Two Journeys

Go to your Bibles and open to Daniel chapter 4. As we continue in our series in Daniel, we look at one of the most important chapters in the Bible. The reason I say that is because this chapter opens up what I consider to be my soul's greatest enemy, also the greatest enemy of what God wants to do in this church, and that is pride. The more I've gone on in my Christian life the more I see that as I trace back troubles in my life, it roots back to pride, time and time and time again. Everything that God wants to do in our lives, pride opposes. Everything. If you're not a Christian and I were to stand and tell you that your righteousness was like filthy rags in God's sight, there's something inside you that riles up. What is that? Well, it's pride. And if I were to tell you that you had to receive salvation as a gift paying nothing, but just receiving it simply as a gift, there's something inside you that says, no it can't be. "We are more unwilling," said a Puritan scholar, "to give up our righteousness than our sins." And why is that? Because of pride.

Alright, and then once you become a Christian, are you finished? Are you saved, you're done? No, our "salvation is nearer to us now than when we first believed," there's a journey to be traveled. "I am the way and the truth and the life, no one comes to the Father except through me," that's journey language, isn't it? And what is it that fights every step of the journey? It is pride. Because as we're advancing we're putting sin to death, we're seeing problems in our lives, they're exposed by Scripture, by good preaching, by a friend who speaks the truth to us, and there's something inside that fights. And what is it? It is pride. And so we have pride exposed and revealed in Daniel chapter 4. But we have more than that, we have the remedy and the only remedy, a sovereign God who sits on a throne and who reveals Himself in all His majesty and His splendor as a King of kings and a Lord of lords. Who rules over the kingdoms of men and over individual men no matter how powerful they are.

And so the final phrase in this chapter has become for me one of the sweetest in all the Bible, those who walk in pride He is able to humble. It's a remedy. Our God is a God who hates pride and yet deals with it so wisely, and we're going to see that today. Preaching in the year 411, St. Augustine as he was ordaining a bishop warned against pride, and he said this, he said, "Pride is a great vice, and the first of vices, the beginning, the origin, and the cause of all sins." Now stop and think about that, the beginning, the origin, the cause of all sins. It's what cast down an angel and made him into the devil. Pride was the cup which on being cast down he gave to the man still standing for him to drink. The beginning of every sin is pride, because pride is the desire to replace God with oneself.

The Story of Narcissus

There's a story told in ancient Greek mythology of Narcissus, you remember the story about Narcissus, a beautiful youth, too beautiful, too proud for anyone, couldn't find any friend or soul mates. And so one day he looked into a crystal pool and what did he see? A beautiful soul mate, himself, he fell in love with himself. By way of contrast. Do you realize that the number one tourist attraction in the United States is the Grand Canyon? Now you may wonder what in the world do those two have to do with each other? Well, let me ask you a question, how many of you have been on vacation in the last year? Go ahead, put your hands up. How many of you have spent your vacation looking at a mirror? Have you ever gone and stared at a mirror for your vacation? Don't you rather go to the ocean or the mountains or the Grand Canyon or something outside of yourself that's glorious and majestic and lifts you up out of your circumstances? And so we have a tension in our soul, we see the Narcissus, we see the mirror, the gazing inward and wanting to find all fulfillment there, and yet we're not satisfied. And so on vacation time we go to the Grand Canyon and see something majestic.

And so what is it? Well, the Grand Canyon represents that which is left in our soul of a yearning after God. We're hungry for Him, we want Him, we yearn for Him. Narcissus represents what sin has done, we try to take what was meant for God and focus inward on ourselves, we yearn for ourselves, we find the answers in ourselves, we're satisfied like Nebuchadnezzar walking on the palace roof with everything that we have accomplished. It's good enough for us. Pride. And so therefore the central lessons in Daniel 4 we need to hear very much. That God rules over the kingdoms of men and is satisfying to the soul, and that those who walk in pride He is able to humble.

Now, what I propose to do because it's a lengthy narrative chapter, is to go through it section by section rather than reading through it all at once, but rather to explain what happened in this chapter, so that we might understand how God worked in Nebuchadnezzar's life. Now, in verses 1 through 18 Nebuchadnezzar narrates a vision that he had. And in verse 1 through 3, the first section of this, he gives a proclamation or an address to the members of his kingdom. And this is what he says, "To the peoples, nations, and men of every language who live in all the world may you prosper greatly. It is my pleasure to tell you about the miraculous signs and wonders that the Most High God has performed for me, how great are His signs, how mighty His wonders, His kingdom is an eternal kingdom, His dominion endures from generation to generation." This is a proclamation that Nebuchadnezzar wrote. The timing of it is probably immediately after his restoration, after his mind was restored from that of an animal. And he wanted to tell everyone what God had done in his life. Earlier we heard two wonderful testimonies about what God had done in the lives of two sisters in Christ, this is Nebuchadnezzar's testimony about what God had done in his life, and he wants everyone to know about it, he's written a universal greeting.

And it's not just to the members of the Babylonian kingdom of 500 BC, it's for us today, because here it is in Scripture, it's very unusual chapter, it's the only chapter in all the Bible written by a pagan king. And yet God, through His Holy Spirit, brought it to us so that we might understand.

The Culmination of a Spiritual Journey?

Could this be the culmination of a spiritual journey for Nebuchadnezzar? Could it be that God has been working, navigating in Nebuchadnezzar's life, bringing him to a point of brokenness before God, where he's ready to accept that Heaven rules and that there is a God on the throne? Remember in Chapter 1, Nebuchadnezzar was introduced to four extraordinary Jewish youths, Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. Extraordinary. He said they were 10 hands better than anyone he had found in his kingdom, 10 times better. And they spoke of a God who's the only God, the ruler above all gods, and it was the God of Israel. A bit of a puzzlement. I thought I just defeated Israel on the battlefield. How can this be? And so already the wheel is beginning to turn.

And then suddenly Daniel chapter 2, an extraordinary vision that he has, which he cannot understand. And he wants so much to know what this vision means. And he calls in all of his wise men and he says, "You must do two things. Number one, you must tell me what the dream is, and number two, you must interpret it for me." None of them could do that, it would be a miracle. I can't read your thoughts, oh, king. Nobody can do this. But God could, and He did it through his spokesman Daniel. And you remember that vision was of human history, of the expanse of the kingdoms after Nebuchadnezzar. This got Nebuchadnezzar to thinking. What is this "after Nebuchadnezzar" thing? What is this "after Babylon" problem? I thought our kingdom was the final kingdom. No, not at all. There's going to be another kingdom and then another and then another and on and on until at last a kingdom from heaven rules over all the earth. I don't like that. As a matter of fact, I'm going to set up a gold statue, gold top to bottom, not just a head of gold representing Nebuchadnezzar and Babylon. We're going to have the whole thing gold, and everybody's going to come and worship it, worship me. Everybody's going to get down on their face and worship, and anyone who doesn't is thrown into a fiery furnace.

Well, three Jews wouldn't, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, their names in their Jewish tongue. And Nebuchadnezzar threw them in to the fiery furnace and God spared their lives. What a miracle! And out they come. God is working in Nebuchadnezzar. And in the middle of that, he says, "what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?" Well, we'll introduce you to Him, little by little. You're going to get to know what God. Chapter 4, he really gets to know what God is able to save. For there is only one God able to save. And so this is, I believe, a culminating of the work inside Nebuchadnezzar. Do you know that no one comes to salvation in Christ without work like that? You don't suddenly decide one day, "I'm going to believe in Jesus. Jesus seems good to me. I think I'll follow Him. I have decided to follow Jesus." Suddenly, without anything, you just decide to follow Jesus, is that it? Or has there been a working inside you by the Holy Spirit, a process different from Nebuchadnezzar's but not so different, a process of humbling where you come to know your need for God.

Jesus said in John 6:44, "No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him." And so this is a drawing. Now, I must tell you, I don't know whether Nebuchadnezzar's in heaven or not. I hope so. Wouldn't you love to get up there and talk to him personally, to find out what it could be that would transform a tyrant, a slaughterer, a bloodthirsty empire builder into a child of God? I hope he's there. And what a journey he's traveled even in this section. So he greets them and he gives his worship. He wants everyone to know about the miracles, the signs and wonders that God had done in his life, and of the awesome kingdom of God.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Circumstances (vs. 4-5)

In verses 4 and 5 he speaks of his circumstances. "I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous. I had a dream that made me afraid. And as I was lying in my bed, the images and visions that passed through my mind had terrified me." So there he is in verse 4, comfortably in sin. There's no more dangerous place to be than comfortable in sin, and so he was. He was at ease. All the wars had been fought, the borders were all at peace, he was secure in his throne, he had everything he wanted, everything. He felt good. The Aramaic likens him to a green tree. Interesting, because in a moment he's going to have a vision or a dream of a tree. He said, "I was green and flourishing in my palace." That's what it says literally. Comfortable. Nebuchadnezzar had reached the pinnacle of power and wealth. Babylon was a fantastic creation of his military might and conquest, and of his technological skill and his administrative ability to organize people to do great things. He was still a relatively young man, so his life laid out ahead of him. Things looked good for him, but his pride was a stench in the nostrils of God Almighty, and so also was the way that he had built his empire by bloodshed, and so also was the way he was running his empire by oppression of the poor. He was in deep trouble with God despite his contentedness.

Someone once said of the preaching ministry that the job of a preacher is to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed. How do you do that in one message? How do you do both? How do you disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed? Well, Nebuchadnezzar was which of the two? He was comfortable and he needed to be disturbed, and God sent him a vision to do that. As John Newton put it beautifully, "Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, and grace my fears relieved." First we fear, and then we come into a peace of knowing that God has forgiven us.

Wisdom of Man Inept Again!! (vs. 6-7)

And so he has a terrifying dream, and he wakes up sweating and gasping, perhaps, from that dream. An awesome vision of a tree which is going to be cut down. So he calls in his counselors again. I don't know how much money is spent on counseling in the US every year, and I wonder if it's as effective as this. Call the counselors in there, let's see if we can get some wisdom. Verse 6 and 7, "So I commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be brought before me to interpret the dream for me. When the magicians and enchanters, astrologers and diviners came, I told them the dream, but they could not interpret it for me."

Now, this is odd. Remember what I told you earlier that the wise men, the enchanters, all had a whole system of dream interpretation? They had worked these things out. Is this a really hard dream to figure out? Well, maybe for us, but realize, the image of a flourishing tree is pretty obviously the king, and when the tree is cut down, it's pretty obviously some kind of judgment. The details may be difficult, but not really, I don't think. So why is it these interpreters couldn't interpret the dream for him? Well, I think they may have been afraid. It could be they knew very well what the dream signified but they didn't want to say. Nebuchadnezzar has this habit of throwing people into fiery furnaces and chopping off heads. So they huddled together and were befuddled and didn't know what to say.

Daniel: God’s Spokesman Again! (vs. 8-9, 18

So in comes God's spokesman again, and that's Daniel, verse 8 and 9, "Finally, Daniel came into my presence and I told him the dream. He is called Belteshazzar after the name of my god, and the spirit of the holy gods is in him. I said, Belteshazzar, chief of the magicians, I know that the spirit of the holy gods is in you, and no mystery is too difficult for you. Here is my dream, interpret it for me." As usual, notice Daniel doesn't have anything to do with those guys, the counselors and all those folks. He is separate from them. And he makes his entrance separate. And he speaks in a different way. He talks differently. He talks of a Holy God. Notice that Nebuchadnezzar is now speaking of holy gods.

Do you know what the holiness of God is? Separation. He's above all His creation, and He's separate from evil, separate from creation, separate from evil. That's the holiness of God. And so he's speaking of a holy God, or holy gods, and notice there's some vestiges of his paganism here. That's why I'm not sure if he's in heaven or not. "The spirit of the holy gods is in him." "Belteshazzar after the name of my god." Oh, give up that god, Nebuchadnezzar. Come to the true God, the eternal God.

And he remembers the earlier interpretation, no "mystery is too difficult for you." And in verse 18, he says, "This is the dream that I, Nebuchadnezzar had. Now, Belteshazzar, tell me what it means for none of the wise men in my kingdom can interpret it for me, but you can because the spirit of the holy gods is in you."

Nebuchadnezzar relates his vision (vs. 10-18)

And then in verses 10 through 18 he relates his vision. First is the description of the tree, verse 10 through 12, "These are the visions I saw while lying in my bed. I looked and there before me stood a tree in the middle of the land. Its height was enormous. The tree grew large and strong and its top touched the sky. It was visible to the ends of the earth. Its leaves were beautiful. Its fruit abundant and on it was food for all. Under it the beasts of the field found shelter and the birds of the air lived in its branches, from it every creature was fed."

So the vision is of an immense tree standing all by itself. It's an isolated tree in the middle of the land. It's an enormous tree of great height. It's a growing tree reaching to the heavens and spreading to the ends of the earth. It's a beautiful and fruitful tree and a protective and providing tree. All the beasts of the earth come and find protection and provision under its branches. In verses 13 through 16, we have the judgment proclaimed, "In the visions I saw while lying on my bed, I looked and there before me was a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven. He called in a loud voice: 'Cut down the tree and trim off its branches. Strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit, let the animals flee from under it, and the birds from its branches. But let the stump and its roots bound with iron and bronze remain in the ground in the grass of the field. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven and let him live with the animals among the plants of the earth. Let his mind be changed from that of a man and let him be given the mind of an animal till seven times pass by for him.'"

So Nebuchadnezzar has a personal vision. While he's lying in bed this vision comes, and the vision comes from God and the vision comes as a warning to him. Our God is so gracious, so gracious. He gives us so much time to repent and so much clear warning of why we should repent. The messenger comes literally in the Aramaic, a watcher, or a watchman. That's what the angels are called, the watcher. And so the watcher comes down and gives this proclamation in a loud voice. And notice in verse 16 it suddenly... Or verse 15, it suddenly says, "Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven." We're talking not about a tree, are we? We're not talking about a tree. What are we talking about? We're talking about a person. And he's going to be banded about, restrained and constricted in some way, and he's going to be drenched with the dew of heaven until seven times pass by, that's seven years, and he acknowledges that the most high is sovereign. That's a lesson declared in verse 17, "The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes and sets over them the lowliest of men."

The Lesson Declared (vs. 17)

What's the point? What's the point of all this? This lesson? That everyone may know, including you who are sitting and listening today, that God rules over earth. Our God is a sovereign, interfering God. He doesn't just let it roll on the way it just rolls, but He rules. He interferes. He is King and you must acknowledge that, Nebuchadnezzar. You must stop living as though you're the final word. Acknowledge that you got your kingdom from me.

Well, in 19 through 27 Daniel interprets the vision. First we see Daniel's compassionate reaction. "Then Daniel (also called Belteshazzar) was greatly perplexed for a time, and his thoughts terrified him so the king said, 'Belteshazzar, do not let this dream or its meaning alarm you.'" Daniel, I believe, loved Nebuchadnezzar. He was compassionate. We preach the judgment of God with tears in our eyes. We don't preach out of a sense of vindication. But rather that they may repent and not face the wrath of God. And so he said, "My lord, if only the dream applied to your enemies and its meaning to your adversaries!" He's genuinely compassionate. I think he feared for Nebuchadnezzar's soul. It's serious business to vaunt yourself up against the King of heaven.

Serious business to challenge God. Daniel knew it and he was fearing for Nebuchadnezzar's soul. And then with courage, the courage and love that God gives, he clearly explains the vision. Verse 20 through 26, "First of all you are the tree Nebuchadnezzar." Verse 20, "The tree saw which grew large and strong with it's top touching the sky visible to the whole earth with beautiful leaves and abundant fruit providing food for all giving shelter to the beasts of the field and having nesting places in its branches for the birds of the air. You oh king are that tree. You have become great and strong, your greatness has grown until it reaches the sky and your dominion extends to the distant parts of the earth." You're the king and you are the tree and God is going to judge you. Verse 23, "You O king saw a messenger, a holy one, coming down from heaven and saying, 'Cut down the tree and destroy it but leave the stump bound with iron and bronze in the grass of the field while its roots remain in the ground. Let him be drenched with the dew of heaven, let him live like wild animals until seven times pass by for him.'" Notice the repetition, can it be any clearer?

It's very clear what's going to happen to Nebuchadnezzar. He's going to be judged by God because of his pride, because of his arrogance. And so in verses 24 to 26 Daniel gives the interpretation, "This is the interpretation O king. And this is the decree the Most High has issued against my lord the king. You will be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle, you will be drenched with the dew of heaven, seven times will pass by for you, until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes. The command to leave the stump of the tree with its roots means that your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules." So there it is. Daniel is clear, he's plain, horrible shame is threatened. He's going to be stripped of all his splendor and his kingly majesty, he's going to be brought low, he's going to be humbled, and yet even in the midst of the judgment God remembers mercy. He's tenderhearted. He doesn't kill him, doesn't strike him dead and not only that He doesn't permanently take his kingdom away, but after seven times have passed by "your kingdom will be restored to you when you acknowledge that heaven rules."

The Character of Daniel

And then in verse 27 we see the mark of Daniel's character, his courage, "Therefore O king be pleased to accept my advice." This is the preaching. "Renounce your sins by doing what is right, and your wickedness by being kind to the oppressed, it may be then that your prosperity will continue." The mark of a true prophet of God is the ability to say things that people don't want to hear because they desperately need to hear them. The courage of Daniel here, he's standing in front of Nebuchadnezzar, he's got compassion, he's got tears in his eyes, but he's telling the truth. "Repent oh king, turn from your wicked ways, turn from your sins, renounce what you're doing, stop your oppression of the poor." He listed specifically not just your sins generally the oppression of the poor. "It may be that God will not send this calamity on you." Now you know what happened. Verses 28 through 33 is the fulfillment of a vision. If this were a movie we would have a little sign at this point, one year later.

After one year. Now we don't know what happened in that one year. 12 months. Verse 28, "All this happened to King Nebuchadnezzar twelve months later, as the king was walking on the roof of the royal palace of Babylon he said, 'Is not this the great Babylon I have built as a royal residence by my mighty power and for the glory of my majesty?'" Doesn't it make you sick? Oh my goodness the arrogance. Aren't I wonderful? And look at what I've done. Isn't it great? I mean he is so full of himself. And where is he? He is walking up high on the roof of his palace. One puritan preacher said, "Men will often rise up to great heights not like Zacchaeus to see Jesus but rather to be seen." Well Nebuchadnezzar went up to see but not to see God. But rather to see the things he'd accomplished in his life. God had been patient and waiting. Last week you heard about the sword of Damocles hanging over. That sword had been hanging over him by a thread for 12 months and at last the twine is cut. Was it something I said? Yeah it was something you said. You vaunted yourself against the King of heaven. You're so full of yourself, you're arrogant and out of the fullness of the heart, what? The mouth speaks. It came right up out of here. It's over, judgment is coming.

And it's sudden and severe justice. Verse 31, "The words were still on his lips when a voice came from heaven, 'This is what is decreed for you King Nebuchadnezzar, your royal authority has been taken from you. You'll be driven away from people and will live with the wild animals. You will eat grass like cattle. Seven times will pass by for you until you acknowledge that the Most High is sovereign over the kingdoms of men and gives them to anyone He wishes.'" Now our modern worldview talks about evolution, we come up out of the slime up into ever higher grades of splendor. This is devolution here, it's down down down. He's stripped of his authority, he's stripped of society, he's stripped of his sanity, he's stripped of his humanity. If you're going to think like a beast you're going to be a beast, Nebuchadnezzar. "And immediately what had been said about Nebuchadnezzar was fulfilled. He was driven away from people and ate grass like cattle. His body was drenched with the dew of heaven until his hair grew like feathers of an eagle and his nails like the claws of a bird." There's a modern name for this boanthropy.

When a man thinks he's a cattle, you think how is this possible, it's got to be mythological. No, actually, in 1946, there was a British physician that came across a case of boanthropy in England. I read about the account, it's amazing. This guy was in his early 20s, and as soon as he is admitted, they knew what the problem was, although it was very rare. Maybe someone had read Daniel 4 and said, "Well, I know what this is. It's that Nebuchadnezzar disease." But what this guy did was he walked around on all fours and he ate grass out of magnificent hospital lawns, beautiful. And he was seen to select between types of grass. He wouldn't eat, for example, crab grass, but he would eat other types of grass. It's real, this really happened. Very rare though, have you ever met anyone with boanthropy? Very unusual, but it has happened, and it happened to Nebuchadnezzar.

The Mercy of God

So there he was for seven years. But in wrath, Habakkuk 3:2, in wrath, God remembered mercy. Do you know that in Acts 12, King Herod vaunted himself up against God? And what happened to him? He died. It's over, just like that. But God didn't kill Nebuchadnezzar, He gave him seven years. And He did not give him seven years to repent. He gave seven years until He permitted him to repent. Do you see the difference? He couldn't repent at five years or three years or two years. God grants repentance. If you don't think so, read 2 Timothy 2:25. God Grants repentance as a gift, and he gave it to Nebuchadnezzar to repent after seven years, not before then. It was a gift. "At the end of that time, I Nebuchadnezzar raised my eyes toward heaven and my sanity was restored, then I praised the Most High. I honored and glorified Him Who lives forever." His mind could have been changed forever. He could have lost his throne forever, but God restored him

Verse 36, "At that same time, my sanity was restored. My honor and my splendor were restored to me for the glory of my kingdom. My advisors and nobles sought me out and I was restored to my throne and became even greater than before." Now we're going from the ground back up. His sanity is restored, his humanity is restored, his society is restored, his advisors and counselors come to him, and his splendor and his glory restored too, and then God is even more gracious, he says he "became even greater than before." But now I have some additions to my character, wisdom and humility. Verse 34 and 35, he praises God. "His dominion is an eternal dominion, His kingdom endures from generation to generation. All the peoples of the earth are regarded as nothing. He does as He pleases with the powers of heaven and the peoples of the earth. No one can hold back His hand or say to Him, What have you done?" This is a sovereign God.

And therefore, this chapter, the whole chapter is a real kick in our human pride, isn't it? There is a God who rules. I mean, this meticulously. And you know what's interesting? C. S. Lewis said in Mere Christianity, "If we are just products of evolution, that no one individual is more important than human society or the kingdom that they're a part of, for the society and the kingdom will outlive them. But if we are created in the image of God and if our souls are eternal, and we will spend eternity either with God in heaven or apart from God in hell, then every soul is worth more than any human kingdom." Jesus said so, "What would it profit a man to gain the whole world," that's empire language, "and yet lose his soul? Or what could a man give in exchange for his soul?" Nebuchadnezzar's soul was worth more than the Great Babylon that he built for his own glory and splendor and majesty. Is anything left of Babylon? It's gone, it's gone. Is anything left of Nebuchadnezzar's soul? Oh yes. For good or ill, he's still conscious, still alive. Oh how we hope in heaven.

And then Nebuchadnezzar worships God for His righteousness, verse 37, "Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven because everything He does is right and all His ways are just." Isn't that amazing? He's just been struck by God for seven years and he says He was right to do it. "I deserved it. I deserved worse. He was just, He was righteous, I praise Him. What He did was right." And then that beautiful statement that we've now worked our way up to, "And those who walk in pride, He is able to humble."

Now what application can we take from this? First, there is a repentance that saves and it humbles us to our hearts. It humbles us to our hearts. We have to recognize God's sovereign power. It is absolute, it cannot be questioned. It will never end. It is an objective reality in this universe.

Now, ask yourself, "Do I delight in God's sovereignty or do I resent it? Do I delight in the fact that there's a King like this or do I kick against it?" You're kicking against will not change it. Don't kick against, rejoice and joyfully submit. Hate your own pride and self righteousness and turn from sin. And there is a hidden time frame, isn't there? When is your year up? God gave Nebuchadnezzar how long? 12 months, right? When is your year up? Where are you? Are you in the 11th month or the first month? Have you got two weeks left? Do you know? Jesus told a parable about a tree that didn't bear any fruit and the owner of the tree said, "Cut it down! Why should it use up the soil?" And the gardener said, "Sir, leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down." Same thing, it's the same story. The tree gets cut down after a year.

Where are you in the year? Do you know? Today is the day for repentance, today is the day. If you have the testimony of God in your heart that's something wrong with you spiritually, repent today. Turn to Christ. Maybe you already know in the Savior, but you're living in sin. When is the 12 months up for you? Do you know? Don't presume on tomorrow, but repent today. And maybe you don't know Jesus as Savior and Lord, are you presuming on tomorrow? Are you sure that you'll have time to respond tomorrow to be saved, to trust in Christ? Repent today.

I want to tell you one last thing about this verse. There was a time that I looked at this verse as a warning. "Those who walk in pride, He is able to humble." Would you call that a warning? God may do terrible things to you if you walk in pride. Is it a warning? Yes, it is a warning. The idea is, do the work on yourself so God doesn't have to do it. You can humble yourself onto the idea of a sovereign God or under the activity of a sovereign God. It's your choice. Choose idea, choose idea. I'm preaching idea today. Choose idea, because God may act. It's a warning, right? But then, all of a sudden, I began to see something about myself. I opened myself up to you when I began to preach today, do you remember?

Pride is my greatest enemy, along with some other sins, but pride is the one I hate the most, because so much comes out of it. Look at yourselves. Husbands, what kind of husbands would you be if you had no pride in the year 2001? No pride at all with your wife. What kind of relationship would you have with her? Wives, what kind of wives would you be if you had no pride whatsoever in dealing with your husband? None. Christians, what kind of witnesses and evangelists would you be if you didn't care at all what people thought about you? What would your evangelistic life be like freed from pride? Let's say you had some kind of besetting sin and good friends to tell you the truth about it. Lets say you had no pride. Would you make strides in your sanctification and growth? Because you're humble enough to say, "You're telling me the truth, I want to change rather than kicking against." I began to see that pride was my biggest enemy.

And then all of a sudden, I saw that this verse isn't just warning, what is it? Those who walk in pride, what? He's able to humble. I want to be humbled. I really do. I want to be more humble 20 years from now than I am now. Because God opposes the proud, but He gives grace to the humble. He fights people who are proud. First Baptist, don't be proud.

What is the cure? First, recognize that everything you have comes from God. What do you have that you didn't receive? Number two, recognize that pride is already a massive problem in your life. It's not like you're going to catch the pride at some point, like a disease. You already have it. And number three, ask God to humble you. Would you like to pray that prayer? God, humble me. Do very difficult things in my life so that 20 years from now, I'm a genuinely humbled broken person. Please do. I don't care if it's cars breaking down, losing a job, other difficulties, just humble me. Can you pray that prayer? That's a courageous prayer. God says, "At last, we can work. Yes, I'll answer that prayer. I will humble you." Oh God, grant me humility. Number one, all things that you have come from God. Number two, pride is already a big problem in your life. Number three, Oh God, humble me and He will do it. Please join with me in prayer.

Would and open to Daniel 3. We're going to look at a thrilling story this morning and very familiar to all of you, especially children, the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace. And I was thinking this morning about this message and an odd thought came to me, and I don't know if you can track this, but I'm going to give it a try.

I find in our story today and just thinking about church history, a strange relationship between fire and government. You wonder "what in the world does fire have to do with government?" Not much usually. But look at it this way, both fire and government are good gifts from God, if they stay in their proper boundaries, but if they start to go over where they don't belong, then there's problems. And we see that in our story today, with the story of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego and we see it throughout church history.

God gave government to be a gift to us, did He not? Romans 13 says so, government is a gift from God, and the authorities that institute are instituted by God. What would our life in America be like if there were absolutely no government authorities, think about that. The effect that it has on transportation, on restraining evil, on restraining crime, for example, what would your life be like? Government is a good gift from God. It gives a matrix for the advance of the kingdom of God, a restraining of sin nature and it is a good thing, Romans 13.

But what happens if it flows over, beyond the boundaries God set up into areas it should not go. Then you get the beast of Revelation 13. Romans 13, Revelation 13. Romans 13, good gift from God, Revelation 13, the beast step out of the ocean, and that's what you get I think in Daniel 3, where someone stands up in front of you, and compels you to worship something contrary to your convictions, and we've seen that. And Jesus himself said in John 15, that if they persecuted him, if they attacked him, they're going to attack his followers, and so, they did.

The Martyrdom of Polycarp

Now, many of you were in our church history seminar. And for those of you who haven't signed up, it's not too late, just come, you don't need to sign up, just come. But we're studying church history, and in the first section we talked about the persecution of the Early Church under the Roman emperors. And we went over one of my favorite stories from that part of history, and that's the Martyrdom of Polycarp. And I like to read a fourth century account of this.

Polycarp was a Christian, he was a bishop in the city of Smyrna in Asia Minor. And he was accused of being a Christian, which he was, he was 86 years old. And he was brought into the amphitheater and the procurator, the proconsul, the governor began to accuse him. And this is what it says, Polycarp stepped forward and he was asked by the proconsul if he really was Polycarp. When he said yes, the proconsul urged him to deny the charge. "Respect your years", he exclaimed, adding similar appeals regularly made on such occasions, "swear by Caesar's fortune, change your attitude and say, away with the godless."

Interestingly, in Asia Minor, they called Christians godless, because we didn't worship all their gods. It seemed like we had no gods and so they called us atheists, or godless. Well, "say away with the godless" and Polycarp with his face set looked up at the crowd, and waved his hand and said, "away with the godless. I'm not godless you are. You don't know the true God, the Creator God."

The governor pressed him further, "swear and I will set you free." See, that's the temptation isn't it? If you just deny Christ, I'll let you go free. Execrate Christ, he said curse Christ. And at that Polycarp said, "for 86 years I have been his servant and he has never done me wrong. How can I blasphemy my King who saved me?" what a courageous answer. "I have wild beasts" said the proconsul, "I shall throw you to them if you don't change your attitude." "Call them" he said, the old man.

"We cannot change our attitude, if it means a change from better to worse. But it is a splendid thing to change from cruelty to justice." "If you make light with the beasts," retorted the governor, "I'll have you destroyed by fire unless you change your attitude." Now, listen to Polycarp's response. Polycarp answered, "the fire you threaten burns for a little while, and then is extinguished. There is a fire you know nothing about, the fire of judgment to come and of eternal punishment. The fire reserved for the ungodly. But why do you hesitate? Do what you want"

The proconsul was amazed and sent the Herald to stand in the middle of the arena and announce three times, "Polycarp has confessed that he is a Christian." Then the shout went up from every throat that Polycarp must be burned alive, the rest followed in less time than it takes to describe. The crowd rushed to gather logs and kindling from workshops and public baths, and when the fire was ready Polycarp prayed.

"Oh, Father of thy beloved and blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we have come to know thee, the God of angels and powers and all creation and of the whole family of the righteous who live in thy presence, I bless thee, for counting me worthy of this day and hour that I may in the number of the martyrs partake of Christ's cup, to the resurrection of eternal life, of both soul and body, in the imperishability that is the gift of the Holy Spirit." What a prayer! The ancient defender of our faith Tertullian said, "The blood of martyrs is seed for the Church."

Polycarp dies, hundreds of new Christians spring up from his blood. And after he prayed that prayer, when he had offered up the Amen and completed his prayer, the men in charge, lit the fire and a great flame shot up. Now, it could be that Polycarp gained courage for his trial from the story we're going to look at today, Daniel 3, the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.

Now, in order to understand this story, we have to set the context. The context of Daniel 3 is Daniel 2. In order to understand Daniel 3, properly I think you have to understand what just happened in Chapter 2, and what just happened. Remember that Nebuchadnezzar was thinking about the future. He was laying on his bed, and he had a dream. And in his dream, he saw an awesome statue, tall and dazzling in a plain. And the statue was interesting in that it had a gold head, and chest and arms of silver, and a belly and thighs of bronze. And legs of iron and then feet partly iron and partly clay. We went through that over the last number of weeks, and we've come to understand it. Well, now, here in Chapter 3, what do we have? We have a statue but what do you notice about the statue? It's gold from top to bottom. Could it be that Nebuchadnezzar is rebelling against the thing that God has told him that there will be an end to the Babylonian empire? "You O king are that head of gold." Alright, then I'm going to be the whole statue, top to bottom. There's not going to be an end, there's not going to be any chest and arms of silver, or belly and thighs of bronze. I am the Eternal kingdom.

Was he really that prideful? Oh, absolutely. I think that's the context here. And so, he sets up his statue. Now we're going to go through this passage, it's narrative, it's familiar to all of you, and I think as we move through it, we're going to see some fascinating things.

"Now King Nebuchadnezzar made an image of gold, ninety feet high and nine feet wide, and set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon. He then summoned the satraps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials to come to the dedication of the image he had set up. So, the satraps, prefects, governors, advisors, treasurers, judges, magistrates and all the other provincial officials assembled for the dedication of the image the King Nebuchadnezzar, had set up and they stood before it. Then the herald loudly proclaimed 'This is what you are commanded to do, O peoples, nations and men of every language. As soon as you hear the sound of the horn, the flute, zither, lyre, harp, pipes and all kinds of music, you must fall down, and worship the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar has set up and whoever does not fall down and worship will immediately be thrown into a blazing furnace.' Therefore as soon as they heard the sound of the horn, flute, Zither, lyre, Harps and all kinds of music, all the peoples, nations and men of every language fell down and worshipped the image of gold that King Nebuchadnezzar had set up."

Now the statue is described as of immense size, 90 feet high, that's the height of a nine-story building. Can you imagine that? And he... I would imagine, did not make it out of pure gold, he could not have had that much gold in the kingdom, probably it was overlaid with gold, but it was dazzling. It was tall. It had an odd proportion, it was a 10-1 ratio, as you look at it, 90 feet high, nine feet wide. So, really probably wasn't the statue of a human being, although it may have been capped with a head of gold or something like that. But it was a statue none the less and the people were summoned. And here we have the tyrant's lust for power. He wants total control over the people in his realm, he wants to see them on their faces before the statue just because he gives the order. Total compliance. And so the command goes out with the herald, the music's going to play. It's some kind of perhaps some sultry music or something that entices them into this false worship. And behind it all, are the consequences, and what are the consequences?

Verse 6, that furnace. It's the power of the state you see, the power of execution, the power of the sword. But it's used for a wrong reason. See according to Romans 13, the power of the sword is to compel you to do right, not wrong. And so he uses it wrongly, death by burning and so this is a tyrant's greatest weapon, it's intimidation, fear, you'd be afraid of what's going to happen to you. And so they say religion is the opiate of the masses. The Marxist said that. What that means is that it takes away people's desire to rebel. They don't want to rebel because they're placated with thinking about the next world. That's how it works. I think fear is the opiate of the masses, in this case. They're afraid to rebel, they're not going to overthrow this tyrant because they don't want to be thrown in the fiery furnace and so they bow down and they worship.

