Let's turn this morning in our
Bibles to the book of Job. The book of Job chapter 15. Job chapter 15. I've heard a
secret. I've heard a secret. I'm going to tell you about it
this morning. And if you're normal, I think most of us are, in this
regard, I bet you want to know what the secret is. If you see
somebody over in a corner going, psst, psst, psst, psst, the first
thing you want to know is, what are they talking about? Are they
telling secrets? And I don't mean just gossipy
things. Our first thought when we know somebody else knows a
secret is, tell me. I know how to drive Rebecca Plumb
crazy. Just say, did you hear, oh, no,
you don't want to, no. So it's like, tell me, tell me,
tell me. You got to know that secret. And a secret, by definition,
is something not commonly known by everyone. And the almost universal reaction
to finding out there's a secret is to want to hear the secret.
It doesn't matter whether it's good news or bad news, we want
to hear the secret. And listen to this little thing.
The more we think that the secret has to do with me, if you think
the secret has to do with you, you really want to know that
secret, don't you? You want to know which one of
your secrets has come to light. Well, God, in his word, has a
question for each of us today. And it's the most important question
anybody's ever asked us. You will never in your lifetime
hear a question that's more important than the one I'm going to ask
you straight out of God's word. Look at Job 15, verse 8, what
it says. It says, has thou heard the secret
of God? It's a good question, isn't it?
God's asking everybody in this room this morning, have you heard
the secret of God? Now this is a question we better
consider. Each of us had better find the
answer to this question, and it better be the honest answer.
Because our eternal destiny, where we spend all eternity,
depends on our answer to this question, have you heard the
secret of God? I want to answer that in four
little brief words. The first word is, have you heard
the secret of God? This is God's secret. Could anyone
but a fool be surprised that God actually knows something
that's not commonly known to everybody? Is that a surprise
to anybody this morning, that God might have a secret or so,
hmm? God knows everything. I know
we think we know a lot, don't we? That's the best thing about
children. The older they get, the more
they realize they don't know everything. They just think they do. Truth
is, we know so little. We know just about nothing about
anything. And if we have a wrong view of
who God is, we'll never hear the secret of God. Let me show
you that. Turn to Jeremiah 23. This world
is now and always has been full of those who say they know the
secret of God. They claim to know. And we would call them false
preachers. The Scriptures call them false prophets. Same thing.
And they haven't heard the secret. And you know the funny thing
about a secret? If you haven't heard it, you
can't tell anybody, can you? But you know, do you remember
junior high days? Some of you young people might
be living through them right now, or high school where one
of your friends came up to you and said, did you hear about
Jamie Sue? Now you don't want to be, you
want to be on the in crowd, you want to be on the know, so you
haven't heard anything about Jamie Sue. But rather than admit
you don't know, you go, yeah, Hmm, yeah, hmm. In hopes they're
now going to tell you what the secret is. And then you'll know
too, and you won't be embarrassed because you didn't know. You
know that's what false preachers are doing in this day? They don't
have a clue what the secret of God is, so they're just making
something up, acting like they know. It's been that way from
the fall of Adam. Look here in Jeremiah 23. Verse 21, I have not sent these prophets,
these preachers, and yet they ran. I've not spoken to them,
yet they're preaching anyway. He says, but if they had stood
in my counsel, if they'd heard the secret, if they'd heard me
preach the word, They caused my people to hear my words too.
Then they should have turned them from their evil way and
from the evil of their doings. He says, Am I a God at hand,
saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Let me make a point
about that verse right there, especially to you young people.
True enough, you get far enough away from your parents and you
can probably do something that you're going to have to keep
a secret the rest of your life. You just hope they're not going
to find out. And you can probably pull that off, but you really
don't want to, because most likely they are going to find out. I
tell you what, not a one of you, Jeffrey, there's no chance that
you're going to reach over and pinch your sister right now. You're sitting between your parents.
