Introduction

I wonder how knowable you think the ways of God really are. Whilst the God of the Bible, the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, has made himself knowable and comprehensible to a degree, at the same time there are ways in which he is vastly unknowable. We all know this. There are things which can be known about God, but a great deal more that we struggle to wrap our heads around, even by that which is revealed in Scripture. Think of Isaiah 55:8-9: "'For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,' declares the Lord." He is far above us and beyond us.

This morning we come to an area of Christian theology with which many Christians have a great deal of difficulty, either in understanding or accepting this doctrine. Many stumble over this doctrine, and many hold even deeply distorted views of it. I'm talking about the doctrine of election.

What am I saying here? Well, the context of Matthew 11:20-24, the verses preceding that which I just read, which we've been working through. If we had read the previous context and section in a certain kind of way, we might have come to the conclusion that the reason these cities of Bethsaida and Chorazin and Capernaum were in unbelief and under Christ's rebuke was purely a rationality issue. Maybe we think that Jesus condemns them because they were not applying their intelligence correctly, because they needed to get past their pride and believe in the Saviour in front of them. Maybe we think that Jesus is saying, "You are smart people, and yet these realities of the kingdom of heaven you blindly reject. And why? Because your thinking is not right. So come on, man. Come on, woman. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps and get a grip on your own will and your conscience. Can't you see what is now at stake? I've shown myself through these miracles; believe in me."

This would be an ordinary and natural reading of the passage. In one sense, that would be the conclusion we might draw: that intelligence and rationality is the issue. I mean, everything that we do in the world, the ideas that we adopt or disregard, we attribute all of that to rational process, don't we? Why also not, then, salvation in Jesus Christ? Are not sound arguments, logic and reason the ultimate catalyst to a person coming to faith, responding to evidence before them?

The question I'm asking, I guess, brothers and sisters, is: have you ever wondered how a person is really saved? How do sinners come to Jesus at all? We know that we're called to come, but the question is, can we? Do we? Will we?

So I want to bring you a message on the subject of sovereign election, and specifically to answer this question of how God saves people through sovereign election. The answer we'll find in Matthew 11:25-27 is that whilst it is impossible for fallen men and women to come on their own, through sovereign election Jesus effectually calls whomever he will in the gospel. So that's what we will consider this morning.

God's Way

The first heading I have for you is God's way. God's way. A title drawn from this remarkable statement in Matthew 11:26, where the Lord Jesus, as we hear him pray, says, "Yes, Father, for this way was well pleasing in your sight." This is God's way. So we should not shrink back from these things. We should not be offended by Christ here.

Isn't it interesting that the underlying doctrine here, this doctrine of sovereign election, is the basis for this remarkable prayer of worship and thanksgiving that Jesus gives to the Father? These things are well pleasing to God. And so who are we to critique them? In this doctrine of sovereign grace, we learn that the way that we, or any person, is saved comes about by means contrary to what seems obvious to us by outward appearances.

So Jesus gives us a clear picture of reality here, and it is that people come to know God not by natural means or cleverness or application of rational thought, but through divine revelation only. Christ must reveal his Father to us. He must take divine light and supernaturally impose it upon the sinner.

So look at the first detail I want you to see here. In Matthew 11:25, we see Jesus praising the Father because of his sovereignty over creation. Here we get to listen in. We get to eavesdrop, if you will, on the intercessory prayer of Christ, on this intertrinitarian call before the crowds.

So listen to how Jesus heads his prayer. He addresses God the Father as "Lord of heaven and earth". Now with those words alone, everything else becomes a sort of footnote explaining the details of this all-encompassing sovereignty that God alone possesses. The word "Lord" here assumes the Father's authority, his right, his ownership, his unrivalled power, his unique and sole privilege as the one who basks in eternal light, who is radiant, who is majestic on high.

See, God gave us language to speak of him, language to pray to him, language to sing his praises. But we speak dumb when we speak of God, because the language is not adequate. For if I were to search every human language to scrape together a proper description to tell what it means that God is Lord, I've really only contributed a droplet in the ocean of the reality, the truth behind this term: that God is Lord, that he is the sovereign one.