And so in this case, the state uses the religion, the unholy marriage of state and religion we see here. Power of the sword compelling conviction in worship. And they do it in verse 7. The Fear does its work. And what is being worshipped here? It's not a 90-foot high statue that's being worshipped here. It's people's own comfort, it's their own lives, that's being worship, it's the fact that they don't want to lose what they have. They don't want to lose their lives, their family they don't want to lose their possessions and so, they bow down and they worship. What's being worshipped here is earthly comfort and life. And so they bow down.

Now in Verses 8-12, we see the Chaldeans’ jealous accusation. At this time some astrologers came forward and denounced the Jews, they said to King Nebuchadnezzar, "O king, live forever. You have issued a degree O king that everyone who hears the sound of the horn, flute, Zither, lyre, Harp, pipes and all kinds of music must fall down and worship the image of gold, and that whoever does not fall down and worship will be thrown into a blazing furnace. But there are some Jews whom you have set over the affairs of the province of Babylon; Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego who pay no attention to you, O king, they neither serve your gods nor worship the image of gold that you have set up."

Now, what is the motive of the Chaldeans? Well, there are a couple of possibilities. I think the first and most obvious one is jealousy. They are jealous. And we're going to see this again in Daniel 6, when Daniel's accused by during the time of Darius the Mede and he is thrown into the lion’s den. It's jealousy. And by the way, you may be wondering, where's Daniel in all this, you can bet he didn't bow down and worship that statue. So we have no idea where Daniel was. We can't even answer. We have to assume that perhaps the king sent him away on business and did his dirty work while Daniel was a way. I really have no idea. But there's no way that Daniel would have bowed down and worship that statue. But at any rate, the motive here is jealousy. They're jealous over Daniel's promotion and they're jealous over Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and their promotion.

You see some, what we have today in terms of office politics. You want to get ahead, you have to slander your enemy. There are certain rules to how you do this. And so they use this accusation. It could also be not just jealousy, but maybe conviction. Imagine the scene. We've got this whole valley, maybe, or a plain, and then there's this idolatrous statue set up and everyone, I mean people of all nations and tribes and languages, they're all flat on their face except these three Jews. It's kind of disproportionate, isn't it? Everyone's doing it, and these three aren't. And it's clear they're doing it, or not doing it, they're not bowing down out of personal conviction. And I think when you have somebody who's willing to stand up like that, in this case literally to stand up and not bow down, it creates a kind of a prick in the heart, a conviction, a nick. Something's not right here. Now remember what we learned in the book of Romans, that they know in their hearts God's righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death.

They know it, and yet they bow down anyway. And so it could be they're also feeling conviction, and instead of saying, "Tell us about your God, tell us the source of your strength and your courage," they want to kill them. It's the old Cain and Abel thing. Why did Cain want to kill his brother Abel? Because Abel's actions were righteous and his brothers were evil. And so they flatter the king and they denounce God's people in verse 8 and 9. They use flattery first. "O King, live forever." And then they denounce the Jews, they attack them and they make the accusation. And in order to do that, they recount the decree and its penalty and they make a three-fold accusation. Number one, they say they "pay no attention to you, O King." Number two, "they neither serve your gods." And number three, "nor worship the image of gold that you have set up."

Now, of those three, only two were true. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, like Daniel were good administrators, they were good officials. They had every desire to pay attention to the king, and they'll prove that by obeying his command to come out of the fire. We'll talk about that in a minute. They are submissive to his authority, but they are not going to follow him when he goes beyond the boundary set by God. And it's interesting that Nebuchadnezzar knows that, because he doesn't even repeat that charge. When he brings the Jews in and their trial by fire occurs, look at verse 13 and following, "Furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. So these men were brought before the king. And Nebuchadnezzar said to them, 'Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold that I have set up?'" So you can see he drops the first charge. It's not true that they pay no attention to the king. They pay attention to the king every day in those matters that it's appropriate to obey the king in. But they do not worship his gods, he knows that, and they do not bow down and worship that idol that he has set up.

And so now we must have the trial of faith. Faith must be tested to be proved genuine. Now who does the testing? Well, it's God that does the testing. He wants to prove your faith. You can't see faith. You can claim to have faith, but until the time for deeds occurs, we have no way of knowing. No one has any way of knowing whether your faith is genuine or counterfeit.

Faith must be proved by action. This is the message of the Book of James. That's why, and this is the verse that Laura quoted earlier, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you'll be mature and complete, not lacking anything." We've got to test the faith to bring it to full completion. Peter picks up on the same thing in 1 Peter 1. He says, "In this, you greatly rejoice. Though now, for a little while, you may have had to suffer grief and all kinds of trials, these have come so that your faith, of greater worth than gold which perishes even though refined by fire, may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory, and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed." You put fire on gold and it's hot enough, the gold is destroyed. But if you put fire on faith, it only purifies it and makes it beautiful. That's what happens to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. God puts the fire on that faith to test it and prove it to be true.

And why does he do it? He does it because his reputation is at stake. And we're going to talk about that more in a moment, but God's reputation is at stake. Now, Nebuchadnezzar provides the furnace, doesn't he? Physically, literally. He's the only that supply... Alright, the faith must be tested, I'll supply the furnace, okay? The Jews will supply the faith, that's how it works. And so we see the tyrant's rage. And look what he says, furious with rage. Well, he was angry before, but now he's angry and he's going to get even angrier. It's like this guy has no end to his anger. Tyrant's rage, and like most tyrants, his rage is connected with pride. It's "moral filth," it says in James 1, this kind of human anger and rage. Proverbs 20 verse 2 says, "A king's wrath is like the roar of a lion. He who angers him forfeits his life." Well, it's just a statement of fact. If you get a king angry in a setting like this, you're going to be killed. And so they summon the Jews. And can you imagine what it was like? I just want you to put yourself in their place. Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew this was coming, and they're summoned to appear before Nebuchadnezzar.

What, maybe he had another dream he wants interpreting. Uh-uh, no, no, it's time for testing. They knew what was coming. What would it have been like to make that walk surrounded by armed guards? What would have been going through your stomach? Would you be up to it? Are you ready? It may be coming, brothers and sisters. We've had a vacation here in the US for 225 years, but it may be coming. Get ready, prepare yourself. So they're walking, surrounded by guards, and on they come, alright. And then comes this inquisition. And imagine as you come into the throne room and there's all these counselors and everyone. Do you think there's a sense of friendliness there? "Well, it's good to see you, let's talk something through." They hated these people You could feel it, a palpable anger down on them. Could you stand under that cauldron? That's like a furnace itself. The looks, the anger, the persecution, you could feel it. And they move in and the king says, "Is it true?" in probably his deepest voice. "Is it true, O Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, that you do not worship my gods or bow down at the golden idol that I have set up?"

The emphasis here is on intimidation. So he's got to dominate. That's what it is with tyrants. They've got to dominate, they've got to get you to bow down before them. And here is the real test, and this is called the second chance. Oh, this is diabolical. You don't have to say just once, but maybe several times, what your conviction is. He said, "Now when you hear the sound of the horn, flute, zither, lyre harp, pipes and all kinds of music, if you are ready to fall down and worship the image I made, very good." Do you see what very good means? I will set you free. This was the emperor Trajan's policy, from the early part of the second century. If anyone is accused of being a Christian and they deny it, and they burn that pinch of incense to the emperor, we'll set them free. No fine, no incarceration, no problems. That is diabolical because it pulls on you to deny Christ, you see? It pulls on you to give in.

He said, "If you'll do it, very good. But if you do not worship it, you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace." This is the threat. Nebuchadnezzar's oven is raging hot and he can see it from his throne, remember? Later on in the account, he's looking in and he can see them in there. So it's right there. They could probably feel the heat. This is not an idle threat. This guy really did this kind of thing. But I think at this moment their faith really kicks in. This is what saves them, because they see a yet further and future accounting before a greater king, God himself. And that's what enables you to survive.

"Do not fear those who kill the body and after that can do nothing to you. I'll tell you the one to fear, [said Jesus] fear the one who can destroy both soul and body in hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." And they did. How would they feel on Judgment Day, if the King of the universe said, "Is it true, oh, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego that in a time of testing you crumbled and you fell down and worshipped an idol contrary to my clear command, is that true?" "Yes, Lord." Hmm, may it never be. They're willing to pay with their lives for their conviction.

Polycarp had that mind, remember? He said, "The fire you threaten burns for a little while and it's out, but there's a fire that never stops for the godless." And then comes the one line that saves their life and I love it. What did Nebuchadnezzar say next? He said, "you will be thrown immediately into a blazing furnace. Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?"

Oh, alright, alright, we're going to draw up the battle lines here. And we're going to see, we're going to make this an open contest between Nebuchadnezzar and God, who's going to win? That line, I think saved their lives that day, okay. It's going to be that clear. God is going to honor his own name. He's going to exalt His own name. I love that line. Nebuchadnezzar at this point is an open rebellion against God, and I really think that... I really love this story. If Nebuchadnezzar is in heaven, and he may well be, this is the darkest part of the night before the light comes in chapter 4. He's so prideful.

And then the Jews gave one of those incredible answers. Verse 16: "Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego replied to the king: 'Oh, Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter. If we are thrown into the blazing furnace the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, oh, king. But even if He does not, we want you to know, oh king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up.""

Oh, what an answer. And you wonder where do these kind of answers come from? I never get to say great things like that. Remember what Jesus said in Matthew 10 that when they bring you before their kings, do not worry ahead of time what to say, at that time it will be given you what to say for the spirit of my Father will tell you what to say. And so it happens. What a line! Oh, he's able to do it, but even if he doesn't, we're not going to disobey him.

I love that. Just like Job said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in Him." I'm not going to disobey even if I do die. And Polycarp did die, didn't he? God does not always do the amazing rescue like he does for Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. And what effect did this have on the court? I heard a story once about an oriental king. I don't know if it was Genghis Khan, it may have been. But he was trying to take a city, the city would not give into his military power and so he called emissaries from the city and they came and stood before this tyrant, this oriental king, and he ordered three of his strongest men to stand forward. And he said, "Observe." And he said, and he gave the order, and those men drew their swords and killed themselves right in front of these emissaries. He said, "All the soldiers in my army are like this. Every one of them, they'll die from me." They opened the doors of the city that day. Said, "We can't stand up against that kind of commitment."

And in effect, isn't that what Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah did? They're willing to die rather than disobey God. Let me tell you something, Jesus when he said, "I will build my church and the gates of Hades will not stand up against it." Those gates have to open before that kind of commitment, willingness to die rather than disobey. This kind of soldiers. It says that his troops, Jesus' troops will be ready in the day of battle. Are we that ready? Are you that ready? Do you have that kind of commitment?

Well, at this point, this did not mollify and say, "Wow, boy, what faith! I'd like to know more about your God, will you tell me something?" No, it just enrages him more. He is almost berserk at this point. He was angry before, now his face changes. Verse 19, "Then Nebuchadnezzar was furious with Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego." What was he before? I guess it's just different levels of purple on his face. "And his attitude towards them changed. He ordered the furnace heated seven times harder than the usual, and he commanded some of the strongest soldiers in his army to tie up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego and throw them into the blazing furnace."

Now, this shows you the insanity of anger. If he really wanted to hurt them, he would have cooled the fire off. Do you understand? Get it just enough to torment, but not enough to kill. Instead, he says, "Seven times hotter," and poof they're gone. Just like that. What happened to the men that threw them in? Well, look what happens. So these men wearing their robes, trousers, turbans, and other clothes were bound and thrown into the blazing furnace. The king's command was so urgent, and the furnace so hot that the flames of the fire killed the soldiers who took up Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, and these three men firmly tied fell into the blazing furnace. That was a hot fire.

And here we have God's vindication by faith. Now, God's reputation is at stake. Remember what Nebuchadnezzar said "what God will be able to rescue you from my hand" and realize that it's his reputation is at stake because Nebuchadnezzar has conquered Jerusalem in the Promised Land. And so he's already saying, "Hey I've already beaten you on the battlefield. He wasn't able to rescue you from exile. Why is he going to rescue you from the furnace?" So God's reputation is at stake, and he says so, in Ezekiel, he says, "you defiled my name by the countries I sent you to." Because they're saying "Look at what... God couldn't keep you safe in your own Promised Land", so he has to do something to vindicate His name, and he does these miracles I think, for that reason. To vindicate His name, and his faith, the faith vindicates God. Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego's loyalty to God vindicated him. I'd rather have God's pleasure, than life itself. Then God vindicates the faithful, not only did the Jews vindicate God, but God vindicated the Jews.

He's supernaturally protected these three from the fire and heat. How? I have absolutely no idea. Now I could get technical with you right here and tell you what fire is and what heat is and about heat and mass transfer, and how air molecules move and all that. I have no idea how it is that they felt no heat. All I know is that God is able to control atoms and molecules, even down to the minutest level. And they felt nothing. It was like a... Maybe it was even cool for them. Maybe he orchestrated some air conditioning feeling around them. I don't really have any idea, but they obviously were not having any distress. Their turbines, their hair. I mean nothing. There was not... Nothing was touching them. The men were consumed as soon as they got near it, but they are free.

And they're walking around what happened to their bands around them. I don't know, they just dropped off, they got burned, I guess. But these men are free. And oh, the freedom of walking with Jesus in the middle of a trial. And why do you say with Jesus? Well, look what happens. Verse 24, "Then King Nebuchadnezzar leaped to his feet in amazement and asked his advisors, 'weren't there three men that we tied up and threw into the fire.' They replied 'certainly O King.' He said, 'Look, I see four men walking around in the fire unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods.'" Wow! Imagine walking with Jesus in the middle of that trial. Now, I don't know if it was Jesus, some commentator say it was... Maybe it was just an angel, I don't know. I love to think it was a pre-incarnate Christ coming down to just be with them. And lo, I will be with you always even to the very end of the age, He's with us in the middle of the trial, a son of the gods, he says in Isaiah 43:2, "When you pass through the waters, I will be with you. And when you passed through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned." Isaiah 43:2, write that one down. "The flames will not set you ablaze." That's a literal fulfillment of a prediction. I will be with you when you walk through the fire.

Now, what is it that made that fourth figure look like a son of the gods. Remember when the angels appeared to the shepherds what happened? The glory of the Lord shown all around them. God usually uses light, to display His glory. Could it be that this figure was brighter than the furnace fire? Brighter than the furnace fire? Yeah, and still not full brightness folks, we couldn't survive it. The glory of God.

And then he gives what I think is the funniest command in the Bible. Now, you may not think it's funny, but I think it's incredibly funny. "Shadrach, Meshach, Abednego, servants of the most high God, come out! Come here!" They could have said, "No, King, you come in and get us." Well but see they're not being sassy like I just was a second ago. They're submissive to His authority, you know? Alright, we'll come out. That doesn't contradict any command of God, we'll come out of the fire. And so, they did come out of the fire and they get around them, verse 27, "The satraps, prefects, governors, royal advisors, crowded around them. They saw that the fire had not harmed their bodies nor was a hair of their head singed, their robes was not scorched and there was no smell of fire on them." Miracle, nothing else, just a miracle.

And then Nebuchadnezzar, its reward time. Let's lavish out our rewards. Okay, this is amazing, I mean it really is amazing. And so he's going to give rewards. Its like, "For God we’ll give some praise, and we'll make an edict a decree about him, and for the Jews, we'll give them a promotion." So we see his rewards for whatever they're worth. Verse 28, Nebuchadnezzar said, "Praise be to the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent his angel and rescued his servants, they trusted in Him and defied the King's command and were willing to give up their lives rather than serve or worship any god except their own God."

And then verse 29 here, we make a mistake, we make a mistake and it's like, he doesn't... He does not learn his lesson. It takes the Baptist to teach the world on this issue. Separation of church and state. We're the ones that have to bring this message to the world. Verse 29, "Therefore I decree that the people of any nation or language who say anything against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego be cut into pieces and their houses be turned into piles of rubble, for no other God can save in this way." Does that decree help the building of God's kingdom? No, you can't compel people to fear the Lord. They fear the Lord, when they believe His word, that's all. When you hear these things and believe that's when you fear the Lord, not because some King says by means of a decree.

Now, what applications can we take from this? I want to just ask some questions here. The first question printed in your bulletin, it's simple. Is the world a friend to your faith or we could rephrase it. Has the world become a friend to your faith? No, and it never will be. Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. Do not expect the world to embrace your faith. Secondly, is your faith genuine? Is it real? It's not a matter of signing a card, walking an isle, praying a prayer, even getting baptized, it's not that, it's saving faith in Jesus Christ. The kind discussed in Romans 4, "Abraham believed God and was credited him as righteousness", real faith, is a gift from God. Do you have real faith? Their courage was a mark of real faith.

God is in the business of testing faith to see if it's real or not, and it's a good thing he does, because there are counterfeits out there. Oh, that you may not have a counterfeit, it will not save you. Is your faith genuine? And if you have a genuine faith, is your faith pure? Well, if not and none of us has a perfectly pure faith. What is it that purifies faith? Trials, like this. Do not run from them. Rejoice in them. In a moment, we're going to sing how firm a foundation, listen to one of the verses. "When through fiery trials, thy pathway shall lie, my grace all-sufficient shall be thy supply. The flame shall not hurt thee, I only design, thy dross to consume, and thy gold to refine." Is your faith pure, if not pray that God would bring trials to you, so that your faith will get stronger and more pure. A tone of pure joy when he does, says James.

Do you love your life too much? How could we possibly love life too much? This is the sanctity of human life Sunday, can we love life too much? Yes, if it causes us to deny our Lord, Revelation 12-11, "They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death."

Next question, will you speak for God? Will you stand up in this culture and make an unpopular argument? We talked about one earlier today, will you be willing to stand up for God and take the slings and arrows of persecution that come our way? It's not physical not yet, but it may be but you may be rejected by friends, and even family. Are you willing to stand up and speak for God? And then most importantly, will, God save you from the final fire. Remember of what I spoke to you about the righteousness of Jesus Christ being like an Asbestos robe that enables you to pass through the fire of judgment day.

If you have Christ's righteousness imputed to you about faith, you will survive that fiery trial, but if you don't, you will not. Do you have true saving faith, the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ? Remember Nebuchadnezzar's final statement. "No other God can save this way," only God can save you from that fire to come, trust in Christ. And if you do have that kind of saving faith ask that question to a neighbor, a co-worker, a relative if they might have a faith that will enable them to survive the final judgment. Please close with me now in prayer.

Please, if you would, take your Bibles and open to Daniel chapter 2. We're going to be finishing this morning, God willing, our look at this chapter. It's an incredible chapter in which the rise and the fall of the world is so clearly depicted in prophetic perspective. For over a thousand years Roman conquerors returning from the wars enjoyed the honor of a triumph, a tumultuous parade. In the procession came trumpeters and musicians and strange animals from the conquered territories, together with carts laden with treasure and captured armaments. The conqueror rode in a triumphal chariot. The dazed prisoners walked in chains before him. Sometimes his children robed in white stood with him in the chariot or rode the trace horses alongside him. A slave stood behind the conqueror holding a golden crown and whispering in his ear a warning that all glory is fleeting.

With those words, one of my favorite movies ever, ended. It's the movie Patton. If you go see the movie Patton, that's the way that it ends. And that's an amazing ending to it, because it's right before that General of the Third Army of the United States of America, World War II, right before he died, the film doesn't cover his death, but it does give us this incredible reminder. All glory is fleeting. You see, Patton had ridden at the head of the Third Army. They had conquered or re-conquered 12,000 towns and villages, inflicted 1.5 million casualties on the Nazi armies facing them. And he knew enough military history to know that he was just another in a long line of conquerors riding over the same territory in front of mighty armies conquering the same land and that some day his glory and his triumph would sink back into the dust from which he came. I think it's a telling way for him to end or for them to end that film. All glory is fleeting.

Now, we have a reminder of that in our bulletins. If you look on the cover of the bulletin today, I've put a picture. And it's a picture of a desolate windswept plain near Pasargadae, which is in modern Turkmenistan, used to be the northeastern frontier of the ancient Persian Empire. And there stands a simple gabled edifice made of limestone blocks cramped together with iron bands, it's a small edifice, it rests on a stone platform of six courses. It contains a windowless chamber about 10.5 feet by 7.5 feet, 8 feet high, just a little room. And on it, according to the ancient historian, Plutarch, the inscription reads in old Persian characters: "O man, whosoever you are and whencesoever you come, for I know that you will come, I am Cyrus, who won for the Persians their empire. Do not begrudge me this little earth that covers my corpse." So here is Cyrus, and he conquered one of the greatest empires the world had ever seen, and now he's got a little room to show for it, a little limestone room with an inscription on it, that you have to be a scholar to read. And the inscription reminds you of the fleetingness of all human glory.

Well, the Scripture reminds us of that as well, Daniel chapter 2. It speaks of kingdoms that rise and fall, of empires that come and go, of emperors and kings that live and are raised up to incredible glory, and then sink back into the dust from which they came.

Nebuchadnezzar’s Dream

This is the vision and the dream that King Nebuchadnezzar, the first of these great emperors saw. Do you remember the story? Nebuchadnezzar was laying down on his bed, and he was thinking about the future, thinking about what would come, and as he was thinking, his mind turned to perhaps his own empire and perhaps who would follow him as a successor and he fell into maybe a fitful sleep. And while he was sleeping, he saw a vision, a dream, and the dream so terrified him and disturbed him that he could not sleep anymore. And so, he as soon as he could summoned his chief counselors and his magicians and astrologers and dream interpreters and they all came, and they were eager and ready to interpret his dream for him, but he was so eager and determined to have an accurate interpretation to that dream that he said that they must tell him what his dream was before they had the right to interpret it. So it was a two-fold test. They tried to wriggle out of it, but he wouldn't let them move. He said, "You've got to tell me my dream and then I will know that you can interpret it for me." And they said, "Nobody can do this, King. Nobody can read your mind. We don't know what your dream is. We're ready to interpret the dream if you'll tell us what it is, but if you will not tell us the dream how can we interpret it? No king however mighty, however powerful can ask this of his counselors."

And so, Nebuchadnezzar in a rage decreed death for all of the counselors of Babylon, because they could not do these two things, number one, to tell him his dream and number two, to interpret it accurately for him. This was a terrified man, he wanted to know what this dream meant. When Daniel received word, Daniel was a Judean, a Jewish young man. He had already been through the training that the Babylonians offered and he and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah were junior counselors, I believe, at this point. Not full counselors, they'd not been asked to come and stand before the King yet, and they received news, what the king had said. And Daniel said to the king… He got an audience with Nebuchadnezzar and said, "Give me some time, and if you give me some time, I will interpret the King's dream for him." And then he went back and he and his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, they gathered together in an incredibly urgent and passionate prayer meeting. And they prayed. They prayed as if their lives depended on it, because they did and they asked God for a miracle. They said God, "You've got to tell us what this dream is or else we will perish." God was gracious to them and gave to Daniel in particular, a night vision in which he saw the dream, and not only did he see the dream, but he understood the meaning, the significance of that dream, its interpretation.

Daniel Describes and Interprets the Dream

We saw last time what that dream was. Daniel stands before Nebuchadnezzar and after giving credit and praise to God, he says this, beginning in verse 31, "You looked, O King, and there before you stood a large statue, an enormous dazzling statue awesome in appearance. The head of the statue was made of pure gold, its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching a rock was cut out, but not by human hands, it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The wind swept them away without leaving a trace, but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole Earth." And then Daniel went on to interpret the dream, he said, "This was the dream and now we will interpret it to the king. You, O King, are the king of kings, the God of Heaven has given you dominion and power and might and glory. In your hands he has placed mankind and the beasts of the field and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, he has made you ruler over them all, you are that head of gold.After you, another kingdom will rise inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth and finally there will be a fourth kingdom strong as iron, for as iron breaks and smashes everything, and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. Yet, it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw iron mixed with clay. And as the toes were partly iron, and partly clay, so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united any more than iron mixes with clay. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor will it be left to another people, it will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of the mountain but not by human hands, a rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true, and the interpretation is trustworthy."

So here's the dream, it's a dream of a statue, an immense statue. And we've seen in the interpretation, and we talked about last time, that the statue unfolds a chronology, it unfolds history. It starts at the gold head, goes down through the chest and arms of silver, through the belly and thighs of bronze, into the legs of iron and then the feet partly of iron and partly of clay and the toes are mentioned as well. And so, we have traced out human history, we understand that Nebuchadnezzar is the head of gold, he represents the Babylonian kingdom. As we talked about last time, we saw that he was in many respects the Babylonian kingdom. And when he died, it pretty much came to an end.

There were two others that ruled after him, but they did not have his power. And it wasn't long before the kingdom crumbled and fell to the Medes and the Persians, the second kingdom. Chest of arms, chest and arms of silver. The Medes and the Persians, and Cyrus the Great, whose tomb you have printed on the cover of your bulletin, conquered Babylon in 539 and then died 10 years later. Darius the Mede raised the empire to its greatest heights after that and ruled over that region, ancient near east, for 200 years. But they never did control the Greeks on the border. Never could really control them.

And then when the time was full, 4th century BC, 330 or so BC, Alexander the Great came crashing through and destroyed the Persian army and then conquered an area of immense size, 3000 miles from modern Yugoslavia to the Indus River Valley in Pakistan and India. About the distance from Los Angeles to New York. That's what Alexander the Great conquered, never lost a battle. Incredible speed, he conquered the world, but then he died. At the height of his power he was cut off, and his kingdom divided among his four top generals. And they continued on for a while until Rome rose in the west and took over. And so, history is somewhat like a relay race, one empire taking over from the next, as one empire sinks back into the dust from which it came. Now, we covered all this last time. This is just by way of review, but I left unaddressed some details. And there's a great deal of detail given specifically to the feet of the statue, the feet partly of iron and partly of clay with the toes, and of this stone cut out but not by human hands. What is the meaning of this?

And what does this passage teach us about the Kingdom of God? And what does this passage teach us perhaps about the future? Second coming of Christ. We're going to look today at the nature of the Kingdom of God. We're going to look at the triumph of the Kingdom of God, we're going to look at the timing of the Kingdom of God. And then some end time details and perhaps some millennial questions.

Let's begin with the nature of the Kingdom of God and realize that God in this vision is setting up a contrast. The contrast is between the statue, this immense glorious imposing statue and the rock cut out, but not by human hands. It's a contrast. They're being compared one to another. And they're being compared in four senses.

Origin: Human vs. Divine

First, in terms of origin. The origin of the human kingdoms, the human statue is human. Its origin is from the earth, and that is being contrasted by an origin which is divine, a heavenly origin. Now, the form of the statue is that of a human being, the empires represent humanity and all of its immense power and its glory and its strength and its ability, its intellect.

And all of the human empires are patterned after human mind, human lusts, human conception of glory and of power. They all sprang up, therefore, out of human imaginations. Nebuchadnezzar's father, Nabopolassar, was a minor official in the Assyrian empire down in a corner called Chaldea. But he got ambitious. He started to have dreams of grandeur and glory, started to think about a kingdom, even an empire. And he started to come up along the Tigris and the Euphrates River and conquered the Assyrian empire. And he was successful and he committed to his son Nebuchadnezzar his most powerful army and they swept on down through, that's when they conquered Jerusalem and Egypt. Then, in the height of all this, Nabopolassar died and Nebuchadnezzar inherited that kingdom. But where did this kingdom come from? From the mind of Nabopolassar, the imagination, the thoughts, the ambition of a man. Was it any different with Cyrus the Great? Cyrus the Great was an official on the edge of the Babylonian empire, and he started to see the cracks around the edge, he started to see the toppling of the Babylonian empire. And so, the ambition filled his mind, and he started to organize his army and his men and he conquered Babylon. Was it any different with Alexander the Great?

Philip, his father, Philip of Macedon began to have dreams of glory, but he also just like Nabopolassar cut off before he could realize them. Alexander the Great picked up that baton of ambition and started to conquer. And so, it was with the Roman Senate, and Caesar's as well. The origin of human kingdoms is human imagination and pride and ambition. The origin is human, but the stone has an origin that is supernatural. It is a stone cut out but not by human hands; it has no human origin. Verse 34, "While you were watching a rock was cut out, but not by human hands." This missile, which is going to come in and destroy human government, comes from heaven, not from Earth, it has a heavenly origin, not an earthly origin. Now, some commentators believe this refers to the virgin birth of Christ. That Jesus was born without a human father, and it may be, but I think it means far more than that. I think it just talks about the Kingdom of God and how its origin was not human, but divine. Do you remember when Jesus Christ stood before the Roman procurator, Pontius Pilate? And do you remember what the charge was against him? That he was a king, a rabble-rouser trying to organize a kingdom.

Well, Jesus couldn't rightly deny that he was a king, he is a king, he's in fact the king of kings. But he needed to show Pontius Pilate that he was thinking about his kingdom all wrong. Do you remember what he said? He said, "My kingdom is…" What? "Not of this world." "My kingdom is not of this world." That's John 18:36. He said, "If it were, my servants or my followers would have fought to prevent me from being handed over to the Jews. But as it is my kingdom is from another place." Do you understand what Jesus is saying there? He's saying, if I were an earthly king, I would be leading a revolt with swords, you see, that's the way that earthly kings conquer. All who draw the sword will what? Perish by the sword. One sword comes along and devours the next. I'm setting up a kingdom not by that way. "My kingdom is not of this world.” Pilot says, "So you are a king? And Jesus responds, "You are right in saying that I am a king. In fact, for this reason I came into the world, to testify to the truth." Jesus is saying that his kingdom gets built with truth. When people hear the truth, they come into the kingdom. It does not get built with a sword.

Now, since the Emperor Constantine declared himself to be a Christian in the 3rd century, the church got a little confused about this, and so it adopted the sword and began to advance by the sword. You've heard of the Crusades, haven't you? And it got confused about the relationship between church and state. It took the Baptists to set them straight on that many years later. This confusion between church and state, but the kingdom of Jesus Christ does not advance by military power, or by political power. We get confused about this, we get wrapped up in the politics, we should get involved as American citizens, but realize, the Kingdom of Heaven does not advance that way. It advances by truth, by the preaching of the Gospel, by people who come to faith in Christ. And then we have a salt and light effect on society, it's true, and we must not neglect that. My kingdom is not of this world, said Jesus.

Essence: Earthly vs. Heavenly

Also, it speaks of the essence of the kingdom. What is the essence of human kingdoms? They are built of earthy stuff, aren't they? They're built of stuff you can find lying around on the earth. If you dig hard enough, you can find them.

Each phase of the statue, gold, silver, bronze, iron, where do they come from? Up out of holes in the ground, up out of the earth. Job testified to this. Job 28:1-2, "There is a mine for silver and a place where gold is refined. Iron is taken from the earth, and copper is smelted from its ore." He covers all four materials. They come up out of the earth, they're earthy. And I mentioned last time, so is the Tower of Babel. It was built of clay, thoroughly baked, and it rose supposedly to heaven, but remember what God had to do, he said, "Let us go down and see this great tower they're building. They haven't even come close to heaven, they're building up from the earth, but they'll never make it." Human ambition soars, but not that high. You can never reach heaven by earthy means.

And the feet of clay testifies to this as well. Have you ever heard of that expression, about someone's feet of clay? It means their... Perhaps their Achilles heel or their weakness. The thing that's going to destroy them, or their point of weakness. Well, ours is our humanity, our mortality, our sinfulness. It says in Genesis 2:7, "The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being." Paul picks up on this in 1 Corinthians 15:47 and said, "The first man is from the earth." Earthy, he's earthy. "But the second man is from Heaven," spiritual.

And then after the fall, after sin entered the earth in Genesis 3:19, God said, "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken, for dust you are and to dust you shall return." And so, the statue rises up out of the ground and then it falls back down into the dust. All that's left of Cyrus the Great is the photo you see on the cover there, that's it, that's all he's got left. And actually, there's nothing inside. You know, they... At some point, hundreds of years ago, they plundered it. It's just an empty room with an inscription that no one can read. That's what's left of Cyrus the Great and all that he accomplished. But the Kingdom of God is made up of supernatural essence. God does not build his kingdom by earthy means or earthy materials. I think we get confused about this in terms of money too. We think more money means more kingdom, it doesn't work that way. And for... Or that commercial, "There are some things that money can't buy, everything else put on a credit card." Well, you can't do that at church. We're not set up for that. Not yet. You can't buy the Kingdom of Heaven.

Remember when Simon tried to buy the gift of the Holy Spirit, Peter said, "May your money perish with you, because you thought you could buy the gift of God with money." The Kingdom of Heaven doesn't advance that way. Now, money is important, very important. Jesus taught a great deal about money, so did Paul. It actually shows where your heart is. But God does not build his kingdom with earthy means, but rather with supernatural means and materials. And therefore, all of us who are presently earthy... Aren't we? Don't you feel your earthiness? The older you are, the more you'll feel it. Now, some of you are laughing, but you don't know anything, you're only 38. I'm feeling it as it is. There are some things I used to be able to do, I can't do anymore. And it goes on, we're earthy, we're decaying. And therefore, it says in 1 Corinthians 15:50, "I declare to you, brothers, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." We must be transformed and we're transformed first by the hearing of the imperishable Word of God, and secondly, by the glorification, the new resurrection body that only he can give. The Kingdom of God is not perishable.

Duration: Temporary vs. Eternal

Thirdly, the comparison is in terms of duration, temporary verses eternal. All human empires are temporary. Each empire had its first day and its last day. Because they are human, their mighty leaders eventually sink back into the dust and each empire is superseded by another human empire. Some day, if the Lord tarries, America will sink back down. Is that shocking to you? We are God's people, so we think. No, we're not. The church are God's people. Our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control will transform our lowly bodies, that's earthy bodies, into his glorious body. That's our citizenship. Don't hold on to earthly kingdoms too tightly, even this one will sink down. But God's kingdom is eternal.

Look at verse 44, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms, and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever." This is ascribed to Jesus Christ, the Messiah. His kingdom will never end. It says in Isaiah 9:6-7, "For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government," interesting word, "the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this."

And so, when Gabriel came to tell Mary of the birth of her son, this is what Gabriel said, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favor with God. 31 You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. 32 He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, 33 and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end."  The Kingdom of Jesus Christ will never end. The Kingdom of Jesus Christ has already begun, and it's been growing for 2000 years. I'm going to talk about that in a moment, and it will never end. The final fourth point of comparison is that of power. Earthly kingdoms have power, a great deal by our standards, but they are nothing compared to God. And every one of them is vulnerable, but the Kingdom of God is unconquerable.

