445. 445. No, not one. Number 445. There's not a friend like our Lord Jesus No, not one, no, not one None else could heal all our soul's diseases No, not one, no, not one Jesus is all about our struggle. He will guide till the day is done. Not another friend like the lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. No friend like Him is so high and holy No, not one, no, not one And yet no friend is so meek and lowly No, not one No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like our holy Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. There's not an hour that is not near us. No, not one. No, not one. Or so the dark body's love can't hear us. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like a lowly Jesus. No, not one. No, not one. Did ever sin's fairest friend forsake him? No, not one. Not one poor sinner find that he would not take Him. No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide till the day is done. There's not a friend like a lowly Jesus No, not one No, not one Was there a gift like a Savior given? No, not one No, not one. Will He refuse us a home in heaven? No, not one. No, not one. Jesus knows all about our struggles. He will guide to the distant. There's not a friend like a lowly Jesus. No, not one. Our Heavenly Father, we are thankful there's not a friend, not a person that can come to Thee that will be turned away, but that we have a friend in the Lord Jesus Christ who went to the cross and died for all sinners, that anyone can be saved. We're thankful for that fact. There's not a person alive that can claim that they're so bad that they cannot be saved. But we pray, Father, that we would help people to see the importance of turning to Thee, the true God, and knowing that place of forgiveness and that peace that they can have in their hearts. We're thankful that we have this opportunity to gather together here. for each one that has come out this morning. We're thankful also for our opportunity to livestream. And we pray for those who live in places where they don't have a good church and pray that they would be able to find one. We know that there are people in places like China and Venezuela and North Korea that don't have that opportunity to meet together openly as we do here. But we're thankful that there are Christians there who can be a light to others around them. We pray for Thy continued watch care over them as they seek to glorify Thy name, that they'd be able to help others to know Thy peace and blessing in these days of grace. We pray for people in this country where we have great liberty yet, and yet people in this country who choose not to attend a church they claim to know Thee, but they don't go to church. We pray that they would see the importance of obedience if they are thy children, to join a good church, to learn of thee, to want to grow in thee. And we do thank you that we can proclaim thy name here openly and freely. Pray that we would be faithful to thee and honor thee and allow thee to be glorified in this place. We pray for our governments, pray for the salvation of many in our governments, and that we'd be bold and faithful in witnessing to them where we have opportunity. And may thy will be accomplished here in all things, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. And go over to 453, 253, he keeps me singing. Number 453. There is sweet in my heart a melody Jesus' words were sweet and low For not diving with the pieces still And all of life's even flow Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweet is the name I know Fills my every longing, Keeps me singing as I go. All my life was rigged by sin and strife, This could fill my heart with pain. Jesus swept across the broken strings, Stirred the lovely prayers again. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest in my soul, Fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. Feasting on the riches of His grace, Resting near His sheltering wing, Always walking on His smiling face That is why I shout and sing Jesus, Jesus, Jesus Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Though sometimes he leads through waters deep, Dryers flow across the way, Though sometimes the path seems rotten steep, See his footprints all the way. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, Sweetest name I know Fills my every longing Keeps me singing as I go Sun is coming back to welcome me Far beyond the starry sky I shall wing my flight to world unknown I shall win with Him on high. Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, sweetest name I know, fills my every longing, keeps me singing as I go. And over to 495. 495, the unsearchable riches of Christ. Number 495. O the unsearchable riches of Christ, wealth that can never be told. Riches exhaustless of mercy and grace, precious, more precious than gold. Precious, more precious, Where that can never be told All the unsearchable riches of Christ Precious, more precious than gold All the unsearchable riches of Christ Who shall their greatness declare? Precious, more precious, wealth that can never be All the answers of all riches of Christ Precious, more precious than gold All the answers of all riches of Christ Freely, how freely they flow Making the souls of the faithful and true Happy wherever they go. Precious, more precious, wealth that can never be told. All the unsearchable riches of Christ. Precious, more precious than gold. O the unsearchable riches of Christ Who would not gladly endure Trials, afflictions, and crosses on earth Which is like this insecure Precious, more precious ♪ Wealth that can never be told ♪ All the answers of all riches of Christ ♪ Precious, more precious than gold Take your Bibles and turn to the book of Luke. Chapter 10. Luke chapter 10. We're going to be reading there this morning from verse 21 to the end of verse 24. And we'll stand, please, for the reading of God's word. Luke chapter 10. Beginning there at verse 21, it says, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes, even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. all things are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth who the son is but the father and who the father is but the son and he to whom the son will reveal him and he turned him unto his disciples and said privately blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see For I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. Our Heavenly Father, we're thankful again this morning that we have the privilege of coming together and opening thy word, thy preserved word, thy inspired word, and learning of thee. We're thankful for the men that thou didst choose over the years to write thy word, to record it as thou didst give it to them, that thou hast preserved it for us even in this generation. Even though the devil has been busy attacking thy word and there are many perversions on the market today, And yet we can still open thy word, read it and study it and be blessed through that study. We pray for anyone that's listening today that is not saved, that they might understand that thy word is precious. Thy word is true. It's powerful. And even though they may be fighting against thee, they're not gonna win. They might as well surrender to thee and know thy peace and blessing. Pray for those that are saved, that we would be encouraged through the reading and the study of thy word to grow stronger in thee, to be more faithful in our witness, to help others to know thy peace and blessing. So may thy will be accomplished as we spend some time in these verses, that we would glorify thee in our thoughts and in our words, we pray in Jesus' name, amen. You may be seated. The title of the message this morning is The Hidden Things of God, The Hidden Things of God. There are many things in the Bible that they take time to understand. We can study the word of God, but we can study and study and sometimes there are things that we just don't get. And sometimes it just takes time to understand some of the things of the word of God. I've been saved since I was 20 years old, I'm 73 now, so that makes it 53 years. I've been a pastor since 1989, and I can still remember the difficulties that I had as a young pastor in preparing messages. And it was something new for me, and I think it is new for anyone that becomes a pastor, even though I went to Bible school and I learned different things there. But there are things that you don't actually learn until you are involved in them. And in Bible school, we had classes where we needed to prepare messages and preach in front of the other students. And then we had to preach in the chapel. And because I was an adult when I went to Bible school, I was a married man already, and I wanted to learn. And there was a small church, country church, about an hour away from the school I attended. And they were looking for a pastor. And they were a Baptist church. And they only had services on Sunday evenings, and not even every Sunday. And the people that attended that Baptist church, their parents had been involved in the church, and so when it wasn't open, they attended churches in other communities. But they still wanted to keep that little church alive. And so they approached the president of the Bible School at that time and asked if there would be someone who would be willing to fill the pulpit. And so that was brought to my attention and I said, yes, I would do that because I wanted to learn how to be, I believe that God was calling me to be a pastor. I wanted to learn how to be a pastor. And the way to learn, one of the ways is to be a pastor, to actually preach and to actually meet with people and interact with them. And so I did that. And I was quite a greenhorn. And I wrote out all my messages back then. And I stuck to my notes pretty firmly because I wanted to make sure I didn't make a mistake. And I wanted to make sure that I could tell the people what I believe God wanted me to tell them. But God helped me, though those people were very patient with me, very gracious with me, and over time, I became a little more comfortable in the pulpit. There's always a nervousness because you're presenting God's word, and you want to be careful. I want to be careful to make sure that I don't tell you things that are not true. I don't want to mislead people. So there are things in the scriptures that take time to study, And over time, we get to know the Word of God better, and we can be a greater help to people. And I believe that's an asset. There's nothing wrong with being a young preacher. We need them. We need more of them. We're actually praying here that God would send someone here that would want to come and work with us here, because I'm not going to live forever. Just over a month ago, I was in the hospital again getting two more stents put in. So God is telling me that my time is coming to an end and we need someone to be willing to take on this work and carry on this work. And so we're praying for that. But in the meantime, God wants to use me and I want to be faithful to him in proclaiming his truth in this dark world in which we are living. talked about that yesterday. We were helping a lady move and some of the people there were talking about how that Canada is in big trouble because Canada has taken a position against the land of Israel. That's not a good thing. Canada has taken a position against God for a long time, but they have openly and publicly supported Hamas and the Muslims from that area, I don't like to call them Palestinians because that's not what they are. There are no Palestinians. That's a term that they have taken. Actually, if you go back in history, Israel in your maps, most of your Bible maps will call Israel the land of Palestine. But we need to understand where does that word come from? And that word was given to that land by the Roman government back when they occupied that land. And it was given to that land because the Romans did not want Israel to remember its roots. So they renamed it Palestine. So when you look at history, you find that for many years, the Jews were called Palestinians. It was a land of Palestine. And so it wasn't until after Israel took the land back, God gave them the land back in 1948, that after that the Arabs in that part of the world wanted that land back for themselves. And so they attacked Israel and they figured Israel's a young nation, they don't have a military, we can easily take them over. And sadly, the British and others decided we're not going to support Israel if they are attacked, we're just gonna back away and see what happens. That was a