The Insufficiency Of Signs

Amen.

The Reading of Luke 16:27-31

Please turn to Luke 16. We will continue with the very end of the rich man, Lazarus. We will read the whole of this passage, though we will be focused specifically on verse 27 until the end. When you have that, please stand for the reading of God's Word.

There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen, who feasted sumptuously every.

Day.

And down his gate was laid a poor man named Lazarus, covered with sores, who desired to be fed with what fell from the rich man's table. Moreover, even the dogs came and licked his sores. The poor man died and was carried by the angels to Abraham's side.

The rich man also died and was buried. And in Hades, being in torment, he lifted up his eyes and saw Abraham far off, and Lazarus at his side. And he called out, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus to dip the end of his finger in water and cool my tongue, for I am in anguish in this flame.

But Abraham said, Child, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, and Lazarus and like man are bad things. But now he is comforted here, and you are in anguish. And besides all this, between us and you, a great chasm has been fixed in order that those who would pass from here to you may not be able, and none may cross from there.

To us.

And he said, Then I beg you, Father, send him to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment. But Abraham said, They have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.

And he said, No, Father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. And he said to him, If they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

Amen.

You may be seated.

The Sufficiency of God's Word to Enlighten the Eyes

Dear Heavenly Father, we come to you again thanking you for your Word, and we ask that it would be made clear to us, particularly this interaction between Abraham and the rich.

Man.

We ask that you would disclose to us your wisdom that is found here in your Word, that we would not be hearers of it, but doers of it, that we would not just gloss over these words, but that we would fully understand and embrace them.

In Jesus' name, amen. Many people desire a sign from God. This is true of unbelievers. Many unbelievers believe that if God would just give them a sign, then they could believe. And they look, and they look for evidence, and they don't find it, and they say, If God would just give me a sign, then I would believe.

Many believers are looking for signs as well. They imagine that if God made His will more clear to them in a miraculous way, then they would be able to follow Him more closely. But what this passage teaches us is that this is a foolish way of thinking about God's revelation to us, that some mode like that that appears more powerful would actually be more powerful and would be more effective to the enlightening of the soul, to have the sensibility of the spirit to know what is good and evil.

Instead what He says is that His Word is sufficient. His Word is sufficient, and it is sufficient for you today. Today there is nothing more important than that your soul be made sensible to the things of God, to those truths which tell you what is evil, to know your poverty and your need for a Savior, and likewise to know the goodness of the Savior.

People are inherently dull and unenlightened to be able to sense these things, to know these truths, and it is not by signs that God has chosen to make these things known, but it is rather by the power of His Word.

As unpowerful, as foolish as it may seem, He operates by the power of His Word. And so if you want your mind to be enlightened, if you want your soul to have the senses to know good and evil, you will not go to signs, you will go to His Word.

And this is what the rich man asks for from Abraham, for his brothers to be enlightened about these things, and Abraham responds that Scripture is sufficient. So let us begin by looking at the rich man's request.

The rich man says in verse 27, once he realizes that he is not able to return himself, and he said, then I beg you, Father, to send him, that is Lazarus, to my father's house, for I have five brothers, so that he may warn them, lest they also come into this place of torment.

So the man desires for his brothers to be saved. If he does not have any hope, perhaps his brothers can have hope, perhaps a Lazarus, if he cannot go to the rich man over in Hades where he is being tormented, perhaps Lazarus can go to his brothers and spare his brothers from this awful place.

He believes this sign, this great sign, especially of a resurrection, will be enough to persuade his brothers. Now before looking at that too deeply, there is a question that arises here, and even a question that I got last week, which is why, if this man, who has really been cast into hell, is unrepentant, if he is not one who has been granted a state of regeneration, he has not had his mind transformed to be like the mind of Christ, why is it that he would care about his brothers?

Well I can offer you three things on this point. The first is that this is even how totally depraved men in this world feel, right? Even men whose minds have not been transformed into the mind of Christ care about their own personal family.