Each kingdom is vulnerable, for example, to the ravages of a more technologically advanced army. When Cyrus the Great came through, his army was just better trained and more able to conquer than that of the Babylonians. Alexander the Great brought a kind of warfare that no one had ever seen before, with the use of cavalry, he conquered armies 10 times his size by just knowing how to fight. And then there were the Roman legions with their discipline and their structure and their organization. Every human empire has limited power, also vulnerable to the ravages of time, and internal decadence. How did Rome fall? Internal corruption, sin, drunken feasts.

Also vulnerable to the law of succession. Who will be next, a wise man or a fool? Listen to what King Solomon said about this. He said, "I hated life, because the work that is done under the sun was grievous to me. All of it is meaningless. A chasing after the wind. I hated all the things I had toiled for under the sun because I must leave them to the one who comes after me, and who can say whether he will be a wise man or a fool, yet he will have control over all the work into which I have poured my effort and skill under the sun. This too is meaningless." How many kings have hoped for a prince, a son who would be worthy, a worthy successor, and he ended up to be weak, ineffective, given to luxury, for example, not a good leader. But not so Christ's kingdom, Christ reigns forever, and he will never be taken from his throne. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor will be left to another people.

It will crush all those kingdoms, and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. John Wesley in the 1700s knew the King of England. This was a time when England was just coming into its ascendancy and its power. Queen Victoria's reign just lay ahead. It was just in the middle of the building of its empire, and John Wesley knew the King. And he had a time to stand with the King one time, and this is what he said. "I was in the Robe Chamber, adjoining to the House of Lords when the King put on his robes. His brow was much furrowed with age and quite clouded with care. And is this all the world can give even to a king? All the grandeur it can afford, a blanket of ermine around his shoulder so heavy and cumbersome he can scarce move under it? A huge heap of borrowed hair with a few plates of gold and glittering stones upon his head. Alas, what a bubble is human greatness and even this will not endure." So we've seen the nature of the Kingdom of God.

What of its triumph? Well, when the stone cut out but not by human hands smashes the feet, it gives rise to an instantaneous victory. In the dream, in the vision, the statue is smashed immediately. All the rival kingdoms are destroyed and a wind blows them away. But then there's a sense of growth of the kingdom as well. In verse 35, "the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth." So which is it? Is it an instantaneous victory or smashing or is it a gradual growth to fill the whole earth? Could it be both? And could it be even in reverse order that the gradual growth gives way to the final smashing at the second coming of Christ? That's what I believe.

If you read the commentators on this, they are divided. Is the smashing of the stone the first coming of Christ, or is it the second coming of Christ, which is it? You pay your money, you make your choice. I don't think that we should make a choice. I think it's both. Jesus Christ came and the key to the interpretation of this is, what is the rock? The rock is the Kingdom of God, it is the kingdom. And in order to understand the kingdom, we must look to the New Testament.

Now, what is the timing of this kingdom? We get two clues about the timing of the kingdom. In verse 34 it says, "while you were watching a rock was cut out but not by human hands and it struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay..." So the feet give us an indication of the timing. There is a chronology here, isn't there? From gold to silver to bronze to iron and to the feet, partly of iron and partly of clay. So there's a flow of history, and at that point the rock comes. There's also a clear statement from Daniel in verse 44, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed." Now, what does it mean in the time of those kings? Now, people who believe that Jesus will reign for a thousand years on earth point to the 10 toes.

By the way, it doesn't say there's 10, but we have to assume that the statue had 10, it's a human being and most human beings have 10 toes. So there were 10 toes, so they assumed. And so, could it be that there's going to be 10 final kings in the final form of the Roman Empire, and in the time of those kings Jesus Christ will return? So, it's looking to something yet future, so the interpretation goes. There's a mingling together of clay and iron. We didn't see that in the time of Jesus' first coming. No, the Roman Empire was strong, Caesar Augustus, he was their greatest strength of power. That was the legs of iron, but we get a final form of the Roman Empire, yet to come. And so, this whole interpretation goes this way. They're looking at Europe, they're waiting to see the 10 member nations and when the 10 nations are together, they're going to have a consortium or consolidation of power and those 10 kings will give their power to the anti-Christ, so the interpretation goes. And in those days, the stone will come. It's the second coming of Christ. That's how the interpretation goes. Well, I think that may be true. But if you're reading this, the most natural way to understand "in the time of those kings," is the kings we've been talking about, the kings of gold, the kings of silver, the kings of bronze and the kings of iron.

So, in the era when Gentiles are ruling Jerusalem, in the times of the Gentiles, in those days, God will set up a kingdom. I think that's a safer interpretation.

Now, what does this Kingdom of Heaven entail? What do we learn about the Kingdom of Heaven? Well, there are some lessons that we get from the New Testament. I printed them there in your bulletin. And if we follow this, I think we'll understand how to interpret Daniel chapter 2. First, the Kingdom of God made its appearance when Christ came the first time. That is a key point. The kingdom came when Jesus came the first time. How do we know that? Well, numerous ways. What was Jesus' first preached message? Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near or at hand. Kingdom of Heaven is, we say, near, does that mean yet to come? Well, it is yet to come, but it's also here now. He said, "The Kingdom of God is in your midst, among you." He also said, "If I drive out demons by the Spirit of God, then the Kingdom of God has come upon you." Did Jesus drive out demons by the Spirit of God? Yes. Then the Kingdom of God has come upon us. It's already here.

Secondly, people can enter the Kingdom of Heaven now, so the kingdom is not near the future. You can enter the kingdom today, now. How do you do that? Well, in Matthew 5:3, it says, "Blessed are the poor in spirit…" The spiritual beggars, for what? "Theirs will be the Kingdom of Heaven?" No. "Theirs the Kingdom of Heaven," now. If you're a spiritual beggar, if you are poor in spirit, you get the Kingdom of Heaven through faith in Christ, now, today. Jesus in his day spoke of some that were getting converted and he was speaking to the Pharisees, the self-righteous Pharisees and they were always looking down on other people. And it says in Matthew 21:31, Jesus said to them, "I tell you the truth, the tax collectors and the prostitutes are entering the Kingdom of God ahead of you," that settles it to me. You can enter the kingdom now. The Kingdom of God is here now, and has been for 2000 years.

Next, however, the Kingdom of God awaits a yet future fulfillment when Christ will reign on the Earth. How do you know that? Do you ever pray the Lord's prayer? What does it say about this in the Lord's Prayer? Thy Kingdom, what? Come. Let your kingdom come and then it gives an explanation after that, your will be done on earth, as it is in heaven. Is that the truth now, is that the case? Do you look around in this world and see Christ's will being done or God's will being done on earth in the same way it's done up in heaven?  Do I even need to ask? Absolutely not. And so we're praying for it. O Lord Jesus, come and be king here, down here on earth, so that we can see it.

Next, and this is a key step, Christ is ruling over the Earth now for the benefit of his advancing kingdom, and I mean over governments. He's ruling over governments, ruling over Eastern European governments to bring down the Berlin Wall, he's ruling over Russia, he's ruling over China, and over the US, he's ruling over all the kings of the Earth. He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He is sitting at the right hand of God, while God makes his enemies a foot stool for his feet. It's going on now. It's not yet future, it's happening now. Ephesians 1:20-22 says this, that God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age, but also in the one to come and God placed all things under his feet, and appointed him to be head over everything for the Church. What does that word "for the church" mean? It means he's ruling over everything for your benefit. He's causing all things to work together for good for you, for the church. And that includes human governments. He has that kind of power, and he exercises that power.

Next, it says the Kingdom of God advances forcefully through the world, growing bigger and bigger all the time. The Kingdom of God is getting bigger and bigger all the time. Isn't that what happened to the rock? Remember the rock cut out but not by human hands, what happened to it? It got bigger and bigger and bigger until it filled the whole earth. Jesus spoke of this advance, Matthew 11:12 says, "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing and forceful men lay hold of it." The Kingdom of Heaven has been advancing from the time of John the Baptist until now, it's moving out, it's moving on. Jesus spoke of this in his parables, "the Kingdom of Heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and planted in his garden. Though it is smallest of all your seeds, yet when it grows, it becomes a garden plant, the largest of all garden plants, so big that birds can come and make nests in the branches." Is that not the principle of growth from small to big? It starts small, it gets bigger. And then the next parable teaches something very important about that growth.

The Kingdom of God is like yeast, which a woman took and hid into a large amount of flour until it permeated through the whole dough. It's a secret growth. It's a kind you can't see, you're not going to read about it in the New York Times. They're not going to talk about it on CNN, you're not going to see it in 20/20 or Nightline. It's secret permeating growth, and yet it is the story of human history. It is what God has been waiting for 2000 years, the growth of his kingdom. It's going on now.

Next step, kings and kingdoms are frustrated and defeated if they try to stop this advance. This is Psalm 2, you remember? Remember Psalm 2? "Why do the nations conspire and the peoples plot in vain? The kings of the earth take their stand and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against his Anointed one. 'Let us break their bonds and shake off their chains,' they say… The one enthroned in Heaven laughs…and he terrifies them in his wrath, saying, 'I have installed my king on Zion, my holy hill.'" You can't beat him. You might as well join him. That's what he's saying. Therefore, you kings, be wise and be warned you rulers of the earth, Psalm 2, "serve the Lord with fear and rejoice with trembling. Kiss the Son, lest he be angry with you and his wrath flare up in a moment and you be destroyed in your way.

What is that saying? It's saying, Kings of the Earth, go ahead and be king of Turkmenistan and President of the United States and whatever, but don't fight me, because if you do, you're going to destroy yourself. Your kingdom is going to sink back into the dust anyway, you already know that, but you will lose your soul, do not fight me. The Kingdom of Heaven advances. My kingdom is not of this world. It's advancing spiritually not by the sword, but by the preached Word and nothing can stop it. At the second coming of Christ, the final form of human governments will be assembled and smashed forever. This is the final smashing. And I think it's also in view, in the vision of Daniel 2.

Now, in order to get this full story, you have to read Daniel 7. We'll talk more about it when we get there, and Revelation 19. But they are the kings of the earth, they're assembled together at a place called Armageddon, and the anti-Christ is there ruling over them, leading them, and Jesus Christ comes on a white horse with the armies of heaven, they're all clad in white. And we'll be there. It says in 1 Thessalonians 4 that we're going to meet the Lord in there, if we're still alive, we will go up and meet him and come down to do that battle, I believe. If you've died, you'll be there too. The wind will come in with him, and he's going to come and destroy, militarily destroy, those governments. And that is the wind that will blow those governments away and they'll be left with no trace, nothing left, but Jesus Christ, gone forever.

Now, I'm not going to talk now about that coalition of 10 kings. We'll get to that in Daniel 7. That's a better place. Why? Because do you see the number 10 here in Daniel 2? Now, I know you say there's 10 toes. Well, let's wait until Daniel 7. It's a better place to discuss the 10 kings. But what I say is there may well be a future final form of the Roman Empire mingled together with peoples and yet the strength of the Roman Empire and in that final day, Jesus will come. Let's talk more about that in Daniel 7. The final point is, at this point, Christ's kingdom will come and God's will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Revelation 11:15, the kingdom of this world has become the Kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ and he will reign forever and ever.

Now, what applications can we make about what we've learned here in Daniel chapter 2? First of all, this is a deep chapter, isn't it? We've been three weeks in it. We could spend more, but we're going to go on next week to Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, the burning fiery furnace. So let's learn some lessons from Daniel chapter 2. First, human kingdoms exhaust themselves for nothing. Did you hear that? Well, that's a quote from Scripture, Habakkuk 2:13-14. "Has not the Lord Almighty determined that the people's labor is only fuel for the fire, that the nations exhaust themselves for nothing? For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. Habakkuk 2:13-14 put together, that's Daniel 2. The nations exhaust themselves for nothing. God's kingdom is going to fill the whole world and nothing can stop it.

Alright, what application? Can I urge you, don't build an earthy kingdom? Don't waste your time building earthy things that aren't going to last. Can I ask you as stewards of your time and of your money and of your life, think about what you're building with your life? And ask, is it going to be swept away like chaff or is it going to last for all eternity? Think about it. How are you living your life? What are you spending your time on? Are you building a kingdom that will last or will it be swept away?

Secondly, all human glories is nothing. Can I urge you, don't be impressed by anything human? Don't be impressed by the mighty achievements of America, the skyscrapers of Chicago, the technological advances of Silicon Valley, the jets of McDonnell Douglas, the financial acuity of NASDAQ or Wall Street, don't be impressed by these things. They're all chaff, that's going to be blown away. Don't yearn for a business as successful as Microsoft. Don't yearn for a body that looks like Sylvester Stallone's, don't yearn for things that don't matter. All human glories is nothing.

And therefore, thirdly, Christ's kingdom, God's kingdom is everything. Realize that nothing in this world matters as much as entering the Kingdom of Christ. How do we know that? Well, Jesus said so. What would it profit a man to what, gain the whole world? Isn't that empire language? What would it gain... What would it profit if you conquered even the whole world? Has any one man ever conquered the whole world? No, there's never been an emperor that took over the whole world. And Jesus said, even if you did, it would be worth less than your soul. Imagine you're Napoleon standing on the edge of hell. I don't know whether he's in heaven or hell, I'm not making a pronouncement, it's not my place. But suppose you were Napoleon and you were asked, would you trade your European empire now for your eternal soul, what would he say? What would you say in a second? Would you hold any part back? Maybe Austria, that beautiful mountain... No, I wouldn't hold it back, I'd give it all. What would a man give in exchange for his soul? Can I ask you to look inward, what are you trading for your eternal soul?

Have you entered the Kingdom of Jesus Christ? And those of you that have, are you putting these kinds of questions to your American fellow workers and people around you who are losing their souls for earthly things? Are you being the evangelist God's calling you to be? To give them a warning that they're building their lives on sand, and it's all going to get swept away.

Final application, 2 Peter 3:11-12, "since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be?" I'm quoting Scripture now. "Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming." Three things that he's telling you to do, live a holy and godly life, look forward to the day of God, and speed its coming. Live a holy and godly life by not being polluted by this world. Look forward to the day of God by hope and put your yearning and your hope and your ambition in the day of God, and speed its coming.

How do you do that? By evangelism, by doing the work of the Kingdom. Next Sunday afternoon at 4:45, you'll have an opportunity to be trained in how to do outreach and evangelism. Whether you come to that training time or not, you will still be held accountable for evangelism on Judgment Day. Do you understand that?  Whether you come to that training or not, you will still be asked by God about witnessing opportunities you had. We, the staff, are making available to you a chance to be trained and to be exhorted and helped in outreach and witnessing. Whether you come or not, however, you will still be held accountable. Look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. Please close with me in prayer.

Please open your Bibles to Daniel 2, and we'll begin our study in that chapter right now. Now, in Daniel 2, we see traced out for us in an amazing way, the history of the world. In the 1770s, just as our country was beginning to think about independence before the Declaration of Independence was signed, there was a professor named Alexander Tyler, who looked at America and looked at governments, and made some comments about government and said some amazingly insightful things. He is speaking of democracy and he said,

"A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves money from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy followed by dictatorship."

That was in the 1770s.

He then went on to look at human history and at the governments that had come, and he noted that the average age of the world's greatest civilizations was about 200 years. We're past that, we're about 225. And it could be that we are seeing fulfilled in our midst, the crumbling of our society and our civilization, we can pray against it, and we should be salt and light so that it doesn't happen. But Tyler noticed that all great civilizations follow the same track. They move from bondage to spiritual faith, from spiritual faith to great courage, from great courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependency and from dependency back into bondage again.

So there's a course that it follows like a bell curve like that. Now, I'll leave it to you to decide where you think we are in that but I think it's been amazingly insightful. But the point that Tyler is making is the same thing to the point that Daniel 2 makes that all human governments, all human empires will come to an end, they rise, they reach their peak and then they fall and then another empire, another era, comes and takes over and it rises, reaches its peak, it fades and it dies as well. This is the course of human history. And yet within that every government has had a thirst for eternity, hasn't it? They've all felt like we could be the one that lasts forever.

On September 4th, 1934, the Nazi party concluded its annual Congress at Nuremberg Germany and Adolf Hitler had the following proclamation read. This is what it said, "The German form of life is definitely determined for the next thousand years. There will be no other revolution in Germany for the next 1000 years." The crowd went berserk with joy and started shouting, "Heil Hitler." Twelve years, four months, and eight days later, the Third Reich lay in rubble. It was finished, just 12 years later. And what I'm saying is that there is a hunger and a thirst inside even pagan governments for eternity, and there's only one eternal government and it's set up in prophecy in Daniel 2, the kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Now, today's message is of kingdoms, human kingdoms that rise and fall and of an eternal kingdom that will rise and never fall, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. The deeper issue I believe of Daniel 2, is evangelism, it's evangelistic. I believe, right there that day, that moment, God was reaching out to king Nebuchadnezzar and from that point on through Daniel's record reaching out to us who would come later and read that record. He was reaching out to an arrogant king, a tyrant, in order that he might humble himself before God and come to salvation. And so He reaches out to us in our pride in order that we might be humbled and we might also come to salvation.

Now, the context of Daniel 2, is Daniel 1 and Daniel 2 we're going to be reading today from verses 24-49, and looking at the rest of this chapter. In Daniel 1 we were introduced to the historical context of Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar, mighty emperor king of Babylon, had conquered Jerusalem, he deported some of the vessels from the Temple of Jerusalem, along with some of the high-born youth and they were to be brought into Babylon. Daniel was included among these, and they were to be more or less trained or you could even say brainwashed into the service of the Babylonian empire. And so, Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were brought into that circumstance and we looked at Daniel 1 and saw that Daniel resolved that he would not defile himself with the king's food, and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah also resolved that they would not defile themselves. And God rewarded them and blessed them with physical vigor and health far greater than any of those who were eating the food sacrificed to idols.

And then in the first half of... The last half of Daniel 1 it promised there that Daniel would have a gift of visions, interpreting visions and dreams and he puts that gift to use in the chapter we're looking at today. Then in Daniel 2, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream. And he's so troubled by his dream that he cannot sleep, sleep flees from him, he's terrified by the dream and he is determined that he's going to have an interpretation to that dream. Now, I told you at the time that the Babylonians had a vast system of dream interpretation, they could handle any dream, any vision, any symbol they knew how to do it. Well, the king didn't believe in any of that, he wanted a sure and certain interpretation and so he called all the wise men before him and he set before them an incredible test, two-fold test. Number one, that his wise men tell him what his dream was. And number two, that they then go on interpret the dream, they had to earn the right to interpret that dream.

They wriggled, and they squirmed, and they could not get out of it, because the king was determined that they do both, not just one. And so he threatened them that they would be pulled literally limb from limb, their houses reduced to a pile of rubble, and that their memory be execrated in Babylon. And in that context, Daniel steps forward and goes to the king, and asks for time that he might interpret the dream. Then he goes back, and he fasts, and prays with his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. And God graciously gives him the revelation. He tells him what the dream is and He tells him what it means. Now, all of you have been in suspense for two weeks, I know, wondering, "What is the dream?" And today, we're going to see it. Let's begin reading at Daniel 2:24 and continue on.

"Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, 'Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king and I will interpret his dream for him.' Arioch took Daniel to the king at once and said, 'I have found a man among the exiles from Judah, who can tell the king what his dream means.' The king asked Daniel, also called Belteshazzar, 'Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?' Daniel replied, 'No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he has asked about, but there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries. He has shown king Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come. Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed, are these: As you were lying there, O king, your mind turned to things to come. And the revealer of mysteries showed you what is going to happen. As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation, and that you may understand what went through your mind. You looked, O king, and there before you, stood a large statue. An enormous, dazzling statue, awesome in appearance. The head of the statue is made of pure gold. Its chest and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, and its feet partly of iron and partly of baked clay. While you were watching, a rock was cut out, but not by human hands. It struck the statue on its feet of iron and clay, and smashed them. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold were broken to pieces at the same time and became like chaff on a threshing floor in the summer. The winds swept them away without leaving a trace, but the rock that struck the statue became a huge mountain and filled the whole earth. This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king. You, O king, are the king of kings. The God of Heaven has given you dominion, and power, and might, and glory. In your hands, He has placed mankind, and the beasts of the field, and the birds of the air. Wherever they live, He has made you ruler over them all. You are that head of gold. After you, another kingdom will rise inferior to yours. Next, a third kingdom, one of bronze, will rule over the whole earth. And finally, there will be a fourth kingdom, strong as iron, for as iron breaks and smashes everything, and as iron breaks things to pieces, so it will crush and break all the others. Just as you saw that the feet and toes were partly of baked clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. Yet it will have some of the strength of iron in it, even as you saw, iron mixed with clay. And as the toes were partly iron and partly clay so this kingdom will be partly strong and partly brittle. And just as you saw the iron mixed with baked clay, so the people will be a mixture and will not remain united any more than iron mixes with clay. In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed, nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever. This is the meaning of the vision of the rock cut out of a mountain, but not by human hands. A rock that broke the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold to pieces. The great God has shown the king what will take place in the future. The dream is true and the interpretation is trustworthy.' Then king Nebuchadnezzar fell prostrate before Daniel and paid him honor and ordered that an offering in incense be presented to him. The king said to Daniel, 'Surely your God is the God of gods, and the Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries for you were able to reveal this mystery.' Then the king placed Daniel in a high position and lavished many gifts on him. He made him ruler over the entire province of Babylon, and placed him in charge of all its wise men. Moreover at Daniel's request, the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the Royal Court."

Now in the first section verses 24-30, we have the revealer introduced. And I don't mean Daniel, the true revealer of this dream is God Himself. God is introduced to us in verses 24-30. First, in verse 24, Daniel intercedes and what he does here is he shows incredible compassion. You'll remember that the order had gone out that all of the wise men be executed. Once the dream is revealed to Daniel, one of the first things he does is go and makes sure that the other wise men will not be executed. He shows compassion for them. And he's going to show the very same compassion, I believe later for King Nebuchadnezzar. He's going to show concern for his soul in chapter four, we'll see that. But Daniel's a compassionate man, and he moves out for others. He also has a tremendous amount of confidence. In this verse, in verse 24, he shows confidence. He says, "I will interpret his dream for him." Get me an audience with the king and I'll interpret it. He's confident. Now on what is his confidence based? It's based on the fact that he believes that God has spoken to him. It's based on his faith. God has revealed this dream to him and he knows it well. And so he's confident enough to stand before a tyrant, like Nebuchadnezzar and say, "I've got it, king. I've got the dream and I'm going to interpret it." So, he's confident.

And we also see Daniel's courage. And the source of his courage is the same as the source of his confidence. He knows that God's hand is with him. He's not going to die that day, but rather God is going to exalt Himself, and He's going to lift Himself up. And so we see Daniel's compassion, his confidence, and his courage in verse 24. And in verse 25, Daniel is introduced, and this brings us to a very important principle. Daniel did not have the authority to simply walk into the presence of King Nebuchadnezzar, Arioch had to bring him, and Arioch did bring him, and Arioch's somewhat of an opportunist here. He says, "I have found a man among the exiles from Judah, who can tell the king what his dream means," it's something like he did. Give me some extra points, king because I found Daniel. Now he's about to do something amazing, but don't forget me here. That's the way it works in courts. You're always jockeying for position, trying to pull yourself up by your bootstraps, that's Arioch. But I think it's still established as a principle. Daniel could not have simply walked into the king's presence without an introduction.

Arioch was the head executioner, the chief executioner for the king. And so it was not an accident that it was Arioch that went to Daniel in particular. There's a link therefore between Arioch and Daniel, and Arioch has the authority to bring Daniel right into the king's presence. What is the principle here? Well, if you need an introduction into the presence of an earthly king, how much more do you need an introduction to the presence of the King of heaven Himself? We can't simply walk in there on our own. We have no right to do so. Do we have such an introduction into God's presence? Oh yes, we do. His name is Jesus Christ. It says in Romans 5:1-2, "Therefore since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained introduction," is the Greek word, "into this grace in which we now stand." Introduction, we are able now to walk in to God's very presence and speak to him. Without Jesus Christ you would not be welcome. But with Jesus Christ you are welcome any time. And so there is an introduction that Arioch works for Daniel.

Thirdly, in verse 26, we see Daniel interrogated. The king says, "Are you able to do what no one else could do? Can you tell me my dream and give me the interpretation?" So, he interrogates him. By the way, how would you have felt at that moment? Just put yourself in Daniel's position standing there before this king. Do you think that Nebuchadnezzar had a humble throne or a mighty lofty throne? Well, you can imagine it was as big as he could make it. He was an intimidating man. And so there you are, just a humble Judean refugee standing before the king of all the Earth, the king of kings, he's called. And you're about to answer this question, what an interrogation, "Are you able to tell me what I saw in my dream and interpret it?" He is interrogated. And now Daniel does the introducing. Daniel's been introduced, but now he's going to do some introducing. O king, meet your maker. I want to introduce you to the God of Heaven. And he does that in verses 27-30. And he does it in four ways.

Evangelistic Leveling

First, with evangelistic leveling. Now what I mean by this is that you must remove human pride, all human conceit in order to see God. If you're filled up with yourself, filled up with your ego, and what you can do, you will never see God. And so a true Evangelist, you want to be a witness, you must remove human pride. The Gospel removes human pride. It's a leveler. Every valley shall be raised up, but every mountain and hill shall be what? Made low. There needs to be a leveling. And so, Daniel does that in verse 27. He says, "No wise man, enchanter, magician or diviner can explain to the king the mystery he's asked about." The answer is not in human capability. There's no one who can do what you have asked to be done. Now, Nebuchadnezzar, I think he knows that in reference to his dream interpreting wise men. He doesn't trust them. That's why he wants this additional step, of you tell me the dream and give me the interpretation. So he doesn't trust them, but he still does trust in human pride and human ability, doesn't he? Whose pride and whose ability does he trust in? His own. And he's not thoroughly humbled even at the end of this chapter. We're going to see in chapter 3, when he builds a statue probably to himself and then on in chapter 4, how his pride has a way to go, but God is beginning to chop that tree down, even in this chapter. Evangelistic leveling.

Evangelistic Worship

Secondly, evangelistic worship. I really believe that those of us who feel that we are called, and we are all called to be witnesses for Jesus Christ. We might feel afraid to go witness, but I have found that fear in witnessing is removed, if I simply go and worship God in front of unbelievers. If I just speak about a God who created heaven and earth, a God who is gracious and merciful, who is holy and righteous, but who has provided salvation through Jesus Christ. I'm just worshipping God in front of these people, and whether they come along and worship or not, I have honored God in their presence. It takes fear away. And so that's in effect what Daniel does. He just stands and worships God in front of Nebuchadnezzar. "There is a God in heaven," he says in verse 28, "who reveals mysteries." No man can do this, what you have asked, but there is a God who can. He reveals mysteries and He has shown king Nebuchadnezzar what will come in days to come.

Now, it's beautiful when God's power is lifted up and human power made low, people get saved. People get saved. And I think that's what's going to happen in Nebuchadnezzar. God is a revealer of mysteries so deep that no human wisdom could ever see to their bottom. This is the way God is. And it's beautiful how Daniel, just like Joseph before him, gives honor to God for the interpretation of the dream. Remember how Joseph did the same thing before Pharaoh. No, Pharaoh, I can't interpret your dream but there is a God who can and He has revealed the answer to me. He does the same thing, the same humble spirit is in both of them.

Evangelistic Miracle

And then the third step is an evangelistic miracle. Back in the early days of the church, the apostles did mighty miracles to gain a hearing for the Gospel and it seems that this era as well, the time of Daniel was a time of mighty miracles. Now, God still does amazing things. God can break the laws of nature any time He chooses. He made them but He's not bound by them. He can break them any time He chooses. And so He does, but at this point He does a miracle and the miracle is not similar to walking on water or any of the other, the healings that Jesus did. It's a miracle of knowledge. Supernatural knowledge, but that can be enough. You remember Jesus before the woman at the well. What was it that broke through that woman? Wasn't it Jesus' supernatural knowledge of her life? He just knew things about her, that she'd been married all those times and the one... The man that she was living with at that point was not her husband. He knew these things and He'd never met her.

Supernatural knowledge kicks in here, in verse 28 and 29, "Your dream and the visions that pass through your mind, as you lay in your bed are these. As you were lying there, O king your mind turned to things to come." The future is secret to us, but God knows it completely. Our thoughts are secret to us, but God knows them completely and that's the miracle that Daniel does right here. Psalm 139 says, "Oh Lord, you have searched me and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise," listen to this, "You perceive my thoughts from afar. Before a word is on my tongue, you know it completely, O Lord." God knows my thoughts and the future, even my own future, the words I'm about to speak. This is a miracle, amazing. Daniel told the king what he was thinking about as he laid on his bed.

Now, I made this point two weeks ago. What do you think about as you lay on your bed? What do you think about while you're driving? What do you think about while you're watching television? What do you think about while you're reading? What do you think about? God sees it all, and who may ascend the hill of the Lord? He who has clean hands and a what? Pure heart. God sees it all, there's nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. This is God, He's very invasive this way. He created your brain and your ability to think and He knows your thoughts, He knows mine as well. Is that a motivation for holy thinking? I hope so. The king is searched, his mind is searched by God, and Daniel's about to reveal it.

Evangelistic Humility

And then fourthly, we see evangelistic humility. Verse 30, "As for me, this mystery has been revealed to me, not because I have greater wisdom than other living men, but so that you, O king, may know the interpretation, and that you may understand what went through your mind." This is the second time that he's made it clear that he does not know the interpretation. Very humble. And I think it's interesting that he says that the whole purpose here is for you, king. This whole thing is for you, so that you may know what went through your mind. Now, we know that there are others that were standing there that heard it too, and they were amazed, and we who come later, who read the account of Daniel, we can be amazed, and God had all of this in mind, but at this particular moment, the focus is on the king. "He has shown king Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in days to come." Now let's stop and take stock of what's happened up to this point. God has removed all the charlatans and the fools, remember? The Babylonian wise men, the magicians, the enchanters, all the charlatans, they've been removed. They couldn't do it. The stage was cleared, and then God's man came forward and stood right in that center stage, but he didn't stand for his own honor and glory, but for God and for God alone. And then he revealed that introducer. That revealer of mysteries. He introduced Him to king Nebuchadnezzar.

Now, in the next section, verses 31-36, Daniel reveals the dream, and it really comes in three sections. First, the statue is described, then the statue is destroyed, and then the stone is exalted. Those are the three phases of this dream.

The Statue Described

First, the statue described. Now, on the cover of your bulletin, you have a beautiful picture. I have no idea if that's what the statue looked like, I was just looking for something, and Jason found it and we put it on there. It's black and white, so you can't see the different colors. Did it look like that? Who among us can say? I don't really know. But it's an immense statue. "You looked, O king, and there before you, stood a large statue." And descriptive words are given to this statue. It's a large statue, enormous actually. The language is effusive in the size of the statue, it's almost like a skyscraper, 50-story building in the middle of a plain, flat plain. And so perhaps Nebuchadnezzar, in his dream, saw himself walking up and just looking at this immense thing. It took his breath away, it was so huge. And not only was it huge, but it was dazzling, it was bright, it shined in his eyes with light, brilliant light. Maybe the sun was glistening off of these precious metals. It was a dazzling, breathtakingly radiant structure.

And it was awesome, it says. It was terror-inducing, it made you feel afraid as you looked at it. He was terrified by it. It's an immense statue, so he describes the statue, and as you look at the statue, it's interesting, there's a descent of metals. The head is gold, and the chest and arms are of silver, and the belly and the thighs are made of bronze, and then the legs are iron, and then the feet partly iron and partly baked clay. And as you notice, there's a descent in value. Start with gold, the most precious of the metals, priced today at $270 per ounce, and then, down below at the next level, is silver, only $4.70 an ounce, today's market price. I couldn't find a market price for bronze, and iron be even less. So as they go from head to toe, they go from more valuable to less valuable, and also from more dense to less dense, so the thing really is top-heavy. You've got a head of gold and all the way down to these little feet of clay. It just seems like it's ready to topple. And yet, as the metals go on, they get tougher and stronger, don't they?

You'd never want a sword of gold in a battle. I mean, it would look spectacular, but in the first strike, it would just bend. Gold is soft, it's dense, but soft, it's not good for a sword. So also with silver, you'd never have a silver sword, but a bronze sword, now, that's different. Bronze is tough and strong, and so the Greeks actually did have bronze swords, but how much more powerful is an iron sword? Eventually steel would come in, the hardest metal that you can find developed. So... And that's made out of iron, so as it goes from top-down, you go from more valuable to less valuable, but from weaker to tougher and stronger. So that's a description of the statue.

The Statue Destroyed

And the statue is destroyed. The destroyer appears, it's a stone cut out, but not by human hands, and it says that it's cut out while you watched. See, while you watched, O king, there was this stone cut out, but not by human hands. I get this image like a mountain, and kind of like these laser things, going...And then there it is, and there's no hand, so I can't do it with hands, and it just flies through the air like a guided missile or something like that. That's the stone cut out, but not by human hands. It has supernatural origin. All the other stuff for the statue has been quarried from the earth, alright. Where does gold come from? Out of a mine, same thing with all the others. Coming up out of the earth, it's rising up out of the earth. But here's this stone, cut out, but not by human hands, it's just supernatural, it doesn't come from the earth. And it comes like a guided missile like one of those... What are they? Cruise missiles. It's just turning and it's heading right for the weak part, right for the feet and down it goes and it strikes the feet of the statue. And the whole thing just collapses. It just collapses like it's made of crystal. And it's just pile of rubble after the stone hits it. And then along comes a wind and it just blows it all away until there's not a piece left, not a shard, not a fragment, not a piece of powder left. It's all gone, but the rock remains. And then as he watched the rock gets bigger, and bigger, and bigger, and fills the whole earth. The stone replaces the statue. The stone enlarges. The stone fills the whole earth. The stone is exalted.

Well, that's the dream. What does it mean? What does it mean? Well, I figure if you can tell the king what the dream was, you're ready to tell him what it means. And that's what Daniel's about to do. But let's summarize what we've seen. Daniel recounts the dream with incredible detail by the way, even involving Nebuchadnezzar. "As you looked O king you saw this and that." So, Daniel has met the first test. Tell me my dream. Now, John MacArthur in preaching through this said, you noticed that Nebuchadnezzar isn't saying anything here, it's because his mouth is hanging open. He is right on, the detail, the meticulous... How does he know? It's because God knows. He already told him how he knows. God has revealed this to Daniel. He's stunned, he's in amazement.

