Things secret and revealed

Seeking for the help of the Lord, I direct your prayerful attention to Deuteronomy chapter 29 and reading for 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 for ever, that we may do all the words of this law." Deuteronomy 29 and verse 29.

Now, I want to put this text into context first. We began the reading at the beginning of this chapter And we are told that these are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. So in Horeb, in Mount Sinai, the Ten Commandments were given some 40 years or 38 years before this time. Now this time they're in the plains of Moab. They are soon to go into the promised land.

All of those that were older than 20 years of age, they had been destroyed in the wilderness. During that time they had died. And so it was those that were under that age that still would have remembered the first giving of the law, and they would have remembered the going out of Egypt, the Red Sea Crossing, and all that had happened in the wilderness. Remember when the law was first given, then immediately it was broken. Even while the law was being given, the children of Israel under Aaron, who was the high priest and should have known better, they had made the golden calf and were worshipping that and saying that this is what brought them out from Egypt.

When Moses came down from the mount, God had told him what they were doing. But when Moses saw what they were doing, he was angry. He cast down the tables of stone. They were broken at the bottom of the mount. Then Moses made intercession for the people, that the Lord would not destroy them, and that he would have mercy upon them.

The Law was then written again, and it was then put on those new tables of stone in the sides of the Ark. The Ark is a type of Christ. It prefigured that the Lord Jesus Christ would fulfill the Law on behalf of His people. He would make it honorable.

And there, even at Sinai, with the Law, is the Gospel. the gospel where men are taught their own sinfulness and the broken law that they have broken but that same law that the Lord himself has fulfilled and given in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So really in a way There is the gospel in a summary for 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 and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh. Romans, that would be Romans 8 and verse 2. And so, that is our hope, that is the hope for all the people of God for heaven. in that Christ has suffered the wrath of God for us, and He has filled the law for us, He has made way back to God through the Red Sea of His blood.

He is our peace. But then we come to this time before they go into the Promised Land. Now what is this covenant? This covenant is beside the covenant. it doesn't replace but is beside the covenant that he made with them in Horeb now we might say well it is a second giving of the law and in one sense yes it is but it must have been a very perplexing thing to read this and maybe be reminded what a covenant is a covenant it makes promises God makes promises to men but it requires responses from man and yet we are told in verse 4 chapter 29 yet the Lord had not given you and heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day so he is making a covenant but he is telling them straight away that they cannot keep their side of the covenant so we might think what good is a covenant like that how how can that promise us life when the Lord says that we cannot change our heart we cannot make our heart right and he has not as yet to this day given us a heart to serve him and to fear him and yet in verse 13 the Lord is saying that he may establish thee today for a people unto himself so there's an expectation that under this covenant that he would make us to be his people a people for himself and then we have a warning in verse 19 against those that would presume those that would hear the words of this curse.

And he blessed himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst, presumptuous sins. Well, so many We sin presumptuously, the children of Israel had done so even going up when they were told not to after the Lord had rejected them those 38 years before. But there's a warning here against presumptuous sins, sinning that grace might abound. You think are they parallel to this? in Romans 6, where after in Romans 4 and 5, the Apostle Paul establishes that we are saved by grace. We are saved solely upon Christ's merit, not by our own works, but by being justified by faith in Christ alone. And then he says, what shall we say then? Shall we sin that grace might abound? God forbid. How shall I continue in sin if I am made dead to sin?

And so then we have further on in this chapter going from verse 24 to the end the judgments that were really to be coming upon this people. And so the words before this text must have been very perplexing to this people. How could it be that on one side this is a covenant and then the Lord hasn't given a heart to keep that covenant he warns against presumptuous sins but he says that he's going to make them his people and also he's going to judge them for their sins and then comes the word of our text 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 we might think the first giving of the law and the revelation of Christ fulfilling that law that shows how we are saved in Christ but really this chapter and this is pointing to the gospel but this chapter shows how that that is applied to the people of God how it is made over to them, and how it shall be evidenced in their lives, though they are sinners still, how it shall be made that they are found complete in Christ. So, the end part there, that we may do all the words of this law.

The end result is that it be an obedient people, a people to serve the Lord, but it is not their serving that is their hope of salvation. It is not their obedience that assures their heaven. It is Christ's obedience. And yet here in this covenant, This is pointing to where the Lord will put in the hearts of His people to serve Him, to change the heart, renew the will, turn the feet to Zion's hill.

