That's always a good reminder for me to sing that hymn just before I try to preach. It's what I want to do. It's what I want to do. I pray the Lord will enable us.

In Amos chapter 3, if you'd like to turn there with me in your Bibles. Amos chapter 3. I've titled this message Can't keep a secret. Can't keep a secret. You know what they say is if you want to keep something a secret, tell only one person and then kill them. We're not really good at keeping secrets, are we? There's a self-glorying and repeating something. I'm sure there's always that involved in when we don't keep a secret. Make us look better. Make us know something somebody else doesn't know.

In our text the Lord tells us that he has revealed to us a secret. and that unlike the secrets that we tell one another, he wants this secret, he wants it to be told from the rooftops. We're not to keep it to ourselves. Oh, that we would be as anxious to tell this secret as we often are in telling secrets we ought not to repeat.

Look at our text, Amos chapter three, Verse seven, surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets. The lion hath roared, who will not hear? The Lord hath spoken, who can but prophesy? The Lord has revealed his secret to his prophets. That's why I wanted to read that passage over there in Ephesians chapter 4. God has given to the church some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the edifying of the body of Christ until we all come together in the wholeness of that perfect man in heaven. We're to preach Christ, we're to declare this revelation that God has given to his church by his prophets.

Hebrews chapter one says that God, who at sundry times and in divers manners, spake unto thy fathers by the prophets in times past, hath now spoken unto us by the prophet, his son. The Lord Jesus Christ is the revelation of God. He's the fullness of the Godhead bodily, and he said that if you've seen me, you've seen the Father. All that we'll know about the glory of God, we will learn from and in the person of Christ. Come, learn of me. Learn of me.

Deuteronomy chapter 29, the scripture says, the secret things belong to the Lord our God. But those things that have been revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we might keep his word. Truth is that everything about God is secret to us. The natural man, the scripture says, receiveth not the things of the spirit. They are foolishness unto him. Neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. Everything about God is hidden. That's what this word secret means. Another word in the Bible speaks of the gospel and God's revelation as a mystery. It's a mystery. It can't be known naturally. It can't be known by a sinner who has not been given the spirit of God, has not been born again.

Nicodemus, except you be born of the spirit. You cannot see the kingdom of God. You cannot perceive of it. You can't have any understanding of it. Everything that we think we know about God in our natural state is nothing more than an idol that we have forged in the foundry of our own imagination. We can't know God. We come into this world spiritually dead, deaf, blind, and dumb. If we're to know anything about God, he must reveal it to us. And he only makes that revelation known to those whom he has given ears to hear his prophets. Let's read our text again. Surely the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants, the prophets. God must reveal the secret of who he is and what he's done to his prophets. They in turn reveal it to his people. And then he uses the analogy, the lion is roared, who will not hear? This revelation has not been made in a corner. And yet the unregenerate spiritually dead man can't hear the roaring of the lion. He can't hear the truth that God has revealed. Who can but prophesy? Who can but be the repeater and the declarer of this secret. All the truths of God must be revealed. Let's look at that.

1 Corinthians, I quoted one of the verses in this passage. Turn with me to 1 Corinthians 2. 1 Corinthians 2. Verse seven, but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery. This word mystery means hidden. It means that it's something that has to be revealed. It has to be uncovered. We can't discover it unless God uncovers it. We speak the wisdom of God and we know What that means, God has made him to be our wisdom. When we read of wisdom in the Proverbs, it's a description of Christ. It's the personification of wisdom is the person of the Lord Jesus. He is our wisdom. We speak of Christ. We speak of the wisdom of God, the knowledge of God, the understanding of who God is.

Among them, I'm sorry, in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom which God ordained before the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world knew, for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Had they known who he was, they wouldn't have crucified him. If a person is given the revelation of Christ, they're not gonna turn from him. They're gonna bow to him. But as it is written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him. Now you've heard me quote that verse several times referring to heaven. And the principle of that certainly applies to what we have in heaven. Eye has not seen, nor has ear heard, nor has it even begun to enter into the imagination. We know that we're going to see him as he is and be made like him. We know that we're going to be without sin and a glorified body. Perfect. That's not the context of this verse. That truth is, that principle is true.