And verse 36, transition, "This was the dream, and now we will interpret it to the king." Just like it's nothing. I can tell you the dream and I can tell you... But he doesn't say 'I', what does he say? 'We'. Who's he thinking about? There is a God in heaven, he's not alone. I know actually God's doing the revealing and I'm just a pipeline, the mouth piece and it flows through me to you. Alright, verses 37-45, we have the revelation explained. Now overall interpretation is that this is human history on a grand scale. This is God stepping back and just looking over centuries and centuries of human history right on to the end of the Roman Empire. It's a chronological account from top to bottom, from head to toe. There's no time information given by the way. He doesn't say how long the head of gold will be or how long the silver phase will last. There's no time information. Does God not know that? Doesn't He know the time? Of course He knows the times. He's just not telling us. And He steadfastly doesn't tell us the times and dates that He's set by His own authority. But instead He gives a sense of order.

And we notice a kind of a devolution rather than evolution, right? From the head of gold down to the feet of clay. Where has man come from? According to Genesis 2, weren't we taken up out of the earth, clay in God's hands, we are clay in the hands of the potter and He fashioned and made us. And then... He breathed His life into Adam. But do you remember what it says in Genesis 3:19, after they sinned, what entered the world with sin? Death, remember. Death entered the world. Romans 5, "Death entered the world through sin". Mortality. And it says in Genesis 3:19, "By the sweat of your brow, you will eat your food." God speaking to Adam, "until you... " What? "Return to the ground since from it you were taken. For dust you are and to dust you shall return."

Don't you see that with the statue? It came up out of the earth and it rose to a height and then it what? Came back down to the earth, down to the very clay. Do you remember the great achievement of human technology in Genesis 11? The Tower of what? Babel, same place, the plain of Shinar, Babylon. And they built a tower, and what was the tower made out of? What were the bricks made out of? Baked clay, thoroughly baked. Do you remember? And it rose up out of the earth and then went back down to the earth. "All men are like grass and all their glory is like the flower the field that rises up and then it withers and dies when the breath of the Lord blows on them." And so it is with human kingdoms.

The Head of Gold: Nebuchadnezzar

Now, the details are pretty precise here. The head of gold is not the Babylonian Empire. No, the head of gold is King Nebuchadnezzar. "You are that head of gold." Now, why do I make a distinction between king Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian Empire? Well, really apart from Nebuchadnezzar there was no Babylonian Empire. He died and within 19 years it was over. No one took his place who was suitable to rule. And so, the Medes and the Persians conquered and... You read the account in Daniel 5, Belshazzar what a fool. Having a feast and a celebration when the Medes and the Persians are outside the walls of Babylon. He should have been mobilizing his forces to fight, instead he's having a drunken feast. Not a worthy man. And what was it that Nebuchadnezzar was thinking about as he laid on his bed? Things to come. Is there going to be somebody to take my place after I die? Will there be a son who will come and rule in my place and do a good job and continue on? Answer, no. You are that head of gold, O king. And after you're done, it's over. And pretty much it was, within two generations. And that was all prophesied as Jason said in Jeremiah 27. You can read it, his grandson and that's it. They will submit to you, your son and your grandson and then it's over. God had it all figured out, "You are that head of gold."

The Chest and Arms of Silver: Medo-Persian Empire

And then the chest and arms of silver were the Medes and the Persians, the Medo-Persian Empire. Now, some have made much of the fact that it's two-sided, we've got two arms, but you run into problems with the Roman Empire. And the thighs of bronze, the same thing. It could be that each of these were divided in two, but I really don't see it. You really have to start to twist history to find it. So we won't even talk about the two-sided aspect. The fact of the matter is, the human body is symmetrical through the nose, alright, it's just the way it is, there's two sides of us. But we're not saying much about the Medes and Persians at this point, although later on in Daniel it says that this beast that represented the Medo-Persian Empire was raised up on one side, so that could refer to one side, the Persians in particular, becoming ascendant over the Medes. The Medo-Persian Empire. Now, Daniel says almost nothing about this. What does he say? He just says, "After you, another kingdom will rise inferior to yours." That's all he says. And actually, the Aramaic, could be translated just lower down on the statue.

He almost gives them no information. And why is that? Well, suppose he knew that within one generation after he was dead, that the Medes and the Persians were going to take over. Would that change the way he had interacted with the Medes and Persians? Oh, you better believe it. He might try some genocide or something. And so God gives him no information, so that history cannot be changed. He knows nothing about the Empire of Silver, but we know it's the Medes and the Persians.

Belly and Thighs of Bronze: the Greek Empire Under Alexander

Now, the next, the belly and thighs of bronze, we're going to find out much more about in Daniel 8. This is the Greek Empire under Alexander the Great. Now, why bronze? Because they did use bronze on the battlefield, bronze helmets, bronze shields, bronze swords and it gleamed and glistened. And we're going to find also out in Daniel 8, the incredible speed of the conquest, how Alexander the Great moved like a leopard with wings across the land, and conquered pretty much the whole earth; everything there was to conquer out to Pakistan to the Indus River, he went, as far as there was to go until his men said, "We want to go home". And he sat down and wept because there was no other place to conquer, that was Alexander the Great. Died at age 32, able to conquer lands but couldn't conquer himself, we'll talk more about him. But this is the Greek Empire.

The Iron: Rome

And after the Greeks come, the Iron Empire, and what was this? It was Rome. And it's interesting that Daniel says the most about this one, "Strong as iron." Incredible strength, and there was never an empire as powerful and as strong as the Roman Empire. Dominant and they crushed, they crushed politically, what God crushed later through the rock of Jesus Christ, and will crush at the second coming of Christ. They crushed all the other kingdoms, they destroyed, totally. There's an account of the Romans and their fight against Carthage, their early rivals; The Punic Wars, they were called. And when they conquered Carthage, they sowed their fields with salt. Why did they sow their fields with salt? So that nothing would ever grow there again, and it hasn't. They leveled countries, they dominated and crushed them, they were strong, and they lasted longer than any other empire in the Western World, this was Rome.

The Feet and Toes of Iron and Clay: See Next Sermon!

Now, what of the feet and toes, partly iron, partly clay. We do not have time for that today, I can assure you, we're going to talk about that next time. Some people believe that there's going to be a final form of the Roman Empire and that the 10 toes represent 10 member nations, 10 kings that will be around at the second coming of Christ. I'm going to get into all that next time, so you should come. See this is like one of these serial things, you remember Batman and Robin and all that next time, we're going to find out more. Alright, the same thing here. I can't get into it, there isn't enough time, but we'll find out more.

The Eternal Kingdom

And then the third aspect is this eternal kingdom in verse 44, he says, "In the time of those kings, the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that will never be destroyed nor will it be left to another people. It will crush all those kingdoms and bring them to an end, but it will itself endure forever." This is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Heaven, it is in direct contrast to the kingdom of earth, it lasts forever and ever, it can never be destroyed. It will crush and destroy all opposition and it will take over the whole world. This is the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Jesus Christ, which was set up in the time of that fourth Empire, the Roman Empire. In the days of Caesar Augustus, when he issued a decree that a census be taken of the entire Roman world, Jesus was born. And so the kingdom came and it's been coming for 2,000 years and it's going to come in a final way. I'm getting ahead of myself, this is what I'm talking about next time. The second coming of Jesus Christ, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ.

Now, in verses 46-49 the rewards are bestowed. First on, Daniel, and he gets the big three. What are the big three? What three things does the world have to offer? Honor, material benefits and power, those three, and Daniel gets all three. Now, if you think Daniel was tested in Daniel 1, with the king's food, this is the real test. Would he maintain his faithfulness to God and his integrity when lavished gifts from a powerful man like Nebuchadnezzar? Says in Proverbs 27:21, "The crucible for silver and the furnace for gold, but man is tested by the praise he receives." Daniel's going to have his greatest test after he receives the power and the wealth and the honor, that king Nebuchadnezzar bestows on him. And it's also bestowed on his friends, verse 49, "At Daniel's request the king appointed Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego administrators over the province of Babylon, while Daniel himself remained at the royal court." Now it's interesting that Daniel has the foresight to lift his friends up as helpers, and he's going to need them. You don't want to stand alone in that pagan court. And so he doesn't, he's got friends to help him.

Furthermore, and even better for Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel has constant access to the king from then on, he remains at the king's Court. And do you think there's a chance that he might have talked to him about the God of Heaven over the next number of years? I think so. God established a witness for King Nebuchadnezzar, but Nebuchadnezzar bestows his highest honors on God. And look what he says in verse 47, "The king said to Daniel, Surely your God is the God of gods and... " the what? "Lord of kings." Is he saying He's my Lord? Not quite. He's beginning to think about it, but he's not there yet, he's not converted yet. Not ready to bend the knee entirely. Now, he does fall prostrate, and this is an incredible thing, that a potentate like him should lay down on his face before a Judean refugee like Daniel, he's being humbled. It's just not hitting the heart yet, and we'll see that in chapter three and chapter four.

Now, what applications can we take out of this chapter? First of all, what does this teach us about God? Well, we can learn about God's foreknowledge. God knows all things before they come to pass, He knows every aspect of human history before a single detail of it comes to pass. Do you realize that the time when this prophecy was given, Rome was barely able to control the seven hills that surrounded it? It was an Etruscan city, nothing was going on there, it was nothing. And if you had said, "I'm going to tell you the most powerful empire in the history of the world. It's going to be Rome." And you'd gone there and said, "Nothing's going on here." "Yes, but it will, it will." God sees it all, details before anything comes to pass. Therefore, fear not, no matter what you read in the newspaper, God is sovereign over all events of human politics, governments and history. He is a King over kings.

Also, understand God's intimate personal knowledge of you. You cannot think a thought unless God reads it entirely and clearly, therefore be pure in heart, be pure in heart. Can I tell you that purity of heart eludes you, apart from Christ? Without Jesus Christ, you will never be pure in heart, but through Jesus Christ, Jesus said, "Blessed are the pure in heart for they will see God." He alone is able to purify your heart, and we see God's sovereign power. Not only does God know human history, He's not just a human history scientist, He's a human history ruler. He rules, He doesn't just know, He rules, He acts, He moves, He affects, He brings up these kingdoms to their height and then lowers them at His right time, orchestrating history like a conductor. Therefore, is God your Lord? Is He ruling your life? Have you brought every aspect of your life under His sovereign control? Are you asking Him, "God, what should I do with my life?"

Right now, we have students, college students, seniors who are at the InterVarsity Urbana Conference, and they're praying about whether they're going to be missionaries or not. They're saying, "God, what should I do with my life?" They are bringing their lives under the sovereign lordship of Jesus Christ. And then finally, God's mercy. All of this is for salvation. God could just crush Babylon, instead, he uses Babylon. He could just crush all of us in our sin, instead He saves us through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. God, exalts His name, and when He exalts His name, people get saved, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, and so we need clear proclamation of a God like this. Go out in the name of a sovereign, powerful God, and proclaim that He is Lord and He is Savior, and do it this week.

We learn also about human frailty and limitation. None of the wise men could do what Daniel did, neither could you. Your own wisdom, and your own power, and your own knowledge will never get you anywhere. You will build with your hands that which rises up from the earth, and in the end, it will sink back down into the dust, it's just the way it is. But, if you build the kingdom of God through the preaching and through spiritual ministry, it will last forever and ever. Human things are limited and frail, but God's things last forever.

And what of history? What I want to say to you is that history has a reason, it has a purpose. It is not emptiness, it is not a story full of sound and fury, signifying nothing, it means something. God is unfolding something here, and it is His kingdom, and He's building it, and it's happening right before us, therefore don't despair, no matter what you see, but understand that God is building His kingdom.

And finally, what does it tell us about Jesus Christ? Well, that He comes to set up a kingdom and you can enter that kingdom. You have, some of you, many of you, entered it already by faith. Realize that Jesus Christ is the King, He is that rock cut out, but not by human hands, and His kingdom will endure forever and ever. Please enter that kingdom, and walk in it by faith. Won't you close with me in prayer?

A mixing together of ordinary everyday things that all of us would experience with supernatural things that none of us have experienced. That really is the essence of incarnation, isn’t it? It is Jesus Christ, God in the flesh. We know the flesh part: he came to help us understand the God part that we might understand deity in human flesh. He came to exalt everyday life. We have with Jesus Christ an example, don’t we? He is our example.

For 30 and some odd years, maybe 33 years, he walked on earth. He did not need to do that in order to shed his blood, to give us an atoning sacrifice, he could have been on the earth for one day and shed his blood and we would have had forgiveness of sins. But he came for more reasons than just give us forgiveness of sins that we might also have an example and that he might walk ahead of us and be our example.

Jesus claimed to be our example in John 13. Jesus washed his disciples’ feet. And you remember when he finished washing the disciples’ feet, he put on his robe and sat down in his place and he said to them, “I have given you an example. As I have done for you so you should do for one another.” So, he claimed to be our example.

The apostles declared that Christ is our example. First Peter 2:21, says, “To this, you were called because Christ suffered for you, giving you an example that you should follow in his steps.” And that phrase, “in his steps,” became very famous. What would Jesus do? Sheldon’s novel, In His Steps, because Jesus gave us an example in everyday life.

The Apostle Paul claimed to be following that example. In 1 Corinthians 11:1, he said, “Follow my example as I follow the example of Christ.” And then in Philippians 2, he wrote, “Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus.” In other words, however, Christ would have thought about certain things, we should also have that same mind as was in Christ.

The Apostle John pushed it right to the extreme when he said that imitation of Christ in this world is required in order to be sure that you’re a Christian. He said in 1 John 2:5-6, “This is how we know that we are in him. Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus walked.” We must follow in his footsteps. We must follow his example.

Now, his life as an example, his life in the flesh began as a baby in Bethlehem, and that is what we are going to look at today in Luke 2. He could have come as a grown man, but he came as a baby, just as we all do, entering the world the same way we do. And Luke 2 gives us a beautiful picture of the beginning of Christ’s life as an example. We have this blending of the supernatural with the natural, and I want you to draw this out and culminate it in the word Emmanuel so that we understand what that means.

My goals today are to highlight the narrative. We are just going to go through it. We are going to draw out those aspects that are natural and those that are supernatural, and then we are going to talk about Emmanuel.

I want to challenge you to marvel at Emmanuel. I want you to meditate on the idea of Emmanuel, and then I want you to make the Emmanuel principle in person, central in your lives, so that when January 2nd or 3rd rolls around, you will know that there is Christ with you, in you, the hope of glory, to elevate your everyday life and make it what he intends it to be.

Let us read the narrative together, let’s look along and then we’ll take a look more closely at it. Chapter 2, verse 1:

“In those days, Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria, and everyone went to his own town to register.

So, Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth and Galilee to Judea to Bethlehem, the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be married to him and was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for the baby to be born, and she gave birth to her firstborn, a son. She wrapped him in cloths and placed him in a manger because there was no room for them in the inn.

And there were shepherds living out in the fields nearby, keeping watch over their flocks at night. An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shown around them, and they were terrified. But the angel said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David, a savior has been born to you. He is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.’

“Suddenly a great company of the heavenly host appeared with the angel praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest and on earth, peace to men on whom his favor rests.’ When the angels had left them and gone into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, ‘Let’s go to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has told us about.’

So, they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph and the baby who was lying in the manger. When they had seen him, they spread the word concerning what had been told to them about this child, and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds said to them. But Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart.

The shepherds returned glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen, which were just as they had been told.”

The narrative breaks into four sections. First, in verses 1-3, we have the decree. In verses 4-7, we have the birth. In verses 8-16, the shepherds, the angels, and the Christ. And in verses 17-20, the reactions.

First, let us look at the decree, and in this decree, we see that Christ’s birth is rooted in world history. What could be more natural than the unfolding of world history? We are in the midst of it right now. We look around and see events taking place. Christianity is a historical religion; I’ve told you that before. And this historian, Luke, was careful to root Jesus’ birth and connect it with events that were occurring at the time. God saw to it that these people who are mentioned that there would be a continuing history of them so that we would understand exactly when Jesus was born and that his birth was rooted in history.

Caesar Augustus decreed that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. This helps us to fix the date of Christ’s birth. In Matthew 2, King Herod the Great issued a decree that all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity be killed because of the threat that he felt that Christ was born. King Herod died in 4 BC. The decree therefore must have been issued just before that, so Jesus was born 4 or 5 BC.

It says that the census was carried out in Jesus’ area, in the area of Palestine when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Now, critics of this account say the Quirinius ordered a census to be taken in 6 or 7 AD, which is way too late for the birth of Christ, and they accused Luke of making a mistake. Do not believe it. You know by now, listening to me, I do not think there are any mistakes in the Bible.

I think there are two ways of dealing with this. First is that historical records show it is quite possible that Quirinius was governor twice, earlier before 4, 5, 6 BC there’s an indication and record that Quirinius was a co-governor along with another established by Rome.

But I think an even better way of understanding this is just a simple translation issue. If you look down in Luke 2:2, a better way to translate this would be this, “This census was the one before the one taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria.” That census was taken when Quirinius was Governor of Syria was very well known. Luke refers to it in the Book of Acts, he knew about it. He is saying that there was actually an earlier census taken, and it was in regard to that census that Joseph moved out from Nazareth.

Now, these are the historical circumstances of Christ’s birth: Caesar Augustus was emperor of Rome. Rome was the most powerful empire in the world. We have been learning in the Book of Daniel, it was the fourth empire seen in the vision of Daniel, in Daniel 2.

At this point, the emperor, Caesar Augustus, had the whole Roman world at peace. It was not a true peace, it was what they called the Pax Romana, the Roman Peace. It was a peace based on intimidation and fear. There are many in Palestine that would love to have risen up against Rome and overthrown them if they could, but they knew that they would never be able to defeat them, and so they remained at peace. It was not a peace of the heart, but it was a peace of the circumstances. This emperor was perhaps the greatest that Rome had ever seen or ever would see. He centralized the government that included the Roman Senate in such a way that they felt included. The arms of the Roman government were at peace with one another, and it was a time of incredible prosperity and the expansion of the Roman Empire. There was an absence of strife, and prosperity for the Roman people. There was peace along the borders, very few wars being fought.

This had some benefits for Christianity as well. It was during this time that many of the Roman roads were built, and it was a safe cradle or a safe time for Jesus to be raised after he was born. But the historian, Epictetus, who lived at that time spoke of this Pax Romana, this Roman Peace. He said, “While the emperor may give peace from war on land and sea, he is unable to give peace from passion, grief and envy. He cannot give peace of heart, for which man yearns even more than outward peace.” Isn’t that true?

Caesar Augustus was a great political leader, but he could not transform the heart. I believe that God is in the business of contrasting his rulership with that of powerful earthly leaders. We are going to see it with Nebuchadnezzar in the Book of Daniel. But here is this Caesar Augustus, the divine Augustus, and his earthly peace can only carry man so far. There is to be a Prince of Peace, and he was born in obscurity, while the emperor gave a mighty decree that a census be taken of his whole Roman world.

That decree affected the lives of two simple Jewish people: Joseph and Mary. This shows that Christ’s birth was not only rooted in world history, but it was also rooted in personal struggle. Joseph and Mary, their whole world was thrown into upheaval by the announcements of the angels that each visited them. Gabriel visited Joseph and he visited Mary and gave announcements that would change their lives. And so, they got up as a result of this decree, and as a result of the fact that she was carrying the Christ child and they traveled the 75 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. Can you imagine? The Scripture says in the King James Version that she was “great with child.” You always see the pictures of Mary riding on a donkey, any of you women who have been expecting, didn’t that cause you to cringe? How in the world could you ride on a donkey being “great with child”? Now, in Scripture’s defense, there is no mention of a donkey, but she may well have traveled on a donkey.

But why in the world did she make this visit? Joseph made the visit because he had to. The decree said so, and he had to go to his hometown to register. But why did marry attend? According to law, there is no reason that she needed to be there. Well, I think there is perhaps a human reason, and then there is the divine reason. Humanly speaking, Joseph did not want to leave Mary alone. And why was that? It was because of the shame factor. We realize that people know how to count nine months, and they know when Joseph and Mary got married. Joseph himself was afraid of disgrace, and so he resolved to put Mary away—to divorce—her secretly. He was concerned what the neighbors would think and realize, what did Joseph know about giving birth to a baby? As you read this account, look in Luke 2:5,67, where is Joseph mentioned? He is not much help, is he? Mary does it all, she gives birth, she wraps him, she cares for that baby. Joseph did not know anything.

Nowadays, we are more enlightened as men, and we go through the training with our wives, and we know more than that. They did not know anything, the men did not. He was there protecting, he was there to care, but he could not help with the birth. Who was it that helped with the birth of babies back then? It was the neighborhood women, the older women who had already been through it, who could help. Babies were not born in hospitals.

And so why was Mary taken away from all those neighborhood women? Well, to be taken away from those neighborhood women and the men who would gossip and hurt her deeply. That is the human reason, and I also think they knew who Christ was, and they knew that Christ had to be born in Bethlehem. Now, they would never have presumed or taken it upon themselves to go down to Bethlehem and have the child born there; God had to orchestrate it. And so, he did orchestrate it through the emperor, Caesar Augustus. Joseph said, “I have to go.” Mary said, “I’m going too. The baby must be born in Bethlehem.”

Now, as we look at this first section, we have a contrast with natural and supernatural aspects.

First, it is natural that a government leader should take a census for the purpose of taxation, is it not? As you look around, we still have this with us today. “There’s nothing permanent except death and taxes,” said Benjamin Franklin. And they are still with us today. Very natural that Caesar Augustus should do this. He had good reason to do it, so that he might know how much tax he could expect from each region of the world, and so that he might know how many troops, Roman legions, to apportion around his empire. Very natural.

It was natural that neighbors should gossip when counting months. That is natural as well.

It is natural that Joseph should join thousands of his countrymen traveling to their native town to register, that was natural, and it was natural that Mary should suffer greatly in giving birth to Christ. That is a natural thing. It is part of the curse that came in Genesis 3, and her suffering made all the greater by the fact that she had to travel those 75 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem. All of that was natural.

What was supernatural? Well, the predicted prophecy. Micah 5:2. In Micah 5:2, it is supernatural that God should sovereignly ordain that a little piece of Jewish Scripture, that Caesar Augustus did not even know, would ordain his decree before he ever ordained it, that his steps would be ordered by a piece of a holy writ that he did not know anything about, written seven centuries before this time. Micah 5:2, “But you Bethlehem, the land of Judah, are by no means least among the rulers of Judah for out of you will come a ruler who will be the shepherd of my people Israel.” And you could say, “Now, how in the world did Caesar know that prophecy?” Well, he did not. But God sovereignly overruled it. It was supernaturally written seven centuries before that Jesus would be born in Bethlehem.

Now in verses 4-7, we have the birth and there we have the account of a crowded inn and a lonely mother. The crowded inn, all the people descend upon Bethlehem so that they might also be registered. The innkeeper is busy with his guests, he cannot be burdened with a woman about to give birth, cold-heartedly turns them away, does nothing for them, and we see a lonely mother.

If you read these verses, I already said something about it, but the fact of the matter is, Mary is pretty much alone in all these things she is doing. She gives birth to her firstborn, no nurses, no doctors, no midwives, Joseph is not even mentioned here. She wrapped him in cloths, she laid him in the manger. Long strips of cloth to keep the baby snug and warm. And so, it is with all babies, they like to be bundled up, comfortable in the womb and now their arms and their limbs are free, and they like to be bundled up, and so it was with Jesus, he was bundled up in these strips of cloth.

Last week in our Sunday School, we talked about this. I had done some research and found out that Justin Martyr says (he lived about 120 years after Christ) that Jesus was born in a cave. Now, I know that that does not fit with what Hallmark points out, that it looks like a little stable and all that, and I am sure many of you have nativity sets, but actually many mangers were placed in caves. A manger is just a portable thing where the animals feed, a trough, a feeding trough. And there were caves in the area of Bethlehem, and so they didn’t need to do anything for their animals except it was warm and dry in there, they put some straw in there and they would feed in there and keep the rain off them, and they would be warm. And so, it is quite possible, Justin Martyr is right, just 100 years after Jesus was born, that he was born in a cave. And wouldn’t that be perfect? Wouldn’t that be the way it is? Because just as he was born in a cave and his body was wrapped with strips of linen, what happened at the end of his life? Where was he buried? He was buried in a cave. And what happened to his body? Wrapped with strips of linen, the very strips of linen that were lying there when he rose from the dead.

Does God do that kind of thing? Yeah, he does. He does that kind of thing. Little details. Now the Scripture does not say he was born in a cave, but so it is, that he was born, and he was laid in a manger, and both the birth and the death show the weakness, the frailty of Jesus Christ, and it was that very frailty that gives us eternal life. It was the fact that he died and that his body had to be wrapped and placed in a cave and buried for us.

Now, as we look at this contrast in this section, again, we see the natural, we see the natural that the innkeeper should be so heartless and cold-hearted. That goes on today, and it makes our lives a bitter, that people do not love each other as they would like to be loved in that situation. They do not do to others what they would have done to them. If that were your wife, Mr. Innkeeper, would you have liked somebody to care for her? But instead, he turned her out. And that is natural.

It is natural that Jesus was born of a woman, born under the law. In the fullness of time, it says in Galatians 4:4, “God sent his son, born of a woman, born under law.” Everyone in this room was born of a woman, and so Jesus was as well. And there was struggle and there was pain, and there was difficulty. He needed to be scrubbed off and cleaned up, bundled up, and that he was so helpless. He came into the world helpless. Note all the passives. He was born, he was wrapped, he was laid. All these things were done to him, he was passive, he was weak, and also, that he was poor. I know that is hard for us to understand how natural that is, but worldwide, how many babies are born into poverty? Most. And so, it was natural that Jesus was born in poverty as well.

What is supernatural in this section? Well, that Mary was pregnant at all. That she was pregnant at all. She had never been with a man. The only person who had ever been born without a human father, but the power of the Holy Spirit overshadowed her, and so, that baby was conceived inside her supernaturally, and she was a virgin when she gave birth. Joseph did not touch her, did not have marital relations with her in any way until after the baby was born, and so it is supernatural that she was pregnant at all.

But an even greater mystery, an even greater miracle is who that baby was, that baby was the creator of the universe. It says in John 1, “Through him all things were made, and without him nothing was made that has been made.” Everything. Let us get really specific. Does that include the cave that he was laid in? Yeah, it includes that. Does it include the manger and the straw? Yes, it includes that. Does it include all the animals that were there? Yes, it includes that, it includes the innkeeper, he created the innkeeper. It includes Joseph and it includes Mary as well. So, this brings us into a paradox. He is the only person that ever lived that created his own mother. Can you ever figure that out? No, it is impossible. It’s a miracle, it’s supernatural. But that is what we claim: that that baby lying in that manger was truly God in the flesh.

In the next account, verses 8-16, we have the shepherds, the angel, and the baby. And who are these shepherds? They are just working men out in the fields doing their job, what we would call blue-collar workers. They were rejected by most of the people there, they were unable to come into the temple as they were. They were considered dirty, considered lowest of the low, and they are out there guarding the flocks because that was their job, that is how they earned a living. They were protecting their flocks from many intruders that might come, but there was an intruder that was going to come, an angel suddenly came in and the glory of the Lord shown around, there is nothing they could do to prevent that intrusion. They are just sitting on the hillside and suddenly the lights flash and the glory shines all around.

I spent a summer on a mission trip out in Kenya. It was in the rural part of Kenya, beautiful land, beautiful area. In that part, there was no electricity, and so when the sun went down, all you could see as you looked across the valley were kerosene lanterns and because kerosene was expensive, they did not last long. So, after a while, they would turn them out and they went to bed early, they were farmers. And you would look out across the valley, and there was not any human light, none. Only the natural light that God had made: The stars, the moon. That is all there was. And so, it would have been on that hillside.

Can you imagine the terror that came into their hearts if a light as bright as the sun shines all around when an angel appears? Sometimes angels just look like everyday people. At the resurrection of Jesus, they look just like men, like gardeners standing there. But this night, God put the glory around that angel, and that glory shone, and the shepherds looked, and they were terrified.

I do not know, the Bible does not say anything about it, but that there might be a school for angels up in heaven. And if you were in that school and you are told, “Now listen, when you’re sent from heaven to earth, the very first thing you have to say is” what? “Fear not.” “Alright, repeat after me, ‘Fear not.’ You have to get ready for your mission, okay? Why do you have to say that? Because they are terrified at the intrusion from heaven.” We are going to talk more about that tonight about how confronting and coming face-to-face with God brings terror and how the incarnation removes it. We will talk about that tonight.

So, the angel followed the instructions of angel school, if such there is, and said, “Fear not for I bring you good news.” And then the angel brings a message, and there are two amazing aspects. First, it says, “To you, a savior is born.” That’s amazing! To them, the rejects of society? Yes! To the worst, the lowest of the low. To them, a savior was born, and that includes us as well. The second aspect is, he is Christ the Lord.

Now look down at verse 26, this is not the account that we read but this is the story of Simeon. I am going to read Luke 2:26, it says, “It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit, that he would not die before he had seen” what? “The Lord’s Christ.” Now, what is the difference between the Lord’s Christ and Christ the Lord? It was a big difference. One of them is, he is the Messiah, he is the perhaps human king, the descendant of David, who had come to rule, but Christ the Lord; now that’s difference. The Christ is actually God himself.

I do not know if the angels got it at that point. Maybe later they understood the message, “Christ the Lord,” but that was the message. And then they gave a sign, “You’re going to go see a baby lying in a manger. It’ll be a sign to you that all that I’ve said is true.” And that sign was needed.

Then suddenly “an angelic host.” Now, what is a host? It is a huge army. I am really kind of weary of the weak-looking angels that you see around. You know what I am talking about? The artistic renditions of angels? They would not scare anybody, even if there were light around them. These angels were warriors. And why are they out there? Why was the army out there? Because there is warfare in heaven all the time.

And do you think there might be any spiritual warfare around that manger scene? Oh, absolutely. Revelation 12 talks about it, “The dragon stood in front of the woman who was about to give birth so that he might devour her child the moment it was born. She gave birth to a son, a male child, who will rule all the nations with an iron scepter and her child was snatched up to God and to his throne, and there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought back.”

Is that what was going on in the heavenly realms that night? Oh, yeah. Now, the devil used King Herod to try to snatch that child and kill it, but there was warfare in the heavenly realms, and so those angels are out there not just looking pretty, they are out there to have warfare and to protect that Christ child.

What I love about these angels is that they are celebrating and they are worshipping and they’re praising. What confidence! We are going to win this battle, and the Christ will reign forever and ever. And the message, “glory to God in the highest and on earth peace among men who are objects of God’s favor.” They bring the peace that the emperor cannot, peace in life and peace in death, eternal life through the gift of the Son.

Now, as they were watching the angels, it does not come across in the English, but the angels made a kind of a recession. It took them a while to go, it says that the shepherds were watching the angels as they were returning to heaven. What do you think that looked like? Heaven opened and the angels just kind of single file—I do not know, maybe it took a while—just go back up into heaven. They just stand there and look and think there is a whole world that we never see. It is around us right now.

Do you believe that? Do you believe that God could rend the skies and you would see it now? If he chose to, he could do it. From time to time, he did. Remember when Stephen was stoned? He looked up, he said, “Look, I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God” (Acts 7:56). To you now, you just do not see it. It is here all the time. Remember what Elisha said to his servant, “Lord, open his eyes that he might see, that there’s more for us than there are for them, chariots of fire, angels ready to serve” (2 Kings 6:17). It is around us all the time.

What is the contrast in this section?

First, the shepherds were out there at all. They were just doing their job, they were just working, just like many of you hard-working people. Their response was natural, terror, fear, and then joyful curiosity.

What was supernatural in this section? When was the last time you had such an angelic visitation? Have you ever? I have never seen this. I have never seen that supernatural light. I read about it, I believe it happened, I have just never seen it. And the angelic message, a clear prophecy of Christ, good news for all the people, all the people from every tribe and language and people and nation, and a sign, a child wrapped and laid in a manger. How strange. So, there’s supernatural prophecy.

In verses 17-20, we get the reactions. The shepherds go into Bethlehem, they say, “Hey, let’s go look.” Do you think they abandoned their sheep? Everybody left? Maybe one or two angels had to stay behind, and they heard about it second-hand. Do you feel sorry for them? I wish I had been able to go and see. But some of the shepherds, perhaps even all of them, forget the sheep, let us go look and see, there’s good news that God has given us. They focus on this child, what kind of child is it? And then they begin to spread the word. They begin to tell everyone around, and the people are amazed at what they heard.

But then there’s Mary in her quiet meditation. She just thinks about it. She ponders things quietly in her heart, and eventually, I believe she told them to Luke who wrote them down.

Now, as we look at this whole account and we see the beautiful blending of supernatural and natural, I think it all comes together in the word, Emmanuel.

If you look at verse 20, it says, “The shepherds returned.” What does that mean, “the shepherds returned”? Well, they went back to the hill, back to the job. You think your January 2nd or 3rd is hard, what about these shepherds? It would never be this way again, but they returned, but they glorified, and they praised God for what they had seen. And so, it is with us, Emmanuel.

What does Emmanuel mean? It means God with us. They did not go back alone. They went back with a promise that God would be with them, and not only that, but that the Christ child was now in earth, and that he had come for a purpose to be their savior, “A savior is born for you.” And so, God with us means God on our side. It says in Romans 8, “He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also along with him graciously give us all things? And if God is for us, who can be against us?” That is what Emmanuel means: God is for us.

It also means side by side with us. As you are going through your everyday life, where there are physical trials, maybe you are weak, maybe you are sick, maybe you have a difficult job, maybe you’re lonely—you’re not alone, you have Christ with you side by side.

Jesus experienced life as we did yet with supernatural power. He obeyed his parents, and yet he was conscious of his divine status as the Son of God. He knows hard manual labor in a carpentry shop, yet his hands could heal the blind. He knows hunger and yet he fed 5000. He walked on water across the lake to the boat of his disciples, and what did he do when he got to the boat? Got in and sat just like you and me. He knows bone weariness, and yet he was able to sleep in the midst of a storm, and then get up and say, “Peace, be still, to the storm.” We cannot do that.

There is a blending in Christ’s life of the natural and the supernatural. He knows poverty and yet he took a gold coin from a fish’s mouth to pay tax. Don’t you wish you could do that? Supernatural power blended with everyday circumstances; this is the principle of Emmanuel: side by side with us through everyday life.

And then finally, even better: God in us. Jesus came to give us the indwelling Holy Spirit. He came to die on the cross to take away all our sins that he might live within us and give us a supernaturally powerful life. Not doing miracles, no, but resisting temptation, saying no to the devil and ungodliness and wickedness, and living supernaturally useful lives to him, advancing his gospel through the preaching of the Word. He said of the Holy Spirit, “He lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:17). That is Emmanuel.

