Let us turn to the psalm that
we read, Psalm 25, and directing you to the words that we have
at verse 14. Psalm 25, 14, The secret of the
Lord is with them that fear Him, and He will show them His covenants. And the theme that I want to
seek to address, it's a verse that we've looked at on previous
occasions, but the theme I really want to take up is that of the
secret of the Lord, the secret of the Lord, in a sense we might
say it's another of those significant names given in scripture to God's
covenants of grace, that eternal covenant of grace is also the
secret of the Lord. And this morning we were considering
how that same covenant is spoken of in Isaiah 55 as the sure mercies
of David. Now the sure mercies of David
is the same as what we have here in this Psalm of David. the secret
of the Lord. And as we come to look at these
words, I divide the subject matter into some three parts. First
of all, to say something with regards to the sure purpose of
God. Secondly, to think of the secret
as it is revealed. And then finally to say something
concerning the fear of the Lord. First of all, the sure purpose
of God. And that sure purpose, of course,
is the covenant, the everlasting covenant of the grace of God. It's that inter-trinitarian covenant,
God's eternal counsel, which is really known only to himself. how before ever God created there
was the covenant of redemption because Christ who is the redeemer
of his people is that one spoken of as the Lamb slain before the
foundation of the world and that was the outworking of the covenant
even the death of the Lord Jesus That was the great purpose from
all eternity that He would come and seal that covenant by the
shedding of His precious blood. And so when we speak of the sure
purpose of God, the eternal decree of God, we have to think in terms
of this covenant. In Deuteronomy 29.29 we are told
the secret things belong unto the Lord our God. the things
which are revealed belong unto us and to our children there
is that that has not been revealed there is that secret that is
still hidden we know not of course how matters are going to work
out for any of us as we've been brought into this year of 2022
will we see the end of the year what will be for us from day
to day we know not but all our times are in the hands of this
God who has a sure purpose that he is going to fulfill the secret
things belong unto the Lord but there are those things that are
revealed and when we come together and we set God's word before
us and we read the word of God so we seek also to expound the
word of God that we might find something for our soul, some
spiritual sustenance, some good food that will establish us in
the ways of God. And so God Himself has given
to us this ordinance of the ministry of His Word and the preaching
of His Gospel. The things that are revealed
what we have here in our Bibles and it very much belongs onto
us. And we do well to carefully examine
what God is saying. And the words of the text, the
secret of the Lord is with them that fear him and he will show
them his covenants. And of course we have that parallelism
which is a peculiar feature of the poetry of the Old Testament. verses so often containing statements
that are quite complementary. The one complements the other,
the one opens up the other. There's a parallelism. And here
we see that the covenant is equivalent to the secret. The secret of
the Lord is with them that fear him. And what does God do? He reveals the secret. He will show
them His covenants. Nor the mystery of that great
secret thing concerning the Kingdom of God. We are told how the Lord
knoweth them that are His. He knows them. How does He know
them? Well, He knows all things of
course. He knows the end from the beginning. He is that God
who as he is omnipotent, as he is all powerful, so he is omniscient
he is all-knowing he knows everything but he knows his people in a
peculiar and a special manner he knows them that are his in
the sense that he has set his sovereign love upon them Isn't
that what the Apostle is saying in the familiar words of Romans
8, 29? Whom he did foreknow, he also
did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son. And
whom he did predestinate, then he also called, and whom he called,
then he also justified, and whom he justified, then he also glorified. That glorious golden chain the
outworking of God's eternal purpose, of grace. And it begins with
that knowledge, whom he did foreknow, and we must be careful, we're
not to interpret that like the freewheeler and the Arminian
wants to interpret it and say, well, what it's saying is that
God foreknows in the sense that he foresees. He foresees who's
going to believe, and on the basis of that foresight, he predestinates
the people. That's not the sovereign grace
of God. That means that salvation really
is in the hands of the sinner. It's because he does something,
and God foresees what he does, therefore he predestinates him.
