#83 Lu. 10:21-24, THE GOSPEL HIDDEN FROM THE WISE AND PRUDENT, BUT
REVEALED TO BABES

Introduction:

    Jesus had sent out seventy preachers to preach the gospel to
Israel.  These men rejoiced that they could cast out demons.
Jesus told them to rather rejoice because their names were written
in heaven.
    In this text Jesus Himself rejoices and then presents a
mystery.  The gospel is hidden from the wise and prudent, but it
is revealed to some who are babes.

I.  Jesus rejoicing

    Listen.  V. 21, "In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit..."
That is, in that time after the seventy had reported in to Him and
He instructed them to rejoice because their names are written in
heaven, Jesus Himself rejoiced.
    This is one of the few times in Scripture that it is said that
Jesus rejoiced.  His life here on earth could not generally be
characterized as a time of rejoicing.  Rather is said in Scripture
that He was a man of sorrow and acquainted with grief.  This is
one of the few times that the Scripture makes mention of Him
rejoicing and there was not one single instance recorded of Him
laughing during His entire life span here on earth.  This does not
necessarily mean that He never laughed, but it does mean that if
He ever laughed at all it was very little.
    But in this instance, as Jesus thought about men hearing the
gospel and believing its message He rejoiced.  As he thought about
those who were saved by His grace and whose names were written in
heaven and who were certain to be with Him in heaven one of these
days, Jesus rejoiced in His Spirit.  As He thought about them
studying the things of God and getting a deeper insight into the
truths of God He rejoiced.
    He had told His disciples not to waste their time rejoicing
because demon spirits were subject to their command and so we know
that He was not rejoicing because these seventy preachers reported
to Him that they had successfully cast the demons out of people.
Rather He was rejoicing about the same thing that He had told them
to rejoice about.  He was rejoicing that these men were saved that
they would go to heaven.

II.  The mystery of the gospel being hidden from some men

    He was also rejoicing because the understanding of the gospel
message and the understanding of other gospel related truths does
not spring from the depraved flesh nature of man.  (V. 21), "...
and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that
thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent..."  Jesus
said that an understanding of spiritual matters is hidden from the
wise and prudent.  The Greek word that here is translated "wise"
speaks of the educated, the learned, the highly trained, the
highly skilled.  As we would say, "the intellectuals."  In that
day in Israel it would refer primarily to the scribes, the
Pharisees and the rabbis.  Sometimes they were called lawyers,
meaning those who were experts in the Mosaic Law.  They knew the
Mosaic Law backwards and forward.
    The Greek word that here is translated "prudent" speaks of
those who were highly intelligent.  They were quick learners.
They had a very high IQ.  They had brilliant minds.  These, too,
could be called, "the intellectuals."
    Jesus said that God has hidden the things of God from the wise
and the prudent.  The things of God are hidden to the
intellectuals.  This, at first is difficult for us to understand.
It is especially difficult to understand in view of the fact that
God has done all He can to get people to hear the gospel, to
understand the gospel and be saved.  God loves all men and had
sent the gospel to all men so that all men could be saved.  In
giving the Great Commission Jesus instructed that the gospel
should be preached to every creature.
    This is a mystery.  In what sense did God hide the gospel from
the wise and prudent?  Did not God send the gospel to all the
world with instructions that it was to be preached to every
creature?  How is it then that God hides the gospel from the wise
and prudent?  Did not command all men to repent?  How is it then
that God has hidden the gospel from the wise and prudent?

