Open the Bible

Colin Smith: I've chosen to focus on this single verse today because it has been so significant in my own life. Many of you will have found this scripture already. If you haven't, I know that you will find it helpful for years to come if God earth it into your heart today.

Guest (Male): Welcome to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith. And so, Colin, what is this verse?

Colin Smith: Well, we're in the book of Deuteronomy and it's Deuteronomy 29:29, which says, "The secret things belong to our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow all the words of his law." So, there's a distinction. There are some things that are secret and they belong to the Lord.

And we struggle, don't we, with, why did God do this? Why did God allow that? Why did this turn of events take place? The secret things belong to the Lord. I have to leave in the hand of God those things that He has not revealed. But then there are revealed things that are given to us and to our children.

In other words, they're to be grasped, they're to be lived, they're to be passed on to the next generation. If we're able to leave and to trust the secret things with the Lord and then to grasp and obey and follow the things that have been revealed, we'll be able to live in a way that is wise and godly for the sake and the glory of Jesus.

Guest (Male): Well, we are in Deuteronomy as you just heard, chapter 29, looking at verse 29 as we begin the message, "Act on what you know, leave the rest to God." Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: If you don't know this verse already, I hope that today will be a means of God sealing it into your heart and into your mind.

Deuteronomy 29:29. The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

Now, if you've been with us during the series, you will have a sense of what's happening in Deuteronomy. God's people are on the verge of the promised land. And Moses is speaking to them for the last time. Here we are now coming towards the end of the book of Deuteronomy, and the book is really a series of sermons, and this is the last of the sermons. It's not the last in our series, but it really is the last time Moses speaks to the people.

And so if you think about speaking to those you really love, those in whom you have invested your life, all these years, and you're speaking to them for the very last time, what would you say? What really matters? What is of greatest significance and of importance? And I think as we look at this last part of what Moses says to God's people, a good title for the last sermon Moses preached would be "Two Ways to Live."

Because really his last message is this: You're about to enter the promised land. He, of course, is not going to be with them. Moses is going to go and be at home with the Lord. But he's saying when you enter the promised land, remember there are two ways to live. And if you glance back to chapter 28, you'll see that this is really the main theme of his last sermon. From verse one, he lists blessings that will follow obedience.

Verse one, "If you fully obey the Lord your God, you will be blessed in the city, you will be blessed in the country. You will be blessed in the fruit of your womb and so forth and so on." A long list of blessings. He's talking about the national future here. And then if you take it up at verse 15 of chapter 28, Moses then lists curses that follow disobedience. Verse 15, "However, if you do not obey the Lord your God, you will be cursed in the city, you will be cursed in the country, the basket and the kneading trough will be cursed and so forth and so on."

So this is the theme and it's developed over several chapters. Moses is saying, "You're going into a wonderful new land. There are two ways to live. There are two radically different consequences that come to the nation according to whether people follow God's righteous path or rebel against it." There's a path on which you'll be blessed, and there is a path on which you will experience judgment.

Now, picture yourself standing there listening to Moses' last sermon. And here you are on the verge of the promised land. And Moses says, "Now, when you go in, there's two ways to live and two radically different experiences of life that come as a consequence." What would the question be in your mind? I know what I'd be asking. "Moses, which one is it going to be? What's the future for us? What's the future for our children? What is the future for our grandchildren? What kind of world are they going to inherit? What's it going to be like in the next 10 years? Moses, tell us what is going to happen?"

And here's Moses' answer in Deuteronomy 29 and in verse 29. He says, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow all the words of this law."

Now, I've chosen to focus on this single verse today because it has been so significant in my own life. Many of you will have found this scripture already. If you haven't, I know that you will find it helpful for years to come if God earth it into your heart today.

It is an easy verse to remember, even the reference, Deuteronomy 29:29. Say it with me, Deuteronomy 29:29. Okay, it sticks. It's easy to remember, you'll find it sticks with you. Deuteronomy 29:29. And the truth that it states is so simple, just two things. The secret things belong to the Lord. The things that are revealed belong to us.