But look at verse 10. But God hath revealed them unto us by his spirit. So when he says, I has not seen, nor his ear heard, nor is it in the imagination of man, he's talking about the natural man. The natural man's eyes cannot see Christ. The natural man's ears cannot hear the voice of God. The natural man's imagination cannot understand the secret, the mystery of the gospel. But God, but God has revealed them unto us by his spirit, for the spirit searcheth all the things, yea, the deep things of God. God has done nothing. that he hasn't revealed through his prophets. For what man knoweth the things of a man? Nobody knows what you're thinking. Nobody knows what I'm thinking. We don't know what's going on in the heart of a man. Good thing. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of the man which is in him, even so the things of God knoweth no man but the spirit of God. No man knows the heart of God except the spirit of God. In the same way that your spirit knows what you are thinking and what you're desiring and what you're wanting and what you, all your thoughts.

Verse 12. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world. We're not going to hang the hopes of our salvation and the understanding of our God on the opinions of the world, the opinions of man. We have received, not the spirit of the world. The world's got a lot of opinions about God. But the spirit which is of God, And it's the spirit of God that moved the hearts of these prophets to record the things that they recorded about God.

Holy men of God, the scripture says, wrote as they were moved by the Holy Spirit. The revelation that we have of God in his word is not man's opinion. It's not by private interpretation. God has given, this is God's word. This is where we look, this is where we hear, and this is where we have the mystery unveiled and the secret told. We've received not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God. Only by the Spirit of God and the Word of God can this secret be revealed.

And so, who can but prophesy? The lion hath roared, who has not heard? Who can but prophesy? Who can but tell these secrets to the world? Who can keep them quiet?

Verse 13, which things also we speak, not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth. We're not trying to explain these things with philosophy and human reason. We're not trying to defend them. We're just declaring them as they are revealed in scripture. And as the Holy Spirit is pleased to open the eyes of one's heart, then they will believe these things, too, because they've been revealed. Not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. And that's what we're doing right now. It's what we try to do every time we look to God's word, we compare scripture to scripture and we find that there's one theme that goes throughout all of scripture.

But the natural man, the unregenerate man, the man who is still dead in his trespasses and sins, the man who has not been born again or born of the Spirit. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him." I don't care about these things. I'd rather have some philosophical understanding of my life and who I am and what I'm supposed to be doing. And look at the next phrase, neither can he know them. He can't know them. And you remember in John chapter five, the Lord said, you will not hear my word. And in John chapter six, the Lord said, no man can come unto me except the father which draw him, which sent me draw him.

The reason why we can't come is because we will not come. It's not that we will not come because we can't. We can't because we will not. The Lord has to give us. You see, the gospel is not understood by a high IQ. The gospel is understood by I will. And I will not unless he makes me willing, unless he gives me his spirit and causes me to desire him. To want him, I can't come because I will not come. I will not come. Man talks about free will. The will's free to do anything it wants to do. As a matter of fact, you can't do something that you don't will to do. You say, wait a minute. Somebody puts a gun to my head for my wallet. Trust me, I've had that happen. The one thing that you will to do in that moment is to give them everything you've got. They just manipulated your will is all they did, but you didn't give them against your will. You can't act against your will. Everything you do is what you will to do. You cannot come because you will not come. And you will not come if you're left in your natural state. But in the prophesying of the gospel, in the declaring of Christ, God is pleased to make his people willing. He gives them faith. He causes them to come, not kicking and screaming. No, they willingly come, but he manipulates them. Yeah, he does, by giving them his spirit.

The natural man receiveth not, verse 14, the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. That's so simple. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things. That word judgeth means discerneth. The man, who's the spiritual man? The born again man. The spiritual man is not some person that's just walking in the clouds and experiencing some sort of, you know, no, it's the person who has the spirit of God.

