Let's take our Bibles again and
turn with me to the book of Daniel, right after Ezekiel, Daniel chapter 2. Daniel chapter 2 verse 1. And
in the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar
dreamed dreams wherewith his spirit was troubled and his sleep
break from him. Then the king commanded to call
the magicians and the astrologers and the sorcerers and the Chaldeans
for to show the king his dreams. So they came and stood before
the king. And the king said unto them,
I have dreamed a dream, and my spirit was troubled to know the
dream. Then spake the Chaldeans to the
king in Syriac, O king, live forever. Tell thy servants the
dream, and we will show the interpretation. The king answered. and said to
the Chaldeans, the thing is gone from me. If you will not make
known unto me the dream with the interpretation thereof, you
shall be cut in pieces and your houses shall be made a dunghill." I'll stop for a moment and then
I'm going to pick up in verse 19. The Chaldeans and the soothsayers
told Nebuchadnezzar, you have to tell us what the dream was
or we can't tell you the interpretation of it. And Nebuchadnezzar said, if you
don't tell me the dream and the interpretation, I'm going to
kill you. Verse 19, Then was the secret
revealed unto David, in a night vision. Then David blessed the
God of heaven. Daniel answered and said, Blessed
be the name of God forever and ever, for wisdom and might are
His. And He changeth the times and
the seasons. He removeth kings, setteth up
kings, He giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them
that know understanding. He revealeth the deep and secret
things. He knoweth what is in the darkness,
and the light dwelleth with him. I thank thee and praise thee,
O thou God of my fathers, who hast given me wisdom and might,
and hast made known unto me now what we desired of thee. For
thou hast now made known unto us the king's matter. And therefore Daniel went in
unto Ariok, whom the king had ordained to destroy the wise
men of Babylon. He went and said thus unto him,
Destroy not the wise men of Babylon. Bring me in before the king,
and I will show unto the king the interpretation. Then Ariok
brought in Daniel before the king in haste, and said thus
unto him, I have found a man of the captives of Judah. that
will make known unto the king the interpretation. And the king
answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar,
Art thou able to make known unto me the dream which I have seen
and the interpretation thereof? Daniel answered in the presence
of the king and said, The secret which the king hath demanded
cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers
show unto the king. But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets, and maketh known to the king, Nebuchadnezzar,
what shall be in the latter days. Thy dream and the visions of
thy head upon thy bed are these." And then Daniel proceeded to
tell the king what the dreams were and what would become of
Nebuchadnezzar and his kingdom. Now, I didn't read the whole
of this chapter. You can read it. But I chose
to read just that portion. And I would like to make a few
comments on this particular part of what Daniel said unto Nebuchadnezzar. And it was found in the first
part of the 28th verse. But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth Secrets. Mysteries. That's what the word
secrets means. There's a God in heaven that
unveils mysteries. Whenever God is pleased to speak,
He always speaks in a way in which, like as we're looking
at the parables. He always speaks in a way that
appears as though that men can just easily understand what He
is saying. The Lord would speak in these
parables and many people would hear and His disciples listened
to Him while He spoke in these parables. And they asked Him,
Why do you speak in parables? And you remember his answer?
Because it's given unto you to know the mystery of the kingdom
of God. But unto them, it's not given. God Almighty is pleased to speak
in a way that men think they understand what He's saying. And they don't. They say they
do, and they don't. For a man or a woman to hear,
it's going to take more than this ear or this eye to see and
hear. The hearing ear and the seeing
eye, the Lord hath made even both of them. Well, obviously
that insinuates that that there is an eye and an ear that does
not hear. It doesn't see, thinks it does.