mistake. And you know, Britain used to be called Great Britain. They lost that place because they backed away from Israel. And God removed their place of prominence. And so the Palestinians of today took that name because they claim that they are outcasts that need a homeland. So they want to divide Israel so that there's a Palestinian state and a Jewish state. Of course, they don't really want that. The Arabs don't want Jews. They want to wipe them out. So the word Palestine is really not a word that I use anyway, and I don't call those people in that area Palestinians. They're Arabs. Most of them are Muslims. There are so-called Coptic Christians, which are Catholics, a form of Catholics. And there are a few true Christians, but very few in that region. But the people in that area are anti-God for the most part, choosing to fight against the truth. And our country of Canada is choosing to side with the enemies of Israel rather than with the nation of Israel. Not a good thing. So we are in trouble as a country, and God cannot bless us in that state. And so our place as Christians is to be a light, to point people to the truth and to warn people against choosing to side with the enemies of God. So in our text, we're continuing to look at, in verse one, God sent out 70, Jesus sent out 70 men by twos to preach the gospel. They were to go into all that region of Israel and to preach the gospel. And they came back in verse 17, we noted that, they came back and they were rejoicing in the fact that the message that they were preaching was being received. And that they were quite successful in even casting out, treading on serpents, I should say, in verse 19 and so on. But Jesus reminded them in verse 20, that the thing that should be encouraging to them was that their names were written in heaven. And that's the thing that we need to understand. It's always good. The Bible tells us there's rejoicing in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over the 99 that need no repentance. And that's true. But the thing that I've learned, at least in my years as a pastor, is that there are many times where people make a false profession. They claim to be saved, they even give some evidence for a short time, but then they walk away. And the Bible tells us you can't lose your salvation. That's a fact. You cannot lose your salvation. The Bible tells us that if we are saved, we need to be growing in the Lord. Our walk with God should be stronger today than it was the day we got saved. The desire for the things of God should be stronger for the Christian today than when you got saved. And if that's not happening, there's something wrong in your spiritual life. And then when a person walks away and says, I'm not really interested anymore. I'm just not going to go to church. And, you know, maybe once in a while I'll come and that that that's a sign that there's something really wrong with that spiritual, the spiritual health of that person. And so As these 70 came back to Jesus and talking about the great success they had, he understands, he knows the heart of man. That's why in John chapter two, it says he didn't commit himself unto it because he knew their hearts. And so it's great to see a person get saved. And I want to encourage anyone that is saved to continue to grow in the Lord. It's important. And it's a concern to me when I see people who profess to be saved who don't want to grow. They don't want to be faithful in the things of God. That's not a good thing. And I'm not the judge. You don't have to worry about me, but you ought to be concerned about what does God say about that? And God is not happy with anyone who claims to be his child and doesn't want to be faithful to him. And of course, God knows who is his child. Nobody's going to fool God. And so it's very important to consider carefully your position before God. Be sure that you're one of his children. The first point we have here is babes in Christ. And in verse 21, Jesus says, in that hour, Jesus rejoiced in spirit and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and has revealed them unto babes. Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. So here Jesus is talking to his father, and notice that he calls him his father, and he calls him Lord of heaven and earth. The true God is the master of heaven and earth. Even today, as we look at our country of Canada, And I was just listening to a short clip recently. But our country is obsessed with Mother Nature. And in that context, our country is obsessed with man-made climate change. And so they want us to quit driving cars because we are causing climate change. And I was listening to a short snippet on the forest fires that we are facing right now in northern Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, BC, and how that our government is telling us this is because of climate change. In fact, the leader of the Green Party said that fires are different in the 21st century because of climate change. You know, they don't think. How is a fire any different? And the fires that we're having have nothing to do with climate change. They have to do with partly with number one, because God is the Lord of heaven and earth. And so one of the ways that God cleans up the forest is by fires. One of the problems that we're facing in our time is because we don't use wood much for burning anymore, for heating houses. So there's a lot of deadfall in the forest that's not being cleaned up. And so when there's a lightning strike, yeah, there's a lot of fuel there. So there are some fires that are more intense now than they used to be because we are bad managers. God told us to have dominion over the earth. And we're not doing that because we're worshiping Mother Earth instead of the true God. And so we're seeing a lot of things that are happening that are a result of foolish choices that we as people are making. But here it tells us that God is the Lord of Heaven and Earth. And so if we would understand what God has given us and honor Him, we would live much differently than we do today for the most part. And as Christians, we need to be reminded of the fact that the Lord is in charge and he knows what he's doing. And it's interesting when you think about it, some of the disasters that have happened that should