The Mysteries of God
Bible Study Time 3-11-07
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Bible Study Time 3-11-07
Now as we begin our Bible study this morning, I’d like to start with Deuteronomy, Chapter 28, where Moses spelled out the blessings and the curses that were associated with God’s covenant with Israel. He said:
Deuteronomy 28:1-6 (NKJ)
1 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.
2 "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
Deuteronomy 28:15-19 (NKJ)
15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
Moses followed this up in Deuteronomy, Chapter 29, with a sobering prophesy. He said:
Deuteronomy 29:22-28 (NKJ)
22 " . . . the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it:
23 'The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath.'
24 "All nations would say, 'Why has the LORD done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?'
25 "Then people would say: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt;
26 'for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them.
27 'Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.
28 'And the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'
Well, Moses must have seen the astonished expressions of the people when they heard this terrible prophesy so he said:
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NKJ)
29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Indeed, the nation of Israel was going to forsake their covenant with God, and God was going to bring great judgment upon them, but Moses said that the details of when and how God was going to accomplish this were among the secrets that belong to God.
Certainly, from this we can see that God is a God who can keep a secret. The things which He has determined to keep secret belong only to Him. However, God does reveal to us and to our children those things which we need to know. In the case of the children of Israel, Moses said that God had revealed all that was necessary for them to do all the words of the Law.
As time went on, God did reveal through the prophets that the armies of Assyria and Babylon would be coming to ravage the land and take Israel into captivity. Isaiah said:
Isaiah 7:17 (NKJ)
17 "The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father's house-- days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah."
Isaiah said, the King of Assyria will pass through the land of Israel like a mighty river which has overflowed its banks. He said:
Isaiah 8:9 (NKJ)
9 "Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.
This time of judgment was hinted at by Moses, but the details were kept secret until the time of Isaiah, and this is the way it is with many of the secrets of God. He gives hints or clues along the way, but He does not reveal the details until it suits His plan and purpose. This is why we say that the Bible is a progressive revelation. God has given more and more information and revelation to man through the ages of time.
Many of the mysteries or secrets of the Old Testament related to the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom. But when Jesus came and was presented as the Messiah, He began to reveal many of the details of the kingdom which had previously been a mystery.
After Jesus gave the parable of the sower, the disciples asked Him why He always spoke to the people in parables. His response:
Matthew 13:11 (NKJ)
11 . . . "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Jesus was willing to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who were willing to listen and learn. In the parable of the sower, the seed is the word of God, and Jesus revealed the fact that only those who were willing to accept the word of God and believe in Jesus would be accepted into the kingdom.
This seems obvious to us today, but it was not so obvious to the people of that day. In general, the Jews of Jesus’ day thought that when the Messiah came, He would simply deliver Israel from her enemies. Jesus said, no, that is not the case. Only those who receive the word of God and let it take root in their lives will be allowed to enter the kingdom.
It is true that the Old Testament spoke of the remnant of Israel which would enter the kingdom, but the average Jew never equated the remnant with those who would believe in the Messiah. Isaiah said that the remnant would include those who returned to the land and to God after their captivity. He said:
Isaiah 10:20-22 (NKJ)
20 And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again depend on (the King of Assyria) who defeated them, but will depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return . . .
Most of the Jews of Jesus’ day felt that they were part of the remnant. They lived in the land, and they followed the strict rules of the Pharisees. However, the parables of Jesus indicated that the true remnant would be made up of those who put their faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said:
John 6:29
29 . . . "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom (God has) sent."
As Jesus continued revealing the mysteries of the kingdom, He gave the parable of the weeds. This parable revealed that the unsaved Jews would mix and mingle with the saved Jews until the end, when Christ will separate the saved from the unsaved. At that time the believing remnant will go into the kingdom while the unbelieving Jews will not. This was one of those secrets which had previously belonged to God but was now being revealed.
Of course, it was the Apostle Paul who really spelled out the defining aspects of the remnant. In Romans, Paul said:
Romans 9:1-7 (NKJ)
1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham . . .
Romans 9:27 (NKJ)
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
Romans 10:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:8-11
8 But what does (the scripture) say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
The Jews of Jesus’ day had to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God in order to qualify as part of the remnant. However, as Paul further defined the remnant, it became clear that the remnant would include only those who believed in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. Paul said that his heart ached for Israel because he knew that if the Lord had returned at that time very few Jews would have been allowed into the kingdom.
As Paul went from place to place preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, he effectively showed that his gospel was something which had been hidden in the scriptures all through the ages. He said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
It was no accident that Paul repeated the phrase, according to the scriptures. He wanted people to know that what he was preaching had been predicted by the prophets. Isaiah had said:
Isaiah 53:3-6 (NKJ)
3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; he was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
From our vantage point, we can see that Isaiah was talking about Jesus dying for our sins, but back in the Old Testament times the correct interpretation of this passage would have been one of those secrets which belong to God.