They're right there. But now maybe this evening, You catch her sitting by herself
and you come up and give her one. You're going to get away
with it. It's going to be your secret, right? God's saying, you know,
you can, they're your parents just because they're your parents
right here doesn't mean they're not your parents when you're
not right there with them either. God says, just because I'm not
a God and we're sitting next to you doesn't mean I'm, because
I'm in the heaven of heaven doesn't mean I'm not God. Doesn't mean
I don't see what you're doing. Do we see that? Am I a God at
hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar? Verse 24. Can anybody
hide himself in some secret place? Do you think you've got a secret
place God doesn't know about? Whether it's a physical place
in your mind or in your heart. that I don't see you, saith the
Lord? Do not I fill heaven and earth,
saith the Lord? He says, I've heard what these
fellows, these false prophets are saying, that prophesy lies
in my name, saying I've dreamed a dream. You see, they don't
know the secrets, so they're just making one up, dreaming
one up. How long shall this be in the heart of the prophets
that prophesy lies? Yea, they are prophets of the
deceit of their own heart, which think to cause my people to forget
my name by their dreams, which they tell every man to his neighbor,
as their fathers have forgotten my name for Baal, a false god. They make, when they don't tell
the true secret, they're making you think God's somebody He's
not. He gets another name. Verse 28, the prophet that hath
a dream, let him tell a dream, and he that hath my word, the
true preacher, let him speak my word faithfully. What's the
chaff to the wheat, saith the Lord? It's not my word like a
fire, saith the Lord, and like a hammer that breaks the rock
in pieces. One of these days, God's going to burn up everybody
and everything. It's a lie. That's what He's
going to do. That's why the question's important.
Have you heard the secret of God? This is God's secret. And the biggest lie they tell
is about the Lord Jesus Christ, who He is. Listen to what they
say. And you can turn on your TV,
and I don't recommend you do much of this, but you can turn
it on often enough to find out what I'm telling you the truth
this morning. Here's what they say. They say God is less than
what God's Word says He is. They say Jesus is the Son of
God. Now, you say, that's a good thing. Well, it's true. He is the Son
of God. But listen, listen to them, and isn't this what they
do? They say, Jesus this, and Jesus that, and Jesus and the
other, and Jesus, isn't that what they say he is? Let me tell
you why that's not enough. That's not accurate. Let me illustrate
this. If I say, Somebody's name is
Bird, and I want you to know who I'm thinking about. Now you're
thinking Larry Bird, you're thinking Big Bird, you might be thinking
about Zack Bird, okay? You could be thinking a lot of
birds. Let's say I give the name Bonar, B-O-N-A-R. Well, you might
think, well, that's, in the Bible, there's Horatio Bonar. He was
a famous preacher. He wrote that hymn, I Heard the
Voice of Jesus Say. You might think that's who I'm
talking about. What if I say the name Lynn? Oh, you think,
oh, we're thinking of Lynn Knapper. Or we're thinking of Lynn Tindall.
Oh, I might know Lynn at school. Is that who we're talking about?
What if I say the name Kelly? Oh, my daughter's name is Carrie
Grace. It might be her. It's close.
You see how confusing all this can be? But now let me give you
this name together. Kelly Lynn Boner Byrd. You know who that
is? She's right there. She's the
only one in the building. Any confusion now about who we're
talking about? I tell you, when false preachers say Jesus this
and Jesus that, they don't know who they're talking about. They're
making this thing up. They are not talking. His name
is the Lord Jesus Christ. He's Lord. He's God of gods. He's king of kings. He rules
and reigns. He's almighty. His name is Jesus. That's accurate. He's the savior
of his people. He's their only redeemer and
savior. And his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. He is God's Christ. He's God's anointed. So when
we talk about him, we better be telling who he really is.