So this is not out of the realm of what someone who has not been transformed to be like Christ would think. And while it will be the case, as I explained last week, that as people are given over in this state of torment, that they more and more will suffer for the consequences of their sin as they build up more and more anger, and thus they will more and more experience the corruption of their own souls.

This man, having just been translated to this new state, there is no reason to doubt that he would have very similar concerns to those that he, as a totally depraved man in this life, might even have.

The second point that I would mention here is that he is still thinking in a very selfish.

Way.

He does not care for Lazarus, and this was, though scripture is not very explicit about the nature of the man's sin, it seems very evident that it has something to do with his lack of generosity toward Lazarus.

And here he still has no care for Lazarus. He wants Lazarus to go from his place of comfort to him, in his place of torment, in order to comfort him. And now that he knows that's not possible, he wants Lazarus to go back to where he had no comfort, back to the land of the living.

And this is contrary to what Christ has required in the context of this discourse. Earlier, and this is in the same discourse, even though it's two chapters earlier, Jesus said in Luke 15, 6, in the course of describing a parable, And the master said to the servant, Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled.

For I tell you, none of those men who are invited shall taste my banquet. And so what is this man doing? He is asking for more of those who are invited to be able to come in. Is he going to the highways and hedges?

Does he care for those who he did not care for in this life?

No.

In fact, he continues in the exact same pattern that he had continued in before. This does not represent the selflessness that it might initially seem to represent. And moreover, and I think this is most critical, is what is he really trying to do by making this request?

Is this not an attempt at self-justification? Jesus had said just moments before in Luke 16, 15,. And he said to them, You are those who justify yourselves before men, but God knows your.

Heart.

For what is exalted among men is an abomination in the sight of God. Is this man not trying to justify himself in some way to say, My own brothers, they will listen if they see a sign. Does this not suggest that even he would listen if he had saw a sign?

And so in many ways, this is an attempt at self-justification. He has not learned the lesson here. The lesson being that he has a heart that does not truly submit to the Lord. What is a sign going to do to cause someone to submit to the Lord?

One who sees a sign whose heart is not a submissive heart will continue rejecting. Even if they see the sign, they will reject the truth that the sign represents. And so none of this speaks to some newfound selflessness of the man, but rather speaks to how men might think about their own state and their own rationality that if they just saw the right kind of evidence, if they just saw the right kind of sign, they would come and then they would submit unto the Lord.

But really, it is only those who submit to the Lord that are able to interpret the signs as they ought. In fact, isn't this what the rich man is guilty of all along, that he has been interpreting his own condition as a sign of his right standing with God?

He has interpreted Lazarus's condition as a sign of Lazarus's poor standing with God. He's failed to interpret signs already. He is incapable of interpreting these things apart from submitting to the authority of.

God.

And so what is needed here for his brothers, for those that would still be in the land of the living, is particularly a sensibility, a sensibility to their own poverty and a sensibility to God's goodness.

Now maybe you have looked on your past and you have some kind of misspent youth or you know someone who has a misspent youth and they wish they could go back and they could tell their former self, you really got to care about these things, you really got to value these things, you are very dull and senseless to these truths and these realities.

But I'm telling you now, as someone who can sense these things, these things are important. Well this is what, this is what is needed, is a sensibility, first a sensibility to your own poverty, to your own poverty.

That is to your sin. The rich man, like the Pharisees, does not see himself as one who has failed to keep up God's law. Jesus has spoken of them doing abominations, rather he sees himself as one who has followed God's law sufficiently well that he is right in God's eyes.

He thinks that by his own law keeping, he has achieved that status which is needed. But the reality is that no one can achieve that status by law keeping. In fact the point of God's law is not to make us feel good about ourselves when we, when we follow it, but in part it is to be a mirror in order that we can see who we truly are and see our deep, deep poverty and our need for a savior.

