Seeking for the help of the Lord,
I direct your prayer for attention to the chapter that we read,
Deuteronomy chapter 29, and reading from our text, the last verse,
verse 29. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us and to our children forever. that we may do all the words
of this law. Deuteronomy chapter 29 and verse
29. The children of Israel here are
at the end of their 40 years journey in the wilderness. They are at the borders of Canaan. And Moses is rehearsing the works
of the Lord and going back over the way that they have been,
the laws that they have been given. And in the first verse
that we have in this chapter, there's a distinction between
the covenant or agreement that was made at Horeb, that is Mount
Sinai, that is the Ten Commandments, and the covenant that was being
made with Israel here, just before they come into the Promised Land. Those things that they were to
beware of and to do, where they didn't do them, the curses that
would come upon them, where they did and the blessings that would
come upon them. And so in this covenant is agreement
really between God and his people. And there's also a foretelling
of what would happen in latter days. And certainly it's almost
written in, it's written on what the other nations shall say. And you can't help but thinking
of the time When the temple of Solomon's temple was destroyed,
they were carried away into Babylon and other nations would say,
why is this? And men shall answer and say,
because they did not keep this covenant. They did not keep the
word of the Lord and so the Lord did to them exactly what he said
he would do to them. And so even in this chapter there
is a indication God has his plans and his purposes, he has given
them the law, he's given them a covenant, but the children
of Israel are not to be prying into the future and thinking,
well, God's already intimating these things might happen and
we might be carried away in captivity, so it doesn't matter anyway,
we'll just live as we like. No, We are told, and in the words
of our texts, that whatever plans or secret things God has in store,
that belongs to God. The covenant, the agreement,
the will of the Lord, that belongs to us and we should obey and
do that, that will. Another interesting thing in
the beginning of this chapter is that Moses, refers to the
great things in verses 3 and 4, or 2, 3 and 4, the great things
that their eyes had seen. And of course some of them wouldn't
have seen them, they would have been born in the wilderness.
But those great signs in Egypt with Pharaoh, the bringing through
the Red Sea, There are many miracles in the wilderness journey. Of
course, all have seen the miracles of the water from the rock and
the manna. And yet we can see all of these
things. And we have in verse 4, Yet the
Lord hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see,
and ears to hear unto this day. and whether or not indicating
that now they were going to be able to see it or even unto this
day they still hadn't really taken it on board. It might seem
an amazing thing to us that God's people can have things done in
their lives and God work and yet they see all these things
and don't really perceive it or take it into their heart. It needs to be revealed and shown
to them. And many of the Lord's people
have had blessings and favours in their lives, and yet they're
in a low place, a dark place, they can't see the Lord's hand,
can't see His blessings, and yet they are there. And all it
needs is for the Lord to open their eyes, take them back, as
like the children of Israel here, take them right back, right back
to Egypt, and show all the favours that he's done for them. And
so maybe there's some of you here this morning or listening
this morning and there are things that the Lord has done for you,
great things, and yet this in verse 4 may well be true of you,
that the Lord hasn't given you a heart to perceive or eyes to
see. But if he was to do that, and
those that do see that, Don't just think, well, I've just seen
it, I've just noticed it and perceived it. God has given that
to you. If you see his works, you know,
the psalmist, he prays, let thy work appear unto thy servants. If it has appeared to you, bless
the Lord for it, that your eyes have been able to see it and
you've given him the honour and the glory for what he has done. When we think about us today,
You know how many of us have been driving up here, thinking
how many just going about their pleasure, how many with just
no knowledge of the things of God at all. And yet God's creation
is all the way around them. His mercies they have every day. They have their food, they have
their health and strength, they have their rain, they have all
of these things. And they cannot see God has given these to them. He opens His hand, He satisfies
the desire of every living thing. In Him we live and move and have
our being, says the Apostle, to the men at Athens who are
worshipping the idols and to an altar to an unknown God. And
He declares to them this God. And they don't see it, they don't
know it, but He testifies to them. And the Lord is the Saviour
of all men, especially of them that believe. There's not some
fed by chance or some preserved by some other force and others. It is the same God over all. And you know, you feel sometimes
the real darkness that is upon the earth. Driving here, I passed
a whole group of motorcyclists, many, many of them. And on the
back of them there, red devils. That's what they were called.
