Notes of a Sermon by Rev. Neil MacIntyre: “At that time Jesus answered and said, ‘I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes’.” Matt. 11:25

The glorious truths of the Gospel, though hid from some, are not lost, nor hid in the bottom of the sea, they are revealed unto babes. Revelation is not the creation or invention of something new but the manifestation of what was till then unknown. The great truths of the Gospel concerning the things of eternity are real and certain in themselves already, and do not begin to be when we begin to be acquainted with them. Yet, till God is pleased to reveal them, we have no more effective knowledge of them than if they were not.

Ignorance of things which may be very near to us may arise from different causes. (1) It may arise from the want of light. Nothing can be seen properly in the dark. For instance, if you were in a beautifully furnished room, yet if in the dark, all is lost to you. Or if you stood on a dark night on the top of a high mountain, commanding a splendid view, still you are able to see no more than if you were in a valley. (2) Because of some hindrance or obstruction between you and an object. Our dearest friend or our bitterest enemy might be within a few yards of us and know nothing of it if there was a wall between us. Death, judgment, and eternity are at our very door, yet because of the walls of ignorance and unbelief standing before the eyes of our mind, we do not see them. It is when the Spirit of God comes to break down these wall that it is revealed to the soul how near he is to these solemn realities. He then considers what a fool he was not to have seen them before.

When our Lord appeared in the world He found many enemies but few friends. More especially the great men of the world were opposed to Him, and most of those who followed Him were people in low circumstances, or whose character had been offensive to the generality of the people in the age in which they lived. Publicans and sinners and fishermen were almost the only friends He had. He here gives thanks to the Father for the mysteries of His will. “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and has revealed them unto babes.” Consider, I. What are these things. II. In what sense are they hid. III. From whom are they hid. IV. How are they to be known. V. To whom are they revealed — babes.

I. What are these things that are hid.

1. These are no doubt the doctrines of salvation. That most men are ignorant and careless about these doctrines is plain, and so, they live as if they had no concern or interest in them. We gather from Scripture doctrines which were bitterly opposed in Christ’s day and there is no change in human nature now. (1) The Divinity of Christ. When He spoke of Himself as the Son of God, the Jews took up stones to stone Him. This is a mystery to human understanding. “No man can say that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost.” In Peter’s answer to the question put by the Saviour, he showed his belief in the Divinity of Christ when he said, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God,” but the denial of that Divinity was one of the first heresies which the Church had to contend with. (2) The New Birth is a hidden thing. Nicodemus, who was a Rabbi, could not understand it. To many who are wise and prudent in their own eyes it is to this day accounted nonsense. A little acquaintance with what is published from pulpit and press, by modern theologians, will prove that there is little understanding of regeneration. A poor Nicodemus, inquiring after the way of salvation, would be entertained with ingenious essays on the beauty of virtue, benevolence, and so on, but he would hear little about Christ being raised up on the Cross. (3) The Mystery of Saving Faith is hidden. You remember when Christ by a metaphor spake of eating His flesh and drinking His blood, that many who professed to be His disciples walked no more with Him, while those who were taught of God said, “To whom shall we go, thou hast the words of eternal life.”

II. In what sense are they hid?

1. Where are they hid? (1) They are hid in Christ. He is the One “in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,” so He is the great repository of truth. He is the Messenger by whom the will of God is made known. You can attain to no saving knowledge but through Christ. If these treasures are hid in Him it is vain labour to seek them elsewhere. Whatever knowledge you may have which does not endear Him to you is but science falsely so called, and can do you no good. (2) They are hid in His Word. “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,” so that we might be wise unto salvation. Yet they are not plain to every one; though they are revealed in the letter, they are still hid, and something more is necessary than merely to read the Bible, and, that is, the enlightening power of the Holy Spirit.

2. Why are they hid? (1) Not for the purpose that those who seek sincerely should be disappointed. No, for He promised that those who seek shall find. (2) They are hid from certain persons — the wise and prudent. Let us use an illustration. Suppose a person had some curious cabinet which is not exposed to common view but he invites all to come and see, and that he will be pleased to show it to all who come. It is hid, but none can complain for a pass can easily be had. Some may despise the offer and say, “Why is it shut up at all?” Some may think that the precious things in the cabinet are not worth seeing, while others apply, are admitted, and are well paid for their trouble. Such are the riches of Divine grace. Christ is the Gate, faith is the pass, and none are refused admission who come by that faith which is the gift of God. The wise and prudent of this world may stand without, guessing, but a babe who has gone in, knows more than they do.

