Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. Tonight is study #8 of Genesis, chapter 18 and we are going to read Genesis 18:16-22:

And the men rose up from thence, and looked toward Sodom: and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way. And JEHOVAH said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do; Seeing that Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him? For I know him, that he will command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the way of JEHOVAH, to do justice and judgment; that JEHOVAH may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him. And JEHOVAH said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know. And the men turned their faces from thence, and went toward Sodom: but Abraham stood yet before JEHOVAH.

In our last study, we were looking at God’s question to Himself in Genesis 18:17:

And JEHOVAH said, Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do;

We saw that the thing God was about to do was to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. The implication was that He would not hide the thing He was about to do in bringing judgment upon Sodom. We will go on to read that Abraham made intercession on behalf of the righteous in the city of Sodom, so that tells us that God did not hide His intention to destroy Sodom, Gomorrah and the cities of the plain. If you do not hide something, then you reveal it. He revealed the thing to Abraham.

This is a very important truth. It is something that is especially important during this time at the end of the world because it was at the time of the end that God said to Daniel in Daniel 12:4:

But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end…

If you read the Book of Daniel, God is really using Daniel as a figure of the prophets that spoke of the final judgment of the world. God used him as a figure of the sealing of the Word of God, the Bible, until the end stage of earth’s history was reached. And we have already reached that time.

How many times must it be proven from the Bible that we are, indeed, at the time of the end of the world? Just because unregenerate people are “dull of hearing” (because they do not have ears to hear and they reject the revelation God has opened up) does not mean anything. God is not concerned with whether they accept it or reject it. Their reaction to the revelation of the righteous judgment of God is immaterial and of no significance. God does not reveal truth for the masses of unsaved people in the world that have no spiritual eyes and ears to perceive the truth. God reveals information to satisfy His own will and purpose and to feed His sheep and make them aware of His truths. That is the purpose of the Bible.

We could say the same thing when people say, “No man knows the day or hour.” We could ask, “What natural-minded man knows anything about the spiritual truths of the Bible?” Man does not know God. Man does not know the Lord Jesus Christ. So how can men that do not know God and do not have an intimate relationship with Him know anything? The same is true when we (the elect) discuss these things with these people. How can we be concerned that they do not know “time and judgment” or the end-time program of God and how He is working it out? They do not understand spiritual judgment, whether it be judgment on the churches or judgment on the world. At this time there are people even outside the churches that profess to be elect of God and to possess wisdom and understanding regarding “time and judgment,” but when God put them to the test in these days after the Tribulation in the Day of Judgment they have failed the test and many went back to the churches or the world. They professed to know the truth, but they have returned to the world or to the churches, which are part of the unsaved of the world at this time. They have gone back from the information God had opened up. Since these people are not true elect of God, they can “go back to Egypt,” as it were. They can reject the truth. How can the elect of God depart from the understanding of a Biblical truth? We cannot, because Christ is Truth and it would be like leaving Christ and we cannot leave Him – we have nowhere to go but to Him and to His truth. That is why God’s elect will endure to the end, because we are enduring in our intimate relationship with the Lord Jesus Christ and the truth of the Word of God.

God is again asking a question and the entire Godhead is pictured here in the form of the three men. The Father, Son and Holy Spirit are in view: “… Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” It is almost as though the question is posed among the eternal counsel of the Godhead. And, of course, there is agreement in the Godhead, the One God of the Bible. He will not hide from Abraham the thing that He will do and that means He will reveal it.

We read in Matthew 11 where the Lord Jesus discusses this idea of hiding information or revealing information. We find in the Bible that because of man’s spiritually dead condition, mankind cannot comprehend spiritual truth. He cannot know God nor spiritual things. He is dead in his soul or spirit being, so when God delivers the Bible, which is written on a spiritual level, He hides truth from the natural-minded people of the world. It says in Matthew 11:25:

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.