And that's one way to identify the false prophet. He doesn't
call Him by His full name. We ought to use it out of respect
and reverence and fear. And you know He is the Son of
God, but that's just not all He is. They say Jesus wants to
save you, but you have to let Him. They say Jesus loves everybody. Well, isn't it sort of a strange
love that lets people you love go to hell? If Jesus loves everybody, He's
got a strange way of showing it. They say Jesus is waiting
on your call. The truth is, God waits for no
one's call. If we don't get a call from Him,
we'll never hear the secret of God. The God they make up, He's
a little God. The true and living God is God
Almighty. He's a huge God. He's the all-seeing
God. He's the all-knowing God. He's
the all and an all God. That's who Jesus Christ is. And
false prophets make Him less than what He is. But the false
preacher, secondly, the way to recognize a false prophet They
make God less than He is. But secondly, they make man more
than He is. More than He is. The Word of
God clearly declares, clearly declares. Turn with me to Isaiah
40. Turn to Isaiah 40 with me. The false preachers say man is
free. He has a free will. Well, God's
Word says man's not free. It says he's a captive. He's
a slave to sin. They say man is basically good,
but slips up now and then. God's Word says there's none
good. No, not one. They say let God. Let God? What kind of God do
you have? Do you got to let Him do something?
The only way you get to do anything is if God lets you. Let's see
you take another breath without the grace of God this morning.
You'll be dead in the aisle here. God lets, man doesn't let. And in Isaiah 40 verse 18, to whom then will you liken God?
Or what likeness will you compare unto him? The workman melts a
graven image and the goldsmith spreads it over with gold and
casting silver chains. You see what they did in the
old days, they would make up a god by actually carving something
out of wood and then beating metal around it and putting him
in the corner or up on the wall. Or back in Nebuchadnezzar's day,
they made Dagon one, he was 90 feet tall, made out of solid
gold. And nothing's changed. You go
in one of the hospitals here in town, and on the wall of every
room, you're going to find a little thing, a man who's wrapped in
a loincloth, nailed to the wall. He's an idol. You see, he's somebody
made up, because they didn't know the answer to the question,
didn't know the secret of God. Look back at verse 20. And he that's so impoverished,
Somebody who's so poor that they can't make one of gold, they
choose a tree and carve it out of that and hire some cunning
workman to prepare a graven image. Verse 21, Have you not known? Have you not heard? That's the
question I asked this morning. Have you heard the secret of
God? Have you heard God's secret?
Folks who haven't heard them make an image, an idol. Hath
it not been told you from the beginning, have you not understood
from the foundation of the earth? It is he that sitteth upon the
circle of the earth and the inhabitants thereof as our grasshoppers that
search out the heavens as a curtain and spread them out as a tent
to dwell in. They bringeth the princess to
nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. Yea,
they shall not be planted. Look down at verse 25. To whom
then will you liken me? Or shall I be equal, saith the
Holy One? The false prophet makes man equal
to God. Verse 26. Lift up your eyes on
high, and behold who hath created these things, and bringeth out
their host by number. He calleth them by their name.
Verse 28, has thou not known, here's the question again, have
you not heard? It's hearing, hearing the secret
told to you. That the everlasting God, the
Lord, the creator of the ends of the earth faints not, neither
is weary, there's no searching of his understanding. Can you
imagine this? Can you imagine walking out your
door one morning and standing there on the sidewalk and here's
a grasshopper who's come up on the sidewalk? And he looks up
at you and says, you know, this morning I'm going to let you
walk in the yard. That grasshopper is going to be most fortunate
if you don't go, let's see you not let me step on you. You see how ridiculous it is?
Comparing us to grasshoppers is insulting the grasshopper.