And you think, how can these men? They call themselves this. Have they any idea of hell? Have
they any idea of the true and living God? And your heart aches
for them, really. You know, they have souls. And they do not know. But what a mercy and what a blessing
if we do know. And even able to impart to any. those things that we do know,
come and hear and notably pointing poor souls to the true and living
God. But here is God's children and
his dealings with them in this passage and they still need the
Lord to open their eyes and to actually see what he has done
for them. How dependent we are on the Lord
for his gifts and to see them and to give thanks. If we are
brought to give thanks for what he's done for us, really we not
only give thanks for that but that he's given us a thankful
heart and that we have seen what he has done for us and appeared
for us. So we have the children of Israel
here. In these things that are revealed
to them in this covenant and They are not to pry into secret
things because that will be a most sure way of disobedience. How many times that you can trace
where people do not walk according to the revealed will of God is
because they're second guessing the Lord. They think they know
what his intentions are in a way of sinning that grace might abound. fashioning our lives over things
that are supposed and not the real things. And this is the
warning that is here. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words
of this law. So there's two distinctions here. These things are made of secret
things and revealed things. And we would observe as well
that many things that begin as secret things, later on in the
Word of God become revealed things. And then it changes. When they
are revealed, then we know what they are. But in the beginning
they are secret things. So I want to look with the Lord's
help at three points. Firstly, the secret things and
to whom they belong. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God. And then secondly, those things
which are revealed and to whom they belong. And then lastly,
the end to which this distinction aims, which is obedience. that and to our children forever
that we may do all the words of this law. Diversely there's
these secret things belong unto the Lord our God. So what are
those secret things? Well, no doubt I won't mention
all of them, but I do want to cover a few. And the first one
I bring before you is that of election. That is God's determination
before the world as to choosing and loving a people that were
his people. Our Lord spoke of a people, thine
they were and thou gavest them me. They were the fathers and
they were given to the son, We are told that the people of God
are chosen in Christ from the foundation of the world. With Romans 9 Paul reveals that
and he opens up the Old Testament scriptures where it was said
of Esau and Jacob that the elder shall serve the younger and then
in Malachi that Jacob have I loved and Esau have I hated. And in
Romans 9 he unfolds the sovereignty of God in choosing some to life
and some to death, his mercy upon some but not on others,
and that really without that sovereign mercy of God none would
be saved at all, none would be delivered at all. But that is
one of the things that is revealed to us. And yes, in the case of
Esau and Jacob, they're used as an example where God reveals
before they were born what shall happen in their lives. And Jacob
have I loved, Esau have I hated. But this is not something that
is revealed when People are born into this world. It is one of
the secret things of God. We may say those that are elect,
it becomes not a secret thing when they are called. Their calling
makes known their election and then it is no longer a secret
thing. But we do not know and it is
very important especially when we look later on about the aim
and reason for these distinctions here. But many, many stumbling
blocks. Many have come at the doctrine
of election, which is a great comfort to the people of God,
and you put it as a stumbling block and almost looked at it
to encourage them to fatalism. It's like what I said at the
beginning. If we start to delve into these
hidden things, then it is that immediately we do not keep the
law. We do not obey. We do not walk
in the Lord's ways. It's a stumbling block. It's
something that stops us. So election is one of those things. The secret things belong unto
God. belongs unto God, is known unto
God. Another thing is the day of our
birth. Really, all of us, well we have
a birthday, but God appointed that, not our parents or anyone
else that was appointed by God. The day of our Lord's It was
foretold the seed of the woman should bruise the serpent's head.
That was revealed at the beginning that there would be a birth,
there would be a saviour born. But when he was born, that was
hidden. Man was not told the exact date
or time. And in fact, the Jews, they knew
not the day of their visitation. They didn't recognize. when he
was, they knew, they were able to tell to the wise men that
he should be born in Bethlehem and they went and they found
him there. But the actual time, the date, that was hidden, that
was known to God and only revealed and opened up and you might say
even now, yeah we say that we know a date but we don't know
exactly as it were. It's not revealed in scripture. but we know within a few years,
if you like, and as is to our calendars. But that is not known. That is known by God. And you think of the second birth
as well. If we are saved, then we'll be
born again of the Spirit, quickened into spiritual life, that which
our Lord spoke of in John 3.16. and that a man must be born again,
impressing it upon Nicodemus. But that day is known by God. There's a set time to favour
Zion. A time, as we read in the hymn
76, not to propose but called by grace and quicken into grace. Now again, I emphasise that that
is known by God. It is a hidden date and time. Now, some that are born into
this world will be never born again. Others, they will be born
again in the Spirit, bound up with election, bound up with
God's purpose, His will and His mercy. That is a secret thing
belonging unto God. And we must remember that, because
as soon as we start to interfere in that, or seek to double guess
it, or to fashion our lives according to that, then we are going to
make mistakes. It's something that God has seen
fit we should know about, know that it exists, Know that it
does belong to God, but that it is not something that belongs
to us. We think of the day of our death.