You and I need the application of the Gospel in our own lives. There's no use, as it were, knowing everything in theory and knowing the doctrines of grace if it doesn't work out in our own lives. And we understand clearly how it is that we can, yet still grown in the body of sin and of death, and yet have a scriptural, a right God-given hope of heaven. and so there are several aspects that I want to look at and firstly is the literal Israel salvation as as a nation we would remember that there is a application of the word to Israel itself as a nation and then secondly the gospel that which does apply to all Israelites but also applies to the Gentiles and to all that are saved and then lastly to look at it maybe a little bit out of context but in our own lives those things that are secret those things that are revealed there's always be and this text intimates there will be things that we would like to know but God has hidden from us and there may be those of you this afternoon you're gathering and things in your life you say i can't understand this i don't know why God is doing this and you're perhaps trying to fathom it trying to understand it may this word be an answer in part may be that there are those things that are secret they belong to god And there are those things that are revealed, and that we cannot, we must not pry into those, but just to leave those things with God. What I do thou knowest not now, thou shalt know hereafter, maybe in time, but certainly in eternity.

So I want to look at literal Israel.

Now for this we must go to the New Testament and to go to Romans. Romans 9 through to 11. And in the beginning of Romans chapter 9, we have Paul saying, I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing the witness in the Holy Ghost, that I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. For I wish, could wish, that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.

And he speaks to them who were Israelites. To them pertained the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, the promises. And if you read that chapter, then you read of the sovereignty of God. Jacob have I loved, Esau have I hated.

God's sovereign choice of people his power like the potter has to make a one lump to honor another and to dishonor and so he looks at the people and in Paul's day you know the children of Israel they'd gone through from since the reading where we have our text they'd been carried into Babylon captivity and God has judged them according to as he said, he's brought them out again, he's brought Christ to them, they've rejected Christ, they've crucified him, the gospel is then sent forth into the world, it has been taken from the Jews, it is gone to the Gentiles.

What about the Jews? What about the people of God? God's sovereignty and so Paul he says in in Romans 10 that his heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be saved And yet he views them that they are ignorant of God's righteousness and going about to establish themselves. They're trying to fulfill the law to obtain heaven and favor with God through their own works and own deeds. they were ignorant of that which is by faith.

I want to come back to this under the gospel sense because these verses in Romans 10 they speak very much to us and really everyone Jew and Gentile from Adam to the last one have all been saved and will all be saved in the same way by faith in Jesus Christ By grace shall ye be saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.

Paul then in chapter 11, he asks and he says in verse 1, hath God cast away his people? What a question, we could ask that today. Has He really cast away Israel? And the answer is, God forbid. He says, and uses Himself as an example, that He is an Israelite of the seed of Abraham. So there, He's one proof that God has not cast away His people.

And so then, He speaks of a remnant according to the election of grace that have been saved. In verse 6, If by grace, then it is no more works, otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be works, then it is no more grace, otherwise work is no more work. It's a good thing to remember that verse. We are either saved by our own works and deeds, or saved by grace.

It cannot be part one and part of the other. You're saved by faith in Christ alone, and that faith has been given by a gift of the Lord Jesus Christ, sovereignly, freely, given by God. Without that gift, none would be saved, because none have natural faith, and none have a natural ability to serve God. God has not given us that. That's part of the curse, part of that in the day that thou eat thereof, thou shalt surely die.

But then he says later on how that God has given them that spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see.

And he says, now, if the fall of them, verse 12, be the riches of the Gentiles, diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles, how much more their fullness. so then he speaks of them being brought back in again if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world or the going to the gentiles what shall be shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead now at this time with the jews hostile against the lord yes millions have been saved have been called but as a nation still rejecting the messiah still looking for another's christ while they're like that they're not to be viewed any different than any other unbeliever or sinner or those that are rejecting christ but there is that which the scriptures seem to really indicate that they shall be brought back and there shall be a time when nationally or perhaps you know individual by individual but in a remarkable way that it be clearly seen that there be brought back into the fold again And so he says in verse 25 of Romans 11, For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits, that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles become end. And so all Israel shall be saved, as it is written, There shall come out a sign, the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob." And so he is teaching at that time that the Jews shall be grafted back in again.

Of course, they have been brought back to their own land as in a nation. Sometimes we can pass over this and think, well, what if we live before the war, before the Second World War? And we think that those 2,000 years from Christ, or nearly that, that the Jews had never, they hadn't had their own land. They're scattered through all the nations. And that in the lifetime of our fathers, that they have been brought back as a nation.