I want to close with four final expectations.

Number one, view your common life as significant. For all those of you that are working, you go back to work Monday or Tuesday morning, whatever it is going to be, get down on your knees and thank God for everyday life, God created it and let Christ come inside you at that point and live his life supernaturally through you. (2) Realize that Christ experienced it all, and that (3) Christ is in you if you are a believer, and then (4) turn constantly to his supernatural power in your natural circumstances.

There is one last thing I want to say about this natural and supernatural. The whole reason that Jesus came is not just to elevate the natural and make it worthwhile, but to show the limitations of the natural. He came because we could not save ourselves.

It says in Isaiah 59, “The Lord looked and was displeased that there was no justice. He saw that there was no one. He was appalled but there was no one to intervene, so his own arm worked salvation for him, and his own righteousness sustained him” (Isaiah 59:15-16). He came into the world because the natural would never get us saved, it would only condemn us.

It may be today that you have never given your life to Christ. Maybe you do not know him, maybe you do not know God in you through the power of the Spirit. Jesus came not just to elevate your everyday life and show that it is worthwhile, but to show that your everyday life is not going to be sufficient for judgment day, but you needed a savior. “You will give him the name ‘Jesus’ because he will save his people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21).

Please close with me in prayer. Heavenly Father, we want to thank you for the way you have created the natural world. You made it in six days, you formed it, and you have watched over it through all its eras of history. At the right time, in the fullness of time, you sent your Son into that everyday world to elevate it, to show its value, but also to show its limitation. We need a savior, we need a supernatural salvation, and Lord Jesus, you came to give it. Father, I pray for those who do not know you who are in this room that they might give their lives to you, that they might trust in you, Lord Jesus who died on the cross and who emptied that tomb. Father, we pray that they would trust in you. And for all those of us who do walk by faith, not by sight, O God, I pray that you would live out your Emmanuel life within us. We thank you for these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.

Please open your bibles to Daniel chapter 2. we're going to continue our study this morning, in the Book of Daniel, and we come to one of the great chapters in the Bible, especially for the display of the majesty of God, and his incredible power and his supernatural knowledge. And we are not going to get through all of it this time, or even the next time, there's just too much here. We're going to be looking at the first 23 verses, at the issue of Nebuchadnezzar's dream.

Now, we use an expression when we say, "The future is bright," don't we? We think about that, and it shows that we want to be optimistic about the future. We want to look ahead to the future with brightness. We want to see hope, we want to think that good things are coming, and so we use this expression, the future is bright. But it also shows that we think about the future at all. We are a future-looking people, especially we Americans. We're always looking ahead to what's coming down the road.

Very soon, for example, the year is going to change. You know what year it's going to be? It's going to be 2001. And I remember when I was a child, I watched a movie by that title, and the world seemed so futuristic at that point. It's amazing how little of that has come to pass. There aren't, for example, any mining expeditions on the surface of the moon. They have not found any shiny black obelisks, and there's no expedition going to the outer reaches of the solar system. So it's amazing how we look ahead to the future, and don't really know what's coming, but we make our guess. I was reading a book that I got at a yard sale, it's called the People's Almanac 2, and it's got all kinds of interesting things in it. It was published in 1978, but the very first chapter is entitled, Around the corner: Predicting the future. And it makes predictions for the 20 years that are going to come, which will close out the millennium, from 1979 to 2000. I'm looking back over those predictions and finding a lot of humor in them. For example, there's a prediction that there would be a Palestinian nation established north of Israel. We're still waiting for that one, hasn't happened.

President Carter would be re-elected in 1980. That didn't happen either. Electric cars would replace gasoline-powered automobiles in 1982. That hasn't happened. There would be a man landing on Mars some time between 1983 and 1985, and clear evidence would be found that life once existed there. We're waiting both for the expedition and for the evidence that life once existed on Mars. That the Roman Catholic papacy would cease to exist in those 20 years. They were getting very bold in some of these predictions, but it made good reading. The United States would be torn by a massive civil war in the 1980s. That didn't happen either. Texas, would secede from the Union in 1982. I don't think that happened. I'm not sure, but I think it's still part of the nation. By 1986, ocean farming would produce a third of the world's consumable edible goods, and by the year 2000, guns, which used bullets, would cease to exist, and would be replaced by stun guns, which use electrical discharge. None of those things have happened, but it shows that we're interested in the future.

We're always looking ahead. Even Bill Gates wrote a bestselling book called The Road Ahead. Looking ahead. Right around this time, people are interested in the markets, or wondering is it going to be a bear or is it going to be a bull in the year 2001? And so Forbes and other money magazines are making predictions about how the economy is going to be. In popular entertainment, other than the movie 2001, there's an ongoing interest in science fiction, and in the future. I remember when I was a child, watching The Jetsons. How many of you watched The Jetsons? Remember? All these little putt putt kind of spaceships, you're never touching ground, you're always kind of elevated up off the earth. I don't know what was wrong with the ground at the time, but there was something wrong with it, and so they were always flying around. Interesting thing about The Jetsons, really, just 1950s America put forward into the future, so it actually is a look back more than anything else.

We're very interested in the future, and we want to know more than anything, all of these things are interesting to us, but we want to know what's my future? What's going to happen to me and to people I love? And we do that, don't we? Concerned about the future, we want to know what's going to happen, and we're yearning for a bright future. But, in one sense, the future is anything but bright. By that I mean it's dark to us, we don't know what's going to come, and the scripture testifies to that darkness. I'm not speaking pessimistically, just speaking that we don't know what's coming. Look at James chapter 4, for example, it says, "Now, listen, you who say 'today or tomorrow, we'll go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business, and make money.' You don't even know what will happen tomorrow, never mind a year from now. What is your life? You're a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes. Instead, you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live, and do this and that.'" So the scripture testifies that the future is dark to us. And in our text today, in verse 22, it says, of God, that "he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him." What does this mean? He knows what lies in darkness. It's referring to the future, the fact that we cannot know what is coming.

But the future is bright with God. You understand that? And I mean that in both senses. First of all, it lays open, like an open book, to him. There is nothing dark or hidden about the future to God. He knows all things before any of them come to pass. And we mean it in the second sense, the one we're used to using, that the future is bright, in that glorious things are coming, incredible things are coming, an establishment of a kingdom that will never end, the kingdom of Jesus Christ. And Daniel chapter 2 is one of the clearest prophecies in the Old Testament of that coming kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is a bright future and a glorious one, but it's only bright to us as we're close to God, the one who reveals secrets and the one who establishes for us all of our hopes and our dreams.

Listen as I read, I'm going to read just the first 23 verses of this chapter and try to understand how the future was made bright to an ancient king Nebuchadnezzar.

"In the second year of his reign, Nebuchadnezzar had dreams, his mind was troubled and he could not sleep, so the king summoned the magicians, enchanters, sorcerers, and astrologers to tell him what he had dreamed. When they came in and stood before the king, he said to them, 'I have had a dream that troubles me, and I want to know what it means.' Then the astrologers answered the king in Aramaic, 'Oh king, live forever. Tell your servants the dream, and we will interpret it.' The king replied to the astrologers, 'This is what I have firmly decided, if you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble, but if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me.' Once more, they replied, 'Let the king tell his servants the dream and we will interpret it.' Then the king answered, 'I am certain that you are trying to gain time because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me the dream there is but one penalty for you, you have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change. So then tell me the dream and I will know that you can interpret it for me.' The astrologers answered the king, 'There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks. No king, however great and mighty, has ever asked such a thing of any magician or enchanter or astrologer. What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it to the king except the gods and they do not live among men.' This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon. So the decree was issued to put the wise men to death, and men were sent to look for Daniel and his friends, to put them to death. When Arioch, the commander of the king's guard had gone out to put to death the wise men of Babylon, Daniel spoke to him with wisdom and tact. He asked the king's officer, 'Why did the king issue such a harsh decree?' Arioch then explained the matter to Daniel. At this, Daniel went in to the king and asked for time, that he might interpret the dream for him. Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of Heaven concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision. Then Daniel praised the God of Heaven and said, 'Praise be to the name of God forever and ever, wisdom and power are his. He changes times and seasons, he sets up kings and deposes them, he gives wisdom to the wise, and knowledge to the discerning. He reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, oh God of my fathers. You have given me wisdom and power. You have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to us the dream of the king.'"

Now, in verses 1-12, we see Nebuchadnezzar's terrifying dream and his terrible decree. In verse 1, we get the circumstances of the dream, it says that he dreamed dreams, it was not just one dream, but perhaps a series of dreams. Perhaps it was the same dream given many times, but he fixates on this one dream and it caused him incredible terror. Now, the circumstances of the dream have caused trouble for the defenders of Biblical inerrancy, shouldn't, but it does. Critics have said, "Now, there's a discrepancy here between Daniel chapter 1, in which it says that he's trained for three years, and then the circumstances of chapter 2, in which it says, in the second year of King Nebuchadnezzar, these dreams came." But there's no trouble here at all because, in the Babylonian system of reckoning, the first year of a king was his first full year. So if Nebuchadnezzar had come to power in the middle of a year, let's say, the middle of the year 604 BC, say, June or April. He would serve the rest of that year, but it would still be considered the kingship of his father, Nabopolassar. And so he would begin, for us, in our calendar, on January, the following year.

Meanwhile, all that time, Daniel and his friends were getting their first full year of training. There's no difficulty here whatsoever. And so it was that he had these dreams, and it was some time between April 603 and March 602 BC. Now, what were the reasons for the dream? Well, the circumstances, we find out in verses 28 and 29, which I did not read, but when Daniel comes to reveal the matter to the king, he says, "You, oh king, were laying on your bed. And as you were laying there, your mind turned to things to come. You began to think about the future." You can understand how this would be for a king, king's thinking about his own life. He's a young man, his kingdom is being built up nicely, but what of the future? What will come after he dies? What will happen to Babylon after he is finished? And so, as he's laying there and thinking about this, he drifts into sleep, and then the dream comes. And it's an incredible dream. We'll talk about it next time.

But it fills him with terror, the immensity and the magnitude of this dream fills him with terror, and he wakes up and sleep runs from him, he can't sleep, he's filled with terror. And so, he summons the counselors, in verses 2-9, and he tests them. Now, the first order of business for Nebuchadnezzar is simple, he wants to know what the dream means, he wants to know what the dream means, and so he calls in the experts. Now, there are many such lists in Daniel. This is the complete group of all of his counselors, and this is what they're called, magicians, enchanters, sorcerers and Chaldeans or astrologers. This is that whole bunch of people, the experts of his kingdom that he calls in for help here. Now, the magicians, the word is related in Hebrew to stylus or pen. They probably were just scholars or clerics of some sort. Enchanters, however, had power, supposedly, of communication with the dead. Sorcerers practiced sorcery, they were perhaps early chemists, mixing potions and doing various things, but the Chaldeans were the highest and most important of them all.

Now, Chaldea was a place, a region in the former Syrian empire, that's where Abraham came. Abraham came from Ur of the Chaldees. Nebuchadnezzar's father, Nabopolassar, was a Chaldean. This is the pure race of Babylonians that eventually conquered the whole Assyrian Empire. And so, the Chaldeans were the highest of all of the counselors, and they spoke for the whole group, and they specialized in the planets and the stars, looking at the positions and gaining information about the future by looking at the position of the stars. They also had a specialty in dreams. That's a fascinating thing. I didn't know anything about this before. I did some research. It turns out that the Babylonians very much believed in predicting the future by dreams, especially the dreams of kings. The dreams of kings were incredibly important, but the dreams of all important people and even all common people were so vital to their system of predicting the future and thinking about their lives that they kept careful records of all dreams.

You would come in and report your dream, they'd take it down, then they find out what happened to you afterwards, what was the outcome of the matter? And similar to if you were to go into a lawyer's office today and see rows and rows of legal volumes, of previous cases, court cases. So there were also, with these dreams, they were precedents. And so, if there was a dream with a river in it, and a mountain and a forest, and then something happened, they might have five or six dreams that fit that criteria, and they'd look and see what had come, and they would give an interpretation based on this.

And so, they were very confident that they could interpret any dream the king gave, but he was about to throw in a monkey wrench that would throw their world upside down. They had confidence, the Chaldeans, that they could interpret any dream and say what it meant based on precedent, on previous dreams. And so the Chaldeans come in and all the others, and they give a standard greeting in verse 4, "Oh king, live forever." Now, this is kind of a throw away, you might just read it and go right over it because it's the way you address the king back then, when you walked into his presence, to say, "O king, live forever." And then you get on with your business. Even Daniel does it in chapter 6, with Darius the Mede, "O king, live forever."

But I believe this is the nub of the matter here, because he's not going to live forever, he is mortal, he is going to die some day, and when he dies, his kingdom will pass on to some other person. And what is going to happen then? And not only that, but the person that takes it, he's going to die too, and so on and so on, because all men are like... All their flesh is like grass and their glory is like the flower of the field that withers and fades and perishes, and so it is with human kingdoms. So they say, "O king, live forever." Now, from this point on, to chapter 7, the text is in Aramaic. Now, that might not mean much to you, but it's caused some difficulty to those that study Daniel. I just believe that Aramaic was the court language of the king, and this is the language that they worked in, and so, the account in Daniel is written in Aramaic. Doesn't cause you any trouble, I'm sure, as you go from verse 3 to verse 4, it reads, in English, to you. Praise God for scholars who've learned both Hebrew and Aramaic, and seamlessly make the translation for you. But so it is in Aramaic.

There's also a theory that this is the times of the Gentiles, as Jesus called it. And so we're in the Gentile times, and so we're going to use this Gentile language. Now, Nebuchadnezzar has, I believe, skepticism about his wise men. He doesn't believe in their powers, they claim to have a connection to supernatural insider information, and he's saying, "Prove it. I want it now. I want to be sure you can give me the interpretation." He's skeptical, he's a little bit of an agnostic when it comes to their religious system. And so, he puts the stakes immeasurably high. In verse 5 and 6, the king replied to the astrologers, the Chaldeans. "This is what I have firmly decided, if you do not tell me what my dream was and interpret it, I will have you cut into pieces and your houses turned into piles of rubble, but if you tell me the dream and explain it, you will receive from me gifts and rewards and great honor. So tell me the dream and interpret it for me."

So either they're torn to pieces or you're given a promotion. There's no middle ground with this guy. I was talking to somebody the other day, we were having a little Bible study and discussing, he said it'd be better to be a peasant, working out in the field, than be in Nebuchadnezzar's court. I don't want all of your honors, alright, because, three months later, I'm going to do something wrong and you're going to cut my head off. But so it was, he was intent that he get an accurate interpretation to this dream. Now, in the King James version, it gives an implication that Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten the dream. He says, "The thing is gone from me." And some commentators have said it's possible that Nebuchadnezzar could not remember his dream. And that's not all that strange, is it?

We, apparently, scientists tell us, dream every night, but we only remember a very small percentage of our dreams. But I actually don't think that's what's going on here, because if he had truly completely forgotten the dream, then the Chaldeans could simply make a dream up, it's not beyond them, and say, "This is what you dreamed, and this is the interpretation. It's a standard king dream, and this is what it means." Alright? So if he really had declared to the whole court, "I've forgotten my dream," how could he contradict them? I don't think that's actually what he said in the Aramaic. I think what he said is, "It's gone out from me. The command is gone from me, and it's firmly decided that if you don't tell me my dream, I'm going to cut you into pieces and turn your houses into piles of rubble." So I think he's actually testing them. We get that also... If you look down at verse 9, he gives his motive for it. He says, "So then, tell me the dream and I will know that you can interpret it for me."

So he's setting before them two orders of business, two tests. Number one, you must tell me my dream. And number two, then you will have the right and the privilege to give me the interpretation of the dream. Now, of the two, what does he care about? He already knows, I believe, his dream, he wants to know what it means, and he wants to be absolutely certain that these wise men are not conspiring to tell him wicked things, but are actually giving him a supernatural interpretation of the dream. So the promise is wealth, riches, honor, power, or destruction, all or nothing.

So, they try again, it's worth a second try, in verse 7. They say, "Let the king tell his servants the dream, and we will interpret it." No, no, no. You didn't hear me. You have to do two things, not just one. You need to tell me my dream, and then you need to give me the interpretation. He says, "I am certain that you're trying to gain time because you realize that this is what I have firmly decided. If you do not tell me the dream, there is but one penalty for you, you have conspired to tell me misleading and wicked things, hoping the situation will change." So then, number one, tell me the dream, and number two, I will know that you can interpret it for me. Two things.

Well, now we get the counselor's pathetic failure, verses 10 and 11. How would you feel if you were one of these? Please do a miracle or else I'll kill you. And they're standing there and they're saying, "How in the world are we going to get out of this one?" This is a dire circumstance. The astrologers answer the king. There is not a man on earth who can do what the king asks, "No king," and here comes the flattery. See, when you're stuck in court, resort to flattery. "No king, however great and mighty, oh king, has ever asked such a thing of his counselors." What the king asks is too difficult. No one can reveal it..." And I love this statement. Out of their mouths, they set the stage for God, don't they? No one can do this except the gods, and they do not live down here among men. In the Babylonian way of thinking, there's this big separation between the gods in heaven up there and the affairs on earth. Later, Nebuchadnezzar will say to Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, he's going to say to them "Then what god will be able to deliver you from my hands?"

You see, there's a separation. God does his heavenly thing. I run the show down here. God says, "No, you don't." That's the whole lesson of chapter 2, 3, and 4 of Daniel. I run it down here too. Yes, I run heaven, I also run Earth, and you have your kingship through my permission and my power. I grant it to you. But there's separation. No one can reveal this to the king except the gods, and they're up there, we're down here, big separation. And so, there's no way we can do the thing you've asked.

Well, like any good ancient near eastern tyrant, he goes berserk at this point, absolutely enraged, and we'll see it again in chapter 3 when he orders the fire to be stoked up seven times hotter for Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. In verse 12, it says, "This made the king so angry and furious that he ordered the execution of all the wise men of Babylon." Anger makes you lose your mind, it makes you lose your reason. Anger is an enemy of reason, and we're going to see it in chapter 3 also, but he just lost his temper, he's going to kill them all, kill them all. And, by the way, this also sets up the fact that he truly is that head of goals, as we're going to see in that statute. I don't think there's ever been a man with the kind of autocratic, tyrannical power that this one individual had. I don't think any Roman Caesar could have ever said, "Kill all the senate and all the counselors and all the tribunes." He would have been assassinated. There's no way he could have pulled it off. But Nebuchadnezzar had this kind of power, and he says, "Kill them all." Well, it's in this context that we see Daniel's astounding courage, both its fruits and its roots.

Verse 13-19, Daniel has incredible serenity in the maelstrom, right in the middle of the storm, we see Daniel's calm and his peace. Versus 13-15, the decree is issued to put all the men to death, and Arioch, the commander of the king's guard, had gone out to put to death all the wise men of Babylon. And Daniel comes to him and speaks to him with wisdom and tact. Some have said, "When you can keep your head when all around you are losing theirs, you have not fully grasped the severity of the situation." I saw that in a bumper sticker. "You have not fully understood." But Daniel did grasp the severity of the situation, and yet, he kept his head. How did he have this kind of cool calm? How did he have this ability to see through to what the issues were, and to speak to Arioch with wisdom and tact, it was his faith in God, a supernatural serenity came in the midst of this kind of trial.

Daniel's life was on the line, and yet, he was unafraid, his roots were strong, and so, in the time of testing, he stood firm. And I think God sovereignly orchestrated the meeting with Arioch. Realize if all of the wise men of Babylon were going to be executed, and, by the way, I think that's just the city of Babylon itself, not the entire empire, but just that city, there's indication in the text that that's what it is, there's going to be many people going out to gather up all of these counselors, but Daniel happens to interact with the chief head executioner, the guy in charge of all of this.

That's not an accident because it enabled him to go right into the king and ask for time. So God sovereignly worked it out that it would be Arioch that would go get Daniel, who was really just a junior counselor at this point, that's why he wasn't there the first time when they brought this matter before the counselors. And, in verse 15, he says... With wisdom and tact, he says, "Why did the king issue such a harsh or a hasty decree? So we see Daniel's... He's at peace, he's confident, but he just needs some information. He said, "I don't understand this, this seems strange." "Why would the king issue such a harsh [or a hasty] decree?" And then, amazingly, instead of blowing Daniel off, and saying, "Just be quiet, fall in line with the others and let's go," he takes them in, and maybe sits down and explains the whole thing to Daniel, so that Daniel could know what's going on.

So God grants Daniel favor in the eyes of Arioch, and then he makes an amazing request. Daniel makes an audacious request, with courage, and it's incredibly granted. Look at verse 16, "At this, Daniel went in to the king." You don't just go in to the king, but he boldly goes in there and he asks for time that he may interpret the dream, and that was an amazing thing.

The counselors before asked one thing of the king. What did they ask? They asked for time. What's the one thing the king would not grant them? Time. What's the one thing that Daniel asks for here? Time. And what's the thing that the king does grant to Daniel? Time. It's God's sovereign hand. Now, perhaps the king can see, realizes in Daniel chapter 1 verse 20, that this is one of those Judean exiles who is 10 times better than his own counselors. Maybe he remembers him. Maybe he sees Daniel's peaceful demeanor. Maybe Daniel is already exuding a kind of a confidence that he's going to be able to interpret the dream, I don't know, but he grants him the time under God's sovereign leading.

I love Proverbs 21:1. I've quoted it before, "The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD; he directs it like a watercourse wherever he pleases." That's the whole point here," and he says, "Okay, Daniel, you can have time." And so, Daniel goes back to his roots, his source of power, and that is prayer, and in this case, corporate prayer. He gathers Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah together. The four then go to God in prayer, verse 17 and 18, "Then Daniel returned to his house and explained the matter to his friends, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He urged them to plead for mercy from the God of heaven, concerning this mystery, so that he and his friends might not be executed with the rest of the wise men of Babylon."

Daniel's roots are his personal disciplines, scripture reading, and prayer. He did them every day, all the time. If you want an elaborate root system, just like we talked about in Psalm 1, you need to go to scripture and to prayer. It says in Daniel 6, "Three times a day, he got down on his knees and prayed, just as he had done before." This was what Daniel did all the time, private personal prayer every day, three times a day he prayed. Here, he calls together the others, and they have a time of corporate prayer. In a time of emergency, it's good for the church to get together and pray. It's good for the people of God to assemble together not just to each pray individually, but that there's power in corporate prayer, there's encouragement in corporate prayer.

And there was an incredible urgency at this moment, you can see, they all had a death sentence hanging over their head, literally, a death sentence. And so they had to pray just for their lives. There was incredible urgency, and so it says, "They pleaded with the God of heaven." They pleaded with the God of heaven. And I love what it says here, twice, it calls God the God of Heaven. Who do the Babylonians look to for information about the future? Where did they look? Did they not look up to the heavens? Didn't they look to the stars and the planets and their position and alignments? Yes, but there's a God who made all of those and who rules over them. It is the God who made heaven that we're going to, even above your false religious system, we're going to the God of Heaven and the God of Earth. And so they pray.

Now, verses 19-23, we see God's incredible power, his astounding power and wisdom, and first, with his merciful revelation. It says in verse 19, "During the night, the mystery was revealed to Daniel in a vision." God's grace for his people, protecting his people. His gracious revelation to Daniel, the middle of the night, he gives a vision, and realize... And Daniel knows it well, and when we get to the next part, and have an opportunity, God willing, to preach on it, you will see Daniel has incredible humility about this. It's not because I'm righteous or because I'm wise that I know the answer to this problem, but because of God's mercy, and his power, it's for this reason that I know these things. And so we see that God gives this vision for the same reason he does everything else, for the same reason he has saved those who trust in Christ, for his own glory, for his own name's sake he does this.

And so, he grants the request. Daniel's life would be spared, and so would that of Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. And because of Daniel's compassion on the other wise men of Babylon, their lives will be spared too. Look at verse 24, "Then Daniel went to Arioch, whom the king had appointed to execute the wise men of Babylon, and said to him, 'Do not execute the wise men of Babylon. Take me to the king and I will interpret his dream for him.'" He didn't need to do that, but out of compassion for them, he stayed the execution, said, "I can resolve this matter."

And so their lives are going to be saved, but there's something far bigger than that going on here, and that is the glory of God as the sovereign ruler of the affairs of humanity. The glory of God in that he raises up kings and deposes them. He changes times and seasons. This is the God of history, that is far bigger than the lives of these four Jewish exiles. And so Daniel can do nothing else other than resort to a hymn of praise. Poetry, Hebrew poetry, just flows out here, it's in Aramaic but it just flows from his heart. In verse 20, it says, "Praise be to the name of God forever and ever, wisdom and power are his, he changes times and seasons, he sets up kings and deposes them, he gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to the discerning, he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what lies in darkness, and light dwells with him. I thank and praise you, o God of my fathers, you have given me wisdom and power, you have made known to me what we asked of you, you have made known to me, or to us, the dream of the king."

The first thing that he talks about is God's name. God's name is his self-revelation. It's what he's taught us about who he is, his character, his purposes, his power, his plans. Furthermore, God's name could also be his reputation. The spreading of God's name to every tribe, and language, and people, and nation, that all may know this mighty God who created heaven and earth, that is God's name. And so, he begins by praising God's name. And, by the way, it is for the sake of salvation that God makes much about his own name, so that we may see his glory, and we may do what with that name? Call on that name, and be saved.

Romans 10, "For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." This is salvation. When we proclaim a great and a majestic, a mighty and sovereign God, people get saved from their sins, they have eternal life. And so, he lifts up God's name and he praises the name of God forever and ever. And then he speaks of God's wisdom. God knows all things, nothing is hidden from him. There's no secrets too difficult for God, that includes the future, the future lays open bright, but it also includes the thoughts in your mind as you lay on your bed. Did you catch that?

We'll talk about that next time. But Daniel says to the king, "Your dream and the visions that passed through your mind as you lay on your bed are these:" Ooh, that's scary. How would you like your thoughts that go through your mind as you lay on your bed to be proclaimed to the whole court?

God is capable of doing it, and there will come a time he will do it, it's called judgment day. The secrets of every thought will be exposed. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be revealed, and made known. God searches our hearts, and our minds, nothing's hidden from him, even the thoughts that go through our minds as we lay on our bed. And so God's wisdom is complete. And it's not just knowing facts, it's also knowing what is right and just and fair, that is God's wisdom. He knows what's right to do and he will do it, that is God's wisdom. And then he praises God for his power. God can do anything, there's nothing too difficult for him, and there is no mighty potentate on earth too powerful for God to topple, if he should choose. We'll learn all about that in chapter 4. God can do anything with the powers on Earth, and he rules over the affairs of men.

No one can resist his will. It says in the Book of Isaiah, "His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?" This is our God. He is powerful. And so God... Daniel praises him for that. And then, finally, he speaks of his grace, the wisdom was given, he gives wisdom to Daniel, he thanks God for it, he gives power to Daniel, and he thanks God for it. His life is given back to him. He's not going to be executed, and also that of the other wise men of Babylon. But more than anything, he is making much of himself in order that we, who live many generations later, may be saved from our sins. God is gracious and he is merciful.

What applications can we take from this ancient story? When this happened 600 years before Jesus was born, how can this say anything to us today? Oh, it says everything to us today. First of all, it speaks of the limitations of human wisdom and power. Did you watch, in the 35 days after the election, how many times they trotted up some expert, expert on the Supreme Court, or expert on constitutional law, or expert on polling, or exit polls? All these experts, we have them too, we have our Chaldeans today, don't we?

Human wisdom leads nowhere. As a matter of fact, in many cases, it's diametrically opposed to God's wisdom. It says in 1 Corinthians chapter 1, where is the wise man? Where is the scholar? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world? The Chaldeans couldn't do it. They did not know the dream, and they didn't know the future. It also shows the limitations of human power, not just of wisdom, of power. What could Nebuchadnezzar do to make his counselor tell him his dream? What could he do? Didn't he turn all the knobs right up to maximum?

Absolute torture and death, terrible death, or the highest wealth and honor given, he gave everything he had, that he might get an interpretation of that dream, and they couldn't do it. There's a limitation to Nebuchadnezzar's power. And there's a specific limitation to his power when it comes to the God of heaven, he cannot resist God's will. Limitation of human wisdom and power. What's the application for us? Do not trust in man. Do not trust in human wisdom. Do not trust in human power. Don't trust in your own. Lean not on your own understanding. Trust on God and his word. There are some things in his words that makes no sense to us. It doesn't make it right or wrong, it doesn't make it wrong, it makes us, in our thinking, wrong, we need to be transformed by God's wisdom, and not hold on to our own human wisdom, and we need to stop looking to our own power to save us, but rather, only to the power of God through Jesus Christ. Brings me to the second point, and that's the infinitude of God's wisdom and power. Is there anything he doesn't know? Is there anything he cannot do? This is our God. Look to him and be established and know that God knows all things, and can do all things.

And then, finally, the godly character of Daniel. How would you have done in that trial? If that had been you standing there before Arioch, and the moment of truth arises, how would you be? Would you be swept away or do you have a root system strong enough to trust God for the amazing and for the miraculous? Do you have faith enough? Are you trusting God for something only God can do? Faith enough to trust God for a supernatural moving, and a demonstration of his glory. And do you have courage enough to stand firm even if your very life is threatened?

And where does that courage come from? It comes from God. How are you in a crisis? Think about the last time you were in a crisis, how did you do? Did you start to feel the roots swaying and getting swept out from under you or did you stand firm? That's a time of testing. And then, finally, Daniel's compassion, his wisdom, his winsomeness, his gentleness, his compassion, all of it comes out here.

This is Daniel's character. I want to conclude by going back to the greeting that the wise man gave to the king. You remember what it was? "O king, live forever." I believe that that's what God cares about here with Nebuchadnezzar, he wants Nebuchadnezzar truly to live forever. And where is eternal life found? Is it not in the kingdom of the rock cut out but not by human hands we're going to learn about next time? The kingdom of Jesus Christ, a kingdom which will never end, that there is eternal life in his name. Will you live forever? Death is coming for us all. We should all be fearing the one who, after death, can destroy both soul and body in hell. But through faith in Christ, we can live forever. That's the point of Daniel 2, and Daniel 3, and Daniel 4, that Nebuchadnezzar might have eternal life, and that we also, through these words, may have the same. Do you have eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ? If not, today is a day of salvation, call on his name. Won't you close with me in prayer?

I'd like to ask now that you take your Bibles and open to Daniel 1. Today, we're going to begin our look at Daniel. Last week we had an overview, a time to look across the whole 16 or 12 chapters of Daniel and see what God is saying in a large sense there, but today we're going to begin in earnest and with a little more care to look at Daniel 1.

Our first President, George Washington, said this, said, "Very few men have the character to withstand the highest bidder." Very few men have the character to withstand the highest bidder. What that means is that all of us have character flaws and weaknesses that if the temptations were strong enough, we would cave in and even more when there's positions of power, prestige, money at stake. It's very hard to stand firm and to be an uncompromising man or woman in that situation. Number of years ago, right after I graduated from college, I went across the country with a friend of mine, and we went out to out west and we were in Wyoming, the Grand Tetons, and we decided to go whitewater rafting in the Snake River. I don't know why I did this. This is the foolishness of youth. I'll never do it again, but I did it that one time. And this was a powerful river, the Snake River, and I was a total novice and had no business being in an inflatable raft bouncing from rock to rock down that river, but that's where I was, I fell out twice, thankfully I was pulled back in both times. But as I was in the river, and it was cold I felt the pull of the current, incredible pull. And there is in whitewater river, just an amazing force that sucks you where you don't want to go.

And that's the way I see the world today, in reference to the Christian church. There is a powerful influence on us pulling us where we do not want to go. Do you feel it? Do you feel it getting stronger? And it's here. And Daniel 1 gives us an insight into how we must stand firm against that whitewater pull toward the rocks of destruction or fruitlessness in our Christian life. The focus is on Daniel and on his character, but I don't want to miss the point because the real focus is on the God of Daniel. And He who gave Daniel the courage and the conviction to stand firm. Number of years ago there was a movie entitled Chariots of Fire, many of you saw it. It was about a Scottish missionary who took time away from his mission work to prepare and train himself for the Olympic Games, and he ended up winning a gold medal in the 400 meters, a great movie and a great story, but as he was trying to decide whether he wanted to go in for this training and take time away from the work of God to do this he was exhorted by one of his mentors to do it. And he was exhorted to give himself fully to it, whatever he did, he should put his hand to the plow and work at it with all his might and with all his strength and that's what he did. And in giving him this exhortation he said, "Compromise is the language of the devil." Compromise is the language of the devil.

And I fear that we've become fluent in the church today, we cave in too easily. As with George Washington, we sell out to the highest bidder and we need to return to our roots, we need to return to the Scriptures and to the kind of strength of character it would take to say no to this whitewater pull and that is in Daniel 1. Look along with me as I read the words of this chapter.

"In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah, Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came to Jerusalem and besieged it. And the Lord delivered Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand along with some of the articles from the temple of God. These he carried off to the temple of his god in Babylonia, and put in the treasure house of his god. Then the king ordered Ashpenaz, chief of the court officials to bring in some of the Israelites from the royal family and the nobility, young men without any physical defect, handsome, showing aptitude for every kind of learning, well-informed, quick to understand and qualified to serve in the king's palace. He was to teach them the language and the literature of the Babylonians. The king assigned them a daily amount of food and wine from the king's table. They were to be trained for three years and after that they were to enter the king's service. Among these were some from Judah. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. The chief official gave them new names: To Daniel the name Belteshazzar, to Hananiah Shadrach, to Mishael Meshach and to Azariah Abednego. But Daniel resolved not to defile himself with the royal food and wine. And he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself this way. Now, God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel, but the official told Daniel, 'I am afraid of my lord the king who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you.' Daniel then said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah, 'please test your servants for 10 days, give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see.' So he agreed to this and tested them for 10 days. At the end of the 10 days, they looked healthier and better nourished than any of the young men who ate the royal food. So the guard took away their choice food and the wine they were to drink and gave them vegetables instead. To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds. At the end of the time set by the king to bring them in the chief official presented them to Nebuchadnezzar, the king talked with them and he found none equal to Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. So they entered the king's service, in every matter of wisdom and understanding about which the king questioned them, he found them 10 times better than all the magicians and enchanters in his whole kingdom and Daniel remained there until the first year of King Cyrus."

