Deuteronomy 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever… I. CONSIDER WHAT THE SECRET WILL OF GOD RESPECTS. Before the foundation of the world He formed in His own mind a complete scheme of His own conduct through all future ages. This scheme comprehended all things that ever have been and ever will be brought into existence. It was His secret will that not only holiness and happiness, but that sin and misery also should take place among His intelligent creatures. Though He loved only holiness and happiness, and perfectly hated sin and misery, yet He determined that both should take place. II. CONSIDER WHAT THE REVEALED WILL OF GOD RESPECTS. It respects what is right and wrong, what is good and evil, or what is duty and sin, without any regard to the taking place of these things. III. SHOWS THAT GOD'S REVEALED WILL, AND NOT HIS SECRET WILL, IS THE RULE OF DUTY. 1. That God has revealed His will in His Word for the very purpose of giving us a rule of duty. No secret purpose, intention, or design of the Deity can annul or diminish our obligation to obey this His revealed will. 2. The will of God revealed in His Word is a complete rule of duty. The obligation of a child to do what his parent requires does not depend upon his knowing the secret will of his parent, or the reason why he commands him to do this or that lawful thing. The obligation of a subject to do what a civil ruler requires him to do does not depend upon his knowing the reasons of state, or why the civil ruler requires certain acts of obedience. So the obligation of creatures to obey the revealed will of their Creator does not depend upon their knowing His secret will or the reasons of His commands. It is the revealed will of God, therefore, and not His secret will, which is our infallible rule of duty. 2. God's secret or decretal will cannot be known, and for that reason cannot be a rule of duty to any of His creatures. 4. Supposing God should reveal to us all His purposes respecting all His intelligent creatures in every part of the universe, this knowledge of His decretal will would be no rule of duty to us. His decretal will is only a rule of conduct for Himself: our knowing what it becomes Him to do cannot inform us what it is becoming us to do. 5. That the secret will of God cannot, if it were known, be a rule of duty, because it is entirely destitute of both precept ,and penalty, and consequently of all Divine authority. Improvement — 1. If God's secret will respects one object, and His revealed will respects another object, then there is no inconsistency between His secret and revealed will. 2. It appears from the representations which have been given of the secret and revealed will of God that our text has often been perverted and misapplied. 3. If God's secret will respects the taking place of future events, then all uninspired men who pretend to reveal God's secret will, or to foretell future events, are guilty of both folly and falsehood. For secret things belong to God only, and He only can reveal them. 4. If God's secret will cannot be known, then it can have no influence upon the actions of men. 5. But if God has a secret will respecting all future events, and will always act according to His secret will, then it is easy to see the real cause why mankind are generally so much opposed to the doctrine of Divine decrees. It is entirely owing to their fears that He will execute His decrees, or bring to pass whatever He has decreed. 6. If God will certainly execute His wise and holy secret will, then all His friends have a constant source of joy under all circumstances of life. For He has assured them that in executing His secret will He will cause all things to work together for their good. 7. If God's secret will be His governing will, and respects the existence of everything that comes to pass, then it is very criminal in any to deny or to complain of His secret will. It is the same thing as to deny that God governs the world, or to complain that He does not govern it in the wisest and best manner. (N. Emmons, D. D.) Parallel Verses KJV: The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law. |
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