. How a holy and sovereign God saves unworthy, unable, hopeless, and helpless sinners like us. And I want to tell you something. He saves them by His sovereign grace. He doesn't save them any other way, but He saves them by His sovereign grace. It amazes me how many people run backwards from the true teachings of God's grace and say, well, that's just not profitable for evangelizing. I believe it, but I don't want to preach it. Well, let me tell you something, they don't believe it. They can say they believe it all they want to, but they don't believe it. Because I want to tell you something, by God's grace this morning, I believe it, and I can't preach the gospel without it. because it's a part of the gospel and any other gospel, it's not the gospel. It has to be that God has saved us by His sovereign mercy and His sovereign grace. It was not anything in us. There was no merit that we could claim and say, look, God saved me because I was and I was. Listen, God saved me in spite of what I was. And if you're saved by His grace this morning, He saved you in spite of what you were and what you are. He saved you by His sovereign mercy and His sovereign grace. And it is profitable for evangelizing. Why? I know it's not a popular message, but guess what? It's God's Word. His Word has never been popular, has it? We shouldn't expect it to be popular in our day either. But He is able to use His Word to the bringing of life from death. I want to tell you that's my greatest desire this morning as I preach this gospel. It's not for decisions. It's not for you to act. I'm scared, actually scared of you to act in your emotions. But my desire is that God would bring your dead soul to life. through his word. That's the hope. I don't have any hope in myself, but as I preach God's word, and you hear his word preaching, and we pray that his spirit will attend to his word in our hearts, I have all hope that exactly what we read in Isaiah is true. He will accomplish the work he sent it to do. It will prosper. I may not prosper, but he will. His word will. It's profitable for evangelizing. Let me ask you, which would make a sinner rejoice the more? telling them that God loves with a generic love, or telling them the truth, that if they can hear His Word, if they can really hear it in here, if God has opened the receivers of that heart up and allowed them, by His grace and His mercy, to hear His Word and believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and His salvation, let me tell you, God doesn't love you with a generic love. He loves you personally. He loved you before you were. He knew you and loved you. We read that in Matthew where He said, I never knew them. Guess what? He knew you. And He loved you personally. He knew you by name. He loved you so that He chose you in His Son and placed you in the care and in the charge of His Son, which is the best place in the cleft of the rock. He chose you unto salvation before the world ever was. That's what the Bible teaches. Which thrills the heart of a hopeless sinner more, one who is brought to the end of himself, I'm speaking about, telling them that the Lord Jesus Christ came to the earth and lived and died a generic death, or telling them the truth, that the Lord Jesus Christ, the Savior, came to this earth with you on His mind. With your name, as it were, engraved in His palms. He loved you and He lived for you in perfect righteousness. All His work had an appointment. And that appointment was for your salvation. He lived for you because you were completely unrighteous. He went to the cross for you and took your sins, your sins, upon Himself, took your judgment for your sins to Himself, and died your death that you would never die because He died it for you. Paid your debt. Listen, if the Spirit of God is speaking to you, if you're hearing this morning, if you're hearing what God's law says about your true condition, you realize that you're bankrupt by sin. Oh, which would thrill your heart more to know that once you may be living in bankruptcy by sin, that you have a Savior who came for you and paid your debt. It is finished, he said. It's paid in full. He did not fail, but he satisfied the Father on your account. He came to this earth. He did not come to this earth in vain. His blood was not shed in vain. It was not shed in the hopes of doing anything. It was shed with an appointment. And it was shed with people, persons in view. I tell you, the idea that that the work of the Lord is generic is just as wrong as the idea of salvation, the faith that the Lord gives man is generic. Both of them have people in mind, or a person in mind. When the Lord came to this earth, He had His people in His mind, in His heart, that the Father gave Him. And they were entrusted into His care. And He came and gave His life and gave His blood for them. And that faith that He gives us through the power of the Holy Spirit, it has one person in mind. If your hope this morning is not rooted in the Rock, the Lord Jesus Christ, that's not the faith that God gives. The faith that God gives is just like His Word. The sum and the substance of it is the Lord Jesus Christ and His Word. That's the faith that God gives. Which would make a sinner rejoice more that Christ went to the grave to take away your sin as long as you do your part, or the truth that the Lord Jesus Christ went to the grave And He took your sins to the wilderness of sin, to the abyss of death, and He left them there. And they are remembered against you no more. When God the Father looks at you, now today, through