He has more sense than that. He flies away when you come out
the door, doesn't he? He gets out of your way. If we
ever see who God is, we'll understand how insignificant we are. And
that's what the true preacher is going to tell you. We're just
like vapor, we're like air. The Word of God clearly declares
who man is. Man at his best states altogether
vanity. Just nothing. Turn to Romans
chapter 2. Outwardly, some of us look pretty
good. Especially if you're this morning
comparing yourself to me. If you're looking up at me and
going, who do you think you are, pal? Telling me how bad I am. I'm a grasshopper? Well, you'd
be right. You go compare yourself to me,
you'll come out looking pretty good. But which of us wants to talk
about our secrets? Oh, the things we've said and
done and thought, which we've kept secret from men and from
other folks, even from our wives or husbands, our children. Things
not commonly known to others. Hmm. You know, if we ever, ever
hear the secret of God, we will understand our problem is not
what we say or what we think or what we do. in secret or openly. Our problem is what we are. We
do evil because we are evil by nature. God made us good and
upright. He made Adam perfect. But Adam
sinned, and when he did, he became a sinner, and we're his children,
so we're sinners. Sometimes openly, sometimes in
secret. Why do we want our sins to be
hidden? Why do you kids do something you know you shouldn't? And you
just live in just every day, every moment, it's like, I hope
they don't find out about that. Because you knew you shouldn't
have done it. Even if they didn't tell you, you shouldn't have
done it. I'll show you a scripture in a second. The reason is because
our conscience tells us. God gives us a conscience so
we have some sense of what's right and wrong. And we violate
our conscience all the time. But the word of God tells us
too. And we try to hide our sin in a secret place. It's the first
thing Adam did, didn't he, when he got caught? Adam ate of the fruit and the
Lord said, where are you, Adam? He went and started picking leaves
and covering himself and going, I'm not here. I didn't do it.
Tried to keep it a secret. God said of Esau, I've uncovered
your secret places. The God of the Bible knows who
and what we are. We got no secrets before Him.
Look at Romans 2 verse 12. For as many as have sinned without
the law shall also perish without law, and as many as have sinned
in the law shall be judged by the law. You know, God gave the
Jews the law and yet the Gentiles knew what they shouldn't do. Nobody ever gave the guy in Africa
in a way back place, nobody ever gave him the law saying it's
wrong to kill and yet he knows it is. How does he know that?
Look at verse 14, for when the Gentiles, which have not the
law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these having
not the law, are a law unto themselves, which show the work of the law
written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness,
and their thoughts the meanwhile, accusing or else excusing one
another. Reread that, accusing or else
excusing. Here's what the false preacher
enables us all to do. He's standing up there saying,
God loves you. You're basically good. You just
got to stop doing those bad things you do. You know what he's doing? When you hear that message, what
you do is I sit, you know, I hear it out here and I look at John
Greenleaf and I go, well, I suppose I'm not as bad as John. And Dave
over here looks at me and says, you know, I guess I'm not as
bad as Bob. Somebody else is up here looking at Dave going,
I'm not as bad as Dave. You see, if we start accusing
somebody else, it's only for the purpose of excusing myself. Everybody can find somebody worse
than themselves. Adolf Hitler, he probably looked
at Joseph Stalin and he said, I only killed 6 million. He killed 50 million. Do we see
how absurd and Ridiculous that is. There's no truth in that. And look back here, you see either,
verse 15, either accusing or excusing one another. In the
day when God shall judge the secrets of men, there's going
to come a time when all this will be known, opened up. The
key to your mind and heart will be opened before everybody. And everybody will know what
God knows. which is that we're wicked from the sole of our foot
to the top of our head. And look what it says. The secrets
of men shall be judged by what? By Jesus Christ, according to
my gospel. Uh-oh. Uh-oh. You see, Paul,
it's not that he's going to judge you compared to me. You might
be okay that way. All right? Oh, but you got a
problem. I got a problem. We all got a
problem because we're going to be compared to Jesus Christ,
the righteous one. Jesus Christ lived 33 years.
Never once did he have a bad thought, much less do anything
wrong. He was perfect and righteous
for 33 years. Now stand up next to that if
you want to. That's who God's going to compare
us to and it says here the gospel of Jesus Christ. Folks, it's
not going to be the gospel of do the best you can gospel. It's
not going to be God loves you and has a wonderful plan for
your life gospel. No, it's going to be the gospel
of Jesus Christ. You know what that gospel is?