That's not what Paul is saying at all. It is that special knowledge. The Lord knoweth. them that are
his. Why? Because he loves them, he
has set his love upon them. That's what the foreknowledge
means. And whom he foreknows and has that intimate association
with, these are the ones whom he is pleased to predestinate. He has loved them with an everlasting
love. Well this is the sure purpose
of God. It was that that was purposed in eternity. And when we think of the covenant
of Christ, we see it as that that is clearly spoken of here
in Old Testament scripture. We might say it's promised in
the scriptures of the Old Testament. And then, when we come to the
New Testament, do we not see how it is before? always performed
by him who comes as the mediator of the covenant who comes to
stand as a surety of his people and do all that is necessary
for their salvation purposed in eternity promised in the scriptures
of the Old Testament performed now in the New Testament It's
that covenant that is so sure and so certain as we were saying
this morning I will make an everlasting covenant with you even the sure
mercies of David and how God has confirmed it all the promise
that he made to Abraham who is the father of all them that believe
that promise that he made, he confirmed it by an oath, as we're
told there in Hebrews chapter 6. And those two immutable, those
two unchangeable things, there is the Word of God, the promise
of God, and then God swearing by Himself, magnifying His Word
above all, His Name. And Paul goes on to speak of
it as the blessed hope of the people of God. The hope that
enters into that within the veil, an anchor of the soul, both sure
and steadfast. You know the language that we
have there in that great sixth chapter. All these two immutable
things in the covenant, the promise, the oath of God. He says, I will
establish my covenant with them and they shall know that I am
the Lord. Well, He says, I will and thou
shalt. That's the language of God in
the covenant. All those promises that God has
given, they are yea and they are amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. We do not have a Word from God
that is yea and nay, a changeable word. No, it's not yea and nay. It's not ifs and buts and possibilities
and maybes and possibilities and probabilities. It's that
word that is sure and certain. All the promises sealed with
the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. The sure purpose
of God. The covenant the everlasting
covenant of Christ. But then here in the text we
read of the secret and that secret being revealed. The secret of
the Lord is with them that fear Him and He will show them. He will show them His covenant. There is to be an experience
That's what's being spoken of, an experience of that grace of
God. And see how it's indicated by
the alternative reading that we find in the margin. It says
here in the margin, is covenant to make them know it. That's
how God reveals it. It's a secret, and yet he makes
them to know it. Oh, it's a great mystery, isn't
it? And how Paul time and again speaks of it in his epistles,
his ministry. We speak, he says, the wisdom
of God in a mystery. Even the hidden wisdom which
God ordained before the world unto our glory. That's the covenant
of the grace of God. The wisdom of God in a mystery And that mystery now, in these
last days, revealed. Ordained before the world, Paul
says, unto our glory. And what is it? What is this?
This mystery that is to be revealed, this secret that is to be revealed?
Well, It very much centers, of course, in the person and the
work of the Lord Jesus Christ, without controversy. Great is
the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. That remarkable statement that
we have there in 2 Timothy 3.16. The wisdom of God in a mystery.
No controversy about it. God was manifest in the flesh. When we think of the person of
the Lord Jesus, that He is and always was and always will be
God. He can never ever cease to be
what He is. He is the Eternal Son of the
Eternal Father. And even when he takes to himself
a frail humanity, he doesn't cease to be the son of God. Because
that holy thing that was conceived by the Holy Ghost in the womb
of the Blessed Virgin Mary, that holy thing was called the son
of God he didn't cease to be the son of God he became the
son of man and so we see him then as that one who is God man
that's a mystery and then there's that mystery of his work it has been said that the wisdom
of the cross is a deeply hidden and profound mystery the wisdom
of the cross how profound it is that in that cruel death that
the Lord Jesus Christ has to die in that is a salvation of
a multitude of sinners Abram seedlessly, he looks doesn't
he at the starry skies and His seed is going to be as
innumerable as the heavens, innumerable as the sand upon the seashore. Now, is it that these people
are redeemed? It's by the death of the Lord
Jesus Christ, or the ignominy, or the sufferings that He has
to endure there upon the cross, the wisdom of the cross, and
what God accomplishes. Well, where is the first then
and the greatest of the mysteries? Christ hath redeemed us from
the curse of the law, being made a curse for us, for it is written,
Cursed is everyone that hangeth on a tree. And it continues that
the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles. That's
what Paul is saying there in Galatians, Galatians 3 verses
13 and 14, he speaks of all the ignominy of the cross and then
the blessing. The blessing of Abraham that
by means of what Christ has done comes to Gentiles. And that's
another mystery. All the calling of the Gentiles
is very much a mystery. Remember how Paul unfolds it
when he writes in his various epistles, particularly there
in Ephesians chapter 3 and the language that we have there Ephesians
chapter 3 at verse 8 He's the apostle to the Gentiles and unto me he says who am less
than the least of all saints is this grace given that I should
preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ,
and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery,
which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who
created all things by Jesus Christ, to the intent that now unto the
principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known
by the might be known by the Church the manifold wisdom of
God. Or the calling of the Gentiles,
that old division, you see, between Jew and Gentile, in Christ God. It was a mystery that had to
be revealed and it was revealed in the fullness of the time.
