We Cannot See Until God Opens Our Eyes

Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist. My name is Keith Foskey, and I am a Calvinist. This is our daily Bible study to accompany your morning coffee. If you want to open your Bible with me, we're going to turn today to Luke chapter 10, and we're going to be looking at verses 21 to 24.

Jesus Rejoices in the Father’s Hidden and Revealed Truth

I want to focus on one aspect of something that Jesus said. This is after Jesus had sent out the 72 ministers. We see this in verse 17, to go out and to proclaim the gospel. And in verse 21, it says, in that same hour, he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit and said, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you have hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

Yes, Father, for such was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father, and no one knows who the Son is except the Father, or who the Father is except the Son, and anyone to whom the Son chooses to reveal him.

Then turning to the disciples, he said privately, blessed are the eyes that see what you see. For I tell you that many prophets and kings desired to see what you see and did not see it, and to hear what you hear and did not hear it.

General Revelation, Special Revelation, and the Meaning of Revelation

Today, what I want to talk about is the idea of God's sovereignty in his revelation. When we talk about the word revelation, the word revelation refers to God revealing himself to man. Often when we think of revelation, we think of the book of Revelation, but what we're referring to today as revelation, we're talking about how God reveals himself.

God reveals himself naturally, what we would call natural revelation, or general revelation, which is that all men can look and see the world and can see that God exists. Romans 1 tells us this, that every man has the same amount of general revelation.

We can see the uniformity in the world. We can see the obvious design of the world. We know naturally that God exists based on the fact that creation requires a creator. That is a natural, logical deduction.

Then you have also the inner revelation. The Bible says God has given us knowledge of his law, our conscience. The conscience within us bears witness to God's existence. We would call that natural revelation because everybody has that.

Special Revelation in Scripture and God’s Speech to the Patriarchs

Then we take a step back and there's also something called special revelation. Special revelation particularly refers to the Bible, because that is God's revealed word. When you talk about special revelation, you're talking about the Bible, but you can go back to times prior to the Bible.

You could talk about the times of Abraham and the times of Noah and even back to the time of Adam. They all received special revelation, but it wasn't in the written sense. God spoke to Adam. God spoke to Noah.

God spoke to Abraham. Even later, God spoke to the prophets. When we talk about revelation, we're essentially referring to how God reveals himself. What's interesting about our text today is that Jesus mentions that God is actively opening up people's eyes or revealing things to people.

He's also concealing things. Notice it says, it says, I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you've hidden these things from the wise and understanding and revealed them to little children.

These things, of course, being the truth of the message that Jesus had sent out with the disciples. He says, for such was your will, your gracious will. It was gracious of God not only to reveal or open up the hearts of some, but it was also gracious that God would hide it from the proud, that he would hide it from the wise.

Jesus goes on to say that all things were handed over to him and no one would know him and no one would know the father except that be revealed to him. In that sense, it says, to whom the son chooses to reveal him.

Regeneration and the Son’s Sovereign Choice to Reveal the Father

This reminds us of a very important fact, and that is this. Before the Lord opens our heart, we are unable to understand his truth. The Bible says this in first Corinthians. It says the natural man receives not the things of God.

They are folly to him. It's not that he can't understand them. It's that he can't receive them. That receiving takes an act of God on the heart to change the heart. We would call that the act of regeneration.

When the Holy Spirit comes and gives us a new heart and he changes our heart, we go from being a person who is unwilling to receive the things of God to a person who is willing to receive the things of God because God changes our will.

He changes our desires. He gives us a new heart. I think about Lydia in the book of Acts. Lydia, it says, God opened her heart to believe. This is just another example. It says, to whom the son chooses to reveal.

This is an act of God's sovereign choice. God is the chooses to reveal. That is an important reality that we should understand. If we have come to a knowledge of the truth, if we have come to a knowledge of the word of God as the word of God, and we have received it and we have received the Lord Jesus Christ as the son of God, it is because God has been gracious in choosing to give us that understanding.

He has chosen to reveal that to us. That is very important when we consider the fact that our salvation is not anything that we have accomplished. It is not anything that we have contributed to. Our salvation is completely and fully of God.

The work of God in regenerating our hearts, in opening our eyes to see, opening our ears to hear, opening our minds to understand, and opening our hearts to believe. That is a work of God. It's a very important thing that we would never become prideful.

Look at me. I'm a believer. I believed. I was smarter. I was more intelligent. I was more willing. I was more spiritually sensitive. No. Such was his gracious will, not yours. It's not your gracious will that got you saved.

It was the gracious will of Almighty God who revealed to you the truth. We should never proclaim our own work in our salvation, even the work of believing, because we would not believe if God did not open our hearts and give us eyes to see, ears to hear, a mind to understand, and a heart to believe.

I hope this is an encouragement to you today. I hope it's a reminder to praise the Lord for your salvation, for the Bible says, and it is true, salvation is of the Lord. Again, I hope this has been an encouragement to you today, and if these videos continue to be an encouragement to you, please take a moment, like, comment, share, and subscribe.

If you have a question about anything in Luke chapter 10, please feel free to leave a comment below, and I'll seek to respond as best I can. Again, my name is Keith Foskey, and I'm a Calvinist. I appreciate you watching today, and may God bless you.