Is God Hiding?
Foundation Statement: Matthew 13:44-48-This treasure, that the Kingdom of Heaven is
like, is hid in a field; The Kingdom is LIKE something hid
I.
Why hide it? Who hid it?
From whom are we hiding it?
A. Because it’s precious and
you don’t want it to fall into the hands of a person who wouldn’t treat it as
precious
1.
EX:
At home my Bible sits on my desk in my office; I keep the door closed because
my Bible is precious to me and I don’t want Grace to go into the office and
tear it up so I hide it from her (I love her, but she doesn’t appreciate the
value of my Bible so I can’t put it into her hands)
2.
EX:
We do this with other valuables in the house i.e. computer, phone, etc. that we
“hide” from her because they are very valuable and because of her age she can’t
be trusted with yet because she doesn’t appreciate the value of them
3.
EX:
There are things we hide her from like cleaning supplies that could harm her b/c
she’s too precious to be exposed to those things
B. Are God and his things
hid? If God’s good and His kingdom is good then why is
God hiding it? I thought He wanted everybody to have it; If He wants everybody
to have it, then why is he hiding it?
1.
It’s too precious and too
valuable to put into the hands of someone and to allow someone to experience it
and be apart of it who is not going to value it and honor it and treat it with
respect – So God hides it from those people who don’t honor it
2.
Does God want to give His
precious things to people who don’t respect him? Does he want to honor people
who don’t honor Him? The answer is NO He doesn’t want to; He wants them to
honor Him so that they can experience it, but He does not want to give it to
them while they dishonor him and He won’t (1 Samuel 2:30-Be it far from me)
3.
Is God hiding the Kingdom
from people? Is He hiding Himself, His precious things from people? YES people
who don’t honor Him
a. God’s heart is, “I love you, I want you to have it, I want
you to experience it, I want you to be apart of it, I’m for you, and I’ll show
you how to get to do those things and I’ll show the changes you need to make to
get into those things, and then I’ll help you make the changes, but I will not
give them to you while you dishonor me.”
b. God’s desire to reveal it
to you and for you to experience it does not override this law of honor
C. If the Kingdom is hidden
and God did hide it then apparently there are some who God doesn’t want Him are
His stuff to fall into the hands of; I thought God wanted to reveal Himself to
everybody and I thought God wanted everybody to experience Him and His things,
apparently not, else wise there’d be no need to hide it
1.
God only wants to reveal
Himself to those who honor Him and He only wants those who honor him to
experience Him/His things
2.
People of dishonor who
don’t value God and respect Him and esteem Him and His things, He will remain
hidden from and it’s not that God doesn’t love them and doesn’t want them to
repent because he does, but in the condition that they are in and the place of
dishonor they reside God and His stuff is going to be hid from them
3.
Proverbs
1:7-The wisdom of God is hidden from people who don’t respect God because it’s
too precious for them to handle
II.
If you hide this treasure
in a field it stands reason that the only people who are going to find it are
those to whom it means enough to go in search for it and this protects it from
falling into the hands of somebody that’s not all that interested in it and
doesn’t value it much
A. Jeremiah 29:13-“You shall
seek me and find me when you search for me with all of your heart,” not
everybody is going to find Him because He is hiding, but those to whom He means
enough to search for and seek after with all of their heart they will find Him;
and why would you seek for something with all of your heart because you honor
it
1.
Whatever
you value the most you will spend your time and energy to obtain and that
demonstrates your honor
2.
They
value these things their searching for elsewise they wouldn’t be searching for
them
a. Matthew 13:44-Found-After searching, to find a thing
a sought
b. Matthew 13:45-Seeking-Seek in order to find, crave,
require, strive after
B. Isaiah 45:15-God is a God
who hides himself
1.
Why
would God hide himself? He’s too precious to reveal himself to people who are
going to treat Him and His things with contempt and disesteem and dishonor
2.
Is
God hiding from some people? Yes because he’s not going to reveal himself to
those who don’t honor him
3.
16-These
people making idols don’t honor God
C. John 14:21-24-God is also
a God who reveals Himself and makes Himself real to people
1.
23-24-Jesus
is going to make himself real to those who honor him, but he’s going to hide
himself from those who dishonor Him