have destroyed the air that we breathe. We should be suffocating, but we're not. And the birds can still fly across the sky, and they can still do well, and we can do well, and the cattle can do well, and so on, because God has designed this world to clean itself up, even when we make a mess of things. It's very interesting, and it's so important that we know this Lord of heaven and earth. But more importantly, that we know Him spiritually. That's the most important thing. That we come to understand that He is in charge and that we can trust Him. And that's so important. We learned that as a church during the Wuhan virus debacle, and we still need to be reminded of that, that we can trust God. We don't have to get into a panicked state just because the government says so. We can trust God. We find that in the Bible, that the saints trusted God regardless of what was going on around them, and we can do the same today. Canada is still fairly peaceful. We are seeing that there's more violence coming with the way our government has welcomed the Muslim community into Canada. And they are coming in and they are intent on taking over the world. That's the goal of Islam. They want to take over the world. They're not going to do that, but that's their goal. And their goal is to get enough people into an area and then to take over government and to force Sharia law upon that area. They're doing that in England. They have taken over large portions of England. They're doing it in Germany and in France. And they're doing it, in fact, in Toronto. Quebec is quite fearful right now of Islam and so they are passing a law to not allow any public prayer in Quebec because the Muslims like to get out their mats and they like to block a street or block a sidewalk for their prayers. And they're doing that intentionally to try to take control of an area. So Quebec is passing a law, no public prayer allowed, period. because they don't want to address Islam, so there's going to be no public prayer. There are Christians right now that are protesting that in Quebec. But that's the direction our country is taking. Will it come to that state in Manitoba? I don't know. Our government is not a Christian government. They don't have any sense of right and wrong. But God is in charge. And so those of us that are saved, we can trust God and we can continue to live for God and continue to make his name known because God is in charge. And he wants his name known. So it's up to us to be faithful to him. So here, Jesus is talking to his father, and he says, I thank thee, O father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. And there are a lot of people, there were in Jesus' day, the scribes, the Pharisees, the lawyers, the Herodians, all of those people, they thought they were so wise. The Apostle Paul, before he was saved, he thought he was a wise man chasing after the people of this way who were later called Christians. He thought he was doing God a service by stopping people from proclaiming Jesus' name. Peter and John were told, don't you speak in Jesus' name anymore. But they didn't stop. And so there are many people today as well who consider themselves to be wise and prudent. I remember when I was in Bible school, the president of the school said, the time is going to come when any president of a Bible school or a pastor even is going to have to have a master's degree. And that was not a good statement that he made. My experience has been in observing people is that when Christians go for this higher education, there's nothing wrong with learning. You get that? I'm not against learning. But when you start to pursue a master or doctorate degree, you tend to become watered down in your spiritual insight. Because from my understanding the study that you need to do to get those humanistic degrees is such that there's too much world being poured into you and not enough Bible. Even when I was in Bible school, and back then it was called a Bible school. Now that school is called a Bible college. But the president that was there when I was there, he fought against allowing it to become a college. But even there, When I wrote my papers, one of the comments that I often got in writing my papers is that I did not use enough sources for research. And I did use a lot of sources, but I didn't acknowledge them all because I didn't use the material. There's a lot of writers out there when it comes to spiritual things, religious writers. There's a lot of writers out there that are not true to the Bible. And again, I went to Bible school to learn the Bible. I didn't go there to learn the philosophy of people. And so they told us they had a library, do research when you're writing a paper, and then write your paper. And for me, most of the times if I'm writing a paper, and there were many different topics given to us to write on, I want to know what does God say about that topic. And so my main reference was always the Bible. And occasionally, I would quote someone from a book that I read. But if I didn't agree with it, why would I put it in there? I wasn't in school to please the instructors. I was there to learn the Bible. And there's a big difference. And to me, that's what I look for when I listen to somebody's preaching. What are they doing with the Bible? And some of them, you quote them for this man and that man, and yeah, OK, fine. That's good that you're trying to prove to people that you're an avid reader, and that may have some place, but it's more important what does the Bible say. And then when you figure out what does the Bible say, when you're going to quote this man, what is his position on the Bible? Why would you quote him? And so to me, I look at that too. When I'm going to read a book, I'm reading a book right now, but I found out some things. I listened to this man preach and I was impressed with what he said in that message that he preached. And someone gave me a book that he had written. And when I started reading that book that this man had written, I found out that the man is a gap theorist. Well, that's not a good thing. And based on that fact, there's many other things in his teaching. And this is a fundamental Baptist preacher, by the way. There's many other things that he has that are way off because of his foundational