Let us turn then to God's word
and we turn again to the portion that we just read in the second
chapter in the book of Daniel. That text is found in verse 28.
Daniel chapter 2 verse 28. But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets and maketh known to the king Nebuchadnezzar
what shall be in the latter days by dream. and the visions of
thy head upon thy bed are these. And particularly the opening
words of this verse in Daniel chapter 2 and verse 28 that there
is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. Then you can nether a dreamt
and then forgotten the content of his dream, and yet, we might
say, unreasonably requires that the
magician should not only be able to interpret the dream but tell
Nebuchadnezzar what it was that he had dreamt in the first place.
And as I said, when they were unable to perform such a task,
He decreed that the wise men should be slain. There in verse
13 the decree went forth that the wise men should be slain. And amongst the wise men were
Daniel and his three fellows. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego
were of course the names that they were given by the Babylonians. But Daniel is ready to try to interpret the
dream. Daniel asks Ariok that there
might be the provision of time He does not only desire time,
he also speaks to his friends and desires that they should
pray. There at verse 16 he went in
and desired of the king that he should give him time and that
he should show the king the interpretation. And then we read of him going
to his house and making the thing known to his friends. And then we have the Hebrew names
of these men, Ananiah, Mishael and Azariah, that Shadrach, Meshach
and Abednego in their Babylonish names. And he desires that they
should with him seek the God of Heaven. Verse 18, that they
would desire mercies of the God of Heaven concerning this secret. He looks to God as that one who
would grant him the knowledge of the dream and also the ability
to interpret the dream. And so at verse 27 we see how
Daniel comes before the king again And a remarkable word that
he speaks here in verses 27 and 28. He answers in the presence
of the King. The secret thing 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. What a word is that but! What a contrast! He has demanded
of his own wise men, all the Chaldeans, the astrologers, the
magicians, the soothsayers, and they could not give answer to
the king, but there is a God in heaven that revealeth secrets. And then, as we saw at verse
31, following Daniel, tells him what the dream was, how that
he had seen this great image, its brightness was excellent
and he stood before the king and then Daniel describes the
terrible form of this image. The dream then is told in verses
31 to 34 and then at verse 36 following we have the interpretation
of the dream. The vision is representative
of the kingdoms of this earth. It tells him that the head which
was of fine gold is representative of Nebuchadnezzar himself. It's
the great empire of the Babylonians. and then the breast and the arms
are said to be of silver and these are representative of another
kingdom that would follow that of the Babylonians, the great
kingdom of the Medes and of the Persians. Then there is a third
kingdom, the belly and thighs, which I would rather say represent
the kingdom of Alexander the Great, the Grecian Empire. another kingdom that shall arise
and then the fourth kingdom is set forth in the legs of this
image, legs of iron, but feet which are a mixture of iron and
clay and these legs represent a mighty empire that bruises
and breaks in pieces as we see at verse 40 the fourth kingdom
shall be strong as iron for as much as iron breaketh in pieces
and subdueth all things and as iron that breaketh all these
shall it break in pieces and bruises representative of the
great the mighty empire of the romans but then the feet are
a mixture of the of iron and clay, there is weakness. It was
ultimately, of course, the decline and the fall of the mighty empire
of Rome. But after all of these things,
he speaks of that kingdom that God himself will establish, that
spiritual kingdom, that is represented by the stone that smote the image and smote
that image in its legs. That stone cut out without hands,
as we read in verse 34, which smote the image upon his feet
that were of iron and clay and break them to pieces and then
this stone becomes a great mansion to fill the whole spiritual kingdom. The kingdom of the Lord Jesus
Christ is what is represented. And so we have this remarkable
chapter which tells us of Nebuchadnezzar and his dream and that Daniel
is able to tell the dream and to interpret the dream and he
speaks to us as does all the scripture ultimately of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But as we see here, it's not
any wisdom that was in Daniel that enabled him to do such a
thing as this. It came clearly from the Lord
God himself. In verse 29 Daniel says, He that
revealeth secrets maketh known to thee what shall come to pass. This is the work of God. Again
there at verse 47, Nebuchadnezzar is brought to acknowledge Daniel's
God and the truth it is that your God is a God of Gods and