3. They are hid from the wise and prudent, that is, those who are wise in their own conceits. There are many so-called wise in this age, who seem to consider themselves sent on a special mission to find errors and imperfections in the Bible, and, sad to notice, that the more errors any of them will profess to find, the higher he is raised. Dr Moffat, Broughty Ferry, who wrote an “Introduction to the New Testament”, and which is ably condemned by Sir William Ramsay and others, as a most pernicious book, is now elected to the Chair of New Testament Exegesis in Mansfield College, Oxford. Those things, to which our Lord refers, are hid from those who seek occasion to cavil at the Word of God, but are revealed to babes who come sincerely and honestly.

4. A word of advice in regard to ourselves. “The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.” He is calling us, and it is our business, as rational beings, to make all diligence to make our calling and our election sure.

III. From whom are they hid? — the wise and prudent.

It cannot mean those who are truly so in God’s account. The wise and prudent here are those who are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight, or those who are generally reputed to be so by the bulk of mankind. But what is accounted wisdom by the world is foolishness with God. The wisdom of God and of men differ as much as fire from water and light from darkness. Who are the “wise and prudent” here?

1. The world considers wise those who are diligent and successful in acquiring wealth. There is no doubt that a proper concern and diligence in our secular calling is both lawful and our duty, but where this is the main concern such wisdom is madness. Such persons are no less idolators than those who worship sticks and stones. What will riches do for us in the day of trial? If we continue making this choice as long as we live we shall bemoan our choice when it is too late. Now, such persons cannot complain if higher things are hid from them, for they have made their choice. They are told of the riches that are in Christ, but they are content that they should remain there. There is no form nor comeliness in Christ for them. He could keep His heaven to Himself if they could get their fill of the world and its pleasures. We ought to beware of this wisdom and prudence.

2. A man is considered wise and prudent who has a considerable knowledge of secular subjects. If he can talk of the motions of the heavenly bodies, if he can speak and understand several languages, and call a thing by twenty different names, such a person is considered wise. These attainments, undoubtedly, have their use, and especially when they are sanctified by grace. In reading the works of Dr Hugh Martin, who was one of the ablest mathematicians of his day, one could see how beautifully he could apply his knowledge of that subject to illustrate the Gospel. Whatever number of these pebbles one may possess, when the light of eternity will shine into his heart, he will consider them all as loss that he may win Christ, the pearl of great price. His knowledge of books, or men, or stars, or flowers, will not give him peace of conscience, nor purify it. It must be the greatest folly if these pebbles are to keep us blind to the Pearl of Great Price.

IV. How are we to know these things?

He has revealed them unto babes. The saving knowledge of Christ is a revelation of God. We see this clearly in the case of Peter when Christ commends his confession. “Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.” Matt. 16:17. Peter had Moses and the Prophets, and, no doubt, could read them as well as the scribes, but that he could acknowledge Jesus as the Christ, when they denied Him, was not, we are told, knowledge which flesh and blood gave, but was the revelation of God. Let us enquire as to how these things are to be known.

1. Revelation is not a new invention but the manifestation of what was till then unknown. God is near; Eternity is near; Death is near. The truths of God’s Word are most certain, and all these things are as certain before they are revealed to a sinner as after, but because of our darkness we see them not.

2. By the power of the Spirit, accompanying the truth, light shines into the soul, and suddenly, an unthought of prospect appears before the sinner. He then sees his danger. Guilt pursues him from behind, fear and the pit and a snare are before him, God is angry with him, and whither can he go. He thought at one time there was nothing to look after but this short span of life, but now he sees an endless eternity before him, and how foolish he had been to neglect these things. Now this discovery would sink him into despair if he went no further. But the same Spirit, by the truth, reveals Christ as a Saviour to him and there he sees a way of escape. Here he discovers the amazing love of the Father, of the Son, and of the Spirit. Now, these things were in existence before, but unknown to him until revealed.

V. The character of those to whom these things are revealed — babes. How are they babes?

1. They are esteemed by the world, generally, as babes. They are considered weak in their capacities, of small attainments, and in their lives insignificant. This was one of the reproaches cast at the Christian Church at the very beginning. “Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed.” John 7:48, 49. But Christ, by them, turned the world upside down.

2. They are babes in knowledge. A babe has little knowledge, and their powers are weak, yet to these “babes” are revealed “the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven”. The little that they know only convinces them of their ignorance, and thus they are convinced that their views are faint and that they are easily imposed upon.

3. A child is teachable. Among men none are truly teachable but those who know that they need to be taught. The humble Christian is swift to hear, slow to speak, and open to conviction, not that he will accept anything, in matters of religion, without proof from the Word of God.

4. A child is simple and dependent. He does not reason but implicitly receives what his parents say. Such a resignation of his understanding the believer dares not to make to any man, however highly he may esteem him, but he submits implicitly to the Word of God. He allows no reasoning or questioning here, for it is enough for him that God has said it. In this temper he steers in safety across the immense oceans of conjectures and opinions where others are sunk and overpowered.

Are we among the babes?

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