position. In that one message I heard him preach, that didn't come across. But reading his book, that comes across very clearly. So he's not a man that I'm going to quote, unless I'm gonna warn someone, but I'm not gonna use him as a reference to support the Bible, because he's not on the right page, he's not in the right place. So you see, it's important for us to understand that there are many wise people, many prudent people, but Jesus says here, thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. You see, when we start to put our own minds as the authority, and we start to filter everything that God says through our minds, we have a problem. We need to make sure that we let God change our minds. If you go in your Bibles to 2 Corinthians, now yes, we can't be flip-flopping. James warns, a double-minded man is unstable in all his ways. So we got to guard against that. I'm not talking about that here. I'm not talking about never taking a position. We need to come to a position, but we need to make sure that position is the Bible position. And when we come to that place, we need to stand there. We should never move off of that. But that's what we need to do. We need to get to the place where we are on that position, 2 Corinthians chapter 10. In verse three, it says there, for though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds, casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled." So that's where we need to be at, looking at those verses, looking at what Jesus said there, the wise and the prudent, The wise and the prudent in that context are the ones who have their imaginations, and we all have this, I'm not excluded, imaginations and high things that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God. And so that's why it's so important to be a student of the word of God. Read it every day. And then as the Bible says, meditate upon it day and night. So as I read the Bible and then as I meditate on it day and night, and I have ideas. I was raised a Mennonite. There are things that I was taught in that religion that are not in the Bible. So as I read the Bible, I need to make a choice. Am I going to take what I was taught as the authority or am I going to allow the Bible to correct what I was taught? And I need to take the Bible as my authority and be willing to say, okay, I was taught that, but it's not in the Bible. So guess what? I'm not gonna follow that. I'm gonna follow what the Bible says. And that's the way we must approach the word of God. And so back in our text, Jesus says there, and has revealed them unto babes. What does a baby know? Nothing. They know how to suck, right? They know how to cry. They know how to wet their diaper. And they learn how to crawl. They learn how to roll over and crawl and walk and all that. But they have to learn all that. They have to learn how to talk. So if you're born in Canada, you're going to most likely teach them English. If you come from the Philippines, you're not going to teach them English as their first language. You're going to teach them your mother tongue. If you come from Africa, are you gonna teach them whatever the language is in that part of Africa? So children come with a blank slate, and the parents fill it. And so the parents need to be teaching them the truth. Most parents aren't doing that. But here Jesus is talking about, he's thanking God that God has revealed these things in this chapter and in the life of Jesus, unto babes. People, the Pharisees, the Scribes, the Sadducees, all them, they came to Jesus with a preconceived idea of who the Messiah should be. And they were not going to allow Jesus to be the Messiah. They determined that. There was nothing Jesus taught them that turned them to him, except for a few like Nicodemus. The majority of them, they fought him, and they encouraged the people to cry out, crucify him, crucify him. They were set in their ways. But the babes, the disciples, they came to Jesus, he called them, and they came to him, and they were willing to be taught. Took them a long time, three and a half years with him on earth, and then it was not until Acts chapter two where they finally, things started to click into place. But they were teachable. And that's the thing that you and I need to be. See, that's the beauty of young children. They're teachable. Up until a child gets to be a certain age, parents can do with that child pretty well anything they want. They can tell the child pretty well anything and the child will accept it. But there comes a time in a child's life where they start to reason things out more for themselves. And then they start to question things more. And it's not quite so easy to feed them what you want them to learn anymore because now they're screening everything through the philosophy that they are developing. That's why it's so important for young children to be in a church and to be in a godly home, where you are influencing them with the truths of God's word and where you keep the computer games away from them. That's not gonna help them. You need to teach them God's word. And so that's very important to understand that as parents, that you have a great opportunity when that child is young to fill that child's mind with the word of God. Bible lessons that you can teach, and good music in your home, and so on. Things that you can build that atmosphere. And people say, oh, you shouldn't do that. You're putting your children in a greenhouse. They're never getting anything from the world. They get enough from the world. You go grocery shopping, don't you? They see the world there. You go to the restaurant at times, don't you? They see the world there. So there's enough opportunity that they have for the world without you intentionally putting that into them. You need to intentionally put the truth into them. So that they, as the devil is trying to keep them from the truth, so that they can choose wisely between the truth and the lie. And you want them to take the truth. That's intentional. Parents need to act intentionally, choosing to make sure that you have the right atmosphere in your home, that those children can learn the truth. In 1 Corinthians chapter 14 and verse 20, the Apostle Paul says, brethren, be not children in understanding, how be it in malice be ye children, but