a Lord of kings and a revealer of secrets. seeing that thou
couldest reveal this secret. He could only tell of these things,
of course, because God himself was the one who heard and answered
that prayer, that desire of Daniel and his friends, that God would
grant to them the knowledge and the wisdom to do such a thing
as this. Well, this is something of an
outline of the chapter that we have here, but I want to concentrate
your attention upon those words that I read as our text at the
beginning of verse twenty-eight. There is a God in heaven that
revealeth secrets. Is there not some spiritual significance
in these words? Is there not that which is applicable
to us? Remember that whatsoever things
were written aforetime were written for our learning, says that we
through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have
hope. It's interesting to read the chapter and to consider the
chapter and to see here remarkable prophecies that have their fulfillment
in those great kingdoms and ultimately pointing us to the kingdom of
the Lord Jesus Christ. But we don't just come to study
God's word in that sense, we want to receive some profit to
our souls from the consideration of God's Word. What can we learn
then from this statement at the beginning of verse 28? Well,
we see first of all that God's dwelling is in heaven. Daniel says to Nebuchadnezzar,
but there is a God in heaven. Now see what Daniel asserts in
the first place, he asserts his belief in the existence of God. He says, but there is a God. Nebuchadnezzar is looking to
the wisdom of the wise men of Babylon. But we are to look beyond
men. We are to look to the Lord God.
And this is what Daniel says as he speaks to this haughty
king here in our text there is a God and surely we must begin
there with the blessed truth of theism it is the fool who
has said in his heart there is no God men deny God and we are
aware of that all around us we live in a society now that is
in the mind so secular full of atheists. They discount
God, they discount the word of God. There is no God. They explain
away any idea of their accountability. They love to embrace the theory
of evolution. There is no creator who will
call his creatures to account. That's how men reason. There
is no day of judgement because there is no God. And what happens,
of course, is that men only do what is right in their own eyes.
But, says Daniel, there is a God. There is a God. I think I've
told before that incident in the life of John
Duncan, Rabbi Duncan, as he was affectionately known, because
of his great Hebrew learning and his great love for God's
ancient people, the Jews, at one stage. He was a missionary
in Budapest, working amongst the Jews in the early years of
the Free Church of Scotland. But when he was a young man in
his native Aberdeen, he tells of how he knew the black thoughts
of atheism. He denied God. He questioned
the very existence of God, and he speaks of how it was one day
on the Brig of D that God, as it were, revealed himself to
him. He came to this persuasion that there is a God. He was delivered
from atheism, he became a theist, he believed in God. It wasn't
salvation, he didn't know God was his saviour, but it was a
blessed deliverance for him. to come to that persuasion that
there is a God. But there is a God, says Daniel. There is a God in
heaven. Now doesn't God's dwelling place
in heaven tell us something about His character? When we read of
God being in heaven, He tells us that God is whole. When we address God in prayer,
we have the instruction that was given by the Lord Jesus,
that patterned prayer. He tells us how we are to pray,
not necessarily repeating the words in some vain fashion, but
it is instructive of how we should address God. And what are we
to do? We are to say, Our Father, which art in heaven. Hallowed
be thy name. God is in heaven, and God's name
is holy. Why? Heaven is a holy place. Joseph Hart, in that lovely hymn
on heaven, says heaven is that holy, happy place where sin no
more defiles, where God unveils his blissful face and looks and
loves. and smiles. Remember how in the
Revelation John speaks of heaven as that place where sin cannot
enter, nothing that defileth can enter into that blessed place. All that glorious abode which
is heaven, it is a holy place. God is holy and he dwells in
heaven which is holy. There is a sense, is there not,
in which In the words of Job chapter 15,
the heavens are not clean in his sight, it says. Yea, the
heavens are not clean in his sight, but that's the lower heavens. That's the heaven that we see
when we look into the skies, when we look into stellar space,
we see the heavens. That's part of creation, but
creation of course is under the curse of the fall. We're thinking
of God's special dwelling place. He dwells in the highest heavens. All the heaven of heavens cannot
contain Him. Remember how Isaiah sees something
of the glories of God's throne there in the heaven of heavens. In Isaiah chapter 6 we're told
In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw also the Lord sitting
upon a throne high and lifted up and His train filled the temple.