The spiritual man, he discerns all things. By the spirit of God and by the word of God, he discerns that which is true from that which is false. He discerns that which is holy from that which is profane. Now his discernment may be slow, depending on how well he knows the scripture and how deceptive, but he may be tossed to and fro for a bit. with some error, but God will see to it that he'll be corrected. Yet he himself is judged of no man. In other words, it matters not to him what someone else thinks if he's on God's side. If God be for me, who can be against me? You judge me all you want. By the Spirit of God and by the Word of God, I've discerned that this is true. This is the revelation of the mystery. This is the secret that's been unveiled and revealed. And God's taught me. And if God's taught me, no man can unteach me.

If what I know I just learned from another man, then somebody else can teach me otherwise. But if what I know has been taught to me of God, and that's what the Lord said, they shall be all taught of God. If I've been taught of God, then it matters not what anybody else thinks. For who hath known the mind of the Lord? Now you remember this argument started with No man can know the thoughts of another man except the spirit that's within a man, and so it is with God, the Spirit of God. Now the Spirit of God is going to take the Word of God and reveal the truth to the hearts of God's people. And so he concludes this whole thing. Who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? We have the mind of Christ. That's the new birth. Christ in you, who is your hope of glory. the spirit of Christ who is our teacher.

Can't keep a secret. No, not this one. Not this one. You know the contrast I was saying earlier that when we that when we tell secrets we ought not to tell, there's always some sort of self-promotion involved in that, self-glory involved in that. When we declare this secret, it's all to His glory. He gets all, is there any greater testimony of our depravity than we would be anxious to tell a secret we ought not to tell for our own glory and be and be slow in telling the one secret that gives to God all the glory? What sinners we are.

Surely the Lord God will do nothing. The secret things belong to the Lord. Everything that God has about himself is secret. But those things which have been revealed belong to us and to our children forever. Why? That we might keep God's word. We might believe it, that we might hide God's word in our hearts and in this dark world. And from our old darkened imagination, The light of the gospel has shined in our hearts in the face of the Lord Jesus Christ. The secret, the secret has been made known. Who can but prophesy? Who can but tell the secret? Tell the old, old story, Tom. We sang that just a moment ago.

What is there about the gospel that's a secret? What is there about the gospel that the natural man cannot understand? He cannot see, he cannot believe it, he cannot bow to it. Well, let's just take the five points. Let's just take the five points.

Total depravity. That's a mystery to the natural man. The natural man doesn't believe himself to be totally depraved. Oh, most unbelievers would concede that they have committed sins in their life. And the religious unbelievers would say, well, Jesus died for my sins. And in that they think that he died in order to take care of the bad things they did. But to see themselves as a sinner, to believe that everything about them, everything about them, falls short of the glory of God? That every thought and imagination of the heart is only evil, and that continually, to be able to say with Job, behold, I am vile?

You see, these things only come when the revelation of Christ is made. In every case, Isaiah, I saw the Lord. high and lifted up. The seraphim were hovering over his throne and they were crying, holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts. With two wings they covered their eyes because his glory was such that they could not look upon him. With two wings they covered their feet because their feet represents that they are creatures. We have feet of clay because we are created. He's the creator and we have to hide our creatureness in the presence of the glory of the creator who is uncreated? And with two they did fly. Oh, what could they do to serve their Lord? These are the cherubim. These are the ones who never sinned.

What did Isaiah say first thing out of his mouth? Woe is me. Woe is me. Look, I've looked upon my eyes. I've looked upon the king. What would the king have to do with such a dead dog as me? When God spoke to Job, God said, who is this that darkens my counsel without knowledge? Job, brace yourself like a man, I'm gonna ask you a few questions. And they were all rhetorical questions, much like we have here in Amos chapter three. The answers of the questions were clear.

Job, where were you when I separated the land from the sea? Where were you when I cast the stars into the sky? Come on, Job. You're blaming me of wrongdoing, but, and God, what is God doing? He's revealing himself to Job. Behold, I see something I never saw before. I am by. You see, this is a mystery. This is a secret. This is something that the natural man cannot perceive of, because he's never seen Christ. That's why we preach Christ and him crucified, because when he's lifted up, what did the Lord Jesus say? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up. And I, if I be lifted up, would draw all men to me."