the Lord Jesus Christ, He sees you justified as if you never sinned. Because your sins were left by yonder. He cast them behind Him, separated them from you as far as the east is from the west. I want to tell you, It's pretty obvious to me, which makes me more rejoiced. To tell somebody that He made reconciliation, if you can do your part, that's no reconciliation at all. That's no atonement at all. Or to tell them that if the Spirit of God is speaking to you and opening His Word into your heart, that that atonement and that reconciliation was made in Christ Jesus for you personally. And it's real. We can cash all our hope in it. Every bit of it. Every desire, every hope that we have to be satisfied, to be righteous before God, and to be looked at in acceptance by God. We can cash all our hope in the reconciliation and the atonement that Christ made for us, that the Spirit of God has made that real to us. It's that kind of atonement, is what I'm telling you. It's that real. It's real. It's substance. It's not something that is if you can do your part. Because we can't do our part. Understand? I'm glad the Lord didn't give us a part to do. Because we would have never been able to do it. But He paid it all. He did it all. He designed it all. And He's brought it all to pass. And you know what that means? One day, He's going to get all the glory. And that's exactly But is that exactly the whole of the whole thing? The purpose of the whole thing? To the praise and the glory of our grace? No, His grace. His grace. Which would cause the sinner to rejoice more that Christ arose. Or that Christ arose for you. And He sits at the right hand of God the Father today for you. He makes intercession personally for you. He's your Advocate. He's not just a advocate, no. Brothers and sisters, he's my advocate. This morning, that accuser up there may accuse me, and he has a lot of things to accuse me of that are right. Oh, but my perfect advocate sits beside my right hand of his father. I said, no, Father, he's mine. He wouldn't have to tell him that. He knew it already. But in picture, you understand. He's mine. He's not guilty. He's justified. My blood paid. and washed his sin away. They're gone forever. No wonder the Bible says, Believe upon the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved. Cast yourself upon His mercy today by His grace. Why would we want to distort and confuse the perfect Word of God? Why would we want to distort and confuse God's perfect grace? God's perfect Son? Why would we want to distort and confuse God's perfect salvation? Because as we said, it gives God all the glory perfectly where it belongs. May the Lord give us, may He give us that to be our greatest desire. That our Holy Father receive all the honor and all the glory. Look what He has done for us wretched sinners. We're deserving of that place where this man is, you understand? Where he can't even get a drop of water to cool his tongue. That's our just deserves. If we deserve anything this morning, we deserve that. Because we sinned against the Holy Creator, the Lawmaker. But praise be to the glory of God's grace. He's chosen to redeem us from that. to save us from that, to remove us out of the line of His wrath and His judgment, and put us in line with His Son and all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Oh, what grace! What mercy that God has bestowed upon us who are so unworthy of His glorious love. Is there any message any better, any message any more urgent, any more needed, any more profitable than this message? Well, let us learn that Abraham here, in the very presence of God who gave us this word, didn't think so. He didn't think so. Brothers and sisters, why should we think so? The man here says, Oh, send somebody, but send Lazarus back from the dead. That'll stir them up. But Abraham said, what they really need is the word of God. That's the only hope for them. You see, he didn't think there was anything any more profitable for those five lost sinners than God's word. We need to learn a lesson from that. May God teach it to us. You want a miracle? We have one. 66 books of it. Miracle after miracle. Not only is it just a book, but this thing here lives. It is powerful. It brings life from that which is dead. We have a miracle. You want a program? Right there. life program for every situation that we find ourselves in. This book has something to teach us about that situation. This book has something to say about what God thinks about that situation and what way we are to walk in that situation. Is the Word of God enough? Yes. May God give us grace to believe it by faith, even this morning. To proclaim it boldly and to walk in it. Oh, that it might be a light and a path, a light and a lamp unto our feet. God's not called us to fill this building. God's not called us to save the masses. God's not called us to do that. God has called us to preach His word. He's called us to be faithful. to this book. In reality, He's called us to be faithful to His Son, our Savior, and speak of Him and His gospel as it really is. That is the most important obligation that we have. Do you understand that? As children of God and as His church, that is the outstanding obligation above all else. Preach the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, and as we do that, we glorify and magnify our Savior. When that happens, God the Father is all the more pleased and all the more glorified. May the Lord hold us to that path and keep us upon it for His great namesake. We praise the Lord for His Word. Let's all stand.