All the troubles and all how they've been brought back, this is all under God's hand. and there's a saying watch Israel for for God does and it is good for us to to do that so when we think of these promises given to Israel and we then join that with Romans we are looking at things that apply to them as a nation and that will be fulfilled one day and those that are saved they'll be saved in the same way as the gentiles be brought to acknowledge believe like john right through his gospel points that Jesus of Nazareth is the Son of God that's the the crucial point and to to believe and to be saved by faith in his name and it will be the Lord that gives them a heart to do that and brings that about just the same as he's brought them back to their own land as well But I want to look then to the Gospel itself in our second point. If we were to look in the second chapter that we read, Deuteronomy 30, Then we start to see the beauty of the Gospel, and remember our text, the latter part of it, that we may do all the words of this law.

It's looking at a people that are changed, a people that are obedient, a people that have a new heart, a new desire, not perfect, not spotless is not to work a righteousness of their own but is to have a heart made right let me just think of Romans 7, the Apostle Paul, the good that I would I do not, the evil that I would not, that I do, a wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?

I thank God through Jesus Christ my Lord, so with the flesh I serve the law of sin, with my mind I serve the law of God, his heart, his mind, has been changed. He has a conflict with the old nature, he's still a sinner, but he's got a new creation, a new nature, he's got a new heart. and God has given that and so we have in verse 6 of Deuteronomy 30 and the Lord will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul that thou mayest live there's a gospel that's what the Lord is going to do we read of it in Ezekiel In Ezekiel 36 you read through that chapter, same promises to give a new heart, a clean heart. To give what we haven't got by by nature and He says not for your sakes do I this saith the Lord be it known unto you be ashamed and confounded For your own sake so house of Israel he says I will and I will sprinkle clean water upon you and And ye shall be cleaned from all your filthiness, and all your idols will I cleanse you. Ezekiel 36 verse 25. A new heart also will I give you, a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments unto them. save you from all your uncleannesses. These are gospel promises, these are what God says that He will do.

Now if we look even further on in Deuteronomy 30 what we read, we read from verse 11, For this commandment which I command thee this day is not hidden from thee, and think of these words, we'll read them here, then we'll read the same equivalent words applied in a Gospel sense by the Apostle Paul in Romans 10. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off, It is not in heaven that thou shouldst say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it again it's pointing to an effect in our lives to be you doers of the word says our lord not here is only deceiving your own selves and so going to romans 10 we find the apostle as we mentioned before seeing his people trying to obtain salvation by their own works ignorant of god's righteousness the perfect righteousness of Christ and going after trying to make themselves acceptable to God.

Maybe some of you are trying the same thing. trying to be good, trying to think right thoughts, trying to work things right, not just because you hate sin and want to please God, but you're trying to earn salvation, you're trying to obtain salvation, you're trying to give yourselves a blessing through your own works, but Lord will make sure that He mars all of that, He makes sure that there's sin mixed with everything, and you see it, and you feel it, and you think, however can I be saved? Well, the apostle here, he says of his countrymen, they would not be saved in that way. And then he says from verse six, what the righteousness is, which is of faith. Now he says this, it speaketh on this wise, Now think of how exact this is, as he quotes this from Deuteronomy 30. Say not in thine own heart, in thine own heart, who shall ascend into heaven, that is, to bring Christ down from above? Or who shall descend into the deep, that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead? But what saith it?

The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thine heart, Now listen to this. That is the word of faith which we preach, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. where the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. So immediately he's going from Deuteronomy to the Word that is preached. And what is preached? It is the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. What is the good news of the Gospel? That Christ has fulfilled the Law and made it honourable. He has endured the wrath of God.

He has brought in an everlasting righteousness that shall be imputed or put on the account of those of His people. How are His people known? They are known. They are known by calling. They are known by the new heart He gives them. willingness to submit and to humble themselves before Him.

A belief in the Lord Jesus Christ, a being brought back to God. You think of Israel all the time they went to idols, so have we. You think of Paul at Mouse Hill, serving all those idols they were, he declared unto them the true and living God. This is the Gospel that God puts in the hearts of His people to return to Him, to look to Him, to trust in Him, to believe in Him, His finished work at Calvary, and that that work not only puts away their sin but in time when they are born they are born again and they are called by his grace and brought to know the lord now let us go back to our text again our text says the secret things belong unto the lord our god but those things which are revealed belonging to us And to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

Paul has spoken of the sovereignty of God in election, of Jacob, have I loved Esau, have I hated? He has spoken of those secret things. We do not know who the Lord's people are. We know there is a Lamb's Book of Life. We know there are a people of which Christ says, thine they were, thou gavest them me. There are a people that Paul says in Ephesians 1, that were chosen in Christ from before the foundation of the world, we know that there are a people chosen by God, elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father. whom he did foreknow, them he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son.