That is appointed by God. He knows when every one of us
here, everyone joining with this service will die, when we shall
breathe our last. We do not know that. But God
knows that. We know that that day shall come. What about the end of the world?
We're told that no man knows that, that there will be an end
of the world. We are sure of it. But we don't
know when that will be. You think of the Thessalonian
church. They were making the mistake
they thought it was going to be imminent. And so they left
their jobs and they changed their lives and they just, as it were,
sat in idleness. waiting for the end of the world
to come. And the apostle had to correct
them and to direct them in that. And so the end of the world is
one of those secret things belonging unto God. The Lord's plan in
Providence, what he should do. He told many things to Abraham
about his seed should be a stranger in a strange land. and that in
the fourth generation that they should come again, they should
be afflicted many years. Those things were actually revealed
to Abraham, but many things were not. How Jacob would go into
Egypt, how Joseph should be sold there, that was completely hidden. And so Providence, as the hymn
writer says, Providence unfolds the book and makes his counsel
shine. So the Lord's plan, the Lord's
purposes in our lives, he does have a purpose. He does have
those things that are appointed for us. But where they are secret,
they belong unto God. Where they are hidden, where
he has chosen not to tell us, they belong unto him. Now, these things then are secret. They are secret to us. And the
reason is because they belong unto God. They are His to deal
with, to order, to manage. And yet, they do affect us. Though they don't belong unto
us, to manage them in order, they do affect us. You know, in the book of Ezra,
the children of Israel had been brought back from Babylonian
captivity. They had realized that they were
starting to walk in the same sinful and wrong ways, the reason
why they were carried away in the first place. And they had
mixed marriages, and they joined with those in the land. And so
they were dealing with the matter. And the people, they said to
Ezra, this matter belongeth unto thee. Arise and do it, and we
will be with thee. The matter really, it affected
them all. But Ezra was the scribe, he was
the priest, he was the one to deal with this matter. And he
would have the support of the people in doing this. But he was in the position to
do it. You might have many things that
affect you as a church, as a people. You might say to your deacon,
this matter belongs to you. You're in the office and position
to do it. You do it and we will be with
you, we will support you, we will encourage you, we will pray
for you, but this matter belongs to you to do it. And it might
affect the whole congregation. But there's a recognising that
where something belongs to someone else, they are to manage it,
they are to do it. And though it may affect us,
yet there is a way that we are to act consistent with that. We're not to, as it were, carry that burden
ourselves, but committed to Him. And so with the Lord, these things
that are secret, we would commit unto the Lord. We would acknowledge
how the Lord is managing them. They're not just, because they're
secret and hidden from us, They're not just without a guide, without
a director. They're just governed by chance. They are in His hands. And the
hands that they are in are more capable hands than us. Imagine
if those secret things that I've tried to mention, if election,
the day of our birth, and spiritual birth, and our death, and all
these things were in our hands. How would we feel on that? but
they're not in our hands and they're secret so that they can't
be in our hands and we can't order and we can't do things
about it. Or can we? You know the Lord
has said especially regarding our death and regarding those
things that we don't know, the day nor the hour, that we are
to live in readiness all the time for it, not just at the
last moment. So in one sense The very fact
that it's hidden affects all of our lives and every dharma
as well. So maybe think of those things
in our lives that are secret things, who they belong to, who
that we can go and commit them to Him, cast them before Him. But then, Think of those things
that belong unto us. And this is what I want to look
in our second point. And that is those things which
are revealed and to whom they belong. But those things which
are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever. Very interesting as we read this
portion and it's said that these things are not just spoken to
them but to their children. And we think of our Lord when
he's speaking to the disciples and he's praying for them. He says, Neither pray I for these
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their
names. And so it's enlarged in that
way in the New Testament. It's also enlarged in Acts. The
promise is unto you and your children and even as many as
the Lord thy God shall call. And it's in that call where there's
a revealing. And so there is a transition
from secret to revealed. And I want to look at this first