Paul had the privilege of revealing this secret. He revealed the fact that Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. In other words, it was Jesus Christ who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
The resurrection of Christ was also predicted in the Old Testament. David said:
Psalms 16:10
10 For You will not leave my soul in (hell), nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Again, from our vantage point, we can see that David was speaking about the resurrection of Christ and the fact that Jesus would be raised from the dead before His body could decay. We can see this, but it would have been a mystery to the people who lived during the Old Testament times.
I believe that it was this mystery concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that Paul was talking about in Galatians, Chapter 1, when he said:
Galatians 1:11-12 (NKJ)
11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The gospel that Paul was preaching was the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ, that we are saved by simple faith in the work of Christ upon the cross and that our salvation has nothing to do with the rituals and ceremonies of the Law.
This gospel was a great mystery in the Old Testament, but Paul was given the privilege of revealing the details of this gospel of the grace of God, and I believe that it was this mystery concerning the cross of Christ that Paul was speaking about in Romans, Chapter 16, when he said:
Romans 16:25 (NKJ)
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began
This mystery was the mystery concerning the gospel which Paul was preaching, the good news that salvation is given to all those who put their faith and trust in the work of Christ upon the cross. Paul said that this was a mystery which had been kept secret since the world began, but he never said that this gospel was not hinted at in the Old Testament.
In fact, in the very next verse, Paul went on to say that this gospel:
Romans 16:26
26 . . . has (now) been made manifest . . . by the prophetic Scriptures (and) has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith--
This gospel which Paul was preaching had been previously hidden in the prophetic Scriptures but was now being revealed by the prophetic Scriptures. The fact that Christ would be wounded for our transgressions and raised from the dead was all predicted but was well concealed within the Old Testament scriptures.
The Lord willing, next week we will look at the mystery concerning the Church of our present age which was never hinted at in the Old Testament. It’s been a pleasure studying with you this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
Deuteronomy 28:1-6 (NKJ)
1 "Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth.
2 "And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
3 "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
4 "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
5 "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
Deuteronomy 28:15-19 (NKJ)
15 "But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 "Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
Moses followed this up in Deuteronomy, Chapter 29, with a sobering prophesy. He said:
Deuteronomy 29:22-28 (NKJ)
22 " . . . the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it:
23 'The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath.'
24 "All nations would say, 'Why has the LORD done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?'
25 "Then people would say: 'Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt;
26 'for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them.
27 'Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book.
28 'And the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.'
Well, Moses must have seen the astonished expressions of the people when they heard this terrible prophesy so he said:
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NKJ)
29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Indeed, the nation of Israel was going to forsake their covenant with God, and God was going to bring great judgment upon them, but Moses said that the details of when and how God was going to accomplish this were among the secrets that belong to God.
Certainly, from this we can see that God is a God who can keep a secret. The things which He has determined to keep secret belong only to Him. However, God does reveal to us and to our children those things which we need to know. In the case of the children of Israel, Moses said that God had revealed all that was necessary for them to do all the words of the Law.
As time went on, God did reveal through the prophets that the armies of Assyria and Babylon would be coming to ravage the land and take Israel into captivity. Isaiah said:
Isaiah 7:17 (NKJ)
17 "The LORD will bring the king of Assyria upon you and your people and your father's house-- days that have not come since the day that Ephraim departed from Judah."
Isaiah said, the King of Assyria will pass through the land of Israel like a mighty river which has overflowed its banks. He said:
Isaiah 8:9 (NKJ)
9 "Be shattered, O you peoples, and be broken in pieces! Give ear, all you from far countries. Gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces; gird yourselves, but be broken in pieces.
This time of judgment was hinted at by Moses, but the details were kept secret until the time of Isaiah, and this is the way it is with many of the secrets of God. He gives hints or clues along the way, but He does not reveal the details until it suits His plan and purpose. This is why we say that the Bible is a progressive revelation. God has given more and more information and revelation to man through the ages of time.
Many of the mysteries or secrets of the Old Testament related to the coming of the Messiah and the establishment of the kingdom. But when Jesus came and was presented as the Messiah, He began to reveal many of the details of the kingdom which had previously been a mystery.
After Jesus gave the parable of the sower, the disciples asked Him why He always spoke to the people in parables. His response:
Matthew 13:11 (NKJ)
11 . . . "Because it has been given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given.
Jesus was willing to reveal the mysteries of the kingdom to those who were willing to listen and learn. In the parable of the sower, the seed is the word of God, and Jesus revealed the fact that only those who were willing to accept the word of God and believe in Jesus would be accepted into the kingdom.
This seems obvious to us today, but it was not so obvious to the people of that day. In general, the Jews of Jesus’ day thought that when the Messiah came, He would simply deliver Israel from her enemies. Jesus said, no, that is not the case. Only those who receive the word of God and let it take root in their lives will be allowed to enter the kingdom.
It is true that the Old Testament spoke of the remnant of Israel which would enter the kingdom, but the average Jew never equated the remnant with those who would believe in the Messiah. Isaiah said that the remnant would include those who returned to the land and to God after their captivity. He said:
Isaiah 10:20-22 (NKJ)
20 And it shall come to pass in that day that the remnant of Israel, and such as have escaped of the house of Jacob, will never again depend on (the King of Assyria) who defeated them, but will depend on the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, in truth.
