Deut 29:29, "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. 
In this morning’s passage we are so blessed with a reality concerning the relationship which is now ours in Jesus Christ. Moses was reminding the people that they did not have a clue as to the full plan and purpose of God. They were the nation through whom the Lord’s salvation would be coming into this world, and yet they were not able to understand or to appreciate that truth. 
The fact is that all mankind is very limited as to what the secret things of God entail. He has opened so very much in Jesus Christ, yet the totality of eternity will be insufficient to reveal all that God has done and is continuing to do. 
However, what has been revealed is so marvelous and full of the grace and the mercy and the love of God’s heart as richly expressed in Jesus Christ. We want to spend time in the Word of the Lord as a means of gaining a further comprehension in the progression of how God has made Himself to become the wisdom and the knowledge that we are so blessed with in Jesus Christ. 
We will begin with the words of Job as recorded in Job 11:5-9. Job 11:5-9, "But would that God might speak, And open His lips against you, And show you the secrets of wisdom! For sound wisdom has two sides. Know then that God forgets a part of your iniquity. "Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty? "They are high as the heavens, what can you do? Deeper than Sheol, what can you know? "Its measure is longer than the earth, And broader than the sea. 
	We are reminded that no matter how much we may think we know - the vastness of the wisdom and the knowledge of God overflow the universe. Mankind is so limited with our minds and our thoughts, but not so with the Lord. He knows the end from the beginning. He is the very being and essence of wisdom. To know the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Yet, no matter how well we may think we know the course of the Hand of God in operation, He is still far far far beyond the measure of our finite comprehension.
	As Job states, in Job 28:24-28, God’s Omniscience is vastly beyond the scope of any man’s understanding, no matter how brilliant that person may be. The greatest knowledge of men is to fear the Lord and depart from evil.
Job 28:24-28, "For He looks to the ends of the earth, And sees everything under the heavens. "When He imparted weight to the wind, And meted out the waters by measure, When He set a limit for the rain, And a course for the thunderbolt, Then He saw it and declared it; He established it and also searched it out. "And to man He said, 'Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom; And to depart from evil is understanding.'" 
The Psalmist joins the chorus as to the limitation of the understanding of man with regard to the plans and the purposes of God with the cry for the help that only the Lord can supply. Consider the depth of the need for the Lord that is expressed in Ps 25:11-18. It is the need that each one of us has in this life that we live today!        
Ps 25:11-18, For Thy name's sake, O Lord, Pardon my iniquity, for it is great. Who is the man who fears the Lord? He will instruct him in the way he should choose. His soul will abide in prosperity, And his descendants will inherit the land. The secret of the Lord is for those who fear Him, And He will make them know His covenant. My eyes are continually toward the Lord, For He will pluck my feet out of the net. Turn to me and be gracious to me, For I am lonely and afflicted. The troubles of my heart are enlarged; Bring me out of my distresses. Look upon my affliction and my trouble, And forgive all my sins. 
It is only as we come into the knowledge of the Lord that we will know that we have been created to be in fellowship with Him. We will comprehend that we can only find the path of true and eternal fellowship with God through His given Son. We need Him to forgive our sins and to bring us out of our distresses and our anguish and into the light of His ever present gaze of love upon us. Only God can do that! This is a truth that is hidden deep in the innermost recesses of our hearts, put there by the Lord God Our Creator. It is only answered in Jesus Christ through His redemptive work in us.
The Prophet Jeremiah points us to the wisdom of the Lord in this reality in Jer 23:18-20. He makes known the fact that all men will come into this realization in the last days. There will be those who celebrate the Lordship and the salvation of God. As well, there will be those who suffer the consequences of their turning away from Him and seeking after their own false hopes and self-made gods and idols. 
Jer 23:18-20, "But who has stood in the council of the Lord, That he should see and hear His word? Who has given heed to His word and listened? "Behold, the storm of the Lord has gone forth in wrath, Even a whirling tempest; It will swirl down on the head of the wicked. "The anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has performed and carried out the purposes of His heart; In the last days you will clearly understand it. 
Jeremiah further declares that God is the Lord Who desires to make Himself known to man. He is near to those who seek to know Him. With the reality that He fills the whole of the heavens and the earth with His Omnipresence, we see that He still draws Himself very close to men. It is because God fills the whole of creation that we begin to understand that there is no where to go to hide from Him, as much as man may try to camouflage all his doings.    
Jer 23:23+24, "Am I a God who is near," declares the Lord, "And not a God far off? "Can a man hide himself in hiding places, So I do not see him?" declares the Lord. "Do I not fill the heavens and the earth?" declares the Lord. 
There is another aspect of the full measure of the knowledge and the manifold wisdom of the Omniscient and Omnipresent Lord God Almighty. This was experienced by Daniel in his dealings with the Lord in terms of the interpretation of King Nebuchadnezzar’s dreams. God gave both the dreams as well as the interpretation of those dreams. Please turn to Dan 2:16-30 so that we can read this account together.     