Above each of the seraphims, each one had six wings. With
twain He covered His face, with twain He covered His feet, and
with twain He did fly. And one cried unto another and
said, Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth
is full of His glory. Here we have these angels, these
Seraphim. And the word means the burning
ones, our pure creatures, our sinless angels. They're the angels
that never foul. And yet, they're before the throne
of God in heaven, and they have six wings, and with two wings
they must cover their feet. or the ground is holy ground.
And with two wings they must cover their faces, they cannot
behold the holiness which is God's. And with two wings they
are said to fly, they are obedient creatures, they never do the
bidding of God. But here is their constant employ,
they are before the throne of God and they worship God day
and night in His temple. One cried unto another and said,
Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts. Why He is Holy Father,
Holy Son and Holy Spirit. Three times Holy. And when Isaiah
beholds this sight, what does he say? Woe is mine. For I am
unjoined because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in
the midst of a people of unclean lips. For mine eyes have seen
the King, the Lord of hosts." All the dwelling of God in heaven,
it tells us, does it not, of that holiness that belongs unto
Him. His dwelling place reveals to
us something of His blessed character. He is the Holy One of Israel. But then that dwelling place
in heaven also reminds us that he is sovereign. He is a sovereign
God. There is a God in heaven. Later in chapter 4 and verse
26, Daniel speaking to the same Nebuchadnezzar tells him the
heavens do rule. Verse 26 there in chapter 4,
the heavens do rule. Our God is in the heavens, says
David in the Psalms. He hath done whatsoever he hath
pleased. When we think of God in heaven
then we think also of His sovereignty. He is the one who rules, the
one who writes, the one who is doing according to His will,
who is executing His own purpose, and none can frustrate Him in
that blessed purpose. In Isaiah 40 and verse 22 we
read, It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and
the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers that stretcheth
out the heavens as a curtain and spreadeth them out as a tent
to dwell in. Behold, the nations are as a
drop of a bucket, and are counted as the small dust of a balance. Behold, He taketh up the isles
as a very little thing. All from that blessed vantage
point of heaven, God beholds the whole of His creation. And
how insignificant that creation is when we consider the greatness
and the glory that belongs to God. We see then that He is not only
the Holy One, but He is that One who is Sovereign. Again,
remember in chapter 4, our nephew Kadeser is brought to make that
confession that all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as
nothing. He is speaking of the God of
Israel. He doeth according to His will among the armies of
heaven. And the inhabitants of the earth
and none can say to him, what doest thou? This is the God of
Daniel. This is the God of Scripture.
This is the God that we come together to worship. There is
a God. And that God is the Holy One.
And that God is the Sovereign One. But there is a God in Heaven,
says Daniel. That revealeth secrets. Let us turn in the second place
to this further statement that Daniel makes before Nebuchadnezzar. The God in heaven revealeth secrets. What does that indicate to us? Does it not show that God has
feelings with men on the earth? And God reveals his secrets to
men on the earth. He revealed this particular secret
to Daniel. But we're seeking to understand
the spiritual significance of the statement. It's not just
a revelation to Daniel. God is pleased to reveal himself. There are secrets. The secret
things belong unto the Lord our God, says Moses, but the things
which are revealed belong unto us and to our children. There are things that God has
revealed. What is the Bible? The Bible is a revelation. God
is revealing himself. We often refer to the fact that
God reveals himself in a very general way in his works, his
works of creation. The heavens declare the glory
of God. The firmament showeth his handiwork. Day unto day uttereth voice.