Now, Daniel is a historical book. And last week, we talked about the division of the book of Daniel into two section. Chapters 1-6 is the historical section with visions and other information in there but it's a recounting of Daniel's history in Babylon. And chapter 7-12 is the apocalyptic visions of the future which God granted to Daniel in order that we may know the things to come.

Now, in this first section, we have to understand therefore the context of Daniel 1. Now, I covered this last time, but it's good for a review. God had caused the people to come into the promised land, the Jewish people. He gave them the land on condition that they obey the Covenant, on condition that they obey the laws of Moses which he had granted them, that they should not worship the gods of stone and wood, the idols which were in the land of Canaan before them. But the people consistently rebelled and disobeyed, they consistently bowed down to idols and worshipped them. And so after the kingdom had been divided into two parts: North and South, Israel and Judah, He deported the northern kingdom Israel, at the power of the Assyrian nation simply because of their sinfulness.

He gave the Southern Kingdom Judah and Benjamin some time to repent. They had some good kings and some bad kings but for the most part, they had fallen also into idolatry. There was a cycle of rebellion, a cycle of warning and of rejection of those warnings and the final straw may have come when king Manasseh one of the descendants of David took some of his own sons who were also descendants of David and sacrificed them to Molech, detestable god of the Sidonians. God never forgot and never forgave the people for this. And so through the mouth of Jeremiah the prophet he said that because of the sins of Manasseh and because of all of the accumulated sin he was going to deport them and exile them to Babylon. And so it came about that Nebuchadnezzar came to that region. First before conquering Israel however he had to deal with Egypt. Egypt overshadowed that area. Egypt was the military power of that region, Israel was a minor kingdom, a minor area, not a major power to be dealt with. Egypt was the major power. And so Nebuchadnezzar in command of his army came down and defeated Pharaoh Neco at Carchemish and then turned back up and headed up toward Jerusalem.

Now, Jerusalem as a city is very difficult to conquer. There are deep valleys and ravines all around, and they were strongly protected walls. And so it was going to be no small thing for Nebuchadnezzar to conquer and to defeat Jerusalem. The problem was though behind those walls, was nothing but rottenness. There was no power, no strength, no conviction or courage to stand on those walls. And so in the end without even a battle at this point, they opened their gates and allowed Nebuchadnezzar to come in and he deposed the king, he put up a puppet king in his place and at this point he took some of the vessels of the temple and some of the young men of noble blood and deported them to Babylon and Daniel was included in this.

Now Daniel and his friends were deported and this was a bleak situation in the history of Israel. But it was even more difficult for God Himself. Understand that God had married His name to these people, these people were His people, He even used marriage imagery. There was a bonding between God's people and His holy name. And so for Him to deport His people, exile them out of the promised land was a catastrophe for His reputation in the world, and He knew it. But He had to do it because it's the very thing He said He would do. God is concerned about His name, He's concerned about His glorious majestic name and His reputation, it matters to Him what people think about Him, and not because He's vain or conceited but because our salvation depends on our estimation of His name, does it not? Everyone who calls on the what? The name of the Lord will be saved. And there is a reputation, a history of God throughout history of what He has done throughout history, and that's what we're calling on Him for. He is the God we're calling and so if His name is sullied or trod in the mud in any way, it affects salvation. Joel 2:32, "Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved."

This is what God says about His holy name. Malachi 1:11-14, "My name will be great among the nations from the rising of the sun to the place where it sets in every place incense and pure offerings will be brought to My name because My name will be great among the nations, says the Lord Almighty, for I am a great King, says the Lord Almighty, and My name is to be feared among the nations." This is the greatness of the name of God. But in the exile, God was in effect risking the damage to His name. And He deals with this in Ezekiel. Ezekiel lived at the same time as Daniel. And when dealing with the fact that some day God would regather a remnant and bring them back into the promised land after 70 years, He dealt with His motivation and He said, "My motivation is not your holiness, not even your benefit, but my holy name because my name has been defiled by you among the nations." Simply by the fact that you're there in Babylon. Simply by the fact that you had to be evicted from the promised land. Ezekiel 36:19-23. You really should read this on your own. Ezekiel 36 He says, "I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them, then the nations will know that I am the Lord declares the sovereign Lord, when I show Myself holy through you before their eyes."

So in effect, the deportation of the Jews created a crisis for the name of God, do you understand that? The fact that they were even there, created a problem for God's reputation and so God had to do something for His reputation. After 70 years, He would bring back a remnant and re-establish them, that would help, but within the context of Babylon, He had to raise up a remnant of godly people who would stand firm for His name, even in the godless pagan situation and that was Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. It also explains the incredible miracles that God did in that pagan situation with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace, with the incredible visions and dreams that Daniel was able to interpret. God was upholding His holy name and He does it through uncompromising servants.

In verses 3-7, we see the uncompromising Jewish youths, and they're introduced to us. Now Nebuchadnezzar's goal was to raise up some skilled subservient counselors. Some people who could give him wisdom and input as he governed a large empire, as he's conquering each of these lands, there are cultures that he's taking over. And the Assyrians had already perfected the art of deportation, they would take people up, uproot them from their home area, and bring them to another place, they had therefore no strength for rebellion, they were in a foreign land.

Furthermore, he would take some of those, the Assyrians did this all the time, some of them and bring them out, give them all the best of the land, the best of the training and use them as counselors over their own people. So that's exactly what Nebuchadnezzar wanted to do with these youths of noble blood. He was going to take them, he was going to train them, he was going to assimilate them. They would be Babylonian more than Jewish. And he would use their training for the glory of his own kingdom. Now, key to this was the determination to get them young. You've got to get them young, you see if they're older, they're already set in their ways. And so these were youths, teenagers, young men and he intended to brainwash them, I guess, it'd be the best way to put it, to attract them in the Babylonian ways and then to use their abilities.

He chose not only the young but only the best, royal blood, choice young men who were intelligent, quick witted, who were physically able and strong and he was going to use them and he was going to teach them Babylonian language and wisdom. The Babylonian language necessary for service in the court, of course, but also the language begins to affect your thinking. There is, in every language, a way of thinking, a worldview. And so it's going to be affected. Also Babylonian literature, their history, the things that they have done up to that point. They're going to be inculturated and they're going to be given the best of Babylonian knowledge. Science, military and agricultural knowledge, an incredible society. And in all these ways, these youth were going to be taken in and say, "Oh what a place is Babylon, that old land is nothing. Israel's nothing compared to this." They'll just be drawn in, buy into it. Hook, line and sinker. That was his plan and he was going to get them used to the good life, some luxuries, some comforts, food and wine from the king's table, and the promise of the most powerful intoxicant of all: Power and influence. We're going to give you a position in the court where you can influence things, and as a symbol of all of this, he would change their names.

The Meanings of the Names

Now, at the heart of the name change is not just a sense that old things have gone, everything has become new, there's part of that, but it also has a religious overtone. Each of the Jewish names had religious significance. Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah all meant things in the Hebrew language. Daniel meant God is judge or God is my judge. Hananiah meant Jehovah is gracious. Mishael meant who is what God is and Azariah means Jehovah has helped me. Jehovah has helped.

But now we've got some new names Babylonian names, filthy names really if you understand them. Belteshazzar means may Bel or Baal protect his life. You know Baal the Canaanite god, may this Canaanite god protect Daniel, and Shadrach means under the command of Aku. Aku is the moon god of the Babylonians. He's under orders from Aku. Meshach is a direct contest. You see Mishael who is what God is, Meshach is who is what Aku is. There's going to be a competition. We'll see. We've already beaten you on the battlefield, now we're going to beat you in every way imaginable. And then Abednego means servant of Nebo and Nebo, the son of the Babylonian god Baal.

And so, there's a religious conversion attempted here as well, and along with this is the food that they're going to eat. This is not just any food, this is food which had been sacrificed to these very gods and wine which have been offered to these very gods. There is a religious force being pulled, pulling on these folks like whitewater, powerful forces for change and compromise. These are young men, they're far from their home, they're torn from their family, they're treated kindly by their conquerors, that's the hardest part of all. They're given advantages, and benefits. They're given a bright future if they'll just tow the line, they're given the best of Babylonian education, their names are changed and their religion, hopefully changed as well. Who can stand against this kind of whitewater pull? But only he who God raises up, only he who God gives strength to and these four, God did that very thing. These are God's heroes. God's grace raises them up for such a time as that, that they might stand firm and might exalt His holy name.

Now, in verses 8-17, we see Daniel's uncompromising example. Daniel lays out his values. They're tested and ultimately they triumph. Look at verse 8. In verse 8. That's the key verse. I have it printed on the front cover of your bulletin. Look what it says. "But Daniel resolved not to defile himself." Do you see that? Daniel resolved not to defile himself. That's my whole sermon's message right here. Don't defile yourself. Resolve and be determined that you may not defile yourself. That's what Daniel did. He resolved that he would not defile himself with the royal food and wine and he asked the chief official for permission not to defile himself in this way. This is a strong determination. The Hebrew word resolve means that he laid it on his heart. It's a firm determination he makes from his heart and the word defile is strong as well. It means to be polluted, to be defiled, to be polluted even spiritually polluted.

Now, can I say to you, it is impossible to resist a whitewater current, with wishy-washy determination. You've got to stand strong. You've got to say. "No, may it never be." If you say, "Well, not today. Not today." "Well then tomorrow." says the devil and he'll get you eventually, but if you say, "Absolutely not, I will not give in to sin. I will not wave the the white flag. I will not lose this war." That's a whole other thing. And Daniel had that kind of determination, he resolved in his heart that he would not defile himself. This was a measure of Daniel's love for God.

Our Savior Jesus Christ said, "If you love Me, you will obey what I command." There is no separation between Jesus as Savior and Jesus as Lord, it's impossible. If you love Jesus you'll obey Him, and Daniel loved his God and he obeyed Him. Now, what were Daniel's reasons for not eating this food and drinking this wine? Well, first of all, there was the Levitical law, he was still under the law of the old covenant and there were rules about certain meats that you could not eat. And Daniel didn't know the origins of these meats, they just came as meat. Sometimes perhaps he could tell what it was and it was clearly against the Levitical rules and regulations. How easy would it have been for him to say that's passed now, we're out of the promised land does the law still count for us? What could it hurt to eat a little bit? What could it hurt to just take some of it? Besides I'm very hungry and it looks good. There's a pull there, temptation. But more than that this food, as I mentioned, had been offered to these detestable gods. Perhaps if they're going to be training these youth, they're even there when the offering is going on. So that they can observe and start to take part in the Babylonian system of religion.

Now, idols are nothing, they are nothings, they don't exist. They're stone carvings and wood carvings but behind every idolatrous worship service, there is a demonic presence that is real, so said the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians 10:20, "The sacrifices of pagans are offered to demons, not to God and I do not want you to be participants with demons." There's a spiritual force in that idolatrous worship and Daniel said I don't want to be part of it, this is evil, and he knew it, and he stood firm against it. But what's so beautiful in verse 8 and what starts to come out is not just Daniel's iron-clad resolution, but it's also his winsome manner. He is a very pleasant person, he's not offensive or obnoxious, he's actually very easy to get along with, as long as you don't force him to choose between you and his God. If you force that choice he's made that choice. I'll be your friend as long as you don't force me to choose between my God and you because if you force that choice I will choose God even to death. And so he goes in verse 8, and he asks permission, that he might not defile himself, isn't that interesting? "May I please not defile myself?"

He's trying to work within the system. Do you think he's ever going to defile himself? No. But he's trying to keep the relationship intact, gentle and firm manner. He has a burning zeal for God that cannot be dimmed but it also says in Romans 12:18, "If it is possible, as far as it depends on you live at peace with all men." And Daniel went well beyond that. I think he actually loved King Nebuchadnezzar. I think we're going to see that as this book unfolds. He actually had his heart wrapped up in these pagans, he wanted them to know God. He was a missionary and so he loved them and he yearned that they came to know God and so he was the picture of speaking the truth in love. But as much as he loved the Babylonians he loved God more.

Now, God orchestrates the whole situation in verse 9 it says, "Now God had caused the official to show favor and sympathy to Daniel." Now the fact that there was a Daniel at all, I believe is grace from God, God raised him up. But then God helps him out with His sovereign grace. And never think for a moment that God is not permitted to get into people's brains and influence the way they think, He does it time and time again in Scripture. What does it mean that God caused Daniel to find favor in their eyes except that they saw him a certain way and this was the lubrication that enabled him to do the things that he wanted to do.

He had friendships with these officials but there was an obstacle in verse 10, the official said, "I am afraid of my lord the king, who has assigned your food and drink. Why should he see you looking worse than the other young men your age? The king would then have my head because of you." You see life is cheap there. And Nebuchadnezzar was an autocrat, he was a tyrant, a dictator, he could at any time give the command, we'll see it in chapter two and the heads will roll. And so he was afraid and he said we have a problem here. What about my obligation to the king? And so then Daniel proposes a test. The test is accepted and the test is passed in verses 11-16, "Daniel said to the guard whom the chief official had appointed over Daniel, Hananiah, Mishael, Azariah, please test your servants for 10 days, give us nothing but vegetables to eat and water to drink. Then compare our appearance with that of the young men who eat of the royal food and treat your servants in accordance with what you see."

Now, where in the world did he get this idea? John Calvin a commentator on this text says he got it from God. And that it would have been presumptuous for him to propose such a test if God had not led him. You don't throw yourself off the pinnacle of the temple unless God tells you to do so that He will command His angels concerning you and they'll lift you up in their hands but if God has not given that command you don't throw yourself off the temple. And so, I believe, it doesn't say so in the text, but knowing what I know about Daniel, he was a man of prayer, and I think he under the influence and the leadership of the Spirit, he proposed this test and the test was accepted. And notice he doesn't propose it to Ashpenaz but to the guy under Ashpenaz said, "Let's not get Ashpenaz in trouble." There's no reason to be concerned here. If we end up looking better at the end of the 10 days, then Ashpenaz will actually look good. So let's just work it out between the two of us. You give us vegetables and water and then see how we looked, let's try it out. Vegetables and water only. Now, by the way, that's not a bad resolution, New Year's is coming up and maybe for more than just 10 days it might be of some benefit to you to eat nothing but vegetables and water.

But I think there's something deeper going on here. Isn't the way you eat a kind of a symbol of your life, the way you live your life. If you don't withhold from yourself anything that you like, aren't you really just living for luxury? Isn't this the function of fasting in the Christian life so that we may discipline our appetites. People who live for nothing but their appetite, it says in Philippians 3, "Their God is their stomach." And so it ends up being a symbol of the way you live your life. Daniel was not living his life for luxury and comfort, didn't matter to him, he was living his life for God, and that was enough for him, that was enough for him and so said, "I'm going to say good-bye to all that luxurious, delicious food. I'm going to say good-bye to a lifestyle of comfort and ease, and I'm going to venture out in faith and I'm going to eat vegetables and I'm going to drink water."

Well, at the end of the 10 days. God blessed lavishly. They looked incredibly well. Perhaps, the others were a little sickly. God can orchestrate these things as they just line them up and say "Boy, it's clear, it's obvious the difference. Obvious." And so the first reward from God is just the success of the test. But then God lavishes on them besides verse 17, it says, "To these four young men, God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning and Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds." Now, all four of them were blessed with insights and wisdom and understanding.

Now, I know for you college students, this is an important thing. Alright, especially this week. You've got tests coming up. Have any of you said to your professors, "Now test your servants for 10 days and see if we pass the test." They didn't ask your permission. They're testing your wisdom, your insights, your knowledge. But the Scripture says these things come from God, these things come from God. They're gifts from God, every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights who doesn't change like shifting shadows. He is capable of opening your minds and giving you clear thinking. For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things, including wisdom and understanding. So God gave it to them, and then He gave to Daniel a special gift. And this gift sets up the rest of the book, doesn't it? Daniel has an ability to interpret prophetically visions and dreams, mysteries, and through that gift God opens up to all of us the history of the world. Incredible. And so, Daniel 1 sets the stage for the rest of the book.

Now, in verses 18-21, we see uncompromising servants strategically positioned for God. Graduation day comes, the three years is over and they have to stand before the king. And he asked them questions, he tests them like an oral exam and as he does this, he finds that there's no one in all his kingdom with the kind of insight and understanding and ability that these four Jewish youths, these teenagers, had. Now, King Nebuchadnezzar was a young man at this point. Very gifted himself, very intelligent and very open-minded in this regard. He could tell who was better and who wasn't. He wasn't blindly partisan or loyal to his own people. He could tell that these Jewish youths had it all over his own people. He said that they were... The Hebrew says 10 hands better, that means 10 times better than any that he could find among his counselors.

But you see, God's strategy in all this, strategic planning. He's raising them up and he's going to position them in the kingdom to influence matters for his own people and for history and that they might serve as a mouthpiece for God in a strategic way, but we also see, God's patient timing as well, because it's not time for that yet, not yet, just that a seed is planted in Nebuchadnezzar's mind, "Boy, they're better than anybody I've seen." At the end of chapter two, they get their positions of power and authority and influence, after all of that, with a dream, which we'll begin to cover next week.

Daniel’s Endurance by God’s Sustaining Grace (vs. 21)

And then finally, in verse 21, we see the endurance by God's sustaining grace. Verse 21, it says, "Daniel remained there until the first year of king Cyrus." Now, without a knowledge of history, you have no idea just how long this is. But he began his training, probably in the year 602 BC, and King Cyrus raised to power 536 BC, that's 65 years of service in the Babylonian and then the Medo-Persian empires. Sixty-five years. And it's not easy to stand firm with politics swirling all around you, you might lose your life at any time. Intrigue, maybe cloak and daggers things, assassinations, plots. And these things did happen to Daniel as we'll see in chapter 6, and God enabled him to stand firm, even through the change of an entire regime. That never happens. If you are a high official in the old regime and then the new one comes in, you're gone. But through God's grace, he stood there and remained firm.

Now, what applications can we take from this chapter? The first is to exalt and glorify God for His sovereign grace. It's easy for us to put Daniel up on the pedestal here but let's not do that, let's put God where He belongs. God does all things for the glory of His own name. It was God's sovereign power that raised Daniel up and made him a hero. It was God who gave Daniel his courage and uncompromising convictions. It was God who gave Daniel his wisdom and his intelligence. It was God who gave Daniel his winsome personality. It was God who gave Daniel friendships with key Babylonian officials. It was God who gave Daniel three godly friends to help him in his ministry. It was God who gave Daniel the idea of the 10-day test and then saw to it that the test was successful. It was God who gave his friends and he special insight, wisdom and intelligence 10 times better than anyone else, and it was God who gave to Daniel the special ability to interpret dreams and visions that no one else could do. And so, what does this mean? All of these things come from God.

Are they attractive to you? Then be a spiritual beggar. Go to God and ask Him for them. Ask Him for each one of these things, including the character to stand firm against whitewater. I want to say a word right now to teenagers, to maybe some teenagers in our midst today. Daniel was just a teenager maybe 13, 14, 15 years old. His whitewater peer pressure, cultural pressure, was no less than yours. And he stood firm and did not cave in. He did not cave in to what everyone wanted him to do. Yet he was winsome, he had friends, but he didn't need to be like them. What mattered to him was pleasing God above all things. Also, realize that Daniel was still a teenager when he interpreted the dream of the king in chapter two, don't just sit back and wait for life to come to you. These are some of your best years of service to God. When you're free from responsibilities, you could be a warrior for Christ, both young men and young women. You could be free to serve Him with all your time, to witness for Christ. You can understand theology at some of the deepest levels. I'm speaking to youth.

This morning, we studied about Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus. How old was she when this news came to her? Just a teenage girl. Don't underestimate what God can do through you, if you make yourself available to Him. Also, I think for all of us, we need to note Daniel's uncompromising leadership. We need leaders like this, don't we? Don't we need leaders like this? Americans, don't we need leaders like this? Daniel was an uncompromising leader. He had visions and principles that were unwavering and he would not cave in no matter what, on these things. And he was an influencer of others, wasn't he? I think he influenced Shadrach or Hananiah, Mishael and Azariah. He influenced them, perhaps converted them to his ways. And so, he had allies. Who are you older people influencing for Christ? Are you mentoring anybody? Have you taken somebody under your wing and you're training them and bestowing on these younger folks, the wisdom and knowledge you've gained over the years? Very thing that's commanded. 2 Timothy 2 and other places. We need you to do it.

He was an influencer and a leader. And also, note the well-balanced aspect of his life. He was in the world, but not of it. He had all the wisdom, college students, of the Babylonians, all of it, but he was able to discern between good and evil. He was able to see what was right among the wisdom of the Babylonians and what was not. He was sifting through and when he got done, the wisdom didn't defile him any more than the food would've. There are twin dangers in the Christian life in terms of the world. Retreat from it or total immersion in it. We can't do either one. We've got to be the salts and light. If the salt loses its saltiness, it's worthless. But if it's in the world, it can do the salt that God intended it to be. We have a crying need for this in our own day. We need leaders who will stand up, who will take the wisdom of the Babylonians, sift it through and use what God gives us, our position for His glory. How do you get there? Well, where are you now? Be faithful in little, and you'll be faithful in much. Whatever small amount God has given you now, be faithful there now, today, through prayer, through fasting, through the knowledge of the word and God will raise you up to the next level, step by step, just like with Daniel.

I want to close with a word to those of you who have not committed your life to Christ. God is a pure God. He's holy and righteous. He expects us to stand firm against the whitewater. And the whitewater and the pull are those things that lead to destruction. It says very plainly, because of these things God's wrath is coming. We must stand firm, but there is no other name under heaven, given to men, by which we may be saved from sin. Jesus came into the world to save from sin. That is the message of Christmas and not just the penalty of sin, but all of the influence of sin in our lives. Through Christ and through Christ alone, you can have eternal life and the power to say no to temptation. Won't you close with me in prayer?

We are going to be taking a broad look this morning at the entire Book of Daniel, so we're not focused on any one section, we're going to try to understand it's message as a whole.

Recently, I was watching a television program called Nova, it's a science program and they have some cosmologists. Those are people who study the universe and astronomers, who gaze at the stars, and they are trying to analyze the things that they're learning, the things that they're seeing, and the general trend of cosmology, the study of the universe right now, is toward that of an accelerating universe. In other words, a universe is accelerating away from itself, away from a common point of origin. It's going faster and faster. So I don't know if any of this is true. Science changes its paradigms, major paradigms, every generation, if not more frequently than that. But it's interesting, they had one cosmologist, one physicist that at the end, and he was just thinking about where it was leading, thinking about the future. And he said, "If this is true and if history goes on for a long time, there'll come a point when you'll go out at night and look up and you won't see any stars." There'll be nothing up there.

Now, I already know what the Bible says about that. The stars are going to fall from the sky, etcetera, at the end of the world. But he, as he looked at it, he said, "This is a very dark and dreary end to history. No starlight, only perhaps, the planets that are in the solar system." And he seemed pretty shaken by it, although it was pretty clear, he wasn't going to be around at that point and he knew that, but he said, "It's kind of a dark end." And I thought about it, about the tendency we have to look ahead to the future, to look on to see what's coming and perhaps even to be somewhat apprehensive about it.

And I believe, it's for this very reason, we need to understand the God of the Book of Daniel. A God who declares the end from the beginning, a God who has all of history in his hand, a God who understands where we're going, and a God who has revealed some of it to us. Recently, I've been reading about a theological debate. Most of you aren't that concerned with theological debates, but I found it interesting. And debates in theology and academic circles, after a while, begins to affect the local church. Give it a little while, it starts to come in.

And there's this one man named Greg Boyd, and he's teaching something called the openness of God. The idea that God does not know the end from the beginning. He only reacts to things as they come to him, and he is so sovereign, so powerful, that he can handle anything that comes. And he put these views in a book called The God of the Possible. And what it does is, it elevates human decision, the free agency of human beings above all other things, and in effect says, whatever we decide goes and God reacts to it, and he's able to weave his plan around decisions that he doesn't know what they're going to be ahead of time. That's why he can't know the end from the beginning because we are free in our decisions and our choices.

The Book of Daniel clearly refutes this view. The Book of Daniel posits not a dark end to the universe, but a glorious end, in which all those who are righteous, who have trusted in Christ will be resurrected and will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. And it does not posit a God who has no idea where we're going, but rather a God who's very clearly laid out the road map and declared it in Scripture. And there may be no book in all the Bible that demonstrates this more clearly than the Book of Daniel.

Henry Ford, who invented the American production of automobiles, the whole approach that we take, and was a genius in automotive engineering, had this to say about history. Now, I said all that about Henry Ford because he wasn't a historian. But this is what he said. He said, "History is bunk." Now, what does that mean? It means, as we look back at where, what's gone on to this point, we can't make any sense of it. It's just this swirling mass of events. There's no rhyme, there's no reason, there's no story. It's nothing. And then, we take our time on the stage and we do a bunch of meaningless things and then we disappear, and then the next generation takes over. History is bunk.

The Scripture does not declare this at all, but rather that history is His story, the story of Jesus Christ, the story of God himself. And he is unfolding his character and his plan, generation by generation. He says in the Book of Revelation 22:13, "I am the Alpha and the Omega. I am the first and the last. I am the beginning and the end." Well, the beginning and end of what? Well, of everything. The beginning and end of your life, the beginning and end of history, the beginning and end of everything that has been created. All things were created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

And it is the unique glory of our God, the God of the Bible, to know history before it happens. It sets him apart from us. It sets him apart from all the false gods. It is his unique glory that he knows what's going to happen tomorrow before it happens. He knows what you're going to say before a word has even formed on your tongue, Psalm 139. He knows in detail, long before it comes to pass. And so, he said in Isaiah 46:9-10, "Remember the former things, those of long ago. I am God and there is no other. I am God and there is none like me. I make known the end from the beginning, from ancient times what is still to come. I say, my purpose will stand and I will do all that I please." That is our God. And as I think about that Nova program, if Greg Boyd is right, and God does not know the end from the beginning. Now, I think that's a terrifying universe to live in.

A terrifying universe. And it gets very personal and practical, because all of you are wondering, "What's my history? What's going to happen to me? And is there a God who can hold it all together?" The answer of the Book of Daniel is, "Yes, there is." There is a wise, a powerful God who is working out and unfolding his plan in a great scale and on a micro scale as well.

One time Sunday evening, we were having a time in which people were just sharing from portions of Scripture and just sharing Scriptures that were their favorite Bible passage. And people stood up and shared all different kinds of verses, and then when I got up to teach, someone said, "Well, Pastor, what's your favorite verse of the Bible? Or what's your favorite section of Scripture?" And the other people started to laugh because I say every time I preach, "This is my favorite book of the Bible."

Daniel is my favorite book of the Bible. I love this book because I love the God that it displays, his majesty and his sovereignty. I love the themes in the Book of Daniel. I love what we can learn from Daniel himself, but far greater what we can learn from Daniel's God. I love the Book of Daniel, and I'll keep loving it in front of you as long as I get to preach it. I love this message and I hope you will, too.

Now, in order to understand Daniel, we have to understand it in historical context. Against Henry Ford, history is not bunk, but there is an unfolding of events that led up to Daniel 1:1. And we need to understand them.

We know that Abraham, the father of the Jewish Nations was called out of Ur of the Chaldeans. Very interesting. Ur of the Chaldeans is Babylonia, it's the same place to which these exiles were being brought. In effect, God was saying "after all their history, you're back where you started, back in paganism, back in idolatry." But Abraham was called out of idolatry to separate out for himself a people for his own name and for his own glory.

Abraham had a son in his old age, Isaac. Isaac had a son Jacob. Jacob had 12 sons. One of those sons, Joseph was sold as a slave into Egypt. And there, by the hand of God and by his supernatural power to interpret the future through dreams, he was raised to a position of power and authority in a pagan land, Egypt. Very similar to what happened to Daniel. Very similar.

And because of a famine, all of the tribes, the 12 tribes came into Egypt and they lived there for over four centuries. And then, at the right time, after they'd been sold into slavery and been oppressed, they were led out of Egypt by God's mighty right hand, and his outstretched arm, by miracles and power, led out of Egypt.

And they were given the law, which they immediately broke. And one of the commandments is that they should make no idols nor should they worship any idols, and they should have no other god besides God. And yet, they made a golden calf the very day that Moses was coming down with the Ten Commandments. And so, the trend and the pattern was set. They would not believe God and they would not enter the promised land, and so for 40 years, one full generation, they wandered in the desert until finally, the time came, and Joshua led the people into the promised land. But right before he did, Moses gave the law one more time. The Book of Deuteronomy is that second law giving.

And as he declared to these people, he told them "you about to enter the promised land; you must obey my commandments, because if you do not obey my commandments, I will evict you from this land, and I will expel you to a far country, a pagan country, where you will worship false gods and idols and bow down to them and serve them because you would not worship me." And so, the Book of Deuteronomy laid it all out ahead of time before it ever happened.

God knows the end from the beginning. He told them what would happen. He taught it to them in the Song of Moses. And as these people lived it out over history, they did not heed the warning. And so, God sent prophets, one after the other, saying, "You must repent. You must not bow down and worship idols" one after another, but they would not listen. And the northern kingdom of Israel, after the people had separated it into two, they were carried off into bondage by the Assyrian army.

God kept his remnant, Judah and Benjamin, and gave them another 150 years, gave them time to repent, but they would not. And that brings us to the beginning of the Book of Daniel. After all the prophetic warning about idolatry and about turning away from God, they still would not listen, but stubbornly went their own way. And so, God brought the Babylonian army right to the gates of Jerusalem. They were led by a man named Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar had a great father, Nabopolassar. Nabopolassar was able to organize the Chaldean people to be a stronger and stronger force within the Assyrian empire, got to the point where they were able to take over politically and even militarily, the whole Assyrian empire.

But they had wider ambitions than that. And so, they started to head down toward Egypt, down to that fertile land, and they went through Palestine. Nebuchadnezzar was the army, the leader of the army, the general of the army; his father, the king. And he, Nebuchadnezzar defeated Pharaoh Necho at Carchemish, defeated him on the battlefields. And then came right up to the walls of Jerusalem, and then received news that his father Nabopolassar had died and he was now king of the Babylonian empire. This is Nebuchadnezzar. And Nebuchadnezzar was invited into the city, the holy city of Jerusalem, there was, as far as I can see, no battle fought at that point. City was not destroyed yet. It happened in stages and one of those stages, the Judean youth, some of the nobles, Daniel included, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, were brought into exile to Babylon, along with some of the articles of the temple of the Lord.

And that is the context into which Daniel is spoken. Daniel was a Jewish youth, just a teenager at that point, living in a pagan land, surrounded by pagan temptations and it was going to be very difficult for him to live out a godly lifestyle. But with the opening up and the conquering of Jerusalem, and eventually the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the Babylonian empire, with that began what Jesus later called the times of the Gentiles. In Luke 21:24, it says... This is the words of Jesus Christ, "Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

Now, what are the times of the Gentiles? It's the time in which the Gentile nations are in control politically of the promised land, and it's extended right up to this present time. The Jews do not have absolute sovereign authority over Jerusalem. We know that from the Dome of the Rock, and from all the struggle that goes on right up to this present time. These are still the times of the Gentiles and they began here and now, at this time, Daniel 1. And this is the context of the Book of Daniel.

Now, as we look across the whole 12 chapters of Daniel, what are the major themes that we're going to see? A number of them, and as I was sitting in a pew there before I began to preach, I thought of one or two more. This is a rich, rich book.

Supernaturally Accurate Predictive Prophecy

The first is the whole issue of supernaturally, accurate, predictive prophecy. Supernaturally accurate predictive prophecy.

For example, the exact order of the kingdoms that followed the Babylonian empire, what would come next? The coming of Alexander the Great. Over 300 years before he was born, clearly predicted in Daniel 8, the coming of Antiochus Epiphany is a Greek king who most of you perhaps many of you have never heard of, a very minor figure in world history. And his very small importance and the detail to which the book of Daniel goes into describe his reign is breathtaking; it's written 300 or 400 years before it happened. And it's a stumbling block for those who deny supernatural prophecy.

But more than any of this, is the coming of the kingdom of the Messiah Jesus Christ, clearly prophesied in Daniel 2, a stone cut out but not by human hands which would fill the whole world, the coming kingdom of Jesus Christ which will move and expand to conquer the whole world, so that all nations, people from every tribe and language and people and nation just as Kyle stated is going to happen. Because the whole world will be Christ's Kingdom, all of this laid out very accurately in the book of Daniel.

Battle for the Bible: “Daniel in the Critics’ Den”

The second major theme, therefore, has to be the battle for the Bible. Critics have attacked Daniel because it's too accurate; it's too perfect. And so therefore they think it must have been written afterwards. There's no way that anyone can know this kind of detail. And so we have rather than Daniel in the lions' den, we have something called Daniel in the critic's den. Can the book of Daniel itself survive the attacks and the criticisms? We're going to be talking about this. And as I go through and I preach I'm going to try to do my best to bring out attacks that liberals have made against the Scripture and to refute them; every one of them can be refuted.

But more than anything I think we need to understand that this book will always be spoken against because of what it talks about and how clear it is. If Daniel is in fact a pious forgery written after the fact, then Scripture starts to tumble, and I think eventually your salvation with it.

Daniel’s Godly Character

A third major theme is the theme of Daniel's godly character. Daniel is a role model for us, as we see him living his life surrounded by pagan values and pagan temptations and a pagan culture and pagan power and see him standing firm for the lord. And standing with zeal but with a tenderness, with a winsomeness, with a winning personality.

We have a role model for where I perceive America to be heading. We need to be Daniels; we need to be willing to stand up in the middle of our culture just as Daniel was. He was an uncompromising man in an age of compromise, and that's what we need more than anything. He was also a humble man of prayer and Scripture intake. He was a man who devoted himself three times a day to getting down on his knees and praying to God every day. And he did it his whole life.

He was a man who knew the Scriptures; he studied carefully the prophecy of Jeremiah and knew that within 70 years, at the end of 70 years that a remnant would return. He did this by Bible study. So he was a man of prayer; he was a man of personal Bible study. He was also a man of self discipline in terms of his personal habits as we see in Daniel Chapter 1.

God’s Sovereign Control Over All Nations and All History

Fourth major theme is God's sovereign control over all nations and all history. World history is traced out on a grand scale here. We see armies marching over large tracts of land, whole empires being built up rising up to an incredible height and then being crushed and destroyed by the next empire. There is nothing too big for the God of all history; there's no movement of troops too large for him to handle. As a matter of fact he is actually orchestrating all of this for his own glory and for the coming of the kingdom of his Son, Jesus Christ. And we also see with the whole story and the detail, the accurate detail about Antiochus Epiphanes and how he would rise and how he would fall.