thinking of Gospel days. In the Old Testament it was said
in Isaiah 64, there's not entered into the heart of man what God
hath prepared for them that love him. And really it's pointing
two gospel days, those with the types and the shadows, those
in the day here with Deuteronomy, how could they have imagined
this, that now not just the Jews, but every nation, kindred and
tongue, meeting in local churches, having a pastor, having a minister,
having the Word of God, going forth to all the world, the Christ
so clearly come, So opened up, they couldn't have entered into,
they couldn't have imagined what the situation is throughout the
world today. And we're told, we apply this,
we cannot imagine either what it is going to be like in the
new heavens, the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. We do
not know what it is after death. It hath not entered into the
heart of man that. we see through a glass darkly. And so those things in the Old
Testament, they were hidden things, but now they are revealed things. David, when he wanted to build
the temple, Nathan said, no, God would not have him build
it but his son. But then God revealed to him
the blessings in latter days. I will build thee a house. And
David, he sat before the Lord and he said, because the Lord
had revealed this to him, what he should do for him and bless
him in these latter days, then he found it in his heart to pray
unto the Lord in that way. And the Lord has been pleased
to reveal those things to his people. We think of the prophecies
in Isaiah of these Gospel days. Isaiah 40, the word is in verse
5, speaking of comfort ye, comfort
ye, my people saith your God. Speaking of Gospel days, And
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall
see it together, for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it. And O Zion, thou bringest good
tidings, get thee up into the high mountains. O Jerusalem,
thou bringest good tidings, lift up thy voice with strength. Lift
it up, be not afraid, saying to the cities of Judah, behold
your God. And these things are prophesied
of the coming of the Lord. And the Lord is revealed in these
Gospel days. And the question is asked in
the beginning of Isaiah 53, to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed? Well, it was revealed to the
Jews, then it was revealed to the Gentiles, and it is preached
in every nation, kindred and tongue. Then it comes to individuals
and you think of Simeon. It was revealed he should not
see death until he had seen the Lord's Christ. And so he was
expectant on that and coming into the temple and he saw the
Lord's Christ. Lord now let us thou thy servant
depart in peace according to thy word. Mine eyes have seen
thy salvation. And it was said with Mary, that
ye a sword shall pierce thine own heart also, that the thoughts
of many hearts might be revealed. And it is speaking of, in a very
personal way, like with Peter. The Lord asked him, Peter, or
asked the disciples really, men, that I the Son of Man am. Whom say ye? And he asked them
personally. And Peter said, Thou art the
Christ, the Son of the living God. And the Lord said to him,
Blessed art thou, Simon by a Joan, the flesh and blood hath not
revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And
our Lord another time, he said, I thank thee, Father, Lord of
heaven and earth, that thou hast hidden these things. from the
wise and prudent and revealed them unto babes. And so when
we have these things that are revealed, these things that are
revealed, they are gospel truths, the coming of the Lord, the glory
of the Lord, the salvation of the Lord. In gospel days, the
need of repentance, the need to believe the gospel, the need
of the Lord Jesus Christ. If you believe not that I am
he, ye shall perish in your sins. And the commission is to go and
to preach the Gospel to every creature, teaching all nations,
and to bring them to the knowledge, to reveal to them that which
they don't know of the Gospel and of the way of salvation. When they preach the gospel,
we read, some believe the word spoken and some believe not. And then in another place, as
many as were ordained unto eternal life believed. And we see the
distinction, the hidden revealed things of God is revealed under
the preaching of the word by some believing and some not. And so that which is revealed
that belongs to us. The preaching of the Gospel belongs
to us. So in a wider sense, to all of
mankind, the preaching that belongs unto us. We should listen, we
should hear the Word that is preached and set before us. But what we know is that it does
need to be revealed to us personally. And when it is revealed to us
personally, this text is a beautiful word. It might be a real help,
a real comfort to all that do believe and that these things
have been revealed to us. Those things which are revealed
belong unto us. As if it would say to a poor
trembling sinner who has had Christ revealed in his preciousness
and suitability, that belongs to you, poor soul. That is not
just general given to everybody, but this is given as a true token. You know Rahab, she says, give
me a true token. And what the Lord said to Peter,
flesh and blood hasn't revealed it, My Father's revealed it.