Men will take and they'll, they quote scripture. They're just,
I mean, I've, I've listened to people quote scripture, you know,
and they'll just call out, you know, call out scripture, you
know, Matthew 11, 27. And I'm thinking. I've probably read Matthew 11,
27. Amos 1, 4. I'll have to go look it up. A
man that can just quote them and have no idea what's said. It's a secret. This book is a
secret. Book. It speaks, and men hear, and
without a hearing ear and a seeing eye, they don't hear. They don't see. They say they
do. And the Lord says with their
lips, they honor me. But their understanding. Their affection. The love of
their heart is far from me. Paul, speaking to the church
at Ephesus, he said this. Let me just read you Ephesians
1, 16 and 17. I cease not to give thanks for
you, making mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our
Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the
spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him. I pray God give me a heart to
enter into this prayer for you and for me. I cease not, Paul says, to give
thanks for you. I cease not to ask God that He'll
teach you, teach me. You're frail, weak, scared, pastor. that the eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of His
calling, and what the riches of the glory of His inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power
to us who believe according to the working of His mighty power
which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and
set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places. God in heaven reveals secrets,
mysteries. While I was working on this message,
I preached this down in Rocky Mountain. I wanted to preach
it here. And in preparation for this passage
of Scripture in Daniel, I began to think upon the great mysteries
that God reveals unto His people. And I was really, I was excited. I was thankful. I was thinking
on these marvelous passages of Scripture that reveal these great
mysteries. Paul talked about them. These
mysteries in Colossians 126, even the mystery which has been
hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his
saints, to whom God would make known what is the riches of the
glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. Actually, Christ for you. It's what that word means, Christ
for you. I'm against myself. That's what
the Lord says, they oppose themselves. When we preach this gospel, Paul
says, 1 Corinthians 2, 7, we speak the wisdom of God in a
mystery. The hidden wisdom. which God
ordained before the world unto our glory. God Almighty has been
pleased to hide some things. Hide them. And the Lord thanked
the Father for hiding them. Here's the way it is. There's
only two kinds of people in this room or in this world. Those
that God's going to reveal His mystery, His secrets to, and
those that He's not. That's what we would refer to
as distinguishing grace. Does God have a right to be distinguishing? Well, the Holy Spirit said He
did through the Apostle Paul at the Potter. the right over
the same lump to make one vessel unto honor and another vessel
unto dishonor. Does he have a right? Is there unrighteousness with
God? God forbid. Listen to the words of our Lord
as He thanked His Father for keeping back some things that
I'm telling you unless God reveals. These secrets that I'm going
to consider here, three secrets, unless God reveals these three
secrets, you're going to perish. Three secrets. Unless Almighty
God reveals these three secrets, you're going to die. Our Lord said in Matthew 11,
25, 26, at that time, Jesus answered and said, I thank thee, O Father.
Lord of heaven and earth, because Thou hast hid these things from
the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even
so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." God reveals some things and He
withholds some things. And so I started thinking about
some things that are great mysteries And I did. I actually started
writing them down. I mean, I had a list. I had a
good list. Trying to figure out how I was going to get all these
things in one message. You know. I started writing down election. Well, I thought, boy, you know
what? Ain't many people knows about that. And what they do
know, they try to explain it away. Predestination. The Lord Jesus Christ being made
sin, that's a great mystery. Sovereign grace, just sovereign
grace. Men saved apart from their own
works of self-righteousness. I mean, I had a good list. And I thought these are great
mysteries, great mysteries. I'm going to try my best, try
to bring them out, try to set them forth. So I began to write,
started writing out my message, you know, and got down to getting
ready to write down the first great mystery and began to think
on it. And this was the first great
secret that God reveals. Here it is. You don't want to
miss this one. Here's the first mystery. I'm
a sinner. Somebody say, that's it? That's
it? The Scripture says, Romans 3.23,
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. There's none, Romans 3.11, that
understandeth. There's none that seeketh after
God. They're all gone out of the way.
They're all together become unprofitable. There's none that doeth good.