Even though the Bible went forth to all the nations, Jesus was thanking God because He has hidden “these things.” And what might “these things” be? They are things like the Trinity, election, Christ having died for sins at the foundation of the world and things like the judgment of God on the Lord Jesus, the churches and on the entire world. These are some of the truths the Bible declares and they are hidden “from the wise and prudent.” They are hidden from Biblical scholars, theologians, professors of theology, grammatical experts or by the Biblical historians that seek to know how the Bible would have been received by the peoples during the times when the messages were first written. God has hidden truth from the wisdom of the natural-minded within the churches and congregations. It does not matter if they have a doctorate or some other degree.

God has also hidden truths from the wisdom of the secular world, like the scientists that try to analyze data and it leads them to ridiculous conclusions like the “Big Bang Theory” or the theory of evolution. They are extremely foolish and these things are not even in the realm of possibility, if we are honest. And, yet, the brilliant minds of the world that develop these theories stand by their findings and it just shows how foolish the wisdom of the world is, because God has hidden it from them. Some professed Christians profess to believe creation, but they do not understand the deeper spiritual meanings in the creation account and everywhere else in the Bible.

I want to look at one more verse concerning how God hides things from the unsaved people of the world. It says in 2Corinthians 4:3-4:

But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

First, the “god of this world” that blinds the minds of them which believe not is God Almighty, the God of the Bible. Satan does not have the power to blind man’s minds so they cannot believe. He does not have that kind of power or ability. But, again, what did Jesus say in Matthew 11? It said in Matthew 11:25:

… I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent…

So, if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, the ones that the God of this world has blinded. God has blinded the minds of men and He did so when He struck man “dead” in his soul existence for their disobedience in the Garden of Eden. If man ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, they would die in that very day. And Adam and Eve, the representatives of mankind in the Garden of Eden, did disobey God and eat of the tree. Did they die physically in that day? No – the Word of God is true and faithful, so they died in another way. They died spiritually in their soul existence. Immediately, they lost spiritual life. They lost spiritual eyes and ears. God struck them “blind.” Again, it says, “But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds.” God blinded Adam and Eve and all mankind because you cannot bring the clean out of the unclean, so if our parents are sinners we are conceived in sin and born speaking lies, according to the Bible. Mankind has been rebels ever since and we are born spiritually dead.

We must understand that the Bible is a Book that is dripping with spiritual truth that is off limits to the natural-minded man. He may “mouth” some understanding for a time. But we have seen in these days after the Tribulation that certain people that professed the truth in time past have now gone back from these truths because they did not know these things in any intimate way. When they go back from these truths, it reveals that they never truly grasped these truths to begin with. At this time God is judging those that are unsaved. One of the forms of judgment is that those that simply identified with the truth have departed from it.

After the Lord Jesus said that God has hid these things from the wise and prudent, but revealed them unto babes, it goes on to say in Matthew 11:26:

All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.

To know God is to have eternal life and, yet, no man knows Him. Knowing God is much more than an intellectual understanding, is it not? Many people say they know God and they profess Him with their mouth and they understand intellectually, but on a deeper, intimate level of knowing they do not know Him. It is like when the Lord Jesus said, “Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.” He never “knew” them. How could He not have known them? Of course, He knew all about them, but He did not have a saving relationship with them that brought them into close communion with the Son and the Father.

As God opens the Scriptures in our day, we can see how this relates to the constant refrain of the churches: “No man knows…” Of course, it is true of them and all the rest of the unsaved people out there. It applies to the majority of mankind, but it is not true of all mankind because among the peoples of the world are that small percentage of God’s elect. So, again, Jesus said, “All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son will reveal him.” Here, we see the great error of the corporate churches and all those that say we cannot know anything about the timing of the end of the world. They fail to take in to account the knowledge and understanding of the Almighty and of His times and seasons, including the end of this world.

We find the Biblical principal in the Bible that God reveals things to His servants, again and again: “Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do?” The answer is, “Of course not.” God never does.