And it's not only when he writes there to the Ephesians and particularly
in that third chapter that we find Paul unfolding these things
but also he makes mention of it when he writes to the Colossians. He says there in Colossians 1.25,
whereof I am made a minister according to the dispensation
of God which is given me for you to fulfill the word of God. Even the mystery which hath been
hid from ages and from generations but is now made manifest to his
saints to whom he 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." Here we have it again, you see. He
is that one who, as I said, is called to be the apostle to the
Gentiles. And this mystery has to be revealed,
that there is salvation, not only for the Jew, but also for
the Gentile, in the Gospel. And how is this mystery revealed? Which is Christ in you, he says,
the hope of glory. There's not just the calling of the Gentiles,
which is a mystery, but there's a manner of that calling. And
what is that calling? It's an effectual calling. How
did the gospel come to those at Thessalonica? That was a Gentile
church. and Paul speaks of the manner
of his ministry to them there in the opening chapters of 1st
Thessalonians our gospel came not unto you he says in word
only but in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance
oh God has revealed them unto us by His Spirit that's how it was there is a
revealing of the mystery How the sinner is saved, how Christ
is formed in the soul of the sinner, Christ in you, the hope
of glory. God hath revealed them unto us
by His Spirit. The Spirit searcheth all things,
yea, the deep things of God. What? Man knoweth the Spirit
of man, say, the Spirit of man that is within him. Even so,
the Spirit of God knoweth no man but by the Spirit. The Spirit does the work. That
is the office, is it not, of the Holy Ghost in the outworking
of this great purpose of God in the covenant of grace as the
Father planned and purposed salvation as the Son came and procured
that salvation and purchased his people by the shedding of
his precious blood. So it is the Spirit who makes
that work of Christ a blessed reality in the soul of the sinner. Oh, the Lord knew it. He says,
I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for 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. All things are delivered unto
me of my Father, and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father. Neither
knoweth any man the Father save the Son. and he to whomsoever
the Son will reveal him. Oh, it is the will of the Son
to reveal God. And how does the Son reveal God? By that Spirit whom He has sent. It was expedient that He go away. If He go not away, the Spirit
will not come. But when the Spirit comes, oh,
then the Spirit has to fulfill His office, you see. He has to
convince, He has to commit the sinner, that reproving of sin,
of righteousness, of judgment, that revealing of Christ also
to the sinner. All these things are hid from
men. They must be revealed and they
are revealed by the Spirit. There's that blessed experience
of the grace of God. Hid from the eye of all living,
says Job. and kept close from the fowls
of the air, the secret of the Lord. It is with them that fear
Him. He will show them His covenant. It's interesting, back in the
book of Proverbs, Proverbs 3.32, the wise man declares, His secret
is with the righteous. His secret is with the righteous,
who are the righteous? For there are none righteous
in his sights all have sinned and come short of the glory of
God the righteous are those who are justified those who are in
Christ those who have that justifying faith who know themselves to
have no righteousness at all. Their righteousness is our filthy
rags. But are they hunger and thirst
after righteousness? Oh, blessed are they that hunger
and thirst after righteousness. They shall be filled. Oh, the
secret of the Lord. It's that that He is pleased
to make known to the sinner. Look at the words that we have
in that letter to Pergamos. Revelation 2.17, to him that
overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna and
will give him a white stone and in the stone a new name which
no man knoweth saving him that receiveth it. The Lord, you see,
deals with us in that very personal way. Real religion is personal. There's no doubting that. And
sometimes, do we not feel that no one else really understands
us? We feel ourselves to be like
a sparrow all alone on the housetop. No one understands us. It's so
intimate, this real religion. it's the Lord's secret with his
people and he deals with them in such a personal manner and
then of course he takes these poor solitary souls and he puts
them in families the doctrine of the church he takes these
poor people who feel themselves to be so different to everyone
else and he brings them together he gathers them in local churches
all the believers whole life is he not a great mystery? Do
we not have to live to prove that paradox when his pardon
is signed and his peace is procured from that moment his conflict
begins says Joseph Hart that strange course that the Christian
must steer he has the pardon of his sins and yet he's in conflict