Night unto night showeth knowledge. There is that revelation all
around us. God is declaring himself not
only in creation but in providence. But in the Bible of course we
have this revelation that is special. In creation we see the
power of God and the greatness of God who is able to make all
things out of nothing. Through faith we understand that
the worlds were made, so the things which are seen were not
made, the things which do appear. Ultimately creation is a matter
of faith, that's what Paul says there in Romans 11. But all the
power of God, he could create everything out of nothing. And in Providence we see God's
faithfulness, as he not said, that as long as the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day
and night shall not cease. The night has come on, And shortly
we retire to our homes and go to our beds and lay down and
enjoy. We trust the blessing of that
sleep that God gives to his beloved. But as we rest in our beds we
anticipate the dawning of another dawn. Why? Because God has said
it. And God is faithful. We see his greatness, we see
his faithfulness in his works of providence. But all when we
come to this book you see this special revelation. We discover
here that He is that God who is good and that God who does
much good. He's the God of all grace. He's
a merciful God. He's a loving God. He pardons
sinners. All there is in a revelation. Now we need that God should come
to us in a personal way and reveal to us something of His great
secrets. the secret of that great salvation. There is a God in heaven that
reveals secrets. Man's condition, you see, your
condition, my condition, those things that are secret to everyone
else, only we know certain things about ourselves, I dare say,
there are certain things in the lives of each and all of us that
we've never told another soul. and yet God knows. Man looks on the outward appearance,
God looks upon the heart, He sees into the hearts of men.
Psalm 44 verse 21, He knoweth the secrets of the heart. He knows all about your heart,
He knows all about my heart. And we can hide nothing from
Him. Every creature is manifest in
His sight, and all things are naked and open to His view. We just sang those words from the familiar
139th Psalm. We sang, of course, in the mythical
version, but we know quite well that Psalm that speaks so much
of God's omniscience He is the all-knowing God, that's what
omniscience means. He knows everything. Thou knowest
my down-sitting and my not-rising. Thou understandest my thought
afar off. Thou compassest my path and my
lying down. And art acquainted with all my
ways. For there is not a word in my
tongue but, Lo, O Lord, Thou knowest it. Altogether, thou
hast beset me behind and before, and laid thy hand upon me. Such
knowledge is too wonderful for me. It is hard. I cannot attain
unto it. For our God knows us, friends,
better than ever we know ourselves. If such is the deceitfulness
of sin, and such is the nature of our native unbelief that a
man can never really know himself. That's the deceitfulness of sin.
We are deceived creatures and we are full of unbelief in
our fallen nature and we cannot know ourselves. The heart we
read in Jeremiah 17 is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked. Who can know it? You can't know
your own heart, I can't know my heart. Who can know it? I, the Lord, search the heart.
I try to arrange to give to every man according to the fruit of
his doings. I'm sure you're aware that there
are some remarkable statements to be found in the wisdom literature of the
Old Testament, the books of Solomon, you think of Proverbs, In Ecclesiastes
9, verse 3, the heart of the sons of men is full of evil and
madness is in their heart. Here is another description of
the human heart. The heart of each and every one
of us as we are born into this world, full of evil, madness,
Madness is in the heart. The Lord Jesus undermines that,
does he not, when he tells us quite plainly that it's out of
the fullness of the heart of the mad speaker. It's what's
in our heart, you see, that betrays us ultimately. And God, I say,
knows the heart of men. He knows man's condition. He
knows your condition. He knows everything about you
and me tonight as we come together in this chapel. As you sit there,
as I stand here, there's nothing that we can hide from Him. And that's true of the Lord Jesus
Christ, because He's God. Isn't that a proof of His deity,
that He's omniscient? He has such a knowledge of the
human heart. He needed not that any should
testify of man, He knew what was in the hearts of men. And think of that Samaritan woman
in John chapter 4, when she goes and speaks to her
own countrymen, what does she say to them concerning this one
who had been speaking to her at the well at Sychar? Come see
a man. which told me all things that
ever I did, is not this the Christ? Or do you want the Lord Jesus
Christ to tell you all things that ever you did? Can you say with David there
in the 139th Psalm, search me O God and know my heart, try
me and know my thoughts, and see if there be any wicked way
in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. And you say that,
and say that sincerely. You want the Lord to search you
through and through, to sift your religion to the bottom,
because your great concern is to know that it's real. There
is a God in heaven that reveals secrets. You want
God to come and to reveal the secrets of your heart, to show
you what you are and where you are. Isn't that one of the marks
of those who are in a blessed state? Those who have something
of a good hope through Christ? He that doeth truth cometh to
the light that his deeds may be made manifest that they are
brought in God. Is that what we desire that the
Lord should know us? He does know us, but we want
that God should come and tell us the truth concerning ourselves. These are the dealings that God
has with men here upon the earth. He reveals secrets. He tells
the sinner all about himself. But then, that's not the end
of the matter, is it? It's no use just knowing what
I am. It's no use having my condition
diagnosed by that good physician to be brought to see that I'm
one who is lost, dead in trespasses and sins. Besides being lost,
I must be found. And if I'm dead in sin, I must
know that communication of newness of life. I must be born again. We don't
just have the dark side, there must be the other side, the bright
side. And so here we have to recognise that there is that
provision that God has also made. That provision that God has made
in the covenant, in the covenant of grace. But there is a God in heaven
that reveals a secret. He reveals us secrets. Now, doesn't that verse remind us
of another in the Psalms? Is it not a comfort sometimes
to compare scripture with scripture? This is how we are to interpret
the Bible. Let the Bible interpret itself. How we need sometimes to bring
one passage to bear upon another passage, so that we understand. that the book is a whole. Yes,
many human authors, but it's a divine book, it's the book
of God. It's all inspired by the Spirit of God. And there
is another statement in Psalm 25, the secret of the Lord. But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him. He will show them His covenant. Now there in Psalm 25 we have
those parallel statements which indicates to us quite clearly
that the secret is the covenant. What is the secret that God reveals?