How can we describe the lordship of God adequately? Heaven and earth here in Matthew 11:25 specify where the Father is Lord. And heaven here describes all that is not earth. You see, we peer into deep space through our telescopes and we see distant galaxies. And he is Lord over it all. Whichever star your eye falls upon, he is Lord over that star. You look at the surface of the planets. You cannot see his footsteps, but there he is Lord. He's Lord of the heavens, but he's also Lord of the earth, Jesus says. We're not to think the earth is fenced off from the Lord's attention, gaze, involvement and interest. In fact, we might say that the earth is chiefly that arena of his providence, for in it mankind, his image bearers, are found.

Now the question I have is: why does Jesus open in such a way? Why are these the forming words of this prayer and this expression of God's sovereignty? Perhaps it's so that in everything else that's about to come, we may never doubt that God has the right, because he is Lord. Because he is Lord. Sovereignty and lordship are the favourite doctrines of God, R. C. Sproul used to say. It is man in his own folly and sinful pride who seeks to introduce his own philosophies to distort what is manifestly undeniable: that our God is the sovereign one. And so Jesus reminds us here that the Father is Lord of heaven and earth, and he answers to no one. He has no rival, and he has no equal.

And so now we get into the content. Look again at Matthew 11:25: "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants."

How can I make plain to you what is already so plain here in the passage for us? Yet so unpopular among many Christians and even many pastors today who would do everything in their power to dodge around these truths, to make them blurry. What is plain here is that the Father's method in his redemptive economy is that divine truth has been concealed from some and revealed to others. It's that simple.

The first question here is: what are "these things" that Jesus says in Matthew 11:25? "These things" that he's "hidden". What are they? In the context, these things obviously refer to the proclaiming of the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of heaven now at hand, of the message of John the Baptist. These things of God, these truths of God, are these things that he speaks of. "These things" refer us to knowing Jesus, loving Jesus, understanding who Jesus is. It refers most broadly to salvation itself, and this package, all of this body of truth, has been concealed, he says, from the wise and intelligent.

What is he saying here? He's saying this salvation and knowledge of Christ has been hidden. Now you might say, how could the gospel be described as hidden? This gospel is pumped all over the world through the internet, in our newspapers, on our TVs, the books we read, the arts in the Western world. It's baked into the themes in our films. The gospel is everywhere in one sense. How is this a hidden gospel when it's actually everywhere?

Oh, this is all true. But it is another question whether it is believed, accepted, desired, loved and received. Its being out there is one thing; its being received is quite another. And Jesus says these things are hidden from the wise and intelligent.

What could this mean? Does he mean that no one who believes in him is intelligent? Rather it's the simple-minded, the dull, the naive, these babes that believe in him? No, it's not that at all. Just think of the Apostle Paul, who was no doubt the premier intellect of first-century Pharisaical Judaism, and Christ saved him. So it cannot mean that.

The meaning is "wise and intelligent in their own sight". The meaning is wise and intelligent in the sense that you cannot reason your way to these truths. It is a clear statement here that God is not reasoned to in this way. Even the best minds, the great philosophers, the great scientific minds of our day, these are truths that are untouchable by man's natural intellect, and he cannot accept them by reason alone. He will not see the beauty in Jesus and the gospel, for these things are concealed from them. God has hidden himself from such means of discovery. This refers to people who think themselves above the gospel of the kingdom as well, who look down on it, who think this is the doctrine of fools, and just the wise in their own eyes.

Do you understand now, friends? Those people that you've known over the years, have heard about Jesus over and over and still reject him, still harden their hearts? Does it all make a little bit more sense now? Because there are spiritual realities at play. So says Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:21: "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not come to know God." In other words, knowledge of God in the sense of comprehending the gospel is not accessed by intellect alone. You and I are not Christians this morning because we were a little bit more clever than our neighbours or than our siblings who heard the same truth and rejected him. That is not how we came to know Christ. We cannot reach our hands over our back and pat ourselves on the back for believing in Jesus. No, no. These things by nature were hidden from this means. They were hidden from sinners.

And so the applicable point we need to understand here is to answer this first objection that might come to mind. "That's not fair." How could God conceal himself? How could God conceal himself and then still find fault and still bring judgement? How could man be condemned for not believing and calling upon God for salvation when God has hidden himself from us? And more so, Jesus says that God is pleased with this in Matthew 11:26, that this way is pleasing to him. How can Christ unleash these woes in the previous context upon a people who are obstinate and hardened in heart and then pray to God thanking him that he has concealed his truth from them? It makes no sense.