in understanding be men. So Jesus here in our text, he's talking about the fact that the babes here are the ones who are willing to understand, willing to listen, but the malice, that was the Pharisees, the ones who were fighting against the truth. And in understanding, we need to be men. So the disciples, here they were babes at this point, But they needed to become men, and that would come in Acts chapter two, where they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Today, when we get saved, we receive the Holy Spirit at the moment of salvation. Now, yes, as a new Christian, I was a babe. I was raised in Mennonite culture, Mennonite religion. Some of that was biblical, some of it was not. So once I got saved, there were many things that I needed to learn. And because I was saved, I could not stay, Paul writes, or the writer of Hebrews writes about that, there's a time when you should be taking meat and you still need the milk. So we can't stay in that milk stage for long as Christians, we need to be growing. And God puts that into the Christian. The church is there, the pastor is there to encourage growth, But the ultimate place of motivation comes from inside, from the Holy Spirit indwelling the Christian, and you want to grow. Anybody that's saved wants to grow. Yes, the Bible tells us, encourages us to grow, but God puts that in you that you want to grow. You want to know him better. And that's like for me, raised in New Evangelicalism, that's why after I was saved, I was very discontented in the New Evangelical camp because they don't teach you to grow. They try to explain away the Bible rather than explaining the Bible. And for me, it was such a relief when we attended an independent fundamental Baptist church And I listened to the, well, actually, before I was even attending them, I was given material from independent Fundamental Baptist writers, and it was such a relief to me to read that material where they were actually teaching the Bible, not explaining it away, not telling me, well, this was cultural and it doesn't apply to us, and there are things in the Bible that belong to Israel and things that belong to the church. Yes, that's true. But New Evangelicalism doesn't do that. New Evangelicalism tries to take away the authority of the scriptures and put the authority on man. That's not where it belongs. And so for me, it was a blessing to be introduced to these writers who were teaching the word of God. And then eventually we attended an independent Fundamental Baptist Church and from there we left New Evangelicalism and have never looked back. I have no interest in that philosophy. I want the truth. And I want other people to know the truth as well. The second thing we see in this passage is the recognition of deity. In verse 22, it says there, all things are delivered to me of my father. So Jesus is connecting himself here once again with his father, and his father was not Joseph. The word father in this passage, verse 21, verse 22, is capital F. Jesus is talking about God the Father. And he's connecting himself to his father. Now again, the Pharisees, scribes, so on, they didn't believe that. They didn't accept that. They tried to kill Jesus because he made himself one with his father. But he didn't make himself one with his father. He was one with his father. He is the eternal son of God. And so in verse 22, all things are delivered to me of my father. And no man knoweth who the Son is, capital S, but the Father. And who the Father is but the Son. So we'll stop there for a minute, but Jesus is pointing out here that he and his Father are one and they know each other. Nobody knows Jesus better than God the Father. Nobody knows God the Father better than Jesus Christ, the Son of God. You and I, those of us that are saved, we have an understanding of God, we have an understanding of Jesus Christ, but our understanding should be growing. And we will know him fully when we get to heaven, but not till then. But we should be growing. The lost, they're ignorant of who God is. The Bible says the heavens declare the glory of God. What does the world say? Millions of years ago, there was an explosion or there was something that happened and all of a sudden, stars appeared. The natives will tell you that the leaves falling from the trees, floating down, that's how the birds were formed. No, that's not how the birds were formed. But you see, the world, they don't understand who God is. And Jesus here, in the audience here, amongst him, around him here, are the disciples. The 70 are there, but there are others as well. And so he's reminding the people here, as he's talking to his father, all things are delivered to me of my father. So Jesus, even though he is the eternal son of God, I and my father are one, and yet there's an order in the Godhead. It doesn't mean that Jesus is less than God, but there's an order there. Our finite minds have trouble understanding the deity, the Godhead. We have trouble with that because we're finite in our thinking. But the Bible tells us, and so by faith we accept the fact that as it says here, it says here, all things are delivered to me of my father and no man knoweth who the son is but the father. So who better to identify Jesus to humanity than God the Father? And what did God do when Jesus was baptized? Didn't he say, this is my beloved son? John understood that, and we need to understand that too. The Pharisees who came to John for his baptism rejected that. But if we would take the Bible, and in this context here, if the people here would have listened to Jesus and listened to what God had said about him, there would have been no argument as to who Jesus was. But they were. They were disputing that. They didn't want to accept that. No man knoweth who the son is but the father, and who the father is but the son. So in John chapter 14, when Jesus was trying to encourage the disciples with the fact that he was leaving, but he was not gonna leave them alone. But in John chapter 14, Jesus says in answer to Thomas in verse five, Jesus says in verse six, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes unto the Father but by me. And then in verse eight, Philip says unto him, Lord, show us the father and sufficeth us. And Jesus saith unto