And it's revealed to you because you are a child of God. That's
why it's been shown you. Earlier in this chapter we highlighted
the children of Israel have seen many things. Now we might think
sometimes, well if the Lord did these great wonders, if he did
this or that, then we would believe, then we would know. No. Men have
great things shown them and it doesn't make them a believer.
But the decree of heaven and God working in the sinner's heart
and opening up a sinner's heart and revealing himself, that does
save them. And in the smallest thing God
can show that and to do that. And we have to recognise this.
We have to recognise those things that the Lord has given to us
that belong to us. If we give a child a present
and we say, here you are, this is yours, that then belongs to
them. They get the idea very quick
too when their siblings try and take it off them and enjoy it
for a little while and say, that's mine. But they own it because
it's been given to them. And may we value those blessings
the Lord has given to us. You know, the psalmist, he speaks
about I will take the cup of salvation and he'll render praise
to the Lord. I often thought about it like
this, you know a cup, what would I put in that cup? I'd go back
through my experience, go back through the blessings the Lord
has given me, the helps, the providential mercies, the spiritual
mercies and to fill up this cup. What's in your cup? What's in
my cup? What was in the Lord's cup? that
the Lord had to drink fully up at Calvary, your sins, my sins,
to put away the sins, our sins, that was in his cup, but what's
he put in ours? Those things that he's revealed
to us, that is mercy, his love, his kindness, his grace, those
things. have been revealed. So those
personal blessings, those things which are revealed belong unto
us. Personal blessings that God's
revealed belong unto us. You might say that it says, and
to our children, well like it is in Acts, the promises unto
you and your children, even as many as the Lord, I God, shall
call. Very often the Lord does work
in families. Sometimes the devil makes a handle
of this and he says, you look at our churches, how few are
brought in from outside. Most have come through the children
and grandchildren. There's nothing special, there's
nothing of grace, this is just passing on in a natural way from
one generation to another. And sometimes the devil can be
very strong like this, until you take to him the word of God
and say, wait a minute, This is God's plan, isn't it? You
know, if God has a chosen people and he's putting them into the
world, wouldn't he, for the most part, put them where they're
going to hear his word and be nurtured up? You know, if you
were sending your child to somewhere, to a boarding school or something
like that, wouldn't you take care where you sent them and
to whom you sent them and to what they'd be taught? Yes, there
are the roots, there are the Rahabs, and bless God for it.
There are those who have never been brought up under the sound
of the truth, who are brought to hear it for the first time.
They might look back over their generations and cannot find anyone. Father, grandfather, great-grandparents
who've ever known the Lord and yet the Lord sovereignly touches
them and converts them. But what an expectancy it is,
an encouragement for a believing person who has children or nephews
or nieces, that those blessings that they have, that they can
point their children to and to pray for them and those promises
and the Gospel certainly unto us and to our children forever. Make it very clear, grace does
not run in the blood, we cannot pass that through. It is still
the sovereign work of God to be revealed There's a wonderful
promise that is reaffirmed in the New Testament. So then those
things which are revealed, the things they belong unto us. And we mentioned before the Lord's
second coming. And I'd use that as an example
of where something is partially revealed. So it's revealed that
Christ will come and that the world will end. And it's revealed
that we will die. But what is not revealed is the
actual date and the actual time. So it's a partial revealing.