No, not one. That's it. That is the first
great mystery that God reveals. Now, let me ask you this. Stop
for just a minute. And let me ask you while I ask
myself, do I truly understand? He said
there's none that understands. Do I truly seek after God? There's
none that seeketh after God. Do you? Do I truly? I'm talking about now as being
born in Adam, Myself, my nature, did I ever seek after God? They're all gone out of the way,
unprofitable. There's none that doeth good,
no, not one. And I, by my old nature, I did
not even know that. And I'll tell you another thing,
I didn't care. I did not care. Somebody would ask, why is that such a great secret? Everybody's a sinner. You know,
and what happens, too, is that's why we justify what we do. Well,
you know what? I'm not doing anything anybody
else doesn't do. I mean, I'm no worse than this
one. In fact, I'm probably a little better. Man, by nature, does not need
a mediator. He doesn't need a substitute. He's not a sinner. That's the
problem. Men are not sinners in their
own estimation of themselves. By nature, a man does not see himself From
the crown of his head to the sole of his foot is putrefying
sores and a rebel against God. Stop anybody you want to and
ask them. Let me ask you something. Are
you just stopping somebody on the street? I just want to ask
you concerning yourself. Do you consider yourself a low-down,
good-for-nothing, God-hating sinner? I'm talking about nothing
more than just Putrefying pile of pus that just
God Almighty ought to throw in hell and just absolutely be justified
in doing. They'd look at you like you were
some kind of an idiot. Here's the first great secret
that the God in heaven reveals to me. Man by nature is a sinner. He's a sinner. Devoted to sin. That's what it means. Devoted
to it. This is my calling. This is my job. This is my love. This is my desire. This is what
I want to do. I want to rebel against God. And everything else is more important
than worshiping God. A Pharisee and a publican went
into the temple to pray, and the Pharisee stood and prayed
thus with himself, God, I thank thee that I am not as other men
are. They're extortioners, unjust. I'm not like that. Adulterers
against God, actually what that means. Or even as this publican,
I am so thankful that I am not A sinner. I'm not a sinner. The publicans, standing afar
off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but
smote upon his breast, saying, God, be merciful to me, a sinner. And the Lord said, one of these
went home justified, and the other one condemned. Here is
the first great secret. God brings a man to see that
he is a sinner against God, that he loves this world and the things
in it, and he will give himself to this world and the things
in it over worshiping God. I'm a sinner. Here's a second
great secret that God who is in heaven reveals. God saves sinners. That's the
second great secret. God Almighty saves sinners. That's the only kind of people
He saves. That's all. That's all. I'm not
come to call the righteous That is, righteous in their own
eyes, righteous in their own estimation. I've settled this
thing with God. I have already done what I had
to. I've made a profession of faith.
I've been baptized. I read my Bible. I went to Sunday
school some. I'm hard-working, blue-blooded,
American. I love God and country and self. I'm righteous. I'm not called
to call the righteous, but sinners. Boy, you know what? The most
precious thing in the world is to find yourself around somebody
that God has revealed that they're a sinner. Now, I know that every
man, that there's none righteous. I know that. I know that there's
none that doeth good. I'm all part of that. I know. But the most blessed thing for
a believer to be around is to find somebody that God has revealed
that they're a sinner. That person is the one that is
most concerned with God's honor, a sinner. Most concerned with
God's glory. Most concerned with God's gospel
and God's worship and God's people and the support of God's people
and the health of God's people. A sinner. God be merciful to me. A sinner. You find somebody right
there that needs mercy. That's what you've done. Now,
I'm not talking about a wicked rebel. We all find that in us. I'm not talking about that. I'm
talking about finding somebody that God Almighty has revealed that He's merciful to sinners. That sinner right there has got
the sweetest countenance, personality, They're concerned about you.
They're concerned about God Almighty. Paul wrote this. This is a faithful
saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Jesus came into this
world to save sinners of whom I'm chief. I love to be around
a sinner. One that God's revealed that
he's a sinner. That person, that one, It's one that Almighty God has
revealed to him that in indescribable mercy and grace that he was chosen
in Christ, his surety. That Almighty God has shown mercy
and revealed his need of a Savior. A sinner cannot save himself,
and he knows it. That's why blind Bartimaeus,
Jesus, thou Son of David, Have mercy. There's no works that
can be done when mercy is concerned. Mercy is needed to those who
can't. That's a sinner. God saves sinners.