And if you think about it, the whole of life is really divided into two parts, that are things that God has kept secret, that you do not know and you do not understand, and there are things that God has revealed and He has given them and entrusted them to you.

Now, one simply for us to ponder and then for most of the message to apply this very simple but powerfully liberating truth. God keeps some things secret. Now, what that means is that as a Christian, you should expect to face questions to which you have no answer. Don't be afraid as a Christian to say, "I don't know." It is not part of faith to pretend that you have an answer for every question. And faith bows before the mystery of what God has kept hidden. That's part of what faith does. That's why it's faith and not sight. It bows before the mystery of what God has kept hidden.

I've heard Christians on a number of occasions, both in the UK and here, talk about having a Deuteronomy 29:29 file. Have you heard this phrase? It's actually rather helpful. I've heard someone say, you know, when something that they can't make any sense of happens in life, they say, "Well, I'm going to put that in my Deuteronomy 29:29 file." So, I don't know if they actually have a folder with these things written down, but that's a great way to think of it. Because you are going to experience things in life, as I do, that we do not understand.

And we're not going to understand them this side of heaven. So what do you do with them? You put them in your Deuteronomy 29:29 file. The secret things belong to the Lord. Living by faith, this is very important to understand, living by faith means accepting the limits of revelation as well as affirming the reality of revelation. Normally, we put the emphasis on faith involves affirming what God has revealed and what He has made clear. But faith equally involves accepting the limits of revelation as well as affirming its reality. That is why we are walking by faith, Paul says, and not by sight.

Now notice what Moses says next. He says, "The secret things belong to the Lord." This is wonderful. There will be things in your life that will make absolutely no sense to you. They will baffle you. You cannot work them out. And you might feel at that point like a kind of tendency to despair. You might feel like throwing up your hands and saying, "Life makes no sense. It is completely absurd. What's the point? I give up." But that is not where Moses goes. He doesn't say the secret things are there to frustrate you and lead you to despair. He says, "The secret things belong to the Lord."

So there will be times in your life where you say, "I can make absolutely no sense of this, but God knows. God knows." And the secret things belong to the Lord, and the Lord to whom they belong is my loving heavenly Father. The secret things belong to the Lord. Faith lives with unanswered questions. Grasp that. It will settle you in the unsettling things of life.

But then Moses says something else here. He says, "The things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may follow the words of this law." So, see what he's saying? God keeps some things secret and they belong to Him, but not everything is secret because God has revealed some things and they belong to us. So, while it is true that faith bows before the mystery of what God has kept hidden, we need to put alongside that that faith stands on the promise that Christ has revealed. These are really the two dimensions of faith.

It bows before the mystery of what God has kept hidden and it stands on the promise of what God has revealed. And Moses says, "Now, understand this, the revealed things, they're given to you so that you'll be able to follow the Lord, even when you find yourself perplexed by the things you don't understand." These revealed things, they belong to us and they belong to our children. And they're given to you so that in this life where many things will perplex you, you will be able to stand firm even in the tough circumstances of life.

So, this is a great verse of scripture that goes to the very foundation of what it means to live by faith in this world. It's easy to find, it is easy to remember, it is profoundly helpful to apply. We live by faith and not by sight. There will be a day, folks, when our faith is turned to sight. There will be a day when you know even as now you are known. But that day is not yet. And until that day, what faith does is it bows before the mystery of what God has kept hidden and stands on the promise that God has revealed.

Guest (Male): Well, we do have to pause here for just a moment, but when we get back to the message, we're going to look at seven applications of this truth. So I hope you'll stay with us. You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith, and our message is called, "Act on What You Know, Leave the Rest to God." It's part of our series on the book of Deuteronomy called "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start." And if you ever miss a program, you can listen online at openthebible.org, or you can listen through the Open the Bible app, which you'll find for free at your app store. Let's get back to the message. Again, here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: I want to give you seven applications of this powerful truth that I think all of us will touch at some point in our life and in our experience. Seven secrets that belong to the Lord, and then seven promises that are given to us. Well, here we go.