So that which is not revealed in that matter belongs unto God. But that which is revealed belongs
unto us. The knowledge that it is. Now
I want to look then in our last point, and that is the reason,
the end to which this distinction aims. And that is obedience. That we may do all the words
of this law. And the implication is that if
this distinction is not made, then the people will not do the
words of this law. There will be something in this
which will be an excuse for not obeying the revealed will of
God. And the thing that is hindering
it is trying to interfere, going to that which is secret. Now
the end is obedience. Obedience to the law of God The
Lord has shown thee, O man, what is good. What doth the Lord require
of thee? He requires his man to do and
to fulfil the law of God. And we're not to think, well,
life cannot come by the law. The Lord has some other purpose of
that. Therefore we are disannull it
or we can live like we want. Even when grace is revealed,
So clearly to the Apostle he says, shall we sin that grace
might abound? Shall we take this revealed knowledge
of the grace of God and it undermine our obedience? No, God forbid
that that should be so. Again with the Gospel as well,
the obedience to the Gospel. Are we to listen to the Gospel
and say, I will not believe, I will not receive this word
because I don't know whether I'm elect or not, I don't know
whether I'm chosen or not. But God has revealed that he
calls his people through that word and he calls them to obedience,
he calls them to believe that word. And so we are not to have
that in the back of our minds, will of God as to resisting the
actual word that we are hearing? What about the blessings that
are revealed to us, that belong unto us? Should not they affect
us as well? To the end that we may do all
the words of this law or to the end that we may take comfort
and give the glory and honor unto the Lord. As surely as the
children of Israel were not seeing the Lord's hand, they were not
giving the honor and glory unto the Lord either. What about for
the waiting, for the Lord's coming? We know he shall come, occupied
till I come. We have the parable of the five
wise and five foolish virgins, they all slumbered and slept.
And then they'll all come at an hour when they thought not.
And so what is revealed is to profoundly affect how we actually
walk and conduct ourselves here below. And if we thought it in
another way, if we were told the exact time of our death,
how tempting it would be to say, well, we just put that off, we
can do all of this We can do what we want right up until the
end and then we just prepare it the last time. But if we do
not know the day nor the hour, how that should affect how we
leave our homes in the morning, how we hear in the Lord's house,
we don't know whether this will be the last time we hear the
Gospel, hear the Word of God. We do not know that. And so we
should hear as if it were the last. As a preacher, we should
preach as if this was the last time. We should preach the Word
and set forth the Word of God. And so the end, the distinction
of these things, when we set forth the Word, we set forth
the Gospel that the Lord has given us to preach and to set
forth His name, a name which is above every name, that at
the name of Jesus every knee should bow, that there is no
other name given among men whereby we must be saved. It is pleased
the Father that in Him should all fullness dwell, that all
the provision for the people of God is in the Lord Jesus Christ. I think of the word in 1 John
1, that if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive
us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. What
belongs to us in that verse? Confessing of our sins. What
belongs to the Lord? Cleansing us from all unrighteousness. How often we put it the other
way round. We say, I must cleanse myself
from all unrighteousness and then I'll come and tell the Lord
what I've done. No, we come before the Lord as
a guilty sinner. Lord, this is what I've done
that I should not have done. And this is what I have not done
that I should have done. And to confess it before the
Lord. And the Lord deals with that
matter. And the Lord corrects that and
changes and renews our heart, forgives us our sins, gives us
repentance. Lord Jesus Christ is exalted
to give repentance and remission of sins unto Israel, unto his
people. And that is revealed. The blessings
of the gospel all point sinners to Christ. What the law could
not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God, sending his own
Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, condemns sin in the flesh. that the righteousness of God
might be in us that walk after the Spirit and not after the
flesh. So this is an important verse,
a verse that really affects all of our lives. And it may be in
things where we're walking in disobedience, the whole reason
is because we are prying into the secret things. We can be
like Jonah. Jonah is told, go and preach
to the Ninevites. Forty days it shall be destroyed. And he thinks, I know that God's
a merciful and a gracious God. I think his purpose is to give
them repentance. And they're an enemy. They're
Gentiles. I don't want to go. I'm not going
to go. And he ran away. Why didn't he obey? He tells
us in that fourth chapter of Jonah, because he second-guessed
the Lord. He knew what the Lord would do,
and that affected his obedience. And we mustn't do that. Ours
is to obey. Anyone that has been trained
up in the army will say those in their ranks, they don't say
when their commander tells them to do this or that, that they
think, This is what's going to be the end of this matter. I'm
going to change his command. I'm going to do something different.
The whole platoon, the whole regiment would be in danger in
that way. They are to abide. And that is
what we are to do as well. What is revealed to us with our
thinking? What might the Lord be doing?
What's his purpose? What shall be next? What shall
happen if I proceed in this way? The house is to obey, the hymn
writer says, it is his to provide. The secret things belong unto
the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong unto
us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words
of this Lord. May the Lord add his blessing.
Amen.