Those he did predestinate he also called, and them whom he called he also justified, and whom he justified them ye also glorified. And it is the calling that is under the gospel, it is calling that makes known our election, that makes known the secret things of God.

And for you and I, seeking the grace and help of God, we are not to be prying into the secret things of God. Your inquiry, my inquiry, should not be, am I elect? Am I a child of God? Am I one that God has foreknown? But our inquiry should be that how may we be found just before God, and to receive the Gospel, to know that those that the Lord saves, He gives life in the new birth, He gives a hearing ear, He gives a heart, to serve Him and to inquire after Him and so we are to follow that which the Lord gives us and in doing that We shall look back, we shall see it was the Lord that hath wrought all our works in us.

He was the One that inclined our heart after Him. He was the One that began a good work within us. He was the One that made us to feel our want. He was the One that brought us to hear the Gospel, and to be able to receive it, and not reject it, and not hate it.

This is God's work, and this is what we should be looking at, not the secret things, but the things that are revealed, and they aim, the whole aim of it, is that we might be obedient children, we might follow according to the light given, the understanding given, that we might walk in His ways.

It's a solemn thing, and I've heard it said by some in the past, who have known what the Lord has commanded and what they should do, and that they have said to me, if I am called by grace, then I will do it. Well, that is virtually saying God has shown me what is right, but I refuse to do it until I know I'm one of his children. That is not the way that we should be walking. The Lord shows us what is right, we are to walk in that way.

And when we sin, when we feel we cannot fulfill, we cannot do the words of God, instead of just saying, well, it's the Lord's fault, He hasn't worked in us, to humble ourselves under the hand of God, to confess our sins. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And we have the aim in view of God in salvation, in calling, is to first bring a people back to God, and then is to make a people obedient and willing and to serve Him. And He is the one that brings back, and He is the one that works in us to will and to do of His own good pleasure. But for us, those things that are revealed, are really the whole Word of God, that we should be obedient, follow, serve Him, and seek to know what is pleasing in His sight, what is the right and what is the good way, and not to be prying into things that are hidden.

And so this is why we have this verse right in the middle of the revealing of the covenant, this covenant beside that made in Horeb, is a covenant then that Paul is speaking of, that is fully realized in the preaching of the gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, which is not far off from us. but is the very Word that is preached. Verse 8 in Romans 10, But what saith it?

The Word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart. That is the Word of faith which we preach, the Word of faith, the faith that God has given, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Remember, salvation, the only requirement for salvation, is faith in Jesus Christ is believing in him this is why the Philip when the eunuch he preached unto him Jesus and he desired to be baptized what Philip required if thou believest with all thine heart thou mayest he said I believe that Jesus Christ is the son of God And upon that profession he was baptized. And with the heart man believeth, with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.

And so the Apostle Paul is saying here, this is the word of faith that we preach. So there's not faith and works for salvation. There's not faith and baptism for salvation. Faith that God gives in His Beloved Son is the sole cause and sole requirement of salvation.

Works will be the fruit. Obedience will be the fruit of what God has wrought in. They won't be the cause of it. It'll be the fruit. Always remember that. from me is thy fruit found and yes where the work is real there will be fruit if one says well i'm a christian i believe but their life is no different they live like the world they speak like the world they have the world's music the world's amusements the world's attitude that doesn't answer to a changed heart the lord changes the heart But we must remember that that change is a fruit of the faith in Him that is wrought. We must not add anything other than faith in Christ alone. nothing joined with that this was the thing of course with luther with the roman catholic church will join that you've got to have baptism and you've got to have other things added it is not to be added but the fruit comes from the lord he gives a beautiful type in john 15 of the vines the branch cannot bear fruit of itself unless it abide in the vine, neither can ye bear being for fruit except he abide in me. And it's to the honor and to the glory of God. And so when the Lord has changed the heart and given us faith in Him, that he will give also that willingness.