We see God actually micro managing and caring for small details; big tapestries are woven together with small threads. God knows that, and he's able to, to even control the casting of a lot, or a sparrow falling to the ground to bring the whole big picture apart.

God’s Glorified by His Personal Dealings With Gentile Rulers

Fifthly, we see God's glorified by his personal dealings with Gentile kings and leaders. There are many expressions of praise in the book of Daniel coming from the lips of mighty Gentile potentates. Nebuchadnezzar does most of it. In Daniel 2 he praises God, in Daniel 3 he praises God, in Daniel 4 he praises God twice, both at the beginning of the chapter and at the end. And then when his time to worship and to praise the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob is over, he raises up Darius the Mede who praises God in Daniel 6. The praise and worship and adoration of Gentile pagan leaders is prophesied in Isaiah 52, "Kings will hear him and will shut their mouths and bow down before him." It's fulfilled right here in our pages.

We also see God's amazingly gracious dealings with Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 4, and in 2 and 3, and how he unfolds just dealing with this tyrant, and deals with him in power and for his glory. Nebuchadnezzar humbled and then exalted perhaps even to heaven. But then we also see contrastingly, the shockingly immediate destruction of Belshazzar, perhaps his grandson, as they're in the middle of a drunken feast and the writing comes on the wall and that very night Belshazzar's life is required of him.

This is our God; this is how he deals, graciously with one and immediately with another. He is sovereign and not to be trifled with. And we see also the miraculous vindication of Daniel before Darius and the friendship that Daniel had both with Nebuchadnezzar and with Darius.

The Deity and Glorious Kingdom of the Coming Messiah

But more than any of these themes, we see the majesty, and the glory, and the splendor of the coming kingdom of Christ the Messiah. Perhaps most clearly explained his deity in anywhere in the old testament, Daniel 7. Christ kingdom clearly prophesied in Nebuchadnezzar's dream Daniel 2. Christ person perhaps seen in the fiery furnace in Daniel 3.

And then his kingdom proclaimed and his second coming glory in Daniel 7 with the image of the Son of Man.

Now as we look at the controversy over Daniel, we have to ask ourselves, what is at stake? All of the themes that I've just traced out for you are at stake. If the book of Daniel is a pious forgery then all of those things are shaken, and the Bible starts to tremble. But if Daniel really was written in the 6th century BC that's all, just if it was written then, then you have a rock to stand on which cannot be shaken.

You have a God who knows the end from the beginning. And who can even declare to you that if you trust in Jesus Christ your end will be glorious and nothing can take it away. That's the importance, that's what we're struggling with, that's what's at stake. The identity of Jesus Christ himself is at stake. Daniel testified to Jesus Christ and to his Kingdom. Jesus Christ testified back to Daniel and to his veracity, to his truthfulness, and so therefore the identity of Jesus Christ is at stake with the issue of this book, the Book of Daniel.

So also is the truthfulness of Scripture. Daniel purports itself to be history, doesn't it? We come to it and we read, and it just reads like history. If it was in fact written in the 2nd century BC it's a lie; it's all a lie. And how can we trust any other Scripture if that's true? William Newell put it this way, "If the keys of the Bible up to the book of Psalms hang on Moses books, then the rest of the Bible through revelation hang on the book of Daniel".

And Edwin Jenkins said this, "The best proof of the inspiration of Scripture is prophecy, but because the church has allowed false teachers to come in, prophecy has been neglected and laid aside. When this is done, the people fall prey to every wind of doctrine eventually disbelieving that the Bible is the Word of God. Prophecy is the most sturdy rung in the ladder of faith."

What else is at stake? Perhaps the proof of the existence and the identity of God himself. God has done this so that we may know that he exists, because we are time bound creatures and we can't even predict the weather right. We can't even get that right. So how can we know what's going to happen five, six, seven centuries later. But if there's a God who knows the end from the beginning and if it can be shown from history that God declared it long before it happened, then there is a God who should be worshipped and glorified, and who may have salvation for you, sinner though you may be. That is our God.

And that leads us to the fourth issue that's at stake, your own salvation. If you don't have a certain Scripture, and if you don't have a God who knows the end from the beginning, and you don't have a God who's sovereign then how do you know where you're going to spend eternity? How do you know what's going to happen to you? Your own salvation depends on this. And so we're going to deal with these critics we're going to take them on one at a time and we're going to answer them.

We're not going to spend too much time with them, why waste our time? Let's look at the glories of this inspired word from the Book of Daniel. One of the beautiful things about the Scripture is how it testifies to itself. People say that this Daniel never existed, say he's a fictitious mythological creature; nobody could ever be this way, this pious, courageous man who had the ability to interpret dreams and visions, to stand in the face of potentates courageously. It's a myth; he never existed.

But Ezekiel says he does. Ezekiel was a prophet who lived at the same time as Daniel; they may have been friends. They lived at the time of the exile to Babylon, and this is what Ezekiel wrote, in Ezekiel 14:14 and 20 it says, "Even if these three men Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, [namely the land] They could only save themselves by their righteousness, declares the sovereign Lord." So this Daniel that Ezekiel was writing about was a righteous man, and then later it says in Ezekiel 28:3, "Are you wiser than Daniel, is no secret hidden from you?"

So the Daniel that Ezekiel was writing about, not only is a righteous man but is able to understand mysteries; nothing is hidden from him. He's a wise man, who can even write about the deepest darkest secrets. Does that ring true? Absolutely. But all the more we have the testimony of Jesus Christ, who spoke of the second coming, and he spoke of the days of the antichrist, and he spoke also of the destruction of Jerusalem, and he laid it all at the words of this prophet Daniel.

"When you see standing in the holy place the abomination that causes desolation, spoken of through the prophet Daniel, let the reader understand. Then let those that are in Jerusalem flee to the mountains" and so he said.

Now what I propose to do at this point is to give you a brief overview of the contents of the book, so that you can see a big picture road map. The book breaks out into two sections, two main sections. Daniel 1-6 is a historical section; we just get the account of Daniel's dealings with pagan kings as he's in a court, his interactions with them one at a time. And then in Daniel 7-12 we have what we call apocalyptic visions, visions of the future.

The Historical Accounts: Daniel 1-6

Now in Daniel 1 we have established Daniel's uncompromising character. Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah are in the court and they're being trained by the Babylonians, and they're tempted to eat the food which has been sacrificed to idols but Daniel resolves that he will not do this. He resolves, Verse 7 in Chapter 1, that he will not defile himself with this food, and his resolution is upheld by God; his faith has been tested and tried and it stands firm. It says in Verse 17 " To these four young men God gave knowledge and understanding of all kinds of literature and learning. And Daniel could understand visions and dreams of all kinds."

So that sets up the rest of the book. But Daniel's character is tested and proved in Daniel 1. In Daniel 2 the king Nebuchadnezzar has an incredible dream, and as he dreams the dream he's terrified and he wants to get an interpretation to the dream, but he can't because none of his wise men are able to give him the meaning. And he threatens all of them with death until Daniel stands up with courage at that moment and says, "Give me some time and I will beseech the Lord, the God of heaven, and he will give me the secret."

And so he gets his friends around him and they have a prayer meeting; some prayer meetings are different than other prayer meetings. That was a fervent prayer meeting, and they were on their face because their lives were hanging in the balance, and they prayed and God gave them the revelation. And what was it a revelation of? Of all of human history until the coming of the Christ and the establishment of his kingdom. And God gave this vision to a pagan king in a dream, and to a Jewish youth in Babylon. But he really gave it to us so that we may know that God holds empires in his hand; he raises one up and casts another one down.

It's Daniel 2. In Daniel 3 Nebuchadnezzar, I believe, responds to the image that he had, that statue with the head of gold and chest of silver, and belly of bronze, and the legs of iron. Says "Oh, is that how it's going to go? If I am the head of gold I want the whole statue gold; the whole thing is going to be me. And not only that but everybody's got to bow down and worship me. And if you don't, I'm going to throw you in the fiery furnace." Well Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah refused to do it. I really wish you'd memorize those names instead of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. When I tell you what those names mean you'll want to remember Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah. But they refused and so they were thrown into the fiery furnace, but God protected them and one like a Son of the Gods, that's what they said but we know perhaps the Son of God himself, walked with them in the fiery furnace and drew them out miraculously.

Daniel 4, God humbles this mighty potentate. Lowers him lower than the dust, and for seven years Nebuchadnezzar acted like an animal, thought like an animal; he's insane, and he ate grass like a beast until at the end of the seven years he lifted his eyes toward heaven and acknowledged and humbled himself and acknowledged that mighty as he is, there is a king mightier than he. And that king is the very one God himself who raised Nebuchadnezzar up and put him on his throne, and he can take him off his throne any time he chooses. And so the whole chapter summed up with that statement, those who walk in pride God is able to humble, Daniel 4.

And then along comes Nebuchadnezzar's grandson Belshazzar. He forgets all the lessons that his father had learned, at the hands of this merciful and powerful God. And he goes and gets those articles that were taken out of the temple and he says, "Let's have a feast. And let's worship the gods of wood and clay and stone and iron, and let's use these vessels from the temple of the God of Israel to do so." And so they're having a drunken feast and in the middle of it, the writing on the wall comes. Have you ever used that expression, "you saw the writing on the wall"? Well Belshazzar saw it that night. The hands came and the writing went but no one could read it, and so they brought Daniel in to read it and Daniel stood there and read that prophecy. That very night, that very night Belshazzar's soul was required of him. He died at the hands of the Medes and the Persians, and Babylon fell; mighty empire ended forever, Daniel 5.

Well it's a new regime, the Medes and the Persians are in charge. What happened to Daniel? God saw to it that Daniel was influential there as well. The problem was that the other Medes and Persians, the other officials were upset and angry that he had the confidence of Darius the Mede, and so they started a plot against Daniel but they could find nothing wrong with his life. They looked carefully at him, but there were no skeletons in his closet. Don't you wish we had a man like that to run for an office in our land. There's no skeletons; they can't find anything wrong with this man except that it might have something to do with his God because he seems to worship him all the time and to serve him and to praise him and to pray. And so they orchestrate, they trick the king, probably he was a young man at the point into having for one month everybody just pray to him. Daniel refused to do it and so he's thrown into the lions' den, but God sent his angel and he rescued Daniel from the lions' den. And that ends the historical section, chapters 1-6.

The Apocalyptic Visions: Daniel 7-12

In chapter 7-12 we have a series of visions that God gave to Daniel. Apocalyptic, end time visions and the greatest of all of them is in Daniel 7. It's a vision of one like a Son of Man. The Ancient of Days is seated on his thrown; it's judgment day. And then into the presence of the Ancient of Days comes one like a Son of Man. He is not the Ancient of Days, but he's one like the Ancient of Days in that he comes right into his presence and then people from every tribe and language and people and nation fall down and worship the Son of Man. Who is this Son of Man? It is none other than the second person of the trinity, Jesus Christ. He is not God the Father, but he comes into the presence of God the Father and receives worship from people from every tribe and language and people and nation; all of it predicted six centuries before he was born. Jesus Christ is deity and it's proclaimed clearly in Daniel 7.

In Daniel 8 we have a clear prediction of the coming of Alexander the great and it's because of Alexander the great all of you that are in seminary that you study Greek; it's because of him. Because he conquered all of that area, Palestine and all of it. And he did it incredibly quickly, and then at the height of his power he died. His power was broken off and divided into four, among his four generals, just like Daniel 8 had said 300 years before hand. Clearly predicted. In Daniel 9, Daniel understood from reading the book of Jeremiah that the 70 years were all it would be that the exile would take place during Babylon. At the end of 70 years, a remnant would go back and reestablish God's people in the holy land. And so he got down on his face and began to pray and prayed most fervently that the very thing that God had promised he would do that he would actually do it.

Isn't that strange? But isn't that what Jesus prays? He prays that the very thing that God has promised you will actually take place, namely that you will be saved on judgment day. He intercedes for you every day. The right hand of God. And so Daniel in a godly way gets down and prays for God to do the very thing he said he's going to do, restore Israel into the promised land. And so he continues to pray and then an angel comes to him in Chapter 10 and tells him the greatest compliment I find given anywhere in Scripture to an individual, to a human being. And that is, "Daniel, you are a man who was highly esteemed by God." All of you who are Christians you should be hungry for that; you should yearn that God would highly esteem you. He does not flatter and he doesn't do it lightly. But his eyes penetrate to the core of who you really are. Daniel was a man who was highly esteemed. And in Daniel 11 comes the vision of Antiochus Epiphanes. This king who would take over Palestine, a minor king, but the detail will take your breath away. And then in Daniel 12, the clear prophecy and prediction of the general resurrection of all humanity at the end of the world. And thus does the Book of Daniel lay out for us. An incredible teaching. And we're going to have a chance God willing to look at it step by step.

Now as we look at this what kind of applications are we going to be seeing? Well I have more applications here than we have time for.

But each one of them, we're going to see chapter by chapter. If I could just take out a few, number one is, dare to be a Daniel. Begin looking at your life and see in what ways perhaps you may have capitulated, surrendered to the surrounding pagan culture. And begin resolving in yourself by prayer, by fasting, by determination, by resolution, Daniel 1:7, that you will not be defiled by this pagan culture we live in. We need this in the church, folks. We need men and women who have this kind of resolution the way Daniel did. Let's resolve to be holy. Be godly and follow the ways that God has established, the ways of prayer and fasting and Scripture intake the way that Daniel does.

Concerning Scripture, I want to say, never, never underestimate the accuracy and the perfection of the Word of God. You can't study the Bible too carefully. And for all those of you who are here and who have not given your life to Christ, if there are any like that, be warned, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. He gave Nebuchadnezzar seven more years, and Nebuchadnezzar repented. He gave Belshazzar zero more years. The time ended, and that was it. Today is the day of salvation. The Son of Man, Jesus Christ, has died in the place of sinners. That's the whole reason for Christmas, that we might have a savior from our sin. Jesus, Son of Man, a human being, took on a human body to die in our place. Don't presume that you have forever and ever to wait to make your decision. Today, even now, is the time of salvation. Today is the day in which God will help you if you'll cry out to him.

For all of us, every one of us, needs to take the warning of Daniel 4, "Those who walk in pride, he is able to humble." Do not walk in pride; humble yourself before God and he will raise you up. Over the next number of weeks, if God gives us time, we're going to be studying carefully this book of Daniel. I'd like to ask and challenge you to read the chapters ahead of time. We're going to be going about at the rate of one chapter a week, although in chapter 2, we're going to have to take two weeks. Get your mind ready. Begin raising questions, thinking about it and reflecting on Scripture. Please close with me now in prayer.

Andy Davis preaches a verse by verse expository sermon on Psalm 45. The main subject of the sermon is the union between Christ and His Bride, the Church.

Few aspects of the life of a community are as cloaked and as covered with ritual and ceremony as is a wedding. All of you who are married can think back to your wedding day and what a special time that was, and as varied as the cultural expressions of weddings are, there are still some common themes that we see in almost every culture. One of those common themes is that the bride dresses up in an outfit that is unusual and spectacular, glorious and beautiful. Never does a woman look so beautiful as she does on her wedding day. I did some research on some of the customs and the various things that people do around the world. In Armenia and China, both the bride wears red silk.  The brides in our culture wear white, but they wear red silk, it's a symbol of joy and of fruitfulness and celebration. In Austria brides wear veils with myrtle, the myrtle symbolizes life and fruitfulness. In Finland, brides are crowned with golden crowns, and in Norway, they also have a crown, but it has tiny silver spoons which tinkle as she walks through the church for her wedding. Isn't that beautiful? 

 Japan perhaps does it more than any other culture. I know some Japanese brides that change clothes six times on their wedding day. Seven different outfits for the day. She spends most of her day getting in and out of clothing, but what a spectacular display, each one of them symbolic of some aspect of married life. In all these cultures there's a picture of the bride beautifully dressed for her husband, and that is what all of us who are Christians are looking forward to. The prophetic fulfillment of the bride, namely the Church of Jesus Christ, beautifully dressed for her husband. That is the context of Psalm 45. As we look at Psalm 45, it says at the beginning, it is a wedding song, and it brings us right into the profound mystery of marriage. The first wedding was a much more simple affair, the bride did not wear spectacular clothing, as you know, but it was a majestic union made by God, Adam and Eve brought together, the establishment of marriage as the focal point of God's plan for the ends of the earth.

He gave husband and wife, Adam and Eve, male and female together a commission that they should fill the earth, subdue it and rule over it. It was impossible for the husband to do it without the wife, impossible for the wife to do it without the husband, but in that sacred union of marriage, there would be the fulfillment that God had ordained. So also, God uses marriage as the symbol of his relationship with his people, as the course of biblical history unfolded, and God chose out for himself a special people, Israel, and declared them to be his own people. He used marital language to talk about his relationship with them.  Isaiah 62:5 says, "As a Bridegroom rejoices over his bride, so will your God rejoice over you.”  Jeremiah also picks up on this. Jeremiah 2:1-3 says, "Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem. I remember the devotion of your youth, how as a bride you loved me and followed me through the desert, through a land not sown. Israel was holy to the Lord, the first fruits of His harvest." So again, the marriage imagery, the relationship between Israel and her God.

 So, also Israel's unfaithfulness to God. In marital terms, adultery likened to adultery. Jeremiah 3, "Have you seen what faithless Israel has done? She's gone up on every high hill and under every spreading tree and has committed adultery there." Because Israel's immorality mattered so little to her, she defiled the land and committed adultery with stone and wood. There you have the physical and the spiritual brought together. The adultery imagery,  the stone and wood is idolatry, and  God using marital imagery to talk about his relationship with his people. Therefore there's an incredible blending of physical and spiritual significance to marriage. All of this is the context of Psalm 45. Why are we talking about marriage and about weddings? Because Psalm 45 was a wedding song, it was written and was read at the marriage of a Davidic king, a descendant of David, when he took his bride,  so it became a centerpiece of that day, and of God's covenant to David.

Listen to the words of Psalm 45, and let's try to understand it in its context. Beginning at verse 1, it says, "My heart is stirred by a noble theme, as I recite my verses for the king, my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer. You are the most excellent of men, and your lips have been anointed with grace since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side Almighty one, clothe yourself with splendor and majesty. In your majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of true humility and righteousness. Let your right hand display awesome deeds, let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the King's enemies, let the nations fall beneath your feet. Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever. A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness. Therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. All your robes are fragrant with myrrh and aloes and cassia; from palaces adorned with ivory, the music of the strings makes you glad. Daughters of kings are among your honored women, and at your right hand is the royal bride in gold of Ophir.  Listen O daughter, consider and give ear, forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty. Honor Him, for He is your Lord. The daughter of Tyre will come with a gift, men of wealth will seek your favor, all glorious is the princess within her chamber, her gown is interwoven with gold. In embroidered garment she is led to the king, her virgin companions follow her and are brought to you. They are led in with joy and gladness to enter the palace of the king. Your sons will take the place of your fathers, you will make them princes throughout the land, I will perpetuate your memory through all generations, therefore the nations will praise you forever and ever."  

The context of Psalm 45 is the promise that God had made to David. We talked about this last time. This was a covenant that God had made with David. Some covenants are bilateral. In other words, both parties make an agreement to behave a certain way, some of them are unilateral, in which God just says, I'm going to do this for you. The covenant made with David was a unilateral covenant. God said, "You want to build a house for me, but I'm going to build a house for you." Remember that David had wanted to build a temple where the Ark of the Covenant could be. Nathan, the prophet, was sent to him, and God communicated through Nathan,  "You want to build a house for me, but I will build a house for you." This is the Davidic Covenant. 2 Samuel 7:5 and following, "The Lord declares to you that the Lord Himself will establish a house for you. When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body." Very specific, "He is the one who will build a house for my name and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me, your throne will be established forever." It's an astounding promise. God is going to raise up a physical descendant of David to build a house.

Now we know that Solomon physically fulfilled this when he built the temple, but we know that the promise that his throne would endure forever went well beyond Solomon.  The promise was that David would never lack an heir, would never lack a son to sit on the throne, until he comes to whom it is right and fitting that rule should come. The scepter belongs to Judah, the prophecy came to Jacob. So, there would come a Messiah who deserved the throne, a descendant of David, and there would be a lineage of Davidic Kings, one after the other, of descendants of David, until the right one came along. Every single generation would successfully procreate, would successfully have a son until the Messiah came. Some of these Davidic kings were idolatrous, wicked men, but they did their duty when it came to leaving an heir. Every last one of them had a son who could sit on the throne. We've talked about a wicked king, for example, Jehoram who slaughtered all of his brothers, the other descendants of David, so that he alone would be able to rule in order to establish his kingdom. God hated Jehoram's sins, he was idolatrous and walked in the ways of all the kings of Israel.

 But in 2 Chronicles 21:7, this is what God says, "Nevertheless, because of the Covenant the Lord had made with David, the Lord was not willing to destroy the house of David. He had promised to maintain a lamp for him and for his descendants forever." So, the lamp would never go out, there would always be a descendant. One after the other, sometimes that cord got awful thin. There was one time, for example, when Athaliah, mother of Ahaziah, wanted to grab all the power for herself, she wanted to rule as queen, so she slaughtered all the sons of Ahaziah, thinking to cut off all of David's descendants, except, one little baby was rescued by a wet nurse. She took that little baby into a bedroom, I don't know where the baby hid under a bed perhaps, behind a curtain, but the slaughtering soldiers went through looking for all the children and didn't find this one baby. And this baby, Jehoash grew up and was king and continued the Davidic line. So, you can see how significant is this lineage, this promise made to David that he would never like an heir or son to sit on the throne until finally, the Messiah comes whose kingdom it is.

In order to fulfill this promise, each Davidic King must have a bride, a wife. So the wedding is a very significant time, not just in the life of Judah as a nation, but in the life of the history of God's covenant promise and in the salvation of the world, for Jesus would come through this lineage. The immediate context of Psalm 45 is that one of the descendants of David was about to get married,  so a son of Korah, sat down to write a Psalm for the occasion. It's a time of tremendous joy, God's faithfulness to His promise, peace and prosperity for the nation. So the poet has moved to write a poem for the occasion. Look at verse 1, "My heart is stirred by a noble theme, as I recite my verses for the king, my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer." So, the writer is warming to his task, he's excited about the privilege and the honor of writing this poem for a wedding, and he's going to stand up and read this on that wedding day.

Actually, his tongue was moved by more than just the significant theme. In 2 Peter 1:20- 21, Peter writes, "Above all, you must understand that no prophecy of scripture ever had its origin in the prophet's own imagination. For prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along or moved by the Holy Spirit." So, this son of Korah, or whoever it is, was moved by the Holy Spirit to write prophecy, a prophecy that will be fulfilled only in Jesus Christ. There are certain verses in here that really only perfectly could be addressed to Christ. In Verse 2, he says, "You are the most excellent of men." Many of these Davidic kings were not the most excellent of men, but Jesus Christ is. Look at Verse 6, "Your throne, O God, will last forever and ever." Who can this be, but Jesus Christ? So, this son of Korah is lifted up out of his immediate circumstances to write words that could only be fulfilled through Jesus Christ and through Christ's wedding.

 Now, let's look at Psalm 45 and how it breaks apart.  Verse 1 is the introduction. The sons of Korah, if you see the introduction right below the word Psalm 45, the sons of Korah were just Levites, who along with the sons of Izhar were given a job to sing sometimes antiphonally back and forth in the temple. They would worship and they would sing, they were given the job of worship in the temple. He was just one of these men, and he wrote this Psalm. In verses 2-5, we have the address to the bridegroom king. In verses 6-9, he talks about the glory of the bridegroom king. In Verses 10 -12, he gives an address to the bride, and then in verses 13-15, the glory of the bride. First, the address to the bridegroom king, the psalmist calls the king the most excellent of men. Now, it's common for people in someone's court to flatter a King, and this would be pure flattery in the case of most of these kings. Listen to what he says, "You are the most excellent of men, and your lips have been anointed with grace since God has blessed you forever. Gird your sword upon your side, Almighty One, clothe yourself with splendor and majesty, and in your Majesty ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness.  Let your right hand display awesome deeds and let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the King's enemies, let nations fall beneath your feet.” This is incredibly lavish praise, especially if you start to read about who some of these kings were. All of them are sinners. Even David, a man after God's own heart had his sins. He said, "Actually, my sins are more numerous than the hairs of my head." Uzziah, godly king, dared to walk into the temple and offer sacrifice, a job fit only for a priest. Hezekiah had his pride, every one of them had blemishes on them. So, while these words may be somewhat true of some of the kings, they're really only fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who is the most excellent man that ever lived. Is it not Jesus Christ? Is He not most excellent in wisdom, most excellent in power, most excellent in compassion for the needy, most excellent and character and moral perfection? He is the most fit leader in the history of humanity.

 In this address, the psalmist looks at the king as a mighty military conqueror.  People tended to see the kings as the leader of their armies.  1 Samuel 8:19-20 says, "We want a king over us, then we will be like all the other nations with a king to lead us and go out before us and fight our battles." So, they looked at a king as somebody who would ride out with the sword and with a bow and arrow and defeat their enemies. That's in effect what he's saying, "Do it, O King, we're counting on you." The king had a sword like King Arthur had Excalibur which came up out of the lake, as you remember the myth. So, this king has his mighty sword, which he's going to gird on his side and he's going to get up on his horse and ride with an awesome picture of military power and might. He's going to ride forth victoriously, but it’s power not used just to dominate and to oppress, but it’s power used in behalf of those who need it most. In your Majesty, ride forth victoriously in behalf of truth, humility and righteousness. The meek, the gentle, the humble of the earth, they're going be protected by this godly king. He's going to use his power to protect, and powerful oppressors will be crushed. It says, "Let your right hand display awesome deeds, mighty acts of power on the military battlefield, ride forth and do it, O king. Let your sharp arrows pierce the hearts of the king's enemies and let the nations fall, beneath your feet." So, this is the address to the Bridegroom King, saying, "Be mighty, be a conqueror, ride forth."

 We see also the consistency of all of these Psalms that we've looked at. Psalm 110, “The Lord says to my Lord, ‘Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’” Psalm 2, "Ask of me and I'll make the nations your inheritance, the ends of the earth your possession. And those who rage against you will be defeated." Psalm 22:27, "All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the Lord, and all the families of nations will bow down before Him." Consistency of the Psalms is testimony to the extension of Christ's kingdom. 

In Verse 69, he talks about the glory of the bridegroom king, and there's four aspects of it. He's glorious in appearance, He's glorious in His throne, He's glorious in His character, and He's glorious in His deity. First, glorious in appearance. Look at Verse 3, he says, "Clothe yourself with splendor and majesty, in your majesty, ride forth victoriously." What would Jesus Christ look like on the day He returns? Can you imagine the glory and the radiance, His robes of glory shining with a brightness? You can't imagine, you can't even look at it. You would not be able to survive were God not to sustain you. The glory of Christ, this Davidic king was nothing, in compared to the glorious radiance that will shine when Jesus returns to establish His kingdom. Glorious in appearance.

 He's also glorious on His throne. Look at verse 6, "Your throne, O God will last forever and ever. A scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom." It's glorious in that it's an eternal throne. All rulers of the earth are like grass, and all of their glories like the flower of the field. We are witnessing an incredible power struggle right now with the presidency, it's all like grass. There's only one eternal throne, and it's Jesus Christ, and He will establish and it will reign forever and ever. Now, these Davidic kings, they all die, they all went the way of all the earth, every last one of them, but Jesus has an eternal throne because He alone has conquered death. And through His resurrection, He gives us an eternal throne. It's also glorious, and that His throne is based on justice and righteousness. Righteousness is the scepter of Christ throne, righteousness and justice, the foundation of the throne. His throne is a righteous throne and he is the only leader and the only ruler who's ever been as perfectly righteous, perfectly just. Most human thrones are established by the exploitation of the weak and the needy and the oppressed, and they use the court systems and they twist the court systems to use for their own purpose.  There's bribery and there's blindness on the judge's eyes and all for the purpose to benefit the leader. But Jesus isn’t that way. Christ is perfect in His justice and His righteousness. Isaiah 11 says, "He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes or decide by what He hears with His ears, but with righteousness, He will judge the needy, with justice He will give decisions for the benefit of the poor of the earth." The oppressed and the needy are going to get the benefit of that decision because He is righteous. 

He's also glorious in His character. It says in Verse 7, "You love righteousness and hate wickedness." Can I say to you today that the essence of your character can be found in what you love and what you hate, that's who you are. What you love, and what you hate makes up who you are. For who is Christ? Who is this bridegroom king? He loves righteousness and He hates wickedness.  Because of that, it says, "God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy. Because he has searched the character of his Son and sees only a yearning and a love for righteousness and a hatred and a rejection of evil," that is the nature of Jesus Christ. When it says he's anointed with the oil of joy, the anointing is what sets him apart as king. When he was the anointed, when he was the king, he was the one chosen among his brothers, the Davidic king, the one who would take the throne. The word “messiah” literally means anointed one. This one was physically anointed with fragrant olive oil and myrrh and aloes and cassia. Myrrh comes from the hardened sap of a rare tree in Arabia. They take a knife and they scrape it and they get this hardened sap, very rare and very fragrant, aromatic. Aloe comes from the aromatic eaglewood tree.  Cassia comes as an aromatic oil from a steam distillation process of leaves and twigs and certain kinds of fruit and smells delicious, and all of this is blended together in an anointing oil, and it comes down on the anointed one, the king. It says here in the Psalm, it is the oil of joy.  I tend to think of it, of the joy and the delight of the Father and the Son. Do you remember when Jesus was baptized? There came a voice from heaven, the heavenly Father. Remember what he said? “This is my Son, this is my Son, in whom is all my pleasure and my delight.” He's delighted with him, he searched him, and he knows him, and he's delighted with every aspect of his Son. The oil of joy, that's what anoints Jesus. 

So he's glorious in his appearance, he's glorious in his throne, he's glorious in his character, in what he loves and hates, and he's glorious in his deity. In this way, he's set apart from all the other kings that have ever lived. Now you say, Wait a minute, the son of Korah addressed some Davidic king and called him, Your throne, O God. The Hebrew word is “Elohim”. So this human being was called God. Well, it's just the word “Elohim,” the word is a different meaning or communicates something different to the Hebrew mind than it does to us. Usually, it refers to God the eternal, the one, the only God, but sometimes it can refer to a mighty or a powerful man. Jesus Christ himself attested to this. Psalm 82:1 says, “God presides in the great assembly; he gives judgments among the "gods,” Elohim. Jesus refers to this in John 10 when he called them gods to whom the word of God came. But you can't say God to a human being the way you can say God to Jesus Christ. So the writer to  Hebrews 1 picks this up, this very verse, and puts it in the words of the Father saying that God speaks this to the Son. God the Father says to the Son, “Your throne O God, will last forever and ever.” The Father speaks of the deity of the Son, and that's his highest glory.

In verses 10-12, we get the address to the bride. The poet then turns his attention to her and begins to speak to her, and  says, "Listen, O daughter, consider and give ear: Forget your people and your father's house. The king is enthralled by your beauty; honor him, for he is your lord." She's evidently from a foreign country, and many of the brides did come from foreign countries. Wait a minute, is that a good idea?" In Solomon's case, usually it wasn't a good idea because his foreign brides turned his heart away from God. But if you look at, for example,  the Davidic ancestor, Ruth ,was a Moabitess and she said to Naomi, her mother-in-law, "Where you go I will go and who you love I will love. Your God will be my God, your people will be my people." Now, that's something different. Wasn't that the very purpose of Israel? That they should be the firstfruits of a worldwide harvest of Yahweh worshippers? Jehovah being their God. So, this woman comes from a foreign land, converts and worships the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The psalmist says, "Forget your people. Forget your past and come. The king is delighted with you. You got something glorious and bright waiting for you." Isn't that us as well? Aren't we from a foreign land compared to heaven? Think about it. We're welcomed and escorted right into the very presence of God himself. We're the epitome of foreigners. The psalmist is saying, "Forget your past, forget your people, forget where you came from and come and be with me." What a glorious future we have in Christ. The psalmist promises this queen the king's undying affection. I love verse 11, “The king is enthralled by your beauty. He just can't take his eyes off you. You're absolutely gorgeous to him. Enthralled means almost chained up with looking at you. You know,  I just closed my eyes and I think about the church in all of its perfection when it's finished and pure and comes down to Christ, and Christ just looks, the work is finished, and the yearning's about to be consummated. What a glorious thing. The king is enthralled by your beauty, he can't take his eyes off you.

Then in verse 11, “Honor him, for he is your lord." The perfect headship of Christ, his loving care for his wife and her godly submission to his authority, beautifully consummated there. Honor him, for he is your lord. Then in verse 13-15, it speaks of the glory of the bride, her beauty, she's got glorious robes prepared in her chamber. She's got gold imported from Ophir, that's down in the Arabian boot, very rare, that finest gold is on her robe. She's gorgeous, with careful attention to detail, and she's got joy. Her face just radiates with joy and gladness, and she makes her entrance. She's welcomed right into the king's very presence. In verses 16 and 17, the psalm concludes and he talks about the lineage, “Your sons will take the place of their fathers," It’s going to go on, it's going to keep on going until finally we get that one we're waiting for, Jesus Christ. 

That's Psalm 45, how is it fulfilled in history? First of all, in Matthew chapter 1, there is a lineage, isn't there? There's a genealogy, generation after generation listed there, 42 in all, 14 of them before David and then 28 after David, 28 generations of Davidic descendants one after the other after the other. Not all of them were kings of course because the throne was taken away when Judah went into exile, but all of them had the right to rule one after the other, right on down to Joseph, and then Joseph took Mary who was also a descendant of David, they married, he had no union with her until the child was born, but then Jesus Christ comes as the fulfillment of all of these marriages, one after the other. All these Davidic marriages and the descendants focused on this one person, Jesus Christ. That's the whole point of the genealogy of Matthew 1.

Then 30 years later, Jesus begins his ministry. The forerunner, John the Baptist, speaking of him, says, "I'm not worthy to untie his sandals." Some of John the Baptist's disciples come to him and say... They're all upset, they're all frustrated. "This new guy is getting more disciples than you. He's baptizing more people than you ever baptized. You need to do something for your own great name, John." How that must have grieved him, “You missed the point. You missed the point.” That's what he said, the bride belongs to the bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom who attends him, waits and listens for him, and is full of joy when he hears the bridegroom's voice. That joy is mine, and it is now complete. He must increase and I must decrease.  The bride belongs to the bridegroom. Who's the bride? It's all these people who are coming to Jesus. Who's the bridegroom? It's Jesus Christ. Jesus himself picked up on this analogy. They come to Jesus and criticize him because his disciples aren't fasting the way that John the Baptist's disciples did, and the way the Pharisees' disciples did.  Jesus asked a question, “How can the guests of the bridegroom mourn while he is with them? The time will come when the bridegroom will be taken from them and then they will fast.” Jesus calls himself the bridegroom there.

