Word of Salvation – Vol. 18 No.23 - June 1972

 

What Are Those 'Secret Things'?

 

Sermon by Rev. J. F. H. Vander Bom, B.D. on Deut. 29:29

Reading:  Deuteronomy 7:6-11 and John 15:12-27

Psalter Hymnal: 153:1,6; 81:3 (repentance); 247:1,2,3 (ascription)
                             104; 378:1,4; 192:1 (doxology)

 

Dear Congregation,

Deuteronomy contains Moses' farewell address.  For the last time we hear him addressing God's people.  He is a very old man by now.  But his natural strength has not weakened and his eye has not grown dim.  In his farewell he looks far ahead over the coming centuries.

Deuteronomy is called: a repetition of the law.  But we do well to remember that this book contains much more than laws.  It is also a book of prophecy and song, and of pastoral advice.  Deuteronomy was the favourite book of our Lord Jesus Christ.  In this book He read His own program; here He found the plan of His Father for his life.  It is a book of law and of love.

Today we call your attention to one of the beautiful sayings of this book: 'The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.'

The text speaks of secrets, hidden things.  At first sight, these words have very little connection with the rest of this chapter.  Suddenly we hear Moses speaking of secrets hidden things; and of revealed things.  What are they?

We shall find that this beautiful verse is...

            (1)  very practical and helpful;
            (2)  is has often been misused;
            (3)  it is a word of hope and great comfort.

1.  This word that speaks of God's revealed and secret things is, firstly, very practical and helpful.

You can be sure that there won't be any of us in the Church who'd never run up against (what are here called) the secrets in life, the hidden things – about which we say: we can't understand how God allows them.  There are problems of misery, poverty, suffering and sickness.  How can God allow them!  Hidden things!

We realise, of course, that there are many cases of misery and poverty where man himself is to blame.  Let us be willing to learn from modern protest meetings: there is hunger, there are wars, there is gross injustice for which we are responsible.  There are so many accidents on the road which need not happen.  Why does the earth bring forth thistles and thorns?  Because of our sins.  We may not blame God for that!  And yet there is so much more.  There is the suffering of innocent children for which no man is to blame.  They multiply... those many unanswered questions.  There is the case of a woman who is incurable.  She has been in bed for over thirty years.  Her mother is too old, now, to help her.  Her father is an impossible person, a nervous wreck.  This is just one case, unbelievable misery.  You know of other cases.  Loneliness.  Sadness.  'Hidden things'.

Now listen to our text.  It says: The secret things belong to the Lord our God.  And isn't this a wonderful, practical answer?  The hidden things are just a simple test for you and me to believe, and to leave it to God, to acknowledge God as God.  He is so much greater than we are.  His thoughts are higher than our thoughts!  You would like to know the answer?  Sure, brother, and who would not?

But one question: would this really help?  If we knew all the answers would we be happier people?  Would we be better people?  Would you be more concerned, if everything that is still hidden now would be revealed to us?  No!

The answer is ‘no’.  Because your happiness does not depend on what you know.  Your happiness lies in the things which you may do by faith in God.  Or hasn't the Lord the right to keep His secrets?  So then, leave the secret things to the Lord your God, and get on with things that He reveals to us as good and helpful.

Our old catechism book, where it deals with the Lord's Prayer, made a very helpful distinction between the hidden will of God and His revealed will.  We pray "Thy will be done".  This means, says our Catechism, that we ask the Lord to make us willing and ready like the angels to do the things we are commanded to do, and not to ask questions.  And then, we must also remember our Lord Jesus Christ in Gethsemane.  He said: "Thy will be done!" while He faced the cruelty of the cross.  He did what the Father asked of Him.  He left the hidden things for the Father, and He kept the revealed things.  He went to the cross and He fulfilled God's law in love.

2.  This beautiful word of Deuteronomy is in the first place very practical and helpful.  Yet, in the second place, we must know that this word has often been greatly misused.

Sometimes you may meet a person who tells you that he doesn't go to Church any more.  He may say: but I do the will of God, and I try to be kind and helpful.  Giving everybody his due, and trying to keep the laws that would be sufficient, wouldn't it?  So the man thinks it is not necessary to go to church anymore.  No, he does not like the church, where they speak about all those difficult doctrines and mysteries.  The church only made things difficult for him.

Now you can be quite sure that this man is not the only one.  The man belongs to a very large company.  In our present world his company is growing by the day.  So many people are saying this: the church makes things difficult.  We should keep it simple.  But the church, with all its doctrines, tries to pry into the hidden secrets.  We'd better keep to the things that are simple and plain.  Love your neighbour as yourself.

By the way, it may surprise you to hear this, but for centuries this has also been the official doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church.

Since 1546, when the famous Council of Trent was held, this very text of Deuteronomy 29: 29 has been used (or misused) by the Roman Church to declare that Christians should be content with the things that are plain and simple.  The Council of Trent declared also that nobody could ever be certain of His election.  Not even the greatest saint could ever be sure that he is a true child of God unless the Lord were to give him a special revelation!

The secret things are for the Lord our God.  So try to live a good life.  That is all.  This is what the Council of Trent said.

Yet, here the Reformers had the courage to make a strong protest.  They spoke a firm ‘No!’  They said, this is a wrong interpretation of our text.  If somebody asked you: are you sure of your election, are you a child of God, then you may never refer to this text and say: How could I know?!