Everybody is trying to establish their own righteousness by works
of their religious affiliations. They're not sinners. They're
able. A sinner is one that can't. Almighty God chose to show mercy to some sinners. Sons of Jacob. That's what they
are. Sons of promise in themselves. No good. And He gave those to
the Lord Jesus Christ. They fell in Adam just like everybody
else. And they came forth from their
mother's womb just like everybody else, speaking lies, conceived
in sin just like everybody else. And the Lord Jesus Christ came
into this world as their representative, with them chosen in Him from
the foundation of the world, represented by Him. And he came
into this world and he made under the law. He obeyed every jot
and tittle of the law with a perfect obedience in word and thought
and deed. He never deviated. Never. He
didn't change. And he obeyed God and established
a righteousness that was earned by the man. Christ Jesus. And that righteousness that He
earned, He earned as their federal head. And that righteousness
is imputed to them. And the reason you know it, the
way you know it is that they believe God. That's how you know
if God has imputed righteousness to a man. They believe God. And He earned that righteousness
that is theirs. And He took their guilt and made
His soul an offering for sin. That's what they are by nature. And manifest in that they're
sinners, they're transgressors. The reason that they are sinners
is because they're nothing but sin. There was nothing good in
them. There's nothing good. It's nothing
but sin in them. That's what they are. And He
was made sin for all that God had given him, and he put away
their guilt. He died hanging upon the cross. God forsook him, and he put away their guilt. God had eternally saved them
based upon the faithfulness, obedience of
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Father trusted in Him. from
all eternity, and those He chose and justified, He saved us, and
then in time called us and told us, and saved us apart from any works,
no works, no works. Well, I thought we were saved
because we have faith. He gave you the faith. to believe
what He had already done for you. Salvation is of the Lord.
Salvation is all of grace. You had nothing to do with it.
Nothing to do with it. Nothing to do with it. Everything that you do is a manifestation
of what He's given you, taught you. You're not saved because
you believe. You believe because He saved
you. You don't love Him. In order
to be loved, He loved you first. We love Him because He first
loved us. God saves sinners. That's the second great secret
that nobody knows about. And here's the third great secret. He's coming back to receive all that He's everlastingly
loved. all that the Father eternally
gave Him that are going through this world right now, this valley
of tears, this valley of the shadow of death. They're walking
through this wilderness right now. His people, they're not
of this world. They're in it, but they're not
of it. And here's the third great secret. He's actually coming
back to get His people and take them to be with Him forever. Somebody said, well, I know that
everybody, you know, that there's people going to be in heaven
and they're going to be... Well, let me ask you this. Why
is it that it means nothing more to you now? Why is it that we
act as though that that's not a fact? Why is it that we don't
look blessed of those when the Lord cometh that He'll find watching? Watching. Looking. Like those five faithful virgins
were watching and listening. Who knows? It may be today. The
Scripture sets forth, This is the Father's will which hath
sent me, that of all which He hath given me I should lose nothing,
but should raise it up again at the last day with anxious
anticipation The Scripture sets forth that there's coming a time
when Almighty God, the Trump of God, the Scripture says. It's
in 1 Thessalonians. 1 Thessalonians chapter 4. Let me just read this to you
in closing. Verse 16, 17. The Lord Himself. You think, not an angel. Not
going to send an angel. The Lord Himself. He who eternally
was the Father's delight. He who eternally was the surety
from all eternity, God Almighty, who chose His people in the surety,
God never looked to the sheep for satisfaction. He eternally
chose us in Him, and God never looked at you again for satisfaction. He looked to the surety. And the surety came through.
And he obeyed God. And God said, this is my beloved
son in whom I am well pleased. You hear Him. The eternal surety,
the husband, the federal head, God Himself, the Word made flesh,
who right now is at the right hand of power, whatever the fullness
of that means, There is a man seated in glory that's going
to stand up, and he's going to come back, and he's going to receive us
unto himself. The Scripture says, For the Lord himself shall descend
from heaven. Job said, I know that my Redeemer
liveth, and he's going to stand on this earth, and I'm going to see him. Overworms
consume this body, this flesh right here, this one. This body
is going to be changed. And these fingers and these fingernails
and these eyes and eyelids, every part, every part of me, this
being, is going to be a resurrection. Not a new creation, a resurrection. And it's going to be changed
from impotence Weakness raised in power, sown in corruption,
raised in incorruption. Same body. The Lord himself shall
descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel,
with the trump of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. Now, that's a great secret. People
say, well, I believe in the resurrection. Only God's people do. Only the
elect, only God's regenerated saints believe that, that they're
actually That death has no sting to it. Grave has no victory in
it. That we're actually coming out
of the ground. And we'll meet the Lord. Paul said, Then we
which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them
in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so shall we ever
be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another
with these words. Three great secrets. that this
world reads and they say, I understand. I'm a sinner. God saves sinners. And we're going to live forever
with Him. May the Lord bless these words to our heart, to
our understanding, and to our comfort for Christ's sake. Amen. Okay, Gary.