So I answer by this illustration. Imagine yourself hiking one day on a mountain and you're going up a mountain trail towards the summit of the hill. You can see the entire trail that you need to follow, going all the way up the hill. You know the way; the way is clear, and you know how to get to your destination. The way to the summit is clear.

Now think about this: many Christians have wrongfully surmised that the natural-born sinner somehow is desiring to climb the mountain that is God. They think then that God is somehow cruel and unjust, that he's hidden and concealed the trail from those who want to climb the mountain. They picture mankind as somehow desperately trying to climb the mountain that is God to arrive at the truth. And then when people like myself come teaching these truths from Matthew 11, they say, "Your God is cruel and unjust. How could he wipe out the trail from in front of these people and make the way not clear so they cannot get to him?"

But this is a wrong description of man, isn't it? Is this how the Bible describes man and his nature by birth? Does the Bible teach that man in his natural state is a seeker of God? Does the Bible teach that man in his natural state is seeking to climb that mountain? Not at all. He has no interest in climbing this mountain.

Instead, the Bible says in Ephesians 2:1: "And you are dead in your trespasses and sins." Dead men don't climb mountains. Psalm 53:2 says, "God has looked down from heaven upon the sons of men to see if there is any who understands, any who seeks after God. Every one of them has turned aside. Together, they have become corrupt. There is no one who does good, not even one."

So what do we say? It means that God's concealing is a concealing of judgement upon those who are already under a sentence of death. It means such that our sin is so horrific, so heinous that we don't even want to find the path on our own. And so God conceals himself as an act of judgement. In fact, his concealing in another way is an act of mercy in one sense, since should God have granted more revelation of himself, there would still be no change in man, and so man would become under even greater condemnation.

We saw that in the previous context, didn't we? Christ has performed these miracles, special revelation is given, and still they did not believe, because evidence is not the issue, as I said last week. In this way, the sinner has hardened their own hearts in their own sin and wilful unbelief. And God is not chasing away seekers, because there are none who are seeking.

So the question then is: who are those who have these things revealed to them? Look again in Matthew 11:25: he says, "and have revealed them to infants". In other words, God's method is not to reveal himself so that man's reason and his rationality is a way to God. Rather, God enlightens the mind to the truth at his own discretion. He does it as he wills.

That means that all are shut up under sin, all are running this hell-bound race, and to some, according to God's sovereign election, he has revealed himself. He has given them faith in Christ so that all the glory would go to him. Because no one is good, no one is righteous. God must bring his truth and power to us. Man cannot reason his way to God because he will not. Because he will not, he cannot. And the way is closed to him. Man is judicially hardened in his sin, and as Paul says, he is under a sentence of death leading to damnation.

"But God, being rich in mercy", the apostle says, God being rich in mercy, "whilst we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." So it's all of his grace. If you are a Christian this morning, it is not of yourself. It is all a gift of his grace. God came. He did a work. He moved to bring salvation to babes. Babes meaning those who were helpless on their own. It's those alone whom Jesus calls. He's revealed them to infants. Some translations have "babes", as I said.

And this, like "the wise and intelligent", is a euphemism. It means those who have these things revealed to them passively. My sister's got a newborn at the moment in Hamilton. I haven't met her yet. The babies and infants are so helpless. They are completely dependent on outside help. Christ says the truth of the gospel, these things came to you and I in the same way. We were babes; we were infants. It had to come from outside of us. There was nothing going on in us. It was God. It was God.

So Jesus' point could not be clearer: for men and women to have a true understanding of the gospel, or in the language of John 3:3-7, they must be born again from above. And it's only possible by divine revelation to the person. In other words, God performs the internal work so that we can then make the external response, that is to repent and believe by faith. Regeneration precedes faith.

God's Means

So that's God's way. And now let's consider God's means, coming to our second heading.

Matthew 11:27. We've considered God's way, that is: the gospel is hidden from all, but then revealed to some. That's the truth we have surmised. The gospel is hidden from all because of our sin, and then it's revealed to some by grace. And now under God's means, look at Matthew 11:27. These things are made even clearer and more explicit so that the truth of divine regeneration is so explicitly clear.