him, have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? He that hath seen me hath seen the father. And how sayest thou then, show us the father? You see, Philip should have known better. And Jesus made that point there to the disciples. You've seen me, he says, you've seen the father. So back in our text again, same thing Jesus is saying there again, nobody knows who the father is but the son. And so Jesus clearly taught who his father was. And then he goes on and he says, and he to whom the son will reveal him. So you and I today, If it were not for the fact, and we're not Calvinists here, so I'm not trying to tell you that there are some people that cannot be saved. Jesus was not a Calvinist, by the way. And so what Jesus is saying here, that if it were not for the fact that God in his grace and mercy was revealing himself to man, nobody would ever know him. He's not saying that he's not revealing himself to some people. He's not saying that. The Pharisees had as much opportunity to be saved as anybody. They just chose to reject that. They chose to reject everything that Jesus told them. That was the problem. That's the problem today. That's why people can walk past this building day after day, week after week, and see the verses outside. We can give them literature and so on, and they keep walking by and don't come in. Why? Because they have rejected the truth. Not because they cannot be saved. And that's the dangerous thing, when a person continues to say no to God. Very dangerous. And so Jesus makes it clear here that if it were not for the grace of God, Ephesians 2, 8 and 9, for by grace are you saved through faith. You see, if it wasn't for God's grace, nobody would get saved. And that's why I can't stand in front of you today and boast about why I'm a Christian. I'm no better than anybody else. Seven brothers and sisters in my family, As far as I know, I'm the only one that's a Christian. Why? Not because I'm better than my six brothers and sisters, not at all. It's just because I listened and they didn't. And they aren't the ones that are left alive yet. You see, that's the facts. God reveals himself to everybody. Everybody has the same opportunity. That's why Romans 1 says they are without excuse, because everybody has the same opportunity. And so today, if you're listening to me and you're not saved, if you continue on that path, you will not stand before Jesus and say, I didn't know. Nobody ever told me. No, you will stand there in shame. trembling because you had opportunity. So don't continue to fight against the truth. It's not a wise thing to do. So it is important for us to recognize the deity of the Lord Jesus Christ and to understand that he knows his father and everything that Jesus said was completely true. And God is completely true. And we can know him through his word. And then the third thing that we see is the blessing of godly eyesight, or insight, we could call it. Verses 23 and 24, and he turned him unto his disciples and said privately, blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see. There's no doubt the disciples were privileged in that they lived at the time when Jesus was on earth. They were given the privilege of seeing things that, as we see in verse 24, that kings and prophets had not seen. That doesn't mean that the prophets of old and the kings of old didn't have enough to know to believe in God. David believed in God. God gave David enough eyesight, enough spiritual insight to be able to know who the true God was. Job had enough spiritual insight to know, I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand in the latter day. Job knew that. He was convinced his three friends were trying to change his thinking. Job was convinced that he knew the true God. He didn't know everything about him, but he knew all that he needed to know to trust in him that Job, his soul is in heaven today and his body will be raised up and be in heaven one day. Job knew that. Abel knew that. But the disciples, as Jesus tells us here, they were in a privileged place in that they were living in the time when they rubbed shoulders, they listened directly to Jesus, they heard him, they saw everything he did. They were privileged in that. The Pharisees lived at that same time and they rejected everything that they saw and heard of him. You and I today, we don't live. Jesus isn't here. But we have the privilege of having the word of God, completed record. We're not missing out on anything that's needful for us just because Jesus isn't here with us. There's nothing that we're missing. And that's important. And so God will hold us accountable for what we are given. just as he did when Jesus was on earth, just as he did in the Old Testament, we're held accountable for what we are given. And so in verse 24, for I tell you that many prophets and kings have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them, and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them. The book of Hebrews tells us that Abraham was looking for a city whose builder and maker is God. There were things Job, most of the book of Job, he's pleading for an audience with God. He thinks that God has gotten some things wrong and God straightened him out, but he was wanting an audience with God. Well, God was right there with him. He didn't understand that, but he learned that. But you see, there were things that they wanted to know and they didn't get it. They didn't get that in their time, but they got enough. God gave them enough. He gave them prophets and the prophets knew enough about God that they could stand true to God. Jeremiah faced a lot of challenge in his life. There were times Jeremiah says, I'm done. This is too hard, I can't do it. But the word, the Bible says the word was burning in him. He couldn't be quiet. He had to continue to speak. And he knew enough that even though there were false prophets that were there at his time telling the king, no, don't listen to that man. He's not telling you the truth. Jeremiah was convinced that he had the truth. And he kept telling the king, telling the people the truth. because he was convinced that he had the truth. So God has been good throughout the history of mankind to give man all that man needs to know in order to be forgiven, in order to be saved. Old Testament people They