Now the second half of this that is needed, the sensibility, is a sensibility to the riches of God. So that as we hear God's word, as we learn of the mercies of Christ, that these things not just be intellectual truths, but that they be things that really do seem to us as wonderful and deep and rich.

And this is very, very difficult for those who are rich to do. For those who have material wealth, they have a difficult time feeling their spiritual poverty. For those who are materially wealthy, they have a difficult time sensing the goodness of the riches of Christ.

If you have riches in this life, if you have comfort in this life, it is very difficult to sense either of these things because you feel as though you have no poverty. You feel as though your riches are good enough.

But the reality is that you are deeply, deeply impoverished apart from Christ. You have a great need because of your sin against Him and your transgressions. And there is a great riches that is, these riches are far more valuable than anything that you can have in this life.

And unless you release those riches that you have in this life, recognizing them as fundamentally worthless as they are temporary, you will not be able to sense the goodness of the riches.

Of the next.

Those riches that are found in Christ Himself. And let me tell you, you are a rich people. You are a very rich people. This is a rich area. This is one of the richest areas in the entire world in one of the richest times, well, the richest time in all of history.

And so this is especially true of all the people in all the lands, in all the times. This especially applies to you. That there is a dullness that is created by the riches that you experience, by the modern conveniences and comforts that you experience that keep you from sensing your own poverty and sensing the riches of Christ.

Now one day, that callous around the heart that keeps people from sensing these things, it keeps people from sensing their own poverty and the riches of Christ will be ripped away. Those who go off to this land of Hades, it will be ripped away and made bare.

And if you imagine, you know, a workman who's got calloused hands and he doesn't feel his need for gloves because he can't feel anything anyway. He's got calloused hands. You imagine ripping those callouses away and then his skin is all raw and bare and then everything hurts.

These things will be taken away so that those who have gone off to Hades, they will sense their poverty, but they will not sense any of the goodness of Christ because it will not be made available for them.

And so many think that by some sign they would be able to sense these things. By some sign they would, but is that really the case? There is a very old song, and by very old I mean, you know, close to, I'm not sure what era, but think like middle English old, called Lazarus and Diverus, Diverus being the, I mentioned last week, this is a traditional name for the rich man, Lazarus and Diverus, where the rich man says, oh was I now but alive again, the space of one half hour.

Oh that I had my peace secure, then the devil should have no power. It's very common for people to think that they are rational enough, that if they just had a moment of this, then they would have all these senses that they need.

But the reality is, this is simply not so. And this is how Abraham responds. He says, in verse 29, but Abraham said, they have Moses and the prophets. Let them hear them. And he said, no father Abraham, he said, no father Abraham, but if someone go to them from the dead, they will repent.

So Abraham speaks and talks about the sufficiency of scripture. Moses and the prophets, referring to the Old Testament books, Moses being the first five books, the prophets being the books that come after, he speaks of the sufficiency of scripture.

Now when we're speaking of something that is sufficient, what are we speaking of? Sufficient for what? In different contexts when we talk about the sufficiency of scripture, we might be talking about it as a rule of righteousness.

We might be talking about it as sufficient for saving knowledge, faith, and obedience. But here, what I'm specifically talking about it's sufficient for, it's sufficient for opening the eyes, sufficient for opening the eyes.

And how?

Not on its own. If someone were to suggest that scripture on its own is sufficient for opening the eyes, they'll be very disappointed when they find out that many who have heard the scriptures have not had their eyes open.

And so it is not sufficient on its own in that sense, but rather it is a sufficient means used by the Spirit of God to open eyes, to give them that spiritual sensibility. Earlier on, it had said in Luke 10, 21, in that same hour, see, this is all coming in context, you know, this narrative in Luke 17 is coming in context after Luke 10 where Jesus had explained how it is that people have wisdom revealed to them.