That gospel is justice and justified. Just and justified. If we're
not perfectly righteous, just like the Lord Jesus Christ, we've
had it. We're going to spend eternity
in a bad place. And if we aren't perfect enough
to come into God's presence, we're not coming into his presence.
That's the gospel of Jesus Christ. And you say, well, how can that
be considering what you just told me I am? I'll tell you what,
if you hear the secret of God, That's the key that will unlock
this. We can be just, and we can be
justified before God. The second word, have you heard
the secret of God? The second thing I want to point
out is, have you heard the secret? The secret, what's not commonly
known? The answer to that, notice, is
there an S on the word secret in your Bible? Not in mine. Not
a bunch of secrets, even though God knows things we've not dreamed
of. Men make inventions and think,
I'm an inventor. No, they're not. All God's done
is enabled you to see something that He's known forever. It was
a secret to Him because He knows everything. But we think, oh,
I discovered this. No, we just found out one of
God's secrets. But this says the secret, singular,
in my Bible. Turn over to Job 13, or Judges
13. The book, back to Judges 13. The secret is not some list of
information or truths or doctrines or facts. The secret's not a
place. It's not Jerusalem, it's not
the Holy Land, it's not a church, it's not a cathedral, it's not
a heaven, it's not a place. The secret of God, hang on here
now, is a person. It's a person. Say that doesn't
make any sense to me. Let's see if we can understand
it. There was a man named Manoah and his wife, he and his wife
were barren. That means they didn't have any
children and didn't think they could have any. Now, I've always
assumed that they wanted children and couldn't have them, but that's
not what the Bible says. And I'll make that point for
a reason. Look at Judges chapter 13, verse 1 or 2. There was a certain man of Zorah
of the family of the Danites, whose name was Manoah. And his
wife was barren and barren not. And the angel of the Lord appeared
unto the woman. And let me make this clear, the
angel of the Lord, this is the Lord Jesus Christ appearing before
he became a man. as a man appearing to them. Remember,
the word wasn't recorded back then. Manoah didn't have the
word to go to, to look to, to study. And the Lord appeared
to him, the angel of the Lord appeared to the woman and said,
Behold, now thou art barren, embarrass not, but thou shalt
conceive and bear a son. Do we realize that she wasn't
looking for the Lord? She wasn't looking to have children. And yet he came to her in mercy.
He's going to give her this great gift. And, you know, don't be
surprised when folks you love, you've heard the secret of God
and you want to tell them about it. Don't be much discouraged
or too distressed because they won't hear it. They don't want
to hear it. Don't care. You see, this is
a secret and yet it doesn't have to remain a secret. Anybody who
wants to hear the secret can hear the secret. That's all you've
got to do is ask. He said, I can't reconcile that,
but it's the truth. But look down at Judges 13, verse
15. And she went and told her husband,
and Manoah said unto the angel of the Lord, I pray thee, let
us detain thee until we shall have made ready a kid for thee.
And the angel of the Lord said to Manoah, though you detain
me, I won't eat your bread. God's not the God of these false
prophets. He says, won't you do this for God? Listen, he got
the cattle on a thousand hills. He doesn't need your piece of
bread to satisfy him. He says, if I was hungry, I wouldn't
ask you. And if you will offer a burnt offering, he said, if
you're going to detain me, then offer a burnt offering. Thou
must offer it unto the Lord. For Manoah, notice what this
says, Manoah knew not who this was. There was a time Manoah
didn't know the secret. And Manoah, now he was religious
enough to have said, I know I'm supposed to offer an offering.
Verse 17, Manoah said to the angel of the Lord, What's your
name? That when thy sayings come to pass, we may do the honor.