It's the covenant. He shows them His covenant. And that's what we need God to
do, to show us the covenant. The covenant of grace. Or think
of the very nature of that covenant. Is it not truly divine? It's not a covenant that God
has made with man. Oh yes, man is a great beneficiary,
but it's an inter-trinitarian covenant, is it not? Zechariah
chapter 6 and verse 13, the counsel of peace shall be between them
both. It's a covenant that God makes with His Son. Yes, the Lord Jesus Christ is
the great covenant head of His people. He stands in that blessed
relation to them. He is their covenant head and
the Father enters into covenant with His Son on their behalf. And the Spirit Himself witnesses
to that blessed covenant. It's a divine covenant for Him. It's that covenant that God has
made with himself. You know, we have it there in
Psalm 89, that Psalm speaks so much of the blessed covenant.
Firstly, I have made a covenant with my Chosen. I have sworn
unto David my servant. Verse 19, Then thou spakest in
vision to thy Holy One, and said, I have laid help upon one that
is mighty. I have exalted one chosen out
of the people. I have found David my servant. With my holy oil have I anointed
him. Yes, it's David, but it's greater
than David. It's David's greatest son that
is being spoken of. It's a messianic son. Verse 34,
my covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone
out of my lips. Once have I sworn by my holiness
that I will not lie unto David. His seed shall endure forever,
and his throne as the sun before me. He shall be established forever
as the moon, and as a faithful witness in the heaven, see thou. It is the eternal covenant, you
see. It's that covenant that God has made with himself in
eternity. I will make an everlasting covenant
with you, he says, even the sure mercies of David. Oh, it's an
eternal covenant. It's a sovereign covenant. Though
there be many devices in the heart of a man, the counsel of
the Lord, That shall stand. Oh, the nature of this covenant,
friends. It is that blessed covenant of grace. This is God's secret. This is that secret that God
reveals, that covenant that God makes known to the sons of men. Think of the nature of it. Think also of the necessity of
the covenant. What is the condition of man
by nature? We are those who are dead. Dead
in trespasses and in sins. That's how we are born into this
world. We see a little guy, the miracle of that birth, a little
one as he comes from the womb of his mother. perfect in all
its parts. And yet, that child you know,
spiritually, born dead in trespasses and sin, that's the son, that's
the daughter of Adam. And that sin has come down the
generations. Man is dead in trespasses and
in sins. What does that mean? It means
he's spiritually impotent. His condition is one of utter
helplessness. God saw that the wickedness of
man was great in the earth. And every imagination of the
thought of his heart was evil continually. That's how God sees.
Because he looks upon the earth. That's the condition of men. Wicked, poor, alienated, envious. Again, Paul reminds us that the
carnal mind, that is the mind of the flesh, the fleshly mind,
the natural mind. That, in many ways, is the noblest
part of a man, that faculty of his soul. He's not a brute beast. He has a mind. But what of his
natural mind? Paul says it's enmity against
God. It is not subject to the Lord
of God, neither indeed can be. How emphatic the language is
there. He doesn't just say neither can
be, he introduces that word indeed. It is not subject to the Lord
of God, this natural mind of mine. It is not subject to the
Lord of God, neither indeed can be. The natural mind is enmity
against God. That's our condition. And of course this is the purpose
of the law of God. To show us what we are as sinners.