21 The remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the Mighty God.
22 For though your people, O Israel, be as the sand of the sea, a remnant of them will return . . .
Most of the Jews of Jesus’ day felt that they were part of the remnant. They lived in the land, and they followed the strict rules of the Pharisees. However, the parables of Jesus indicated that the true remnant would be made up of those who put their faith in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said:
John 6:29
29 . . . "This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom (God has) sent."
As Jesus continued revealing the mysteries of the kingdom, He gave the parable of the weeds. This parable revealed that the unsaved Jews would mix and mingle with the saved Jews until the end, when Christ will separate the saved from the unsaved. At that time the believing remnant will go into the kingdom while the unbelieving Jews will not. This was one of those secrets which had previously belonged to God but was now being revealed.
Of course, it was the Apostle Paul who really spelled out the defining aspects of the remnant. In Romans, Paul said:
Romans 9:1-7 (NKJ)
1 I tell the truth in Christ, I am not lying, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Spirit,
2 that I have great sorrow and continual grief in my heart.
3 For I could wish that I myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my countrymen according to the flesh,
4 who are Israelites, to whom pertain the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the service of God, and the promises;
5 of whom are the fathers and from whom, according to the flesh, Christ came, who is over all, the eternally blessed God. Amen.
6 But it is not that the word of God has taken no effect. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel,
7 nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham . . .
Romans 9:27 (NKJ)
27 Isaiah also cries out concerning Israel: "Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, the remnant will be saved.
Romans 10:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they may be saved.
2 For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge.
3 For they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Romans 10:8-11
8 But what does (the scripture) say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith which we preach):
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.
10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
11 For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
The Jews of Jesus’ day had to believe that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God in order to qualify as part of the remnant. However, as Paul further defined the remnant, it became clear that the remnant would include only those who believed in the finished work of Christ upon the cross. Paul said that his heart ached for Israel because he knew that if the Lord had returned at that time very few Jews would have been allowed into the kingdom.
As Paul went from place to place preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ, he effectively showed that his gospel was something which had been hidden in the scriptures all through the ages. He said:
1 Corinthians 15:1-4 (NKJ)
1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand,
2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you-- unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures,
4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
It was no accident that Paul repeated the phrase, according to the scriptures. He wanted people to know that what he was preaching had been predicted by the prophets. Isaiah had said:
Isaiah 53:3-6 (NKJ)
3 He is despised and rejected by men, a Man of sorrows and acquainted with grief. And we hid, as it were, our faces from Him; he was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed Him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.
5 But He was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
From our vantage point, we can see that Isaiah was talking about Jesus dying for our sins, but back in the Old Testament times the correct interpretation of this passage would have been one of those secrets which belong to God.
Paul had the privilege of revealing this secret. He revealed the fact that Christ was delivered up because of our offenses and raised because of our justification. In other words, it was Jesus Christ who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities.
The resurrection of Christ was also predicted in the Old Testament. David said:
Psalms 16:10
10 For You will not leave my soul in (hell), nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.
Again, from our vantage point, we can see that David was speaking about the resurrection of Christ and the fact that Jesus would be raised from the dead before His body could decay. We can see this, but it would have been a mystery to the people who lived during the Old Testament times.
I believe that it was this mystery concerning the death, burial and resurrection of Christ that Paul was talking about in Galatians, Chapter 1, when he said:
Galatians 1:11-12 (NKJ)
11 But I make known to you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached by me is not according to man.
12 For I neither received it from man, nor was I taught it, but it came through the revelation of Jesus Christ.
The gospel that Paul was preaching was the gospel of the cross of Jesus Christ, that we are saved by simple faith in the work of Christ upon the cross and that our salvation has nothing to do with the rituals and ceremonies of the Law.
This gospel was a great mystery in the Old Testament, but Paul was given the privilege of revealing the details of this gospel of the grace of God, and I believe that it was this mystery concerning the cross of Christ that Paul was speaking about in Romans, Chapter 16, when he said:
Romans 16:25 (NKJ)
25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began
This mystery was the mystery concerning the gospel which Paul was preaching, the good news that salvation is given to all those who put their faith and trust in the work of Christ upon the cross. Paul said that this was a mystery which had been kept secret since the world began, but he never said that this gospel was not hinted at in the Old Testament.
In fact, in the very next verse, Paul went on to say that this gospel:
Romans 16:26
26 . . . has (now) been made manifest . . . by the prophetic Scriptures (and) has been made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith--
This gospel which Paul was preaching had been previously hidden in the prophetic Scriptures but was now being revealed by the prophetic Scriptures. The fact that Christ would be wounded for our transgressions and raised from the dead was all predicted but was well concealed within the Old Testament scriptures.
The Lord willing, next week we will look at the mystery concerning the Church of our present age which was never hinted at in the Old Testament. It’s been a pleasure studying with you this morning, and I’ll look forward to being with you again next week at this same time.
Write me at: jimjoan77@juno.com
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