III.  The answer to the mystery

    God does not do anything to prevent any man from getting
saved.  never-the-less God has sent a message to the world that
cannot be understood with mere human intelligence and human
learning and that message is the gospel message.  One must be
willing to turn to God and seek the truth from God and when he
does God will help him to understand the gospel message
sufficiently to be saved.  But if one is not willing to turn to
God and seek the truth from God, then the gospel will remain
hidden to him.
    One way that God has hidden the gospel from the intellectual
man is that God has sent the gospel to the world by common
ordinary men.  God did not call many men from among the highly
intellectuals to preach the gospel.  For the most part, God has
called men to preach who are not recognized by the worldly wise as
knowing what they are talking about.  God's preachers go to the
world preaching that God is the Creator of the world, when the
worldly wise deny that God created the world.  God has sent the
gospel to the world by men who preach that the Bible is the
inspired word of God when the worldly wise look upon the Bible as
being a collection of myths and fables.  God has sent the gospel
to the world by men who preach that God has set a high moral
standard for all mankind and that when man fails to live up to
those standards he sins against God.  The worldly wise look upon
God's standards as being old fashioned and obsolete.  They look
upon sin as being non-existent.  The worldly wise does not believe
the gospel message preached by the Christians because God has sent
the gospel to him by those whom he looks upon as being less
knowledgeable than himself.
    Needless to say, Satan, himself, plays a major role in keeping
the gospel hidden to man.  Satan was initially responsible for
blinding their eyes to the gospel and, thus, hiding the gospel
from them.  Satan works hard at the job.  He stays at the job
continuously.  He never lets up as long as he has a chance of
keeping a man from being saved.
    Yet the lost man, himself, has a part in hiding the gospel
from himself.  One who looks upon himself as being smart enough to
solve his own problems, one who looks upon himself as being
capable of working out from under any bad situation, is not going
to see the need of repenting of his sin and trusting in the Lord
Jesus Christ to save his soul.  That is why the gospel message and
other gospel related truths of God is hidden to those who are wise
and prudent from the worldly point of view.  They think they can
take care of their own destiny when the truth of the matter is
that they do not have a ghost of a chance.
    It is only when a man recognizes that he is guilty, guilty,
guilty before God that he is able to see that he needs to turn to
God and depend entirely on the Lord Jesus Christ to save his soul.
It is when a man will confess his sin unto God and call on the
Lord Jesus Christ to save his unworthy soul and keep him out of
hell that he will get saved.

IV.  The gospel revealed to some

    (V. 21), "...and hast revealed them unto babes: even so,
Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight." Here it is, the vast
majority of highly brilliant men, the men with the best minds and
the best education do not believe the gospel message that can save
their souls and keep them out of hell when some whom the Lord here
calls "babes" have grasped its meaning and have been saved.  Not
that these people are literally infants, but in comparison to the
scribes, the Pharisees and the Jewish rabbis, the Lord's preachers
were nothing but babies.  They knew so little in comparison to the
scribes, the Pharisees and the rabbis.  They may have been
unlearned by the world's standards, but they were saved.  They
understood that Jesus saves.  They understood that they were
sinners in the sight of God.  They understood that if they were
going to stay out of the fires of hell they were going to have to
call on the Lord and ask Him to save their souls.
    They may not be as smart or as intellectual as the scribes and
Pharisees, but they were saved.  They may not be as well educated
as the scribes, the rabbis or the lawyers, but they were saved.
They were born again.  They were not going to hell.  They were on
their way to heaven.
    When Jesus got to thinking about this He rejoiced.  He praised
the Lord.  He thanked God the Father in heaven that God had
designed a gospel message so simple that the most simple minded
person who would confess his sins and trust in Jesus could be
saved, but the highest intellectual who would not acknowledge his
sin, who would not repent of his sin could not be saved.
    Jesus would have rejoiced all the more if all men would repent
of their sin and trust in Him to save their souls.  Jesus would be
most happy for all men to get saved.  But since not all men will
repent of their sin and not all men will yield to God's way of
salvation, Jesus is glad that those who will yield to God will be
saved and those who will not yield will not be saved.

Conclusion:

    If you want to go to heaven, you are going to have to be
willing to let God show you the truth about the way to heaven.
    If you know that you are a sinner, then you know that you need
forgiveness of your sins.
    If you know that you cannot save yourself then you need to
know that Jesus can save you.
    If you want to be saved right now, Jesus will save you right
now.