We know, says Paul, that what thing soever the law saith, it
saith to them who are under the law, that every mouth may be
stopped, and all the world become guilty before God. Therefore
by the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in
his sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin. To whom
is the law applied? It is applied to all. The law
is applied to those who are in that natural condition that every
mouth may be stopped. That's the condemning power of
the law, that's the lawful use of the law. It's not made for
the righteous man, it's not made for the justified man. All that
sinner saved by the grace of God, he's been delivered from
the curse of the Lord of God. He's now subject to those gospel
precepts. The Lord is not the believer's
Lord of life. You know what? The Apostle says when he writes
to Timothy, 1 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 8, he says, We know
that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, knowing this
that the law is not made for a righteous man, but for the
lawless and disobedient, for the ungodly and for sinners,
for unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers,
for whoremongers, for them that defile themselves with mankind,
for men-stealers, for liars, for perjured persons, and if
there be any other thing that is contrary to sound doctrine,
there is a lawful use of the law. And what does the law do? It serves the gospel. The law
was our schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. The gospel has
the priority. Again there in Galatians chapter
3, and verse 17 Paul speaks about the promise of the gospel was
430 years before the law that is that promise that God gave
to Abraham is prior to the law the gospel has that primary position
and the law serves the gospel So when God reveals to the sinner
the secrets of his heart, when God comes and makes us to see
what we are and where we are, when he makes us to feel our
impotence, our helplessness, when God shuts us in to our sin
of unbelief, that sin which so easily besets us, Oh, He has
a glorious and a gracious ending for you. It doesn't end there,
does it? God is pleased to deliver the sinner. Having
turned the man to destruction, God says to that man, return
a guy. Oh, Moses knew it. Thou turnest
man to destruction and sayest, return ye children of men. He brings the man to the end,
the complete and the utter end of himself, that he might reveal to that
poor sinner his grace in the gospel. Look at what it says here in
verse 19 concerning Daniel. Then was the secret revealed
unto Daniel, in a night vision, then Daniel blessed the God of
heaven. It was revealed to Daniel. But there is a God in heaven
that revealeth secrets. Again, in verse 30, Daniel says, As
for me, this secret is not revealed to me for any wisdom that I have
more than any living. It's not because we're wise.
It's nothing of ourselves. It's all of God. It's all of
grace. God has to show it to us. We
don't attain it by applying our own puny minds and seeking to
unravel these things. We have to come as pure dependents
upon the grace of God. Paul had to learn that when he
was small. He thought he was the most learned. And he was
in many ways. He'd been trained at the feet of Gamaliel. But
what does he say when he writes of his own experience of the
grace of God there in Galatians chapter 1? When it pleased God who separated
me from my mother's womb and called me by His grace to reveal
His Son in me. Ultimately it's a revelation.
That's what salvation is. It is a revelation from God. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. He will show them His covenant. God has to show us the covenant
and that great salvation. And see how it's bound up with
fear, the fear of the Lord. The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear Him. The wise man tells us in the
opening chapter of the Proverbs that the fear of the Lord is
the beginning of knowledge. But what is that knowledge that
goes hand in hand with the fear of the Lord? It's that knowledge
of God in Christ. That they might know Thee, praise
the Lord Jesus Christ, the only true God and Jesus Christ whom
Thou hast sent. That's the knowledge we need
to have, that knowledge of God as he has revealed himself in
Christ. And you must ask God for it. Only God can give it,
I can't give it. No other person can give it,
it's God's prerogative to make that blessed secret known, to
reveal himself. But here is your comfort tonight,
there is a God in heaven. that reveal a secret, or that
the Lord might come and reveal that blessed secret, His great
salvation, that eternal covenant to you, that you might know it,
because you know yourself. He reveals to you what you are. There is that law work, but it
is to this end that you might know that salvation, that is
to be found only in the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Lord grant
it for His name's sake. Amen.