all his days he's involved in a warfare, a warfare with sin
and with Satan he's at odds all the time with this wicked world
and he feels so much the conflict in his own soul it's such a paradox this life
Paul could say I'm crucified with Christ nevertheless I live
yet not I But Christ liveth in me, and the life which I now
live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who
loved me and gave himself for me. We have to prove every day
our complete and utter dependence upon Christ. He has to live in
us. And Paul knew that, and Paul
writes so much of these things in his epistles. What was his
great desire? That I may know him. All is life
eternal to know thee, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent. All that I may know, this is
Paul, and how much he knew what wondrous things we find in those
epistles of the apostle. I know it's the word of God,
but these things were not simply dictated to Paul and he wrote
them down unfeelingly. That's not inspiration. Paul
is speaking out of all the fullness of his own heart, all that he
has been brought to understand and to feel of the grace of God.
He's one of those in the secret, is he not? And his desire that
I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship
of his sufferings being made conformable unto his death. and often think of those words
in the text and it seems that the order is not quite right
because it begins with the power of his resurrection and then
the fellowship of his sufferings and then the conformity to his
death whereas of course in Christ's own experience the resurrection
comes after all the others but with us it must first be the
power of his resurrection because by nature we're dead in trespasses
and sins and we need that new life or we need that resurrection
life the life of Christ in the soul of the sinner and then the
fellowship of his sufferings the conformity to his death the
being crucified with Christ What a strange life! And yet, the
guy in the hymn writer has it so right, there's something secret,
sweet and raw. Or there's something so sweet. It's a secret thing. The secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him. He will show them His
covenant. You know, Romans is a remarkable
epistle. It's the Gospel. I said before,
I do like the title of that little popular commentary by Stuart
Elliot, The Gospel, as it really is. The name given to what he
had to write on that epistle to the Romans. And when we come
to the end of Romans, chapter 16, there's a great doxology. The last three verses are really
a doxology. And look at the language that
we have in these verses. Now to him, that is of power
to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of
Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery which
was kept secret since the world began but now is made manifest
and by the scriptures of the prophets according to the commandment
of the everlasting God made known to all nations for the obedience
of faith. to God only wise, be glory through
Jesus Christ forever. Amen. How Paul in this epistle
is always defining the gospel. What is the gospel? My gospel,
he said, is the preaching of Christ. It's the revelation of
the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began, but is
now made manifest. Oh, it's a secret of the Lord.
What a favoured and privileged people we are to hear that gospel
and have that gospel made a reality in our souls. That secret of
the Lord which is with them that fear Him. He shows them His covenant. Well, finally, let me conclude
by saying something of the fear of the Lord. because it's such an important
part of the text, isn't it? It's the very heart of the text. Who is it that the Lord shows
his covenant to? Who are those who have any understanding,
any interest in the secret? It's them that fear him. Here is the evidence of the grace
of God. Where there is that grace of
God in the soul, there will be fear. Real fear and dread. But what is this fear? Well, you know, there's a tormenting
fear, and it's not that tormenting fear. There is that fear that
the devils have, and the reprobates will know. There is that fear
that the hypocrites know something of. Isn't James really addressing
himself to those hypocrites when he writes there in James 2.19,
Thou believest there is one God? He says to them. Or thou doest
well, the devils also believe and tremble. He's addressing
certain characters, isn't he? Who make some sort of profession. but they are hypocrites and he
reminds them of the devils and they have fear and they tremble or they tremble
before God when the Lord Jesus begins his own ministry how we
see it there in the synagogue in Capernaum the very opening
chapter of Mark's gospel and he is casting the demons out
of the man Let us alone! What have we to do with thee,
Jesus of Nazareth? I know you thou art the Holy
One of God. Art thou come to destroy us before
the time? Oh, the devils, they fear and
they tremble. They tremble. All fear is not good fear. Phoenix
trembles and fears. At the preaching of Paul we're
told in Acts 24. But what good did it do for him?