Dan 2:16-30, So Daniel went in and requested of the king that he would give him time, in order that he might declare the interpretation to the king. Then Daniel went to his house and informed his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, about the matter, in order that they might request compassion from the God of heaven concerning this mystery, so that Daniel and his friends might not be destroyed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. Then Daniel blessed the God of heaven; Daniel answered and said, "Let the name of God be blessed forever and ever, For wisdom and power belong to Him. "And it is He who changes the times and the epochs; He removes kings and establishes kings; He gives wisdom to wise men, And knowledge to men of understanding. "It is He who reveals the profound and hidden things; He knows what is in the darkness, And the light dwells with Him. "To Thee, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise, For Thou hast given me wisdom and power; Even now Thou hast made known to me what we requested of Thee, For Thou hast made known to us the king's matter." Therefore, Daniel went in to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to destroy the wise men of Babylon; he went and spoke to him as follows: "Do not destroy the wise men of Babylon! Take me into the king's presence, and I will declare the interpretation to the king." Then Arioch hurriedly brought Daniel into the king's presence and spoke to him as follows: "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah who can make the interpretation known to the king!" The king answered and said to Daniel, whose name was Belteshazzar, "Are you able to make known to me the dream which I have seen and its interpretation?" Daniel answered before the king and said, "As for the mystery about which the king has inquired, neither wise men, conjurers, magicians, nor diviners are able to declare it to the king. "However, there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will take place in the latter days. This was your dream and the visions in your mind while on your bed. "As for you, O king, while on your bed your thoughts turned to what would take place in the future; and He who reveals mysteries has made known to you what will take place. "But as for me, this mystery has not been revealed to me for any wisdom residing in me more than in any other living man, but for the purpose of making the interpretation known to the king, and that you may understand the thoughts of your mind. 
	The Lord does reveal the deep and hidden mysteries to those to whom He so chooses to make them evident. In the case of Daniel and for the sake of the preservation of His people and the instruction of King Nebuchadnezzar, the Lord made known the dream and the interpretation of that dream. This placed Daniel into the position from which he could advise and counsel Nebuchadnezzar, eventually leading to the king’s own realization of the truth of the Lord God Almighty. This had consequences that far outlasted the exile. It eventually led to the restoration of the temple and the practices of the true worship of the Lord by His people in the times of Nehemiah and Ezra.
	This revelation of the mysteries of God was also witnessed unto by Jesus. In Matt 13:10+11, He let His disciples know the reason that He spoke to them plainly while He would only speak to the gathered masses, including the religious leaders, in parables. 
	Matt 13:10+11, And the disciples came and said to Him, "Why do You speak to them in parables?" And He answered and said to them, "To you it has been granted to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been granted. 
Matthew continues with this truth in verses 34+35 of this thirteenth chapter. Matt 13:34+35, All these things Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables, and He did not speak to them without a parable, so that what was spoken through the prophet might be fulfilled, saying, "I will open My mouth in parables; I will utter things hidden since the foundation of the world." 
The Apostle John records how Jesus so addressed His disciples with the fact that they were receiving the revelation of the truth of God directly through all that Jesus taught them in John 15:13-15. This is necessary because they were being shown the full measure of what Jesus had come to this earth to do.
John 15:13-15, "Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. "You are My friends, if you do what I command you. "No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. 
    	Christ’s final admonition of the full measure of the heart of God in making known to man the plan and the purpose of His creation of humanity was detailed by Christ to His beloved friends in Acts 1:4-8. It is in the receiving of the Holy Spirit that man can have the powerful understanding that the truth of Jesus and His work and His power supersedes any other earthly knowledge or wisdom. The Gospel message is the great mystery which needs to be proclaimed to all the world.
	Acts 1:4-8, And gathering them together, He commanded them not to leave Jerusalem, but to wait for what the Father had promised, "Which, "He said, "you heard of from Me; for John baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now." And so when they had come together, they were asking Him, saying, "Lord, is it at this time You are restoring the kingdom to Israel?" He said to them, "It is not for you to know times or epochs which the Father has fixed by His own authority; but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth." 
The Apostle Paul, in Rom 11:33-36, makes known how the heart of God has been opened to us in Jesus through the wondrous gift of the Holy Spirit. Without Jesus and without the Holy Spirit there can be no understanding, in any measure, of the length and depth and height and breadth of the love of God.     
Rom 11:33-36, Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways! For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor? Or who has first given to Him that it might be paid back to him again? For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen. 
The Apostle continues in this letter to the church at Rome, Chapter 16, verses 25 through 27, with the declaration thatGod is to be praised for opening the mystery which was hidden for all the preceding ages. He has done so by that wisdom and understanding which is now ours in Jesus. 
Rom 16:25-27, Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery which has been kept secret for long ages past, but now is manifested, and by the Scriptures of the prophets, according to the commandment of the eternal God, has been made known to all the nations, leading to obedience of faith; to the only wise God, through Jesus Christ, be the glory forever. Amen.  
 We finish this morning with the encouragement recorded in 1 Cor 2:4-16. It is the manner in which the Lord shows the deep things of His heart to those who are seeking to know Him in truth and in spirit. God does not withhold any measure of Who He is and what He has done and continues to do as each day unfolds. It is all set in the person of Christ, through the gift of the very Spirit of God, Who reveals the wondrous ways of God evidenced in the gloriousness of His Living Word, day by day by day.   
1 Cor 2:4-16, And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are passing away; but we speak God's wisdom in a mystery, the hidden wisdom, which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age has understood; for if they had understood it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but just as it is written, "Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, And which have not entered the heart of man, All that God has prepared for those who love Him." For to us God revealed them through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man, which is in him? Even so the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but in those taught by the Spirit, combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words. But a natural man does not accept the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually appraised. But he who is spiritual appraises all things, yet he himself is appraised by no man. For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ. 
	This is all in accordance with the fact of what Moses declared so long ago. So be it!
 "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our sons forever, that we may observe all the words of this law. Amen. 

This morning’s benediction is 1 Cor 15:58. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. Amen.