Secret number one: the future of your children. Now, is there any parent who hasn't wondered about this? What will happen to your children? Will they marry? What about your grandchildren? Will they be happy? Will they prosper? You ask that question, "What kind of world will my grandchildren inherit?" You ask that question.

This was surely in the minds of those who were standing beside Moses when he's telling them that there are two very different futures that may happen in the land. What's the future for our children, your children? The secret things belong to the Lord.

Secret number two: the reason for your suffering. All of us at some time in life will ask the question why? You will come to some painful experience, and for some of us this is so acute. And you're locked into this question, "Why was I born into that family? Why did this illness come to me? Why did that awful event happen to my son or my daughter?" And you ask the question, and you ask it for years, and you still have no answer. The secret things belong to the Lord.

Secret number three: the manner of your death. Now, I don't know if you think about this once in a while. I promise you as you get older, once in a while you will. How long will you live? Will you reach old age or will God take you while you are young? Will you die through an illness? Or will you die through an accident? Will you die with a sound mind? Some of us think about that perhaps quite a lot. And perhaps you ask the question, will I experience pain? The secret things belong to the Lord.

Number four: the salvation of your loved ones. I'm thinking here about unbelieving neighbors, friends, or family members who do not yet know or love Christ, and you pray for them, and you love them, and you share the gospel with them. I'm thinking today about someone that I have been praying for for over 20 years. He has no interest in God. He has no love for Christ. Will he be converted? I do not know. I don't know. The secret things belong to the Lord.

Number five: the events of tomorrow. Karen and I plan to fly to England tonight, to arrive in Glasgow with the second flight tomorrow, and then to get on a bus that will take us from Glasgow to the North of Scotland, to Inverness, where we got some days with my parents and then visiting hers. We got it all worked out. It's about 14, 15 hours altogether with the three legs of the journey. We've done it many, many times before and we're planned and ready to go.

And every time I travel, I think about the words of James. "Listen, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city.' You do not even know what will happen tomorrow." Well, you don't know what's going to happen for you tomorrow either, whatever you've got planned. The secret things belong to the Lord. Folks, this is life, this is reality.

Number six: the outcome of your ministry. Now, as you serve the Lord, as so many of us are engaged in ministry, you will have discovered, you don't need me to tell you that there are times when you find yourself asking this question, "Am I doing anything of lasting value?" You are praying and you say, "Now, is this making any difference?" Is there any Christian who hasn't been there? You make sacrifices and you wonder, "Well, does anybody even notice?"

It's fascinating to me in Matthew chapter 25, when the Lord's people are brought before Him on the day of judgment, and they are surprised. They're surprised by the outcome of their ministry. Remember, Jesus says to them, "Now, I was hungry and you fed me, and I was in prison and you visited me." And they're saying, "When was that? When did we do these things?" And Jesus says, "Well, as much as you did it to the least of these my brothers, you did it to me." The truth is that the last day will hold so many wonderful surprises because you don't know the outcome of your own ministry. You don't. The secret things belong to the Lord.

Here's number seven: the progress of your Christian life. If you are a Christian today, you will know what it is to be alarmed by your own lack of progress as a Christian. God, of course, is conforming you to the likeness of Jesus Christ. And there is progress in sanctification, but the truth is that it's not always obvious, and if it is seen, and where it is seen, it's more likely to be seen by other people before it is seen by you.

And the reality is that sin lies so deep within the best of us that we often find ourselves alarmed and astonished and even confounded when it breaks out in unexpected ways. You've experienced this: the sudden word, the cynical thought, the overwhelming impulse, and the unexpected failure. And you say, "Where in the world did that come from?" It came from within you.

Peter says to Jesus, "I'm ready to die with you." And you remember a few hours later, he's calling down curses, he's blaspheming, he said, "I never even knew the man." Where did that come from? Inside of him. You thought you were making progress. That you had left those things behind. But now the sin that you thought you had conquered, it's back again and it's staring you in the face. It's almost as if it's laughing at you. And you say, "Well, now have I made no progress? Will I ever be the person that God is calling me to be?"