The answer of the Reformers was that everybody should know.  Because the Bible was written for this very purpose.  We should know the things given us by God (1Corinthians 2).  The Canons of Dort, chapter 1 paragraph 14, contain these beautiful words: 'As the doctrine of divine election by the most wise counsel of God was declared by the prophets, by Christ himself, and by the apostles and is clearly revealed in the scriptures.... so it is still to be published.... in the Church of God, for which it was designed.  Provided it be done with reverence... and piety, for the glory of God's most holy name and the... comforting of His people.’

The secret things which we must leave to the Lord are surely not the questions: Am I a child of God, or not?  Am I one of the people of Jesus?  Am I a sheep of the flock?

Calvin says: If there is one subject which is NOT hidden in the Bible but fully revealed, then it is God's plan of election and salvation.  'For those whom He foreknew He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, in order that He might be the first born among many brethren.  And those whom He predestined he also called; and those whom He called, He also justified and glorified.’  ‘So then, if God is for us, who is against us?  Nothing will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.'  This knowledge (of which Roman 8 speaks) is not a hidden thing!

And then Calvin continues by saying: when we keep silent, when the Church does not speak to the people of God about God and His plans for our salvation, then we are responsible for the fact that so many Christians are scared.  We leave them in uncertainty.  This shows how necessary it is that our young people receive proper catechetical instruction.  'In order that they may know the things given them by God'.

In Deuteronomy 30 we read another beautiful word.  God's Word is not far away.  It is very near.  In Jesus Christ, God's Word has become within man's reach!

Don't you agree that our text is a beautiful text?  But it has very often been mis-used.  And we cannot deny that it was not only the Roman Catholics who are to blame.  How often has the truth of God's Covenant, and the counsel of salvation been darkened in pulpits, even in the pulpits of Calvinistic Churches!?

3.  In the third place: this text gives wonderful comfort.  It is practical and helpful.  Yet it was abused very often, probably because many people, when they read the text, did not understand what Moses was really driving at!

Moses, in his farewell sermon, wants to explain to God's people, how great their privileges are.  His message could be summarized in six simple words: GOD IS NOT A HIDDEN GOD.  No, He is the God Who cares.

It is true, God moves in a mysterious way.  He has brought His people to the desert.  There may be many unanswered questions.  Many hidden THINGS.  But: God is not a hidden God!  And this makes all the difference, doesn't it?  In chapter 32 we read that God is like the eagle.  He stirs up his own nest, and throws his young out of it.  God moves in a mysterious way.  Yet: God is not a hidden God.  God TELLS us about Himself.  He tries to explain.  He tells us of His plan, His purposes, His love.  We may know Him, Brothers and Sisters.  And this is so great, so thrilling.  This is life eternal that we may know God, the only true God.  God is a light, says John.  And there is no darkness in Him.

Jesus said to His disciples: Let not your heart be troubled.  They were on the point of leaving Jesus alone, and of denying Him.  But Jesus went on saying: You are my friends!  And a friend may know.  I tell you all my plans.  I have told you the plans of My Father.

Isn't this terrific?

Sure there are limits to our knowledge.  Christians have a limited knowledge, first of all because of their lack of faith.  And yet, Jesus has said: You are my friends!  God is not a hidden God!

In the desert, in the Old Testament, Israel was taught to sing the song of Moses.  'Happy are you, O Israel!  Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord!  You shall tread upon the high places.'  And the Church sings still the old psalms:
            His statutes and His judgements
            He makes His people know;
            To them as to no others
            His grace He loves to show!

The gods of the heathen are hidden Gods.  Egypt has its mighty Sphinx.  But he did not speak.  It was impossible to know his will.  The gods of Babylon were gods who gave riddles, even to their priests.  But Daniel had the privilege to tell mighty Nebuchadnezzar that his god was different.  No, Daniel himself didn't have the answer.  But Daniel's God gives the answer on the very day of the trouble.

Christians are very privileged people.  They are in the covenant of grace with God.  And they may know.

There are certain limits to our knowledge.  They may help us to exercise more faith and to behave as disciples who are willing to learn, and to say:
            'O Lord, my heart is not lifted up,
             my eyes are not raised too high.
             I do not occupy myself with things too great
             and too marvellous for me.
             But I have quieted my soul.
             O, Israel, hope in the Lord...'

We do not have all the answers.  Yet we may live as people who have The Answer.  The Way was revealed for us and for our children!  Jesus Christ has come and has given us knowledge!
            Blessed is the man whom Thou hast chosen,
            and bringest nigh to Thee,
            that in Thy courts, in Thee reposing,
            his dwelling place might be!

To Israel he said: Israel, you are My people.  I have chosen you, not because you were bigger or mightier than others.  And of the Church He says: For He has chosen us in Him (Jesus Christ) before the foundation of the world, that we should be to the praise of His glory!

All man's boasting is excluded, Grace is undeserved and free,
By God's sovereign love included, 'Twas that grace that rescued me;
Long before God's hand had formed me and his Word all things had made,
all from nothing had displayed, He in sovereign love did choose me;
God is love!  O angel voice,  Human tongue in Him rejoice!

Amen.