Like Paul said, as soon as he was converted on that Damascus road, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And if that is your inquiry, that is mine. Lord, how can my ways please Thee? What wilt Thou have me to do? How should I obey Thee? How should I walk in Thy footsteps and in Thy ways? What shall be pleasing in Thy sight? Well, it's not pleasing in the Lord's sight if we are using our works as a bargaining and saying, well, I've done good. I've done charity works and I keep thy law so you must give me heaven. That's not pleasing in the sight of the Lord.

No, it is confessing our sins and confessing our hope is solely in Christ alone. And then we seek to do that which is pleasing unto him because of love. to him if he loved me keep my commandments and that will flow forth where love is to the lord then we'll seek to do that which is pleasing in his sight well perhaps just one thought before we close this second point the work of the spirit the secret work of the spirit Our Lord speaks in John 3 of the Spirit's work as like the wind, so soft, so still. Do you remember this? Don't look for great signs, great wonders, great words from heaven even, but that the Spirit's work in us will be gentle and soft.

But it will always lead to Christ. It will be like John the Baptist, I must decrease, he must increase. So more and more we think less of ourselves and more of Christ. And to be drawn to him, the spirit he shall receive of mine shall show it unto you. But remember, the spirit never speaks of himself. And so, it is in the background, it is We are not looking for signs and wonders.

Our Lord said that to one that coming, seeking healing for, I think it was his servant, except you see signs and wonders you will not believe. And then the Lord said to him, go thy way, thy son liveth. It was thy son liveth. And he went his way. He believed the word and found the son living. And we need that as well, to go our way, to serve the Lord, to seek to be obedient to Him, and looking for our own hope, our only hope in Christ crucified, risen again, ascended up into heaven, making intercession for us. I want to look then in our third point, in our lives, secret and revealed.

We might think with the Word of God there are many things that we'd like to know a bit more about. The building of the Ark, well we're not told much what happened during those 120 years think of the children of israel through the wilderness how did people like that come to learn war and to be able to go in and destroy the nations we don't receive read about their training there are men or their war maneuvers in the wilderness or anything like that but that must have happened there's many many things that are silent in the word of god but the lord tells us that which we do need don't be tempted and i fear this with many in the ministry today they feel they need other books alongside the bible They need to know the customs of the land and to interpret the Bible according to the customs and they're all the time adding what is not in the Bible just to interest the hearers. But that's defeating what the Lord has done. The Lord has said what you need for salvation is in the Holy Word of God.

Not all in these other books. It is scripture alone, yes we may be able to obtain some help from other books but dear friends don't be turned away to things that just help the old man It is Christ and Him crucified, the theme right through the Scriptures. That's what we want. That's what we need.

And so, remember this, those secret things, things He hasn't revealed, leave them aside. And those things He has revealed, those are things that are vital for us. And then in Providence, with our lives, There may be things that we never understand. Why did that happen? Why was I permitted or appointed to do that? Why did this sickness come or this affliction come? We may never know why, but to trust in a why all seeing God who never afflicts willingly nor crushes underfoot the sons of men. It is important for us to realize this.

Joseph was given about the dreams the expectation of his brethren bowing down to him. But God didn't tell him the details. He had to walk it out, being sold by his brethren, falsely accused and imprisoned. Abraham was told that he should inherit that land. His family should be a stranger in a strange land. But all how it happened, he wasn't told that. Joseph When he was taken away from his father, his father thought he was dead for 22 years. God revealed it not to him. It was secret.

And so with us in our lives, there may be many things with you this afternoon. You think, that puzzles me. And maybe the devil tries to make it a stumbling block. Well, why is this? Interpret this. And you can't. Well, dear friend, may you this afternoon Leave those things with the Lord. Leave them with Him. He knows why. He knows why. May you trust in that wise God who provided His beloved Son to suffer, bleed and die, to pay our debt and to give us a heart and a will to serve Him and to follow after Him.

I remember Alice Robinson years ago, and her brother went on a bus tour. He'd been telling jokes on the bus, and he sat down and he died. I don't feel she had really a hope of his soul. And you know her response was, in the words of the hymn that we've just sung, be found recorded in some humble place beneath my Lord the Lamb." Sometimes we need to leave loved ones, leave unanswered questions regarding those that we'd like to know.

Are they well? What happened to them? Are they the Lord's? Were they the Lord's or not? And the important thing, and it's not selfish, but when we view our own souls and own need, O may my be found recorded in some humble place beneath my Lord the Lamb." Well, Lord, bless this word to you. 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. Amen.

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Things secret and revealed

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