Why was the Lord Jesus represented by a brazen serpent? Well, the serpent is a picture of sin and Satan and all the evil that brings about death. And when the Lord Jesus went to the cross, God made him who knew no sin to be sin for us that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. Does a natural man see that? See that he's just fully sin and that Christ became sin for him? No. The gospel is a secret. It's not the message that the world's telling. Listen to Franklin Graham on the TV yesterday. He popped up on a commercial. Just pray this prayer and everything will be good.

Now, the gospel is a mystery. The natural man does not believe himself to be dead in his trespasses and sins. He believes that he has the ability to make the right choice. He believes he has free will. He believes he has maintained at least some faithfulness to the law, that he's been able to keep at least part of it.

or a dying man say one time, I've never been unfaithful to my wife and I've never killed anybody. And that's gonna get me in, you see, that's the way a natural man thinks, isn't it? The gospel is a mystery. And when this mystery is revealed and when this secret is told and believed, the child of God knows that apart from Christ, it doesn't matter what they've done or haven't done, they are deserving of hell. They're deserving of hell.

Natural man doesn't believe that. He can't believe it. The natural man cannot believe and does not believe that God is absolutely sovereign. Oh, they'll say he's sovereign in... The religious will say he's sovereign in providence, although they don't believe that. They'll say he's sovereign in creation, but not in salvation. That God elected a people before the foundation of the world according to his own will and purpose? That he just arbitrarily chose by his own will His own purpose, his own heart, who he would save, and elected them?

Someone says, my God's too loving to be like that. My God's too powerful, he's too sovereign, and he's too holy not to be like that. See, this is the secret of the gospel, every part of the gospel. from total depravity to unconditional election, unconditional. God didn't look and see who he would pick. No, matter of fact, I mean, based on their righteousness.

The mystery of the gospel is seen most pointedly at the cross. The natural man, the religious man, the unregenerate man can't understand what really happened at Calvary's cross. He can't understand that God the Son was making himself an offering for the sins of his people to his heavenly father and that he actually redeemed them. He actually accomplished their salvation. He actually did every, he actually finished the work. He actually finished it, it was all done, right there, nothing more to be done.

No, natural man thinks that God loves everybody, Christ died for everybody, God wants everybody to be saved. He's just making you an offer, you gotta accept it or reject it. God will do nothing except he reveals it unto his prophets. This is the message that he's revealed to his prophets. This is the message of the Bible. The lion has roared. Who can not hear it? Who can but prophesy?

Who can but tell this story? Tell me the old, old story again and again. I'm so prone to forget it. Tell it to me slowly. Tell it to me softly. When you have reason to fear that the things of this world are becoming too dear to me, tell me the old story.

I got an email this week. I haven't responded to it yet. Someone in Venezuela, someone in Venezuela, wanting me to tell them how to preach the believer's responsibility in life. And I'm working on trying to figure out that. We preach Christ.

The natural man thinks that the destiny of one's life in death is determined by how they live. The destiny of one's death is determined by how they live. We know that the hope that we have in death determines how we live see the difference you can't and so what do we have to just keep hearing the gospel up here in the gospel there's nothing more practical than the gospel as far as our daily responsibilities and our daily walk but the natural man can't see it why he just They that are of the flesh, they do mind the things of the flesh. They that are of the spirit, things of the spirit. We look upon those things which are not seen. The things which are not seen are spiritual. Spiritual. This is the secret that God has revealed to his prophets. This is the message that we've been mandated and motivated to preach.

Total depravity, that's a secret, that's a mystery. Unconditional election, that's a secret, that's a mystery. Limited atonement, that's an irresistible grace. Irresistible? Don't I have a choice in this thing? Not when the Spirit of God gives you a new heart. No, you're going to come willingly, but it's going to be irresistible. Aren't you thankful that it is? If it was any other way, we wouldn't come. We wouldn't come.

Well, you know, a person can be saved and they can just do something bad enough to where they could, you know, they could be lost again. No, they can't. Is once saved, always saved, true? Depends on who saves you. Depends on who saves you. If God saves you, yeah. He will present you faultless before the throne of his glory with great joy. I'll never leave you nor forsake you.