If you are a Christian, you will know what it is to stare into the mystery of your own sin. The secret things belong to the Lord. That's why it says in Psalm 19, "Who can understand his own errors?" Isn't that a great question? Is there anyone here who really understands his own errors? Of course you don't. The secret things belong to the Lord.

Now, folks, this is humbling truth today, isn't it? There's a stillness among us as there ought to be. Because you start looking at life, what you see is that however powerful sometimes we may feel, the truth is that the vastness is of that which we do not know. The things God has kept secret. You don't know the future of your children, or the reason for your suffering, or the manner of your death, or the salvation of your loved ones, or the events of tomorrow. You don't know the outcome of your ministry. You don't even have a sure read on your own progress in the Christian life.

And you say, "Well, now with all this that I don't know, how can I live? How can you navigate your way through a world where God has kept so much secret, where so many of the big things that you think, 'I really need to know these things,' and yet God has said, 'I'm not going to tell them to you. They belong to me.'"

Well, here's the principle that's right at the heart of this single verse that I'm trying to work into our hearts and asking that God will seal in our minds. You live with what God has kept secret by trusting what God has revealed. That's the principle. The reality is that wherever you turn in life, we are surrounded by what we do not know and what we do not control. And you live with what God has kept secret by trusting what God has revealed.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Open the Bible Weekend with Pastor Colin Smith, and a message called, "Act on What You Know." And we've been looking at seven secrets that belong to the Lord. Next time on the broadcast, we're going to continue by looking at seven promises that belong to us. Our message, "Act on What You Know," is part of a larger series entitled "Take Two: The Power of a Fresh Start," where we're taking a look at the book of Deuteronomy. And if you ever miss a broadcast in our series, come and listen online at openthebible.org.

We're able to bring you Pastor Colin's teaching each day because of your financial generosity. And as you give a gift of any amount this month, we want to say thank you by sending you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional. Colin, what is one thing that you'd like people to take away from this book?

Colin Smith: Well, you know, that opening the Bible is really very, very simple. I think some people have the idea, you know, "Oh, I don't have time for studying the Bible and it's all very difficult and all very complicated." Actually, it's beautifully simple. And Lincoln's Devotional is really a good place to begin. What this book does is it gives us a verse for every day of the year. Just a verse. Sometimes it's two verses from the Bible, but it's very, very short. The idea is that you try and take in a simple and wonderful truth or promise from the Word of God, and then just carry it in your heart and in your mind to be able to draw strength from it, to draw comfort and hope from it.

And each month in this devotional is organized around a theme of part of the experience of a believer's life. So, one month you'll be looking at the temptations that a Christian faces. Another month you'll be reading verses from the Bible about the sorrows that a Christian will experience. Another month you'll be reading about the joys. And of course, you'll end up reading about the glorious hope and the great future that lies ahead of every believer. Very simple, a verse from the Old King James Version of the Bible, and a short poem or a verse of a hymn that just reflects on it added. And that's there for you every day for a year. It's a great place to get started, or if you've got bogged down, it's a great way to be refreshed.

Guest (Male): Well, we want to send you a copy of Lincoln's Daily Devotional as our way of saying thank you for your financial support this month. You can give online at openthebible.org or when you call 1-877-673-6365. That might be easier to remember as 1-877-OPEN-365. And again, the website is openthebible.org. For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening and I hope you'll join us next time. Open the Bible Weekend is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible. At Open the Bible, we're grateful for like-minded organizations committed to sharing the gospel around the world. And to that end, I'd like to commend the work of Global Fingerprints. You know, in the book of James, God calls us to help orphans in their distress. That's a clear command, but it's not always clear how we should obey it. And this is where Global Fingerprints comes in. Through Global Fingerprints, you can sponsor a vulnerable child to help meet their physical needs and ensure they hear the gospel of Jesus Christ. I want to commend Global Fingerprints to you. They're focused on equipping the local church to care for children, and where there is no church, they help to plant one. If you'd like to help a vulnerable child, you can find more information on Global Fingerprints at our website openthebible.org/gf. That's openthebible.org/gf.