In that same hour, He rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. So God has chosen by His wisdom to reveal things to little children and that they be hidden from the wise and understanding. And so it is the, He's, Jesus is praying in the Holy Spirit, the one who is doing that opening of eyes.

So what is scripture sufficient as? It is sufficient as a means for the Spirit. What means does the Spirit use? He uses scripture in order to open people's eyes. And so this rich man, and so Abraham had responded, they have Moses and the prophets, let them hear them.

Let them hear the scriptures. Let them hear the goodness of the Word of God. This is, this is a sufficient word. And if you consider what the Bible says about the law of God and it being capable of opening the eyes and revitalizing the soul, Psalm 19, 7 says, the law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.

The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, enlightening the eyes. You hear all those things?

Reviving the soul, making wise the simple, rejoicing the heart, enlightening the eyes. This is like a rough, hard ground that has water poured on it that suddenly becomes soft and life comes from it as the plants grow up.

The Word of God is that means that the Spirit uses to bring life to people so that they have the sensibility, the sensibility to their own poverty and to, and to the riches of Christ. And this comes about in both the law and the gospel.

Consider Romans 7, 7, which says, what shall we say then, that the law is sin? By no means. Yet if it had not been for the law, I would not have known sin, for I would not have known what it is to covet.

If the law had not said, you shall not covet. So in other words, it is through the law that Paul understood his own poverty, it's through the law that he understood the covetousness of his own heart. He might already know that it's, you know, people in the world generally know that it's wrong to murder, they generally know that it's wrong to steal and to lie.

These things are very common in societies. But the law pierces into the man and exposes him and reveals that these things go much deeper than external, they go all the way to the heart. And so Paul, focusing in on the seventh, excuse me, on the 10th commandment, the do not covet, says that his heart is exposed and otherwise he would not have known.

It is through the law that these things are made manifest. And then, this is true of the gospel as well, yes, we know of our own poverty through hearing the law, but then we also know of the riches of Christ through hearing the gospel.

And by the gospel, I'm not just referring to the New Testament, I'm referring to all the passages which speak of Christ, all of Scripture. Luke 24, 27, later on, Luke is going to record this, what Jesus did.

And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, remember this is what Abraham is speaking to the rich man of, Moses and the prophets, beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he interpreted them and all the Scriptures, the things concerning himself.

Moses and the prophets are not just useful for opening the eyes to get a sense of your own poverty through the law of God, but opening your eyes to get a sense of your own, of the riches of Christ in order that you might value them more than any of the comforts that you have in this life.

And so it is important to go to Scripture and to love that Scripture. So many people want extra revelation, so many people desire God to speak to them, they do not feel that His word is enough, they want more to tell them about how to live their life, what job to take, what decisions to make, things like that.

Well, I do admit that would be convenient. God is under no obligation to give such things, not just because He is God and we are creatures, but also because He has already given us a word that is sufficient to answer these things, that is sufficient to open the eyes, to be spiritually sensible to His law, to know our need, our lack, to know His riches, to seek His wisdom.

He gives that wisdom immeasurably through His word already. And so those who desire more and more of God's revelation, not realizing that His revelation here is sufficient, what is the cure for that? Go to the word of God and satisfy yourself with it.

You will continue to feel like a hungry man so long as you do not eat. You'll continue to complain about how you do not have enough food so long as you do not eat. And likewise, you will continue complaining about needing more of God's wisdom and revelation the less of it you consume and take advantage of.

It is through experiencing this wisdom, it's through drinking in this wisdom that you can satisfy the soul so that you don't desire more than what is right, more than what God has given. And once again, this is so important because of the condition we find ourselves in as very rich people, very rich people who have our senses dull to these truths.

Jesus will later say in Luke, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God. So who can be saved? Who can be saved? If a rich person can't do it, who can?

The answer is with man, things are impossible, but with God, all things are possible. What is the means He uses? He uses the Scriptures. Now the rich man retorts, and the rich man, maybe he acknowledges that Scriptures are sufficient, that they are a means that the Spirit might use to open one's eyes, but he offers an alternative.