" Now, how a man lives his life is directed by the hope that he has in death. One more great mystery in our text. Turn back with me to Amos 3, if you will. And everything about the gospel declares our God as being the first cause of all things. Salvation is of the Lord. It's the Lord that makes us to believe that we're sinners. It's the Lord that elected us. It's the Lord that redeemed us. It's the Lord, it's the Holy Spirit that regenerates us irresistibly. It's the Lord that keeps us. He's the first cause of all things. And does he use secondary causes? Certainly he does. He uses the fellowship of the saints. As we said before, these parts of the body that are growing together. And oftentimes with children, there are growing pains, aren't there? When they go through a growth spurt, they may have aches in their joints, because they're growing a little fast. And how many times there's growing pains in the church of the Lord Jesus Christ, and we rub each other the wrong way sometimes. Or one may grow in a way different than the other when next to them is growing, and oh, don't, Don't forsake the body of Christ because of growing pains. That's part of the process of growing up, isn't it?

Are gods the first cause? This is a mystery to the unbeliever. The unbeliever can only see secondary causes. You know, God used the preaching of the gospel. He uses his word. He uses his Holy Spirit. He uses our experiences. Look at verse six. And there, as I said earlier, there's a bunch of rhetorical questions. with obvious answers. Verse six, shall a trumpet be blown in the city and the people be not afraid? Now the trumpet, the watchman on the watchtower is blowing the trumpet to say that the enemy is coming. The enemy is coming. And everybody in the city hears that sound and they understand what's being said and they prepare themselves for battle. And the prophets and the preachers are likened unto watchmen on the tower, warning the people of the impending doom that's coming. And it is coming. Judgment's coming. Shall they not be afraid? Yeah, we fear God, don't we? We do. Believers fear God. Yeah, but not a slavish fear that would cause us like Adam to hide from God in the garden. No, it's a worshipful fear. It's one that causes us to flee to him and to fall at his feet and to bow to him, to want to honor him. And most importantly, it's the fear of the thought of ever standing in the presence of God Almighty without having Christ as my advocate. That's the greatest fear of all. And that just keeps driving me back to Christ.

Look at the next part of this. Shall there be evil in the city, and the Lord hath not done it? Now, I preached a message from this text the Sunday after September the 11th, 2001. And I believed it then, and I believe it now. Were there a lot of secondary causes in that horrific event that took place on 9-11? Certainly there were. But was the Lord not the first cause? Has he done anything without revealing his purpose to his prophets? You say, why? I can't bow to a God like that. Well, it's the God who is. He's sovereign. Everything he does, he does on purpose. And here's the good news. Believer, he works all things together for good, for them that love him and those that are the called according to his purpose.

David understood some of that when David's son Absalom had taken his throne and David was forced to leave Jerusalem in shame. And there was a man by the name of Shimei that was casting stones and hurling curses at King David. And Abishai, King David's swordsman said, let me go over and take his head off. And Abishai could have taken his head off and been done with it. And David said this, let him curse. The Lord has told him to curse me. I am suffering the rebellion of my own son. What is, what is his cursing? The Lord told him to curse me.

When Samuel When God spoke to Samuel and told him about the judgment that God was going to bring on Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas, and the judgment of God, and Eli heard this revelation that God had given to the prophet, and Eli said, it's the Lord. It's the Lord. Let him do whatever to him, see it bright. all the horrors that Job went through there in Job chapter one. And he concludes by saying, naked I came into this world and naked I shall depart. The Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. And in all this, he blamed on God. Later on, his faith would falter and he would begin to question God after listening to his miserable comforters. But God would correct him. God would correct him. God would bring him back at the end to the same place he was in chapter one. It's the Lord.

The natural man doesn't believe that. Doesn't believe that God is the first cause of everything in their life. Child of God, all the sorrows, all the troubles. We sang this in the hymn before I came up here to preach. These sorrows, these These seas that we go through, the way of the Lord is through the seas. But never been a believer drowned in those seas. God brings them through.

Let's pray. Our heavenly Father, thank you. for revealing your secrets to your prophets. Lord, might we be faithful in prophesying what has been loudly roared by the lion, the lion of the tribe of Judah. Lord, you have clearly revealed your secrets. Lord, that we might believe them. and we might be faithful to declare them. We ask it in Christ's name. Amen.

3 26. Let's stand together.