trusted in the promises of God, they looked forward to the coming of the Messiah, and they are just as saved as we are today. And their way of salvation was by faith, grace and faith, just like for us, not by works, never has been, and never will be. It's always by trusting in the true God. And God bless them. And there are Old Testament saints who their souls are in heaven today and they are awaiting the resurrection. And in the resurrection, their bodies will be raised up and their souls will be joined with their bodies and they will be in glory just like New Testament saints. That's the blessing of trusting in the true God. Salvation is the same for all. And there is only one true God and only one true Savior. And that Savior is Jesus Christ. And so in this passage that we're looking at here today, Jesus is continuing to remind the people that the truth is right in front of them. It's right in front of us too. The truth is here. It's in the scriptures. And it is important for us to pay attention to what the Bible says. Don't dismiss it. Don't think that you're too smart, you know better than what the Bible says. You don't. You don't. And it's very important to be willing to learn, but be careful when you're learning. Don't put yourself above God. And there's no human writer that's ever going to write anything that is going to supersede the Bible. There may be some writer that will give you some understanding on a passage you're not understanding. Commentaries are good if they're good commentaries. But no commentary is wiser than the Bible. It's always secondary. So yes, you can consult a commentary, but be careful, as that writer is writing what he thinks the verse is saying, check it out for yourself. We looked at that in Sunday school. Again, when you're studying the Bible, it's good to have a strong concordance, but get to know how to use that strong concordance too. And be careful that in your study that you take the word of God and let the word of God be your authority. And it takes time to study the scriptures. It takes time to compare scripture with scripture. The best commentary on the Bible is the Bible. So if God says something somewhere else or somewhere, look and see, where else does he say anything about that? And always keep in mind, as we've talked about too, always look at where is the first time God mentioned something, and then from there, look at how does God build on what he first mentions. Don't start in the middle of a doctrine. Find out where does God first introduce that doctrine, and then how does he develop that? and you'll find God never contradicts himself. So anything that you're gonna study, it's always gonna build. Build so that you can be convinced fully that what God is saying is true. So there are things, as Jesus points out, there are things here that are hidden, but they're hidden from the eyes of those who think they're too smart. who think that they just know better. That's who they're hidden from. If you are seeking the truth, and the Bible, again, as we see here, the only reason you're seeking is because God is drawing you. So if you're listening to God's drawing, he's going to reveal himself to you. If you're listening to me today, either here or live streaming, if you're listening and you're not saved and you're wondering, what's this salvation all about? If you're truly listening to God and letting him draw you, he will draw you to the truth. And the truth is quite simple when it comes to salvation. You need to turn to God in repentance and trust in the Lord Jesus Christ as your savior. It's not complicated. You don't need any money. You just need to turn to God, understand He is God, the Almighty God, the Lord of heaven and earth, as our text tells us. You need to understand that Jesus Christ came to this earth for the purpose of dying on the cross of Calvary, shedding His blood on that cross for you. But He didn't stay dead. He was buried, He rose again victorious over sin and death, and He's in heaven today. He's alive. That's the Jesus you need to know. And if you'll trust in Him, you will be saved. The Bible says so. And the moment you are saved, the Bible says the Holy Spirit dwells inside you, and you have a desire now to know God better. That comes from God. It doesn't come from you. It doesn't come from anybody coercing you. That's why we need to be careful as we talk to people that we want to let God do his work and convince that person of their need to be saved. It's not hard. If you're a good salesman, there are people that are good salesmen. I'm not. But there are salesmen that can sell you all kinds of things. Things that later on you scratch your head and say, why did I buy that? And there are people that do that with the Word of God. They're good salesmen. But God doesn't want us to be salesmen. He wants us to testify of Jesus Christ and let the Holy Spirit do His work and convince that sinner of their need to be saved. And when they are convinced by God of their need to be saved, then they will be saved. When we get in the way and we manipulate things to try to get them to pray a prayer and agree with us so we can tell them, yeah, I got this many saved, we've got a problem. We want to make sure they understand God's way of salvation and they are truly born again. So we need to let God lead us and follow what he teaches us. the hidden things of God. Let's pray together. Heavenly Father, we're thankful today that we have thy word. We're thankful that we can know the truth. We can be forgiven and saved. We pray for each one that's listening today. Thou knowest the heart of each individual, the ones that are saved and the ones who are not saved, the ones who are doubting, the ones who are pretty set in their ways that they're not going to bend. I pray, Father, that Thou hast continued to do Thy work in each heart, that there be no one listening today that would end up at that great white throne judgment, but that each one would know Thy peace and blessing in their heart. And we're thankful for the blood of Thy Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that is able to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. And we can be saved. We can be forgiven. And so we pray that Thy will be done in each heart and life. We pray in Jesus name. Amen.