So look at this first detail in Matthew 11:27. And it is that Jesus claims he has received all authority from the Father. In other words, Jesus is the instrument through whom the Father's ways become his means. God made flesh in Christ, the infinite, the indescribable took on flesh and blood. As the Westminster divines put it, "two whole, distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person without conversion, composition or confusion. Which very person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man."

All authority has been given to Christ. He is equal to the Father. The meaning is very simple in context. Jesus is about to draw the connection between the way in which the Father conceals and reveals and say that it's by his, that is Christ's, authority that he performs it. In other words, Christ is the agent of the Father's revealing. It's so that any disciple who has come to know him has realised that all revelation is found in Christ. All authority is in him. If they want to know the Father, they must come to know Christ the man.

All authority. Matthew 28:18: "All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth." So whatever is to be known about God is to be found in this Son. That's the point that he makes in the next clause. He says, "and no one knows the Son except the Father. And nor does anyone know the Father except the Son." He's building this case, showing us that he is the one with this authority to conceal and reveal. He conceals it from the world, but reveals it to a people chosen by him to inherit it. John 14:6: "Jesus said, I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father but through me." So those things are building for this final clause that Jesus says.

Now look at this final part of Matthew 11:27. He says, "nor does anyone know the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son wills to reveal him." There it is. It's so clear. He says the only way a person can even know the Father, that is God, is if I, the Son, he says, reveal him to you. You're not able to get there by yourself. Your reason, your intellect, your intelligence, your science, your philosophy, it's not going to move you one iota towards understanding and coming to know the Father. The only way is if I reveal him to you.

I'll just say the same thing in different ways now so we get it. This means no one becomes a Christian by application of their reason or rationality. Now when I say that, God will certainly use means in the life of his elect to draw them to Christ. Maybe they'll read some book on the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus, and then they'll come to faith in Jesus. But it still wasn't their intellect that brought them that far. It was the drawing, the revealing of Christ. And he used means to do it. It means no one becomes a Christian because they're clever. It means no one becomes a Christian because they're more intelligent than their neighbour down the street.

If you're a Christian, the Son has revealed the Father to you of his own sovereign volition as the one who has the authority. John 5:21 says, "For just as the Father raises the dead and gives them life, even so the Son also gives life to whom he wishes." So participation in the gospel is by grace. Oh, we sing that all the time, and now we really know what it means. It means it's all of his grace. It's rendered to the undeserving.

Let me use Matthew 16 as an illustration on how this works. Matthew 16:13-17 says, "When Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he was asking his disciples, who do people say that the Son of Man is? And they said, some say John the Baptist; and others Elijah; but still others Jeremiah or one of the prophets. He said to them, but who do you say that I am? Simon Peter answered, you are the Christ, the Son of the living God. Jesus said to him," well done, Peter, pat on the back, great job. No! "He said, blessed are you Simon Bar Jonah, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but my Father who is in heaven."

In that final clause Jesus essentially repeats, but in reverse, the same truth discussed in Matthew 11 here. Peter rightly determined that Jesus was the Christ, the Messiah. He's beginning to see. He's beginning to have faith. He rightly saw the kingdom, the gospel was here. This was the Christ, the expected one, the anointed one. He rightly saw in a small way, in a simple way, later revealed when Jesus would die on the cross.

But how did he come to this truth? How did he come to know? Was it because Peter was clever? Was it because he knew his Old Testament scriptures? However did Peter get it? Christ told us. Jesus tells us it wasn't flesh and blood. In other words, it wasn't because he was wise and intelligent. It wasn't because of natural capacity. It was revealed to him. It was revealed to him as an infant, as a babe. "My Father who is in heaven," Jesus says, "told you. He revealed this to you. This is divine knowledge that you have, that the world cannot comprehend."

Conclusion

And so it is, as John Calvin commented on Matthew 11:27: "The church proceeds from the secret source of God's free election." And that's it. Dear brothers and sisters, these are difficult doctrines. These deflate human pride. These are truths which dethrone man. They disrobe man so that he would see that "only by grace can we enter", and that all the glory of salvation belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ. "Only by grace can we stand, not by our human endeavour, but by the blood of the Lamb."

God is sovereign to save from ruin whom he alone chooses. This is the meaning of grace, meaning of mercy: that whilst humanity is hell-bound, he has chosen a bride for himself as trophies of love purchased through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.