In his parables in Matthew 22, the kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. Again, in Matthew 25, the wise and the foolish virgins, and the voice of the bridegroom comes at midnight. Are you ready for that, by the way? That's the next thing in the timetable. The voice of the bridegroom coming at midnight saying, "Come on, bride, let's go. The wedding feast is at hand." Are you ready? Paul picks up on this mysterious teaching in Ephesians 5 for the analogy of Christ in the church. “For this reason, a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife.” Back to Adam and Eve, the language back to Adam and Eve, “Be united to his wife and two will become one flesh.” This is a profound mystery; Greek, “mega musterion.” A mega mystery, but I'm talking about Christ and his church.

A picture also in Ephesians 5 of the ongoing beautification of the church. She's getting herself ready. A lot of these cultures and customs have a cleansing or a washing of the bride. In Morocco, for example, five days before the wedding, she's given a ceremonial bath by the women of the community and then henna is painted in swirls on her hands and on her feet. In Scotland, the bride's feet are washed by some of the women in the community and one of the married women takes her wedding band off and puts it down in the water and any of the maidens who, while they're washing, find it they're the next ones who're going to get married, similar to the bouquet being thrown. There's this image of washing and Paul picks up on it in Ephesians 5, “Husbands love your wives just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word.” Think about that, washing with water through the word. This is what cleanses and gets the bride ready. This ministry here gets the bride ready for the wedding day. It's the preaching of the word that gets us ready for that wedding day in order that he may present her to himself as a radiant church without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish but holy and blameless.

Paul says in 2 Corinthians 11:2, “I am jealous for you with a godly jealousy. I promised you the one husband as a pure virgin to him.” So Paul wants to get that bride ready, and then the consummation found in the Book of Revelation. Revelation 19:7 and following, "For the wedding of the lamb has come and his bride has made herself ready, fine linen bright and clear was given her to wear." Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. And he added, "These are the true words of the Lord." And so, the bride's getting herself ready with fine line, white and clean. And those are righteous acts done by the church, and then the incredible picture, which is printed on the cover of your bulletin. Revelation 21:1 and 2, "Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. And I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband." Oh, what a day that's going to be. What a day when all marriage will have its consummation, in the marriage between Christ and his church.  This is the ultimate fulfillment of Psalm 45.

 How does this apply to us? First of all, understand the fulfillment of God's promise to David.  Covenants. Promises. A marriage is a covenant, isn't it? Husband and wife make a promise to each other. The covenant is only as good as the character of those who make it. Doesn’t that make sense? If you get somebody making a deal or contract with somebody, if he's a surreptitious kind of character, he's going to break that at his earliest convenience. Well, how good is God's character? He stands behind his covenant, and he shows it by a thousand years of prediction that he fulfilled in David. A thousand years he kept that line going. A thousand years! One generation after another. Our God is a promise-making and a promise-keeping God, and our salvation depends on that. He's made us a covenant and he's going to keep it. He will never break that promise.

 Secondly, we talked about the glory of the bridegroom in his throne. Rejoice in the majestic glory of Jesus Christ. As proclaimed here, he is the most excellent of men. If there are any here who don't know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, my desire is to make you attracted to Christ, that you might want to come to him and know him in his glory. He is righteous, he is holy and true, he's compassionate. That's why he gave himself on the cross that we might have eternal life. As we think about the righteousness and the godliness of Christ, remember what it says, “You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness.” Does that characterize you? Do you love righteousness? Do you hate wickedness? Do you rejoice when God's word is faithfully taught? Does it make you happy to hear of a new people group coming to faith in Christ? Are you glad when you see perhaps a Supreme Court decision go the right way for a change? Righteous decisions being made, does that make you happy and delighted? Do you rejoice over righteousness? Does it make you happy? Conversely, do you hate wickedness? You can't be neutral about wickedness, you have to hate it.

 Jesus made a whip and cleaned out that temple. Would you have done the same? Or would you have been tolerant? We're supposed to love righteousness and hate wickedness. The glory of our bridegroom in that he would give his blood for a clean and holy bride. Isn’t that what he did? And that's the glory of us, isn't it? The glory of the bride, fine linen. Revelation 19:8, "Fine linen bright and clear, clean was given her to wear." Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints. Revelation 21:2, "Prepared as a bride, beautifully dressed for her husband." Are you covering yourself with fine linen through the righteous acts that God commands you to do? “We are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good deeds, which God prepared in advance that we should walk in them.”   Are you walking in them? Are you covering yourself with that pure and that holy linen? And are you cleansing yourself through regular and ongoing confession of sin? God hates unrighteousness even in his bride, especially in his bride. Are you availing yourself of the cleansing of the blood of Jesus Christ? And are you helping to advance the kingdom? That's how the bride's getting ready. Little by little, the bride is preparing herself through evangelism, through discipleship.

 My final point of application is the strategic sacredness of marriage. Physically speaking, where did the bridegroom, Jesus Christ, come from? From marriage, wasn't it? One man and one woman had a child, a boy, and on it went generation after generation after generation. Alright, let me ask another question. Where does the bride come from? Well, what is the bride? It's people, isn't it? People who come to personal faith in Christ, where do they come from? A man and a woman come together and have a child. Marriage is at the heart, the center of God's plan, the strategic sacredness of marriage comes across here. Husband and wife relationship, is utterly critical to the health of a church. If the marriage is healthy, the church is healthy. If the marriage is not healthy, the church is not healthy. Parent and child training are also essential as generation after generation learns the word of the Lord. Sexuality, God's gift, within the context of marriage, one man, one woman covenanting together for life. This is a point of tremendous weakness and attack from Satan, but God has given us protection in marriage. This comes across in the sacredness and the holiness of Psalm 45 and the wedding commitment that we make to one another.

I'd like to conclude just by reaching out right now to any who are listening to my words, who have not yet trusted in Christ, don't miss it, don't miss that wedding banquet, don't miss being part of it, don't miss sitting down as part of the bride of Christ in perfect union with God through Christ, because you just wouldn't come to Christ, you wouldn't see your need, you didn't repent and trust in Him. Won't you pray with me? 

Father, we do thank you for Psalm 45 and for the glorious wedding that it points to. We look forward to that day when we will see you, Lord Jesus as our bridegroom, and we who are your bride, your people who are called by your name and made holy by your blood are joined together with you forever. Father, I pray for the unbeliever that's here. I pray that he or she might come to know you, that they might turn away from sin and turn to a bridegroom, a Savior who's ready and willing to cleanse total from sin. And we pray these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

Please take your Bibles and open to Psalm 110. This supernatural book that you carry around with you, you don't even realize all the things that are in here. I know I don't, and as I continue to grow as a Christian, I'm astonished by all the light that flows from this book, and it testifies to Jesus Christ, the spirit of prophecy is the Spirit of Jesus Christ. As we look at Psalm 110, we continue our study of the messianic psalms of Psalms, which testify to Jesus Christ. So far we've looked in our study at Psalm 2, in which the Father says, “You are my son, today I've begotten you. Ask of me and I'll give you the nations as your inheritance, the ends of the earth as your possession.” He also said, “Why do the nations rage and the peoples plot in vain, the kings of the earth take their stand, and the rulers gather together against the Lord and against His anointed one and the one enthroned in heaven laughs.” So we see a decree in Psalm 2 that Jesus shall reign wherever the Son does His successive journeys run. That was the first one we looked at.

Then we looked at Psalm 69 which testify to the suffering life of Jesus Christ. How Jesus would be rejected by his people, he would suffer, he would be rejected by one of his closest disciples, he'd have to drink bitter gall. So this testified to his suffering earthly life. Then we spent a couple of weeks in Psalm 22, as you remember, the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow, the crucifixion so plainly depicted there, “you have pierced my hands and my feet.” But then the second half, so gloriously to the Jew first and also to the Gentile, that Jesus' name would be exalted to the ends of the earth, and that there would be a banquet, and people from every tribe and language and people and nation would come and eat at that banquet, an incredible prophecy, Psalm 22. We could still be in it now with profit, there's so much there. Then we went from that, the crucifixion, the death of Jesus, to Psalm 16 last week, the powerful resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, “You will not let your Holy One see decay.”  In that one word, the testimony that that psalm did not refer to David, but to the Son of David, Jesus Christ, in that he would not see decay but would triumph over the grave, Psalm 16. 

Now we look at Psalm 110, which is the identity and the victory, and the priesthood of the Messiah, in which the Father invites the Son to sit at His right hand.  Beginning at verse 1, it says, “The Lord said to my lord: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet. The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion. You will rule in the midst of your enemies. Your troops will be willing on your day of battle. Arrayed in holy majesty, from the womb of the dawn, you will receive the dew of your youth. The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind: You are a priest forever, in the order of Melchizedek. The Lord is at your right hand; He will crush kings on the day of his wrath. He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth. He will drink from a brook beside the way, and therefore, He will lift His head.” 

The story has often been told that the Jewish people of Jesus' day were looking for a re-establishment of David's throne. They had good reason to do it because God had prophesied that there would be one who would do this very thing. They were thinking about their present plight, they were hoping for the demise of the Roman Empire, little did they know that it would go on for another four centuries, that it was just coming into its power. When Jesus was born, the first emperor, the first mighty extender of Roman power, Caesar Augustus, was at his heyday, and so the Roman Empire had a long, long way to go, but they didn't know it and they had hopes, and their hopes were based on some dusty old scrolls and some prophecies about a Messiah that would come. The focus was on the title, Son of David. They were looking for a Son of David to come and re-establish David's throne.

They were a dominated people, and they were wary of Rome's crushing ascendancy, of the tax collectors and the burden, and just seeing Roman troops walking through their streets who could exert their will at any time and take anything that they wanted. The Roman rule was strangling the life from Israel, and they cried out to God, “How long, O Lord, would it be till the Son of David came at last?” In thinking about the Son of David, they were thinking of an ancient kingdom, for David's rule over Israel a thousand years before this time was really Israel's golden era. There was more prosperity under Solomon, and then there were other godly kings that came, but there was no one like David, a man after God's own heart, who loved God with all of his heart, soul, mind, and strength; except in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah. David walked in the ways of God and sought to obey his covenant. There’s was an ancient kingdom, and they were looking forward to the Son of David re-establishing those days, a glorious throne, a glorious time, a time of wealth and prosperity, in which God would miraculously bless his people and the Gentiles would be crushed and pushed off to the side.

They wanted another king like David to come. David was a godly man, and there came a time when David was sitting in his palace of cedar, smelling that sweet smell, the paneling, and he thought, “Here I am in a palace of cedar and God's Ark, the Ark of the Covenant, is in a tent, an ancient tent. I think I'd like to build him a temple. I want to build a house for God.”  God spoke to Nathan the prophet and said, “Tell David this, ‘You want to build a house for me, but I will build a house for you. I will establish your throne.’” 2 Samuel 7:16, “Your house and your kingdom will endure forever before me. Your throne will be established forever.” What a promise, that David would never lack a man to sit on his throne, and that his throne and his kingdom will be established forever. Four hundred years later, Isaiah the prophet came along and prophesied and predicted that this would continue for he said, “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders and he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” Listen to verse 7, “Of the increase of his government and peace, there will be no end. He will reign on David's throne.” Did you hear that? He will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this. Isaiah the prophet, seeing a time when David's throne will be established forever. So they weren't without reason to be waiting for the Son of David to come and establish his throne. Faithful Jews were waiting for the consolation of Israel, the Son of David, to raise up the shattered throne of King David, and sit on it once again. He would be powerful to defeat his enemies, and no one would be able to stand before him. And along came Jesus Christ, and as he ministered, and as he began to do miracles and do astonishing things and speak and teach in a way that no one had ever heard before, they began to wonder and speculation came around.

 A couple of blind men sitting by the side of the road hear that Jesus is walking by, [Matthew 9:27], and they call out to him, “Have mercy on us, Son of David,” they said. Jesus is the Son of David, so they thought. Matthew 12:22 and 23, “They brought him a demon-possessed man who was blind and mute, and Jesus healed him so that he could both talk and see, and all the people were astonished and asked, Could this be the Son of David?” So they thought Jesus might be the Son of David. [Matthew 15], “Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon, and a Canaanite woman, a non-Jew, a Gentile, calling out to him, Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.” Jesus heals and heals and heals one after the other, and they're thinking, “I think this is the Son of David, it's got to be. Where else does his power come from?” It came to an apex at the triumphal entry in Matthew 21:9, “The crowds that went ahead of him and those that followed shouted, Hosanna to the Son of David.” 

Do you know what Hosanna means?  “Do it now, save now Lord, now is the time, establish your throne Son of David. Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord, Hosanna in the highest. He's got to be the Son of David.” Oh, was Jesus the Son of David? What's the very first fact you learn about Jesus in the New Testament? [Matthew 1:1], a record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the Son of David. Right from the start, Matthew tells us, he is the Son of David. No question about that, and Matthew goes on to establish the fact by the genealogy. I'm sure all of you have read it devotionally time and time again, the genealogy is so rich with prophetic fulfillment. “You will never lack a man to sit on the throne.” Forty-two generations, he lists there in Matthew 1, he is the Son of David. But they missed something else, something in the message that Gabriel had given, in Luke chapter 1, the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary. You have found favor with God. You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. He will be great and will be called Son of the Most High.”

What does that mean, Son of God? But that's not all Gabriel said, “The Lord God will give him the throne of his father, David.” The blending together of the physical descendants through David, that he is the Son of David, and also the fact that Jesus was the Son of the Most High, the incarnation established in Gabriel's message. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, his kingdom will never end. Yes, he was the Son of David, but also the Son of God Most High. The people were waiting for a human king, another David to reign over the Romans. Their dreams seem ludicrous to the world-dominating Romans, some tiny Palestinian state's going to rule the whole world. It never happened.  What a dream. Were the Jews dreaming? Absolutely. But it turns out in the words of a Michael Card song, “their wildest dreams had simply not been wild enough.” There would come a king who would re-establish David's throne but he would not just be the Son of David, he would be the Son of the Living God.

 There came a time that Jesus wanted to puncture this misunderstanding. All of his enemies and adversaries had been gathering around him asking him tough questions. They stayed up all night thinking of these questions, questions on divorce and why, that one? To get him in trouble with Herod who had divorced his wife to marry his brother's wife. They wanted to see the same thing happen to Jesus, that happened to John the Baptist. Jesus handled that scripturally. Then the Sadducees asked him a question about the resurrection, trying to trip him up in the Law of Moses. Jesus handled that one as well. They asked him a question about which is the greatest commandment? Jesus handled that one. They asked him a tough question about taxation. Who are they trying to get him in trouble with there? The Romans. Jesus said, “Show me a coin. Whose portrait is on it? Caesar's. Well, give to Caesar what Caesar's and give to God what is God’s.” Astonishing!  He handled every question. He said, “Now, I've got a question for you?” He didn't say it, but in effect said. Turn in your Bibles to Psalm 110,  I've got a question for you. I'd like to ask that you turn in your Bibles to Matthew 22 and look at this account. Put your finger in Psalm 110 and look over at Matthew 22.  In Matthew 22:41-46, Jesus poses a tough question. It says, “While the Pharisees were gathered together, Jesus asked them, ‘What do you think about the Christ? Whose son is he?’” Stock answer comes back, “Son of David,” they replied. “Well, how is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord' for he says, ‘The Lord said to my Lord: Sit at my right hand until I put your enemies under your feet.’ If then David calls him 'Lord' how can he be his son?” Look at the aftermath. No one could say a word in reply, and from that day on no one dared to ask him any more questions. Amazing! The infinite brilliance of Jesus Christ, but it all had been written in Scripture a thousand years before he's even born.

Let's try to understand the “Son of David”, and let's do it scripturally. As you look at Jesus' question, he makes three assumptions, and we can learn so much about the handling of Scripture by looking at how Jesus did it. Can I say in the midst of all kinds of controversies over Baptist faith and message in Scripture and all that, can we just simply come to the conviction that whatever Jesus' attitude towards Scripture should be ours as well?  We'll just have Jesus' attitude towards Scripture.  Jesus made three assumptions here, didn't he? Assumption number one, David wrote Psalm 110.  David wrote it, and as a matter of fact, the whole argument falls to the ground if David didn't write it. For any Israelite, any Jewish person could call the Messiah my Lord, but it's a kind of a different thing when David calls his own descendant, “my Lord.” The whole thing falls apart if David didn't write Psalm 110. Assumption number one. By the way, modern critical scholarship will say, “Ridiculous, we know better, we know David didn't write Psalm 110. It came in during the post-exilic period”, and all that, oh, my goodness, the things you read.  You know that African spiritual,  “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” Were they there when the psalm was written?  David wrote this psalm and you know how I know it? Jesus said so. In 1889, Bishop Gore,  an Anglican bishop, comes up with a kenosis theory, an emptying theory about Jesus. He said Jesus was stripped of his divine capabilities when he took on a human body, and the reason we know that is he thought that Psalm 110 was written by David, saying that, “Jesus is limited in his knowledge, and that's... We've got to account for his errors here. We know better, we German higher scholastics, and we have studied this matter, and we know that David could not have written the psalm.” But we're believers in Jesus Christ, and Jesus said David wrote it, end of story. And it's not just a side issue, I contend that his whole argument falls to the ground if David didn't write it.

Assumption number two. David wrote this psalm under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  Where do we get that? In verse 43, he said to them, “How is it then that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him 'Lord' ?”  What does this mean? It means David didn't make a mistake. He wasn't wrong in calling him Lord. It wasn't just a flight of fancy or some confusing moment for David. The Word had been handed him, Adonai had been handed David and he wrote it down. You must understand, it says in 2 Peter that prophecy never had its origin in the will of man, but men spoke from God as they were carried along by the Holy Spirit.  David spoke under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Assumption number three, that in Psalm 110, David's writing, he was speaking about the Christ. “What do you think about the Christ?” Jesus asks. “Whose son is he?' Son of David. “Then how is it that David, speaking by the Spirit, calls him, namely, ‘the Christ, Lord’?”  These are Christ's three assumptions about Psalm 110, they must be yours as well if you're a believer in Christ. If we accept these then we start to get drawn into the stunning nature of Jesus' argument here, because the Jews were making some assumptions as well. Assumption number one is that the Son of David was the fulfiller of the David covenant, the Davidic covenant. Therefore,  the Son of David would pattern his reign after David's earthly throne. But beyond that, there was an assumption of patriarchal rule.  The Father is always greater than the Son. You can see that. They can't understand this. Ordinarily, it will be true. Can you imagine David calling Solomon his son, “my Lord”? As a matter of fact, the Scripture indicates that Solomon was called David's servant.  If anything, Solomon would have called David “my lord.” No, he called him “my father David” in almost every case. The fact of the matter is, the Scripture in the Ten Commandments says, “Honor your father and mother.” It's never backward, the parents are not to honor the children but the children, the parents. So there is an assumption here that the Father is greater than the Son. So it's troubling that David would call his own son, his physical descendant, “lord.” That's an odd thing. As a matter of fact, it's a supernaturally odd thing, and that's the context of Christ's penetrating question. If then David calls him “Lord,” how can he be his son? 

What is going on then with the Son of David if David's calling him “lord?” Now it's very interesting. Jesus never used the title Son of David in regards to himself. As a matter of fact, this is the only time he talks about the Son of David, and he does it in a penetrating way.  What did Jesus usually call himself? The “son of man.” Now, God willing, our next sermon series will be in the book of Daniel. Wait till we get to Daniel 7. There is nowhere I believe in all of the Old Testament that the deity of the coming Messiah is as clearly revealed as in this Son of Man. Jesus was God in the flesh, and this is not just a piece of theological lumber or luggage that we carry around. This is the center and core of our faith. If He's not God, we have no eternal life, we have no salvation.  Jesus wants to penetrate to the very identity.  He goes beyond that to the proclamation of the Lord. Verse 1, “The Lord said to my Lord, Sit at my right hand.” Who is it that's giving this invitation? God himself, the Eternal God of the universe, and he's saying, “Messiah, come and sit at my right hand, from whence you will rule the universe.” A double testimony therefore to the deity of the Messiah.

The right hand is a position of ultimate power and authority, the right hand blessed the firstborn son, when Jacob went to bless Joseph's sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, he crossed his hands and put his right hand on Ephraim's head, the second-born, and Joseph was very distressed. “No, my father, this is the first-born,” he said, “I know, he'll be blessed too,” but he put his right hand on the second-born because it's a position of preeminence, the right hand. It symbolizes also God's power over his enemies. After Pharaoh's army had been destroyed in the Red Sea, Miriam and the others sang a song, [Exodus 15] “Your right hand, O Lord, was majestic and power. Your right hand, O Lord, shattered the enemy”, the right hand, a demonstration of God's power over his enemies.  The right hand also symbolizes close access to the throne, we speak in this way of someone's right-hand man, somebody who's real close to the power, the seat of power. Last Sunday evening when we were talking about somebody sitting at Jesus' right hand and somebody's sitting at his left in his kingdom, James and John, wanted access, one of those positions of power. They wanted to get close. In effect, the Father saying of the son, “No one is closer to me than this.”  It says in Romans 8:34, “Jesus Christ, who died more than that was raised to life, is at the right hand of God and is interceding for us.” He has that access to the Father. More than 20 times in the New Testament, it says that Jesus ascended and is seated at the right hand of the Father, the right hand of God. And so Jesus sits on God's right hand, and he's at God's right hand that his enemies may be destroyed, and this leads us to the irresistible advance of Christ's kingdom.  The identity is clear. Christ, the Messiah, is God, He's the Son of God. He's somebody worthy of David's worship. David will worship His Son and honor Him and give Him praise. He is God in the flesh. 

But then we see the irresistible advance of the kingdom. In verse 1, he says, “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” This is the Father's zeal for his Son's glory. The Father is aflame with zeal for the glory of the son, just as the son was aflame with zeal for the glory of the Father. Jesus lived and breathed, and even died for the glory of the Father.  And now the Father lives for the glory of the son. “Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” What is this footstool? What is this putting enemies under the feet? In the ancient Near East, when a king would conquer his enemies, the kings that were conquered would come and lay down on the ground, and the conquering general, the conquering king, would put his foot on the neck of his adversaries showing total domination over them. We see this in Joshua 10. Joshua says, “Open the mouth of the cave and bring those five kings out to me. So they brought the five kings out of the cave, the kings of Jerusalem, Hebron, Jarmuth, Lachish, Eglon. And when they had brought these kings to Joshua, he summoned all the men of Israel and said to the army commanders who had come with him, Come here and put your feet on the necks of these kings. So they came forward and placed their feet on their necks, and Joshua said to them, ‘Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged. Be strong and courageous.’” This is what the Lord will do to all the enemies you are going to fight. So when in fact the father is saying, “they're all, every last one of them, are going submit to you Christ, every last one of them are going to come and become a footstool for your feet.”

And by the way, this picture of total submission works for us as well. Who is our gravest enemy now? Is it not the devil? The roaring lion who seeks someone to devour.   Romans 16:20 says, “The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.” Aren't you looking forward to putting your foot on his neck? I'm looking forward to that moment. It's going to be special. But he's our enemy, and all of Christ's enemies will receive this kind of treatment, this is the zeal of God to crush Christ's enemies, and it's burning with the brightest, brightest flame. The zeal of the Lord Almighty will accomplish this, it says in Isaiah 9:7, “Because Jesus was willing to take on a human body and give himself even to death on a cross, therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave Him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow in heaven and earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father,” and the Father's zeal is going to advance the scepter.

In verse 2 he says, “The Lord will extend your mighty scepter from Zion, and you will rule in the midst of your enemies.” When I was on a mission trip in Kenya, I saw the President of Kenya. He drove by, I was in a small village called Moi's Bridge.  As the president was driving by, he waved to me... I think it was because I was the only non-Kenyan in the crowd. You can imagine why I would stand out. But he pointed at me, and he waved.  I saw that he had a stick in his hand, and I asked the Kenyan pastor about it, and he said, “That's Mzee's stick. Mzee means ruler, an elder, a leader.” It was a symbol of his authority. Whoever was president would get to hold the stick, it's a symbol of authority, and so it is with this. God is going to take your scepter and extend it to the ends of the earth. You will rule in the midst of your enemies, and it's in the midst of enemies. Christ's kingdom is presently surrounded by enemies, godless governments, including our own, unbelieving people, false religious systems, materialistic forces, worldly philosophies, and behind all of it the devil himself. The father is going to extend Christ's reign despite all of this adversarial opposition. In verse 3 we come in, your troops, it says in the NIV, “Your troops will be willing on your day of battle.” Literally, it says, “Your people will be willing in the day of your power.” The context here is definitely of the advance of a kingdom, and we who have believed in Jesus Christ, we are His people, and we will be, it says, willing, when he needs us, willing on the day of battle to say, “Yes sir, whatever you command, I will do. I want to advance your kingdom, I'm available for you.”

No one who is enlisted in the army does anything except to please his commanding officer. Anything the commanding officer asks, he will do, and it says of them, “They are arrayed in holy Majesty, from the womb of the dawn you will receive the dew of youth.” You can picture a mighty strong energetic army ready to go, willing on the day of Christ's battle. Stop and ask yourself, “Am I willing on the day of His battle? Am I available as a warrior for Christ?” We'll talk about that more in a minute. Our king is a mighty warrior. Verse five through seven talk about his final victory, the victory is predicted and described, saying,  “The Lord is at your right hand, He will crush kings on the day of his wrath, He will judge the nations, heaping up the dead and crushing the rulers of the whole earth, He will drink from the brook beside the way, therefore He will lift up his head.”

The Father's power now is available to the Son, the Father is now at the Son's right hand, ready to conquer His enemies. Victory is secure and the kings are assembled, and they will one after the other, submit to the reign of the Son. Now we're seeing that over 2000 years of history, all those that have opposed Christ, they're vanquished one after the other, but there will come a day in the future when all the remaining kings will be assembled at a place called Armageddon. It says  in Revelation 16:16, “Then they gathered the kings together to the place that in Hebrew is called Armageddon.” All the nations who opposed Christ and raged against him, assembled for destruction and that destruction is described, [Revelation 19], “When the Son Jesus Christ returns on a white charger for glory and for victory, and they will crown him at that point with the crown of all the nations. His kingdom will endure forever.”

That's what happens to his adversaries. The final image in Psalm 110 is that He will drink from a brook beside the way, and therefore He will lift up his head. Victory is complete, Christ reigns and He's satisfied. He enjoys that drink. The battle's over. We've established the identity of the king, the coming Messiah, He is God in the flesh, we have talked about the extension of his reign, his scepter going out from Zion, that's Jerusalem, to the ends of the earth, and then the final victory over his enemies. The Kings arranged and then crushed, conquered in heaps, and then he drinks a deep satisfying drink, the victory is his.

We skipped one verse. Did you notice? Verse 4. Right in the middle of this comes a strange prediction. “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” What in the world is this? I grew up in the Catholic church, and every week I heard about the gifts offered by your servant Abel, and the bread and wine offered by Melchizedek. Who is Melchizedek you may be asking, who is Melchizedek? Right in the middle of Psalm 110, this is an immensely important verse. Why do I say that? Because an entire chapter of Hebrews, Hebrews 7 is dedicated to this one verse, “The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek.” Now, up to this point, we've been thinking about Jesus as a king, but now he comes in as a priest, He's not just a king, but a priest and his priesthood is established by the will of the Father.  The Lord has sworn and will not change his mind. Established by an oath, it is unchangeable, and it is eternal.  You are a priest forever in the order of Melchizedek. The writer to Hebrews points out that the Levitical priesthood was not an eternal priesthood, each priest reigned until he died. But if we could have a priest who could conquer death, now he could be an eternal priest, and so Jesus through His resurrection has gained for himself an eternal priesthood in the order of Melchizedek. Now, who is Melchizedek? Genesis 14 says, “Then Melchizedek, King of Salem, brought out bread and wine, he was priest of God Most High, and he blessed Abram. Saying, Blessed be Abram by God Most High, creator of heaven and earth, and blessed be God Most High, who delivered your enemies into your hand, then Abram gave him a tenth of everything.” There it is, we have now heard everything the Old Testament says about Melchizedek: Genesis 14, a couple of verses, and Psalm 110:4, that's it. Yet he is the focal point of the argument of the writer to Hebrews, that Jesus is for us, a priest-king, joined together forever. Hebrews 7 says, “This Melchizedek was king of Salem and priest of God Most High.” He met Abraham returning from the defeat of the kings and blessed him, and Abraham gave him a tenth of everything. First, his name means “king of righteousness”, then also King of Salem means King of Peace. Without father or mother, without genealogy, without beginning of days or end of life, he remains like the Son of God, a priest forever. All it means is that Melchizedek just pops up in the Genesis account, does his thing, and then just disappears.  It's like, he has no beginning and no end. And so the writer to Hebrews says that Jesus' priesthood is just like that, it's eternal. It had no beginning, it will have no end. He's a priest forever. 

Now, this idea of a priest-king was excluded by the Old Covenant. You couldn't have it. Remember there are three offices in the old Covenant, you've got prophet, you've got priest, you've got king. You could have a king who was a prophet, David was one, you could have a priest who was a prophet, Jeremiah was one, but you could not have a king who was a priest. Do you remember what happened with Solomon when he tried to offer sacrifices? That day Samuel tore the kingdom away from him because of his arrogance. Do you remember the day that godly Uzziah came in to burn incense at the altar and some courageous priest confronted him and said, “It is not right for you to be here, Uzziah. This has been given to the priest and not to the king.”  And Uzziah went to strike or to shout, and God struck him with leprosy at the moment, and he had leprosy till the day he died, and they hustled him out of the temple and said indeed he was happy to go because God's hand was against him. You cannot have a king who is a priest in the Old Covenant, and therefore we must have a new covenant, and so we do, we have a whole new covenant, and Jesus is a priest in the new covenant, an eternal priest who brings for us a sacrifice that will never end.  Jesus Christ offers for us his own blood as a sacrifice, and he offers it forever. Psalm 110 depicts Jesus Christ, the triumphant messiah, coming to do a kingly work to triumph and to reign. The Jews were waiting for that. But they missed Verse 4, he had a priestly work to do first, he had to offer himself as a sacrifice, a dead sacrifice with his blood poured out, that we might have eternal life 

What is the application of the Psalm for us today? First of all, understand these words were written a thousand years before Jesus was born. The supernaturally accurate predictive prophecy of scripture is its greatest testimony to its divine origin. Every day you hold in your hands a supernatural book because its words come from God. David was speaking by the spirit when he wrote these things, and the Spirit has something to say to you today through them. The first application, is just the beauty and the perfection of scripture. The second is how Jesus handles scripture. His entire argument turns on one word in Hebrew, “My Lord.” Are we too careful, too meticulous with scripture? Looking at it too much. Thinking about it too much. I know the other way, we don't deal with it carefully enough, we don't study to show ourselves approved unto God, workmen who do not need to be ashamed, but who correctly handle and rightly divide the Word of God. Jesus was accurate in his handling of scripture and careful. Thirdly, the certainty of Christ's final triumph. Some day, Jesus will reign. And how is that applicable to us today? What would you say is the number one news story these days? Is there a second news story? I'm not sure that there is. Do you realize that someday Jesus is going to reign and that's not uncertain at all? There's not going to be any recount, there'll be no dangling chad. Do you understand that there is no chad involved in the establishment of Christ's kingdom? It's a done deal, the Father's decreed, and the zeal of the Lord Almighty is going to accomplish it.  It's a certain thing. Therefore, if you are a Christian, you've signed on the winning side, you're guaranteed of having your man rule and he will rule forever and ever. Rejoice in that because it's a righteous rule. It's a righteous scepter.

Fourthly, the battle is not done yet. Does he reign on earth as he does in Heaven? No, so, therefore, we got to go to verse 3. His troops are supposed to be willing on the day of battle. Are you willing? Are you willing to have a wartime mentality? Are you willing to think of yourself as a warrior? Are you willing to deny yourself certain pleasures and comforts and privileges that Jesus may be established as king over the earth? The kingdom does not extend except through the suffering of those who extend it. I've noticed that. If you're willing to sign on and to enlist in his army, you're willing to deny yourself and take up the cross and follow, then you will be useful, you will be one of the troops, willing on the day of battle.  But if you live for comfort and pleasure and ease, you will not assist in the advance of the kingdom, you must deny yourself to help advance. Are you a warrior in your prayers? Praying for the extent and the establishment of Christ's kingdom. Are you a warrior in your giving? Denying yourself earthly comforts that you may give more to the advance and the extension of Christ's kingdom. Are you a warrior in your witnessing in your evangelism, willing to put aside your earthly reputation that someone else might be saved? Do you carry a wartime mentality with you day after day? This verse calls for his troops to be willing in the day of His power when He needs us. “He who does not gather with me scatters,” said Jesus. Are we gathering with him? Are we energetically involved? 

Finally, just the most heart-felt, soberest warning to those of you who are not in Christ, do you see what these verses say about Christ's enemies? They will be crushed. You may say, “Well, that's not the loving Jesus that I know.” Well, may I say to you that the Scripture testifies to who Jesus is. We can't put Jesus together in our imaginations. He will crush his enemies. Don't be his enemy. That's the warning here. Don't be his enemy. Don't vote against him in the coming of His kingdom. You may say that you don't feel like his enemy. It doesn't matter, Satan deceives us. The fact of the matter is, are you relying on Christ's righteousness alone for your salvation? Have you turned to Christ and put your trust in Him? And is he your king? Does he rule over you?  And those times when he doesn't rule over you by his command, do you grieve over them and wish it were different? Are you his child? You could say, “Well, I had too much sin. He'll never accept me.” He is a priest in the order of Melchizedek, and his blood is sufficient for all of your sin. Sufficient to cleanse you top to bottom. Come to Christ today. 

Close with me in prayer, please. Heavenly Father, as we have considered Psalm 110, we are staggered by its truth, the seven short verses and they testify so miraculously to Christ. This greater son of David, who David is on his face worshipping now and gladly. Oh God, I pray that we, your troops, would be ready for you in the day of your battle, and I pray that any who are here who do not know you as Lord and Savior, that they would repent, throw down weapons of rebellion or indifference, and come to faith in Christ. We believe, O high priest, great high priest, that your blood is sufficient to cleanse all of our sins. Pray this in Jesus' name. Amen.