What Manoah is really saying is here, in case it happens,
like you say, Most folks got a wing and a prayer and a hope
for eternity. You know, if it's like God says
it is, I guess I better go to church. I guess I better find
out some of this, just in case they're right over there at such
and so church or whatever. And Manoah says, tell me your
name so I'll know who to tell in case it does happen. And look
what the Lord Jesus Christ says to him. The angel of the Lord
said unto him, why ask thou thus after my name? seeing that my
name is secret. You see, here's a person who
says, my name is secret. Does that cast a little light
on the question? Hast thou heard the secret of God? Has the Lord
Jesus Christ spoken to you? Have you heard him? That's the
question of questions. And you go on down through this
and you'll find out that Manoah You know, he told his wife, he
said, we've seen God. He said, He's going to kill us.
Who's going to live? If we ever see God, we find out
who He is, we will wonder, why didn't He just wipe me out? I'm
so wicked and evil and terrible, but He's shown me mercy. That's who the secret of God
is. Find Isaiah 48. Here's the third point. Hast thou heard the secret? And it's the secret of God. And
the third point is, have you heard? Heard. It must be heard. The secret must be heard. And the reason this has got to
be a person, you may have some understanding of the doctrine
of this or the doctrine of that or the truth of this or the truth
of that. But if you haven't heard and
seen the Lord Jesus Christ, you don't know the person. You don't
know the secret. I'm sorry. I don't know it if
I haven't seen him. And look here in Isaiah 48 verse
16. Come ye near to me And hear this, you see how important
hearing is? Hear this. I've not spoken this
in secret from the beginning, from the time that it was, there
am I, and now the Lord God and His Spirit sent me. Thus saith
the Lord thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord
thy God, which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee
by the way that thou shouldest go. Oh, that thou hadst hearkened
to my commandment, then thou hadst had peace. been as a river
in the righteousness of the waves of the sea." Oh, why don't folks
hear? They're not listening, not looking
for him. Manoah's wife wasn't looking
for him, and yet he came to her where she was. You know, I want
to make this point. It is a secret, but it doesn't
have to be. We can't hear if we don't have
ears. You can go up to a coffin. All
you want, the guy's laying there and you go, hey Joe, how's it
going? That's a terrible thing to say
to Joe. But if you're looking for Joe
to answer, you're barking up the wrong tree. And you and I
can't hear if we're dead in trespasses and sin as the scripture claims.
But if the Lord Jesus Christ comes where we are and gives
us ears to hear, then and only then can we hear the secret of
God. It must be heard. Now, the fourth
and final point is, have you, I've asked myself this
week, have you heard the secret of God? Have we heard? Turn back just a few pages to
Isaiah 45. We can see in the Scriptures
who does hear the secret. It's everyone that God calls
by His Spirit. They hear, you and I. And listen,
the Scriptures declare we know if we've heard and we know if
we haven't. We do know. We know. Look at Isaiah 45, verse
3. I will give thee the treasures
of darkness and the hidden riches of secret places that thou mayest
know. that I, the Lord, which call
thee, you see how it happens? He calls, we hear. And then we
know. By thy name, he said, I, the
Lord, which call thee, by thy name, am the God of Israel. For
Jacob my service saith, and Israel mine elect, People hate election? Why? Why? That's how it works. He calls, we answer. That's all
election means. He calls, we answer. We hear,
we know the secret. I've even called thee by your
name. I've surnamed thee, though thou hast not known me. There
was a time we didn't know, and there's a time we do know. There's
a time we couldn't hear, there's a time we do hear. I'll tell
you, there's been folks come here and just grit up their teeth
and I remember, I've seen lots of it. You know, and some go
away, never come back. Others can't go away. Because
God is calling. He's speaking. They're coming
back. Going to come back. And one day,
when God enables us to hear the secret, we go, oh, oh. Like to Manoah, he says, my name
is secret. We go, oh, oh, I like this secret. I like knowing this secret. And
we come back, and we come back, and it's been 37 years we've
been coming back. Oh, you've been coming back as
long as we've known each other. John, there's some of you here
who've been coming back a long time. Why do you keep coming
back to hear this same thing about the same person three times
a week? What? Four times a week? What's
going on? You've heard the secret of God. You've heard. And you know what? I don't want somebody to get
up here and talk about me. The secrets might come out about
me. Get up here and talk about the
secret of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. Tell me about Him. That's
who I want to hear about. I got one more script. Well, let's
look at, I want to point this out to you in Job 15. Turn back
to Job 15. How important is this? Can we
confess our sin because we've heard of our great Savior? Is
the secret of God everything to me or is it nothing to me?