It's not enough to have that tormenting fear. We need to know
the fear of the Godly, the fear of this man who is spoken of
in our text. God's secret is with them that
fear him. He shows them his covenant. It's a very different fear to
that of the demons and the reprobate and the hypocrite. There is no
fear in love, says John, but perfect love casteth out fear,
because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect
in love. Oh God, deliver us from that
tormenting fear. God has given us so many fears
not. That's the fear that we're not
to desire. Fear not, says God, time and
time and time again because we're prone to be a fearful people
but there is a healthy fear. Again, What does Paul say, Romans
8.15? You have not received the spirit
of bondage, he says again, to fear. But you have received the
spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father. All this fear that we have in
the text, and it's the fear of a son. It's part of the spirit of adoption.
There is a fear, you see, a filial fear. And is it not one of the great
blessings of the Covenant? With thoughts of that Covenant
today, the sure mercies of David, the secret of the Lord, and remember
how that Covenant is spoken of back in Jeremiah 32, verse 14,
I will make, says God, an everlasting covenant with them, that I will
not turn away from them to do them good, but I will put my
fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me or if
we have that fear in our hearts we won't depart you know it's
a remarkable evidence that we have something of the grace of
God if we are present tonight and we are present because we
want to be present we don't want to depart from God we want to
know more of this God He's put His fear in our hearts. And what
a fear it is, it's the beginning of wisdom. Are we not told that
in the Psalm, Psalm 111? The fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. To be wise. Not the wisdom of
this world, but to be made wise to salvation which is in the
Lord Jesus Christ. Again, that fear of the Lord
is said to be the beginning of knowledge there in Proverbs 1.7 the fear of the Lord the beginning
of knowledge or to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
thou hast sent not just know something about God but to know God and to know Jesus
Christ whom God has sent and to have such a love for the blessed
person of Him who is the only Saviour of sinners. What a favour,
what a blessing if we have that fear. Again, we can repeat text
Psalm 34, 7. The angel of the Lord, we are
told, encampeth round about them that fear Him to deliver them.
All those fearers, you see, they have the angel encamping about
them, surrounding them. Who is the angel of the Lord?
Isn't that the Lord Jesus Christ? And He's there to deliver them.
And He'll deliver them all the days of their life, whatever
their troubles. Behold, the eye of the Lord is
upon them that fear Him, upon them that hope in His mercy.
You know these multitude of verses that we have scattered throughout
God's Word. He watches over the prayers of
those that fear Him. He hears their cry. He answers
them when they call upon Him. Look at the language there in
Psalm 145 and verse 19. He will fulfill the desire of
them that fear Him. He will also hear their cry. and will save them. All these are those promises,
exceeding great and precious promises, and all the promises
of God, yea and amen, in our Lord Jesus Christ. No wonder
Solomon speaks of godly fear as the fountain of life. All this fear you see, the fountain
of life, in the fear of the Lord, Proverbs 14, 26, in the fear
of the Lord is strong confidence, the fear of the Lord is a fountain
of life to depart from the snares of death. It's an unctuous light
to all that's right. It's a bar to all that's wrong. That's the fear of the Lord. By the fear of the Lord men depart
from evil. O God, grant that we might know
more and more of that fear of the Lord. O fear the Lord, ye
His saints. There is no want to them that
fear Him. You think you're going to want?
There's no want to them that fear the Lord. Why, the secret
of the Lord is with them that fear Him, and He shows them His
covenant. He'll have His gracious ways,
gracious dealings with them. All that we might be granted
then, that grace whereby in some measure we can enter into what
David has to say in this psalm, in this particular verse. But
in all that he says in this psalm, Show me thy ways, O Lord, Teach
me thy paths, lead me in thy truths, and teach me, for thou
art the God of my salvation. On thee do I wait all the day. Remember, O Lord, thy tender
mercies and thy lovingkindnesses, for they have been ever of old. Remember not the sins of my youth,
nor my transgressions, according to thy mercy. Remember thou me
for thy goodness sake, O Lord. All the Lord be pleased then
to bless to us his word and to show us that secret as he comes
and graciously reveals to us all the blessings of that eternal
covenant of his grace. May the Lord bless his word. Amen.