And he said in verse 30, no father Abraham, but if someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. If someone goes to them from the dead, they will repent. If this sign happens, this great sign of a resurrection, they will repent.

Then they will become spiritually sensible.

Then they will know.

Perhaps the Spirit will use this sign to convert them, to open their eyes. He said to him, if they do not hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be convinced if someone should rise from the dead.

So it is not the case, it is not the case that signs are means used by the Holy Spirit. Many people imagine that if they could just see that, then they would believe, but the reality is that the Spirit does not use this.

There are many people who witnessed the resurrection. There are many people who witnessed even, not this Lazarus, but the other one that Scripture speaks of, rise from the dead, and they continued hating Jesus for it.

In fact, Jesus has risen from the dead, and though there is much, much evidence of this, people still reject the truth, because they have still rejected the authority of God. If they will not receive His word on His authority, why would they receive His signs on His authority?

This is simply, in many ways, this is simply obvious. Believing in the sign does not mean believing in the thing signified. There are many people who take communion, who believe the sign here, you know, we've got bread and wine, but they don't believe in the thing signified.

They don't actually trust in Christ, and so it is of no benefit for them. They may believe in the waters of baptism, but unless they believe in the purification that's bought by Christ and our identification with Him in His death, burial, and resurrection, is it of any benefit to them?

Believing in the sign does not mean believing in the thing signified. It is, in many ways, manifestly evident that the sign itself is not sufficient to convert the soul, to convert the mind, to be made like the mind of Christ.

And so this is, this is something that is foolishness. For Jews demand signs, and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Greeks. Many people seek for signs.

They think that signs are powerful, that signs will change them, but they will not. And so consider the folly of several ways that people go about thinking about signs. First of all, many people engage in, well, let's start off with atheists, right?

Many atheists will ask God for a sign and say, well, if you would just show me a sign, I would believe. You would not. If you are, if you are here today, friend, and you do not know the Lord Jesus, and you're in that position, you would not.

You would not believe. In fact, the Bible claims, and it is true, that you have manifest evidence. The heavens themselves declare the glory of God, and you have not responded to that. If the heavens themselves are declaring, if God's creation, the heaven and earth is declaring this and you've not responded, why would a resurrection from the dead or anything like that?

If you've ever discussed the matter with a flat earther, you'll see how they respond,.

Right?

You say, oh, well, what about these photos? And they'll say, oh, well, those were just made up. Or what about, you know, what about the fact that something on the horizon, the bottom disappears first, rather than the top of it?

They'll say, oh, that's just the diffraction of the light. You say, well, what about the fact that magnets, you know, are bipolar and, you know, our earth is magnetic? They say, oh, well, it's actually a radial magnet.

You know, there's just always, there's always a way around this. There's always a way around it. The same is true with any sign. It doesn't matter. If someone is convinced in their mind that they have an authority that is themselves, that is higher than God, they will continue rejecting every sign that He gives them.

And so the issue is not that you have not had enough evidence. The issue is the hardness, the callousness of your own heart that can only be satisfied by the working of the Spirit with His Word, because that is the means that He has chosen.

Now also, there's a great following in the believer who wants to convince his unbelieving friend by pointing to these signs. You look at a lot of books that are about the resurrection, now I think it is a wonderful thing to look at all the demonstrations of the resurrection and to know that as believers we have ample evidence that the resurrection did actually occur.

But let me tell you, even if you believe that the resurrection existed, why does that mean that Jesus is God? How is that any actual proof of who He claimed to be unless you submit to His Word that marries these two things together, that marries together the sign and the thing signified?

If you reject that, if you divorce those two, it can mean anything you want it to mean. It can just mean that, wow, I guess there are some wild things that happen with dead bodies that I didn't realize before.