There's no middle ground here. Christ is either all or He's
nothing at all. No in between. But unfortunately,
the unbelievers' response to this typically, typically is,
and there may be somebody here this morning who's having this
very thought. Look what, as soon as the question
is asked by God in Job, have you heard the secret of God?
What a question. Look what came back the answer
to one of these fellows. It was with Job. In verse 9 he
said, What knowest thou that we know not? What understanding
do you have that we don't have? Do you see how easy that is to
go, who are you standing up there this morning? Who was Mark back
there this morning saying what he said? You were just telling
the secret, Mark. That's all you were doing, declaring
who the secret was. There was a time when we didn't
know the secret either. The wonderful thing about the secret is everybody
who hears it with hearing ears wants everybody else they know
to hear it too. We want others to know Christ, don't we? Oh,
we want folks to hear the secret, want to share the secret. Now
one last verse, turn to Isaiah 9. When I found this scripture,
and the Lord enabled them to be put together for me. This
is just about the most wonderful thing I ever read. The true prophet
is going to tell us we're helpless, we're hopeless sinners by nature,
we're in great need of Jesus Christ our Savior who died for
us. The true prophet's going to tell us the secret of God
is all we need. He's our righteousness. He's
our savior. He's our representative. He's
our intercessor. He's our substitute. He's the
lamb slain. He's the ark of God. He's the
brazen serpent. He's the rod of Jesse. He's the
blood over the doorpost. He's our sacrifice. He's our
rock. He's the lover of our soul. He's
our light. He's our bread. He's the water
of life. He is our life. He's our healer. He's the great physician. He's
our friend. He's the rose of Sharon. He's the lily of the
valley. He's our bright morning star. He's our joy. He's our
peace. He's our counselor. He's altogether
lovely. He's wonderful. He's just wonderful. I can tell you how you want it.
You want to know if you've heard the secret of God? When you hear
that the Jesus Christ of the Bible is Lord and that He's a
secret, He's wonderful. It's not a secret
to you anymore in the sense that it may not be common knowledge
to everybody, but you know and you rejoice in it. Here's how
this... You're saying secret is wonderful?
I'm not saying it, God's saying it. Look here in Isaiah 9, verse
6, it says, For unto us a child is born, and unto us a son is
given. This is saying God gave His Son
that you and I might be free to die in our place at Calvary.
He gave His Son, and unto us a child was born, somebody who's
going to live a perfect life and then give that to us so that
our sin's gone and we have a righteousness before God. That's the gospel
of Jesus Christ by which everyone's compared. For unto us a child
is born, unto us a son is given, and the government shall be upon
his shoulder. He's the only one who's going to judge how this
is going to be. Is that good enough, or is it not? Is it right, is
it wrong? He's going to judge it, and he says right here, that's
how it is. Now you want to know his name? His name shall be called,
what's the first word? Wonderful. Have you got a little
letter next to your word wonderful? My Bible does, and it's got a
center reference. You don't have to look it up because I already
read it to you. You know where that'll take you? Back to Manoah. And when Manoah said, will you
tell me your name? I've heard, I'm hearing you now.
What's your name? You know what he told Manoah?
My name is secret. It's the same word as right here.
My name's wonderful. Isn't he wonderful? Now if you've
got what's wonderful, what else matters? And he's not only wonderful,
there's not enough names for him. Eternity's not going to
be long enough to learn all his names. Wonderful, Counselor,
the Mighty God, the Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace.
I could start all over again. We could spend eternity sitting
here listening to the names of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now the
question is, the question of questions that I started with,
hast thou heard the secret of God. I pray we all have. I pray we have. All right. Let's
bow together.