It doesn't have to mean anything to you. So if you are going to persuade your friend about the truth of the gospel, know that you cannot rely on your own wisdom, you cannot rely on just simple facts of history, those might be useful to present at one time or another, but the only way that their heart will be transformed is through the working of the Spirit in their heart, and He has chosen that He works through Scripture.

So proclaim the Word of God to those who you wish to see saved. There's also a great folly in the charismatic movement that would look for signs. You know, I myself grew up Pentecostal, I remember people frequently looking to God for signs for all kinds of things and to think that this was power.

You know, this is real, real Holy Spirit power here when we've got a sign. Now certainly, the Spirit does work miracles. He does act powerfully in that way, but to desire signs at the expense of His Word, or to desire signs when He has given us sufficient Word, is to denigrate the power of His Word and make something else more powerful.

And remember what I just quoted a minute ago, the Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, that is the Word of God, a stumbling block to Jews and a folly to Gentiles, something that people don't consider powerful, but is that which has the greatest power, because it is what, nothing has its own, you know, inherent power apart from God, and this is what God chooses to work powerfully by, is His Word.

And I would also add this, there's another, there's another movement within Christianity that desires to simplify the faith, to remove all the doctrines that are hard to believe, all the truths that are hard to believe, and just focus it on the resurrection.

You know, if the resurrection really is at the center of the faith, then let's just talk about that, let's not get bogged down in anything else, and all the rest will come naturally. That is equally foolish.

All of God's Word is God-breathed, is useful for teaching, for correction, for reproof, for training in righteousness, the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good.

Work.

And so if this is the case, that the Word of God is sufficient, signs are insufficient for enlightening the eyes, meaning the Holy Spirit has chosen not to use those signs, and the implication here seems to be not just that signs are insufficient, but there really is no other sufficient thing.

It really is just Scripture. The Holy Spirit only works to enlighten people's eyes through Scripture, though there might be other things that come into play that He may use, but in particular, He has chosen to glorify Himself through working with Scripture in people's hearts.

What does that mean? Scripture is not just sufficient, it is necessary, it is necessary for the enlightening of the.

Eyes.

If one hears the Scripture and the Spirit uses that Word in the person's heart to minister to them, they will repent, and then the other way around. If they have repented, why was it? It wasn't on the basis of some natural empirical proof.

If it was a real conversion, one that lasts, one that really means a transforming of the heart, a transforming of the mind to have the mind of Christ, it is one that has come.

Through Scripture.

Now why is it this way? Why is it this way that God has only chosen Scripture? Is this just some arbitrary choice where He has chosen, you know, He could choose a lot of different things. God has freedom.

He could do anything He wants. Why has He chosen only Scripture? In order to make Himself known in this way, in order to enlighten the mind about one's own poverty, in order to enlighten one about the riches of Christ, it is because this is the way that God is most glorified.

What does the rich man think? The rich man thinks that by his own rationality, by his own or his brother's own rationality, that they would see this sign and that would be enough for them because they haven't seen enough with Scripture.

They need this. They need the sign. And so what would signs do if God chose to work through signs in addition to Scripture or rather than Scripture? That would glorify man as being a rational being who's, he really hasn't seen enough evidence here.

And now that God has shown him enough evidence, ah, yes, now I believe. But no, God has chosen to glorify Himself in only working through Scripture so that we cannot say that, yes, we won that argument and we proved this truth and now that person believes.

But rather that it is only through the power of the Spirit, it is not our battle but it is the Lord's battle. He has fought it. He is the only one who is mighty enough to accomplish it and we get no glory.

Not us who are proclaiming the Word, not the ones who receive the Word and have judged it in their own hearts, but rather in submitting to it, in being judged by that Word, God is the one who is glorified.

And so this is, this is the Lord's purpose in making Himself known only by the power.

Of Scripture.

And this applies to other things as well. You know, people don't just look for signs. You know, we read this passage, Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, wisdom. How many people try to do that same thing with apologetics where they're, where they're trying to argue for God on the basis of philosophy?